>> aye. >> mr. udall? >> aye. >> mr. murphy? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> no. >> mr. markey? >> aye. >> mr. corker? >> no. >> mr. rubio? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. mccain? >> mr. barrasso? >> yes. >> mr. chairman? >> recorded as a yes. >> any other amendments? >> yes, this is paul amendment number three. this amendment would set geographic limits on this aumf. it reads, nothing in this joint resolution shall be construed as authorizing the use of force against the islamic state outside of the geographic boundaries of iraq and syria, and no action may be taken outside such area without congressional authorization. now, many have made the argument that we've added too many limitations. there should be no limitations, and they've argued historically that we haven't done this. the national security network looked back at all of the uses of authorization of force since the beginning of the republic, and they found that 60% of those actually did have a geographic limitation on them. some would say, well, you know, we just don't need this. it's too confining. the problem i

and mark udall, my friend from colorado and your colleague, mr. president. as i said last night, i served with his dad morris udall in the house. his dad may have been the funniest public servant i ever served with. what a wit. what a sense of humor. and he once said if you have politics in your bloodstream, only embalming fluid will replace it. thank goodness the udalls had politics in their bloodstream. mo udall's service in the house of representatives, candidate for president. mark udall's uncle stewart udall who was secretary of interior under president john kennedy. tom udall, mark's susan, the son of stewart udall, serves as senator from new mexico, and mark udall himself. what a great person. i can remember so many things about his public service but i especially remembered last night when he lost his brother and came before our caucus lunch and talked about the love he had for that man and what that loss meant to him. it touched the heart of everyone in the room and gave us an insight into mark udall as a person. he was committed to a number of cause

>> aye. >> mr. udall? >> aye. >> mr. murphy? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> no. >> mr. markey? >> aye. >> mr. corker? >> no. >> mr. rubio? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. mccain? >> no. >> mr. barrasso? >> no. >> mr. wahl? >> yes. >> mr. chairman? >> any other amendments? >> yes, this is paul amendment number three. this amendment would set geographic limits on this aumf. it reads, nothing in this joint resolution shall be construed as authorizing the use of force against the islamic state outside of the geographic boundaries of iraq and syria, and no action may be taken outside such area without congressional authorization. now, many have made the argument that we've added too many limitations. there should be no limitations, and they've argued historically that we haven't done this. the national security network looked back at all of the uses of authorization of force since the beginning of the republic, and they found that 60% of those actually did have a geographic limitation on them. some would say, well, you know, we just don't need this. it's too confining. the prob

mr. udall: thank you, mr. president. thank you -- and thank you, chairwoman mikulski. let me just say a few words about the chairwoman. first of all, i'm just really privileged to serve on the appropriations committee. i -- for the last couple of years i've served as the chairman of the subcommittee on financial services and general government, and with her guidance and work it has been a really fulfilling task. and i -- i just want to thank her for the last two years as she's taken over putting us on track in terms of having a good, solid appropriations process, where we make every attempt to get the -- the appropriations bills through the senate and in place at the beginning of the budget year. that can make a real difference, as she's indicated, for veterans, for jobs, for all of the agencies that are funded throughout government. in particular, in my state, the national laboratories, two just premier national laboratories, los alamos and sandia national land, our three air force bases, our national parks, our national monuments. so there's so much that is a part of

mr. udall: mr. president, today is an historic day, as senator wyden has made clear and senator feinstein and senator rockefeller and many other senators that follow. before i talk about my involvement in the efforts that were put forth to reach this deal, i want to say to senator wyden, my good friend, you honor me with those comments, and i want to acknowledge that when you're in a fight it matters who you're in the fight with. it's been my privilege and honor to fight on the side of transparency, on the side of protecting the bill of rights. this has been a righteous cause. we're going to continue to work to find the right balance between privacy and security. and as ben franklin famously implied, we can have both, but we don't end up with both if we set aside the bill of rights and those fundamental principles that are enshrined in the bill of rights. so it's been my privilege to fight alongside you. i wish you all the best. yes, us westerners will stay in touch. turning back to the matter at ha

