mrs. boxer: mr. president, i would be happy to, you know, go on as a cosponsor to senator collins if she wants to take on the additional burden of, you know, moving this idea forward. i don't have any problem with it. the point is, i'm here -- and i've been very open about it -- because i know what i'm talking about when it comes to members of congress, because as chair of the ethics committee, i don't oversee treasury, i don't -- this is not my role, this is not my expertise, and i'm very humble about that. and i did see what happened he here, along with, i would say, every member of the ethics committee and senator isakson. this is a bipartisan amendment. and we know what we're talking about. and we're saying, there was a problem and members were congress were courted by countrywide. did they court other people? i don't really know. but if there's some proof that they did and there's a need to go and -- and cover them with a similar amendment, i'd be happy to work with my colleague on that. but i'm

mrs. boxer: thank you very much. mr. president, this is a big day for those of us who believe strongly that we need to focus here on job creation, a better business climate, a -- a bill that will, in fact, not only protect jobs but create new jobs. and that is the bill that we're hoping will get the go-ahead at 2:00, what we call enact 21, moving ahead -- mack 21, s. 1813. this has been, if i could use an analogy that fits, a long road to get to this point, so that we can in fact make sure that we have an adequate road system, an adequate highway system, an adequate transit system. and that we make sure as a world leader that our infrastructure, our bridges, our roads, keep up with the demands put upon them. and there are many demands put upon them because we are a great nation with commerce, and heavy-duty vehicles on our roadways, railroads that cross over roadways that create potential problems, and certainly a robust transit system that needs to keep up with the times. just last night i received a letter from the u.s

mrs. boxer: then i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: s quorum call: mrs. gillibrand: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york is recognized. mrs. gillibrand: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from new york is recognized. mrs. gillibrand: thank you. it's great -- it is with great disappointment and bafflement that i stand here yet again in the year 2012 to draw a line in the sand against another outrageous attempt to roll back women's access to basic health care services. after insisting that we debate the long-settled concept of providing access to birth control when 99% of american women use this medication at some point in their life, many of whom use it not even for contraception, republicans have chosen to take another extreme step to roll back all women's health care rights. so instead of talking about how to grow our economy, we are wasting time on the latest overreach and intr

mrs. boxer: okay. and, mr. president, i just am on the floor here today, as i was earlier, to talk about the dangers of this blunt amendment. and senator blunt says it has nothing to do with providing health care to women, it's nothing to do with that. it's just about freedom of religion, he says. well, as many people say, when someone comes up to you and says, "you know, it's not about the money." it's about the money. and when someone says, "it's not about access to women's health." it'health. ", it's about religious freedom." it's about access to women's health. why do i say that? because that's what this debate is s all about. and we see it all over the country with right-wing republicans trying to take away women's health care. why are they trying to do this, you'd have to ask them, but we are here to say no. and the thing about the blunt amendment, it would not only say that any insurer or any employer for any reason could stop women from getting access to contraception, it could also stop all of our fami

mrs. boxer: in p? the presiding officer: the snoer from california. mrs. boxer: i rise because i want to point out to the people of this country, who may be watching this proceeding, that what's happened here tonight on the senate floor is just ridiculous, and i think, you know, senator nelson, bill nelson, who just -- you know, i think he was restrained frankly. i know him. he is a very close friend. he was restrained in his comments. one senator is stopping us from being able to ensure that justice is done, getting a great judge on the beth. and it is -- getting a great judge on the bench. it is sad. it is a bipartisan nominee. it goes beyond this. in addition to holding up the senate and wasting time here, because we can't vote on the judge now; we have to wait until hours understand hours go by -- what happens after? we're supposed to be on a highway bill, a bill that will protect 1.8 million jobs and croat an additional million jobs. 2.8 million jobs are hanging in the balance, and we have obstruction from moi friends on the roan coyed, and they're moi

