mr. blumenthal: may i add mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to consideration of that resolution expressing the sense of the senate that all incidents of abusive unsanitary, or illegal 4:00 practices be condemned. the text is at the desk and i ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. lee: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: reserving the right to object as the senator from connecticut is aware we've only received the language of this resolution in the last few minutes. without having time to read it closely i'm reluctant to grant consent on it at this time but i will say i'm heartened and i think all americans should be heartened and the entire pro-life movement should be heartened by the clear implication that health regulations should be ek whattably applied and enforced on abortion clinics as th

mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. -- senate resolution 142 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 142, designating may 15, 2013, as national m.p.s. awareness day. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. blumenthal: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, that the preamble be agreed to, that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11:00 a.m. on thursday, may 16, 2013, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, that the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and that following any leader remarks the senate p

mr. blumenthal. >> no. >> ms. hirono. >> no. >> mr. combrassly. >> no. -- >> mr. grassley. >> no. >> mr. hatch. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> no by proxy. >> no by proxy. >> mr. cruz. >> no by proxy. >> mr. flake. >> no. >> mr. chairman. >> yes. >> mr. chairman, the votes are two yeas, 15 nays. >> senator grassley, you have some more amendments. >> i think i'll have -- i've done one. this will be the second one. and two after this. this amendment would -- by the way, before i -- >> what is the number of the amendment? >> number 3. >> and i would note obviously -- >> number 3. >> number 3, people have the opportunity to speak if they want. i know the long, long argument for me on this one affected two votes. let us hope we will move a little bit -- >> my argument will take a minute and a half. starting after i say this. the amendment refers to a hearing we have, and we had some expert testimony in this area. so if hearings have any value and somebody points out something that's pretty striking and this amendment tries to correct that, that's what this amendment's all a

mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: madam president, reserving the right to object, i want to point out that the incident that led to this resolution, the kermit gosnell prosecution, indeed resulted in a successful conviction. he was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter. that case is closed. the criminal justice system has done its part. and the three life sentences without the possibility of parole mean that the interest there, the very important public interest will be served, and he will never again harm women, infants or anyone else through his version of medical practice that distorted an unfortunate betrayal of trust that he called medical practice. now, we need very much to focus on the kind of abuse of trust -- unsanitary, abusive, unsafe medical practices across this country. no matter what kind of procedure is involved. and that's the reason that i think this resolution is too narrow in its focus on violations of standard of medical care when the

mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president, and i thank the senator from california for her excellent work on the amendment that she is offering which takes to another level the fight against tobacco addiction that has so plagued this country. she has been such a champion of the victims of nicotine and tobacco addiction, and her work certainly has been a model for many of us who have been involved in this fight. i rise today to introduce the military crime victims act, military crime victims rights act of 2013. there are 26,000 victims of sexual assault in the military every year. at least last year there were that number estimated, but only a fraction, some 3,000-plus, were reported. this measure encourages more accurate and complete reporting of all crimes by guaranteeing all victims of crimes in the military the basic rights that victims have in civilian courts under current law. these rights are not a matter of discretion. they are legal rights that victims of crime in our federal cour

mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i rise to express my support, my strong support for this resolution and to thank our colleague, senator graham, senator menendez, for their leadership and to thank them also for giving me the privilege of working with them over the last years on this vitally important national security issue. it is vital not just to the existence of israel, it is an existential issue for israel but to the national security of the united states. and i believe that israel is a crucial ally of the united states and a successful, democratic state in the middle east. recent turmoil in that region adds urgency and importance to ensuring that israel remains a secure, stable, independent state at peace with its neighbors. this resolution is a reaffirmation of the readiness of the united states of america to assist israel, our steadfast partner in the region, to thwart any measure of aggression made toward israel by iran. but it is also a reaffirmation of the policy long supported by this body, by our colleagu

