mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you mr. president. we're in morning business, as i understand? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. there's five and a half minutes remaining. mr. durbin: thank you, very much. it's been 165 days, five and a half months, since the nomination of loretta lynch to be attorney general has been announced. she has been pending on the senate executive calendar for nearly two months. she was reported out of the senate judiciary committee on a bipartisan vote, nine democrats three republicans on february 26. this is a new record, sadly in terms of delay in a appointing an attorney general. the last seven nominees to be attorney general of the united states combined -- combined -- waited on the senate floor 24 months. pardon me, 24 days. seven nominees, 24 days. sadly ms. lynch has now been waiting over 50 days. why? what is it about this nominee that causes so

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, how much time is remaining on the democratic side? the presiding officer: 20 minutes. mr. durbin: thank you. i'll be very brief because i see my colleague from connecticut here. and let me say at the outset in the most positive way, i want to thank senator cornyn and senator klobuchar of minnesota for their bipartisan effort to bring this issue to the floor and to the senate judiciary committee. had a hearing in a subcommittee on this subject and it was heartbreaking to here about the exploitation of these young women at such a tender age. unspeakable things were happening to them. sadly, in many states when they were -- finally came into the custody of law enforcement, some of them, some of the children, these young girls were being charged as criminals until it was clear that they had been enslaved and they had been exploited for so many years. so the thinking on the subject is moving in the right direction and the suggestions of senator cornyn and senator klobuchar are a

mr. durbin: mr. president? mr. leahy: would the senator yield for a moment? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i ask consent that -- to set aside the pending amendment to call up amendment 290. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: the snr from vermont, mr. leahy foyer himself and proposes amendment number 290. mr. leahy: i ask that further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president i want to speak briefly in support of the remarks of the senator from maine and the senator from vermont. the cornyn approach on runaway and homeless youth excludes language that would prohibit -- prohibit -- discrimination against the recipients of these services because of their sexual orientation. how can we have reached that point in the united states senate? haven't we engaged in a national debate that center

mr. durbin. the senator from washington, miss murray. the senator from maryland, mr. cardin. and the senator from hawaii -- the senator from hawaii, ms. hirono. the speaker: members of the escort committee will leave through the lobby doors. >> mr. speaker the acting dean of the diplomatic corps. >> mr. speaker, the president's cabinet. >> mr. speaker the prime minister of japan. the speaker: members of congress i have the high privilege and the distinct honor of presenting to you his excellency shinzo abe prime minister of japan. prime minister abe: mr. speaker, mr. vice president distinguished members of the senate and the house, distinct guests, ladies and gentlemen, back in june, 1957 my grandfather standing right here as prime minister of japan began his address by saying and i quote it is because of our strong belief in democratic principles and ideas that japan associates herself with a free nation of the world. prime minister abe: 50 years has passed. today i'm honored to stand here as the first japan prime minister ever to address your joint session. i extend my grat

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president last week on thursday, the evil forces of nature struck in fairdale illinois. since that moment of terrible loss two lives and many injuries terrible property destruction, we have seen the better angels of our nature come forward. this is an all-too-common picture in my part of the world in central illinois and down state illinois. devastation of a tornado of dramatic power and strength. two twisters, one of them a category ef-4 with wind speeds up to 200 miles an hour, tore through dekalb and another county and badly damaged the towns of fairdale and rochelle last thursday evening. the picture tells part of the story. the tornado's path where giant trees were uprooted, homes ripped from foundations and the damage is stunning. sadly, two women, neighbors who lived in fairdale, lost their lives in the event. geraldine schultz and her close are friend and neighbor, jacqueline closa fell victim to the tornado that struck their homes. the two friends were inseparable in life and

mr. durbin: thank you.senator carper, senator blumenthal and i have come to the floor to discussion discuss a terrible loophole in the federal law. it's a federal 90-10 rule that limits the revenue from the department of education title 4 for for-profit colleges that can receive 90% 90% of their revenue from the federal treasury. that -- the intent was to make sure for-profit colleges were not reliant on taxpayers for their operations, could survive without taxpayer colors colors. i think 90% is way too high to accomplish that goal. what's more the law doesn't count on title 4 programs as federal revenue when they calculate the 90%. the department of veterans' affairs post-9/11 g.i. bill and department of defense division tuition assistance and mica dollars are some of the biggest examples of those not counted in the calculation. it means some for-profit colleges get vastly more than 90% from the federal government. these are supposed to be private institutions in the private sector. no way. they -- if they

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the stance democratic leader. mr. durbin: it was 150 years ago today, 150 years ago today when the last what is called the last casualty of the civil war died. he was a man who was born in your home state of kentucky. grew up for a part of his life in indiana but spent his formative years in my state of illinois. he was a country lawyer an unlikely congressman who because of a political deal was given a chance to serve in the u.s. house of representatives. he served only two years brought his family here to washington for that experience. they lived just across the street in a boarding house where the live of -- library of congress now sits. his family didn't like washington in those days in the 1840's and returned back to his wife's home in kentucky. he stayed out here and served in congress and liked it, wanted to serve for a longer period of time but was reminded that that wasn't part of the agreement. only two years. so he left washington, went back to springfield illinois, practiced law but continued to aspire to

