mr. tillis: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. tillis: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up toton minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tillis: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. toomey: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: mr. president, i would also ask consent to speak as if in morning business, but also to be allotted time beyond ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. mr. casey: mr. president, i rise thong to talk about child care, in particular one piece of legislation which i've introduced today but also to talk more broadly about the critical need in our country for more options, more opportunities for families, especially low-income families, to be able to forward child care and not ju

mr. tillis: thank you, mr. chair. thank you for being here and the time you've invested, coming to my office. i want to emphasize what you've said that's incredibly important. there's very clearly instances where congress sits in the critical path. if we don't take action to move forward on these legislative priorities, then it will either impede or prevent completely your ability to achieve the goals you've set out. i'll continue to mention that and stand up for it. ms. council, i want to talk to you for a moment about i.t. it's fantastic to have somebody with your professional experience in the role that you're. in i'm glad to have you there. can you give me an idea of what your instipulates are telling you as you look -- instincts are telling you as you look at this enormous i.t. base, you and i have talked about application portfolio and we could talk in acronyms that most people would think would be a second language. but can you tell me what your gut tells you, the i.t. platform looks like five years from now ve

mr. tillis: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, our nation is in the midst of a presidential election in which the american people are currently deciding who will be our next commander in chief. in my home state of north carolina, many voters have already submitted their absentee ballots and early voting will begin soon. this election year is especially important. in addition to electing our next president, the american people will have an opportunity to have their say in who should be our next supreme court justice. this is a rare opportunity to let people determine the composition of the highest court in the land, an institution that dramatically affects the lives of all of us. while the stakes weren't as high in 2014 as they are today, the voice of the american people was still heard loud and clear nonetheless. in 2014, the american people sent a message about their displeasure for the president's disregard for our nation's systems of checks and balances. the american people sent a message about their opposition to th

mr. chairman. >> senator tillis? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you all for being here. dr. fendrick, i want to ask you a question both in your testimony and what you delivered before the committee talked about value based insurance design. that's something i got involved with down in north carolina as a matter of public policy when i was speaker. i want to see -- i want to talk a little bit more about that and how you think maybe state health plans who have done it to the extent that you can and any member of the panel have benefitted from it. it may not be related but in the briefing materials one thing that jumps out at me and i'd be interested in the panelists' opinions on this, are the discharge, the medical health system average annual inpatient discharge is per 100,000. are some 61.7 for enrollees. there seems to be a big gap, do you think v-bid helps narrow the gap or are there legitimate reasons for the gap being so great? >> i'll take the first step on what is happening in the states the others can talk about v-bid. v-bid programs have reduced financial barriers an

mr. chairman, and my colleague senator tillis is wise in terms of his ability to anticipate questions. i want to talk a little bit about some of the force posture. admiral harris, in your testimony you talk abouted tyranny of distance and importance of forward station forces at high levels of readiness that can rapidly respond to a crisis in terms of a full range of military options. in the president, when he announced the rebalance which i think has brought here on this committee, bipartisan support, he talked about no force reduction in the asia-pacific theater. despite that, as you may be aware, and we talked a little bit about it yesterday, the army has decided to essentially get rid of the only airborne brigade combat team in the asia-pacific, the 425. the also the only arctic-trained, only mountain-trained. they're a brigade combat team bring as lot of onlies to the fight. although it is a army decision, it certainly impacts the two of you. i know, general scaparrotti, you view the 425 as important strategic reserve that can get to korea within seven hours. we have a huge strateg

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. senator tillis, please. >> thank you, gentlemen. i'm sorry i wasn't here for much of the committee meeting. i have judiciary and veteran affairs going on at the same time. thank you for coming and thank you and your family for your service and all the folks that back you up. i have a question i hope it hasn't been asked, but it has to do with the buildup that we see in china. and, admiral, when you and i had a briefing, you made the comment that we have a qualitative advantage but quantity has a quality all its own. as chinan't could k continues t either its geographic footprint or it continues to build ships and other assets, has there been any modeling or any focus on what it's going to take to continue to operate these things in terms of fiscal sustainability? is there anything in your analysis to say, you know, at some point you got to maintain them, you got to operate them, and with their financial woes, is there any thought in that or analysis being done? >> it's a great point, senator. i have not done that analysis, nor have

