mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i thank all of my colleagues and particularly my colleague from iowa but also people that are very senior leaders of this body like senator mcconnell and reed -- reid and my friend on the judiciary committee, senator leahy, who i have served with there for 35 years. i thank them for their kind words that they have said about my service to the people of iowa. as their elected representative. i have interacted with tens of thousands of iowans as their senator, so i have -- i have a feeling that i know each iowan personally at this point. of course i don't. i know that that's technically impossible, but the benefits of a state that is not especially big geographically is that i -- i have enough planning that i can get to every county every year, as has been said several times by my colleagues. every year, iowans in each county host me at a question and answer at their factories, their schools, their service clubs or most of these are my own town meetings that i set up. i might g

mr. grassley until you could look into the matter. but you answered in writing that if confirmed i will commit to ensuring that the department holds accountable any employees who are found to have committed misconduct. committed misconduct. so, please tell me that you have, in fact, done as promised and you held ms. dubinsky accountable for that outrageous conduct. >> congressman, my understanding of the matter, to the extent that i'm aware of the specifics of it, is that the matter was referred and reviewed by our office of professional responsibility and that the department followed the applicant civil service laws in conjunction with that. but i don't have further specifics on that for you. >> can you tell me whether or not ms. dubinsky, who engaged in the conduct of trying to help convict the defendant she was sworn to protect, can you tell me whether or not she's still employed at the department of justice? >> the gentleman's time has expired. the attorney general can answer. >> thank you, sir. i believe that she is. >> well, it

mr. grassley: it's too bad that we have to have situations -- okay. i'm going to withhold because the leader is on his way. the presiding officer: thank you. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. the leader is acknowledged. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the two pending cloture motions with respect to h.r. 2577 be withdrawn. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 3996, which was received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 3996, an act to provide an extension of federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, and so forth, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i know of no further debate on the bill.

mr. grassley: oversight of the executive branch of government by the congress is as old as the constitution and it's a critical role and it's one that was intended by the writers of the constitution. i believe oversight leads to better government, better laws and actually saves the taxpayers money. that is why this senator works very hard at oversight. i went after the reagan defense department for wasteful spending in the 1980's. i held up the department of justice nominees during the bush administration to get my oversight letters answered just as i'm doing now with the obama department of state. and i voted in support of giving the judiciary committee the authority to issue subpoenas regarding its inquiry into the firing of u.s. attorneys during the bush administration when a lot of republicans didn't want that to happen. my belief in and exercise of the oversight role by the congress is long-standing and nonpartis nonpartisan. yesterday the senate minority leader that said my investigation into the department of state's use of special government employees and how secretary clinton's pri

mr. president, come back and insult me to my face. let's have a debate on syrian refugees right now." tim iowawaenator chuck grassley is alal joining in on the conversation. heheold reporters today (wednesday) that the u-s needs to take a cautious approach. "and because we don't ve a vetting press that would work for syrians, i've called for a hault until we get certification om the intelligence agencies and the fbi that we do have a vetting process to make sure no terrorists come in with oth refugees." there are reports that at least one of the isis terrorists in ris had recently registered as a syrian refugee in greece. tim isis used a can of soda to bomb a russian airliner, killing more than 200 people on board. this picture has surfaced from an isis magazine showing the bomb was hidden inside a soda can. this comes just a day after top russian officials announced it was for sure a bomb that had taken down the plane. the explosives experts say the bomb may have been detonated by someone physically on the plane. jenna a sioux city manaccused of sexually assaulting a 13- year-old is pleading not guilty . jenna 20 y

mr. mcconnell: if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until the story says senator grassleyhas blocked nearly two dozen nominations, including foreign service officers. cite a slow response from the administration over clinton's use of a private e-mail server and a state department programs. >> boldly opposed to forced internment of japanese americans during world war ii. after being convict for failing to report for relocation, he took his case to the supreme court. >> this week, on c-span's landmark cases we'll discuss the historic supreme court case of koromatzu verse the united states. after the attack on pearl harbor president roosevelt issued an evacuation sending people of japanese origin who live close to military installations to internment camps through the u.s. >> this is a recreation of one of the barracks. they were 20 feet wide and 120 feet long and divided into six different rooms. they didn't have sheet rocks of ceilings or masonite on the floor. it was freezing even in the daytime. the only heating would be a pot-bellied stove. this would not have been able

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. sley: i ask that the calling of the quorum being suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is now closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, which is the clerk will now report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary committee. lashann moutique dearcy hall of new york to be united states district judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session, as we have said, and under the previous order, there will also be 30 minutes of debate prior to a vote on the nomination. mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: if it is not out of order, i ask to speak as if in morning business for six or seven minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. grassley: i want to express my deepest sympathies to the people of paris and all those affected by friday's terrible attacks on islamic ex