mr. heller has a lot next door that is just a magnet. we have been making arrests, we have been arresting people who are already on probation or parole who are breaking into cars and they are not getting a vigorous sentence if they are getting anything. really my no. 1 thing would be never leave anything in the car, no. 2, high visibility patrol in the areas we know are problematic and hopefully being able to reestablish a plain clothes team to try (inaudible). >> that's one of the things i was going to say. if you get one person they tend to break into multiple cars. a good plain clothes operation can get someone that -- i know, chief, there was some collaboration with the district terb's office. i think i read that. would there be anything that we should know about, how we're partnering with the district a's office specific to these crimes. >> we do have the auto burglary task force. we had one years ago and we are having success with these guys. we got one guy, we were able to attribute him to 22. in san mateo county, let's say a pers

mr. heller has a lot next door that is just a magnet. we have been making arrests, we have been arresting people who are already on probation or parole who are breaking into cars and they are not getting a vigorous sentence if they are getting anything. really my no. 1 thing would be never leave anything in the car, no. 2, high visibility patrol in the areas we know are problematic and hopefully being able to reestablish a plain clothes team to try (inaudible). >> that's one of the things i was going to say. if you get one person they tend to break into multiple cars. a good plain clothes operation can get someone that -- i know, chief, there was some collaboration with the district terb's office. i think i read that. would there be anything that we should know about, how we're partnering with the district a's office specific to these crimes. >> we do have the auto burglary task force. we had one years ago and we are having success with these guys. we got one guy, we were able to attribute him to 22. in san mateo county, let's say a pers

mr. heller on this, i couldn't agree more with mr.r when he talked about the need to address this. what's going to happen if you don't address this is we'll continue to see more pressure on pages, salary. that's what the joint committee on taxation has said. that's what the cbo has said. the impact is on workers. specifically, when you have these inversions, and that's the tip of the iceberg, it's really the foreign takeovers, it's the foreign acquisitions of u.s. companies, they take workers with them. and as we sit here today, it's happening in my home state of ohio. the eaton corporation, a great corporation in ohio, great storied history, finally kind of had to say uncle, because the tax code was hurting them so much. they went over to ireland, inverted to a smaller company, a quarter of their size, will save hundreds of millions on their tax bill. so workers are leaving ohio to go overseas to get away from the net of the u.s. tax code. this is outrageous. and we cannot let politics stop us from dealing with it. look, i'm a small

mr. heller on this, couldn't agree more with mr. carper when he talked about the need to address this. if we don't address this what's going to happen is you're going to continue to see more pressure on wages and salary or that's what the joint committee on taxation has said and that is what the cbo has said. at the impact on workers and specific way we are actually when you have these versions and this is the tip of the iceberg. support takeovers and the foreign acquisitions of u.s. companies. they take workers with them and as we sit here today it's happening in my home state of ohio. a great corporation in ohio, a great story history had to say uncle because the tax code was hurting them so much so they went over to ireland and they are going to save hundreds of millions on a tax bill. workers are leaving ohio going overseas to get away from the net of the u.s. tax code. this is outrageous and we cannot cannot -- i'm a small business owner. i totally agree with we need to help bonds ball businesses. put me at the top of list in the head of the line. i couldn't agree more. let's do t

mr. heller has a lot next door that is just a magnet.have been making arrests, we have been arresting people who are already on probation or parole who are breaking into cars and they are not getting a vigorous sentence if they are getting anything. really my no. 1 thing would be never leave anything in the car, no. 2, high visibility patrol in the areas we know are problematic and hopefully being able to reestablish a plain clothes team to try (inaudible). >> that's one of the things i was going to say. if you get one person they tend to break into multiple cars. a good plain clothes operation can get someone that -- i know, chief, there was some collaboration with the district terb's office. i think i read that. would there be anything that we should know about, how we're partnering with the district a's office specific to these crimes. >> we do have the auto burglary task force. we had one years ago and we are having success with these guys. we got one guy, we were able to attribute him to 22. in san mateo county, let's say a person d

senator heller: i want to make sure it was not a hollow promise. mr. neffenger: from my perspective i would like to grow the canine capability across the system because i think it is a hugely effective tool, both protection but deterrence as well. senator heller: if i'm hearing correctly -- i can go back to the administration of that airport and say those 110 tsa personnel will be backfield -- backfilled for whatever reason. mr. neffenger: -- senator heller: they will receive the 10 k-9 units. mr. neffenger: as i have them available, yes sir. the challenge -- senator heller: what would you anticipate would be a timeline to get 10 no one's? mr. neffenger: about 1000 total canines operating across the country. about 670 of those are deployed to local law enforcement. that means there are a little over 300 teams the tsa has itself. of those, when i came on board last july, we had 112 trained to do passenger screening. we are converting the rest of those dogs to passenger screening. we should be up to 270 or so by the end of this fiscal year. converted dogs

mr. heller part of the ocean wide team for the project. i would just like to address the core values of what we're doing, because the staff has done a terrific job summarizing the details. we are available to also expand on the details, if you wish? so the first point i would like to make is that of all of the parks in the area that can be reached by the transbay district, there are only the four parks which are of concern. and i would like to remind you that -- those four parks have been mentioned. but i would like to remind you that this has all gone through your commission, board of supervisors, planning, when the transbay district was done. but to that point, we have taken very seriously the controls that were established at that time, and we live within those. in some cases, in some of these four parks, we take very little of the shadow. in some cases, more. but we always stay within what we have been told is the framework that we need to stay in for all of the good reasons of the importance of the shadows and the balance of what the

senator heller: i want to make sure it was not a hollow promise. mr. neffenger: from my perspective i would like to grow the canine capability across the system because i think it is a hugely effective tool, both protection but deterrence as well. senator heller: if i'm hearing correctly -- i can go back to the administration of that airport and say those 110 tsa personnel will be backfield -- backfilled for whatever reason. mr. neffenger: -- senator heller: they will receive the 10 k-9 units. mr. neffenger: as i have them available, yes sir. the challenge -- senator heller: what would you anticipation would be -- what you anticipate will be the timeline? mr. neffenger: about 1000 total canines operating across the country. about 670 of those are deployed to local law enforcement. that means there are a little over 300 teams the tsa has itself. of those, when i came on board last july, we had 112 trained to do passenger screening. we are converting the rest of those dogs to passenger screening. we should be up to 270 or so by the end of this fiscal year

