mr. portman? mr. graham? mr. portman? mr. toomey? mr. johnson? ms. ayotte? mr. wicker? mr. corker? mr. purdue? mr. sanders? ms. murray? mr. wyden? mr. white house? mr. warner? mr. merkley? ms. baldwin? mr. kane? mr. king? mr. chairman? chairman: the amendment has failed. next is senator johnson's amendment. senator: 47 municipalities have declared bankruptcy. by estimates of underfunded liability is approaching $5 trillion. this amendment would prohibit the use of federal funds for bailing out state and local governments. i think it sends a signal that the hard-working taxpayers from other states should not be asked to bail out those other municipalities. chairman: opposition? senator: i think that nobody is interested in bailing out anybody. i think this is overly prescriptive. we do not know what may happen to a town or city in wisconsin or vermont or anyplace else. i would urge a no vote. chairman: i suspect a rollcall is required. clerk: mr. grassley? mr. sessions? mr. crapo? mr. graham? mr. portman? mr. toomey? mr. johnson? ms. ayotte? mr. wicker? sister corker? mr. purdue? ms. mu

mr. portman. mr. graham. mr. portman. mr. toomey. mr. johnson. ms. ayotte. mr. wicker. mr. corker. mr. perdue. mr. sanders. ms. murray. mr. wyden. ms. stabenow. mr. whitehouse. mr. warner. mr. merkley. ms. baldwin. mr. kaine. mr. king. mr. chairman. mr. chairman, the yeas are 10, the nays are 12. mr. enzi: the amendment has failed. next, senator johnson's amendment. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. chairman. since 2010, 47 municipalities have declared bankruptcy. estimates of underfunded and unfunded liability in state and local pensions is is approaching $5 trillion system of this amendment simply prohibits the use of federal funds for bailing out those state and local governments, it sends a necessary and loud and clear cigna that hardworking american taxpayers from other states should not be asked to bail out those states and localities. mr. enzi: opposition? >> i think that nobody is particularly interested or anxious to be bailing out anybody. but i think this is overly prescriptive. we don't know what may happen to a town or city in wisconsin or vermont or any place else. mr. sanders:

mr. portman. mr. johnson. >> mr. whitaker. >> no. >> mr. sanders. yes. >> mr. wyden. >> no. >> mr. warner. mr. merkley. mr. kane. >> aye. >> mr. chairman. no. >> they ayes are 10, the nays are 12. senator enzi: the amendment is defeated. senator enzi: that is what i will modify my amendment. >> all in favor, say aye. adopted. the sanders second amendment on minimum wage. senator sanders: the simple truth is millions of americans are working at numbers that are inadequate. if we are concerned about allowing low income people to live with dignity and earn enough money to take care of basic needs it is time for a substantial increase. i would ask you support that amendment. senator enzi: there really isn't any need to have any kind of fund to debate minimum wage. you can bring it to the floor under any circumstances. i would urge a no vote. >> rollcall vote. senator enzi: please call the role. >> no. >> mr. sessions. >> no. >> mr. gray. >> no. >> mr. portman. >> no. >> mr. johnson. >> no. >> mr. whitaker. >> no. mr. purdue. a>> misstep and mr. merkley. >> aye. >> mr. chairman. >> no.

mr. portman: mr.president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? objection is heard. mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator cannot reserve the right to object. is there objection? without objection. the senator from ohio. mr. portman: thank you mr. president. i know that you have other places that you need to be and i'm going to be here in the chair in a moment and i will not offer amendments because my understanding even though we're on the bill that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want me to offer noncontroversial amendments so i will wait until they're ready for that to keep the peace there here but i'll talk about the amendments

mr. portman: mr. president i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments and call up my amendment number 349. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from ohio mr. portman proposes an amendment numbered 349. at the appropriate place insert the following -- mr. portman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with and that we -- the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: thank you mr. president. so we're here talking about the budget and one of the issues in the budget is how we spend our money, including on health care and in this case some of our most vulnerable young people, our children, who have what are termed to be complex medical conditions. i appreciate the fact that senator bennet is cosponsoring this amendment with me. it's -- it's based on

mr. portman. >> no. >> toomey? >> no. >> mr. johnson. >> no. miss ayotte. >> no. mr. corker? >> no. >> mr. sanders. >> yes. mr. stabenow. >> yes. >> white house. >> yes. >> barner. >> aye. >> baldwin, mr. king mr. chairman. >> no. >> chairman the ayes are 10 the nays are 12. the amendment has been defeated. next be the graham overseas facilities. >> this is deficit neutral reserve fund to be used at our diplomatic facilities overseas in light of threats we face i think say veryis a very prudent thing to do. >> anyone wish to provide opposition? if not, we'll proceed to vote. all those in favor a aye. those opposed? >> the ayes appear to have it. they do have it. the amendment is passed. >>> next will be the white house amendment. the whitehouse amendment. >> thank you very much. this is the amendment we talked about that would add the information into the budget report of the amount of federal revenue that doesn't come into the budget but instead is dislocated, i guess i'd say by the tax code. i think the important information. it's a neutral amendment in the sense all it doe