mr. blumenthal? >> no. >> mr. grassley? >> no. graham? >> mr. lee? >> mr. cruz? flake? nays. yay, 17 17-he amendment is defeated 1. whitehouse.ator >> i have a question. thenenator whitehouse, senator grassley has an amendment. >> i like to call up a white house 6 and offers a second degree to it. the should be a simple and non controversial amendment. people come up and complain they got laid off from their jobs and they know somebody who is doing their job right now who has been broken by the company from out of the country just to do their job. we have done a lot of work to make sure that doesn't happen. i applaud the effort that the gang of eight has done. this is an additional stopgap to create a toll-free number and a site on the web page for people who believe they have been knocked out of their jobs by the wrongful hiring of immigrants to have a place where they can complain. it requires in a year that the ig take a look at that information and report to us on what it shows. oesn't change anything in the bill. it adds one responsibility to the department of labor. din

mr. blumenthal. >> no. >> mr. grassley. >> no. >> mr. hatch. >> no. >> mr. sessions. >> mr. graham. >> no. >> mr. cornyn. >> no. by proxy. >> mr. lee. mr. cruz. mr. flake. >> no. >> mr. chairman. mr. chairman, the votes are one yea, 17 nay. >> we've had a good long discussion on it. he amendment is defeated 17-1. senator -- >> my amendment six, mr. chairman. >> the amendment and then senator grassley has an amendment. i would like to call up whitewhite house six and offer a second degree to t this should be a fairly simple and noncontroversial amendment. i think we've all had the experience of people coming up to us in our states and complaining that they got laid off from their job. and they know somebody who is doing their job right now who is been brought in by the company from out of the country. just to do their job. and we have done a lot of work here try to make sure that doesn't happen. and i applaud the effort that the gang of eight has done. this is one additional stop gap. it would require the department of labor to create a toll free number. and a site on its wep

mr. blumenthal? >> no. >> no by proxy. >> mr. sessions. >> aye. mr. cornyn?in? -- >> aye. >> mr.chairman? >> no. 12 no.e, >> it is not agreed. as indicated -- ,> i spoke to senator schumer we can put something in that will continue on on the development of a biometric system. i am convinced that as the technology becomes a better the cost will go down. i will work with him to see if we can put some addendum in there. >> do you have an amendment was mark -- amendment? >> i will not be common for a vote on these amendments. i want to explain why i put these together. and replacestrike that we could do this in incremental fashion. we could be passing immigration reform with one bill that deals with employment verification with either five. one that deals with these of modernization and so forth. we do not have to lump everything. pending the outcome of the contentious issue being that related to what to do about the 11 million. in the interest of time, so we can move forward, i will not ask for a vote. thank you. >> ok. >> as i understand, you have the .mendment to replace the bill

mr. blumenthal. mr. grassley. mr. cornyn. mr. cruz. mr. flake. >> senator feinstein, and made a mistake earlier. i thought you had finished your amendment but you have another one? >> or microphone? bythis is co-sponsored senators cornyn, flake, and cruz. i thank them for their support. this has to do with creating some additional border federal judgeships and it would create judgeships andl convert two to permanent, three in the eastern district of california, two in the western district of texas, one in the southern district of texas, and two in arizona. it converts the central district of california to a permanent judgeship, and one in arizona, to permanent status. these are all districts with a very heavy caseloads in which immigration makes up a big percentage of a criminal files. it is paid for by a $10 increase in civil filing fees as an offset. understand, senator grassley, you have a second agreement? providing58 whistleblower protection for employees of the judicial branch. congress has consistently recognized the value of whistl

