madam president. i don't have. -- i yield the floor. mrs. feinstein: mr. president? madam president, excuse me. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: thank you, madam president. i believe pursuant to a unanimous consent agreement by the chairman of the agriculture committee that i am next up to be able to speak on an amendme amendment. but for just a brief moment, madam president, i want to reflect on what i've heard and the lens through which i see it. i've been here for 20 years. when i came to the senate, it was not this way. the rules of the senate were observed, a small minority never tried to subvert the will of the majority. i think senator mccain said it well -- we stand on the floor, we advocate for our views, we either win or lose, the dye is cast. but we have an opportunity for full deliberation. it's one thing to have a minority have their rights. it's another thing to have a minority of the minority absolutely try and handcuff a committee of the united states senate. and i believe that is the wrong thing. because what is happening here sets a precedent

mrs. boxer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, if i could be heard. the presiding officer: can we ha order. mrs. boxer: if i could be heard for just less than a minute. i want to thank every single senator here. we have literally worked, i think, with every one of you on this bill. senator vitter and i have, we have our differences in a number of areas, but when it comes to the infrastructure of our country, we work very well together, as did i with senator inhofe. the committee voted this bill out unanimously, and i can say we made it better on this floor. we added amendments that you came to us with that made this a better bill. and i also want to note that our staffs are unbelievable. and i'm not going to name names now, but i will put them in the record. my chief of staff and her team, senator vitter's chief and his team worked seamlessly together in the most wonderful, cooperative fashion. and i want erye to kno this bill is about 500,000 thousas of businesses, critical flood control, environmental rest

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. rubio: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: are in we -- are we in morning business? the presiding officer: yes. mr. rubio: i ask to speak for up to 15 minutes. i won't use the whole time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: thank you. i wanted to come to the floor to follow up on the news we had on this i.r.s. situation which i know is concerning to all americans, democrats, republicans, everyone. the power of the government is real and the power of the i.r.s. is very real. so any time there is abuse of power in the i.r.s. it is going to affect americans regardless of political leanings. before we do i want to comment on something that happened a few minutes ago at a press conference at the white house. i have tremendous respect for the office of the presidency and for anyone who would hold themselves up to hold the office. so i say this with the highest of respect. i think the president today in his press conference potentially made a mistake in an an

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. ceaz: madam president, i -- mr. casey: madam president, i rise today to speak about the bill we're considering but also to speak in particular about one aspect of the bill. we know that the legislation, the so-called wrda bill, the water resources development act, and i want to express strong support for the legislation. this bill is, in fact, bipartisan which is something we need more of around here. it provides for, among other things, flood protection, safe drinking water, wastewater infrastructure and protects the flow of commerce along our nation's rivers and waterways. i am grateful for chairman boxer's efforts, ranking member vitter and all the members and staff of the environment and public works committee for their dedication to writing a bill that addresses the challenges facing our country's water systems. i wanted to speak in particular about inland waterways. our nation has for many, many years now, many generations a system of locks and dams that play a vital role in creating and sustaining jobs and sup

the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: madam president, i call up inhofe amendment number 797. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from california, mrs. boxer, for politburo inhofe, proposes amendment numbered 797. mrs. boxer: i yield back all time. the presiding officer: without objection. the question is on the amendment. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. mrs. boxer: i move to reconsider, lay that on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: madam president, what is the order at this time? the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment number 868 offered by the senator from wyoming, mr. barrasso. mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, this amendment amendment -- to encompass all wet areas of farms, ranches, s

thank you, madam president. mr. mccain: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i will yield to the senator from tennessee in just one second. so what the senator from florida is saying is that if he has an issue that he feels strongly about, then that has to be included in any conference that is convened over any bill that is passed by the senate and the house and goes to conference. that is not a precedent that is -- i believe should be established here in the united states senate. maybe i i think i -- i think i share the senator from florida's concern about the debt and the deficit. i'll match my record against anybody's as far as trying to eliminate the debt and the deficit, including that of the senator from florida, but now we are about to establish a precedent that in any conferees are appointed on bills that are passed by the house and the senate, that we are free then to put certain restrictions on those conferees. if the senator from florida believes that's the right way this body should functi