mrs. boxer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. the majority leader is leaving the floor, i'm just pleased that he's decided to take us forward on this highway bill. and he has something more to add. mr. reid: i failed to call up the blunt amendment. i'd like to do that. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada mr. reid proposes amendment 1520 to amendment 1730. mr. reid: ask for the reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: i ask unanimous consent my remarks not interfere with the free flow of thought from the majority leader and that my remarks begin after his final comments here on this bill. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you so much. so where do we stand? we're in a situation in the 21st century where in order to move forward on a highway bill that funds our highways, our roads, our bridges, our transit systems, in order to move forward on that jobs bill, where 2.8 million jobs are at stake in this great nation,

mrs. boxer: my friend through the chair, would it be possible for me to have two minutes prior to your statement. mr. brown: certainly. i yield to the senator from california. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: thank you. i just wanted to take two minutes to respond to senator barrasso who offered his second opinion, and i hope my colleague will also talk about that. but i had to say it is stunning to see the assault on women's health that is taking place from the republican party day after day after day. first they tried to stop women from getting breast cancer screening. then they tried to stop us from getting cervical cancer screening. and now they are going after our ability to get birth control. and i have to say this. we know that for a full 15% of women, birth control is pure medicine. they suffer from debilitating monthly pain, end metriosis. we have stories of women who couldn't afford birth control pills and a cyst got out of hand and lost an ovary. we know

mr. cardin: let me thank senator boxer. i ask unanimous consent i speak up to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i rise today to urge the senate to confirm judge george levi russell iii of maryland to be a united states district judge for the district of maryland. judge russell was reported by a voice vote of the judiciary committee on february 16, as the presiding officer, the president of the senate, knows. judge russell currently sits as a trial judge in the baltimore city circuit court. i take the obligation very seriously in terms of the advice and consent role played by the senate. i am concerned, mr. president, that our judicial confirmation process here in the senate has broken down due to partisanship, particularly for noncontroversial judges. judge russell's nomination now joins a long list of backlogged, noncontroversial judicial nominations that are stuck on the senate floor. as of yesterday, the senate calendar contained 20 judicial nominat

mrs. boxer: thank you. the first one is a letter from the cancer action network asking us to vote no on the blunt amendment. on behalf of millions of cancer patients survivors and their families, we write to express our opposition to the amendment proposed by senator roy blunt. and they talk about the fact that it would permit employers to refuse employees insurance coverage for any health care benefit guaranteed by health reform. and they're very, very strong on this, and they talk about the implications of this provision could result in coverage denials of life-saving preventive services such as mammograms or tobacco cessation based on employer discretion. and that's a new letter. then we got a letter from the trust for america's health. they say the blunt amendment would allow any health insurance plan or employer, religious or not, to exclude any preventive service if they decided not to offer it. the seiu, service employees international, they call the blunt amendment an extreme proposal that turns bac

mrs. boxer: mr. president, i am all of a sudden very proud to be here with my colleagues. i think senator murray was eloquent, senator shaheen, senator mikulski, and i'm here to put it in my own words. and that is here they go again. sadly, politics has once again entered into women's health care. this time see an attempt to deprive women of a critical benefit, access to contraception, through their health insurance plans. just last week what did we see? a move to punish women by taking away their free breast cancer screenings, all because of right-wing politics. before that, as senator murray eloquently indicated, we saw a republican move to defund family planning because of politics. my republican colleagues almost shut down the government over family planning, and now if they have their way, millions of women could lose their contraceptive coverage, which could expose them to declining health outcomes and their babies to declining health outcomes and could cost them about $600 a year. let's step back and look at where we are. some months ago, the institute of medicine,

because you have people coming and going and going to defer my question for greta and i understand mrs. boxer has agreed to the first 40 minutes and so i will recognize mr. wahlberg. >> i appreciate the opportunity. governor snyder, again, and you for being here. appreciate your opening comments as you talked about developing employment talent, the three c's having the beat of the ticket to a system so long that we are concerned with and from my perspective would much rather see the states in bodying these concepts and moving to the talent work force as opposed the federal government so involved so let me ask if you could develop even further your ideas and concerns along the line for the federal education regulations are making it harder for you to accomplish your goals and michigan and in what ways on the positive side can we be greater support and encouragement and comfort to you as a state executive and with the state legislature moving the whole idea developing a work force as trained and ready and expanded. >> i appreciate the question. it's a real challenge that there are many federal

