mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, there comes to the floor oftentimes things of for tent for the nation, but the distinguished senator from vermont and i want to talk about one of the most significant people vermont has ever known. i would like to yield to my distinguished colleague from vermont and we'll go back and forth. mr. sanders: i thank senator leahy for yielding. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: without objection, mr. president, what i would like to do is submit a statement from senator leahy and myself into the record celebrating the 90th birthday of one of the great governors in the history of the state of vermont, phillip hoff. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, every now and then there are figures who come along and play a profound and

mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i have been moved by the comments of the senators regarding senator baker. the story that the senior senator from tennessee told of the light bulbs is -- it those of us who knew senator baker could well understand that, a man who brought senators together from both parties. i'll tell two very quick stories. one, he was referencing one leadership race by one vote. he had called a good friend of his who was at home on official business and said, i know the press says i'm going to lose this race, but i know you're voting for me. can you come back and vote? and that senator did. that senator was the then-senior senator from vermont, robert stafford. and he flew back, got to the caucus to vote for his friend howard baker, the first one by one vote. all the rest by acclamation. i know this because both bob stafford and howard baker told me that story. and they also were two of the finest senators i ever served with. both people tried to work things out. my other story was, we wer

mr. leahy: what's the parliamentary situation? the presiding officer: the pending question is 2363, the sportsmen's bill. mr. leahy: madam president, i ask consent to proceed for niefns as though in morning business. -- for five minutes as though in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: last week i chaired a field hearing of the senate judiciary committee. did i it in burlington, vermont, on an issue of critical importance: preserving an open internet. our committee heard testimony about the need for concrete, fundamental protections to ensure that the internet is not abused by those who control how we connect to the net. the timing of the hearing was not a coincidence. i convened it during a week when americans were gathering to celebrate what our founders put in motion more than 200 years ago. no one at a time could have imagined the internet or how important it was going to be, but the sentiment and priorities expressed at the hearing would have made our foun

mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i'm glad to hear people decided to speak about immigration law. this body passed overwhelmingly -- republicans and democrats joined together -- the comprehensive immigration law last year -- last year. actually, almost exactly a year ago. we did it after hours and hours, days and days and days of hearings, of markups sometimes until 10:00 at night, 11:00 at night. staff and senators, republicans and democrats, worked together weekends, evenings, and the u.s. senate by better than a 2-1 margin, passed a comprehensive immigration bill that was supported by many from the right to the left. it went over to the other body and the other body there were enough votes to pass the immigration law. and what happened? the republican leadership said, no, we won't bring it up. we won't bring it up. and they refused to bring it up. now they're giving great speeches ... oh, my god, we have to do something about immigration. look at where we are. why don't we do something about immigration.

mr. leahy: mr. president, i'm going to speak on another issue, and i see my distinguished going from utah, senator lee, on the floor, and it's one that he's worked with me on and we've tried to join together. it was more than a year ago, not only here in the united states but the whole world some very startling details about the massive scope of the national security agency's surveillance programs. and since then, the american people and actually all three branches of government have been debating the same fundamental questions about the extent of government power the framers considered when they crafted the constitution. many of us had been arguing those same issues, whether in the judiciary committee, intelligence committee and others, but it was hard to get anybody's attention. suddenly, the whole world was list b listening. -- was listening. an obvious question is when and how should the government be permitted to gather information about its citizens? how do we protect our country while we pres

mr. leahy: i have no objection. i have no objection after the vote, but i object before the vote. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to five minutes prior to the vote. mr. vitter: i will consider objecting but i far prefer to amend the unanimous consent request so i get the additional minute i was just denied and the senator from maryland gets her time. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection, the senator from maryland. mr. vitter: mr. president, my unanimous consent request was for me to finish my remarks in one minute and then have the senator -- the presiding officer: pending unanimous consent request from the senator from maryland. is there objection? mr. vitter: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i that are call for the regular order. ask unanimous consent that my full statement be included in the record. i yield back whatever time we would have and that we move expedi