mr. blumenthal? >> aye. >> [inaudible] >> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. hatch? >> aye by proxy. >> mr. sessions? >> no. >> [inaudible] >> no, by proxy. >> mr. lee? >> aye. >> mr. cruz? >> no, by proxy. >> mr. flake? >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the votes are 13 yeas, 5 nays. >> then the amendment as amended is passed. senator from -- and indicate that senator durbin, of course, voted in person. >> thanks, mr. chairman. >> senator feinstein? >> i'd like to call up amendment feinstein 4 which is co-sponsored by senator cornyn, and i want to thank him for his support. since 9/11 u.s. citizenship and immigration services, cis, has worked with law enforcement and the intelligence community to develop anti-fraud mechanisms and security screening measures to enhance the security screening process used for its asylum and refugee programs. so today biographic and biometric checks are done by checking asylum and refugee applicants against databases maintained by the department of homeland security, the fbi, dod, state and the national counterterrorism center. this amendment w

mr. klobuchar vote proxy. >> m- >> vote proxy. >> blumenthal. >> aye. >> mr. grassley. >> no. >> mr.hatch. >> aye. >> mr. -- >> no. >> mr. -- -- [inaudible] [inaudible] mr. chairman, 14 yea's, four nay's,. >> the amendment is agreed to. i have a list of 11 amendments in order today and i hope we can do in block a moment to explain. the first is my amendment to prohibit border crossing fees. it has broad bipartisan support, i think. senator cornyn -- the putting a financial burden on the border communities. senator graham talked about the canadians who come down to myrtle beach. as most members know, my parents-in-law-french canadaans and came to vermont as immigrants. my wife was born in vermont. learned to speak english when she was four or five years old. on the northern border we go back and forth all the time. families visiting families and relatives. it is major part of our economy in our state of vermont, i suspect in most northern border state, an imposition of a fee, a toll, to go back anding for makes no sense. by the same token, the southern border e is the same thing. so t

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator thune. for my colleagues, it now says there are no votes before 4:45. 4:35. so we can relax a little bit. senator blumenthal >> thank you, mr. chairman. and congratulations, mayor foxx, and my thanks to you and to your family for your willingness to serve and your service in the past. as you know, my state has just been a major transportation crisis, an incident that certainly speaks to the need for investment. not only in rail, but in all forms of transportation. but most especially rail because i think that this incident, an accident that could have cost even more lives, caused more injuries and done even greater damage, fortunately, was less severe than it might have been. and that fact is due to the investment that was made in the most advanced -- at least to date -- the more advanced type of railroad cars, the m8 rail cars on the metro north line which most likely prevented more injuries and limited the severity of the ones that occurred. fortunately, there have been no fatalities. the lack of investment in our rail line, in our tracks and other equipment has left them without important quality and saf

blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator coons is ready.the nation is watching, but believe the world is watching what we do here today. the world is watching because we're the greatest nation in the history of the world and our system of immigration is broken and unworthy of the greatest nation in the history of the world and i want to thank senators who have given us this draft. senator schumer and senator durbin of this committee and the others who participated with great courage that i hope our committee will match, the courage they've demonstrated a sustained that immigrants do every day when they come to this country, that might get it when he was 17 years old, coming with nothing more than a shirt on his back, knowing no english. everyone of us has a story like that one. every single member of this committee, everyone understood as the story they can recount. we are a nation of immigrants and our diversity us strong. when i'm down or discouraged i go to immigration and nationalization ceremonies held on friday in federal court room a

mr. chairman. >> and thank you, panel. >> thank you, senator grassley. senator blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman.and thank you for holding this hearing, and thank you to our ranking member as well. you know, i think we are wrestling with a lot of these profound questions, and wrestling on a very bipartisan basis, as you have seen because we are struggling with issues not only of constitutional law but also of conscience and conviction and morality, not to mention the profound foreign policy application that may be involved. and i want to thank mr. al-muslimi for giving us the insight into the chilling unintended consequences of possible mistakes in this area. and i have to assume they were unintended consequences, because simply we have that faith, and good intentions of our military and other decision-makers who are guiding this process. but stepping back for a moment, one question on my mind is whether the rules applicable to drones, and there in the title of this hearing, call them unmanned aerial vehicles or read multi-piloted aircraft, whatever they're called, whether those rules really shou

