mr. coburn: mr. president, i would inquire of the senator from wisconsin how much time she is going to take and need? the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: senator, less than ten minutes. mr. coburn: i would prefer that she go ahead and i will do all mine in consequence, if i may. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wiz. ms. baldwin: mr. president, before i begin, i ask unanimous consent that a military fellow in senator murray's office, lark cuts in pensions o'hern, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 113th congress. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. ms. baldwin: thank you, mr. president, and i thank the senator from oklahoma for his courtesy. i am delighted to rise today to mark the passage of the fiscal year 2015 national defense authorization act. this bill is a product of bipartisan negotiations between the house and senate armed services committees, and i than

mr. coburn: following the tradition of the senate, i come to the floor -- i would ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: following the tradition of the senate, i come to the floor to speak about my experiences in the senate. unfortunately, this won't be the last time i speak, many to many of -- much to many of your chagrin as i have some adamant opposition to some of the things that we're doing, but i nevertheless will try to put in context system of my feelings and thoughts about the great privilege that has been granted to me by the people of oklahoma. we hear -- we hear a lot of speeches in this place, and as members who are elected, it gets reflected on us, but nothing could be further from the truth, because the thing that really makes this place operate is the people that work with us, the people that support us, the people that help guide us. the presiding officer: would you please take your conversations outside. the senate will come to order. mr. coburn: the people behind the scenes who are both brilliant and committed and de

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: i'm coming to the floor, i'll consume what i'm out of -- if i may out of our remaining time, i hope to not use it all. but i come to the floor to talk about an issue that should be very important to every american. in less than 20 months, the social security disability system will be bankrupt. out of money. and that may sound like just a scare tactic, but that's what the trust fund trustees say. and we've known this for some time, and my colleague and myself, carl levin, who he is chairman of the permanent subcommittee on investigations and myself as ranking, spent a great deal of time oversighting social security disability and we issued a report that had some pretty remarkable findings in it and i thought i'd go through some of those findings today because i have two major concerns. someone that those people with true disabilities are going to see in 18 months a 20% cut in what they get paid each month, and they're barely surviving on the disability payments we give them toda

mr. coburn: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. coburn: i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: objection is heard. quorum call: quorum call:

mr. coburn: mr. president, a lot has been said about saxby already, but i have an observation that i've noticed over the last ten years since i've been here, and it's about leadership. we see elected leadership on both sides, but then you see real leadership. you see the person that people go to for advice. you see the person that people go to for counsel. you see the person that people go to for wisdom and judgment. that's what i've noticed the last ten years. more than anybody in this body, whether it's from the other side of the aisle or this side of the aisle, the person that -- whose counsel is most sought is that of saxby chambliss. that's earned real leadership, and it needs to be recognized and honored for what it is, because p what i what it says is leadership that comes without judgment on the person that's asking the question, what's condemnation of a opinion that may be different of his. it is giving of himself to the benefit of the rest of us. here, here, my friend from georgia. i yield

coburn. i yield the floor. >> mr. president. >> the senator from indiana. >> mr. resident, i have been sitting here listening to the people and the motion of the service of tom coburn. i second everything that has been said about tom. tom has conviction that i wish i had more of. commitment that i wish i had more of, and he exhibits the courage that i wish i had more of, and i remember a dear friend, chuck, made this statement. he said, lord, show me the kind of person you would like me to and give me the strength to be that person, and i feel like god has given a gift to the senate, certainly a gift to me, by simply saying take a look at tom coburn. qualities he exhibits. look at his commitment to faith. is a pretty good model to follow. thank you, tom. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up on the next schor,ton journal, elana and how the u.s. treats soldiers with ptsd, and we will take your calls

mr. coburn: mr. president, a lot has been said about saxby already, but i have an observation that i've noticed over the last ten years since i've been here, and it's about leadership. we see elected leadership on both sides, but then you see real leadership. you see the person that people go to for advice. you see the person that people go to for counsel. you see the person that people go to for wisdom and judgment. that's what i've noticed the last ten years. more than anybody in this body, whether it's from the other side of the aisle or this side of the aisle, the person that -- whose counsel is most sought is that of saxby chambliss. that's earned real leadership, and it needs to be recognized and honored for what it is, because p what i what it says is leadership that comes without judgment on the person that's asking the question, what's condemnation of a opinion that may be different of his. it is giving of himself to the benefit of the rest of us. here, here, my friend from georgia. i yield

mr. coburn, and the senator from nevada, mr. reid, and with 30 minutes each for the senators from alaska, ms. murkowski, and the senator from oklahoma, mr. inhofe, or their designees. mr. inhofe: thank you, mr. president. and before the senator from iowa leaves, let me just make one comment, and that is, i look at him and all of those who are saying nice things about the senator from iowa -- now, see, i'm from iowa, so i can say this. you got to remember that, senator harkin. that even conservatives can love tom harkin. i think it is important that people need to understand that. i have to say, mr. president, that i have been to, i think, at least 10 of the air shows and spending 90% of my time, my wife and his wife and the four of us together because we're both pilots. you sit around and talk about airpts. yo-- you sit around and talk abt airplanes. there is one thing i want to say to senator sanders. the two of you are two of my favorite in-the-heart liberals because you're not ashamed of it. you stand up -- exactly what senat