mr. udall: thank you, mr. president. and i just want to rise like others in our class and many other senators have arisen to talk a little bit about mark begich and his service for alaska, and praise him for his service. because i think he's been, since i've been here the six years and i served with him, he was in my class, i have seen a remarkable senator who really cares about his state and has been an incredible advocate for his state. i wasn't here, mark, for your i wasn't here, mark, for your i wasn't here for your entire speech but i turned it on. a good thing about our offices is you can tune again, and i got the point where you got a little choked up about deborah and jacob. and i got choked up in the office. i could cry but not in public. in any event, the first thing i know about mark is how much he cares about his family and how much the toll of serving in the senate takes on that family. his travel, i'm a westerner and i have to travel out five hours, six hours, eight hours to get home. his flight is always c

in the financial services aging subcommittee alone that mr. udall was the subcommittee chairman, we had six of these. six. they were tough. but you know what? we were able to deal with them. there was a whole rider to make the consumer financial protection bureau weaker by taking away its mandatory funding. we stopped the weakening of the consumer financial protection bureau that the wonderful gentlelady from massachusetts had stood up for and had stood up the agency. but we protected it. we protected the agency and we protected its money. also there was this whole attempt on a rider from the house to stop i.r.s. from implementing the affordable care act. we were able to deal with that and eliminate that. then there was the s.e.c. where there was an attempt to make sure that legislation would have affected the investors by making sure we prevented the security exchange with the fiduciary standard of care for brokers. we also prevented the treasury from -- a rider that would have prevented the treasury or stopped the treasury from designated certain

mr. udall: thank you, madam president. before i start my remarks on the historic day that was yesterday, when it comes to the publication of our long-in-the-making report on the c.i.a.'s torture program, i do want to thank the chairman for his leadership, for his mentorship and for his friendship. i also am proud to be a part of obviously the armed services committee and to have chaired the strategic forces subcommittee. and we're once again going to keep faith with the men and women in uniform, as my good friend, senator inhofe, has pointed out. that's the crucial task in front of us and i look forward to one of my last votes as a united states senator from the best state in the nation, colorado, casting a vote for this year's national defense authorization act. so again i want to thank my two friends from -- who have mentored me and who've led our committee with great alon and intelligence. madam president, yesterday was a historic day. almost six years after the senate intelligence committee voted to conduct a study of

tom udall, democrat senator from new mexico and visited alan gross in cuba in prison last month. how is mr. gross's health, what was the meeting like, and what did he tell you? >> well, first of all wees released on humanitarian ground and i think it is clear he needed to be released. he wasn't doing that well in terms of his health. so that's good thing and i would just, first of all, tell the gross family i'm joyous with them on his release because i think this is a wonderful thing and i would congratulate his wife judy working for this for a very long time. this is something that is long overdue. it has needed to be done. all of the things you announced that expected that the president's going to do are important things and congress should move forward with lifting embargo. leland: do you think congress will eventually improve that? why do you think this had to be done now? >> well, there was a window here and my sense when i traveled down there and met with cuban officials and met with alan gross was that this time, before you get in the middle of a presidential campaign after an elect

udall. he served one term. he lost his reelection effort. he has basically said that the cia is lying. those are his words. guest: i think you will get a difference of opinion from mr. brennan, mr. hayden, and other heads of the cia and the officers themselves. unfortunately, we will really never know that because senator feinstein and her staff decided they would not interview any of the officials were the operators or analysts, the professionals who actually carried out these interrogations, to find out why they did it and whether they gleaned useful information from it. so senator udall going to the floor, calling our professionals liars, i think is untoward. guest: that goes to why the american public needs to see the report. we have the right to make judgments for ourselves. on steve's point on how the senate committee did not interview all the relevant actors, they relied on primary evidence. look at the footnotes in the executive summary. there are some 3000 footnotes in the 500 pages. they are replete with references to e-mails, to live communications, to what was happening on the ground in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. i think this is why we need this

