mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 1982, which the clerk will now report. the clerk: motion to proceed to the consideration of s. 1982, a bill to improve the provision of medical services and benefits to veterans, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you, mr. president. let me ask unanimous consent that jason dean, my military fellow, be given floor privileges for the remainder of this congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, let me also thank senator murray, senator durbin, senator blumenthal for their very thoughtful and important remarks regarding the needs of veterans and why it is absolutely imperative that we pass this comprehensive veterans legisla

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you. i thank my colleague from north carolina, the ranking member of the veterans' committee, for his remarks, and i look afford, senator burr, to debating some of the issues that you raised, because i think it is important for not just the veterans of this country but the tens of millions of people who support our veterans to understand what we are trying to do to improve lives for those people who put their lives on the line to defend this country. i did find it, i must say, interesting that the ranking member from north carolina suggested that, yes -- in so many words -- we do -- this bill does have the support of the american legion, the veterans of foreign washing wars, the disabd veterans, the military officers association of america, the iraq and afghanistan officers of america, gold star wives of america and dozens of other veterans organizations, but the implication was, yeah, they may be supporting this bill, but veterans back home do not. i doubt that very much, and in fact i ha

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: could we have order in the senate, please? the presiding officer: could we have order in the senate, please. the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, this budget point of order that we're now going to have in very significant ways tells us who we are as a people. if you vote for this budget point of order, you are saying that in this great country, we do not have the resources to help our veterans with their health care, with their education, how veterans deal with sexual assault, help older veterans get the nursing care that they need, build new medical facilities that we desperately need. i personally -- and i have to say this honestly -- have a hard time understanding how anyone could vote for tax breaks for billionaires, for millionaires, for large corporations and then say we don't have the resources to protect our veterans. we should not be supporting this point of order. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. b

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. president, i have talked to a number of my republican colleagues, some of them who have expressed support for many of the provisions in this comprehensive veterans bill. many of my republican colleagues say that they would really like to support the bill but they have concerns about how it is paid for and the issue of deficit, increasing the deficit. so let me say a word about this. unlike many expenditures, including the wars in iraq and afghanistan, the truth is that this bill will not add one penny to the deficit. and let me repeat, this bill will not add one penny to the deficit. the congressional budget office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper, has estimated that mandatory spending in this legislation will total $2.88 billion over the next decade. all of this mandatory spending is completely offset, not by the overseas contingency operations or o.c.o., but through more than $4.2

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: as chairman of the senate veterans' committee, i want to thank many, many people for helping me bring forth the legislation that we're going to be voting on this afternoon. i want to thank those people who have come down to the floor to speak on behalf of our veterans, and that includes majority leader reid, who has been so helpful throughout. senators murray, blumenthal, durbin, merkley, walsh, shaheen. and casey. i suspect i have left out some. i want to thank my staff at the veterans' committee: steve robertson, dahlia mennend r*e z, elizabeth austin, carlos fuentes, jacob bean, shannon laffra and raphael anderson, for their help on this effort. i want to thank the 28 cosponsors of this important legislation. i won't read their names. they know who they are, and i thank them very, very much. mr. president, as i have indicated earlier, this legislation is not bernie sanders' legislation. this is legislation that by and large comes from the hearts and souls of the veterans of

mr. sanders and you heard me say this. one of our concerns is that we think too many kids are taking too many app classes. the fact that we propose this sequence if you take math in your senior year we are telling you to take an app class. it seems to me that that precludes the idea that we do that a lot of kids should take 4 years of math in high school in order to increase their college and career readiness and i just don't believe that every student is ready for or even interested in taking app class in mathematics. >> that is correct and we have schools that are offering not only, we have a course that has been developed with improbability and statistics and we have a calculus course that is a c level course. >> that is a really good example because statistics is a class really valuable to lots of career preparation that we would encourage kids to take even if they weren't ready to be interested in since we like them to be less interested in packing their schedule with app classes. i'm okay if you are saying this is no

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i thank my friend from alabama for accommodating my schedule and i'll have more to say on this issue later this afternoon. let me at this point simply say, mr. president, that pursuant to section 904 of the congressional budget act of 1974 and the waiver provisions of applicable budget resolutions, i move to waive all applicable sections of that act and applicable budget resolutions for purposes of the pending bill and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there is a sufficient second. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. sessions: mr. president, reclaiming the floor, now you have it in stark clarity. this bill proposes to spend more than we agreed to spend passing the ryan-murray act a few weeks ago. president obama signed it four weeks ago. the ink is hardly dry on it. and here we have another bill to raise that, raise the spending again, and it won't be the only one. we're going to see bill after bill after bill, and it's part of th

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, i rise in strong support of the legislation on the floor. i think most members understand that is part of the 2013 bipartisan budget agreement. language was included which cut colas for military retirees. i think most members here in the senate and the house understand that that was a mistake, an oversight and it's something that should be rectified and it should be rectified now. promises made to people in the military should be kept and our job is to do that. mr. president, what i want to do this morning is say a word on broader issues impacting the veterans community. and i say that as the chairman of the senate veterans committ committee -- veterans' committee. shortly, when this legislation is disposed of, we are going to move on to a comprehensive piece of legislation that addresses many, many of the very serious problems facing our veterans' community. and this morning i just wanted to give a brief -- say a few words, give a brief overview of what that legislation do

