mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: madam president, i take this time to comment on the supreme court decision on the affordable care act. i think this was a good day for the american people. it allows us to move forward with providing universal health care coverage for all americans, affordable, quality health care. i want to quote from a former member of this body when he said for me, this is a season of hope, new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many and not just the few, new hope, and this is the cause of my life, new hope that will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every american, north, south, east, west, young, old, will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right, not a privilege. that was a statement from our former colleague, the late senator ted kennedy, on august 26, 2008. this congress acted a

mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: madam president, i rise to support the paycheck fairness act that we're going to have a chance to vote on tomorrow. i hope my colleagues will support the effort of my colleague, senator mikulski, in allowing s. 3220 to move forward. i congratulate my colleague, senator mikulski, for her incredible leadership on behalf of women's issues. she has done that throughout her entire career. we knew that she would be in the forefront of this effort for paycheck fairness. i'm proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with her in this fight for basic justice in our nation to provide equality in pay to -- in this country based upon a person's work and not a person's gender. it builds on the equal pay act of 1963 that was signed by president kennedy. yes, 1963 was the year that congress first spoke and said that we're going to have equal pay for equal work in america, that america would show leadership internationally to say let's end discrimination

mr. chairman. >> senator cardin. before i recognize senator corker, let me just quickly on your question about the arctic, i just want to comment. i believe the russians are sending their fifth mission into the arctic to do plotting this summer and the chinese have been up there in a significant way, is that not accurate? >> yes, senator, that is. >> again, this will be part of our classified briefing for all of the members but it's quite significant what is happening there without recourse in any legal way, is that correct? >> that's correct, senator. >> senator corker? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank each of you. i do believe that each of you are here espousing your own views and i also know that sometimes we can have silos where one part of our government wants something to happen and other parts may be jeopardized and there's our role here to balance those off. we thank you for being here and certainly for your service. admiral locklear, my friend and colleague, senator lugar, asked you about china and the phil

mr. cardin: madam president, thank you very much.o join senator shaheen and join senator klobuchar and particularly thank senator whitehouse for bringing us together. i know senator boxer was on the floor earlier talking about the transportation committee. we're all here because of the urgency of the conference report being presented to us, so that we have a multiyear reauthorization of the surface transportation promise prams of this country. madam president, let me just point out -- i know a lot of times our constituents are congress fused as to why -- confused as to why legislation cannot move here. but, clearly, the holdup in passing the surface transportation reauthorization are the republicans in the house of representatives. they are blocking a bill that has broad support from the industries that are affected by it, from the public, and from both democrats and republicans here in the senate. we passed a consensus bill. it's not even bipartisan. it's consensus. we were able to get the right balance between public transportation

mr. cardin: i thank you, madam president.i let me thank senator boxer for her leadership on this issue. let me just invite my friend from wyoming to come to glenn burnie, maryland, and see the brandon shores power plant, the 12,000 meg go watt power plant in -- megawatt power plant in maryland which is operating -- not only operating but is in full compliance with maryland's healthy air law that is very similar to the proposed regulations that we're debating today. that power plant put in the investments, didn't close, made the investments so we have a clean energy source. and in the process, madam president, created 2,000 jobs in modernizing that power plant. that's why we have many companies that support the regulation, because they know it's going to mean more jobs, including series, and american boiler associations and companies like w.l. gore. first, i want to thank senator boxer for her extraordinarily leadership on these issues. i want to thank senator rockefeller for his extraordinary statement. i was on the floored a

cardin? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i very much appreciate this hearing. dr. haskins, it's nice to be with you again. i served on the ways and means committee and went up against dr. haskins 16 years ago, and lost most of my arguments and provisions, but joined the majority in supporting the tanf legislation 16 years ago and i think it was the right decision to change the program and make it focused on getting people out of poverty and getting them employed. but i do think we have to acknowledge some concerns. senator bingaman already mentioned some of those issues. in a recession we would expect states to be able to respond by putting more cash out there, when the job market is more difficult, but we know that during this recession, the states didn't have that option in many cases. they just didn't have the fiscal capacity to do what we would have liked them to do, it would have had to cut other programs and they weren't prepared to do that. so i do think it does raise an issue as to how tanf works during recessions. secondly, we can all point with pride the

cardin. >> thank you very much mr. jordan. let me thank you all for your leadership and your service to our country. you have all indicated that you support the ratification of the law of the sea treaty. at least in discussions with us for almost 20 years, so this is been an issue that's been around the united states senate for a long time. i would like to get from you and assessment as to whether this is just something that would be nice to get out of the way and done, or whether this is an important issue as relates to our national security. >> i can start off. i think it is an important issue related to national security. someone pointed out there are no operations that we've been unable to conduct because we have not become a party to the convention. that, in fact, history. as we look to the future which is what this is about, and we see some of the erosion to customary international law that was referred to write others, that's what we are concerned about. we would rather not wait until that becomes a crisis for us. we wo

conrad, reed of rhode island, coons, begich, kerry, schumer, mikulski, cardin, menendez, lieberman, landrieu, blumenthal, murray, carper. mr. reid: i move to concur in the house amendment to s. 3187 with an amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada mr. reid moves to concur in the house amendment to s. 3187 with an amendment numbered 2461. mr. reid: on that i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: you now have a second-degree amendment at the desk i wish to be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: is noter from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an anytime numbered 2462 to amendment number 2461. mr. reid: i have a motion to refer to the house -- i have a motion, mr. president, to refer to the house message to the health, education, labor, and pensions committee with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, moves to refer the ho

mr. gross has described. >> the bush administration, a cardinal feature of the bush in ministration was in fact to preserve our sovereignty. we were not quick to sign up to obligations that would tie us down. in looking at the best way for u.s. business, particularly as new technologies became available that would allow us to mine in the deep seabed or with the melting arctic ice, to exploit oil and gas resources in the arctic, that the best way to allow companies to do that was to have legal certainty that was provided under the convention. we did look at customary international law that may rely on their naval activities, but we saw that the only way that u.s. business could in fact engage in deep seabed mining for oil and gas exploitation in the arctic was through the treaty. that if 161accurate nations have signed up for the treaty and that is the agreed upon international mechanism for a legitimizing claims under the ocean, with the united states the advantage or disadvantage in just taking its claim outside of that regiment relative to somebody who had illegitimized claim under it? >> that would be v

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that friday, june 29, through monday, june 9, the majority leader and senator cardin be authorized to sign dually enrolled -- duly enrolled bills or resolutions. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the senate, the president of the senate, the president pro tempore and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to committees, boards, conferences and interparliamentary conferences authorized by law authorized by concurrent action of the two houses or by order of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn and convene for pro forma sessions only, with no business conducted. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. president, we'll start over on this. i ask unanimous consent the senate -- when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn and convene for pro forma sessions only, with no bu