mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, i'm going to ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: i've been asked to lead us through this wrap-up session, even though it's a little early to wrap up. i want to walk through it if i can and ask, as if in legislative session, i would ask unanimous consent that the committee of commerce, science, and transportation be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 2754, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 2754, an act to amend the hobby protection act and so so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there, to proceeding to the measure? if not, without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. carper: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid

mr. carper: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the bills be read a third time and passed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: as if in legislative session, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the veterans' affairs committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4276 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 4276, an act to extend and modify a pilot program on assisted living services for veterans with traumatic brain injury. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? if not, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. carper: mr. president, i further ask the bill be read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objectio

mr. carper: thank you. madam president, over the past two years, as you know, i've had the great privilege, along with dr. tom coburn, leading the committee on which you serve as a valued member of the committee on homeland security and governmental affairs. our committee has many responsibilities. one of those responsibilities is the oversight of the department of homeland security. although our committee, the nature of our committee, as the presiding officer knows, we have oversight over the whole federal government, but a special focus on the department of homeland security which was created about a dozen, almost a dozen years ago. the department is shy of 12 years old, pretty young compared to most other agencies. it was established in 2003 following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. it brought together under one umbrella, one department, 22 different disparate agencies trying to form one unified agency has not been easy. it's not been easy. as the presiding officer knows, there have been growing pains apl

mr. carper: thank you. madam president, i rise today to urge my colleagues to vote in a few minutes to confirm sarah saldana to assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement. a number of our friends have come to the floor opposing ms. saldana's nomination, but incredibly enough i haven't heard them question her qualifications. their opposition appears to be in response to the president's decision to bring five million hardworking immigrants out of the shadows this month. let me say as one member of the senate, we can quarrel about the timing and we can quarrel about the policy. i think for the most part the policy in the president's proposal is good. do i wish we had done it as a body? i wish we had done our jobs? you bet i do. but i wish the president delayed the announcement until a little bit later this year. he didn't. and so that's where we are. that's where we are. whether you like the president's executive order or not, it is about today whether we take our responsibilities seriously to

mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. in carper: mr. president, i came to the floor -- mr. carper: i dime the floor without any prepared remarks but i'd like to say a few words if i could about our colleague, mark pryor. i affectionately call him hey, man, because in arkansas when you see one of your friends you don't say hi, tom or hi, mark, you say hey, man. and for the last 12 years we've exchanged a lot of "hey, mans." 10, 12 days i was in honduras, trying to figure out how to save a nation that may be a failing nation. they is a lot of gangs, involved in extorting money from businesses, involving kidnapping people, trafficking people. gangs have a bad connotation in honduras and they should. in washington, d.c. and the senate, not so much. and senator collins and senator durbin have talked about some of the gangs that this senator from arkansas has been involved in, which iy most would say is during -- i think most would say is doing the lord's work, doing good work. he's a man of deep faith as we know, a role model for the rest of

mr. carper: the senator from oregon thanked tom for his service in sentence. i would like to to thank him before. when we were kids -- not exactly, when we were in the united states navy. in airplane, not the same airplane but roughly at the same time. people come town hall meeting me and thank me for my service in the navy and i'm sure they do that with you and i tell them i loved him. i loved the men and women i served with, an honor to do that. but i want to start off by thanking you for that. one of the bonds that has drawn us together as friends right from the start, right from the start. the senator from oregon mentioned the minimum wage -- your strong efforts on behalf of raising the minimum wage which ultimately were not successful but i want to mention a couple of things that i've had the privilege of working with you on that have been i think really successful and there's a battle that needs to be fought and i plan to don't to do that and my hope in other ways you'll do it, too. as veteran -- as veterans, i know how important the g.i. bill was for me

mr. carper: thank you. our colleagues know the fellow in the presiding seat is a recovering governor. i'm a recovering governor. mike johanns is a recovering governor. we're sort of a support group for one another, men and women who used to be somebody and were special. i'm kidding. i think we still are. the senator was talking about michael and had the privilege of knowing him for a number of years. we were governors together and my wife martha and his wife stephanie were first ladies together. i thought they defined what the standards should be for first lady or first man, if you will, if you have a female governor. i'll never forget when i first met him, i was talking about stephanie and how they got to know each other and so forth and told me this great story about i think they were both county commissioners. it was lancaster county. i think he used to be in those days maybe a democrat and a long time ago i was a young republican for barry goldwater when i was a 17-year-old republican student freshman at ohio state and later found out that hillary clinton was a golden girl at a co

