mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. arper: good afternoon, mr. president. for more than -- it's been more than a year now, i have come to the senate floor on a pretty regular basis. one of our colleagues who is sitting over here, i think he is your relief to preside, has heard me come here and talk about some of the great work that's being done by the men and women, some of the 225,000 men and women who work for us at the department of homeland security. and as you know, mr. president, the department of homeland security is made up of some 22 component agencies, has more than 220,000 employees all over the world. these men and women perform some of the toughest jobs in the federal work force from stopping drugs from crossing our borders to protecting our cyber networks from hackers to securing nuclear and radiological materials. the department of homeland security has a diverse, have a complex and frankly difficult mission. they have a really tough mission. in fact, they have a lot of really tough missions. each and ever

carper: thank you, mr. president. for some time, i have said, including times on this floor that the choice between a clean environment, clean air, clean water and a strong economy is a false one. some people say you can't have a clean environment and have a strong economy at the same time. i just don't think that's correct. the toxic substance control act, toxic substance control act, there is an acronym for everything, but we affectionately call it tsca, but the toxic substance control legislation that we approved last night on the floor of this body is proof that we can have a cleaner environment, a safer environment, a healthier environment and a stronger economy. they go together. maybe when i finish my remarks, mr. president, folks will understand why that might be true. but every day in this country, manufacturers use a variety of chemicals. i'm told there are tens of thousands of chemicals on this planet. in the air, in the ground, in the water, in our bodies. tens of thousands in all. that manufacturers use t

mr. carper: one minute and i'm done. mr. cornyn: mr. president, it's hard for me to say no to senator carper because he is such a nice guy. and so reasonable. but this isn't a time to be making speeches. it's a time to object or not. and so if he has a concluding remark, i -- mr. carper: i will be very brief. my hope is sthend of the day we pass what susan and heidi have worked on, but i hope we will also come back and consider some other issues where we can actually save more lives. that's my commitment, and i'm sure it's one that you share along with the president. thank you. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i would just say that if we were united in our desire to actually get to a solution, i believe we could. something that would make a difference. but unfortunately this debate has been hijacked by some who believe that frankly that the right to keep and bear arms is not an individual right under the constitution, and they are willing to presume that the government is right just because out of mere

mr. secretary. senator carper. >> thanks, mr. chairman.just want to return to the last part of the conversation. i want to go back to what i quoted from peter bergen a moment ago. i will ask my staff to find that quote for me. we've been down to the border. the reason why the people and kids and for our companies can they have lack of opportunity. pitching has put his finger on the root cause and/or the conversations we've had and that is our insatiable demand for drugs. we send money and guns down there, and they send drugs. against and folks get our money and guns can use them to make life miserable. make life national for folks. if we lived down there and had kids, we would want to come up as well. so find a new and haystack problem, we can find ways to make the needles bigger to do that with force multiplier's. in the air, on the ground is so forth. we also need to make the haystack a lot over a part of that is the work we're doing through our partnership with these three central american countries at its their version of partnership t

mr. carper: i appreciate the chance to follow the gentleman from maine this morning. and i want to talk a little bit about, if i could, about the appropriations bill for the departments of commerce and justice and major science agency, including the national science foundation. i want to commend the senior senators from alabama. i don't see them on the floor this morning. senators from alabama and from maryland for their bipartisan work on what i think we all know is important legislation. reported out of the appropriations committee i'm told on a unanimous vote. they worked hard to juggle many competing priorities from keeping our country safe to creating jobs through trade, economic development, science and innovation. this legislation provides critical resources for and needed oversight of many issues that are important to the committee on homeland security on which i serve as the ranking member. one example, one example of many in this appropriations bill is the census bureau. the 2010 census was the costliest census in the history of our country by far. it face

mr. carper: i want to thank our colleague from, colleagues from connecticut for inviting us here and encouraging us to have this conversation. i come with many of my colleagues -- i've come with senator murphy from a briefing by three topping officials in this country who deal with homeland security and law enforcement. one of the questions that was asked was, deals with the ability of someone who's on a terrorist watch list be denied the opportunity to fly in an airplane and then whether or not that same person on a terrorist watch list can be denied the opportunity to buy a, for example, an assault weapon. and the answer is, i think, shocking and disappointing. a person who is on a terrorist watch list can and will be denied the opportunity to fly in an airplane with other people. that makes sense. but what doesn't make sense is that same person who is denied the ability to fly in an airplane because he or she is on a terrorist watch list can go into a gun show or a gun store and buy a weapon, including an assault weapon. that just makes no sense to me. that makes no sense to me. i would add t

