mr. fischer said the market isn't necessarily hearing what the fed is saying.or six and a half years they've been rewarded to be like this, okay, no the to listen. to go along with policy. and this is the main reason that many traders on this floor rightly so, think that any type of normalization whether the fed does it sooner rather than later is going to be bumpy. because there's a communication impasse, because the truth is not known. and the other dynamic that happened today, is we saw yields move on the long end of the curve steepen. i'm not sure that makes sense. if the fed is in play, but let's really look at how big the move is. with all the compression we've seen, let's be real here. okay? this is the ninth thursday coming to today, here's the intraday highs on ten-year note yields, is.96, up to 1.98 on the 13th. today's intraday high was 1.92. i think it's more compression and nervous traders and virtu. and here's the settlements, you can see we've moved lower. i guess in the final analogy. why the markets move, we could debate. but the grand scheme o

mrs. fischer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska is recognized. mrs. fischer: thank you mr. president. i come to the floor today to discuss the importance of trade and the nebraskans who depend upon it. since 1989, u.s. agricultural exports have nearly quadrupled in value. this is a direct result of our trade agreements which have opened foreign markets to our goods. in 2014 alone the value of u.s. agriculture exports was $152.5 billion, yielding a trade surplus of more than $43 billion. this surplus is the result of hard work by millions of american farmers and ranchers. my home state of nebraska is leading the way in progress as a top producer and exporter of agriculture and manufacturing products. in 2013, nebraska exported $7.3 billion in products tied to agriculture and the processing industries. the by trading internationally -- by trading internationally we're creating jobs and long-term income here at home. from farms and ranches to food processing transportation, and manufacturing industries, countless parts of our economy rely on the flow of g

mr. chair. >> senator fischer? >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you, gentlemen for being here today. general, in your prepared remarks, you talk about north korea's emphasis on asymmetric capabilities especially its missiles and cyber threats. can you elaborate on north korea's ballistic missile and cyber programs and discuss what the command is doing to counter them? then can you let us know how do you see their investment in these areas impacting your needs in the future? >> thank you senator. first of all, north korea has focused its resources within its military on the asymmetric capabilities, which are several. probably the most important are the ballistic missile and nuclear. we discussed the nuclear here. you know, we've seen a number of indicators of how they're advancing their nuclear capabilities. then within their missile force, they have more than several hundred ballistic missiles. the predominance of those are close range and short range ballistic missiles that affect or influence the peninsula. they've also deployed both medium and intermediate range which influence th

mrs. fischer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending motion and call up my motion which is at the desk. the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will report. mrs. fischer: mr. president? the presiding officer: would the senator suspend. which motion does the senator wish to have first? mrs. fischer: equal pay. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nebraska mrs. fischer moves the managers on the part of the senate conference of the disagreeing votes of the two houses on the house amendment to the resolution s. con res. be instructed to insist that the final conference report include a provision relating to promoting equal pay which may include preventing discrimination on the basis of sex and preventing retaliation against employees for seeking or discussing wage information as included in section 356 of s. con res. 11 as agreed to by the senate. mrs. fischer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fische

mrs. fischer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you mr. president. this motion takes an important step forward by providing necessary updates to current law regarding nonretaliation. the chang supported on a bipartisan basis during our recent budget debate. this motion reinforces current law banning gender discrimination under both the equal pay act and title 7 of the 1964 civil rights act. contrary to the claims of some, both these laws enable women to sue for discrimination. furthermore, my motion contains language similar to president obama's april 2014 executive order stating that employees cannot be punished for exercising their first-amendment rights by speaking with employers or cooh, coworkers about their wages. i cannot support the senator from maryland's motion. it removes merit pay which i believe provides women with opportunities to advance in their careers and merit pay recognizes a woman's hard work and her contributions. it also eliminates any liability cap under the senator from maryland's motion, which i believe benefits o

mrs. fischer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam president. i rise today to discuss the negotiations with iran over its nuclear program. many of my colleagues have spoken at length about some of their concerns, which i share. today, however, i would like to discuss my concern about the administration's increasing reliance on the idea that sanctions can be snapped back, that they can be snapped back into place in the event that iran violates an agreement. in its press release on the framework agreed upon earlier this month the white house stated if at any time iran fails to fulfill its commitments, these sanctions will snap back into place. on april 11, 2015, president obama stated -- quote -- "we are preserving the capacity to snap back captions in sanctions in the event that they are breaking any deal. if we don't have the capacity to snap back sanctions when we see a potential violation then we're probably not going to get a deal." close quote. a week later at a press conference with the italian prime mini