mr. kaine: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i rise to introduce the educating tomorrow's workforce act of 2014. this is a bipartisan bill with senator portman who will follow me on the floor today. senator portman and i are working together as cochairs of the senate career and technical education caucus. let me first just explain why career and technical education is important to me. i grew up in a household in kansas city where my dad ran a union-organized iron working shop. he was the owner. ironworkers and welders, in a good year eight employees. in a bad year, five employees. my mother and my brothers and i worked in my dad's shop. and i came to appreciate working in that iron working shop, the tremendous craftsmanship and skill that went into being an ironworker. and that lesson has stuck with me for the rest of my life. and i really credit my dad with my work ethic. in a manufacturing welding shop you get to work early because you want to get the work done before it gets too hot in the middle of the day. i had the e

mr. kaine: mr. president, i also rise on the floor, together with my colleagues from new mexico and florida, to talk about the refugee crisis at our nation's border. i appreciate senator heinrich's leadership on this issue and his comments and i'm looking forward to hearing senator nelson as well. but i want to share just a little bit of a personal story and then amplify a few comments i made on the floor last thursday about this challenge. i feel very personally connected to this issue and to the children who are coming to the border, children like alejandro, whose picture was such a stark reminder that we're dealing with little kids. in 1980 and 1981, i was a student in law school and i decided i didn't know what i wanted to do with my life and i needed to figure it out. and so what i did was took a year off of law school and went to work with jesuit missionaries in the town of el progresso, honduras. el progresso at that point was a taketiny community a large agril community. and i worked as a pr

mr. kaine: madam president, i rise today in honor of a birthday. 49 years ago today, medicare was signed into law. every year, the trustees perform a report about the fiscal health of medicare and social security, and that report was issued earlier this week. so on this birthday, 49th birthday of medicare i want to come and talk about medicare's health. because there's some good news. the 2014 trustees report released earlier this week looks at the trust fund financing for medicare hospital coverage, and indicates that that trust fund under current projections will remain solvent until 2030. last year, the 2013 report indicated that that solvency period would go to 2026 so in one year the fiscal projection for the health of medicare has improved by four years, solvency until 2030. in addition, the projected part b premiums, the part b portion of medicare which is prescription drug premium program for seniors, for the second year in a row the premiums will not increase one penny, second year in

why did we have to subpoena mr. kain? >> because the i.g. in our discussions said he did not want us to do anything to cause any of our employees to be interviewed before he had a chance -- >> for the record. the inspector general did not tell you that it would behihind his investigation? >> the inspector general told us if we started providing names it would interfere with their investigation and that's why -- i testified two weeks ago and said we were trying to cooperate with the i.g. and the chairman upd that which is why you don't release full transcripts. >> you have conveyed to this committee that the inspector general department want this committee interviewing and he did not say to you. that's all i need. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. commissioner, i want to go back to one thing that the gentleman from maryland just asked you and make sure i heard you correctly. so if you know the testimony that you have given in congress is not correct, you're not going to correct that until we get a fi

mr. kaine: madam president, i have got a deal for you. let's create american john jobs. let's do it at no cost it the american taxpayer. i rise to speak about exactly the point that chairwoman cantwell just spoke about, the chairwosm our small business committee. the importance. export-import bank which expires on september 30 of 24 year. the senate and congress need to act to continue the job so we can -- to continue the bank so that we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs, so we can help american businesses find customers abroad, and do it at no cost to the american taxpayer. chairwoman cantwell did a good job of explaining the bank whand it does. it is an independent, self-success staining governmental agencies and it is one of the most important tools that u.s. companies can have to boost exports to all the countries and customers abroad who want high-quality products produced in the united states. the bank assumes country and credit risks that other private-sector lenders are unable or unwilling to do at a reasonable cost, and it helps level the playing field fo

mr. kaine: madam president i rise to describe my concerns with the recent united states supreme court ruling in the hobby lobby case and also to describe my support for the ryan ryan-udall legislation when i'm cosponsoring and which we will act on later this week. first, madam president just a word about one item in the case that's not my main concern but i think is just worthy of a passing comment and that is whether a corporation can have religious rights. of course individuals can have religious rights. churches can have religious rights. religionly affiliated organizations -- religiously affiliated organizations have religious rights. that has been recognized often. but do corporations have religious rights? madam president, i would -- i would argue that the supreme court's decision in hobby lobby that they do is sort of fundamentally at odds with the notion of what a corporation is. corporations exist for many reasons but fundamentally the core of a corporation is the creation of a fiction

we've tried for weeks to get mr. kaine to come clean. we had to subpoena him to get him to come for the deposition last thursday. the american people have this information only because the committee has been asking questions. that's why commissioner koskonen is here today. he is the individual hand-picked by this president to clean up this agency. until we know all the facts and clear up all the questions about lois lerner's missing e-mails we will be pressing for the truth. that's why we meet today. with that, i yield to mr. cartwright. >> thank you commissioner for coming here today. we schedule these things on these little do hick e doo hick and it asks if you want to make be this a recurring thing and at this point i want to say yes. i am concerned that the hearings are no longer using these hearings for what happened in the report. this seems to be something different. and i want to say, we all ought to agree that the point of this committee, the oversight in government reform committee is not publicly to harass federal agency heads