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leader, the senate will resume consideration of the nomination of pamela harris to be united states circuit judge for the fourth circuit postcloture. the time until 5:30 p.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. at 5:30 the senate will proceed to vote on confirmation of the nomination. immediately upon disposition of the harris nomination there will be four voice votes on the following nominations: elliot kaye to be commissioner of the consumer product safety commission. elliot kaye to be chairman of the consumer product safety commission. joseph p. mohorovic to be commissioner of consumer safety products, consumer product safety commission and brian p. mckeon, principal deputy undersecretary of defense. i ask unanimous consent that upon disposition of the mckeon nomination the senate resume legislative session in consideration of s. 2569. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: s. 2

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: a bill to provide an incentive for business to bring back jobs t

mr. president, today, my colleague, senator leahy, the chairman of the judiciary committee, introduced legislation that would amend the patriot act. this new legislation reflects a bicameral and bipartisan compromise that ends the bulk data collection practice that's currently being used. it also gives our intelligence officials specific rules to follow so that they can keep the operational capabilities necessary to protect the united states from a terrorist attack without compromising the 4th amendment of the constitution. i'd like to thank senator leahy for his work and i'm grateful for his partnership. this important step is necessary for restoring americans' privacy rights which was taken by an overreaching federal government in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. mr. president, the expanded authority given to the national security agency through executive action and the patriot act was intended to prevent another attack on america. while i was not a member of congress on 9/11, i share the horror of all nevadans watching the murder of thousands of innocent americans and the profound sadnes

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 438, s. 2234, the terrorism risk insurance. officer the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 438, s. 2244, a bill to extend the termination date of the terrorism insurance program and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that at 11:45 earnlg the senate resume consideration of s. 2363, the bipartisan sportsmen's act, and the senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the bill. further, that notwithstanding rule 22 following the cloture vote, the senate proceed to executive session, as provided under our previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: so following my remarks and those of the republican leader, there will be a period of morning business until 11:15 today. senators will be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each during that time, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leerksd the senate will be in a period of morning business until 12:00 noon today. during that period of time, senators will be permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the time will be equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees. at noon shall th, the senate wio executive session and provide to votes on three nominations: julian castro, mayor of san antonio, texas, to be the secretary of house being and urban development, darci vert, and william adams to be chairperson for the national endowment of the humanities. there will be roll caught votes on the nomination of the castro nomination and we expect voice votes on the vetter and adams nominations. following that there will be a motion to proceed to s. 2363. we expect that vote to be by voice also. senators should expect one roll call vote today at about noon. mr. president, s. 2569 is due for its second reading i'm told. the presiding officer: t

mr. daniel with our appreciation and our apologies for the interruption. please proceed with your testimony. >> thank you, sir. good morning. >> good morning. >> thank you, chairman whitehouse, chairman leahy, senator grassley -- >> is your microphone on, mr. daniel? >> and i was reminded to turn it on before i started, too. thank you, chairman whitehouse, chairman leahy, senator grassley, and the members of the judiciary committee for holding this important hearing. my name is elvin daniel. i'm a republican. i'm an avid hunter, a gun owner, and i enjoy using my guns for target practice with my family and friends. i am a strong supporter of the second amendment and an nra member. i also believe in common sense, sensible gun laws. i am here today to speak for my sister, xena. i speak for xena and my entire family because xena is not here to speak for herself. xena loved life. all she wanted to do was be a good mother to her two daughters. she loved disney world, rick springfield, and helping other people. as a matter of fact, her last momen moments, she was begging her estranged husband, she said, please, it's a place of peace. leave these people alone. she was -- she was beautiful and full