tillis? >> thank you, mr.ir, thank you all for being here and secretary mcdonald and a lot of the folks at the panel, thank you so much for the time you've invested coming to my office and working with me. i want to emphasize what you've said. that is critically important. that of the breakthrough priorities, there's very clearly instances where congress sits in the critical path. if we don't take action to move forward on these legislative priorities, then it will either impede or prevent completely your ability to achieve the goals you've set out. and i'll continue to mention that and stand up for it. miss counsel i want to talk to you a minute about i.t. it's fantastic to have somebody with your professional experience in the role that you're in. and i'm glad to have you there. can you give me an idea of what your instincts are telling you as you look at this enormous i.t. base, you and i have talked about application portfolio and we can talk in acronyms most people think would be a second language. can yo

tillis? >> thank you, mr.ir, thank you all for being here and secretary mcdonald and a lot of the folks at the panel, thank you so much for the time you've invested coming to my office and working with me. i want to emphasize what you've said. that is critically important. that of the breakthrough priorities, there's very clearly instances where congress sits in the critical path. if we don't take action to move forward on these legislative priorities, then it will either impede or prevent completely your ability to achieve the goals you've set out. and i'll continue to mention that and stand up for it. miss counsel i want to talk to you a minute about i.t. it's fantastic to have somebody with your professional experience in the role that you're in. and i'm glad to have you there. can you give me an idea of what your instincts are telling you as you look at this enormous i.t. base, you and i have talked about application portfolio and we can talk in acronyms most people think would be a second language. can yo

mr. chairman. my colleague senator tillis is wise in terms of his ability to anticipate questions.t to talk a little bit about some of the force posture. admiral harris, in your testimony you talked about the tyranny of distance and the importance of forward station forces at high levels of r readiness that can rapidly respond to a crisis in terms of a full range of military options. the president when he announced the rebalance, which i think has brought support here on this committee bipartisan support, he talked about no force reduction in the asia-pacific theater. despite that, as you may be aware and we talked a little yesterday, the army has decided to essentially get rid of the only airborne brigade combat team, the 425. also the only arctic trained, only mountain trained. they are certainly a team that brings a lot of onlies to the fight. and although it's an army decision, it certainly impacts the two of you. i know general you view the 425 as an important strategic reserve that can get to korea within serve hours. we have a strategic lift capability coupled with the 425.

mr. president, last week senator tillis and i agreed to a wager on the n.f.c. c championship game. the terms of that friendly wager is that the loser would deliver a congratulatory speech on the senate floor, wish the winner luck in the super bowl. unfortunately, even tragically, this is what brings me before you today. it's also why i'm wearing this unsightly blue tie which i'm sure is an assault on the senses of c-span viewers all over the world. it is with all sincerity that i wish the carolina panthers luck as they play the denver broncos in super bowl 50. the 15-1 n.f.c. champion season has been nothing short of remarkable led by head coach ron rivera and cam newton the panthers have been a dominant force all season long. i have no doubt we'll see the panthers explosive offense continue in super bowl 50. i would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my arizona cardinals on an exceptional season that included numerous milestones. the cardinals wide receiver larry fitzgerald wrote recently that the cardinals -- quote -- "broke the mold of what kind of football people exp

senator tillis and then senator klobuchar. >> thank you, mr. chair. i'll be brief. to my colleagues, thank you for being here and thank you for your work on this. and, senator ayotte, a special thanks to you for wearing carolina blue and black after your patriots got eliminated. governor, i -- [ inaudible ] well, i think it's a great step. >> it is. >> and look forward to seeing it move through the process. governor, i had a question for you. i am a personal friend of your speaker. i've known him for about five years having been speaken down in north carolina. to the point that senator cornyn is making, and i do agree to a large extent with what senator durbin said. but if we focus on, for example, the prescribed painkiller problem, then, i think we're going to see an increased uptick in heroin abuse. i mean, it's obvious it's happened in north carolina. it's a matter of state policy. we did a number of things to crack down on drug shopping and the sort of things we're seeing in the state and there's almost a direction correlation between the reduction in the prescr