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president i came across an article in "the new york times" on sunday and it called my attention to the passing of an amazing man a man which had -- who has a connection to the united states senate. i rise today to pay my respect to a man of uncommon integrity dr. irwin schatz passed away on april 1 at 83. beloved and respected in the medical community dr. schatz spent his career helping people. he was a major contributor to the honolulu program a study on japanese american men in hawaii. dr. schatz was a rare critic of the tusk keyingy civil us supports experiment. the united states public health service conducted the clinical study on uneducated and poor african-american sharecroppers. they wanted to know about untreated syphilis on african-americans. 600 men were enrolled in the study. almost two-thirds h

mr. secretary. thank you. >> thank you. senator durbin? >> thank you. mr. secretary, good to see you again.thank you for coming by my office. let me echo the previous comments of the tiger program and my list of favorites, top favorites, the create program which means so much in our part of the world with so many railroads and a potential to expedite the movement of goods and alleviate some of the problems associated with rail traffic. core capacity means so much to us. there was a time when it was difficult to rest any funds out of the appropriation bill unless for, quote, new starts. i think we come to realize a lot of old starts are still of tremendous value and need to be upgraded and core capacity is part of that. mr. secretary last friday we had an anniversary celebration in chicago of the passage of the americans with disabilities act. 25 years, 25 years ago senator bob dole, tom harken, president george h.w. bush ended up making history and really liberating huge number of americans who were disabled from the bonds that the -- the binds -- the binding that they faced in being unseen

durbin. they came out and said just tell us what happened. mrs. clinton did not read between the lines and decided to be truthful to those requests. i think folks on both political parties understand there is a big issue here. we have gone over, but i want to leave some time for questions before we go. mark of "washington examiner" in front here. i think we have a microphone. we are going to take one of the microphones from here and if dad joe could share. reporter: i want to go to the meeting that clinton got at the outset. if i had to kennedy and that meeting, and i say to her, he used government e-mail and she says no i'm going to use my own, what are my legal responsibilities and obligations at that point to attempt to ensure, or at least to memorialize, what happened to that meeting? daniel: this is a civil matter so i will take it. tom: for the moment. [laughter] daniel: for the moment, right. i can only speak to comparison i what happened to the justice department every time that was a new attorney general. routinely, the sort of meeting wo

durbin. they came out and said just tell us what happened. mrs. clinton did not read between the lines and decided to be truthful to those requests. i think folks on both political parties understand there is a big issue here. we have gone over, but i want to leave some time for questions before we go. mark of "washington examiner" in front here. i think we have a microphone. we are going to take one of the microphones from here and if dad joe could share. reporter: i want to go to the meeting that clinton got at the outset. if i had to kennedy and that meeting, and i say to her, he used government e-mail and she says no i'm going to use my own what are my legal responsibilities and obligations at that point to attempt to ensure, or at least to memorialize, what happened to that meeting? daniel: this is a civil matter so i will take it. tom: for the moment. [laughter] daniel: for the moment, right. i can only speak to comparison i what happened to the justice department every time that was a new attorney general. routinely, the sort of meeting wou

been around the block people like senator feinstein and, i think even dick durbin came out and said just tell us what happened. mrston didn't read between the lines. decided to be truthful to those requests but, i think folks on both political parties understand there is a big issue here. we've gone over but i want to leave some time for some questions at least before we go. mark of "washington examiner" up front here. i think we have a microphone so folks can hear. so we'll take one of the microphones from here and dan and joe could share. >> we're fine. >> i want to go back to this, the meeting, the briefing that clinton got presumably at the outset. if i'm patrick kennedy, in that meeting, the undersecretary for administration, and i say to her, you used the government email, and she says, no, i'm going to use my own what is, what are my legal responsibilities and obligations at that point to the attempt to insure or at least to memorial ize what happened in that meeting? >> well, this is a civil matter, so i will take it. and -- >> at the moment. >> for the moment, right. and i can only speak in comparison so

mr. durbin: is there time remaining on gate on this amendment? the presiding officer: there is one minute in opposition. mr. durbin: in opposition to the cornyn amendment let me say this -- 40% of the overall homeless youth population has been subjected to service denial and discrimination by staff and providers based on their sexual orientation. the leahy-collins alternative expressly prohibits discrimination against youth because of their sexual orientation. that should be the gold standard. defeat the cornyn amendment vote for the bipartisan collins-leahy amendment. the presiding officer: the question is on amendment 1127 authored by the senator from texas. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: cover. scores. covers. vote: vote: vote: it. the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? on this vote, the yeas are 45, the nays are 53. under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment the amendment is -- mr. leahy: would we have or