carper. >> thank you, mr. chairman. apple, want to go back to a conversation you and i had several weeks ago. there have been long waits, a lot of frustration at o'hare. i urge you to go there. to see for yourself what had happened and what had gone wrong. i want to thank you for going. tell us what you found them tell us what has been done and what lessons that you learned, have you been able to take away and to spread to other airports, two of the security stations across america? >> thing so that entity for the opportunity to talk about that early to. there's a couple pieces to the answer to the first is what happened in chicago, that was truly in my opinion and in my investigation, he was just a failure to get enough lanes open in advance of what was anticipated significant increase in volume for the day. it was sort of the first as a volume season. we saw about a 13% increase in volume from the previous week. we didn't have enough lanes open, and once you are behind it is challenging to get your. the first thing we

mr. carper: we visited the 9/11 memorial erected on the site of the world trade center. i must confess it was emotionally charging and very saddening and at the same time uplifting and inspiring. i never imagined that within the space of less than 24 hours we would see dozens of our young have their lives taken from them. i remember walking through the e 9/11. you may remember parts of the memorial and literally seeing the faces of literally 3,000 men and women and some children whose lives were snuffed out that day some 15 years ago. and every one of them had moms and dads, had grandparents, a number of them had children, spouses, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, and those families struggle even today with their loss. the young man who died saturday night, sunday morning in a nightclub in orlando like those many folks who faces i saw, we saw on saturday also have moms and dad, grand mom, grand dads, grandfathers, brothers, sisters, cousins. their families are mourning today, just like others did 15 years ago. so what i want to do is preface my remarks today

senator carper. >> thank you, mr. chairman. admiral, i want to go back to a conversation you and i had several weeks ago, there had been a long waits, a lot of frustration at o'hare. and i urged you to go there and to see for yourself what had happened, what had gone wrong and i want to thank you for going. tell us what you found and tell us what has been done and what lessons that you learned, have you been able to take away and to spread to other airports, to other security stations across america? >> well, thanks for that. and thank you for the opportunity to talk about that earlier. there is a couple of pieces to that answer. the first is what happened at chicago, that was truly, in my opinion, and in my investigation, it was just a failure to get enough lanes open in advance of what was an anticipated significant increase in volume for that day. it was sort of the first day of the volume season. we saw about a 13% increase in volume from the previous week. and we didn't have enough lanes open. and once you are behind, it i

mr. hassan. >> thank you, chairman. ranking member carper, and members of the committee. in my introduction, i want to add i come from an isis-controlled area, controlled today. also, i have also interviewed dozens of isis members for my book, and other research. and i want to say this. this is not a sectarian war. the very people that isis claims to represent are victims of its brutality just as much as everyone else. there is -- this is reality felt on a daily basis. when a family and friends go to the market and see severed heads on pipes or when isis condemns its sunni opponents, people that they claim to represent as upper states, they burn them alive, stab their hearts before they shoot them, they display their dead bodies for days in central squares. what it says to fellows, it doesn't matter if you pray, if you fast or ramadan, if you turn your faith towards mecca and pray. we will still kill you as long as you don't pledge allegiance to us. not far from where i come from in my area, isis killed 700 sunni villagers in a matter of days because they dared to stand u

carper. >> thanks, mr. chairman. i want to associate myself with the comments of senator wyden earlier. i thought he nailed it with his comments with respect to streamlined critical pay program. mr. chairman, you mentioned in your comments that legislation has been introduced, bipartisan legislation, was introduced last congress. i just think it's critical that we follow through on that. we follow through on that. year after year, mr. koskinen and others come to us and say please do this to enable us to do our jobs more effectively. and the -- a lot of times we point the finger at them and say, you know, you screwed up here and you screwed up there, you people have as well, and we have responsibility for this as well and one of the things we can do to help out would be to provide for the re-establishment of the streamlined critical pay program. i think you're going to hear -- mr. chairman, you're going to hear a lot from me in the months to come to say let's do it and get it done. we need to do our job. we need to do our job. we hear a lot about that lately. we need to do our job. this

statement be included in the record and with that i will turn it over to senator carper and i will catch my breath. >> mr. chairman, we're glad you're here. i had a couple of trains that were shot out under me coming down from delaware. i know the feeling. thank you for joining us this morning. this is going to be a good hearing. this is going to be a real good hearing, it's a timely hearing. as we all know the transportation security administration was created in the wake of the attacks on september 11th and we understand while the terrorist threats to our aviation system that the agency was created to combat. having said that, though, we oftentimes fail to acknowledge an undeniable tension that exists alluded to by the chairman, an undeniable tension that exists at the core of tsa's mission. on the one hand we ask tsa to screen literally millions of passengers and their luggage carefully every day to prevent explosives, weapons and other dangerous items from finding a way on board our aircraft. on the other hand millions of passengers, we've been among them, we've all been there, want to get on board o

