mr. sanders: well, i want to thank my colleague, senator harkin, not only for his fight for seniors and disabled vets on this issue -- the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: -- but for his long career fighting for those people who often don't have a voice here in washington. madam president, the time has come for the united states senate to send a very loud and clear message to the american people and it's the message that senator harkin has just articulated and that is that we are not going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, on the backs of disabled veterans, on the backs of those people who are already in the midst of this terrible recession hurting so much. as chairman of the senate veterans' committee, let me make it very clear that i will do everything that i can to make sure that we are not balancing the budget on the backs of disabled veterans, men and women who have lost their arms, their legs and their eyesight defending this country. that is morally unacceptable. madam president, the chained c.p.i. -- and this is an important point to make -- some

mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will come to order. senators take their conversations out of the well. the senate will come to order. the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i rise to speak in support of amendment 630, which i've introduced with senator alexander and a bipartisan group of colleagues. this amendment would reauthorize and improve programs administered by both the departments of education and health and human services related to awareness, intervention, prevention of mental health conditions and the promotion of linkages to appropriate services for children and youth. scho setsy promotingocuses on schoolwide prevention through the development of positive behavioral interventions and supports. title 2 focuses on suicide prevention and also helping children recover from traumatic events. i want to make it clear that this amendment passed our committee last week unanimously. unanimously t. has -- the presiding officer: the senate wi

mr. harkin for himself and others proposes amendment numbered 730. mr. harkin: i ask further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: today i'm offering this bipartisan amendment with my colleague, ?osh alexander and several -- senator alexander and several other members of the health, education and pensions committee to authorize programs authorized by the departments of health and human services related to mental health conditions and the promotion of linkages for children and youth. the tragic shooting in newtown, connecticut in december brought the issue of mental health care to the forefront of the public dplog dlog. many people across the nation including the president have said that we need to take a long, hard look at access to mental health services across the country. i was pleased to have the opportunity to start that backlog dlog with my colleagues -- dialogue with my colleagues on the help committee committee in january when we examined the state of our nation's mental health care syste

mr. harkin: madam president, i was honored to recommend to the president that he nominate jane kelly to serve as a judge on the united states court of appeals for the eighth circuit, and today i encourage my colleagues to vote for her confirmation which will be the first vote at noon. let me begin by thanking senator leahy and his staff for their hard work in advancing miss kelly's nomination in such a timely manner. i also thank my senior colleague from iowa, senator grassley, for his invaluable support and assistance. for all the years that we have served together, senator grassley and i have cooperated in a spirit of goodwill on judicial nominations in our state, and i am grateful that that tradition has continued. madam president, jane kelly possesses all of the qualifications necessary to assume the responsibilities of a federal appellate judge. before recommending miss kelly to the president, i reviewed a very strong field of candidates for this position. she stood out as a person of truly outstanding intellect and character with a reputation as an extremely talented lawyer with a deep

let's move to tom harkin, senator tom harkin and, mr. en, yes or no, do you agree with senator harkin that this administration should not be raiding prevention fund, raiding the prevention fund for funding exchange expenditures? >> congressman, i really am not going to express a view on that. that's not a decision that i made. >> you can't answer a yes or no question whether or not you agree with a statement that a democrat statement made? >> i can't. i don't have -- >> you can't, you don't want to, you don't know if you agree -- >> i don't have a view. >> you don't have a view whether you agree with a statement that a senator made? >> i don't. >> i really don't know what to say. i guess i'll wait for rod serling to come through the door. >> that would be the second coming of rod serling, i think. i think he passed away. >> the way things have been going here, i wouldn't doubt it. i mean, i could see it happening. this morning, according to politico pro's white board, senator harkin blasted hhs secretary kathleen sebelius at a hearing thi

let's move to tom harkin, senator tom harkin, and mr. cohen, yes or no, do you agree with senator harkin that this administration should not be rating prevention -- raiding the prevention fund for funding exchange expenditures? >> congressman, i really am not going to express a view on that. >> you cannot say yes or no whether or not you agree with a statement a senator made? >> i cannot. >> you don't want to? >> i don't have a view. >> you don't have a view if you agree with a statement a senator made? >> i don't. >> i really don't know what to say. i guess i'll wait for sterling to come through the door. >> that will be the second coming of rod sterling. i think he passed away -- >> the way things would be going here i wouldn't doubt it. i can see it happening. this morning, according to "politico," senator tom harkin blasted h.h.s. secretary kathleen sebelius at a hearing this morning. it was after we had started this hearing. blasted sebelius for using prevention fund money to pay for insurance navigators saying the obama administrati