mr. portman: mr. president i ask unanimous consent that we set aside the pending amendment and call up my amendment number 689. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from ohio mr. portman proposes an amendment numbered 689 on page page 104 line 16, after shall provide -- mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with, mr. president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: thank you mr. president. we have had an energetic discussion br this morning about the budget that's before us. the amendment that i am going to offer will help us to have a better process to get to pro-growth tax reform to actually get this economy growing. my colleague senator sanders just talked about the fact that real unemployment is actually far higher than the numbers that are officially reported. i agree with him on that and i agree with him that the economy is not out of the woods. i agree w

mr. chairman, the yeas are: 10, the nays are: 12. >> senator portman job training. >> mr. chairman, this is the amendment earlier that would create a reserve fund for redundancy and improve access and enhance outcomes with federal job training programs. we talked about the studies to show we have 47 over nine different departments and agencies in many have not been subject to any performance review. 44 of the 47 have been viewed by overlapping one another. we hope it gets both sides on a voice vote. senator changed and i join on this one as we did with the technical education piece to ensure we have were forced to close the current skills gap we have and put people back to work. >> opposition? all those in favor say aye. opposed? past. senator merkley career take education. senator merck leave. >> thank you mr. chairman. this is the corollary to the education of the stand program deficit mutual fund. stem programs are incredibly positive ingredient in the school process to advance the learning of science technology engineering and mathematics in potential to do more good b

mr. president before i turn to senator portman, i just want to put up a quote from one of the leaders of the antitrafficking movement, the coalition against trafficking in women who expresses my sentiments exactly my frustration over a partisan filibuster of a piece of legislation which has enjoyed broad bipartisan support and how somehow that partisanship has infected what should be a bipartisan commitment to helping the victims of human trafficking. she said senate democrats are choosing a fan tomorrow -- chiewtion a phantom problem over real victims. i think that expresses the fact and my sentiments. but i want to turn to the senator from ohio first who has been one of the leaders in this effort. he has offered an important piece of legislation that has already been incorporated in the bill that perhaps he'll talk about, but also has some additional amendments that i know he would like to get a chance to get a vote on to further improve the bill. but in particular, his provision bringing missing children home act with senator schumer, the senator from new york which is in the base bil

mr. portman, no. mr. toomey, no. mr. johnson no. mr. wicker, no. mr. corker, no. mr. perdue no. mr. sanders, aye. mr. wyden, aye. mr. warner aye. mr. merkley aye. mr. king aye. mr. chairman, the yeas are 11 and the nays are 11. senator enzi: repeat those numbers. the clerk: the yeas are 11 and the nays are 11. senator: this amendment simply creates a spending night tral reserve fund aimed at subbing the regular appropriation process. the last thing we need right now is a rogue regulator out there without any oversight of congress and that's the intent of this amendment. thank you. senator enzi: opposition? senator: the c.f.p.b. are funded to insulate from the type of influence that would deeply damage its regulatory role but independent audit monitored by the inspector general and rulemaking requirements, required testimony before the banking committee and indeed the ability of the oversight council to overturn the regulations. we need to protect this group that has done a fabulous job of defending consumers. senator enzi: i urge my colleagues to vote yes. ask for a roll call vote.

mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. portman: i rise to offer my support to the legislation that we are considering on the floor today. this is the most significant antitrafficking legislation to come before the united states senate in over a decade. as i talked about earlier when i offered a couple of amendments, i'm very pleased to be in this body on a nonpartisan basis not just a bipartisan basis, to be able to address this issue. and i want to thank the senators who have worked hard in their committees to make that possible. senators cornyn and klobuchar for all their work. i see senator wyden is here, senator leahy is here, senator grassley is here; others who have been involved in this, they and their staffs are to be commended because this has been a argue process in my view. it is an issue a lot of us care about and why? because it affects our states and our constituents in very significant ways. last year i cofounded and now cochair the caucus on