we had mark udall, outgoing senator from colorado, who is on the senate intelligence committee, yesterday sort of reupping his call for mr. brennan's resignation. but something very interesting came in after director brennan's speech today. it was the statement from senator feinstein. and you had mentioned, i think, the tweets that were going on from her account during the speech, which seemed still pretty critical, and yet she put out a statement this afternoon that suggested that he had persuaded her on-- not persuaded but kind of-- that they had reached agreement on a number of point. she seemed particularly happy that director brennan said the c.i.a. had not concluded that these enhanced interrogation techniques, as they call them, did produce valuable intelligence. and, again, this is the distinction that director brennan is drawing between the individuals and the techniques producing the information. >> ifill: director brennan also said that the c.i.a. fell short in its responsibility to punish some of the people who had done these things some years ago. so what is happening now. what has changed? is the reform und

but i know that my colleagues, senator udall is on the floor and i will yield the time to him. >> mr. president, i yield the order. >> the senator from new mexico. >> thank you, mr. president. and thank you chairwoman mikulski. let me just say a few things about the chairwoman. first of all, i am completely honored to serve on the appropriations committee. for the last couple of years i have served as the chairman of the subcommittee on financial services and general government and with her guidance and work it has been a fulfilling task and i just want to thank her for the last two years and she is taking over putting us on track in terms of having a good and solid appropriations process where we make every effort and attempt to get the appropriations bill through the senate and also in place. at the beginning of the budget year that can make a real difference for veterans and jobs and all of the agencies and in particular in my state, the national laboratory, the premier national laboratory, lost almost and others. the three air force bases and the national parks and monuments and t

udall. he has been on the senate floor and has been saying that the cia is lying. those are his words. aest: i think you will get difference of opinion from mrden, and other heads of the cia, and the officers themselves. unfortunately we will never really know that because senator feinstein and her staff decided that they would not interview any of the officials, operators, analysts, or professionals who carried out the interrogations to find out why they did it and whether they gleaned useful information from it. senator udall going to the floor on his way out the door calling our professional intelligence agents liars, that is untoward. i think that that's why we needed to see this report. we need to make this decision for ourselves. on the primary evidence. if you look at the footnote in the executive summary, there are some 3000 notes replete with references to e-mails, to live communications, to what was actually happening on the ground 2006.1, 2002, 2003, and this is all the more reason to get that information out there, so that the american people can make their own assessments and whether in fact senior cia officials were misleading

mr. reid: u. reid, menendez, leahy, heinrich, reed of rhode island, feinstein, udall of new mexico, cardin, nelson, boxer, carper, merkley -- markey, americay, tester, durbin, and schumer. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i now pro move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. a senator: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not you the vote i 52 yeas, a 41 naissments the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president, if i can have everyone's attention. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to h.j. res. 131, which is a short-term continuing resolution that will go until wednesday, december 17, which was received from the house and is at the desk. further, that the joint resolution be read three times and the senate now proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution with no intervening actio

leahy, sanders, walsh, murray, reed of rhode island, udall of new mexico, whitehouse, klobuchar, stabenow, coons, menendez, boxer, harkin, and durbin. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. is there is sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: squasnroo vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the ayes are 52, the nays are 42. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 840, astephan lopez, and i move that -- and do so that we are in executive session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote vote: vote the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? on this vote, the ayes are 54, the noes are 40. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of the interior, he iest

mr. president, in the sierra nevada mountains where i am fro fro -- from and the rockies, that's not a mountain. we have mountains in colorado and nevada. mark udall once attempted to scale mount everest and was nearly there when one of the most violent storms came, and he and the others, using good sense, decided that they shouldn't do it, and it was the right thing to do. people die by saying they are stronger than nature. he understands his limitations, and his limitations are not very much. mark is a tremendous athlete. he could do anything athletically. he had the genes of his dad, morris udall, who i had the good fortune of serving with in the house of representatives. morris udall is the only person to have played professional basketball being blind in one eye, couldn't see, but he was able to adjust his perceptive qualities with a basketball hoop to play professional hbl. -- professional basketball. we all felt mark's loss when his brother randy was found dead. he was found dead in the place that he loved more than anyplace else, the wind river mountains in wyoming. that's where randy loved to go, mark loves to go. people told randy he sho