mr. coburn, good morning. >> good morning. >> we just heard a little bit of the comments you made after the race, we heard them from kristen. a lot of talk about specifically you calling some of the other owners cowards for only racing their horses in this race. do you stand by those comments this morning? >> sure. >> why is it that you feel they're cowards? >> well, because you know what? there was only three horses in this race that had run in all three. there was california chrome, general a-rod, and ride on curlin. the other horses hadn't competed in the other two races. so you keep these horses out of the game. and then you bring one in to upset the apple cart when they haven't raced in the derby or the preakness. so when you nominate your horse for the triple crown, that means three. not one out of three, but three. so that's what i meant by it. it's a coward's shot at people or horses. because they don't have the -- they don't want to see a triple crown winner. because they get to have their horse in the other two races. >> there has been -- >> i hope you can hear me. >> we definitel

mr. coburn was mad because the other horses got a break, to be away for six weeks and freshening up from their last race, you know what i mean? he says, well, if you want to run in the triple crown, you should run in all races like the rest of us. >> reporter: sherman indicated perhaps there would be a press release, maybe an apology from coburn. no indication of that, christi and victor, so far. horse racing needs a little controversy. you can say it's nothing bad right now for the industry because there's so much disappointment about california chrome. i heard you say, victor, we thought this would be the horse. i've seen seven other horses fail at the belmont in the last 17 years. it's amazing. >> there are people with the nose strips, the nasal strips that california chrome -- they were hoping for it. richard, thank you so much. >> thanks, richard. >>> new this morning, we're getting new developments, and they're pretty dramatic. details about sergeant bowe bergdahl and his family. >> first of all, an fbi special agent tells cnn the bureau is looking into threats made against bergdah

what's interesting is mrs. coburn tried to tell mr. coburn to stop talking and he told her too.he man was upset. >> and when you're upset -- >> -- you kind of lose it. >>> this morning hershey is sueing a chocolate company who makes marijuana candy. they say the pot products like so much like almond joys and reese's peanut buttercups, that it could confuse little kids. they're sold in marijuana dispensarie dispensaries. >>> the teen romance "the fault in our stars" had a $48 million weekend. "mall ef sent" fell to second place. they both beam the blockbuster, tom cruise's "edge of tomorrow." they're suddenly talking girl power. >> reporter: usually it's the high-flying action films with big-time movie stars taking charge at the summer bach office, but not this weekend. "the fault in our stars" featuring shailene woodley tells the story of two teenagers who meet at a cancer support group. the low profile film with its estimated $12 million budget steam rolled two of the season's blockbusters. "edge of tomorrow" and the latest installment of "x-men". >> there's a new one at the bo

mr. coburn led up to what that represents in his comments. >> oh, boy. comments just stay with the moment because it's not enough to change the landscaping of racing. it will always be the case that if you want your horse to run in the preakness or belmont or kentucky derby and the horse qualifies, it's likely to be in that race and doesn't necessarily have to be with the achievement or goal of a triple crown. that's really what he's saying. you're either for the cripple crown or you have no place in any one of the three races. >> well, nick zito had an interesting comment this morning. there used to be a trip kell crown bonus for a horse who would run all three legs and, for that matter, he was saying that perhaps they could put in a system where a horse wins two of the three legs gets a bonus. they could do that. but why change this? it's a difficult task to win all three. >> yeah. it's why it's so phenomenal. maybe that's why it's been 36 years, right? it's not easy. >> that's right. absolutely. and why embarrass the horse and a classy man like mr. sh

mr. coburn, we appreciate you being with us this morning. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> we brought on carolyn manno who covers horse racing for nbc sports. good morning. >> good morning. >> you heard that interview. i think we get the idea that the fresher horse might have a better chance. is that something new to the sport or is that something we deal with every year? >> we've been dealing with it for generations. what we saw in the '70s was that horses used to run a lot more often than they do. you would see more horses run at the derby, in the preakness and then come to the belmont. lately, it has been that some horses will skip the preakness. in speaking with our racing analyst last night after steve cobu coburn's comments, the problem with the comments are three-fold. one was the timing. it was really poor sportsmanship after the belmont when all was said and done to come back around and start talking about the derby and the preakness p. the other was calling somebody a coward. that's probably not the right word choice. the