mr. miller should be released of his responsibilities. >> i'd like to bring in to the conversation, richard blumenthal of connecticut. sir, it's good to have you with me this morning. as you listen to sander levin there, do you think that's enough for you about those two people being let go? does that go far enough? >> we need more facts and the department of justice appropriately has launched a criminal investigation. there needs to be criminal accountability by any irs officials. at the very minimum, certainly, dismissal is warranted. if the facts are as they've been alleged that there have been very serious enfridngement of these guidelines. >> you know, as we've been talking about the attorney general's going to be in the hot seat this afternoon, but he's already come out to say there will be ab inquiry into the irs scandal. given what's going on in consideration to the ap subpoena scandal, do you think the justice department can fairly investigate on this issue and that they can go with both of these with the same ferver? >> that is an absolutely critical question because the department of justice would be inves

mr. president, i admire what you've done, senator bliewn blumenthal has done, and -- senator blumenthal hase and we cannot let these terrible things that have happened, aurora, colorado, someone walks in with a weapon that has a magazine of a hundred bullets. he would have killed a lot more, but the gun jammed. mr. president, i would ask the chair to announce the business of the day. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:00 p.m. with senators permitted to speak therein for ten minutes each. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. sessions: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: i would ask consent to be -- ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: ask to be allowed to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: mr. president, tomorrow we'll continue the

blumenthal. [inaudible conversations] >> it seems like it's finally part of it. senator coons, yet thank you, mr. chairman. following of this amendment, it will fix an administrative problem in our current immigration system regarding the different roles of the executive office of immigration review and vhs. under current practice, immigration is given case completion targets. these targets are measured by a clock that is maintained and often stopped for reasons not caused by the immigrant, such as air is for delay by the government or scheduling conflict on the judges judge's calendar. the problem with this amendment seeks to fix results when an asylum applicant, who has authorized working after 180 days is delayed because this is the only clock to measure progress in the proceeding. this will separate the two clocks. the asylum work authorization and the adjudication clock. so that judges can still be held accountable for the efficient and timely disposal. but it doesn't adversely affect those who need authorization to be able to earn enough for food and shelter and to avoid becoming dependent

baucus, blumenthal, brown, casey, cowen, franking, gillibrand, heinrich, lautenberg, leahy, manchin, stab now, tester, tom udall, senator warren and senatorwide everyone. and -- senator wyden. and, mrpresident, i would ask that senator cardin be added as a cosponsor to s. 316. i would ask permission -- >> without objection. >> mr. president, i am delighted that we are making progress on real postal reform not only here in the senate, but in the house as well, and i want to thank congressman peter defazio from oregon for his leadership efforts in cosponsoring the exact same bill in the house as we have in the senate, and that now has 139 cosponsors. so we have 24 cosponsors now in the senate, and in the house that bill has 139 cosponsors which tells me that the american people and their representatives here in washington understand how terribly important it is that we pass serious postal reform. and let me just very briefly talk about what is many that legislation -- in that legislation, what the legislation, if passed, would accomplish. that bill would reestablish strong overnight delivery standards to insure or the timely delivery of mail. when people put a letter or a package in

senators baucus, blumenthal, brown, casey, cowan, franken, gillibrand, hearken, hen heinrich, leahy, menendez, merkley schatz, stabenow, tester, tom udall, senator warren and senator b wyden. and, mr. president, i would ask that senator cardin be added as a cosponsor to s. 316. i would ask permission that he be added as a cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, i am delighted that we are making progress on real postal reform not only here in the senate but in the house as well and i want to thank congressman peter defazio from oregon for his leadership efforts in cosponsoring the exact same bill in the house as we have in the senate and that now has 139 cosponsors. so we have 24 cosponsors now in the senate and in the house that bill has 139 cosponsors, which tells me that the american people and their representatives here in washington understand how terribly important it is that we pass serious postal reform. and let me just very briefly talk about what is in that legislation, what the legislation, if passed, would accomplish. that bill would reestablish strong overnight delivery standards to ensure the timely delivery of mail. when peopl