kaine. >> thank you mr. chairman and general dunford thank you for your service. you have a lot to be proud of in the work you have done together with american military, our coalition partners to enhance the capacity of ansf. i have a hearing recently in the foreign relations subcommittee that i chair about afghan civil life post-2014 and your predecessor general alan said something that kind of made us all sit back in our chairs. after talking about continuing security challenges general alan said corruption is a bigger existential -- existential threat to afghan society than security challenges are and he wasn't minimizing security challenges. he was elevating corruption charges. we were all struck by that but when i've watched the play about the elections in afghanistan the taliban threatened him from a security standpoint as you pointed out the nsf did a superb job in blocking the taliban from being able to disrupt the elections. but the challenge with the elections were allegations of corruption. the corruption threat proved to be more real work to be more im

hereby appoint the honorable tim kaine, a senator from the commonwealth of virginia, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 384, s. 2363, hagan sportsmen's bill. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number calendar 384, s. 2363, a bill to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting, and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30. senators during that period of time will be able to speak up to ten minutes each. at 5:30 there will be two roll call votes. the first will be on the confirmation of cheryl krause to be a circuit judge. the next will be on a mexico to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to s. 2363, the hagueen sportsmen's bill. i'm told that s. 2562 is due for its second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk read the title for the second time. the clerk

mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator? >> i want to thank senator menendez for chairing this hearing. senator kaine and corker, as well. and thank the witnesses for your testimony. i will follow on senator flake's questioning in a moment. i share the administration's ultimate goal, as you've just been testifying to, of encouraging the creation of an inclusive iraqi government supported by all of iraq's different sectarian groups that has some hope of a secure and stable iraq going forward given how much has been sacrificed over how many years. i'll renew a theme you've heard from several senators, that i do not support a return of active u.s. combat troop presence in iraq. i am concerned about the security of our embassy and personnel. and i'm very concerned about the region and about some of our vital regional allies. so first, i think we do need to we'll do defeating isis and the regional threat here in a regional context as you've testified. and i think it's imperative that we have to find a way to move forward that has some reasonable chance of resolving the ongoing crisis in both iraqyand syria to the best interes

reid, hagan, leahy, kaine, king, carper, nelson, tester, murray, mccaskill, begich, whitehouse, heinrich, stabenow, harkin, udall of new mexico and donnelly. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to calendar number 438, s. 2244. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to the consideration of s. 2244, bill to extend the termination date of the terrorism insurance program, and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i want the record to reflect how much i appreciate the hard work of the senator from north carolina, senator hagan, working on this bipartisan bill. she did it with the ranking member of the energy and natural resources committee, senator murkowski, and they have done good work coming up with this bill. but, mr. president, the senator from alaska spoke this morning about her desire for consideration of amendments. typical, typical, typical of the last six years here. this bill h

mr. president, and i just want to say that this senator and others, particularly senator kaine, who knows this issue well -- he was a missionary when he was in law school, he took a year off from law school, senator kaine of virginia. he lived in honduras. he speaks fluent spanish. he knows this problem as well. and if we could have a greater percentage of those drugs interdicted, then we would seriously start to diminish all of this migration to the north through the rest of central america and through mexico to the texas border. and let me just point out one thing in closing. why are the children not coming from the other three countries right there, belize, nicaragua , panama, costa rica, a fourth country in central america? the children are not coming from those. they're coming from the three are where all the drugs are. and where the drug lords have taken over. i hope the senate will react with rationality, and as difficult as it's going to be to pass a supplemental appropriations bill down at the other end of this hall, in the house of representatives, putting money in there to acti

kaine, a senator from the commonwealth of virginia, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 453, bring jobs home. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to the consideration of s. 2569, a bill to provide an incentive for businesses to bring jobs back to america. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30 this evening. senators during that period of time will be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled in the usual fashion. at 5:30 p.m., the senate will proceed to executive session and vote on confirmation of the following nominations -- julie carnes of the united states circuit -- to be united states circuit judge for the 11th circuit, michael anderson lawson, eunice reddick to be ambassador to the republic of niger. we expect roll call votes on the carnes nomination and voice votes on the lawso

mr. kaine: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for five minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, please proceed. mr. kaine: madam president, in the last year, i have been in jordan, turkey and lebanon to visit syrian refugees and the organizations that work with them. i have seen the effect of refugees fleeing violence on these nations. lebanon has four million people. they are having to care for a million refugees from syria, one in four members of their population. these countries especially jordan and lebanon are much smaller than the united states. they are much poorer than the united states. jordan has very little water for their own citizens much less refugees, but they have shown a real sense of compassionate hospitality in treating these syrian refugees who are fleeing violence and coming over their border. lebanese citizens even run double school shifts, their own kids in the morning and syrian refugees in the aftern