mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, as the senate prepares for the month of august in our home states, i want to discuss tonight what i believe to be an urgent issue: the west is on fire. and there is a really serious prospect that my part of the country is going to get hit by what i call "the terrible trifecta. : drought, high temperatures, and enormous fuel load on the forest floor." and when you couple that with a lightning strike, which is not exactly a rarity in my part of the world, all of a sudden you can have on your hands an inferno, and the fires are getting bigger, and they're lasting longer, and they're doing more damage. and senators here, on both sides of the aisle -- democrats and republicans -- have come to realize that our system for fighting fire is a broken, dysfunctional mess. what happens is historically prevention gets short s shrift. you don't do enough thinning. you don't do enough of the preventive work to reduce the forest load on the floor. then you have one of those lightning strik

mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you mr. president. i want to thank the distinguished chairman from utah as members will see from the views that i'm going to articulate, we have some strong differences about how the facts ought to be interpreted but we worked very, very closely together to ensure that there would be one bipartisan compilation of the underlying facts, and the two of us certainly agree that there is evidence of vast bureaucratic bumbling at the i.r.s. i will also say that a review of 1.5 million pages of emails and documents and interviews with more than 30 i.r.s. officials doesn't point to a single shred of political interference and i think as colleagues look at particularly the majority views and the minority views set them aside for a moment. the fact of the matter is, the fact of the report shows that no order, no order was ever given to target political groups. now, i'm very pleased that we now have a bipartisan report conducted here in the congress, and that's why the bipartisan findings are especially

mr. wyden: mr. president this weekend i watched the planned parenthood videos that are in the news, including one in which the organization's leadership says very clearly that the statements made by some of their staff are totally unacceptable. i believe that's important for everyone to hear. with that said, here's the great danger with the legislation before the senate today. this bill paints a big red target on some of the most basic, essential health care services for women in america. bill control gone. pregnancy tests gone. prenatal services, gone. h.i.v. tests gone. breast cancer screenings, gone. cervical cancer screenings, gone. ovarian cancer screenings, gone. vaq sun nations that -- vaccinations that prevent cancers, gone. treatment forrure nature for usm rinary tract infections gone. treatment for sexually transmitted infections, gone. basic physical exams exams gone. treatment for digestive or breathing problems, gone. treatment for chronic conditions gone. pediatric care, gone. adoption

mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i'm going to be very brief. i understand that there has already been an objection, and i am going to speak later in the afternoon and the early evening in some detail about why i have significant reservations with respect to this legislation. to say as we've heard again and again throughout the day that this is about voluntary information sharing is essentially only half true. the fact is, companies could volunteer to share their customers' information with the government but they wouldn't have to ask their customers' permission before handing it over. that's one reason why every major organization with expertise and interest on privacy issues has had reservations about the bill. it may be voluntary for companies, but it's mandatory for their customers and their consumers. they're not given the opportunity to opt out. now, the legislation has been public for months, and dozens of cybersecurity experts have said that it wouldn't do much to stop sophisticated large-scale atta

. >> mr. wyden... (gavel banging) >> on this vote the amendment is not agreed to. >> like people's lives aren'tes in the balance on this, and i just thought they needed to be shamed. they should be ashamed of themselves. i stood up and said, "shame on you." shame on you! >> there will be order in the senate. >> because they needed to be shamed. shame on them. shame on me if after what i've gotten to witness i choose to be quiet. >> i'm surprised that she was the only one, actually, that burst out... because it was so intense and so charged. >> the gallery will refrain from any demonstration or comment. >> they felt betrayed. that's the word, betrayed. "how could they vote that way? don't they understand what happened? how can they do that? how can this be?" i mean it was disbelief and a sense of betrayal. that was the mood. >> narrator: manchin's bill had fallen five votes short. the defeat effectively ended any talk of a national effort at gun control. >> it's over for now. and it may be over for a ve

wyden: thank you. mr. nyby, i touched on his extremely important work. he has been doing it for the oregon department of human services for the past 13 years. he has gone from caseworker to supervisor and now it would be fair to say that he is the guy who implements this fresh strategy that people are looking to. prior to his work with the department of human services, he worked for the youth authority. he is a graduate of eastern oregon university. i won't filibuster here, but we have three oregon connections on the panel. not only chuck, but ms. donna butts. ms. butts has roots in oregon. ms. rosalina burton is a transplant to oregon for the summer. we kind of run the table at the end of the day. [laughter] senator hatch: last but not least, we will hear from the executive director of utah's department of human services. she graduated with a bachelor's degree in theology. she received her masters from louisiana state university. in october 2013, she was appointed to her current position. in less than two years in her position in utah, she has overseen

wyden. thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to take note of the fact that you have spent decades, literally decades, keeping child welfare issues bipartisan in the united states senate. i commend you for that. i look forward to building on that partnership. think the finance committee can work in a bipartisan area on this issue. this morning in america, there is likely to be a single mom with two kids, multiple part-time jobs, and one really big worry. she works long hours to provide for her family, but even then it is a struggle to pay the bills and keep food on the table. because her work schedule changes week to week, she is forced to leave her children unattended at times. a neighbor might place a concerned call to child protective services. once that happens, social workers have to choose t noteenwo -- between two very good options. breaking up the family or doing nothing at all to help. that has to change. whenever you ask anyone who has been through the child welfare system up about -- system about what could help