carper: thank you very much. mr. nahas: from my experience as a refugee, i went to the process list of i can say that it is very unlikely for the process to let any terrorist -- it is a highly intense process. it takes security checks, background checks, waiting for over a year or at least a year. they ask you a lot of personal questions. for the slightest chance to let a terrorist, or a guy or a girl that believes in these ideologies to get through is highly unlikely. carper: could you briefly respond to my question? ms. murad: [speaking foreign language] >> i would like first to say that every country has the right to protect itself, and to protect its borders. ms. murad: [speaking foreign language] >> but to the people who are escaping religious discrimination and genocide should not face closed doors before them. ms. murad: [speaking foreign language] >> i would like to say of the terrorists want to go to someplace, they can go. the process, some of them have already immigrated. sen. carper: i think we have a mor

mr. nahas. >> chairman johnson, ranking member carper, members of the committee, thank you for offering me the honor and the opportunity to be here today to share my story in the context of the larger events happening here in the world and here in the united states. my personal story mirrors the stories of many other lgbt individuals. one day i was heading to university. an organized group of militants accosted solely because they perceived me as gay. in a local mosque, they said they would clear the city of all sodomites. they targeted all gay men in the country. i fled from my home country of syria in 2012. after living in a country of lebanon for six months, i moved to turkey. my history of activism for lgbt right meant that even in turkey, i once again find myself in danger. extremist groups like al qaeda and isis were gaining strength and access there. although i was employed for three years in a senior position with save the children international, i was still not safe because of my sexual identity. a syrian friend informed me i had been targeted for death. the director of save the child

statement be included in the record and with that i will turn it over to senator carper and i will catch my breath. >> mr. chairman, we're glad you're here. i had a couple of trains that were shot out under me coming down from delaware. i know the feeling. thank you for joining us this morning. this is going to be a good hearing. this is going to be a real good hearing, it's a timely hearing. as we all know the transportation security administration was created in the wake of the attacks on september 11th and we understand while the terrorist threats to our aviation system that the agency was created to combat. having said that, though, we oftentimes fail to acknowledge an undeniable tension that exists alluded to by the chairman, an undeniable tension thattist kps at the core of tsa's mission. on the one hand we ask tsa to screen literally millions of passengers and their luggage carefully every day to prevent explosives, weapons and other dangerous items from finding a way on board our aircraft. on the other hand millions of passengers, we've been among them, we've all been there, want to get on board

carper: thank you very much. mr. nahas: from my experience as a refugee, i went to the process list of i can say that it is very unlikely for the process to let any terrorist -- it is a highly intense process. it takes security checks, background checks, waiting for over a year or at least a year. they ask you a lot of personal questions. for the slightest chance to let a terrorist, or a guy or a girl that believes in these ideologies to get through is highly unlikely. carper: could you briefly respond to my question? ms. murad: [speaking foreign language] >> i would like first to say that every country has the right to protect itself, and to protect its borders. ms. murad: [speaking foreign language] >> but to the people who are escaping religious discrimination and genocide should not face closed doors before them. ms. murad: [speaking foreign language] >> i would like to say of the terrorists want to go to someplace, they can go. the process, some of them have already immigrated. sen. carper: i think we have a mor

mr. hurd: i rise today in support of senate bill 2133, the fraud reduction and data analytics act of 2015, introduced by senator thomas carper of delaware. s. 2133 is a bipartisan bill that will strengthen and enhance the anti-fraud prevention and detection measures used by federal agencies. current anti-fraud prevention measures are reliant on after the fact reviews and transactions. this system is not perfect. a significant portion of the federal government's $124 billion in overpayments in fiscal year 2014, $19 billion more than fiscal year 2013, were fraud relate the current reactive anti-fraud measures require agencies to spend time and resources on efforts to track and recover these fraud-related overpayments. senate bill 2133 will help prevent these fraudulent payments from being made in the first place. the fraud prevention and data analytics act of 2015 will help protect taxpayer dollars by require the office of management budget, o.m.b., and federal agencies to adopt proactive fraud protection controls and preventive measure. the bill will require the o.m.b. to create a set of guidelines for anti-fraud measures whi

mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr.president, i'd ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: mr. president, i come here with a solemn message today. i come here remembering a republican colleague who served in this body for 12 years, george voinovich, former governor of ohio, former mayor of cleveland. i think he was in his time i believe county auditor. he was lieutenant governor, i believe, mayor of cleveland. he was the chairman of the national league of cities. two-term governor of ohio. he was also chairman of the national governors' association. i had the privilege of serving as his vice chairman and later on as the successor as chairman of the n.g.a. he came here, was elected in 1998, took office here in the senate in 1999. served for to terms. as i'm sure remembered by everybody that served with him as smart, kind, principled, hard-working, straight talking. he was i think everything that an elected official should be and could be. he and i went to ohio state toge