mr. toomey's defense amendment. senator toomey: if you voted no on that amendment, you should be voting yes on mine. all mine does is attempt to safeguard in the event additional funding occurs and money is rent, it does not become part of the baseline. in the absence of my amendment there is an increased likelihood we have a $380 million increase that is not offset. my objective is not to prevent the increase in defense funding but to ensure it is offset with nondefense spending. but my amendment does is it -- any funds allocated for oco in 2017 above the original amount for 2016 would be subject to a point of order. it is a tool to diminish the risk that this becomes a permanent part of the baseline. chairman: opposition? senator sanders: i think this is clearly an amendment trying to undo the embarrassment of the past amendment where all of our deficit hawks spent another $30 billion. i would vote no. chairman: the clerk will poll the committee. clerk: mr. grassley? mr. sessions? mr. crapo? mr. graham? just a por

mr. enzi: the amendment has passed. the toomey defense amendment. mr. toomey: if you voted no on that amendment i think you should be voting yes on mine. all my amendment does is attempt to safeguard that in the event additional funding occurs and the money is spent it doesn't permanently become part of -- part of the baseline. in the absence of my amendment, there's an increased likelihood that we have a $380 billion increase that's not offset and my objective, not to prevent the increase in defense spending but ensewer it's offset with nondefense spending. what my bill does mitigating circumstance amendment does, is -- any funds allocated if o.c.o. in 2017 above the amount in 2016 would be subject to a point of order. it's a tool to diminish the risk that this becomes a permanent part of the baseline. mr. enzi: opposition? >> people can vote as they want -- mr. sanders: people can vote as they want but this is clearly an effort to undo the spending of the last amendment. i personally will vote no. mr. enzi: clerk will poll the committee. the clerk: mr.

mr. toomey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: mr. president i rise to speak on senate bill 474, the protecting students from sexual and violent predators act. mr. president, this is a bipartisan bill. it is a bill that i introduced with senator joe manchin last congress and we've recently reintroduced this bill. we also intend to offer this bill as an amendment to the justice for victims of trafficking act that the senator from south dakota was just discussing. this is a bill that provides some crucial protections to our children. i am proud to be a cosponsor of this underlying bill. i am confident it's going to pass. and i certainly hope it'll pass with our amendment. the amendment -- this bipartisan amendment that i'll be introducing, the protecting students act amends the underlying bill to protect even more chin. that's what-- more children. that's what it does, provides specific protections against convicted child molesters from infill trailing our schools. let me just say up front mr. president, i fully recognize that the vast

mr. toomey. mr. johnson. ms. a vote. mr. wicker. mr. corker. mr. perdue. mr. sanders. mr. wyden. ms. stabenow. mr. white house. mr. warner. mr. merkley. ms. baldwin. mr. kane. mr. king. mr. chairman. chairman enzi: no. clerk: the yeas are 11. the nays are 11. chairman enzi: on a tie vote the amendment fails. the next one is the perdue amendment. sen. perdue: thank you, mr. chairman. this creates a spending neutral reserve fund aimed at subjecting it to the regular appropriation process. the last thing we need right now is a rogue regulator out there without any oversight of congress. thank you. chairman enzi: opposition? >> mr. chairman, the cfa be is funded like all other bank regulators to insulate it from the type of influence that would damage its regulatory role. it is overseen in numerous ways, including an independent audit monitoring by the inspector general, mandatory reporting to congress. we will make testimony before the banking committee and the oversight council to overturn cfpb regulations. we need to protect this group that does such a fabulous job of protecting consu

mr. toomey? >> no. mr. johnson, no. >> miss ayotte. aye. >> mr. wicker? >> no. mr. corker. >> aye. >> mr. sanders. miss murray. mr. widen miss stabenow. mr. whitehouse. mr. americaky. aye. mr. baldwin, mr. kane, mr. king mr. chairman. >> no. >> mr. chairman, the ayes are 11, the nays are 11. could you repeat those numbers for me please. >> the ayes are 11 the nays are 11. >> on a tie vote the amendment fails. the next is the purdue amendment. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment simply creates a spinning reserve fund aimed at cfpb to the regulation process. the last thing we need is a rogue regulator without any oversight of congress. that's the intent of this amendment. thank you. >> opposition? >> mr. chairman the cfpb is funded by all other bank regulators without appropriation, to incesulate it. but it is overseen in numerous ways. including mandatory audit by inspector general. mandatory rules before congress. rule making requirements and the ability of the oversight council to overturn regulations. >> i would urge my colleagues to vote yes. >> as per rol