mr. sessions: i would like too share some remarks about our colleague that's departing the senate, tom coburn, and ask that my remarks be arranged in the record so that they're associated with other remarks upon his departure. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: mr. president, tom coburn is one of the more remarkable senators, i think, that has served in this body, certainly during the time i've been here. a man of absolute courage, conviction, dedication to making this country better. he didn't come here to go through the job, go through the motions. he came to invest his great skills, his great intellectual ability to pour his drive and effort into making america a better place. it's very special, really. it's unusual. i've not seen anything like it as i said, since i've been here. i've always had great reluctance to disagree or oppose anything tom offered. they always weren't perfect, but basically i opposed them so seldom because i agreed with him, time and time and time again, and i hated always to vote "no" because i knew he had studied the issue, the understood it a

coburn. i yield the floor. >> mr. president. >> the senator from indiana. >> mr. resident, i have been sitting here listening to the respect and the emotion of people recognizing the service of tom coburn, and i don't have a prepared speech. i second everything that has been said about tom. and i -- my emotions well up in me when i think about tom tom exhibits the conviction that i wish i had more of. tom exhibits the commitment that i wish i had more of and exhibits the courage that i wish i had more of. and i remember my dear friend chuck colson made a statement and said, lord, show me the kind of person you would like me to be and give me the strength to be that person. and i feel like god has given a gift to the senate, certainly a gift to me by simply saying, take a look at tom coburn. look at those qualities that he exhibits, his commitment to face. he he is a pretty good model. thank you. >> sen. coburn is a practicing physician specializing in family medicine and obstetrics. his see will be filled in the 114th congress by representative james langford who w

i cherish my friendship with tom coburn and i always, always will. mr. president, the senate will be a poorer place without tom coburn to set an example of public service for the rest of us, but in gratitude to him for his leadership and friendship, i will try a little harder to live up to his standards, and i hope he will let me know when "q&a" with the author of tom cole.com. and then do, and -- david cameron taking questions at the parliament. and then another chance to see the european union discussion of the senate report. moral, national institute of health director talks about the challenges facing cancer researchers. he described an environment of unprecedented innovation paragon shipping federal resources. with shrinking federal resources. >> it is amazing to see the insights. they are coming out of also its of technologies we did not have before. the things we can do with imaging are phenomenal and getting better. the whole genomics revolution, giving us insight in how cells work and how things go wrong. the efforts to understand the details of

i cherish my friendship with tom coburn and i always, always will. mr. president, the senate will be a poorer place without tom coburn to set an example of public service for the rest of us, but in gratitude to him for his leadership and friendship, i will try a little harder to live up to his standards, and i hope he will let me know when i fall short. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: ms. stabenow: mr. president, i would ask suspension of the quorum call. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan is recognized. without objection the quorum call is waived. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, there was an opportunity this session to work together in a bipartisan way to provide certainty around the tax code for families and farmers and businesses, at least for 2014 and 2015. there may still be a small window of opportunity to get things done. i certainly support doing that if we can. but i want to speak to the importance of having some certainty at l

mr. president, i came down to do my farewell remarks, i'll just say one comment if i can about senator coburn before i can if i do that, and that is, you know, he is absolutely what many people said here about his word. just yesterday was an example of getting something resolved, so i wish him the best, and as all people, there's always other activity after the senate, and i wish him the best. mr. president, thank you for providing me this body a few minutes to discuss my six years serving in this body. it has been a true honor, true honor to serve with you in the short time that you were here, and to all my colleagues. but an even bigger honor to serve alaskan, my fellow alaskans. alaska is a huge state, 660,000 square miles, more than to my friends from texas and california, please don't take this personally, but more than double and triple the size of states like texas and california. alaska's a very small place in many ways. people make personal connections with their elected official. at the end of the day, we pretty much know everybody one way or another. alaskans more than likely will

mr. president, i rise to just thank my friend, saxby chambliss. senator coburn spoke about leadership and we are very much going to miss senator coburn, senator johanns, and their leadership in this body. but what he said is very true. as someone who has only served here for four years, one of the people that has been most and really ame mentor and a role model and someone who i have sought guidance from is saxby chambliss. body and yout this look at people that you can emulate as role models, i think that saxby chambliss is one of those role models. not only is he incredibly knowledgeable on the issues that are so important to this nation -- and i can say, having served with him on the armed services committee, he is one of the most knowledgeable people in this country, not only on what we need to do to keep the country safe because of his role on the intelligence committee, but also what we need to ensure that our men and women in uniform have the very best to keep our country safe. understandingep and very much love as our men and women in uniform and has sto