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. as i come to the floor today, americans all across the country are paying attention to the multiple scanldz scanldzs plagug the -- scandals plaguing the administration. we're seeing it in all areas of the country. my hometown newspaper, "caspar star tribune," had a headline today, "trio of troubles related to the obama administration." because what the american people are seeing from the obama administration, people are seeing a high level of incompetence and a very low level of transparency. so here are just a few of the headlines today in "the washington post." "criminal probe of i.r.s. launched." criminal probe of i.r.s. launched. just below that, "leak probe, phone records uproar ends holder's respite." that has to do with the justice department's secret gathering of records from the associated press. inside the paper, open it up, there's -- there's much more. "media outlets condemn agency."

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. brown: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of h.r. 1071 which was received from the house and is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1071, an act to specify the size of the special metal blanks that will be used in the production of the national baseball hall of fame commemorative coins. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of the senate -- and the senate now proceed to s. res. 127. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 127, commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the los

mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, through the chair i will tell the distinguished chairman i with great enthusiasm intend to offer my amendment and i hope that colleagues on both sides of the aisle will support it. you should support it if you are from a coastal state because the coastal problems that coastal states face are so often overlooked. if you are not from a coastal state but you visit coastal states to go to the beach, if you like to eat fish or, frankly, if you like imported products that come through through our coastal ports you too have interest in this legislation and i hope you will support it. finally, this is a piece of a piece of legislation that was agreed to before by this body in the form of the restore act. and in the restore act, we literally sent billions of dollars to our colleagues along the gulf states for remediation, repair, economic reconstruction after both the hurricane katrina and the explosion of the oil well, those two disasters. so for reasons that don't

mr. president madam first lady, members of the kenya delegation. on behalf of the american people, laura and i are please today welcome you to the united states. this is the first visit by the leader of an african country directing during my administration. [ applause ] and the president since last year. [ applause ] . i have been in front of you for some time now and actually even given you some information about some name changes. his son is now currently president of kenya. i just wanted to ask you if any of you smoke newport cigarettes. there is a charter in the united nations and by the general assembly and millennium declaration. i will leave a copy for you if you are interested. >> thank you. next speaker? good afternoon, president chiu and supervisors. i know we had a wonderful time of celebration with asian pacific heritage month. i have some sad news to deliver this afternoon. a very personal friend, a very fine city folks, business owner in memory of tony keng. where it all began and in the beginning. many of you are aware that advertisi

mr. president madam first lady, members of the kenya delegation. on behalf of the american people, laura and i are please today welcome you to the united states. this is the first visit by the leader of an african country directing during my administration. [ applause ] and the president since last year. [ applause ] . i have been in front of you for some time now and actually even given you

mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, indeed, i want to talk about this amendment and why it's a good thing. but i first want to compliment the chairman of the environment committee, who isn't seated at her desk in the chamber but she's seated as the presiding officer. and i want the chairman of that committee to know that she must be merlin the magician, because in rapid fashion she brings the bill out of her committee and to the floor, along with her ranking, the senator from louisiana, senator vitter, and -- and this water bill is so important to the future of our country. and it's so important to infrastructure in this country. and so i just commend the chairman and the ranking member for the rapidity with which they have worn out the leadership in order to get the leadership's attention to bring it to the floor. now, what senator blunt and i are sponsoring is common sense, and anybody who's been through a hurricane or a tornado or any other kind of natural disaster knows what new building code

mr. mcconnellmadam president? officer -- mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: over the past days we've heard many in the the media talk about how this has been a rough week for the streasmghts it's been a worse week for the first amendment. on provid friday learned that te i.r.s. deliberately targeted conservative groups across the country in the midst of a heated national election. over the weekend we learned that the extent of it was even broader, even broader, than we originally thought. then this morning we all learned that the targeting wasn't limited to an i.r.s. office out of cincinnati p. -- as the administration suggested last week. but that it reached all the way to the i.r.s. headquarters right here in washington. what we don't know at this point is whether it jumped the fence from the i.r.s. to the white house. but we do know this: we can't count on the administration to be forthcoming about the details of this scandal because so far they've been anything but. so this morning i'm calling on