mr. coburn.think the leg injury that we're hearing actually played in the disappointing finish yesterday? >> he got a quarter tear. the horse to the outside stepped on him coming out of the gate. he got a quarter tear, he'll be all right. he'll heal up and he'll come back. and i just want america to know, this is still america's horse, he's the only horse that ran in the triple crown, that won six races in a row. no other horses did. >> steve, i apologize again for interrupting you. we're out of time sadly, thank you for joining us. that's steve coburn at the center of a controversy this morning after his horse failed to win at the belmont stakes. the triple crown last night. we thank you again for joining us. we'll be right back, right here on "good morning america," with pop news and sara haines, after a quick break. after a quick break. to our muscles are nerveshat cod that send messages through the body. my doctor diagnosed it as fibromyalgia thought to be the result of overactive nerves that

mr. coburn is done. i'm in a part of the border where there's a lot going on and we've got 20 people i'm tracking across the border and trying to catch up with them and working well beyond my shift. maybe work an extra four hours to track them down and hold them until somebody can come and relieve me. mr. tester is actually going the other way, down across the border to try to apprehend somebody that slipped across the border and he used an extra two or three hours. i think most people who are familiar with overtime issues know that people work similar jobs, they have to work as long every day. so, common sense, my dad always said, use common sense. they would say somebody is working, dr. coburn over here is working an extra four hours to track down and hold 20 people or i am and he's not, whatever, why not just pay people along those lines? i think i know the answer. i would like to hear you say it anyway. >> if you would, i would like to take that question. >> in fact, i want each of you to. >> if you

mr. coburn, you might to want apologize.give this apology -- >> you know, i feel a little bad for him because i think he reacted. i think he was very bitter about it. he took it very personally and he just had that initial reaction where he was angry and then i think he went home and realized, do you know what? i really sound like a sore loser. >> or checked his voicemail. >> made it hard for the winners to enjoy the moment. but with that, i agree it wasn't terribly convincing, the tone. >> so if we want to put the blame on the media defense, which a lot of people like to say, you stuck a guy in the mike's face, let's consider this. that was saturday. this was sunday. he then said that running a rested horse against been in the first two legs of the triple crown is like running or playing a 6' 2" basketball player against a kid in a wheelchair. wow. >> i know the rangers were complaining about interference on the ice in the third period against the kings. a lot of people complaining about lebron james, no air conditioning. t

mr. coburn had a dream before the horse was born that he was going to have a horse born that had four whitend so i think there's a, you know, a back story on this horse that, you know, maybe this was meant to happen. i'm confident that he's the kind of horse that can do it. liz: let's talk about the business of horse racing. the sport, by some people's estimates, really needs to be supercharged because it's an expensive sport, and people haven't had a reason to cheer. now they do. talk about the finances and the business of horse racing at the moment. >> well, i think we've seen some really positive signs recently. like a lot of other businesses, the economic crisis of 2008, 2009 took it toll on horse racing and particularly on the breeding side of the business because, as you said, luxury activities tended to have a bit more negative impact than many other things did during that crisis, so we saw some declines in stallion fees and the number of mays being -- mares being bred, but there was a positive side to that, too, because for a z affordable. they could find good value. liz: 10-12,000?

mr. coburn and members of the committee i look forward to answers questions. >> okay. please proceed. >> chairman carper, ranking member coburn, senator tester. on behalf of the 1600 border patrol agents who i represent i'd like to thank you for having this hearing today to discuss s-1691. i'ds especially like to thank senator tester and if senator mccain were here, rooid like to thank them. instead of reading a prepared taillight that i gave you last thursday, i'd like to speak with you. i'm looking forward to answering more your questions than giving you a prepared state that you already have. but there are a couple of key issues that i'd like to point out. the first issue is we are no longer dealing with mom and pop smuggling organizations on the border. we are dealing with sophisticated criminal cartels. they control all traffic that is happening that comes into the united states and that goes into mexico. they also control the illegal activity that happens on the northern border and on the coastal border. approximately, a years ago, all boater patrol agents were no

mr. coburn is done. i'm in a part of the border i where there's a lot going on, ae and we have maybe 20 people that i'm tracking across the border a and trying to catch up with. i'm working well beyond my shift, maybe working an extra four hours to track them down and hold them until somebody can come and relieve me. and mr. tester is actually going the other way down into -- across the border and trying to apprehend somebody who slipped sock across the border, and he boes up an extra two or three hours. why -- i think most people who a are familiar with overtime issues know that people work in similar kinds of jobs don't bs always have to work as long every day. so common sense -- my dad used to say, just use some common sense. i think somebody using some ones common sense would say somebodys is working -- dr. coburn over here -- officer coburn over here is working extra four hours to track down and hold 20 people, or i am and he's not, whatever, why don't we just pay people along those lines? i think i