mr. chairman. senator enzi: senator toomey. senator toomey: mr. chairman, i want to fully acknowledge the important work that senator graham and ayotte and others have done out of a very, very legitimate concern of our defense funding level. i share their concern. however, i'm also concerned that this creates a mechanism by which defense spending could be increased quite significantly without any offset. and it is my strongly held view that while we need to increase our defense spending, for the sake of the fiscal solvency of our government and our long-term viability, frankly, as a nation, we need to rein in spending and we need to offset the increases that are entirely necessary on the defense side. i'm going to reluctantly support the amendment in the form it is in now despite the fact that i really don't improve of the offset that's contemplated by the graham amendment. i appreciate senator graham and the other members on our side working with me on an amendment that i'll introduce after this which i'll speak about but hopes to ensure this dev

mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr. johnson. >> aye. >> mr. ayotte. >> aye. >> mr. wicker. >> aye. >> mr. corker. >> aye use mr. purdue. >> aye. >> mr. sanders, no. >> mrs. murray todd nod. >> mr. widen. >> no. >> miss stabenow. >> no. >> were whitehouse. >> no,. >> mark merkley, no. >> miss ball win. >> no. >> mr. cane understand nod. >> member king. [inaudible] >> mr. chairman, aye. >> the yeas are 12, the nays are 10. >> the resolution passes. and i'd like to thank all the members for their tremendous cooperation getting this done. it is important that if you have any necessary documents to be filed, it has to be done tomorrow in order that the resolution can be brought to the senate floor next week. the deadline for submitting additional or minority views is no later than noon tomorrow. any views muss have a member's signature and we'll begin debate at 2:00 on monday. >> you also need to -- >> ready or not. >> staff can make technical and conforming changes. >> and may add to the chairman's mark of facts and figures to complete the charts. >> can add the numbers for the facts and figu

mr. toomey: so, mr. president it is hard to adequately express my frustration that we can't get moving on this bill. first of all the underlying bill that our friends on the other side are blocking progress on is a very, vincennes very sensible, important bill. i commend senator cornyn for having introduced this. i am proud to be a cosponsor. this is the justice for victims of trafficking act. let's be clear what this is about. we've got a huge problem in this country, in all 50 states. there are people who actually engage in the buying and selling of human beings, mostly women and young children in a sex trade. that's what's happening. and this is a bill that would enhance the penalties and thereby dis-kucialg this activity -- and thereby discourage some of this activity and take some of the penalties from these monsters and use those proceeds to help victims. i don't understand why the objection comes from, for a bill like this. and now we can't move ahead on my amendment. my amendment is is a little b

mr. toomey: on vote 98 i voted no when i intended to vote aye. tennis since it will not change the outcome i ask that i be recorded as voting aye. the presiding officer: without objection. there are two minutes of debate prior to the vote on the franken amendment number 2828. mr. franken: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: mr. president i would ask for order. the presiding officer: order in the chamber. mr. franken: we just voice voted a vote to let students use summer pell grants but the fact of the matter is, is that this budget cuts pell grants. minnesota alone more than 1,660,000 students were able to go to college thanks in part to pell grants, and the same holds for millions around the country. when my wife frannie and i were in college a full pell grant paid for about 80% of a public college education. today it pays for less than 35%. and yet this budget would cut this program. and make it harder for students to pay for college. my colleagues want to cut them further. we should not be doing that.

toomey. >> thank you, mr. chairman and madam chairman for swroining us -- joining us today. let me share a completely opposing view from that of the senator of new york, which will not be a shock to members of this committee. i can't help but observe what strikes me as a very obvious paradox here, the financial and economic crisis is over. it's been over for years. at least six or seven years and yet, we still maintain crisis level interest rates. we've got no wave of defaults or massive bankruptcies going on. we have unemployment has gone from 10% to sub 6%. gdp growth has been weak. i think that's easily explained by the avalanche of new regulations, but it's been positive for years. consumer sentiment is relatively high. the fomc in january described the economic recovery as solid. walmart has made an announcement that suggests we may be approaching -- crisis has been over for a long time. and there is, it's not as though there's no price to be paid by having this unbelievably accommodative policy. most immediately, i see the problem incured by my constituents who may hav

