mr. carper: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. carper: madam president, i'm proud to rise here today to speak in strong support of the nomination of jeh johnson to serve as the secretary of department of homeland security. as my colleagues know, i've been concerned for many months about the high number of senior level vacancies that exist at the department. in fact, the department of homeland security has been without a senate-confirmed deputy secretary since april and without a senate-confirmed secretary since early september. that is simply too long for such critical positions to be vacant, especially since the department of homeland security has been without senate-confirmed leadership and a number of other senior leadership positions, too. that list of vacancies include these. the position of deputy secretary as well as the heads of customs and border protection, immigration and customs enforcement, and the inspector general. working with the president, we need to do so

mr. carper: mr. president, good evening. i'd like to talk tonight on maybe two subjects. the first of those is the budget resolution, the bipartisan -- bicameral budget resolution conference report that we have approved here today. this is the first time in a number of years that we have actually been able to debate and find some consensus on a bipartisan blueprint for spending for the balance of this fiscal year. i want to commend senator murray, i want to commend congressman ryan for their work and for their leadership and their willingness to find the middle. my wife and i celebrate our 28th anniversary in about two weeks. actually, it's a few minutes after midnight on new year's day. one of the things i love to do when i talk to people that have been married a lot longer than we have is to ask them to -- the secret for being married a long time. and the -- i have heard all kinds of answers, hilarious answers. some are very poignant answers. the best answer i have ever heard, mr. president, is the answers -- the two c's, the two c's. the first time someone said it to m

mr. carper: madam president, good evening. i had not anticipated coming to the floor tonight to talk about health care in this country, but i feel compelled to do so after listening to a number of our colleagues share with us letters, messages from folks who -- whose lives have been adversely affected, apparently because of changes made in the coverage of their health care through the affordable care act. i -- and i regret -- i regret that any of the consequences that have been shared with us here this evening. my hope is that we will find ways over the next -- the coming weeks and coming months to address the kind of concerns that have been raised, but i wish i'd heard some of that concern in past years as we prepare to take up the affordable care act. in the finance committee where i serve, i wish i heard those kind of concerns about millions, tens of millions of people in this country who really don't have any health care coverage tonight, some 40 million. follower a lot of them -- for a lot of them health care is a chance

coons, tester, udall of new mexico, rockefeller, carper, stabenow, manchin, king, hirono, heinrich, nelson and baucus. mr. reid: i move to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 334 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 the senate amendment to h.r. 3304, with the following amendment numbered 2553. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays on my motion. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have an amendment that i have asked the chair to order reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 2553 to the instructions of amendment numbered 2552. mr. reid: i now move to refer the house message with respect to h.r. 3304 with instructions. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motions. the clerk: the senator from

mr. amitay. >> chairman carper, serna ayotte, my name is stephen amitay and an executive director for nasper, national association of security companies. it's nation's largest contract degree trade association with member companies employed more than 300,000 security officers across the nation servicing governmental clients including numerous federal agencies. nasc works with officials at every level of government to put in place higher standards and requirements for security companies and private security officers. of most relevant today's hearing since 2007, nasco has worked with congress, fps and gao on issues and legislation related to the federal protective services protected security officer, pso program. nasco also recruited federal security committee on its 2013 best practices for armed security officers in federal facilities. not including the military services that are boxing 35,000 contracts at the officers across the federal government and the use of contract security is a proven, effective and cost efficient countermeasure to reduce risk and mitigate threats at federal facilities. to furt

mr. lewis, please proceed. thank you chairman carper, ranking member coburn, and senator heitkamp. toppreciate the opportunity be here today to address the procedures of the deity facilities security. i am steve lewis, director of the security policy and oversight directorate. on behalf of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence or usdi. usdi is the staff assistant to the security and the deputy secretary of defense for -- rity matters data sets and sets dod security policy. this set standards for the protection of personnel, facilities, and related assets. within the department, the ustr's responsibility is committed by those of the assistant security -- assistant secretary of defense. in the wake of the navy yard shooting incident, the secretary of defense initiated concurrent, internal, and independent reviews to identify and recommend actions and adjust gaps or deficiencies in dod programs, policies, and procedures regarding security at dod installations. the reviews covered the granting and renewing of security clearances for dod employees and contractor personnel. in o

mr. mayorkas, but no one seems to understand that just how fair this vote is to the nominee. by pushing his nomination through the -- both the committee and the full senate, senator carper and leader reid have denied mr. mayorkas a chance to win bipartisan suppo support. i've only voted against one nominee that's come through our committee, only one out of 20. i would like to be able to vote for mr. mayorkas. if, in fact, the o.i.g. shows him a clean bill. the reason it's sad that he can't win bipartisan support is under the new senate rules, it's possible for my colleagues to confirm him without a single republican vote. and when they do that, they will be delivering to the department a nominee who arrives with only his party's support and he will be trailed by a cloud of doubt and discontent. the allegations against mr. mayorkas relate meanwhile to his management of the eb-5 immigrant visa program. as i understand it the investigation into mr. mayorkas began in an unconventional way by one person speaking out after their develop document -- heavily documented concerns were dismissed. this adds validity to the investigations. in the course of the investigation, the d.h.s. o.i.g.