mr. coburn is done. i'm in a part of the border where there's a lot going on, and we have maybe 20 people i'm tracking across the border and trying to catch up with. i'm working well beyond my shift, maybe work an extra four hours to track them down and hold them until somebody can come and relieve me. mr. tester is going the other way down into -- across the border and trying to apprehend somebody who slipped back across the border, and he uses up an extra two or three hours. why -- i think most people who are familiar with overtime issues know that people work in similar kinds of jobs don't always have to work as long every day. so common sense, my dad used to say, just use some common sense. i think somebody using some common sense would say somebody is working -- dr. coburn over here -- officer coburn over here is working extra four hours to track down and hold 20 people or i am and he's not, whatever, why don't we just pay people along those lines? i think i know the answer, but i'd like to hear you

mr. coburn: i want to thank my colleague from wyoming for allowing me to jump in here for about five minutes. this became an issue as we faced the greatest recession that we have ever had, and at the same time we had g.a.o. looking at how we're spending our money. and for just a little history so everybody will know, when g.a.o. did their first report, we had 47 separate job training programs run by nine different agencies, and that year that they looked at, we spent $18.5 billion. what we found is only two of them had metrics on them, and we weren't even paying attention to the metric to use them. i would applaud the work of the help committee, senator enzi, senator isakson, senator alexander, senator murray and senator harkin for bringing a bill to the floor. it is an improvement over what we're doing. but i want to offer a couple of points that i think the american people ought to know. we're not going near far enough. not anywhere close to where we need to go. the skills coming out of the house markedly changed job training in this country. now, this is a big modification to the skills a

mr. judd and senator coburn has already said he doesn't want to reduce pay and i believe both of you. the question becomes i'm very concerned about retention and recruitment and mr. judd give me your take on how this will be accepted versus completely redoing the system and not giving the kind of addicted billy that i think this bill does. >> senator is very simple. back in 1997 when i pursued a career with a the border patrol i was in the process of two local law enforcement agencies. these local law enforcement agencies were in very desirable locations in which to live. the only reason that i took the border patrol job was because with the auo it was more money. i moved to a frankly a less desirable location to live but i did that because i was making more money and over the long-term and with retirement it would have been better for me. if you get rid of this 25% you will not be able to recruit quality individuals into this job. >> i appreciate that. i would just like to make one real quick statement that deals with making the floor the cap that senator coburn had talked about. and

coburn? >> thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate having the opportunity to serve with each of you on this conference committee. i'm finishing my 16th year in congress, and i've seen this story before. and michal leng to ea-- my chal each of us is to fix the symptoms. i want to share with you a couple statistics from the president's 2015 budget submission. current estimate for

coburn? >> thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate having the opportunity to serve with each of you on this conference committee. i'm finishing my 16th year in congress, and i've seen this story before. and michal leng to ea-- my chal each of us is to fix the symptoms. i want to share with you a couple statistics from the president's 2015 budget submission. current estimate for spashpaties 16,500, 12,000 nurses and pas. the figure is out to 287 unique visitors per provider per year. think about that. double it. say it's 500. the average private care physician this country sees, five times that. so when i hear that we need more providers and more money, i just go nuts. because what we need is exactly what you said, representative coffman, we need leadership. and we need what the ranking member from the house said. we need the ability to control those that manage. and if you don't fix the real problems, you'll be back here again and the commitment to our veterans will be wasted, and the most important thing is we will have wa

mr. chairman. >> i'm going to slip out, run and vote and then come back and so dr. coburn can go back and forth. i want to telegraph my pitch, when i come back, i'll be interested in asking so you can be thinking about them are how do we measure success. i want to see if there's consensus on how we measure success. and if there's some consensus around common metrics, then how are we doing. what are we doing especially well, what are we not doing so well. and finally i always like to ask what can we do to help, all right? dr. coburn, thank you, all. >> thank you. have fun voting. let's keep talking about twic for a minute. we hit -- i'd just like your assessment on somebody with a twic card that gets into a port and shoots people. how's that happen? no system is perfect and i'm not laying blame. i'm just saying how did we miss that? >> at the time that individual was vetted, senator, the standard for manslaughter included all manslaughter, voluntary and involuntary. so when the individual came through, the crime had been committed in 2005. the conviction occurred in 2008. i

