mr. whitehouse: thank you, senator. mr. murphy: thank you, to the senator from rhode island i am glad to be joined by the senator from rhode island, senator reed. i am happy to yield for a question. mr. reed: let me thank you for this extraordinary and principled discussion. i do have a question and it stems really from some of the comments that i've received from the superintendent of state police in i think state of rhode island, colonel steven o'donnell, a skilled professional. what he said and it goes to one of the issues that senator whitehouse discussed, the access to high-capacity magazines for these assault weapons. "i have yet to hear what the purpose is. i have friends that are hunters, they use high-capacity weapons but not magazines." they have weapons that can fire semiautomatically, but they don't need these magazines. "they use several rounds, but they don't need 15, 30, and 40-round clips to hurt an animal. ings" is that the response you are getting from law enforcement officials who deal every day with fire

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i come here as i do every year in the senate to commemorate the anniversary of a grave blow that rhode island struck for liberty and justice -- the gads by affair of 17726789 on the night of gunge 9 and into the morning of june 10, 1772, in the waters of rhode island, a band of american patriots pushed back against their british over-lords and drew the first blood of the struggle that would become the american revolution. american schoolchildren, the pages here in this room, and all of us no doubt learned in their history books of the boston revelers who painted their faces and pushed tea into boston harbor, but those same history books often omit the tail of the gatsby. king george iii stationed armed customs patrol vessels along the ame

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, senator coons. i'm really grateful to the junior senator from delaware for inviting me to his home state and for joining me here today for a time to wake up speech 139. senator coons and i spent a terrific day touring the delaware shore. you can say what you want about us, but on that day we were the two wettest members of the united states senate. i can assure you of that. this is capitol hill oceans week, mr. president, and wednesday's world oceans day so it's a good time to consider the effects of climate change on our oceans. the oceans have absorbed a third of all carbon dioxide produced since the industrial revolution and over 90% of the excess heat that has resulted. that means that by laws of both physics and chemistry, the oceans are warming, rising and acidfying. rhode island is the ocean state, but give delaware credit, it generated around $1 billion and over 23,000 jobs from the ocean from the last report in 2013, from tourism, recreation, shipping an

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. in a chamber where the debate on climate change has become woefully one-sided, and in a congress where the house republicans just voted unanimously to oppose the only climate solutions -- climate solution republicans have come to, i want to use my 140th climate speech to remind us of a time when global warming concerns came from both sides of the aisle. nearly 30 years ago this week, a republican chair of the senate environment and public works subcommittee on environment pollution who also served twice as governor of my state and as secretary of the navy convened a two-day five-panel hearing on ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect and climate change. it was june, 1986, and senator john chafee, republican of rhode island, gave opening remarks warning of, and i quote, the buildup of greenhouse gases which threaten to warm the earth to unprecedented levels. such a warning -- such a warming could within the next 50-75 years produce enormous changes in a climate that has remained fairly

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i'm delighted to let senator graham celebrate an achievement by his home state university. i'm pleased to yield him the time. i'm here as the presiding officer knows now for the 142nd time to urge congress to wake up to the threat of climate change. we are asleep at the wheel in congress heading toward climate catastrophe. of course outside this chamber there is broad support for responsible climate action from the american people and from every major scientific society, indeed 31 of them just sent us a letter this week reminding us to get off our duff and pay attention to what the science is. virtually every one of our home state universities, our national laboratories, nasa, noaa, and the military national security and intelligence leadership of our country. if they are all wrong, that is a heck of a hoax. frustratingly congress is still fogged in by a decades long purposeful campaign of deliberate misinformation out of the fossil fuel industry and its allies. and since c

mr. whitehouse: talking about how the game is rigged and politics is rigged and everything needs to be unrigged. he's the last person in the world likely to do that. but the fact that he felt as the presumptive republican nominee that he had to model himself on elizabeth warren and bernie sanders in order to try to put a little bit of wind into his flagging campaign is, i think, a really strong indication of the public sentiment that is out there. and i think if we can force votes on things like disclosure and drive that point home, that will actually have an effect. there are too many republicans who know that this is a rack et and who know that -- racket and who know that this is wrong. one of them said to me, would you guys please catch up and start getting as much dark money as we do so we can fix this damn thing? it's disgraceful. so people get it. and i think the american public is tired of not being listened to and they get that the dark money is an absolute mess. and if we pick this fight and force this battle, whether we have the leadership and the majority or not, the republicans are

