mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. it's a pleasure to see both senators from connecticut here, one speaking and one presiding, and to reflect on the junior senator's comments about the e.p.a. nominee gina mccarthy who is not only from connecticut and massachusetts. so she has surrounded my state of rhode island, and we have had plenty of, i would say, indirect exposure to her. i think she is terrific and i could not agree more with the senator's comments. i look forward to swift confirmation to get to work on her confirmation. which gets me to the issue on the floor again for the 39th time which is to try to get this body to wake up to the threat of climate change. speaking of massachusetts, i'll also welcome our new senator from massachusetts, my new england neighbor, ed markey. for decades, ed has been a passionate leader in congress on energy and environmental issues. he has been a true champion on climate change. he and i serve as cochairs of the bicameral task force on climate change, along with our colleagues rep

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i am here once again now for the 40th time to urge my colleagues to wake up to the threat of climate change. i'm very pleased to be joined together by our colleague senator brian schatz of hawaii who is a champion of renewable energy and energy efficiency. as hawaii's lieutenant governor, he co-authored his state's net meetering rule, and he led the design of the state's renewable energy portfolio which is on track to be number one in the nation. he has pushed commonsense ways to boost energy, security and battle climate change, and it is no wonder that he has been called hawaii's ambassador of energy. we are here today in the wake of a hearing last week in the committee on environment and public works. the premise of that hearing was simple -- climate change, it's happening now. disappointingly, again, allies of the fossil fuel industry attempted to discount or down play that straightforward call to action. of the climate scientists on hand, everyone, even t

mr. whitehouse: thank you. mr. president, my colleagues and i have come to the floor today to talk about an issue that is at the heart of the discussion of our national debt and deficit, and that is health care spending. these days, around washington, there is a regular refrain echoing through the hallways -- in order to fix our deficit, we must cut medicare and medicaid benefits. well, that is wrong. that idea is according to the former c.e.o. of kaiser permanente, somebody who knows a little something about health care, and i'll quote him, so wrong it's almost criminal, it's an inept way of thinking about health care. i could not agree more. it was put this way by from herrick, who is a columnist for my hometown paper, the providence journal. i'll quote her -- "the dagger pointed at america's economic viability hasn't been the existence of government programs like medicare. it's been the relentless rise in health care costs that plagues not only medicare and medicaid but everyone who uses health care. attacking m

mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, may i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: and that i be allowed to speak as if in morning business for up to, say, 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. i'm here for my 38th weekly time to wake up speech, and today i want to ask the question: what if? what if? what if climate change is real? what if the 30-plus giga tons of carbon pollution mankind is dumping into the atmosphere every year makes a difference? what if it's warming up the planet and changing the weather? what if it's warming up the seas and raising their level and making them more acidic? what then? what if this is serious? what if this is serious and we're not? what if this is serious and we're sleepwalking when we should be awake? what if this is deadly serious and we are reckless when we should be responsible? what if we are completely missing this moment

, gillibrand, leahy, klobuchar, udall of new mexico, whitehouse, wyden, cardin, blumenthal, coons, brown, casey, warren, franken, durbin, stabenow. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: mr. president, as i understand it, the majority leader has just filed cloture on a bill that would keep us at a 3.4% student loan rate for the stafford loans, which impacts about 7 million americans, for a year. am i correct on that? the presiding officer: the cloture motion is on the motion to proceed. mrs. boxer: well, that he is a very important cloture motion. and i would hope that in a bipartisan way we will move forward on this bill because, mr. president, as of now, student loan rates have doubled on stafford loans. in my state of california, 550,000 californians are facing a doubling of their student loan from 3.4% to 6. 8%. and i have asked my students to contact me and talk to me about their real-world stories. and what it means to them to see a doubling

challenge them so we can have the equivalence between the bully pulpit of the whitehouse in the authority of that magnificent office for mr. obama to say not just to defend black people that my brothers and sisters have to come to grips with things as well i see the majority of white institutions. wednesday to be cool has no copyright and black communities. [laughter] number two jugs' reside on every campus not were i went but they have the best labs. [laughter] don't go to jail or get stigmatized see you are penalized of the crimes on the campus you're not subjected to and thirdly the adn that we are so much different wheel of the same thing if the president could stand up to remind america he is not the only person who was brilliant and bold and particular there are millions more that you know, nothing about and he has the power to educate and challenge ministry takes the hit on the jobs bill he is out there right now to tell the truth about the economy he takes a hit for everything this is another hit but it can impact larger society as well and that is critical. >> we'll try to get as many questions before people go t

and i want to thank senators leahy, whitehouse, gillibrand, and shats for thei shats schatzr cosponsorship of this legislation. mr president, let's be honest about something that we don't talk about enough, and that is that in many, many ways our government is selling out the young people of our country, and when we do that, when we ignore the needs of the young people of our country, in many ways we are selling out the future of the united states of america because the young people are the future. and if we don't turn this around, i fear very much that we will continue on the downward spiral that we have seen for the last several decades, a spiral in which the rich get richer, wall street and the multinational corporations continue to enjoy record-breaking profits, while the middle class continues to disappear and poverty remains catastrophically high. if we pass the legislation on the floor today without improving it, we will simply be taking one more step in the wrong direction. before i get into the gist of what this legislation is about and what my amendment will do, let me say just a very few words about wh