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader.r. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to calendar number 453, the bring jobs home act. this will be postcloture time. cloture has been invoked on this measure. at 1:45 this afternoon, there will be a voice vote on adoption of the motion to proceed to the bring jobs home act. there will be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of pamela harris to be united states circuit judge for the fourth circuit, followed by a voice vote on confirmation of the nomination of lisa disbrow to be an assistant secretary of the air force. i ask unanimous consent that at 3:40 this afternoon, the senate conduct a moment of silence in member of the 1998 capitol shooting that resulted in the deaths of special agents john gibson and officer jacob chestnut. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: s. 2649 is due for a second reading here in the senate. the presiding officer: the cler

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader.mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 488. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 488, s. 2648, a bill making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2014, and for other purposes. mr. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill postcloture. the time until 10:00 will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. the majority will control the time from 11 until 12:00. we will notify all senators when votes are scheduled. s. 2709 is due for its second reading, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 2709, a bill to extend and reauthorize the export-import bank of the united states and and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president, i would object to any further proceed

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader.. reid: what is now before the senate? the presiding officer: the senate under previous order is now in leader time. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leader, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 2569, with the time until 11:00 a.m. equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. at 11:00 a.m., there will be a roll call vote on the motion to proceed to invoke cloture on the motion regarding the bring jobs home act, s. 2569, followed by voice votes on the following three nominations -- confirmation of julia aikins clark to be general counsel for the federal labor relations authority, confirmation of andrew shapiro to be ambassador of the czech republic, and qirnlings -- mr. president, i have a colloquy between the republican leader, senator boxer, and me. i ask consent it be placed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number number 459, s. 2578, protect women's health from corporate interference. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 459, s. 2578, a bill to ensure that employers cannot interfere in their employees birth control and other health care decisions. mr. reid: there are two bills at the desk due for second reading, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the titles of the bills for the second time. the clerk: s. 2609, a bill to restore states sovereign rights to enforce state and local sales and use tax laws, and for other purposes. h.r. 5021, an act to provide an extension of federal aid highway, and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: i would object to any further proceedings regarding these bills at this time. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed upon the calendar. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the r

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

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 459, s. 2578, protect women's health from corporate interference act. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 459, a bill to ensure that employers cannot interfere in their employees birth control and other health care decisions. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leader, if any, there will be a period of morning business until 6:00 this evening with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. there will be no roll call votes during today's session of the senate. mr. president, the reason for that is last week we were able to get a few things done. we were able to do some things around here like we used to do. i know my republican colleagues lament how things used to be. well, i was there. i know how things used to be. and one of the things we used to do is we would work out pieces of legislation, as we did, on terrorism insurance. we

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

follows: reid, leahy, coons, whitehouse, murray, klobuchar, cantwell, reed of rhode island, nelson, warren, udall of new mexico, hirono, blumenthal, boxer, harkin, cardin, and schumer. 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 legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to proceed. all knows in favor say aye. all those opposed, say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. and the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, senators couldn't, sessions, stabenow, and warble be able to speak up to five minutes each prior to the cloture vote on s. 2569, with senator coons be first recognized. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. coons: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that akuna cook be granted floor privileges during consideration of the bring jobs home act. the presiding officer: without objection. coons coops mr. president, i hav--mr. coons: mr

leahy. >> thank you, madam chairman. i'd like to ask secretary johnson and also mr. shannon, is mexico helping stem this flow and secure the border, if they're helping what are they doing, and if they're not, why not? and what are we doing get them to engage them to help to stop the flow of illegal aliens through central america? >> senator, let me take the first crack at that. this has been the subject of conversations at the highest levels of both governments. president to president, my counterpart as recently as yesterday when we were in guatemala, and i believe that the mexicans will step up and assist us in the security of their southern border. they announced on monday a plan for added security on their southern border to deal with the migration and to put in place a guest worker program for guatemalans who come into the southern part of their region, but a component of that will also be border security, and i'll defer to ambassador shannon. >> thank you very much, senator. as secretary johnson noted, the president of guatemala announced a mexican southern bord