i will now turn to senator wyden for his remarks. thank you, mr. chairman. i want to take note of the fact that you, mr. chairman has spent decades, literally decades keeping child welfare issues bipartisan here in the united states senate and i commend you for that, look forward to building on the partnership. i know becky shipp has here and has carried the torch for many years as well and once again the finance committee can work in a bipartisan area on this issue. mr. chairman and collects chairman and colleagues, this morning in america there's likely a single mom with two kids, multiple part-time jobs and one really big worry. she works long hours to provide for her family but even then it is a struggle to pay the bills and keep food on the table and because her work schedule changes week to week, she is forced to leave her children unattended at times. a neighbor might place a concerned call to child services. once that happens, social workers have to choose between two not very good options, breaking up the family or doing nothing at all to help and t

and i will let senator wyden introduce the last guest. >> mr. nyby, i touched on your work in the response making sure there is not a one-size-fits-all approach for helping the youngsters and has been doing it for the past 13 years going from case working to supervisor and now chuck nyby is introducing these programs. he is a graduate of eastern oregon university. mr. chairman, i will not filibuster here but we have three oregon connections on the panel. not only chuck, but ms. donna butts we just mentioned and i guess i am showing my age i remember jack and his good work and butts as roots in oregon and ms. rosaline burton is a tra transplant to oregon for the summer. so we run the table. thank you, mr. chairman. >> last but certainly not least we will hear from ann williamson. ms. williamson completed a masters in social work from louisiana state university and has gone on to receive distingiushed awards from both schools. she served as president and ceo of the non-profit for louisiana and cabinet director for louisiana's social services. ms.

mr. chairman, ranking member and senator wyden for your offers on kinship care. that's my pleasure to be co-chairing the foster youth caucus with senator grassley and to work with everybody on the committee. and thank you to each of you for being here. it takes a lot of courage to tell your story, and i'm very appreciative. i actually worked on these issues a long time. i was thinking about, it makes me feel old. i was back in the michigan legislature. and in the '80s authored foster care reform that was dubbed the stabenow bill that was put into law to move the system more quickly. and i'm incredibly frustrated that we're still talking about these issues because we have two sets of things. one is what happen ed, and the system failed you. and i'm sorry that that happened to both you and ms. burton, the system just plain failed you. and we have a situation where people get caught up in the system and then can't bring their children home or kids can't go home. there's not the support for that. and then at the same token, we have the other end which is very serious

wyden. >> thank you very much. in the beginning i wanted to take note of the fact that you and mr. chairman, have spent literally decades keeping chi well fair issues bipartisan. i look -- i know becky ship is here, and i think once again the financial commit yes can work -- mr. chairman and colleagues, this morning in america there's likely to be a single mom with two kids multiple parttime jobs, with a big worry. she works long hours, but even then it's a struggle to pay the bills and key foot on the table. because her work schedule changes week to week, she's forced to leave her children unattended at times. once that happens, social workers have to choose between two not very good options, breaking up the family object doing nothing at all to help. what could help them the most, the answer is often, and i quote here, helping my mom. helping my dad helping my fact, but that's just not in the cards when social workers have nothing to offer, but foster care. today kids predominantly wind up in foust -- or cause in these enormous enormously, most aren't there because of fill or --

mr. chairman. i want to reiterate my appreciation for the hearing and your work in this area over many years and for chairman wyden'swork and in particular his legislation, the family stability kinship care act, which focuses on prevention and getting a set of services to families long before or at least early in the process. i was struck by for our first two witnesses, miss killett and ms. burton using the same word at some point, "traumatized" and "traumatic" which i know for some people, might seem self-evident in terms of how difficult these issues are for families, but there are a lot of things we do in this committee that involve policy and data and numbers, but few things that we have examined here have the same kind of human gravity to them and severity. so we appreciate you bringing your own personal stories. it is not easy to talk about what you have been through. it is to talk about things when they are theoretical and policy oriented, so where grateful you're willing to do that because without that kind of personal testimony, i'm not sure we can sit here and really understand it unless we have gone throu

mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president so that all are clear with respect to where matters are with the cybersecurity legislation a couple of days ago it was my fear mr. president that this bill would be brought up -- it is a badly flawed bill -- and it would be brought up with no opportunity for senators on both sides of the aisle to fix the legislation. it would come up with no amendments people would say oh my goodness, there are serious cyber threats. that is unquestionably correct. my constituents, for example have been hacked in oregon by the chinese. and people would say we've got all these cyber dlet threats we've got to act. and there would be no real opportunity to show how the legislation in its current form creates more problems than it solves. now, so that all concerned understand where things are there are going to be more than 20 amendments to this badly flawed bill. those of us who want to make sure that there is a full airing of the issues have come to understand that there is no time limit that