mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, i ask that the roll call -- quorum call be vitiated, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: thank you, mr. president. as many of us will recall, on october 29, 2012, super storm sandy made landfall in my part of the united states. its impact up and down the east coast were devastating and heartbreaking. new york, new jersey, parts of new england were hit particularly hard. in delaware, we did not experience the level of devastation that was inflicted on our neighbors to the north and to the east, but our state did receive significant damage. in total, there were over 200 detectives attributed to superstorm sandy. today we remem remember the lives lost and those forever impacted by this storm. as i travel through delaware during and after the storm i saw some of the massive impacts of that storm firsthand. but i saw something else as well. i saw people from all walks of life pulling together, helping one another and taking care of their neighbors. the

mr. carper: mr. president, parliamentary inquiry, if i may. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, i have no objection. i can stay ten minutes, 20 minutes. i would like for dr. coburn to have a chance to finish what he is prepared to saivment i a say. mr. coburn: mr. president, i would just inquire if we have other speakers after senator carper? the presiding officer: senator, there is no apparent order of speakers. if there is no objection, the senator from oklahoma can take an additional 20 minutes. mr. coburn: well, i thank you. i will try -- i really appreciate my colleague. he's great colleague to work with. people always hear the stories about people who don't work together. i can tell you tom cobur carperi work together. he helped dig up most of this information. what i would just say is we have an opportunity to do things. i mean, we have an opportunity for democrats and republicans to come together, forge a compromise, make major changes that are necessary and absolutely required if we're going to

mr. carper: mr. president, the former governor, i want to follow on the comments we just heard from senator portman, who as he said served in two administrations. in one of them as o.m.b. director, the other as trade representative. before that a distinguished career in the u.s. house of representatives, somebody i am fortunate to serve with on the finance committee. i have a lot of respect for his intellect and for his intellectual honesty. i just want to -- before i talk about the real reason i came to the floor, i just feel compelled to say something. as former governors, mr. president, i had made tough decisions on spending, i had to make tough decisions on revenues, and not always well received by people, not always well received by people in our own party. i like to say there are three or four things we need to do to get our deficit heading -- continue to make sure it continues to head in the right direction. i don't worship at the altar of a balanced budget every single year, but what i do bel

mr. carper, upon recommendation of counsel, i respectfully decline to answer based upon my fifth amendment rights. >> all right. is it your intention to assert her fifth amendment right to any questions that might be directed to you by the committee today? >> yes, sir. it is. >> given the fact that you intend to assert a fifth amendment right against self-incrimination to all questions asked of you today by this committee, you are excused. >> yes, sir. thank you. >> dr. bradley, you are recognized for your statement. welcome. >> thank you very much. ladies and gentlemen, my statement will be relatively short. i'm here today to tell the truth. i have nothing to hide. if the ladies and gentlemen, on the committee have read my testimony, i do understand that it seems like the biggest question regarding my performance or my relationship with mr. eric conn was the rfc's in question. when asked i would be more than happy to eliminate or talk about that, but the biggest thing you asked if i had any reaction to anything that had been said, particularly by mr. coburn, i would take exception to bein

mr. carper: dr. coburn is is a tough act to follow. i'm not going to try to do that but i'm happy to serve with him. we come from different parts of the country, different kinds of training, upbringing and careers, but we've ended up here together in the senate and for the last nine years we've had an opportunity to lead first a subcommittee on federal financial management, subcommittee of the homeland security and government affairs committee and for this year to be the leertdz, democrat and republican leaders of the committee. and i enjoy working with him, i find that we have the opportunity to do some real good, some real good for our country and i thank him for letting me be his wing man. i want to just follow on with what dr. coburn has said by asking us to think of how we spend money and would we spend it for in this government of ours. i have -- i actually have an op-ed that i read recently in our local paper in delaware i'd like to read into the record from dr. bob laskosky, the c.e.o. of christiana care system, one of the larg

mr. carper: while, the senator is still on the floorks i just want to take a moment and -- to say to him, i think he knows this, but to say to him how much we've enjoyed getting to know him, to work with him, and to really come away with a wonderful -- not just a first impression but a lasting impression. i think goarn christie did the state of new jersey well by appointing you to serve as the interim senator. we had a similar experience with losing and elected senator. when joe biden became -- was elected to vice president and u.s. senate at the same time, and he had to choose between, will he be the senator from delaware or will he be vice president, he made the choice -- i don't know if he ever regrets it, but he made the choice to be our vice president, as we know. and the governor of our state ainterpood ted kaufman. he was succeeded by chris coons, when chris was elected a couple years ago. but we have a tradition of folks that are appointed as interim senators turn out to do an extraordinary job. i wonder if maybe tongue in cheek if maybe that's not a better approach in some cases