mr. leahy: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i know even the "wall street journal" said the senate's inability to pull out of partisan ruts and get beyond the epidemic of filibusters is hurting. judge chappell, the judicial emergency vacancy, has been for 400 days. she was nominated almost a year ago in the committee. every single republican voted for her as well as every single democrat. a democrat and republican senator support her. so what i'm saying, when i say that president obama's qualified consensus nominees have faced unprecedented levels of delay and obstruction, this is precisely what i'm talking about. i say unprecedented. madam president, i've said in this current senate, i've never seen such delays for sake of delay of judges like we're seeing now. and highly qualified judges. for some reason there seems to be this antipathy toward anything that this president does. and i think it's wrong. people can determine themselves what the motives are, but it's wrong. it is severely damaging to the ind

mr. lee: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: madam president, earlier today we were asked to give our consent to go to conference on the budget resolution. this is an important matter because we've gone now more thank four years without -- more than four years without a budget. this has been a great concern to many of us. i don't think there's one member of this body that would not want congress to pass a budget this year. we would like to see that happen. we need that. we do, however, have a concern -- some of us -- with the request that we go to conference without certain assurances. most importantly, we want a very simple assurance that any conference report that results from this conference will not be used to raise the debt limit. the reason for this is simple. this is an important matter at a time when we've racked up about $17 trillion in debt, we want some assurances that this important decision will be made under the regular order of the senate. that the normal rules of the senate will apply to this. that this won't

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: madam president, this last weekend white house advisor dan pfeiffer visited all five sunday morning talk shows, and what he tried to do there was to defend the obama administration's handling of the various scandals that we are all too familiar with. unfortunately for the president, i think he only made things worse. for example, he said that president obama's whereabouts on the night of the benghazi terrorist attack were irrelevant. that's a strange use of the word. where the president is when a terrorist attack kills more american citizens in libya, to call that irrelevant strikes me as an odd choice of words. he was also asked whether it is illegal for the i.r.s. to talk individuals and organizations for political reasons. again, he said -- and i quote -- "it's irrelevant." strange choice of words. in other words, if the american people were hoping that this white house would finally provide straight answers to basic questions, they were once again disappointed. let's review

the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, what is the order? esiding officer: the senate is in a period of debate prior to votes in relationship to s. 601. mrs. boxer: madam president, could you tell me how much time is going to be controlled by senator coburn and how much time will be controlled by the opposition to his amendments and the same for senator whitehouse? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma controls 40 minutes. the majority controls 75 minutes. mrs. boxer: thank you. and as far as senator whitehouse is concerned? the presiding officer: there is no specific time agreement for senator whitehouse. mrs. boxer: thank you very much. i wanted to get the order squared away so i could share the information with colleagues before senator coburn is heard on his amendments. madam president, i have 11 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders and i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to and these requests be printed i

madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: thank you, madam president. i rise today to talk about the continuing efforts by a minority of this body to block a federal by blocking a compromise with the house to find compromise. i spoke about this one week ago but the stalemate continues. today there is an announcement that in my commonwealth, 90,000 civilian department of defense employees and hundreds of thousands of d.o.d. civilians nationally will be furloughed for 11 days between now and the. this furlough announcement, along with ample other evidence that we've discussed in this body in the last few weeks, demonstrates that budgetary gridlock, budgetary indecision, budgetary stalling has real-life consequences. i rise to implore my senate colleagues to do the right thing and to do the job that the american public has sent us here to do. madam president, this is about budgets but it's also about something even bigger than budgets, it's about something fundamental to the entire system of government we have: the willingness to work together to find comm

