mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: and consent to speak in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president i gathered saturday night in springfield, illinois, with my wife and a lot of close friends at the retirement party of ann docherty who has served me so well in the united states senate office and in the congressional office in springfield. it was a great night with a lot of enjoyment that was interrupted by the sad news of the passing of beau biden one of my other staffers came up and said that beau biden had passed away here in washington on saturday evening. beau, of course, the oldest son of vice president joe biden, had been suffering from serious cancer illness brain cancer, for some period of time. most of us knew that there was something terribly wrong when we approached the vice president about his son's illness and joe -- the vice president in a very hushed terms

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president i want to congratulate the junior senator from michigan for his opening speech here in the united states senate. my state of illinois is separated from his state of michigan by another state and a great lake, but we have many things in common. the people of chicago and illinois many of them, spend a lot of money in the state of michigan particularly in western michigan. we love your state it's a beautiful state. many of us vacation there and get to know the people. we have so much in common, as midwesterners, looking at the world from our vantage point smack dab in the middle of this country, and bringing to the conversation in the united states senate many of the values that have guided our lives and inspired our families. i listened carefully and thought it's amazing that we have such parallel back grounds. a father who can trace his family roots back to the revolutionary war and in both cas

mr. durbin: mr. president, it was three years ago this month in june of 2012 that president obama established the deferred action for childhood arrivals, known as daca. that provides temporary -- underline the word "temporary" -- legal status to immigrant students who arrived in the united states as children. daca is based on the dream act a bill that i introduced 14 years ago to give undocumented students who grew up in this country a chance to earn their citizenship. these young people have come to be known as dreamers, and this has become a term of art that is used now across the united states to capsulize the immigration dilemma which we face. while this daca program by president obama has been an amazing success, more than 600,000 of these dreamers have come forward paid the filing fee, submitted themselves for background checks, and are now temporarily living in america going to school and working. daca has allowed these dreamers to become part of our country as they strive for educations in en

mr. durbin: mr. president, there are serious matters on the floor of the senate involving the defense authorization bill, and i have just asked the chairman of the armed services committee for five minutes to speak on an issue totally unrelated to it but one which is critically important to the future of america and critically important today to the city of chicago illinois. last night mr. president i stayed up late to watch the chicago blackhawks win the stanley cup. they were playing the tampa bay lightning, an extraordinarily good team, and in the sixth game they won 2-0. that's three stanley cups in six years. and i can tell you that you can't visit chicago and go to any street corner or anyplace without seeing evidence of loyalty to the chicago blackhawks. it is an incredible story of a storied franchise in the national hockey league which has become a premier sports story in a great sports city of chicago and last night was so much fun for all of us to watch that victory. mr. president, any chi

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call being suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order the leadership time is reserved fnlt under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 2048 which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 87, h.r. 2048,en act to reform the authorities of the federal government to require the production of certain business records and so forth and for other purposes. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president i ask consent to speak for two minutes in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president on january 29, 2013, haidia pendelton was gunned down in a park on the south side of chicago. she was a beautiful caring young woman with a bright future ahead of her. she was 15 years old a sophomore honor student at king

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: the yeas and nays be called on the pending -- the presiding officer: under the previous order all postcloture time is expired. the clerk will read the title of the bill for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 99, h.r. 1735, an act to authorize appropriation for fiscal year 2016 for military activities of the department of defense and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: the question now occurs on h.r. 1735 as amended. mr. durbin: mr. president, 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: the presiding officer: are there any senators who wish to vote or to change their vote? hearing none, the vote on h.r. 1735 as amended is 71 in favor 25 opposed. the bill is approved. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: t

