mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i ask that further proargs under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: what's the business before the senate? the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question is on the hasn' landrieu amendmt 2818. mr. harkin: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? this appears to be a sufficient second. the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the ayes are 98, the nays are zero. the amendment is agreed to. under the previous order, the question is on landrieu-grassley 2813. the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, we have no objections to that amendment, we agree with it and urge its adoption. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate on the amendment, all those in favor please say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to

mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: on behalf of senator landrieu, i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up her amendment 2108. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from iowa, mr. franken, for ms. l.a.n ms-- for ms. landrieu -- mr. harkin: i ask that the reading be set aside. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk: mr. harkin proposes for mr. franken proposes amendment numbered 282. mr. harkin: i ask that the further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that at 2:30 p.m. today, the senate proceed to votes in relation to the following pending amendments in the order lists: endisee amendment number 2812 and franken amendment number 2822, furthering that no second-degree amendments be in order to either amendment prior to the votes. the presiding officer: is there objection to the request sp?wi

mr. harkin, proposes amendment numbered 2811. mr. harkin: i ask further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: so, madam president, we are now on the childcare and development block grant of twinch. i know that senator alexander and i and -- of 2013. i know senator alexander and i are anxious to consider amendments, i encourage people who have amendments to bring them to the floor so that senator burr, senator alexander, or i or senator mikulski could look at them and get things lined up. it is my intent, i hope i can speak for senator alexander in this, too, to have an open yesterday managed process with respect to this bill for senators to have relevant amendments to have the opportunity to have them offered and to be voted on. i expect that we would have a couple of votes within the next few hours. i don't even know but sometime soon. so, again, i strongly encourage senators with amendments to bring them over and file them so we can get them discussed expeditiously. madam p

mr. harkin: mr. president, i -- again, a lot of work has gone into this bill, and the person who led that whole work for over two years' period of time was senator mikulski. i just happen to be chair of the committee. but with senator mikulski and senator burr working together to really bring this to fruition, and it is a good bill. senator alexander is always saying that our committee probably has the biggest divergence ideologically of any committee in the senate, and yet we have reported out i think 19 bills out of our committee, ten of which have been signed into law during this congress. we're able to do that because people work together and we work things out, and that's what's happened with this bill. there are a lot of crosscurrents on this bill. i bet there are a lot of things that senator mikulski would have liked to have had in the bill, that i would have liked to have had in the bill. i'm sure i can say the same thing on the republican side. but over at least a two-year period of time --

mr. harkin was saying is that i do not see a lot of room for republicans to be copper might think on the other side. senator harkin told me his $10.10 limit in january and i called around trying to find people who would talk to me about what they wanted. none of them had any idea about some sort of coming together. to some extent, it makes sense to hear him using that threshold. it is not clear to me even if they were to get the democrats together that there would be anybody in the republican party who would even go close to it. >> is this now and election year issue for the democrats? that is a good question. it is an election year. it is important for the parties put outwhat they would as their priorities, even if they cannot get support. i think maybe the jury is out on that. the american people get frustrated seeing congress not doing anything. that was what his approach was. we have seen democrats want to use this as an issue. election issue is the health care law. what did you hear from the chairman? >> he loves obamacare. he was able to go out and how it good things. tout itseresti

mr. harkin was saying is that i do not see a lot of room for republicans to be copper might think on the other side. senator harkin told me his $10.10 limit in january and i called around trying to find people who would talk to me about what they wanted. none of them had any idea about some sort of coming together. to some extent, it makes sense to hear him using that threshold. it is not clear to me even if they were to get the democrats together that there would be anybody in the republican party who would even go close to it. >> is this now and election year issue for the democrats? >> that is a good question. it is an election year. it is important for the parties to show what they would put out as their priorities, even if they cannot get support. i think maybe the jury is out on that. the american people get frustrated seeing congress not doing anything. that was what his approach was. we have seen democrats want to use this as an issue. >> another big election issue is the health care law. what did you hear from the chairman? >> he loves obamacare. he was able to go out and tout it

mr. harkin: earlier today, a vote was taken in the united states senate that to this senator marked about the lowest point that i think this senate has descended to in my 30 years here. i don't say that lightly. i was here during the impeachment process, trial for president clinton. i kind of thought that was a sham. but that didn't compare to what happened today. the vote on debo adegbile to be assistant attorney general for civil rights sent a strong message. here's the message we sent tod today. you young people, listen you. -- you young people, listen up. if you are a young white person and you go to work for a law firm. you're a lawyer, sworn in to the ball, you go to work for a law firm. you're a white person. and that law firm defends you to a pro bono case to defend someone who killed eight people in cold blood and they assign you to defend that person. my advice from this, what happened today, is you should do that. it's part of your legal obligation, part of your profession. because if you do that, who knows, you might wind up to be the chief justice of the united states supreme

mr. harkin. absolutely. the federal regulations require entrance counseling as a prerequisite, but after that institutions are not allowed to require additional counseling for disbursement. we can offer it, but we're not allowed to require it. and without the ability to require it, there's no teeth in it. >> anybody got any -- i saw you nodding your head. >> i would agree with her assessment. no, there is -- there was one with school, i believe, in florida that was attempting to do this, and then the department told them to cease because it was not written in so -- in statute so that they didn't have a legal -- >> is there a reason for this? anybody got any kind of logical reason that schools are prohibited from doing this? anybody? well, again, i think that's definitely something we have to look at. i was not aware of that. thank you very much. i'm sorry, senator alexander. >> no, i appreciate senator harkin's line of inquiry. i was handed in this information from an article this year from inside higher edu