coburn. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: let me just thank senator mccain for his very hard and bold work on this issue. he stood up and came forward when we needed somebody to do so and i think we've made real progress in a bipartisan way. as senator mccain just said, and i agree with him, if this is not an emergency, i'm not quite clear what an emergency is. mr. president, during the last four years, some two million new veterans have come into the v.a. system, many of them have come in with very difficult medical problems, ptsd, p.t.i., we have an aging veteran population, taking care of older people is complex and expensive. and the simple truth is that in many parts of this country -- not all parts, i suspect but in a number of places in this country we simply do not have the number of doctors, nurses and other medical staff we need to accommodate the needs of our veterans. i have been told, unofficially, at least, that at the very minimal there is a need for 700 new physicians in the v.a., and i'm told that th

mr. chairman. >> i'm going to slip out of boat and then come back dr. coburn and i can go back and forth. among the questions i'll be interested in asking about how do we measure success. i want to see if there's an consensus on how you measure success and miss their consent consensus around, and tricks and how are we doing? what are we doing especially well? what are we not doing so well? finally i always like to ask what can we do to help? dr. coburn, thank you. >> thank you. have fun voting. let's keep talking about twic for a moment. i dislike your assessment on somebody with a twic card ticket into a port and shoots people. how does that happen? no system is perfect. i am just saying how did we miss that? >> at the time the individual was guided, senator, the standard for manslaughter includes all means water, voluntary and in voluntary. so when the individual came through, the crime had been committed in 2005. the conviction occurred in 2000 name. i believe you served about 800 days on his convention yagi served about two and half years. he was released

mr. chairman. >> i'm going to slip out run and vote and then come back and so dr. coburn can go back and forth. when i come back, i'll be interested in asking so you can be thinking about them are how do we measure success. i want to see if there's consensus on how we measure success. and if there's some consensus around common metrics, then how are we doing. what are we doing especially well what are we not doing so well. and finally i always like to ask what can we do to help, all right? dr. coburn, thank you, all. >> thank you. have fun voting. let's keep talking about twic for a minute. we hit -- i'd just like your assessment on somebody with a twic card that gets into a port and shoots people. how's that happen? no system is perfect and i'm not laying blame. i'm just saying how did we miss that? >> at the time that individual was vetted senator the standard for manslaughter included all manslaughter, voluntary and involuntary. so when the individual came through, the crime had been committed in 2005. the conviction occurred in 2008. i believe he served about 800 days

mr. chairman. i ask of you and the committee is for a continued dialogue. i shared this with ranking member coburn before he stepped out. a continued dialogue about the types of data and the types of measures that would give you the confidence, give the american people the confidence we are investing the grant dollars in a way that is most efficient and most effective and that we're all good stewards of these resources. i agree with admiral thomas. the threat is evolving. so, too, have our measurement of, you know, where we're headed next. so i would appreciate a continued dialogue with you about how we define the measures of success that give you the confidence we're looking for. >> thanks. something for our to do list. >> i think it's continued support and helping us, you know, get from tsa's point of view and the coast guard's point of view. understanding that the coast guard is promulgating the rule. there's a lot of things that had to happen before they get to the point they can do it. when i say we need the readers, that's not in any way insinua insinuating there's a delay on the rule side.

mr. chairman. >> i'm going to slip out, run and vote and then come back and so dr. coburn can go back and forth. when i come back, i'll be interested in asking so you can be thinking about them are how do we measure success. i want to see if there's consensus on how we measure success. and if there's some consensus around common metrics, then how are we doing. what are we doing especially well, what are we not doing so well. and finally i always like to ask what can we do to help, all right? dr. coburn, thank you, all. >> thank you. have fun voting. let's keep talking about twic for a minute. we hit -- i'd just like your assessment on somebody with a twic card that gets into a port and shoots people. how's that happen? no system is perfect and i'm not laying blame. i'm just saying how did we miss that? >> at the time that individual was vetted, senator, the standard for manslaughter included all manslaughter, voluntary and involuntary. so when the individual came through, the crime had been committed in 2005. the conviction occurred in 2008. i believe he served about 800 d

mr. chairman, i whether ask you when will there be a markup on this bill? >> i'm going to cone 49fer with coburn -- >> later this week we should have a markup. >> let me make it very, very clear. this is not something we should screw around with. we've got people out here watching us on cspan now wanting to know what we're going to do. we've got folks who work for cbp that like their job, are proud of their job, and that if we don't set some certainty down for these folks, they're going to go to work somewhere else. we need to fix it so it can be audited, so that we know what we're doing and so that these folks have some predictability. we can put it off to the end of the month, but keep in mind, the longer we put this off, we have to get it off the senate floor, we've got to see if the house can get it done and then we need to get it implemented and time is awaiting. we have 11 weeks left. >> i think, senator tester, you know there's been a lot of discussion about whether or not this bill saves as much money as we're told it might, there might be available to serve as an offset to strengthen ou