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant minority leader. mr. durbin: mr. president this morning, the supreme court of the united states handed down this decision, king versus burwell. i think it will probably be a decision that is remembered for a long time, certainly by members of congress. we were watching carefully closely, wondering what the supreme court was going to say about the affordable care act otherwise known as obamacare. we passed it five years ago and it was about the issue of health insurance. how many americans who were uninsured would be insured under the affordable care act and how much would health insurance cost. controversial, as the senator from utah just noted, it was passed on a partisan roll call. there was an effort to write a bipartisan bill and it failed. there was no sentiment shared by both sides of the aisle to create the affordable care act or anything like it. how important is this decision, king versus burwell a decision which basically susta

mr. durbin: mr. president i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: mr. president, i know we're in morning business. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. coats: i apologize mr. president. i ask that the call of the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coats: mr. president i know we're in morning business time. if i could speak on the republican time, reserving the time remaining for the democrats, i'd be happy to do that. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coats: mr. president i rise today the 13th time, for the waste of the week. so far, we have identified waste in many areas ranging from the familiar such as the duplication of government programs to outrageous spending and lack of control to the disney arrest like the government-funded massages for new zealand rabbits. i've gotten more response on that than i have for some of

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the instant democratic leader. mr. called the for-profit colleges and universities. it's a unique part of america's private sector and i use the phrase "private sector" with some caution. these are profitable entities which portray themselves as colleges and universities. you know their names. the university of phoenix. devry university, kaplan university. and until recently, corinthian, one of the largest for-profit schools. what do they do? they entice young people to sign up at their for-profit colleges and universities and promise them that they're going to give them training or education to find a job. now, it turns out that as luring as that is it doesn't tell the whole story. the real story about the for-profit college industry can be told with three numbers -- ten. 10% of all high school graduates go to these for-profit colleges and universities. 20. 20% of all the federal aid to education goes to these for-profit colleges and universities. about $35 billion a year flows into these schools. if it was a separate

mr. durbin proposes amendment numbered 1559. mr. reed: i would ask for disposing of the reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: -- [inaudible] the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. a senator: mr. president? i'm sorry. the presiding officer: i would ask the senator to withhold. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. mccain: i ask proceedings under the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: i'd ask senators waiting to speak which i will ask to be in morning business in about two or three minutes while we finish seeing if the modification that may be at the desk is approved or not. i ask their patience for two or three minutes here until we get this done. the presiding of

mr. durbin: thank you mr. president. across the street from the senate chamber here is the united states supreme court. the court this week as several important cases pending. we're waiting anxiously for decisions. but probably the one that affects as many americans as any other is a case called king versus burwell. king is a case brought by someone who is objecting to the affordable care act obamacare, and they are arguing that the bill we passed in the senate and the house did not include a subsidy a tax credit for those who are under federal marketplace plans. my state of illinois is one of those states. in illinois there are about 232,000 individuals who receive a tax credit that allows them to pay for their health insurance. their income levels are such that they need a helping hand. otherwise the health insurance premium would be too expensive. in my state the average tax credit that goes to these 232,000 is $1,800 a year. not insubstantial. $150 a month. now, those who brought the lawsuit say that the law does not

mr. president, i have a modification of amendment numbered 1559 which i offer on behalf of senator dowsh and i ask the amendment be -- senator durbinand i ask the amendment be so modified. the presiding officer: any senator has that right and the amendment is so modified. mr. reed: thank you mr. president. with that, i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. mccain: mr. president i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: mr. president i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments, call up amendment 1569 for senator burr. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from arizona, mr. mccain, for mr. burr proposes an amendment numbered 1569. mr. mccain: i ask the further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. mccain: i

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president i want to thank the democratic leader for his kind words. today is the third anniversary of daca. it was 15 years ago when i received a call to my senate office in chicago. a woman korean american woman who worked at a dry cleaners in the city of chicago had a question for me. it turns out that her daughter teresa lee had been offered an opportunity to go to school at one of the best music schools in america. but she had problems filling out her application. the whole story is that this family had come through brazil from korea to the united states years before. the little children, including teresa, who was then 2 years old, came in on a tourist visa. the idea behind their arrival in america was that her father was going to open a church. he would be a minister with his own congregation. it was a dream that was never realized. the family struggled. they were very poor. teresa's mother went to work at a dry cleaners. her father didn't work much, had health problems. and luck