mr. manchin proposes an amendment numbered 694. mr. manchin: i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: we cannot agree that climate change is real and that humans do contribute to it. we can also not deny that we will rely on fossil fuels for years to come. coal is one of the two base load fuels that will run 24/7, rain or shine. with new regulations we are facing new regulations. during the polar vortex, the p.g.m. system that provides electricity for west virginia and electricity we're using right now in d.c. will be running full capacity. saw a record number of platte outages when they were most needed. further threats could result in rolling blackouts which puts lives in vulnerability. the department of energy supports a group of 1,000 projects including $7 billion of private-sector investment. representing 5,000 jobs across the united states. research supported this program has led to cleaner burning plants over the past decades and we have reduced pollutants

mr. manchin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: i also want to congratulate my colleague from west virginia. and we've spoken before that maybe we can show the way to have a better relationship building effort here in the senate and working together for the people and the common cause of west virginia and also the country. and that's our most important thing. so i congratulate her on a great speech and look forward to working with her for our great people of w west virginia west virginia and i think she's going to do a great job and i just want to thank her again. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president i rise to address a question to myself and every member of this body and the question is this. it's a serious one. is the senate capable of tackling challenging national security questions in a mature and responsible way? we have many hard national security challenges before us now. three are urgent. the discussions about a potential nuclear deal with iran iran. th

mr. manchin: thank you senator. i came here november 156789 came a senator on november 15, 2010. i have been here a little over four years. and i was first brought to understand the keystone project which is under way n. and trying to get built. i was asked the question, what do you think? i looked at it very quickly and i looked at how much oil we buy from other countries around the world. the same type of an oil we buy about 750,000 barrels a day from venezuela, and i'm thinking, i'd rather buy from my friends than my enemies the pooh emthat take the proceeds and the profits from us buying their product and using it against us. so i was very clear on that and i think most we have virginians feel the way i dovment let's look at the facts of what we're dealing with. 40% of this line is already built. 40% of this line is already built. this is the part we're talking about that has not been built that we're producing and loo would like to build it. the capacity from the bakken. 12% of the bakken oil. we're moving our oil producing our oil buying from our best, friendliest neighbor

manchin. senator peters. see that thank you mr. chairman thanks to our panelists for your testimony and your hard work on this issue and your insight into it. i want to say certainly i'm concerned about all the issues i have heard from my colleagues in michigan that i'm privileged to represent has a great deal of rural areas as well so i appreciate your reference to making sure we have this network up and running. not only in urban areas but another area that's important to us as the border areas. we are a state that is on some of the most perverse border crossings in the country piggybacked we just recently have been moving forward on building an international bridge between detroit and windsor which will greatly increase trade between our countries and continue to make michigan a hub for the whole country and we abort across as an port huron and sault ste. marie and as a result of their frequent contacts with canadian officials. as we are dealing with border issues and when it comes to first responders we often have to coordinate

manchin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank all of you for what you're doing in this firstnet is unbelievably important. i came into office in early 2005, and we weren't able to communicate with -- in natural disasters or mine tragedies we had. couldn't get the equipment to right place because we cooperate communicate so it was important for us to protect our citizens by being able to communicate. we put a radio system in. we're probably one of the most rural states east of the mississippi. with that being said this is so important to us. what i would ask you is that -- also want to thank you for the conference you attended and mess with some of my west virginia first responders. when will the grants be available? right now everyone is talking and planning but we're not seeing any action. >> right. i don't know if you want to answer that question. [inaudible] >> he manages the grants. >> oh, yeah. when are you going to let them go? [inaudible] >> turn your mikeow phone on. the question is, when are you going to

mr. president, this is a bipartisan bill. it is a bill that i introduced with senator joe manchin last congress and we've recently reintroduced this bill. we also intend to offer this bill as an amendment to the justice for victims of trafficking act that the senator from south dakota was just discussing. this is a bill that provides some crucial protections to our children. i am proud to be a cosponsor of this underlying bill. i am confident it's going to pass. and i certainly hope it'll pass with our amendment. the amendment -- this bipartisan amendment that i'll be introducing, the protecting students act amends the underlying bill to protect even more chin. that's what-- more children. that's what it does, provides specific protections against convicted child molesters from infill trailing our schools. let me just say up front mr. president, i fully recognize that the vast majority of school employees would never consider sexually abusing or violently abusing the children in their care. we all understand that. but we also understand that there are pedophiles in this country, and they seek out vulnerable children. that's w

manchin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank all of you for your great service to the country and i appreciate what you do every day. there's not a person in my state of west virginia that doesn't support everything you do. doesn't support the military. they'll fight, do anything you ask them to do. but they still ask questions about why do we spend so much money on military. why to we spend more of the eight countries put together. we have to always be gang their trust if you will. i know in procurement, we're not the best in procurement. we're not the best in billing weapons. eisenhower said be ware of the military industrial complex. we're all in tune with all of this. so i know how detrimental sequestering is. we talked about flexibility at one time. flexibility by itself won't do it. i understand that. secretary carter you and i had a nice conversation. i think secretary hagel was trying to look at the budgets, reducing them by 20% and everything. but basically it comes down to the oddity. knowing where we are. and i

