mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior snow senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: i would ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. grassley: as we all know, we're discussing a constitutional amendment sponsored by 45 members of the democratic party to restrict free speech. so this constitutional amendment pending before the senate is a real threat to one of the two most vital developments in our nation's legal and constitutional history. one of those legal successes was the development of a body of civil rights laws to protect the basic freedoms of all americans. that took a long time and required massive effort and even bloodshed, as well as judicial rulings. the second development was the enhancement of free speech, as protected by the first amendment. that process also required massive time and effort and judicial rulings. both of these struggles were made necessary because the supreme court failed to give effort to the intent of the authors of the first and 14th amendments in guaran

mr. grassley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: on thursday, this country will commemorate the 13th anniversary of the september 11th terrorist attack. we learned many lessons from that day. one key lesson was that terrorists can and will exploit our immigration system and policies to enter and remain in the united states and actually and now into future potentially harm americans. the 9/11 attacks were carried out by 19 hijackers, some of whom enter via student visas and trained in flight schools here in the united states. the 19 individuals applied for 23 visas. they lied on their applications. they failed to abide by the terms of their visas. this was a wake-up call that we needed better oversight of our visa programs, especially student visas. but this wasn't our first wake-up call. in 1993, the american people were confronted with the first terrorist attack on the world trade center. one of the instigators of that attack was on an expired student visa. since 1993, we have mandated the tracking of foreign students and

mr. grassley: i will yield the floor and put the rest of my statement in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent to speak up to 10 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: we've heard on this floor lengthy speeches that brought a number of arguments to bear in order to appear inciteful and founded in history, all to obscure the fundamental fact before this body, which is some on this floor today want to see a government owned and operated by the powerful, not the people. but that is exactly the opposite of what our constitution was set up to do. the founders of our nation proceeded to lay out in very clear terms that that entire premise of our government would not be ruled by the few over the many. it would not be a system of government set up of, by, and for the powerful. and they laid that vision out in the very first words of our constitution. this premise is so well known to citizens that most can tell you when you

mr. grassley: mr. -- oh, i ask to speak now. okay. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator has the floor. mr. grassley: mr. president, with all the problems facing the country and the world, the majority has decided that the time has come to cut back on the bill of rights to be amended for the first time in our history. we hear from the other side repeatedly that they revere the constitution, but they want to restrict the core of free speech. that is speech that allows a self-governing people to choose in elections the people who will represent them. this proposed amendment would enshrine in our constitution the ability of elected officials to criminally punish those who would dare to criticize them more than the elected officials think is reasonable. today, americans are free to spend unlimited money on behalf of candidates and political issues and messages of their choice. the amendment being proposed would put those who would engage in political speech unnoticed that they may be prosecuted for

mr. chairman. >> i'm sure we will, senator grassley. i think this hearing will help advance that cause and because senator klobuchar and senator blumenthal have shown such leadership in this area and have bills in this area, they have requested, making an opening statement. so i will recognize the two of them for opening statements. first, senator klobuchar and then we'll proceed with the witnesses. >> thank you very much, chairman whitehouse. thank you senator grassley and thank you chairman leahy for holding this hearing and thank you to senator blumenthal for his work in this area. tragically we've had a number of major shootings that have killed multiple people over the last few years in our country, from newtown to nevada, we've seen that there is still more to be done in terms of closing loopholes in our background check system, and looking at mental health issues. i would point out some of the issues raised by senator grassley which are good ones about the record-keeping, some of that would have been helped by the manchin-toomey

mr. chairman. >> i turn outward a sandwich ranking miniter, senator grassley. >> before the talk starts i like to apologize for particularly mr. daniel for missing his testimony and say that sorry for the loss that you talked about. also to apologize to everybody here because this is an apology i've done for the third time in the last half hour. first of all to news conference with senator gillibrand and then to a group of people that i work with very closely on foster care. it's kind of a rude way to treat all you folks that come here when we have to have two votes and then to intervene things, what i appreciate to, hopefully your understand that. my first question is going to be two professor malcolm. a kentucky law took effect this month that allows people to receive an emergency protective order to pass a background check to obtain a provisional concealed carry permit in one day. i view this as a law that enables victims to protect themselves even when the police are not around and when they're of users information not show up in a background check. so my question, professor malcolm, do you s

republican david young has not held elective office but has capitol hill experience as senator grassley's chief of staff. mrs, welcome to this special edition of "iowa press." and you're familiar with our format but we're in a different sitting here in council bluff. the audience has agreed not cheer during the debate, and we're following our regular iowa press format, that means no debate rules, meaning no opening or closing statements, just ideas and issues. i'll be moderating and questions will be coming from political journalists, "des moines register" columnist, kathie obradovich. and okay henderson. let me just say, mr. young, and mrs. appel, before we begin, we're producing this debate on september 11th, the anniversary of 9/11. there are half massed flags flight throughout the nation today. i'm wondering, mrs. appel, where were you on 9/11? >> well, i happened to be feeding -- when i found the news i was feeding my third child on our couch with my two-year-old son sitting beside me. >> how has 9/11 changed your life? >> well, i think it's made us more cognizant of the whole world, and knowing it's --

grassley will be the next chair of the senate judiciary committee. >> thud. there should have been someone, someone should have informed mr. brayly, esquire, that there are a lot more nonlawyers voting in iowa than there are lawyers voting in iowa. the combination of the ernst castrater ad and the brayly knock on farmers turned it in the right direction. it gave ernst a solid chance to flip that seat from democrat to republican. now brayly's fighting back casting ernst as a far right wing ideologue it would have criminalized any abortion procedure, sent the doctor to jail. watch. >> in the state senate, ernst sponsored an amendment to outlay abortion even in cases of rape or incest. an ernst bill would have banned many common forms of birth control. ernst even wants criminal punishment for theres who perform an abortion. >> i think that providers should be punished if there were a personhood amendment. >> radical ideas. wrong for iowa. >> ernst while denying the other charges, she's for birth control. the latest poll by quinnipiac has ernst up over braley. this will be one of the closest races of the year. the party that w

mr. daniel with our appreciation and our apologies for the interruption. please proceed with your testimony. >> thank you, sir, good morning. >> good morning. >> thank you, chairman whitehouse, chairman leahy, senator grassley -- >> is your microphone on? >> and i was reminded to turn it on before i started too. thank you, chairman whitehouse, chairman leahy, senator grassley and the members of the judiciary committee. for holding this important hearing. my name is elvin daniel. i'm a republican, i'm an avid hunter, a gun owner, and i enjoy using my guns for target practice with my family and friends. i am a strong supporter of the second amendment and an nra member. i also believe in common sense, sensible gun laws. i am here today to speak for my for, xena. i speak for xena and my entire family because xena's not here to speak for herself. xena loved life. all she wanted to do was be a good mother to her two daughters. she loved disney world, rick springfield and helping other people. as a matter of fact, her last moments she was begging her estranged husband, she said, please, leave these people alone . [inaudible] she was a beautiful person full of goodness, and some good will come out of her death. on