mr. franken: thank you, madam president. i rise today to talk about the transparency provisions in the u.s.a. freedom act. i'm a proud cosponsor of chairman leahy's bill, and i'm particularly proud to have written its key transparency provisions with my friend, senator dean heller of nevada. as i have said, both -- i spoke yesterday on this. both of us are indebted to senator leahy for his leadership on this issue. for over a year now, there's been a steady stream of news, news stories about the national security agency's surveillance programs. and yet right now by law, americans still can't get some very basic information about these programs. americans understand that we need to give due weight to privacy, on the one hand, and national security on the other. but when they lack an even rough sense of the scope of the government surveillance programs, they have no way to know if the government is getting that balance right. there needs to be more transparency. the controversy unleashed by edward snowden's disclosures has been going on now for over a year and americans still don't know the actual number of people whose information has been collect

mr. daniel? >> and i was reminded to turn it on before i started, too. thank you, chairman, chairman white house, leahy, grassley and members of the judiciary committee for holding this important hearing. my name is elvin daniel. i'm a republican, i'm an avid hunter, gun owner and i enjoy using my guns for target practice with my family and friends. i'm a strong advocate of the nra and gun owner. i also believe in sensible gun laws. i empty here today to speak for my sister, zina. to speak for zina and my entire family because she's not here to speak for herself. zina loved life. all she wanted to do is be a good mother to her two daughters. she loved disney world, rick springfield and helping other people. matter of fact, her last moments, she was begging her estranged husband, please, leave this place, these people alone. she was beautiful, full of goodness. and some goodwi will come out o her death. >> on october 21st, 2012, i received a phone call nobody should receive. i was told my sister had been shot and killed. by her estranged husband. we later learned that he had bought the gun through armsl

leahy and jnator udall for advancing as resolution 19, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution restoring reasonable limits on financial contributions and expenditures in elections. thank you, mr chairman. i yield back. >> i think the gentle lady. i invite you to submit opening statements for the records. to welcome the deputy attorney general of the nine states. stand up for a raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear and affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? please to have you with us. you have done this a few times. you've got five minutes more or less. fire away. >> i will take less than that, mr. chairman. before i start, i want to thank the chairman for accommodating the request i made to have a rescheduling of the data. i was already scheduled to be down at the southwest order looking at the mcallen station, dealing with the issues down there in dealing with the issues we have there. thank you for accommodating that. to testify iny response to the committee's thesight interest that internal revenue service targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. the attorney general im

mr. leahy: madam president, could we have order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. leahy: i'm afraid to start to speak because i don't want to interrupt all the conversations going on all around me. i'd hate to distract them from their conversations. he said, subtly. i ask consent those last remarks be stricken from the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, over the years i've frequently spoken on the senate floor about refugees. i've asked my fellow senators to support a humanitarian refugee efforts in far-flung corners of the world. in doing so i cite america's role as a human rights list. i also remind people of a time in the past around world war ii where this country unwisely closed its borders to people who are fleeing the holocaust in germany. they came here, they were turned back, sent back, many of them to certain death in the death camps. that was a sorry part of our history. usually our history reflects what we see in the

mr. leahy: mr. president, i thank my friend from tennessee for what he said. the trial he described is not a trial. it's a sham. and no honest or civilized country, no country that has even a pretense of following the rule of law should accept that kind of trial. so i applaud the senior senator from tennessee for his comments. mr. president, i've come to this floor many times to talk about the need to support law enforcement. sure, our criminal justice serves everyone fairly. i do it again in light of a very disturbing report issued by the justice department's inspector general last week which described serious flaws in some of our nation's crime labs. the report focused on 13 crime lab examiners who work with whos seriously flawed. but the worst part about their testimony contributed to the convictions of thousands of offenders, including 60 people on death row. on death row based on flawed testimony, flawed evidence that the people in the lab had to know was flawed. the f.b.i. launched an investigation. they discovered these mistakes. but then even after the