mr. president, one of the issues we don't talk enough about, and i know senator whitehouse of rhode islanddoes talk about it is the impact that global warming is having on our oceans, driving fish to deeper, cooler waters, threatening the fishing industry and food security. in the pacific northwest, for example, according to noaa, and as reported by "usa today," just this spring, shellfish farmers on the west coast are increasingly experiencing collapses in both hatcheries and natural ecosystems. extreme weather and rising sea levels also threaten people across the planet. more than 31 million people fled their homes just last year because of disasters related to floods and storms tied to climate change, according to a number of sources. and climate change will create in years to come even larger numbers of what we call climate refugees. as so-lying countries lose land mass to rising seas and to decertification consuming once- fertile territory. in northern india, nearly 6,000 people are dead or missing from devastating floods and landslides just last month. closer to home, hurricane sandy

i don't think it is anything you have turn it over the senator whitehouse but i'll the floor.ck on but please go ahead, sir. >> not all, mr. chairman. much. you very mr. chairman, distinguished members of the committee thank ou for the invitation to testify. our constitution expressly gives enumeratede specific power and obligation to ensure hat there is no electoral discrimination anywhere in the country based on race or ethnicity. ongress has repeatedly attempted to step up to this responsibility, not perfectly programs but pragmatically. shelby county ripped a sizable hole in congress's work. that decision has refused americans less sure that won't taint their elections. that damage.rrect sweeping nationals statistics unfortunatelythat there are still public officials electoral limit opportunity based on race or ethnicity. sometimes because of contempt. sometimes because of perceived political advantage. t is disgusting and it is illegal. and even with armies of lawyers t is very hard to fix using existing tools like section two. legal system the depend on responsive lawsuits the tools mr. carvin was talking about. the

leahy, carper, wyden, murray, udall of new mexico, heinrich, are sanders, whitehouse, baucus, durbin, gillibrand, merkley and schatz. mr. reid: i ask the mond tri quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to proceed. all in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. complonl: madam president, i have a consent --. mr. mcconnell: i have a consent that would set up these votes in a much more expeditious way than the way the majority leader is proceeding but first let me just say these are a dark days in the history of the senate. i hate that we have come to this point. we've witnessed the majority leader break his word to the united states senate and now our request for a joint meeting of all the senators has been set for monday night, a time when attendance around here is frequently quite spotty is, in an obvious effort to keep as many a

whitehouse. but i'm also required back on the floor. so please go ahead, sir. >> not at all, mr. chairman. and thank you, very much. mr. chairman, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to testify here as well. our constitution expressly gives congress the specific enumerated power and obligation to ensure that there is no electoral discrimination in the country based on race or ethnicity. congress repeatedly attempted to step up to that responsibility. not perfectly perhaps but pragmatically. shelby county ripped a sizeable hole in congress's work. that decision has left americans today, less sure that discrimination won't taint their elections. we have to correct that damage. sweeping national statistics hide the fact that unfortunately there are still public officials who try it limit electoral opportunity based on race or ethnicity. sometimes because of contempt, sometimes because of perceived political advantage. it's disgusting and it's illegal. even with armies of lawyers, it is very hard it fix using existing tools, like section 2. normally, we in the

is anything you have said that i turn it over the senator whitehouse but i'll required back on the floor. but please go ahead, sir. >> not all, mr. chairman. thank you very much. mr. chairman, distinguished members of the committee thank you for the invitation to testify. our constitution expressly gives congress the specific enumerated power and obligation to ensure that there is no electoral discrimination anywhere in the country based on race or ethnicity. congress has repeatedly attempted to step up to this responsibility, not perfectly programs but pragmatically. shelby county ripped a sizable hole in congress's work. that decision has refused americans less sure that discrimination won't taint their elections. we have to correct that damage. sweeping nationals statistics hide the fact that unfortunately there are still public officials who try to limit electoral opportunity based on race or ethnicity. sometimes because of contempt. sometimes because of perceived political advantage. it is disgusting and it is illegal. and even with armies of lawyers it is very hard to fix using existing tools like section two. normally we

mr. whitehouse: i rise again for now the 41st time to ask my colleagues to wake up to the threat that climate change. today i come to discussion the serious risks that climate change poses to our energy sector. it is no controversial idea that our climate affects our energy infrastructure. in the northeast, when we think about what causes power outages, we naturally think of bad weather. in fact, the american society of civil engineers reports that between 2007 and 2012, weather-related events were the main cause of electric outages in the u.s. that same report said the average cost of a one-hour power outage is just over $1,000 for a commercial business. just for one hour. so this takes a serious toll on our economy. a recent department of energy report has highlighted just how sensitive our energy sector is to climate change and to extreme weather. in september, 2011, the department of energy reports -- and i'll quote -- "high temperatures and high electricity demand related loading tripped a transformer and transmission line near yuma, arizona, starting a chain of events that led to shutti