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 just to afford any child care but child care that is of a high quality. the bill that we're introducing today -- we just introduced today, i should say, is the child care access to resources for early learning act. and of course we have an acronym. the shorthand for the bill is child care -- ccre, standing for the words in the bill that focus on re resources for

mr. toomey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: i rise to address a huge problem affecting all of our states, all of our communities. it is a bill meant to be helpful in this rather. it is about the huge problem we have with opioid abuse, opioid addiction including both prescription and heroin addiction and abuse. this is an epidemic that is, it's really unbelievable in scale. it's aeffecting people of all ages, all ethnic groups, all demographics, all geography. it's everywhere and it's a huge, huge problem. i've heard it in every county that i have visited in my state, in all 67 counties of pennsylvania. i've heard about how big this problem is. in fact, more pennsylvanians will die this year from heroin overdoses and the misuse of opioid painkillers than from the flu or homicides. so i wanted to learn more about this, mr. president, so last fall i convened a hearing of the senate finance subcommittee on health care that i chair. senator casey joined me in that hearing out in pittsburgh at the allegheny general hospital wh

mr. chairman. janet yellen, thank you for your service as we kind of go back and forth about effects of monetary policy or not and i share some of senator toomey's concerns about negative interest rates. i will little tongue in cheek make mention of one of your comments applied earlier to senator menendez, which i think will have 100% approval on this panel where you said more jobs are good for the economy. how we get those more jobs is some question. we can debate monetary policy or not. ur7 talking about productivity. i share your views on productivity. productivity gains are often driven by knowledge and skills and i think one of the things that we've talked about before but unfortunately this congress has not fully addressed is the rising challenge around student debt now at 1.3 trillion and rising greater than the credit card debt and the rippling effect that has across our whole economy. not just to those individual students or recent graduates and their families but i'd like you to comment upon that kind of wage box you are caught in not with rents, student debts, not enough rising wages and the effect that has beth on start-ups as someon

mr. speaker, earlier this week i joined my colleagues representative mike kelley from pennsylvania's third congressional district, along with pennsylvania senators pat toomey and bob casey jr. in sending a letter to the assistant secretary of the army and that letter we requested prescott state park remain a high priority park for the army corps of engineer's project along 2016. the park's beaches require proper care and nourishment every single year to fight their constant erosion. more than four million people visit the park each year making it pennsylvania's most visited state park. the park is woven into the social fabric of the region, is highly important part of northwestern pennsylvania's economy. it is my hope that u.s. army corps of engineers will continue to support flenishment of this vital -- replenishment of this vital area. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair lays before the house the following personal request. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mr. hudson of north carolina for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the request s granted. under the speaker'

senator toomey: i would like to submit that memo for the record and quote very briefly from -- thank you, mr. chairman. the memo does say and i quote, there are several potentially substantial, legal and practical constraints. another part, it says and i quote, it is not at all clear that the federal reserve permits negative rates. obviously there was a question in someone's mind. chair yellen: it had not been seriously studied ap at this point i'm not aware of a legal constraint. t again, we have not run through a legal analysis. senator shelby: senator warner. senator warner: thank you for your service. as we kind of go back and forth about effects of monetary policy or not and i share some of senator too many hey's concerns about neg i have -- negative interest rates. and 100% approval on this panel where you said more jobs are good for the economy. how we get those more jobs is some question and we can debate monetary policy or not and one of the things talking about productivity and i share your views on productivity. productivity gains are driven by knowledge and skills. and i think on