mr. chairman. >> senator portman. >> in the interest of expediting the process, either the interest of a deficit neutral reserve funds side-by-side amendment by mr. sanders. in what way are the candidate is identical with the exception, is that accurate? >> could you talk into the microphone? >> that is the main point but also includes the language without ever using new revenue. i will strike the language. essentially what we do is agree with the basic amendment. >> i would be happy to support the alternative. this is an opportunity for us to go on record. it's an important statement to make on export promotion. i don't think as i said earlier, the intent is not to decrease spending increase spending or decrease or increase revenues or i would be willing to accept this as an alternative is my colleagues would like to have a voice vote. >> you are modifying your amendment? >> i modify my amendment to make a deficit neutral fun. >> i think we are increasing exports. >> will have a voice vote unless there is an objection. all those in favor say subfloor. opposed? accepted. senator stabenow

mr. portman: are we in a quorum call mr. president? the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. portman: okay, i would ask to be recognized. i would like to talk about a couple of amendments to the legislation that we're considering this week which is the human trafficking legislation. this has been up to this point a bipartisan exercise. in fact, senator blumenthal from connecticut and i started a caucus here in the senate on human trafficking about three and a half years ago understanding that there was increasing concern about and awareness of this issue around the country wanted to bring our colleagues together to talk about the issue and we now have many other members of the senate who are part of that. we have met monthly having meetings holding up people who are doing great things around the country also describing the problem so that all of us, members of the senate and their staff, understand the seriousness of this issue and why we need to address it. that has always been nonpartisan. not just bipartisan bu

senator portman. >> mr. chairman, is interesting because ranking member sanders talked about world rankings and were 12 in the world on infrastructure. twelfth in the world now and our infrastructure. there's another ranking put out by the world a guinness says we are 41st in the country on our ability to get a permit for a construction project and we have bipartisan legislation to address that. senator mccaskill, senator king, myself and others to discuss solutions on tax loopholes and so on and there may be opportunities as someone discussed to include funding for infrastructure. we've also got to look at the issue and this is why the afl-cio supports our legislation and others, how we greenlight something whether at energy project oil and gas solar, it takes so long and there so many liability issues that discourage investment in america versus other places. we've got lots of testimony including a hearing last year. i hope the members concerned to look at the legislation as one way to get our infrastructu

the next amendment, senator portman. >> thank you mr. chairman. offering a deficit-neutral reserve funds for federal job training programs. the language before the members has been altered to change from spending neutral to deficit ridden neutral and removing the appropriate references to that and this is an amendment that talks about reducing redundancy, it improving access and enhancing access to training programs. recall we did have legislation last year that helps in this regard. it's called the career act. it was cosponsored by senator bennett and myself. so this would say that although we have made some progress we have a long way to go. it complements the amendment which was discussed earlier regarding career technical education with senator kaine and i believe senator kaine is going to co-sponsor this legislation as well but to the point he made earlier about skills training this is about taking this to worker retraining programs. right now we know from what he has told us $18 billion is being spent to administer 47 different employment tr

mr. speaker my ohio friends senator portman. distinguished members of the house and senate.end tom mullins. your words have comforted and inspired our family and shane you being here today. generally it's, a great friend for many years i have enjoyed working with you. you are the best. the osu marching band, you look larger last time i saw you but -- [laughter] thank you for being here. i much appreciated. so many family, friends. friends who took the time out of busy scheduled to be here. i am humbled. a special thanks to my son jack, i don't know if i will get through this but -- i don't have the words to say thank you for what you said from your heart on behalf of my family. it was fantastic. 2.5 years ago, i had the privilege to be here to say words about my good friend, arnold palmer. what a privilege it was to be here that day. you have been a great friend and will continue to be so, i know. for my son jack, when he was about six shows old, somebody asked him what is your dad do? and he said nothing. he just plays golf. [laughter] over the course of 65 years i ended up

portman. >> thank you mr. chairman. this has to do with exports. we talked about the need for more jobs and better jobs. to deal it this issue of flat wages and reduce benefits. economists will tell you one of the best ways is to expand exports. exports pay 17% more than average wages, provide better benefits. and it with the ohio farm bureau this morning. i talked about the fact that one of every three acres in ohio is printed for export. they would like to ask for more because it needs fair prices for them. in ohio about 25% of manufacturing jobs are export jobs now. we want more projects made in america and sent overseas. and i think this is one where as a matter of the budget, we ought to be at least making a statement on the importance of exports. we missed this point sometimes as we talk about some of the specific trade agreements and the specific issue, wu yes -- but we have to make sure that people are not below cost. we need to be tougher on that. nothing inconsistent with being tough on imports, but also expanding exports more. america is