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i am here for the 141st time to urge my colleagues to wake up, in this case more specifically to the political influence, particularly the dark money that perpetuates the climate blockade in congress. in 1831, alexis de tocqueville traveled the united states to write his famous "democracy in america." de tocqueville described our american style of government as -- and i'll quote him here -- quite exceptional." he wrote about it with affection and with facination. he may have been the first american exceptionalist. as the son and grandson of foreign service officers, i can personal l. taste to the the -- attest to the importance of america as a paragon of governance across the world, as a country that others count on to come and help, not to loot or concur. the roots of our american exceptionalism are found in the three simple words that introduce our constitution: "we the people." the notion that the government belongs to the people seems unremarkable now, but in its day, i

was another wild day in donald trump's bid for the whitehouse as he fired his controversial campaign manager, corey lewandowski. just two months ack, mrtrump stood by lewandowski as he faced battery charges for forcefully grabbing a female reporter. key exit from the campaign mean trump may be striking a new one heading into the general election? i spoke with a correspondent a short time ago. first of all, corey lewandowski maintains he doesn't know why he was fired. perhaps you can tell us why? >> it is a very disastrous few weeks for the donald trump campaign, first over the , to his a judge disappointing response to the orlando shooting. instead of saying perhaps this is a problem of national security or saying actual policy, he said i was right. he has had a terrible few weeks in the press, and so he has decided to shake things up and by doing so, he said he is going to fire corey lewandowski. corey lewandowski said i haven't actually been in control of the came pain since april 8. that is when paul came in. >> but what difference is it really going to make to the campaign when it is so based on his donald trump and his out-sized

mr. blahaus being on the commission and a question came up with senator schumer, warren and senator whitehouse, something that says it's kind of curious -- let me see how they said it. i'm more or less that it was curious. there was curiously incorporated number of assumptions. and it had to do with mr mr. blahaus. there's nothing he's done in that time period that would make you think this is politically motivated and that him being appointed, even though the president nominated him, that there's ea problem? are you in agreement that there's nothing he's done that could have influenced the outcomes? >> i've worked all the way back to our first trustees. >> so, you don't look at him as the problem. >> i'm curious about his behavior as being one of the trustees. what i would say is really what i take to be wonderful about this process is that we get four and generally six different trustees involved with different views -- >> but none of the trustees that has an overwhelming influence. >> that's right -- one or two can control. >> and i'd like to submit this for the record if i could. out of th

whitehouse. senator murray, do you have any concluding remarks? >> thank you, mr. chairman, i just want to comment on the so called summative reading. i know there has been discussion about that, under our bill, states are required to develop accountability systems that hold schools accountable using multiple measures to judge school performance. the states are required to do that, because we wanted to make sure that we have better information to help states determine which schools are high performing and which ones need support and to provide that information to parents as well, the bill also requires states to identify their lowest performing five % of schools, high schools with graduation rates, at or below 67% and schools with consistently under performing subgroups so i did want to just clarify that. i appreciate your response to that. i think we want to make sure this bill works, we want to make sure parents have information, schools have information, and the resources flow in the direction that we need them to go to. i appreciate your response. >> thanks. >>

senator markey will speak for five minutes, then senator whitehouse for five minutes, and then back -- >> that's already unanimous consent. sta >> mr president? >> senator from massachusetts. >> thank you, mr. president. today congress stand ready to reform the last of the core poor environmental statutes. and may do so with a stronger bipartisan vote that any other major environmental statute inee recent american history. for a generation of the american people have been guinea pigs in a terrible chemical experiment. told that all the fans at our chemistry labs would make us healthier, happier and safer, american families have had to suffer with decades of a law that did nothing to ensure that that was true. but that is because when the industries successfully overturned the epa's proposed ban on asbestos, it also rendered the toxic substances control act all but unusable. children should not be unwittinh scientific subjects. today we have a chance to protect them by reforming this failed law. as ranking democrat on the senate subcommittee of jurisdiction, i was one of a handful of members who participated in an informal conferenc

mr. rose and his staff, jennifer, we work very closely with the odyssey, melissa whitehouse and anthony -whose our budget analyst in our mayor's office and always been then goes into great partners we have. so, we have just a couple of slides and the width through them. i think you all know this. first slide, department of emergency management is made up of three divisions. emergency communications which is 911, emergency services and administration. we also are the fiscal agent to the bay area-for the 12 county in the region. our total budget request for 16-17 is $93.88 million. this slide reflects the breakdown per divisions could i won't go to into everything but just in general, emergency communications is 100% general fund supported. emergency services is 33% tied to the general fund. 28% from revenues and work order recovery, and the remaining 39% from homeland security grants. administration and support division is 90% general fund and the bay area is one i've percent grant fund. we have some major projects coming up this year. there are three critical information technology projec

