mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. we heard a similar appeal from america's largest financial powerhouses last week. bank of america, citi, goldman sachs, j.p. morgan chase, morgan stanley and wells fargo released a strong call for governments to come together on a climate agreement. here is what they wrote -- "policy frameworks that recognize the costs of carbon are among the many important instruments needed to provide greater market certainty, accelerate investment, drive innovation in low-carbon energy and create jobs, while we, speaking of each other, may compete in the marketplace, we are aligned on the importance of policies to address the climate challenge. i ask unanimous consent that their statement also be submitted to the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: these are serious people running big, successful companies. they don't take climate change lightly. they don't scoff, and neither should we. they are asking that elected officials find the courage to address climate change.

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i congratulate senator vitter on the passage of this bill and would remark on the support for it by senator booker and senator menendez on our side of the aisle. i now in turn ask unanimous consent that the committee on commerce, science and transportation be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 774, and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 774, an act to strengthen enforcement mechanisms to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i then ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection.

mrs. feinstein: madam president, i call up whitehouse 2626. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment by number. the clerk: the senator from california, mrs. feinstein, for mr. whitehouse, proposes an amendment numbered 2626 to amendment numbered 2716. mrs. feinstein: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: i call up wyden 2621, as modified. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment by number. the clerk: the senator from california, mrs. feinstein, for mr. wyden, proposes an amendment numbered 2621, as modified, to amendment numbered 2716. mr. burr: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: madam president, as the vice chair and i said numerous -- i have said numerous times this afternoon, nothing would make us happier than for members to come to the floor. we've got amendments pending. we've got a manager' amendment amendment -- a managers' amendment. everybody knows exactly what's in this bill. let's start the debate, let's

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i would answer my colleague's question by saying i think we are very definitely ready to go. and we're particularly ready to go because of senator udall's achievement in securing the 60th vote, a filibuster-proof majority who are on this bill as cosponsors. that doesn't count people who are willing to vote for it. i think we always had 60 people voting for it. but to have 60 people willing to cosponsor it so that it's clear from the get-go so that if this bill is called up, it will get through. i think that is very, very important. there was some dispute on the environment and public works committee. we had a very lively hearing. and i think the impact of that hearing caused people to go back and say we really do need to improve this bill in some ways. i want to commend senator merkley and senator booker for joining me in i guess a little mini gang of three to pull the bill to a place where we would all support it in the committee. and that's part of how it got to 15-5. i t

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to speak for about ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: we are embarked on a significant budget agreement that has as one of its components adjustments to america's health care costs. in the case of this particular agreement, i support the adjustments that have been proposed, things like preventing generic drug manufacturers from raising their costs higher than the rate of inflation where we've seen people come in and buy companies and jack up the costs ten times just because they can. they don't add any value to the product. they just raise its cost. so i support that. paying hospitals the rates for physician practices, the physician practices were paid before the hospital bought them. nothing changed in the physician practice. just ownership changed. that shouldn't allow a windfall to the buyer. so i think we've done well with what we've done to reduce health care spending in this particular bill, but i recall that

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i'm delighted to join my colleagues from massachusetts and hawaii to talk about the tax credits for wind. we have had a remarkably exciting new thing happen in rhode island this summer. from time to time i'm able to get out on narrangansett bay, and over and over again, whether driving on the bridges over in narrangansett bay or actually out on narrangansett bay, we saw the sights of these enormous barges traveling down the bay, bringing these huge structures that were carried out, located off of block island, and sunk to the ocean floor to provide the platforms for the first steel-in-water off-shore wind energy in the country. now, you can go over to europe and you can see wind energy all over the place. we're behind them in developing it. but rhode island is the start. and whether you saw these enormous structures that were the legs, the frames for the pylon and the turbine. or whether you saw enormous pilings that get carried out there and in the same way