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i look forward to discussing in the next several days the issues that senator coburn raised but i did want to make one clarification. i hope the senator is listening. he repeatedly indicated that this legislation opens the door to every one of the 22 million veterans in america and then proceeded to say that once you open the door, you're going to have inadequate care because we don't have the resources to take care of 22 million veterans. that simply is inadequate, inaccurate, and that is not in the legislation. there's nothing in the legislation that says we open the door to every veteran in america, regardless of income. so when people talk about the v.a. suddenly be flooded by veterans and care being diminished because of the huge increase into the system, that is just not true. what is true? what is true right now is we have an absurd and complicated income eligibility system throughout this country. so what happens in the state of vermont or the state of california, your

mr. sanders. >> senator cruz. senator franken. >> thank you, i want to welcome a minnesotan testifying later today. you terned your story from tragedy to hope, and thank you for holding the hearing and all the work you've done over the years. this practice, solitary confinement, restrictive housing is troubling for a number of reasons, moral reasons, economic reasons as the chairman said in the opening statement, public safety reasons, and one of the aspects of this that concerns me is mental health aspect of the problem. we've been discussing over the years we've seen the corrections and law enforcement system take on more and more responsibility for responding to menial illnesses, and our communities. last winter, i hosted a series round table discussions with law enforcement, personnel, mental health advocate, and my state of mips. the the sheriff who runs the jails in minnesota told me about a third of the inmates in his jails really belong in mental health treatment programs and not behind bars. you've been t

mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the sanders amendment. mr. reid: i'm sorry if that's what had been done. i apologize. we'll start over again. on behalf of senator san derks i have an amendment desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the sanders amendment. the clerk: amendment number 2747. mr. reid: now, i ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment of. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i now is have a second-degree amendment desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: is noter from nevada, mr. reid, proposes amendment numbered 2766 to amendment number 2747. mr. reid: i have a motion, cloture in nature, at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloavment. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on amendment number 2747 to s. 1982, the compreh

mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that senator sanders be appointed as conferee to h.r. 3880, the water resources reform and development act. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the adjournment or recess from thursday, february 13, through be monday, february 24, the majority leader, senators warner and levin, be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the senate, the president of the senate, the president pro tempore and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to commissions, committees, boards, conferences, or interparliamentary conferences authorized by law, by concurrent action of the two houses or by order of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk be -- that it appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous c

mr. president, today the senate will vote to advance bipartisan legislation that expands and improves the health care and job training available to our nation's veterans. i thank the senator from vermont, bernard sanders, for his leadership on this issue and for his dedication to america's servicemen and women. the 19th century british statesman george canning said -- and i quote -- "when our perils are passed, shall our gratitude sleep? when our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?" it is clear the world is still a very perilous place the united states is winding down more than a decade of war in afghanistan and we're out of iraq. so, mr. president, our gratitude shall not sleep. it is time to demonstrate the depth and breadth of our appreciation to the men and women who have kept this country safe to the risk of their lives and sacrifice of their families. i think of a young man, mr. president, from hawthorne, nevada, enlisted right out of high school; 18 years old, is in afghanistan for a matter of days and one of those explosive devices blows off his legs at the hips. i think of him and his parents, what a struggle. that's what this legislation is all about. this bill would not only improve

mr. graham: thank you. if you could let me know when theton minutes expires, i'd appreciate it. i want to rise today in support of senator burr's alternatives to senator sanders' veterans bill. we're having a contest here about how best to help veterans. there's a lot of bipartisan agreement over the substance of the bill. the real difference is how to pay for t but there's one key difference. in senator burr's alternative, we had the iranian sanctions bill. i believe it is imperative for this bill, the united states --e united states senate to speak on sanctions against iran before it is too laivment and i hate the fact that we've lost our bipartisan approach to this topic. we've been together for a very long time, as republicans and democrats. we've had 16 rounds of captions since 1987, nine u.n. security resolutions since 2006 demanding the full and sustained suspension of all uranium enrichment and processing activities in cooperation with the iaea. the united nations, the congress in an overwhelming bipartisan fashion has been imposing sanctions and speaking to the threat we all have -- face against the iranian nuclear program. unfortunately, the biparti

sanders from vermont. democrats were willing to work with republican colleagues to consider relevant amendments to this legislation. so it is disappointing, but sadly, mrwhen republicans almost immediately injected base partisan politics into a debate over a bill that should, should, should be bipartisan. insisting on unrelate amendment on iran that they knew would kill the bill. i don't know what they say to the 26 veterans groups, millions of veterans really supported this bill; did everything they could to help the chairman of the committee, the junior senator from vermont, move this bill forward. but they did it. on an unrelated amendment on iran that they knew would kill the bill. i don't know all the reasons, mr. president, but we had a number of speeches, especially one from dr. coburn, the junior senator from oklahoma, who came to the floor and had questions about the bill. i didn't agree with all of his assertions, but he has a right to dispute what was in the bill, and he wanted to offer amendments to the bill. we agreed he should be able to offer amendments to the bill. but the republicans, i guess, are in turmoil internally and didn't want

mr. murphy: thank you, i am down here with my colleague, senator schatz from hawaii, the college affordable care act and innovation act, which we introduced along with senator murray of washington and senator sanders of vermont. and by way of framing the conversation that we'll have today, madam president, i want to talk about one particular college that maybe paints a picture of the crisis that we are in today with respect to the mounting cost that confronts kids and families when they want to get a college education and the variety of outcomes, the frankly surprising outcomes that students are getting when they show up at the doors of institutions of public -- excuse me, institutions of education, particularly institutions of for-profit education. corinthian college is a pretty big college, about 100 campuses on 25 different states. let me give you some statistics about corinthian college. after about a year, over half of the students who enroll drop o out. when they're finished with their education, whether it be to a degree or not, about one-third of all students who go to corinthian default on their student loans. if 56% isn't a bad enough number in terms of one-year dropout rates, after four