senator tom harkin and mr.cohen, do you agree the administration should not be reading prevention fund for funding exchange expenditures. >> congressmen, i am not going to express a view on that. >> you can't answer yes or no question that a democrat senator made? >> i can. >> you don't want to? >> i don't have a view. >> you don't have a view whether you agree with this statement of senator made? >> i don't. >> i really don't know what to say. i guess i'll wait for rod serling to come through the door. >> that would be the second coming. i think he passed away. >> the way things have been going i wouldn't doubt it. i could see it happening. >> this morning, senator tom harkin blasted hhs secretary kathleen sebelius at a hearing this morning after we started this hearing, blasted sebelius for prevention fund money to pay for insurance navigator, saying the obama administration treats preventive care as an afterthought. to quote the senator, and sorry to say the administration just doesn't get it. first of all c

mr. president, i've been giving these speeches on the floor for some time now. senator harkin of iowa, who is the chairman of the help committee, has had extensive investigations of these for-profit schools. some of the them are struggling. their share value has gone down, they're not making money like they used to. but they're still very much in business. what we should remember here is what i've told folks are the three most important numbers -- 12. 12% of the graduates of all high schools go to for-profit schoo schools. university the phoenix, kaplan, devrie, edmc. 12% go to these for-profit schools. these for-profit schools take out over $30 billion a year in federal aid to education. 12% of the students, they take 25% of all the federal aid to education. they know where the money is and they're grabbing it as fast as they k can. 47's the thirds number you've got to remember. 47% of the student loan defaults are students and their families from for-profit schools. many of these schools are just plain worthless. some of the students could never tell. they say, well, senator

mr. president, i would like to also thank the 23 cosponsors of this legislation. they are in alphabetical order, richard blumenthal, senators boxer, cardin, carper, collins, durbin, franken, gillibrand, harkin, hirono, klobuchar, lautenberg, levin, menendez, mikulski, murphy, murray, reid, rockefeller, schatz, warren and whitehouse. i am very grateful for your and for their willingness to step up, show courage, and do what's right for america. mr. president, there are all kinds of issues that we confront as members of this great are senate. there are issues of national security, the economy, health care, immigration, all tough issues. people often ask me why i care so much about assault weapons, why i have stayed with this issue for more than 20 years now? the answer is this: in my view, the proliferation of this specific type of weapon goes to the heart of what kind of society in which we want to live. it goes to what kind of culture we're going to raise our children in. and that, mr. pres, brings us to the horrific massacre at newtown, connecticut, four months ago. sandy hook -- and a lot has been said about it, but i can't forget it. sandy hook was a safe school in a safe town. candidly,

relation to the barrasso and harkin amendments in that order with all previous provisions of remaining in neglect. the presiding officer: is there objection? so ordered. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate morning business until 7:30 with senators permitted to speak therein for ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: at 2:24, the group of eight finally unveiled their immigration reform bill. since they began their meetings four months ago i've complimented them on reforming our broken immigration system. i've sought their cooperation to ensure the bill goes through the committee process and i've argued the bill must be open to amendment during consideration in committee and on the floor. every member of the senate must have an opportunity to read, analyze, and improve the bill. the bill we received is just under 900 pages and it tackles some very important issues, including measures on border security, e-verify and the entry exit system. it includes a legalization program for people here unlawfully including dream act eligible students and undocumented workers in the agricultural secretary

mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will resume consideration of the gun safety legislation, with the time until noon is equally divided and controlled for debate on the barrasso and harkinamendments. at noon there will be two votes in relation to those amendments. following the votes the senate will recess until 2:00 p.m. to allow for important caucus meetings. at 2:00 p.m. the senate will proceed to the executive session to consider the torres and watson nominations. at 2:15 there will be a roll call vote on the confirmation of the torres confirmation and expected voice vote on the confirmation of watson. mr. president, a new tragedy during the night, and our thoughts are with the people of west, texas. that's the name of a city in texas. our thoughts are with all of texas in the wake of a terrible explosion of a fertilizer in the factory of a town of west, why you have just outside waco. five to 15 deaths, a couple hundred who are wounded. they were working, they were sleeping, they were having dinner. i offer my condolences to those who lost loved ones and who have people who are wounded and injured. we'll continue to follow the news from texas as it develops today.