mr. lewis, please proceed. thank you chairman carper, ranking member coburn, and senator heitkamp. toppreciate the opportunity be here today to address the procedures of the deity facilities security. i am steve lewis, director of the security policy and oversight directorate. on behalf of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence or usdi. usdi is the staff assistant to the security and the deputy secretary of defense for -- rity matters data sets and sets dod security policy. this set standards for the protection of personnel, facilities, and related assets. within the department, the ustr's responsibility is committed by those of the assistant security -- assistant secretary of defense. in the wake of the navy yard shooting incident, the secretary of defense initiated concurrent, internal, and independent reviews to identify and recommend actions and adjust gaps or deficiencies in dod programs, policies, and procedures regarding security at dod installations. the reviews covered the granting and renewing of security clearances for dod employees and contractor personnel. in o

reed of rhode island, durbin, heinrich, carper, schumer, feinstein, murray, sanders, king, franken, harkin, murray, warren, whitehouse, blumenthal and brown. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 1882, a bill to extend the exclusion from income for employer-provided mass transit and parking benefits, that the bill be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: mr. president, i understand and appreciate my colleague's commitment to this particular issue. however, this is just one of many tax provisions that will expire at the end of the year. in the past the senior s

mr. mayorkas is either completely unwilling or unable to respond to the allegations. i sat down with chairman carper on august 1 and he agreed that i deserved answers to my questions from the nominee, and now he has pressed afford without getting answers. i'm truly surprised that this majority is not interested in getting to the bottom of these allegations. in other words, something that's under investigation, in the same way that senator biden and senator obama demooned that we do -- demanded that we do during a previous presidency. if this body is unwilling to wait till the end of an investigation or if we aren't willing to conduct our own inquiry, one day will -- this whole nomination will come back to bite us. as i said with b. todd jones when he was confirmed. eventually one of these situations will embarrass the senate and damage the reputation of the federal government. if this majority is determined to ignore ongoing investigations and at the same time ram through nominees, the american people should hold the senate accountable for not doing its constitutional job. in fact, refusing to do it

carper. how shallow to think this important nominee is nonessential. how about this one, mr. president? john koskinen to be director of the internal revenue service. with all the many things going on in this country, with obamacare, with all the many other things happening. we need a -- someone to direct the internal revenue service. to suggest this is not a critical position is really very, very shallow. with all the republican obstruction delay we have seen over the last two weeks, is it any wonder democrats changed the rules last month? of course not. the american people want congress to work not obstruct. even under these new rules, republicans are wasting weeks on matters that could be resolved in mere hours. as always, there is an easy and a hard way that we legislators can take. one is to move. the other is to obstruct. so far, my republican colleagues have obstructed and continue to do so. the choice to obstruct is theirs. their obstruction has become a bad habit of theirs. for the good of the country, their obstruction, these bad habits need to go away. mr. president, i would l

carper chairs the two and a half-hour hearing. >> [inaudible conversations] >> good morning, senator. the early bird. >> good morning mr. chairman. >> how are you doing? welcome, everyone. thank you for joining us and some of you joining again and again and it's nice to see you all. it's an important hearing and the second in a series of hearings that will enable us to take a closer look at federal security for the federal facilities. three months ago as we know, aaron alexis reported for the washington navy yard with an intention to inflict pain and suffering on anyone in his path. we do not know now and maybe we never well to be entirely clear why this tragedy came to pass but hopefully the lessons learned from it will provide a foundation for preventing future tragedies like this one. let's take a moment to recount how he got access to the navy yard to successfully enter the facility that fateful morning. in 2007, aaron alexis joined the u.s. navy as with other service members a background check was performed and he was granted a low level security clearance. after honorable discharge in 2011, he was hired by defense

mr. carper: with that, i yield the floor and yield back my time. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the nomination. mr. durbin: madam president? officer assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: madam president, i'd like to make a brief statement that under the unanimous conse consent, it said that the -- that we would move to this vote on the mayorkas nomination following the debate. this debate has ended a little earlier than we anticipated and this first roll call we're going to accommodate members, leave it open and so they have a chance. but because most are anxious to go home, we're hoping they'll come to the floor early, vote and we can start the series of votes agreed to. thank you, madam president. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: does any senator wish to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 54. the nays are 41, and the nomination is confirmed. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the assista

beloved friend carl levin and my dear friend senator carper, i just came from a meeting in my office with mr. jeh johnson. mr. jeh johnson again repeated to me that he could not give me the information that -- of what is necessary, what tools are necessary to ensure 90% effective control of our border. now, allegedly, he is being prevented from doing that by the white house. now, it's -- it's stunning. why would the white house prevent the nominee for secretary of homeland security from providing members of the senate and members of the committee that oversight homeland security information which is fundamental information if we are going to achieve effective control of our borders? so now, i go back to arizona and i say yeah, it's in the law, my friends, it's in the law that we're going to have to get 90% effective control of our border, but i don't know how you do it.