whether senator portman or senator widen or mr. rogers or it is across the board. there is bipartisan support, states from massachusetts to kentucky west virginia, my own home state are suffering in devastating ways. one piece you didn't mention is economic impact having come from a large employer like walmart what it means in terms of employee base that can pass a drug test. >> thank you, madam secretary. >> thank you. >> chair, thanks the gentleman. chair will note we've just been joined by a group of students from the houston area. ranking member informed me. >> mr. chairman, like to recognize a number of chiropractic students from the houston area and the doctor who retired is president of our chiropractic college in pasadena texas. i invited them last night because i wanted to show how health care policy is made in the health care subcommittee. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. you're certainly welcome to be here. the chair recognizes gentleman from virginia mr. griffith, five minutes for questions. >> appreciate that. students being here and we may have

whether it's senator portman and senator widen or mr.rd there is bipartisan support. states there massachusetts to kentucky and west virginia, my home state, are suffering in devastating ways. and the one piece you didn't mention is the economic impact. having come from a large employer like walmart, what it means in terms of having an employee base that can pass a drug test. >> thank you, madam secretary. >> thank you. >> chair. >> thank gentlemen. the chair will note that we've just been joined by a group of students from the houston area. ranking members informed me. you want the say anything? >> i want to recognize the number of the chiropractic students from the houston area and the doctor who actually retired as the president of our chiropractic college in texas. i invited them last night because i wanted to show them how health care policy is made in the health care subcommittee. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. you're certainly welcome to be here. chair now recognizes chairman, mr. griffith. >> we may have some disagreement

mr. chair. i will be brief. i believe it has some good solid bipartisan support. two of my colleagues here on this committee, senators baldwin and portman, are together with me, the co-chairs of the senate career and technical education caucus. this amendment is a deficit knew ral reserve fund to support legislation encouraging more cte innovation to prepare students for the 21st century work force. i'm the son of an iron worker, and i ran a technical school in honduras for a year and learned there. since the power of cte, it was kind of put into the shadows of american public education for a number of decades, but now it's back strong. and there's some wonderful programs around the country, about 30% of jobs by 2018 will require some kind of technical training. so i'm establishing a deficit neutral reserve fund to advance this priority, and i believe both senators baldwin and portman are co-sponsoring. >> i don't see any rebuttal. there is a vote in progress. so we'll recess now until 1:30. at 1:30 we'll begin the vote process. you can go and vote, get some lunch. for republican senators, we're going to meet in the ante room out here a

mr. chair. i will be brief. i believe it has some good solid bipartisan support. two of my colleagues here on this committee, senators baldwin and portman, are together with me, the co-chairs of the senate career and technical education caucus. this amendment is a deficit knew ral reserve fund to support legislation encouraging more cte innovation to prepare students for the 21st century work force. i'm the son of an iron worker, and i ran a technical school in honduras for a year and learned there. since the power of cte, it was kind of put into the shadows of american public education for a number of decades, but now it's back strong.

mr. chair. i will be brief. i believe it has some good solid bipartisan support. two of my colleagues here on this committee senators baldwin and portman, are together with me, the co-chairs of the senate career and technical education caucus. this amendment is a deficit knew ral reserve fund to support legislation encouraging more cte innovation to prepare students for the 21st century work force. i'm the son of an iron worker and i ran a technical school in honduras for a year and learned there. since the power of cte, it was kind of put into the shadows of american public education for a number of decades, but now it's back strong. and there's some wonderful programs around the country about 30% of jobs by 2018 will require some kind of technical training. so i'm establishing a deficit neutral reserve fund to advance this priority, and i believe both senators baldwin and portman are co-sponsoring. >> i don't see any rebuttal. there is a vote in progress. so we'll recess now until 1:30. at 1:30 we'll begin the vote process. you can go and vote, get some lunch. for republican senators, we're going to meet in the ante room out here at

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to calendar number 23, s. 535 and that the bill be read a third time and the senate vote on passage of the bill with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. and the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 23, s. 535 a bill to promote energy efficiency. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president, i would now like to -- the presiding officer: under the previous order the question occurs on passage of the measure. all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes have it. the ayes do have it. the measure is passed. mr. portman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the motion to

mr. portman: is any time left on our side? the presiding officer: the senator -- there is no time remaining. the question is on the amendment. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. mr. sanders: i would ask -- a roll call vote. the presiding officer: is is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not the yeas are 59 shall the nays are 41. the amendment is agreed to. there are now two minutes of debate prior to the vote. -- on amendment number 632. the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president could we have order? the presiding officer: the senate is not in order. mr. casey: mr. president i'm honored to be woshing on this amendment with senator shaheen and senator murray. this amendment will create a deficit-neutral reserve fund to support efforts to prevent employment discrimination against pregnant workers. in the united states today we've had for so many years a standa