mr. vitter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: i don't mean to cut my colleague off, but senator lee is here on behalf of senator coburn, who has been more involved. so let me give the history. some folks in the senate had concerns about the bill and the fact that in their view it wasn't paid for. i met with them, talked through all these concerns. i couldn't convince them to drop those concerns completely, so instead we found a solution. and we found a solution, the vitter amendment at the desk that has been cleared within its four corners, nobody in the senate, no republican, no democrat, opposes the amendment. so we found that solution in order to pass the bill through the senate. and that addressed senator coburn's objections to the bill alone. so that's the solution we worked out. but i can't fully walk through all of senator coburn's thoughts about the bill on its own and whether it was paid for or not. i can just tell you that i met with him exhaustiv

mr. vitter: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: madam president, if there is a quorum call, i ask that it be ended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. vitter: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise to try to advance important legislation to fully authorize 27 veterans' affairs clinics around the country, 18 different states, communities that desperately need these facilities for our veterans, including two in louisiana. lafayette and lake charles. madam president, these clinics have been on the books, planned for, approved for quite a while, and, unfortunately, they ran into several bureaucratic glitches and hurdles. in the case of our two clinics in louisiana, the first thing was a flat-out mistake, a screwup at the v.a. which they fully admit to, but they made some errors in the contract letting process, and because of that, they had to stop that entire bidding process and back up and start all over. that basically cost us a year in terms of those vital community-based clinics in lafayette and lake

mr. vitter: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: reserving the right to object, i would again point out that i'm not only going to object to this, there are 43 senators who have serious substantive concerns with this very, very broad and expansive bill. and those concerns and objections have been laid out. they have been laid out by my staff, in meetings with the staff of the senator from vermont. they have been laid out by the republican ranking member on the committee, senator burr. i share his general concerns about the bill. so if the distinguished senator from vermont doesn't understand those concerns, quite frankly, hasn't been listening very hard. we have laid them out, and they are shared by 43 senators versus a bill amended at the desk with no objection to its substance. none. 100-0. big difference. big difference. so on behalf of a total of 43 senators, i do object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. vitter: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: retearing the tph

mr. vitter: mr. president, i have -- mr. president, i have a germane amendment to this matter which i've been trying to get recognized to present and so i call up my amendment numbered 2931 to the reid amendment 2874. the presiding officer: the amendment is not in order to be offered. it's inconsistent with senator precedence with respect to the offering of amendments, their numbers, degree and kind. mr. vitter: mr. president, in light of the fact that our practice of regularly shutting out senators from the ability to offer reasonable and germane amendments -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. vitter: -- is inconsistent with all of the history and traditions of the senate. i appeal the ruling of the chair that the amendment is not in order and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: the majority leader is -- mr. reid: i move to table. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. the yeas

mr. vitter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise to discuss and present amendment number 2931 to the bill before us. this is a germane amendment. it's all about the substance of the bill before us and it is a fully bipartisan proposal since all of the substance of this amendment was actually contained in the president's budget submission, his most recent budget submission. the amendment idea is very simple, it would prohibit unemployment insurance and disability double dipping. those are two different things. one is about somebody who's temporarily unable to find work, still looking for work, clearly able to work. that's unemployment insurance. disability is fundamentally different. that's somebody who is disabled and because of that disability cannot work on a long-term bas basis. so as president obama has proposed, as many republicans have proposed, this would simply prohibit an individual from receiving both o

mr. vitter: to debate this important issue. thank you madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you madam president. now, we believe that every american who works 40 hours a week deserves a fair shot at getting out of poverty. and under the present minimum wage laws, that doesn't happen. you can work hard with pride as americans do and work that 40 hours and still be below the poverty line. that is basically not part of what america is all about. because america says to everybody, you work hard, you can provide a decent life for you and your family. and since the minimum wage has stagnated, that doesn't happen. since 1968, the minimum wage has failed to keep up with inflation and lost a third of its value. that is not a fair shot for americans. a full-time minimum wage worker makes only about $15,000 a year. not a fair shot for americans. it's wrong and it flies in the face of the american dream. madam president, at the state of the union we each get one guest. i brought a young woman named sha rinch qua elliot

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator vitter. senator donnelly. >> thank you, mr. chairman and mr. secretary, general. on behalf of everyone in indiana, our sympathies to the entire army family, to those who were injured and lost their lives. please know our thoughts and prayers are with all of you in the army family. mr. secretary, as you know, dfas, the headquarters are in indiana. i know how hard those folks work, the excellence and quality of their work, the pride they take in it and in serving their country. and i would just ask you that you keep us in the loop and keep us informed as you move forward in the dfas process. we would appreciate you keeping us in the loop. >> certainly. that's a reasonable request. i would note it's not our intent to nor do we control the processes of dfas. we're just trying to ensure within the army we're doing what we control as well as we can. >> understood. i was with ayotte when we were in afghanistan recently, and part of the discussion was about the equipment that's leaving afghanistan. and while we were in ukraine, the defense prime minist

mr. president. i came to the floor today with the intention of asking unanimous consent to pass h.r. 3521, which we've heard a lot about on the floor lately between senator vitter and senator sanders. this bill would authorize the construction of 27 veterans clinics, two in our state, louisiana, one in lake charles and one in lafayette. these clinics, it's a long and sad story about why they have not been built, i'll get into that in a minute but as you can see, texas, california, florida, georgia and other states are affected, and i know that the senators from those states support what we're trying to do. my colleague yesterday and the day before came to the floor to call me ineffective. i'd like to say that i was a little bit shocked to hear that. i've been called many things on the floor of this senate -- hard headed, stubborn, tenacious, you know, the senator that never quits, i've never been called ineffective so it was a little bit shocking, what i could say is i've spent 18 years on the floor of the senate and working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle developing very strong phillips, very -- friendships, and trusting friendships that i think hav