mr. blahaus being on the commission and a question came up with senator schumer, warren and senator whitehousemething that says it's kind of curious -- let me see how they said it. i'm more or less that it was curious. there was curiously incorporated number of assumptions. and it had to do with mr mr. blahaus. there's nothing he's done in that time period that would make you think this is politically motivated and that him being appointed, even though the president nominated him, that there's ea problem? are you in agreement that there's nothing he's done that could have influenced the outcomes? >> i've worked all the way back to our first trustees. >> so, you don't look at him as the problem. >> i'm curious about his behavior as being one of the trustees. what i would say is really what i take to be wonderful about this process is that we get four and generally six different trustees involved with different views -- >> but none of the trustees that has an overwhelming influence. >> that's right -- one or two can control. >> and i'd like to submit this for the record if i could. out of the hu

mr. vitter: and i ask consent that following and notwithstanding the adoption of the compound motion to go to conference on s. 524, that senator shaheen and senator whitehouse or their designees be recognized to each offer a motion to instruct conferees and that there be two minutes of debate equally divided on the motions and that following the use or yielding back of that time, the senate vote on the motions to instruct conferees with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, i believe this -- plaintiff the senator -- the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: prior to the cloture vote, the democrats still have some time. i yield back that time. the presiding officer: all time is yielded basketball. -- is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, the we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to disagree to the house amendments, agreed to the request from the house for a conference, and t

mr. goss, thanks for being here. i want to go back to what the chairman started with and a question about the question in the "huffington post" with senator schumer, senator warren and senator whitehouse. it was interesting the way they stated it. more or less that it was curious. there was curiously incorporated a number of assumptions playing up the potential insolvency of the program. there's nothing mr. blahouse has done that this is politically motivated, even though the president nominated him, that causes a problem? are you in agreement with that, that he is not a problem? you haven't seen anything he's done as curious that could have influenced the outcomes? >> i've been fortunate enough to work with the trustees all the way back to our very first two trustees. it's been a pleasure in working with all of them. we understand that they come from different -- >> so he's not a problem. you don't find anything curious about his behavior? >> it's really not our place to evaluate whether somebody is a positive or negative. what i would say is really what i take to be wonderful about this process is that we get four and generally six different trustees involved with different views --

mr. rose and his staff, jennifer, we work very closely with the odyssey, melissa whitehouse and anthony -whose our budget analyst in our mayor's office and always been then goes into great partners we have. so, we have just a couple of slides and the width through them. i think you all know this. first slide, department of emergency management is made up of three divisions. emergency communications which is 911, emergency services and administration. we also are the fiscal agent to the bay area-for the 12 county in the region. our total budget request for 16-17 is $93.88 million. this slide reflects the breakdown per divisions could i won't go to into everything but just in general, emergency communications is 100% general fund supported. emergency services is 33% tied to the general fund. 28% from revenues and work order recovery, and the remaining 39% from homeland security grants. administration and support division is 90% general fund and the bay area is one i've percent grant fund. we have some major projects coming up this year. there are three critical information technology projec

mr. rose and his staff, jennifer, we work very closely with the odyssey, melissa whitehouse and anthony -whose our budget analyst in our mayor's office and always been then goes into great partners we have. so, we have just a couple of slides and the width through them. i think you all know this. first slide, department of emergency management is made up of three divisions. emergency communications which is 911, emergency services and administration. we also are the fiscal agent to the bay area-for the 12 county in the region. our total budget request for 16-17 is $93.88 million. this slide reflects the breakdown per divisions could i won't go to into everything but just in general, emergency communications is 100% general fund supported. emergency services is 33% tied to the general fund. 28% from revenues and work order recovery, and the remaining 39% from homeland security grants. administration and support division is 90% general fund and the bay area is one i've percent grant fund. we have some major projects coming up this year. there are three critical information technology projec

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i have a motion to instruct the conferees at the desk which i ask the clerk report. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion, that the managers on the part of the senate -- mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that further reading of the motion to instruct be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: colleagues, this motion to instruct has bipartisan support from the -- the presiding officer: order in the senate, please. mr. whitehouse: -- from the authors of cara. it reflects the bipartisan work that was done on cara and we hope that this motion to instruct will get a stropping, bipartisan vote. it supports the bipartisan senate work on the cara bill that pass this body 94-1. it supports the bipartisan language worked out between senator blunt and senator mccaskill on the missouri county prescription drug management program issue. it supports a focus on the rural communities for which opioi