coburn just to thank him for insisting that we have this hearing and make this a priority. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, welcome to all of you. this is an interesting area for us to be talking about. sitting on the intelligence committee, our threats are greater, not less, in terms of risk. and getting it right is important. one of the commitments i made to congresswoman janice hahn from l.a., she has the l.a. port, which is our busiest and biggest and probably greatest vulnerability in terms of port that we would have this hearing and do the oversight that's necessary to try to improve what we're doing. so, mr. chairman, i'd like unanimous consent to put her testimony in the record she -- the house is out this week, and we wouldn't have scheduled that this hearing at this time had we known that. but we did. and i'm happy that we're having the hearing so i'd ask unanimous consent to have her testimony included in the record. i'd also note that the house has passed the legislation that the senate hadn't even taken up or considered the gaps act, and what we need to do is address t

coburn republican from almost -- oklahoma and a i thank my colleague. i served as a ranking member of the budget committee and have worked with mrs. burwell as, just 13 months, i think, she served in the tremendously important position of director of office of management and budget. i do not believe that she is the, has the background, the qualities and experience proven managerial leadership required at that huge department of health and human services. she has 500 people working in the budget office, and that's an important office. over 70,000. she once served on a board of a local hospital. she just simply is not the person that we need today to bring order out of a disarray that we have in the health care system of this country and the total collapse of integrity and consistency in the implementation of obamacare. and there are a couple of things that i care about, but i really think that it's time for this administration to stop moving around insiders, political allies and put some people in

mr. coburn: i want to thank the chairman of the veterans' committee for working with senator mccain to get a bill. i support senator sessions and the budget points of order on this bill, and i take exception to some of the statements of my colleague from vermont. if you -- as was reported yesterday, if you look at the patient list for many of the primary care doctors in the v.a., they're half of what the average practicing physician outside of the v.a. is. and when you drill dune o down n those, many of them have patients that have been deceased for years. about 10% to 15% of their patient list has never been to the v.a. or came once. aso what you actually see -- and so what you actually see is the patient load is two and a half times what it is in the v.a. i have no doubt we need to increase the number of physicians in the v.a. but we also need to markedly increase the amount of output that those physicians perform. the other thing that's important in this bill is the transparency that i don't believe has been mentioned that will actually allow veterans to know the quality outcome of wher

mr. leahy: madam president, next month colonel michael coburn, who's the director of the u.s. marine band, retired after nearly 30 years with a history rich in perio federated organiz. we like the marine band, of course. his son is a marine. but it's especially nice here because colonel coburn is a native vermonter. and his appreciation for the band known world wide as "the president's own," began decadessindecadesago with the td you're phony yum playing st. alban's native -- uphonium playing st. alban's native at a band camp in vermont. in 1937, colonel coburn joined "the president's own" as a uphonium player. he then ultimately became the band's director, a post he's held for the last decade. now, his tenure has taken him around the world and back again. he's played for presidents and foreign dignitaries, at state dinners and inaugurations and regular performances that thousands have witnessed here in washingtonal 8th and i, at the marine barracks during their weekly -- washington at 8th and i at the marine barracks during their weekly parade. i've veptd the stat represented

rockefeller, murray, brown, tester, begich, blumenthal, hirono, burr, isakson, johanns, mccain, coburn and rubio. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be terminated. officer without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to a period of morning business, senators allowed to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent we now proceed as a body to calendar number 352. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 352, s. 1237, a bill to improve the administration of programs in the insular areas and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered, the murkowski amendment be agreed to, the substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be

mr. wyden: madam president, sylvia matthews burwell was introduced at the finance committee by the senator from oklahoma, tom coburn, and the senior senator from west virginia, jay rockefeller, and the reason she has this extraordinary bipartisan support is after years of divisive and polarizing discussion about the affordable care act, sylvia matthews burwell is somebody who can bring people together. she will bring democrats and republicans together to improve the quality of our health care, the affordability of our health care, and i strongly urge all senators to vote for sylvia matthews burwell, and i yield back. the presiding officer: without objection. all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close the debate sylvia burwell to be -- signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of sylvia mathews burwell of west virginia to be secret