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i would like to speak for five or six minutes on the cyber bill. and, unfortunately, i'm here to express my distaste for the manner in which this bill has proceeded. i have an amendment that is not going to be voted on, and let me describe some of the characteristics of that amendment of first of all, it is bipartisan. it is senator graham's and my amendment. second, it's had a hearing. we've had a hearing on it in the judiciary committee and considerable work has gone into it. three, it has the support of the department of justice. it repairs holes in our criminal law for protecting cybersecurity that we worked very carefully on with the department of justice and which we've had testimony in support of from our department of justice prosecutors. and, last, it was in the queue. it was in the list of amendments that were agreed to when we agreed to go to the floor with this bill. so i don't know how many a goino i don't know how i'm going to vote on this bill now, but if you've had a bipartisan amendment that's had a hearing, that was in the queue a

mr. chairman. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman grassley. before i ask a few questions, let me join the colleagues on the panel who have thanked you for your chairmanship of this process. you brought very distinct views of your own but as chairman you facilitated all of us coming together and making this happen and appreciate that very much. i also want to mention -- although he's not here today -- that senator graham played a very significant role working behind the scenes at bringing all of us together based on his experience as a military prosecutor so thanks to both of them and thank you, ms. yates, for the support that you and the department of justice has given to us as we have worked through some very complicated issues. senator feinstein asked a question about making sure that when a referral was made for return to society part of the bill that the assistant united states attorneys and the united states attorneys would not let the ball fall between the cracks and ignore their responsibilities and i just wanted to reassure her we are

mr. chairman, but i appreciate the good work senator whitehouse has made in this bill. combinedthey have been with his editing provision, we have our work cut out for us. e: thanks for being here today and giving us greater insight. i used to be a federal prosecutor, you were later a u.s. attorney. peoplee you prosecuted under these tough sentencing laws. , and light ofieve all your experience, that the mandatory minimums should be adjusted in the fashion proposed? ichae there is a need for the adjustment does not affect the tools that a prosecutor has, the need is because the department of justice and the prosecutor you cared about disparity. you cared about over punishment, and under punishment. this bill is the result of years of thoughtful analysis, it is modest, it addresses those areas oft have susceptibility either abuse, or over punishment. it is in no way a reduction of thepools or -- the tools or ability to punish. with title ii, it increases the ability to rehabilitate. we have advanced in all the areas. of those oppose this bill, many insist that they oppose

mr. president, earlier this week, the whitehouse and congressional leadership announced a budget deal that will avert a potential shutdown of the federal government and prevent a default on our country's obligations. this agreement would provide relief to the arbitrary sequester caps for two years and maintain the full faith and credit of the united states by extending the debt limit until march, 2017. for months, we have been calling on both sides to abandon any reckless budget cuts and work together to give the american people much-needed relief from this sequester. i applaud president obama and the leaders from both political parties for crafting a commonsense solution that protects the american people and our economic recovery. now, this measure passed the house of representatives and now it's our turn. this agreement calls for $112 billion in sequester relief, providing necessary funding for critical programs that many americans depend on. with this additional funding, dramatic cuts in these programs can be avoided. yesterday, i spoke about the importance of biomedical research. fundi

mr. president, i make a point of order that the whitehouse amendment number 2626 and the mikulski amendment 2597 are not germane to the amendment number 2716. the presiding officer: the points of order are well taken and the amendments fall. mr. burr: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i want to take this opportunity before we start this final process to thank the vice chairman. she has been incredibly willing to participate even when we started in a different place than we ended. she brought to the table a tremendous amount of experience on this issue because of the number of years she had worked on it. and she was very accommodating on areas that i felt were important for us to either incorporate or at least debate. and what i really want to share with my colleagues is that we had a -- we had a wholesome debate inside the committee. it was wholesome before it even came to the presiding officer or to senator wyden, that the vice chair and i had ourselves, and our staffs. and that's good. and it's why some of the members might have, in committee, said, gee, this looks like a good amen

mr. grassley is not wonderful. senator whitehouse: thank you to the panel for being here. and i were to summarize the testimony it would be to say that there is fairly widespread support for title ii of this bill related to the improvement foreentry preparation inmates were being returned to society. certainly, no direct criticism of any part of it. we will be able to move smoothly forward with that part of the bill. , weact, but the whole bill have a house process to get through in a conference to get through. i would like to ask three of you to think forward to when this bill passes, presume that it has , and given it intact us advice on what we should be looking for from an oversight point of view. what should be the benchmarks, or other advice you might have as to what should inform the implementation of that title by the bureau prisoners and the department of justice? >> thank you, sender -- senator. it something is working, you would expect it to be expanded. thisr experience, legislative body has not been provided with the types of metrics of what is working at the

