mr. moran: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas is recognized. mr. moran: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to address the senate as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: thank you. our nation's founding fathers amended the nature of the constitution more than two centuries ago to guarantee a bill of rights for its citizens. since then our democracy has stood strong and americans have enjoyed liberties and freedoms unparalleled in the world, including the fundamental right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the second amendment to the united states constitution. today our freedoms and our country's sovereignty is in danger of being undermined by the united nations. to ensure our liberties remain for generations today and for the future, i'm offering legislation to protect the rights of american gun owners from the effects of any u.n. arms treaty. in october of 2009 at the u.n. again assembly, the obama administration voted for the united states to participate in negotiating an arms trade treaty, a reversal

the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. moran, for five minutes. . mr. oran: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise to voice my strong objection to an unweiss -- an unweiss and dangerous policy provision included in the commerce, justice, science appropriations bill on the floor today. it would undermine the ability of federal law enforcement to investigate and curb gun trafficking along the southwest border. in august of last year the a.t.f. began a program to acquire licensed gun dealers in the four most dangerous border states to report when an individual buys multiple assault rifles within five business days. just as all dealers have reported multiple handgun sales for over 20 years. the current rule is narrowly tailored to generate useful intelligence on illegal gun trafficking by mexican drug cartels. according to a.t.f. data, 70% of firearms recovered and traced in drug cartel crimes in mexico originated from the united states. we know that semiautomatic and assault rifles sold on the board fuel mexican cartel violence, violence that has kille

mr. moran: mr. president, thank you. i ask unanimous consent to address the senate a if in morning hour. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, today we considered five separate budget proposals for the federal government. at first glance that would appear to be the fiscally responsible thing to do. the families back home in kansas and small businesses, owners that i talk to, they do that every year. they operate with a budget and we know the federal government needs to do so as well. however, this chamber, the senate has not done so in 1,113 days, more than three years. in my first speech on the senate floor as a new member of the united states senate, a little more than a year ago, i indicated to my senate colleagues that my greatest concern for our country is our nation's out-of-control spending. i'm here today because i still have that concern. we spend too much money and we no longer can delay the difficult decisions necessary to correct that problem. our national d

mr. moran: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from can cap. mr. moran: thank you.i walk up this morning in kansas with some sad news. one of our late legislate ors, bob beth he will, a 30-year member of the kansas house of representatives, died in a car wreck late last night. the kansas legislature has had a difficult session and finally concluded, i believe, after 100 days, of the legislative session this year's work in topeka and one of our central kansas legislators in the drive home from topeka back to alden, kansas, was involved in a one-car accident, a fatality. i rise tonight to pay respect to my friend and former colleague, bob bethel, and express my respect and gratitude for his public service and my care and concern, in fact my love, for his wife lorraine, family, and friends. bob bethel -- i suppose you could call hirple call him a gt politician. he called a great politician because in topeka he was someone whose voice was listened to. but nothing about bob bethel really was a politician. bob bethel was a person who was a baptist minister in his small ho

mr. chairman. >> senator moran. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i'm not a member of this subcommittee, i appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to join you today, really only for the purposes to lend my support to see that we get this accomplished and to hear from the witnesses today to -- so i can have my arguments reenforced. i still remain baffled by at least i'm unaware of a response to the letter that the two of you led to our leaders asking that the five-year reauthorization be considered by the senate. i just don't understand why this is something that can't be accomplished based upon the nature of this legislation, its importance, its value to the country, and its bipartisan support, and so every once in awhile, when we have to admit how dysfunctional this place is, this seems to be the perfect example of dysfunction, and if there's something i can do, senator vitter, senator tester, to assist to get the five-year reauthorization bill to the senate floor, i'm your ally, and i appreciate the testimony i read and heard expressing the val

mr. chairman. >> senator moran. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i'm not a member of this subcommittee, i appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to join you today, really only for the purposes to lend my support to see that we get this accomplished and to hear from the witnesses today to -- so i can have my arguments reenforced. i still remain baffled by at least i'm unaware of a response to the letter that the two of you

mr. moran: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent to address the senate as if in morning hour. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: it is that time of year when many parents will watch their children graduate. two years ago i watched my own daughter wak walk across a colle stage. if we fail to act, our children's future will be at significant risk. i believe all members of congress, in fact every american has the responsibility to be a good steward of what has been passed on to us. at that graduation event, i renewed my commitment do my part to turn our country around. my fear is that we are not doing enough, that we as americans, and especially we as members of this congress, are not doing enough to off our children a bright future. in the last two weeks i've read headlines that catch my attention, would catch every american's attention. first, the amount of student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in american history. americans now have more combined student loan d

mr. moran: thank you, mr. president. earlier today, i attended a memorial service to honor our nation's law enforcement officers who laid down their lives to protect their fellow citizens. since 1962, may 15 has stood as a day of remembrance for the many fallen police officers who faithfully served our communities and our nation. they must never be forgot. this year, 362 names were added to the national law enforcement officers memorial, and among those names were three brave officers from kansas. two of these men died in the line of duty many years ago, but we pause today to remember their sacrifice. in 1892, and drew balfour of kiowa county was fulfilling his duties as a local sheriff and pursuing a man who was wanted for theft when he was mortally wounded. andrew passed away at the young age of 41, leaving behind a wife and six children. in 1922, william bloomfield, a deputy sheriff serving in bourbon county, was arresting a well-known criminal when he was killed during a fierce gun battle. these two men honorably ser

mr. moran: thank you, madam president. yesterday, a group of four of us senators introduced legislation that i want to highlight today in this brief opportunity on the senate floor. we introduced senate bill 3217. this legislation called start-up 2.0 was introduced by senator warner, senator coons, senator rubio and me to begin the process of trying to create a better entrepreneurial environment in the united states, to create opportunities for entrepreneurs for innovation, to grow the economy and create jobs, and i want to personally thank those three senators, two of us republicans, two democrats, who decided that this common phrase that we hear around washington, d.c., we can't do anything this year because it's an election year is nothing that we're willing to tolerate. we didn't get the marching orders, the instructions that say you can't work and accomplish good things for america just because there is a november election. and so i want to highlight to my colleagues, in fact ask them to join us in this effort to grow

moran: thank you. commissioners? we do have public comment. i have three people who submitted cards. mr. murphy is the first. he will be followed by mr. catagan. two of them are the same. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i represent the golden gate audubon society and its 10,000 members. i recommend that you approve the lake merced watershed report and reject the mou. i made a case previously for revising the mou, but i i am convinced it is necessary for the puc to assume full management control of lake merced. a couple examples why. around the end of january, i got a call from the puc staff member who wanted to get my it is about cutting bulrush at the lake and make access for crew racing and another pier for children's fishing access. two staffers from pc and one from dpw waited for me. we waited for some time for the rpd rep. while we were waiting, we checked the crew racing pier. we develop parameters for cuttingwe went over to see whate could figure out about the fishing pier. the representative never showed up and never called. to the credit of both puc and dpw staff, it it was cleaned up spotlessly a

moran: thank you. commissioners? we do have public comment. i have three people who submitted cards. mr. murphy is the first. he will be followed by mr. catagan. two of them are the same. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i represent the golden gate audubon society and its 10,000 members. i recommend that you approve the lake merced watershed report and reject the mou. i made a case previously for revising the mou, but i i am convinced it is necessary for the puc to assume full management control of lake merced. a couple examples why. around the end of january, i got a call from the puc staff member who wanted to get my it is about cutting bulrush at