who was not happy with sara carper? >> mr. conn spent so now mr. conn was not happy about your employ, so you say, hey, she is supposed to be working at home on these special days where she's allowed to work at home, and he said, difficult to prove that. the only way she could be disciplined is if there was a video sent to her supervisor. so eric conn said he would be willing to hire a private investigator to check, is that right? >> that's correct. >> and then you say, you told him that sounds like an idea. and then eric on give yo you a note, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> for sara's knees, did she work for you? >> sandy. >> sandie nies, did she work for you? >> at that time i wasn't the chief judge so working for me was -- >> but he did you know? >> yes. >> and so that note was for you to give to center, is that correct? >> yes. >> and you didn't? >> yes. >> and that note had a cell number or a contact in eric conn's office, and you gave it to sander, right? >> yes spent she said she would call the person when she knew that sara carver w

mr. lewis. >> good morning. chairman carper, ranking member coburn, and distinguished members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to address the practices and procedures of the department of defense regarding security clearances, facility access, and background investigations. the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, dr. michael vickers, is the principal staff assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary for security matters. in this capacity dr. vickers exercises his authority as the senior official for d.o.d.'s personal security program and has primary responsibility for providing and improving guidance, oversight, and development for policy and procedures governing civilian, military, and industrial-based personal security programs within the d.o.d. in order to address the department's personnel security policies, i believe it's important to first identify the national level policy framework. executive order 13467 designates the director of national intelligence as the security

mr. carper: i want to thank the senator from indiana for invoking the name of one of my favorite directorsand actors. i didn't think that was one of his finest moment, i'm not talking about the senator from indiana, but it is what it is. it's nice to be with you and nice to nol you on the floor. if left up to the senator from indiana and this senator, my colleagues here from north dakota and rhode island, i think we could probably work out a good budget deal in a short period of time that raises so revenues through tax reform to reduce the deficit and reforms the entitlement programs, to save money, save the programs for the long haul and to make sure we don't savage old people and poor people. and while we're doing that probably the change the culture of the federal government a little bit so we focus even more on not a culture of spendthrift but of thrift. those are things we need to do. i'm always happy to follow him. nice to be with you. let me say, madam president, maybe following up on what senator coats has been saying, i want to re -- reminds me of a phone conversation i had with a

senator carper. >> mr. secretary, thanks for joining us. i just stepped out of the room for a few minutes. i was watching the hearing on television in an adjoining room. and i must say people watching this on tv must be frustrated, disappointed with us. some of the finest people who serve in the senate serve on this committee. that's why i wanted to be on this committee, thoughtful democrats and republicans, pragmatic, find the middle, reasonable, principled compromise. >> they're doing our best to take a live mix of democrats and republicans because viewers want parody on that front, jim. >> do they want us in a hush golf voice in ooh, looks like netflix -- >> we have to pay some bills and we want to do them before the opening bell in about four minutes. we'll take a quick break and get you that bell in just a moment. [ male announcer ] once, there was a man who found a magic seashell. it told him what was happening on the trading floor in real time. ♪ the shell brought him great fame. ♪ but then, one day, he noticed that everybody could h

carper. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, thanks for joining us. i want to say to my colleagues i just got out of the room for a few minutes. i was watching on television in an adjoining room. i must say people watching this on tv must be frustrated, disappointed with us. some of the finest people who serve in the senate serve on this committee. that's what i wanted to be on this committee. find reasonable and principled compromise. the problem here is pretty simple. democrats need to support entitlement reform that saves money. saves these programs from the long haul and is consistent with our obligation to look out for the least of these. that's what we need to do. republicans need to embrace tax reform that provides certainty, predictability for businesses and investors but at the same time generate some revenues. we go back to those four years at the end of the clinton administration where we had balanced budgets. revenue is a percentage of gdp. writer than 20% all four years. those four years, spending as a percentage of gdp was right around 2

mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent -- the presiding officer: without objection. viemed a.m. sorry to interrupt. the i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be agreed to, the carper title amendment at the desk be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to h. con. res. 58. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h. con. res. 58, expressing the sense of congress regarding the need for the continued availability of religious services to members of the armed forces and their families during a lapse in appropriations. the presiding officer: is thrks to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the levin amendment to the concurrent resolution which is deck be agreed to, the congress current resolution as amenden agreed to that a levin amendment to the preamble be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate comple

murray, sanders, shaheen, cardin, franken, brown, harkin, reed of rhode island, carper, whitehouse, nelson and schumer. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed nay. the ayes appear to have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 327. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed, nay. all in favor say aye. all opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: there is another cloture motion at the desk. i ask that it be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, patricia ann millett of virginia to be united states circuit judge for the district of columbia circuit. mr. reid: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: the clerk will repor