mrs. boxer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the carper title amendment be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with had no intervening debate or action. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: and, madam president, i have seven unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of both the majority and the minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you very much, madam president. i would yield the floor. mr. vitter: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: madam president, i'll be brief but i want to thank both the senators on the floor, senator boxer, senator vitter, for working on this issue, which was critical for our alaska fishermen and really fishermen across the country but, more importantly, this will resolve the issue with the coast guard bill, which is critical to get done for

mr. carper: thank you. our colleagues know the fellow in the presiding seat is a recovering governor. i'm a recovering governor. mike johanns is a recovering governor. we're sort of a support group for one another, men and women who used to be somebody and were special. i'm kidding. i think we still are. the senator was talking about michael and had the privilege of knowing him for a number of years. we were governors together and my wife martha and his wife stephanie were first ladies together. i thought they defined what the standards should be for first lady or first man, if you will, if you have a female governor. i'll never forget when i first met him, i was talking about stephanie and how they got to know each other and so forth and told me this great story about i think they were both county commissioners. it was lancaster county. i think he used to be in those days maybe a democrat and a long time ago i was a young republican for barry goldwater when i was a 17-year-old republican student freshman at ohio state and later found out that hillary clinton was a golden girl at a co

mr. president, thank senator carper for those good remarks. think they touched the quality and character that mark pryor has displayed as a member of the senate. i've been asked who are some of your favorite people across the aisle, democratic people that you respect and like, and mark pryor has always been the top of that list. we have both serve as attorney general of our state. we had a number of things to talk about. i've been able to commensurate with him over arkansas football in recent years. we can keep up with those things a lot, but i just would want to say something that i basically said at the senate, at the national prayer breakfast several years ago. senator pryor and i were co-chairman and i was able to say with great confidence that mark pryor is one of the best people i've ever stored within the united states send. he is a man of faith, integrity, his ego is under control. not always so about this place. it makes it run better, collegial, willing to work with people across the aisle, work within his own party. not one that had

mr. o'rourke and ron barber. i appreciate again the nice, good, bipartisan support. and bicameral support. good work from senator tester. senator mccain who cares deeply about border patrol issues and certainly senator carper for making this a reality. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves his time. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the district of columbia. ms. norton: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for such time as she wishes to consume. ms. norton: i thank my good friend, mr. chaffetz, for not only coming forward to manage this bill, but i thank him of a he is the sponsor bipartisan bill very similar to e bill before us today, h.r. 3463. i rise in strong support of s. 1691, the border patrol pay agents reform act of 2014. a bipartisan bill sponsored by senators tester and mccain. s. 161 would ep hance -- 1691 would enhance the border patrol's ability to secure and patrol more than 6,000 miles of our nation's borders between mexico and canada and 2,000 miles of our coastal waters surrounding florida and puerto rico. it would also respond to the growing threat of cyberattacks. this legisla

mr. carper: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: thank you. i want to say to my colleague, ted kennedy said to me when i first got here a number of years ago talking about compromise and that sort of thing. he always said, i'm willing to compromise on policy, not on principle. and i think if you look at what we've accomplished in the last two years, that's exactly what we've done. and i want to thank my colleague for being a great leader, not just of his caucus but of our body and for being my friend. and with that, i would just say on the legislation that's before us, as he suggested, the taxpayer right-to-know act, does build on previous legislation reported out of our committee. the data act and some others have been signed into law with bipartisan support, including by the current president. the taxpayer right-to-know act is a good-government bill that will provide better and more detailed information to congress and the american people about federal spending. congress has passed federal years in the past several years to improve transpare

mr. reid: u. reid, menendez, leahy, heinrich, reed of rhode island, feinstein, udall of new mexico, cardin, nelson, boxer, carper, merkley -- markey, americay, tester, durbin, and schumer. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i now pro move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. a senator: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not you the vote i 52 yeas, a 41 naissments the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president, if i can have everyone's attention. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to h.j. res. 131, which is a short-term continuing resolution that will go until wednesday, december 17, which was received from the house and is at the desk. further, that the joint resolution be read three times and the senate now proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution with no intervening action or debate. th

mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the carper-coburn substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and the senate proceed to vote on passage. the presiding officer: without objection. hearing no further debate, all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed as amended. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered and made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. no. mr. reid: i ask that the. appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to h.r. 1281. the pre