mr. president, i'd like to close my remarks today on our retiring colleagues by paying tribute to dr. tom coburn, someone who for the last 20 years we've all come to know and admire as a relentless fighter for limited government and conservative values here in the united states congress. now, tom can be a very charming guy but i know he can be a pain in -- a pain in our side, too, when he is determined to make sure that he gets a chance to get a vote on an important matter here in the united states senate. and i think he's comfortable in both of those roles. i know he is. tom coburn is a man of strong principle, a man of great integrity, and perhaps just as importantly, a man of remarkable humility. our country has benefited greatly from the wisdom and leadership that tom has provided during his service in congress. first in the house and then in the senate. i've been in the senate now for a little more than a decade, and during that time our colleague from oklahoma has done more than anyone else in this chamber to eliminate wasteful spending, expose fraud and abuse in the federal budget and get

mrs. boxer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute be considered, the carper-coburn amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the committee substitute as amended be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and the senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill as amended. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. if there's no further debate, the question is on the bill, as amended. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. and the bill, as amended, is passed. mrs. boxer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made, laid onthe upot table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the homeland security and governmental affairs committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 2952 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 2952, an act to amend the homeland secu

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 aplenty. however, our current secretary, secretary jeh johnson, our deputy secretary, their leadership team have m

mr. president, for the last time, i yield the floor. [ applause ] >> and back now with the roundtable. want to start with you, speaker gingrich, you have been there >> it's always deeply personal and always emotional. senator coburni'm glad that he's going to stay active in public life. when you have been there, in the middle of it, it's a different experience than almost anything else you have ever do. >> when you look back on this past session. >> you know, harkin is somebody i think who's always been there for the fight for the average person. just looking out for them and i think all of the speeches were moving. but his was particularly moving for me. >> senator coburn and bachmann, truth telling on the budget something that we haven't seen in recent days. they deserve a lot of credit for standing up against the establishment. >> mike rogers is a good guy -- >> for him wanting to become a talk radio host speaks to the outside power and influence of talk radio hosts. >> talking about that as well. thanks to all of you, back in just a minute with our "sunday season, our unda >>> now, in this holiday season, our "sunday spotlight." the growing phenomenon of the pilgrimage. it's a fascinating new trend in faith.

mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: roll call is in progress. mr. coburn: okay. the president pro tempore: the senate will be in order. senators who wish to vote? if not, on this the motion to recovery the house message to h.r. 3979 to the committee on armed services with instructions, the yeas are 18, the nays are 82. the motion fails. mr. coburn: mr. president? the president pro tempore: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: mr. president, i'd ask for -- the president pro tempore: the senate will be in order. the senate is not in order. the senator has a right to be heard. the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: mr. president, i move to suspend rule 22 for the purposes of proposing and considering amendment number 4098, and i ask for the yeas and nays. the president pro tempore: pursuant to the precedent set by the senate on october 6, 2011, such a motion is dilatory postcloture. it is not in order. the senate will be in order. we cannot proceed and will not proceed until the senate i

mr. coburn: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: i would like to first of all thank senator schumer for trying to work with me on this bill and the members of the banking committee. they have known my objections all along on both the narab and the options that we had offered. we had offered this evening to the house three options under which they could enroll to come back to where the senate had been in terms of a two-year sunset position. they disagreed with that. and the other things that we had offered, which is taking narab completely out of this bill, which is -- doesn't have anything to do with the tourism risk insurance bill, or to give a state opt-out so that the states that don't want to be a part of the narab provision wouldn't be there. we have not been able to find agreement on that despite the best efforts of a lot of people here this evening, and with th that, i would ask the senator if he would agree to amend his request to strike the narab provision from the bill? mr. reid: mr. president, reserving -- the pres

mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. coburn: and i ask unanimous consent to speak for at least five minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: first of all, i'd like to spend a few minutes just talking about my colleague and chairman of the homeland security and the government affairs committee. the last two years has been a real pleasure on my part and grown to have a great friendship with the chairman of the committee. and i can truly say in our committee, we have done a lot of great work. we've both compromised on a lot of issues to try to move the country forward, and to him i am thankful for that. and i don't think either of us have had to break on any principles that we had to be able to do that. i think it's been a model -- our committee's been a model in terms of doing bipartisan bills and bipartisan approval of nominees. and for him, i would just say i appreciate his leadership this past year. he has the unfortunate attribute o

mr. coburn: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: mr. president, first of all let me say that i recognize the honor of the senator from connecticut for his service in our military. i didn't serve in our military. i actually was in college during the vietnam war. i drew 354 on the lottery the week before i was to be drafted. i had two brothers that served, not in vietnam but served in the military. my father and both uncles served during warmed, during world war ii, my grandfather earned the croix degu eerre during world war i. i would also state as a physician i know suicide all too well. i have failed patients in the past doing everything i knew to do but they still took their lives. i've also experienced it personally in my own family. i know this issue. and i also know what we did three and a half months ago. we passed the veterans choice act, of which i ultimately voted against because it didn't do what we promised the veterans we would do. to this date, secretary mcdonald has fired one person out of hundreds that should h

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

mr. president, we all heard a very moving, inspirational and motivational speech from our friend tom coburn. in 1994 there were a bunch of folks that got elected to the u.s. house of representatives and republicans took majority for the first time in 42 years and ran on