mr. chairman. i appreciate that. happy to compound with you anytime. >> we go to senator baldwin. >> thank you. i want to thank chairman harkin and ranking member alexander for giving us the opportunity to ask questions of you. wisconsin is home to a vibrant community of innovative medical device companies and some interesting things going on. wisconsin innovators are making contributions to medical treatment with breakthrough technologies such as state of the art:cancer screening test and pioneering substance detection device. in the last several years the fda has taken on some encouraging steps to enhance patient access to devices and spur product innovation and we are very excited about some of those. in particular the fda's pilot program, a parallel review that allows the fda and cms to simultaneously review innovative devices for market approval land coverage determinations to help streamline the process for companies, the patients who are served by those innovations so the fda center for devices recently indicated that the agency plans on establishing a new pathway to approve devices for patients with serious unmet medi

mr. chairman chairman. i will be happy to compound with you anytime. [laughter] we go to senator baldwin. [laughter] >> also with chairman harkin and the ranking member to convened the hearing to give us the opportunity to ask questions wisconsin is home to a vibrant community of innovative medical device companies and there is always interesting things going:to make contributions said chest it of the art:cancer in and day sepsis detection in device. with the last several years has taken on encouraging steps to spur product innovation we are very excited about some of those with a fda pilot program that allows the fda and cm us to simultaneous leave approve approval and coverage determination to help streamline the process for those patients better served by those innovations. so commissioner the fda's center for devices is indicated the agency plans on establishing a new pathway to the accelerate the approval of certain devices with those of unmet medical needs. some of the data typically collected in the device studies could be submitted once it has been approved for use this proposal has the potential to improve treatment op

talking about his opposition to the nomination of followed by tom harkin after the measure was defeated. the comments are about 20 minutes. >> mr. president, i rise today to a tribute to the minute women of the country serving as lease officers who protect law-abiding americans. it is out of this respect for our nations lease officers that i also rise to oppose the adebola.n of dabo remember our phone police officers who have bravely given their lives to serve our nation and kept us in police officers helped form the back of our country that supports the rule all. they risk their lives everyday to keep law-abiding americans safe. 2012,ing to the fbi, in 95 law enforcement officers were killed in line of duty incidents. officers were victims of line of duty assaults. 52,901. the new york times in 2012 as violent crimes have increased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged. rising numbers of police officers being killed." in 2008, 41 officers were killed. 41. in 2009, 40 officers were killed. in 2010, 56 officers were killed. in 2011, 72 officers were killed. and in 2012, 95 officers were killed. unfortunately, as byr

chairman harkin is going to hold a hearing in the senate help committee this week on the student loan programs. i'm going to work with him, submit some testimony, and i'll tell you, mr. president, the senator jack reed of rhode island, senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts and i are putting together a package of bills. we're going to address this issue from a lot of different perspectives. there is no reason why a college student should sign up for a private loan with higher interest rates and worse conditions for payback when they are still eligible for government loans which are more flexible and lower interest rates, yet some of these irresponsible schools steer their kids into private loans. the kids don't know any better. neither do their parents. secondly, they end up loaning money to these students and to their families, that they will never, ever, ever be able to pay back. jack reed says they ought to have some skin in the game. at some point, if they have overextended in loans, they ought to have to eat some of those losses, where the students can't pay it back. and senator warren, elizabeth warren, is tackling the even bigger issue about refinancing co

mr. chairman. >> senator hatch may be coming that i will take a round of questioning. first of all, welcome. i want to start by thanking chairman harkin and ranking member alexander for calling this important hearing and for the leadership they've both showed regarding policy issues in the purview. it's been a pleasure working with both of them, and in the form of a number of policies and the pharmacy compounding legislation in the past in november, which i helped to develop with them and said roberts anhis hairroberts and i, doctor hamburg, for working with us so closely on that. in your testimony, you noted that it allows the companies to register as outsourcing facilities or what we call outsourcing facilities. this was a critical component of the bill. can you tell the committee why this is so important and how does this new option improve public health and preventive the new outbreaks? >> this is targeted on a high risk products and in just the -- indigestible when we have consequences for health this will enable for the companies that choose to register a higher level of assurance in terms of good manufacturing practice and adhe

mr. harkin: yes. mr. reid: it would be improper if we didn't acknowledge the work that mike lee was involved in in this legislation. he should be complimented for helping to get this passed. harass yes, the leader is right. senator lee was very accommodating in letting us move afforforward on the bill and i'm appreciative of that. but we were aiblg to accomplish a lot in the floor process. as senator alexander said, i think we've even adopted legislation making an even stronger bill. i want to thank a lot of the staff. i hope i don't miss anyone, but david cleary, and peter opposen hymn, marti west and bill kenutz. chris toppings, natasha hickings of senator burr's staff. jessica mcniece, brett palmer of senator mikulski tion staff. pam smith who is not here but who worked on this for a long time, derrick miller, michael mccormick, leeann hotec. as i said at the beginning of this bill's consideration, this bill represents a strong, positive shift for working families in america who benefit from the child-

mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin:: -- we're not in a quorum call -- if i can have the attention of senator alexander and senator burr. i'm about to propose a unanimous consent. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that at 12:15 p.m. today the senate proceed to votes in relation to the following amendments in the order listed, coburn number 2830 as modified, portman number 2827, tester number 2834, thune number 2838, warren number 2842, bennet number 2839 as modified, and further, that no second-degree amendments be in order to any of these amendments prior to the votes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. harkin: madam president, for the information of all senators it is our understanding we will need one roll call vote in this sequence and the remaining amendments can be disposed of by voice vote. so i ask consent that the pending amendments be set aside and the following amendments be made pending. portman number 2827, tester number 2834, thune number 2838, warren