mr. chairman. this amendment is not the " amendment i'm talking to senator toomey about. that is this is the fund to be set up to help was our overseas diplomatic facilities. benghazi is an example of wish we had better security. the world is getting more dangerous by the day. i think we just closed our embassy at least temporarily in indonesia. i'm the senate of the foreign ops subcommittee on appropriations and we have put $5.4 billion in for embassy security. construction, maintenance and world side security protection. $46.4 above the budget request. we set aside 25 million as a source of funding to address emerging security requirements. this deficit neutral reserve fund would allow us to look throughout the government and try to find a bipartisan approach to put in more money in a diplomatic security, something i think we all understand we need. and it does allow not just spending cuts, but revenue, if we can work out an agreement acceptable to all of us. god knows what's coming our way overseas and to those who are in the diplomatic core. you earn your pay as much

mr. chairman. >> senator whitehouse and then senator toomey. >> thank you chairman. let me at the outset associate myself with senator king's remarks regarding the fact that this budget only focuses on one of the available areas in which we can make deficit progress and also with the caveat we have only seen the budget for the first few hours. these are pulmonary comments but what i do see is that for all the smashing and slashing that is done through the programs that regular families depend on for their kids in public school and their grandparents in nursing homes, for the basic needs that lower income people need, but dominating principle of this budget the one that should have primacy over every other principle is that every tax loophole is sacred. there is not a nickel spent to reduce the deficit which is described as a dangerous financial crisis by the chairman. well, you have to measure how serious the rhetoric is by the willingness to sacrifice to solve a problem. this budget is a clear concession of the so-called dangerous financial crisis and is actually le

mr. chairman. this amendment is not the oko amendment. i'm talking to senator toomey about that. that is this is the fund to be set up to help was our overseas diplomatic facilities. benghazi is an example of wish we had better security. the world is getting more dangerous by the day. i think we just closed our embassy at least temporarily in idonije. i'm the senate of the foreign ops subcommittee on appripriations and we have put 5 hnt 4 billion in for embassy security. construction maintenance and world side security protection. 46.4 above the budget request. we set aside 25 million as a source of fund inging to address emerging security requirements. this deficit neutral reserve fund would allow us to look throughout the government and try to find a bipartisan approach to put in more money in a diplomatic security, something i think we all understand we need. and it does allow not just spending cuts, but revenue, if we can work out a, an agreement acceptable to all of us. god knows what's coming our way overseas and to those who are in the diplomatic core. you earn your pay as

mr. president, let me just sum this up. the toomey-manchin bill offers a very simple proposition. if a school district wants to use federal tax dollars to hire school employees it has to make sure that they're not hiring pedophiles in the process. i think that's pretty reasonable reasonable. and specifically, they need to perform background checks on any worker who comes in unsupervised contact with children and they need to stop passing the trash. now, i can't believe this is even controversial. there's nobody that can stand here and say that protections against child sex predators are not urgently needed, not in light of the daily revelations we're discovering. and, again, this legislation has overwhelming bipartisan support. it passed the house unanimously. how many bills pass the house unanimously these days? but this did. and every member of the house and senate except one voted for even more extensive background checks to protect our youngest kids in child care. can't we provide the same protection to slightly older kids? and the legislation's been endorsed by just enumerabl

mr. toomey: thank you mr. president. i rise this afternoon to speak on s. 178, the justice for victims of trafficking act and the toomey-manchin amendment number 291 to that bill. first of all i want to thank senator cornyn for bringing this bill to the senate floor. it's a bipartisan bill. it's an extremely important bill. and i.t. been awfully frustrate -- and it's been awfully frustrating that we can't even get on to this bill. especially hard to understand is the fact that this is a bipartisan bill, had 10 democratic cosponsors, another three democrats who voted for it in the senate judiciary committee. this shouldn't even be controversial. and i.t. particularly disturb -- and it's particularly disturbing because when you think about what we're trying to address with senator cornyn's bill, it's awfully important. i mean what could be more despicable than what we're trying to go after here: trafficking in human beings. this is a form of modern-day slavery is what it is and some of the most despicable people in the worl