presiding officer: objection is heard. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: madam president, i rise to speak on the farm bill. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. hoeven: thank you, madam president. today i rise to speak in support of the agricultural reform, food and jobs act of 2013, a five-year farm bill. this bill saves more than $24 billion to help reduce our deficit and our debt. it streamlines the farm programs to make them more efficient and it ensures that our farmers and ranchers continue to have good risk management tools, particularly crop insurance. now, it's vitally important to so many facets of our national interest. it's important to food, of course, but also to fuel, to fiber, to rural development, to ag research, and many, many other areas. it touches the life of every single american and in some of the most basic ways. this year the farm bill is moving through this senate because we've already debated and passed more than 90% of this bill in the last session. a lot of this bill we worked on very hard in the last se

mr. president. supervisor wiener. >> thank you, madame clerk. so president chiu and i both learned today that we were actually sponsoring very similar legislation. so i am also introducing legislation today, to address the issue of lengthy texts of ballot measures, which could be quite extensive. although the 8 washington ballot measure at 500 pages is at the long end, they can cost hundreds of millions of accounts dollars and can lead to the printing of potentially hundreds of millions of additional pages of paper. so my legislation sets the pages at 20 or more to give discretion to the department of elections and in addition, someone could call or email the department and receive a mailed version for free. so i look forward to working with president chiu and i am hopeful we'll be able to merge the two pieces of legislation and move forward together, so we can both save taxpayer dollars and provide full access to critical election information and not chop down as many trees. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor yee. >> thank yo

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. rubio: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: thank you, madam president. and to the senator from arizona for whom i have great respect, i would point out two things, that the first is in your argument. you stated that this issue of the debt limit is a nonissue. hence, i don't understand the objection to having language in objection to having language in hence i don't understand the objection to having language in this motion that says there won't be a raising of the doubt on that. there'll be discussion in the context of the broader issues and as a result they don't understand why we can't just put a dent that were not going to raise the debt limit. i would also further say i do expect this institution and believe in regular order to the extent we talk about procedures. the regular order of washington has it as a $17 trillion debt. is the reason iran for the u.s. senate and i was it was my college to serve here, i don't think you can run up a $17 trillion debt without bi

mr. president you have a quorum. >> ladies and gentlemen please join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> colleagues we have our meeting minutes. approved. madam clerk, any communications? >> i have no communication, mr. president. >> first item is the policy discussion between the honorable mayor edwin lee this week representing the even may 8. item 1:30443: [formal policy discussions - may 21, 2013] pursuant to charter sections 2.103 and 3.100077, and administrative code, section 2.11, the mayor shall answer the following eligible question submitted by supervisor representing district 8. the mayor may address the board initially for up to five minutes. discussion shall not exceed five mayor edwin lee this week representing the even may 8. sf 11234 >> thank you. welcome back. ask if you have any preliminary comments would you like to make? >> thank you, are good afternoon. thank you president chiu and mexican -- members to the board of supervisors. i would like to thank every member for joining me in all of the budget town hall meetings that we've had and i know it's important for us to join us and hear about the priorities. i'm also using al

thanks supervisor. >> president chiu: that concludes our formal policy discussions for today. thank you mr. mayor. with that madamlerk, why don't we go to the consent agenda, items 2-9 a routine, if the member object items may be removed and considered separately. >> president chiu: on the consent agenda -- >> supervisor breed, aye >> supervisor campos:aye >> president chiu:aye >> supervisor cohen:aye >> supervisor farrell:aye >> supervisor kim:aye >> supervisor mar:aye >> tang, aye >> supervisor wiener:aye >> supervisor yee:aye >> supervisor avalos:aye >> there are 11 ayes. >> president chiu: the resolutions adopted next.item >> can we do this item same call. this item is passed. >> -- to revise registration fees for inspecting agricultural projects. >> president chiu: this ordinance is passed on the first read. next item. >> revise registration fees for inspecting and testing weighing and measuring devices provided by state law in making environmental findings. >> same house same call. this is passed on the first read. >> -- establishing the funds for the department of public health, for violation of solid wast

mr. cochran: madam chair? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mississippi. mr. cochran: i'm pleased to join with the distinguished chairman and urge snars wh senators who e amendments to come to the floor and offer those amendments so we can proceed to complete action on this bill at a reasonable amount of time. we don't want to cut anybody off. everybody has a right to be heard on whatever subject they wish to bring before the senate. but we do have some senators we know have amendments that are relevant to the issue before us and we're hopeful that we can consider all of them and give them the kind of attention they deserve. ms. stabenow: i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

