mr. cardin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, it's my understanding that the democrats now control the next 32 minutes. the presiding officer: the next 30 minutes. mr. cardin: 30 minutes. i would ask consent that senator whitehouse and i be allowed to participate in a colloquy with other members or to yield time during that 32 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i was listening to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about the proposed rule for the waters of the u.s., and i'm somewhat curious as to where they get a lot of their information from, because if they read the proposed rule -- and i point out that this is a proposed rule -- if you'll read the proposed rule, it specifically excludes from waters of the united states certain ditches and wastewater treatment plants and ponds, et cetera. and i'm going to get into the specifics. but if you would listen to their points on the floor, you would think that all ditches are covered under the proposed rule which is no

mr. cardin: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, about two weeks ago i had a chance to meet with leaders in the agricultural community to go over certain issues that are available to our farmers. i met with the nrcs chief jason wweller. i met with the maryland agricultural state secretary buddy hance. and we were talking about ways in which we wor worked togethern the agricultural community and in -- and concerned about our environment so that we can have a clean environment and a healthy agricultural industry in our state. i must tell you, i found the discussion to be ex-strombly helpful. we -- extremely helpful. we talked about the regional conservation partnership programs. and i want to thank senator stabenow for her incredible leadership on the farm bill when we reauthorized it and we consolidated a lot of the conservation programs, particularly for specific greater water bodies into the regional partnership program. it provided new energy and tools available for conservation within agriculture so that we could have

mr. cardin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: madam president, first let me thank senator menendez for his incredible leadership on the senate foreign relations committee. what senator menendez did not bring out is the number of hours that our committee has had hearings on each one of these nominees. we take the nomination process very seriously. the committee does, under senator menendez's leadership. so we have a complete record on the background and experience of each of president obama's nominees. we have vetted them, we have gone through all this, we've had hearings. as senator menendez pointed out, today i chaired a hearing where we considered the nominations for our ambassadors to algeria, vietnam, and the republic of korea, as well as an assistant administrator for usaid for asia. that hearing lasted an hour and a half, many questions were asked, the record is open through thursday, members of the committee can ask additional questions, many times additional questions are asked for the record, we get responses, the

mr. cardin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, first, let me comment on vile i- comment on sylvia burwell, the nomination that is before us. she has done an excellent job as the director of o.m.b. her credentials are incredible. she is acknowledged by both democrats and republicans as being an outstanding manager, a person who is fully capable to manage h.h.s., an extremely important agency that has over 70,000 work thaers -- workers that work for health and human services, a budget of over $1 trillion, 11 federal agencies. sylvia burwell is the right person to manage that agency and to move it forward in carrying out the very important work of our country. for maryland, i take pride because some of the agencies are headquartered in my state. the national institutes of health, world class, the best research in the world is done right here as a result of u.s. leadership, and that comes under h.h.s. the f.d.a., which ensures us safe products in the food and drug, that's headquartered in maryland. but again, world class, t

mr. cardin: let me thank senator warner for his leadership on this issue. senator warner, the bills that you are bringing forward will help deal with the incredible burden that american families are confronting today in order to get a quality education. your story is a story told about the opportunities of america. education is the great equalizer in this country. my grandparents came to america for a better life for their children. my parents benefited from education. they are products of the baltimore city public school system and the public colleges and universities in the state of maryland. as a result of the educational tools given to them, the grandson of those immigrants now serves in the united states senate. that's the story of america. education is the great equalizer. and that's why we were so disappointed that we couldn't proceed with an important tool to make education available -- more available to families. that's the bill that we just recently voted on it try to at least break a filibuster so that we could help those who currently have stude

reid of nevada, coons, blumenthal, merkley, durbin, gillibrand, cardin, nelson, feinstein, warren, harkin, hirono. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the measure. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 736. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed -- all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: leo t. sorokin of massachusetts to be united states district judge for the district of massachusetts. mr. reid: there is a cloture motion at the desk. i would ask it be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in in accordance with the provi

cardinals win it the final five to nothing. >>> finals this weekend, to paris tomorrow, the men's final between mr.el nadal and today the women's final in paris there is woman, fourth seeded simmone a from rumania. she will take on the seventh seed maria from rush a tan would go the full three sets, that's the first time in 13 years the women's finals gone the distance, in the far court, just too much, taught the position right, there then hits the winner. that match point, serving, the top court, the lop is going to go wide. see wins the women's final, the final six-four, six-seven, six-four, and her fifth grand-slam title. final preparations for game two of the stanley cup finals tonight in los angeles, win game one against the rangers, three to two in over time, goal, by former flyer justin williams. former flyer like mike richards have helped this team, but takes more than talent to play who can any june. >> to win the division it, didn't happen, but if your question is do i feel we're built better for the playoffs, yes. i think we're a playoff built team who has got another gear and able to fi

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator inhofe and we turn now to senator cardin. >> thank you senator whitehouse.i thank you for your extraordinary leadership on this issue. you have been incredibly helpful to this country in the leadership that you have taken particularly your comments before the united states senate. i first want to start by thanking our panelist today for what you have done to improve the public health or the people of this nation. you have put public health first and that is what congress intended when it passed the clean air act and the clean water act. it was done by bipartisan votes. the clean air act was enacted in 1970 with bipartisan support by members of congress, house and the senate and signed into law by president nixon. so you have given us the bipartisan and nonpartisan foundation for us to have clean water, clean air and now we need to move forward in that tradition and unfortunately we have not. and i hope that we can get back to the same type of spirit that inspired you to use your talent at the epa as we move forward to advancing the public health of the peopl

warren, blumenthal, cardin, reed of rhode island, harkin, boxer, shah heerntion murray -- shaheen, murray, durbin, udall of new mexico, whitehouse, murphy, nelson, menendez and baldwin. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, we have filed just now, i'm sorry to s say, another cloture petition to get on a bill. we have more student debt in america today than we have credit card debt. i just had a conference call with some students from the state of nevada. it's really very, very unfortunate what's going on. some of these students lamented the fact, you know, i'm not sure i should be in school. i'm borrowing money. maybe i should do something el else. i don't know how many times we've had to file cloture on just the opportunity to get on a bill but that's where we are. so we'll have a cloture vote on seeing if they'll let us on the bill on wednesday. mr. durbin: would the senator yield for a question? mr. reid: yes. mr. durbin: i would like to ask the senator a question through the chair. is it my understanding you just filed a procedural motion which would allow us

mr. cardin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: madam president, let me just underscore the point that senator menendez, the chairman of the foreign relations committee, has made in regards to these tax treaties. i want to make two principal points and then a few other comments, and i'm going to make a unanimous consent request in regards to the swiss protocols. the two points i want to raise, first, on the standard of fraud, the relevancy standard that has been included in tax treaties ratified by the united states senate since the 1990's. there's at least eight treaties that have used this. this is the international standard on fraud. it's not the u.s. standard. it's not the swiss standard. it's not the chilean standard. it's the international standard. there may have been one time where the united states could dictate what tax treaties would include, but we're part of an international community. it's part of international negotiations. and this is the international standard for cooperation among taxing authorities in orde