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator mccaskill. senator heller? >> mr. chairman, thank you. to you and the ranking member for holding this hearing today. i want to thank the administrator also for being here and answering our questions. i want to go back this allocation of personnel and ask you a couple questions. when was the last time you flew into las vegas airport? >> it's been -- it has not been since i've been administrator. >> okay. recent though? within the last couple years? >> within the last year. >> would you agree with me it is one of the fastest growing, busiest airports in the world? >> it is a very fast growing airport and you've seen some huge growth in passenger volume. >> we have. we had 3.4 million passengers go through mccarron in february of this year. in fact, it was almost a 9% growth from february previously, 2015. we're going to anticipate continuing to see this growth. can you explain why t.s.a. reduced the number of agents at that airport by 110? >> i got that report and we've actually increased the allocation there so i'm not sure how that inform

mr. chairman. >> senator heller. >> mr.irman thank you, and thank you for holding this hearing and thank our witnesses for being here. we appreciate your insight and your help on these issues. want to thank senator thune and carper for their hard work in the working group for small businesses and also portman and schumer, international task reform side. a lot of research has come on lately in this committee, whether or not some law or legislation, i'm not certain at this point but i think a lot of us know what the problem is. the problem is that we have more small businesses in america going out of business that new startups, and it's a historical data since world war ii we haven't seen that. so what's wrong? what's wrong? why are businesses -- more businesses going out of business as opposed to new startups in the second problem is inversions. over 1300 inversions in the last ten years. we're talking big companies, here in america, that have multiple accountants, so you have multiple accountants and still can make it work.

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator heller. there are not many places that you can get direct falls from sioux falls, south dakota, but one of them is to vegas. so my constituents were adding to that number coming into and out of your airport this year. yes? >> could you give me one second to put something on the record that clarifies the previous testimony because i'm going to go vote. it's my understanding, from talking to my staff that researched this that the only certification at the foreign repair stations are supervisors and people who have authority to move the aircraft, which is only a fraction of the people that are working on these aircraft at foreign repair stations. my belief is, and you correct me after this hearing if i'm wrong and we'll correct the record. my belief is the vast majority of people working on the airplanes in foreign repair stations have not had a background check. >> i'll follow up, senator, thank you. >> thank you. >> senator gardner? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you both, mr. chairman and

mr. thune: i also ask unanimous consent that the senate now vote on these amendments as well as the heller amendment 3495 and the casey-toomey amendment number 3458 as modified, en bloc. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. thune: i know of no further debate on these amendments. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the amendments are agreed to en bloc. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes eemp. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i further ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3:00 p.m. monday, april 11. following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. further, that following leaders' remarks, the senate

mr. chairman. two quick questions. melissa said some very nice words about the chief judge garland and about his nomination process it then you talk about hellerand your certainty about whether heller could survive a challenge from an individual right to bear arms itself could potentially be overruled. only a 5-for decision. chief judge garland has a history of not encouraging. he had a history on the m. bond issue as well. so what is it in view a valid issue for republican senators to consider whether a man who may be perfectly suited temperament wise, very qualified but potentially overruled one of the most important achievements of the justice he will be replacing ironically. the second thing is i finished a five-year spin on capitol hill. one of the observations i have is that congress is further and further losing ground to the executive. the committee i work for his current litigation with the executive over documents. when congress is in the battle with the executive, the agencies have gotten so powerful and the executive has recently run over congress that once they've essentially given up the power, it has nothing left. my question to

mr. heller, for mr. reid and mr. heller, proposes amendment number 3805 to amendment number 3801. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. heller: thank you, mr. president. the colorado river is the lifeblood of the west. it supplies many of our communities with the majority of its water. the ongoing drought is threatening shortages, reviving the old mark it twain saying "whiskey's for drinking. water's for fighting over." in response the west has teamed up to establish the colorado river system conservation pilot program, an innovative effort to improve levels in our reservoirs. it's very clear that the program's going well. 19 agreements have come together saving 80,000 acre feed, enough water for 160,000 households. increasing our region's water security is essential to the western states. without water, mr. president, we cannot grow. i would urge this body to support this extremely important western initiative. and i yield back my time. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: this amendment does not increase fundin

heller number 3495; bennett number 3524. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: mr. president, obviously i support the agreement and this is a first good step in moving this f.a.a. bill along. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendments en bloc. the clerk: the senator from south dakota proposes amendments en bloc numbered 3458, as modified; 3495; 3524 to amendment numbered 3464. mr. thune: mr. president, if i might just speak to amendment 3512, which we'll be voting on momentarily. i know senator nelson has already spoken to this issue but it is a series of security bills that we have worked very hard to try and bring to the floor. we're trying to move them separately but they fit i think nicely into the debate that we're having on the f.a.a. reauthorization. senator nelson, senators ayotte, cantwell and i have been leading oversight of airport security problems relating to airport and airline workers abusing their secure area access badges. this oversight led our committee to approve bi