. >> thank you, president chiu, madame clerk, can we take the motion to refer back to committee, same house, same call. >> that would be without objection, mr. chair. >> thank you. ? >> madame clerk, call item 17. >> item 17 is an ordinance amending the police code regarding access to reproductive health care facilities. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you very much mr. president. i would like to begin by thanking my colleagues who are co-sponsoring this item with me today, supervisors cohen, kim, avalos, wiener, mar, breed chiu and tang. we have had a hearing on this item, and one of the thing has there i want to highlight is the courage of all of the women who have come out to testify to talk about their own experiences and fears as they were trying to access health care at this clinic here in san francisco. i also want to acknowledge the courage of the workers at planned parenthood who on a daily basis for more than a year now have been dealing with a very

. >> madam clerk any more business in front of the body? >> no mr. president. >> ladies and gentlemen we ar. all right. welcome to the show i'm sorry. government and oversight actually, we have a pretty exciting agenda today, i'm your chair to my left is supervisor david campos and i'd like to send a special thank you to our staff and they promise to make us look beautiful. thank you sf tv. do we have any announcements? >> yes, please silence all cell phones and all cards should be committed to

madam clerk, could you call the roll? >> supervisor avalos, avalos present. breed present, campos present,chew present, supervisor cohen present, mar present, tang present, wiener present, yee present. mr. president, all members are present. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? could i madam clerk, are will any communications. >> i have no communications. >> if you could read or consent agenda. >> these items are considered routine unless a member on thes. >> would anyone like to sever any of these items. seeing none, roll call vote. >> chew i, cohen i, farrell i, kim i, supervisor mar i, tang i, wiener i, yee i, avalos i, breed i, campos i. there is 11 i's. >> those ordinances are passed and approved. >> item six is an ordinance recognizing small business month in may 2013 amending the planning and building codes to waive fees for the month of may for improvements /-fpt . . >> this ordinance is finally passed. >> this is an ordinance authorizing the settlement of a lawsuit -- the wireless association versus is city and county of san francisco. >> roll call vote. >> chew i, cohen i, farrell i, kim i, mar i, tang i, wiener i, yee i, avalos no, breed i, campos

mr. schultz. >> thank you. madam president, minister, commissioner. europes of people in feel a lack of trust here. they feel they are not being represented properly. i am sure you are familiar with this. look at the things happening with agriculture, genetic technology. we are selling off our data protection. cultural diversity of europe, and much more. simply ignoring these concerns in part of our people. nothing about the previous act, do not worry, you can count on my group fully. we want an agreement that excepts the interest of our people and make sure the companies create democratic societies that are democratically presided. -- represented. they will set new legislation in the usa. more deregulation. it is going to be a bilateral deal, eu and u.s. it will overwrite multilateral negotiations. i support my group's amendments. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, madam president. a free-trade agreement, which is comprehensive comprehensive and balanced between the u.n. the u.s., could unlock a great deal of potential for moral economi

. >> madam clerk any more business in front of the body? >> no mr. president. >> ladies and gentlemen we are >> it was an exciting event for those who wanted some long needed improvements. >> they saw it and they took care of it. >> the project is expected to open in spring, 2013. for more on the playground, includ today we are going to talk about fire safety. we are here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco. it's a wonderful display. a little house in the urban center exhibition center that shows what it's like in a home in san francisco after an earthquake. one of the major issues that we are going to face after earthquakes are fire hazard. we are happy to have the fire marshall join us today. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> we talk about the san francisco earthquake that was a fire that mostly devastated the city. how do we avoid that kind of problem. how can we reduce fire hazard? >> the construction was a lot different. we don't expect what we had then. we want to make