manchin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank all of you for the great service to the country and appreciate very much what you do everyday. is not a person i know in my state of west virginia that doesn't support everything you do. doesn't support the military, they fight, do anything you ask them to do but they still us questions about why do we spend so much money on military, why do we spend more than of the next eight countries put together. we have to be always came to trust, if you will. i know procurement were not the best in procurement, not the best in developing weapons of farce costliness. eisenhower's -- i think we all are in tune with all this. so i know detrimental sequestering is. we talked about flexibility at one time. flexibility by itself won't do it, i understand that. secretary carter, you and i had a nice conversation. i think secretary hagel was trying to look at the budget, reducing it by 20% but by the basically it really comes down to the oddity. knowing where we are. and i talked about contra

the toomey-manchin bill has no such materiality requirement. mr. president, i ask consent to include following my remarks these differences between the background check requirements and the community development block grant bill and the toomey-manchin amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: so finally mr. president, i'm glad we're discussing this topic. i congratulate the senator from pennsylvania and west virginia for putting the spotlight on it. they worked on it for a year. i have worked on it for a year. i have worked with them to suggest changes. we have this fundamental difference. i think when it comes to local schools, the limit of washington's responsibility is in able, is in able communities and schools to do a better job of educating our children. most of the discussion we're having in the senate education committee today is we talk about reauthorizing the elementary and secondary education act. our moving decisions about whether its schools and teachers are succeeding or failing out of washington and back to t

manchin. senator peters. see that thank you mr. chairman thanks to our panelists for your testimony and your hard work on this issue and your insight into it. i want to say certainly i'm concerned about all the issues i have heard from my colleagues in michigan that i'm privileged to represent has a great deal of rural areas as well so i appreciate your reference to making sure we have this network up and running. not only in urban areas but another area that's important to us as the border areas. we are a state that is on some of the most perverse border crossings in the country piggybacked we just recently have been moving forward on building an international bridge between detroit and windsor which will greatly increase trade between our countries and continue to make michigan a hub for the whole country and we abort across as an port huron and sault ste. marie and as a result of their frequent contacts with canadian officials. as we are dealing with border issues and when it comes to first responders we often have to coordinate

manchin's turn. the chair recognizes the senator from west virginia. >> thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate that so much. this is such an interesting topic. and you know i keep thinking back to those who are old enough or grew up basically before there was mobile phones, cell phones internet, computers -- >> television. >> i didn't want to go -- i can go there if you want to. and then you know, in west virginia there's still discussions did al gore really invent the internet? or was it something we all contributed to and all of us being involved? i think when you look about where we are we all will agree this is an intricate part of our life today and we all depend on it. we might not know all the answers to the questions that we just put forth, but bottom line is we don't want to lose what we have. in rural states such as west virginia they told us that when you divested yourself of the telephone ma bell it would be better. well it wasn't. they told us also that basically if we deregulated the airlines it would be better. it wasn't. deregulation hasn't -- they said when you de

senator donnelly, senator murkowski, senator manchin and i have all been working on this. and i'll tell you mr. president, i'm hearing from workers who are telling me that their hours have been cut to 29 hours a week because of these penalties that their employers simply cannot afford. and it's not just in the for-profit hospitality industry. it's also in school systems community colleges. so that is yet another of my amendments that i hope will enjoy support later today. mr. president, i see there are a number of my colleagues now on the floor so i will yield the floor. thank you mr. president. i suggest the absence of a quorum until my colleagues are ready. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: would the senator withhold her request? ms. collins: i do withhold the request. the presiding officer: thank you. the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: mr. president i'd like to set aside the pending amendments in order to call up two of my amendments en bloc, amendments 877 and 878. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection the amendments are called up en bloc bloc. the c

mr. manchin: thank you senator. i came here november 156789 came a senator on november 15, 2010. i have been here a little over four years. and i was first brought to understand the keystone project which is under way n. and trying to get built. i was asked the question, what do you think? i looked at it very quickly and i looked at how much oil we buy from other countries around the world. the same type of an oil we buy about 750,000 barrels a day from venezuela, and i'm thinking, i'd rather buy from my friends than my enemies the pooh emthat take the proceeds and the profits from us buying their product and using it against us. so i was very clear on that and i think most we have virginians feel the way i dovment let's look at the facts of what we're dealing with. 40% of this line is already built. 40% of this line is already built. this is the part we're talking about that has not been built that we're producing and loo would like to build it. the capacity from the bakken. 12% of the bakken oil. we're moving our oil producing our oil buying from our best, friendliest neighbor

a senator: manchin and i have -- mr. toomey: it is amendment number 291 based on a bill that we have, the protecting students from sexual and violent predators act. the goal is just to protect kids from pedophiles in schools. that's what it comes down to. overwhelming bipartisan support for our legislation the bill that i introduced with senator manchin. it passed the house unanimously and i rose last week to ask unanimous consent to bring this amendment up and make it pending so that we could debate and we could vote on it, and one of our friends from the other side of the aisle objected to that as well. so no progress on this yet but i am -- i'm convinced that this isn't going to stand. i just -- i'm just convinced that enough democratic senators are going to come to their senses and they're going to join us in voting to get on this bill and we're going og to be able at some point to proceed with this and to proceed with the various amendments that i and others intend to offer. so i want to speak a little bit about my