mr. chairman, i appreciate your willingness to include the cornyn-whitehouse corrections act as a key element of the effort. ms. yates, thank you for your efforts about the so-called back end of the criminal justice system. of course in my case, the motivation for this legislation came from my experience in texas. we are proud to be tough on crime. we finally decided to be smart about crime too and realized people who go to prison typically get out of prison. many of them are woefully unprepared to deal with the real world, and so they end up back in prison and you've alluded to that earlier. but thankfully our experiment in texas and other states, senior whitehouse state had the similar experience. we have been able to reduce our crime rates by dealing with the causes or at least the issues that inmates are dealing with. whether it's mental illness, whether it's drug or alcohol, whether it's lack of basic skills or even basic education, we've been able to reduce both our crime rate and our incarceration rate. the recipe for success, i believe, in my state has been three elements. it's been r

mr. chairman, approaeciate your willingness to include the cornyn/whitehouse act and ms. yates thank you for your comments about the so-called back end of the criminal justice system. in my case, the motivation came from our experience in texas where we're proud to be tough on crime and we finally decided to be smart about crime, too, and realized people who go to prison typically get out of prison and many of them are woefully unprepared to deal with the real world. so they end up back in prison and you've eluded to that. but we've both been able to reduce our crime rates by dealing with the causes or at least the issues that inmates are dealing with. whether it's mental illness, drug or alcohol, whether it's lack of basic skills or basic education. the recipe for success, i believe, in my state, has been three elements -- it's been rehabilitation, something we all learned about in law school in our criminal justice courses but we seem to have forgotten over the years, the importance of actually giving people who will avail themselves of the opportunity to actually turn

reaching an agreement on text that senator whitehouse very much wanted to include, and i'm pleased we were able to include that in this unanimous consent package. so, mr. president, i appreciate the support of my colleagues. i urge a strong yes vote on the cloture vote to allow us to proceed to this bill. thank you. mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i rise today to speak against cloture on the substitute. this substitute would not have stopped the target hack, the anthem hack, the home depot hack, or the o.p.m. hack. but when it comes to real privacy protection for millions of americans, with this substitute there is simply no "there" there. the and you see that, mr. president, by looking at page 17 of the substitute. "companies only have to remove personal, unrelated information if they know that it is personal and unrelated." how would they know under this amendment? under this amendment, they're required to virtually do no looking. it is the most cursory review. and that's why, mr. president, the nation's leading technology companies have come out overwhelmingly against this legislat

mr. chairman, thank you. >>> good to see you return, i'm glad to serve under you as chairman one more time. >> i was happy to have you with me, i'll tell you. senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman. first of all, thank you to the panel for being here. if i were to summarize the testimony, it would be that there is fairly widespread support for title 2 of this bill related to the improvement of reentry preparation for inmates who are being returned to socie society. and certainly no direct criticism of any part of it. so i'm going to hope that we'll be able to move smoothly forward with that part of the bill. in fact, with the whole bill. but we have obviously a house process to get through, and a conference to get through before the bill goes to the president's desk. so i would like to ask three of you, mr. tollman and mr. maur and mr. de roush, think forward to when the bill passes, presume it has title 2 in it intact, and give us advice on what we should be looking for from an oversight point of view, what should be the benchmarks or other advice you might have as to what should inform the implementation of that title by the bureau of prisons and th imp

mr. chairman, thank you. >> good to see you return, i'm glad to serve under you as chairman one more time. >> i was happy to have you with me, i'll tell you. senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman. first of all, thank you to the panel for being here. if i were to summarize the testimony, it would be that there is fairly widespread support for title 2 of this bill related to the improvement of reentry preparation for inmates who are being returned to society. and certainly no direct criticism of any part of it. so i'm going to hope that we'll be able to move smoothly forward with that part of the bill. in fact, with the whole bill. but we have obviously a house process to get through, and a conference to get through before the bill goes to the president's desk. so i would like to ask three of you, mr. tollman and mr. maur and mr. de roush, think forward to when the bill passes, presume it has title 2 in it intact, and give us advice on what we should be looking for from an oversight point of view, what should be the benchmarks or other advice you might have as to what should inform the implementation of that title by the bureau of prisons and the departme

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 20 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, there has been some activity on the senate floor today regarding the president's clean power pl plan, with fossil fuel state representatives coming to decry that plan. i would simply note that on october 22 in the "wall street journal," many of the leaders of america's national security took out an advertisement to say, "republicans and democrats agr agree. u.s. security demands global climate action." we've had generals and admirals, former national security advisors and directors of national intelligence, secretaries of the treasury, secretaries of defense, directors of the central intelligence agency, chairman of the national intelligence council, under secretaries of state, governors, many republicans all saying that this is important, that it's time for america to lead. and what do we get? we get complaints about amer