create up to one million new jobs by expanding the tifia program, a measure championed by chairperson boxer. mr. president, this is an extremely important issue. it is important for our productivity because when you have a crumbling infrastructure, productivity suffers. it is important in terms of international competition. it is important in terms of job creation. it is important in order to provide a basic need for millions and millions of americans. people do not want to be driving on roads which are falling apart, where there are huge potholes. people want to make sure that when they go over a bridge, that bridge will not collapse. people want to make sure that we have a strong rail system, not a rail system which is in fact far behind europe, japan and china. so this bill, while modest in terms of what our needs are, is a step forward, and it is a bipartisan bill. i hope we can get to it and pass it as quickly as possible because the infrastructure needs of this country are great and they must be addressed. mr. president, with that, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

mr. udall: so senator boxer and i, along with senator bennet, have asked the e.p.a. to make this tool more accessible to good samaritans, and last week we asked the agency to provide good samaritans with assurances they will not be subject to enforcement for appropriate actions to clean up acid mine pollution. i am grateful for the work the e.p.a. has done to focus on these issues and for senator boxer's leadership. good samaritans are too valuable a resource to keep on the sidelines. congress should do what is necessary to bring their efforts to bear on the cleanup of abandoned mine pollution. good samaritans, mr. president, they can't solve all of our abandoned mine pollution problems, but we can't afford to turn away those willing to help any longer. mr. president, i thank you for your interest on this important topic to those of us in the west. with that, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: mr. president, when most americans think of cybersecurity, they conjure up an image of s

we will hear from senator barbara boxer, frank lautenberg , and mr. bloom and fall. this is 25 minutes. >> ok. having had a laugh at my politically challenged self, i want to get to this very serious issue. we are here to stand up for the women of america who are guaranteed access to free, preventive care do to help insurance. we want to thank president obama for making that possible. because of the new health care law, insurance plans will provide breast cancer screenings, hiv screenings, cervical cancer screenings, and free contraception if the women want to avail themselves of all of these preventive services. if they do not want them, they do not have to have them. if you want them, you will be able to have them free. the institute of medicine, which is not in politics, it is in health care, recommends access to free birth control among those prevention benefits. when a woman goes on birth control, she gets a great health benefits and her child is much more likely to get prenatal care. it leads to healthy families and healthy babies. now, the other thing -- i hop

mrs. boxer: thank you very much, madam president. i would be delighted to take a voice vote on this amendment, which i'm proud to say was written by myself and senator isakson. and i'm very pleased that senator collins suggested the modification. all this really does is broaden the mortgage disclosure requirements on all of us, members of congress, and it does the same thing for the president, vice president, the executive branch employees who are subject to the advice and consent of the congress. so i think it is fair, i think it is wise, and i think that we've had issues that require this to be done. so with that, i would yield back my time to senator collins. mrs. collins: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. mrs. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, i'm very pleased the senator from california has agreed modify her amendment to apply it to the executive branch. i thank her for her cooperation on this and i would suggest the amendment be adopted as adopted by a voice vote. the presiding

because you have people coming and going and going to defer my question for greta and i understand mrs. boxer has agreed to the first 40 minutes and so i will recognize mr. wahlberg. >> i appreciate the opportunity. governor snyder, again, and you for being here. appreciate your opening comments as you talked about developing employment talent, the three c's having the beat of the ticket to a system so long that we are concerned with and from my perspective would much rather see the states in bodying these concepts and moving to the talent work force as opposed the federal government so involved so let me ask if you could develop even further your ideas and concerns along the line for the federal education regulations are making it harder for you to accomplish your goals and michigan and in what ways on the positive side can we be greater support and encouragement and comfort to you as a state executive and with the state legislature moving the whole idea developing a work force as trained and ready and expanded. >> i appreciate the question. it's a real challenge that there are many federal