mrs. feinstein: mr. president? madam president, excuse me. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: thank you, madam president. i believe pursuant to a unanimous consent agreement by the chairman of the agriculture committee that i am next up to be able to speak on an amendme amendment. but for just a brief moment, madam president, i want to reflect on what i've heard and the lens through which i see it. i've been here for 20 years. when i came to the senate, it was not this way. the rules of the senate were observed, a small minority never tried to subvert the will of the majority. i think senator mccain said it well -- we stand on the floor, we advocate for our views, we either win or lose, the dye is cast. but we have an opportunity for full deliberation. it's one thing to have a minority have their rights. it's another thing to have a minority of the minority absolutely try and handcuff a committee of the united states senate. and i believe that is the wrong thing. because what is happening here sets a precedent

mr. feinstein? >> no. >> [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> the amendment is not agreed to. i understand you have amendment number one. i've just been advised we will have roll-call votes at 5:00 today. >> i would like to offer my amendment. this amendment is very important. it goes to domestic violence issue that unfortunately, despite all the good work in the gang of eight and the domestic violence reauthorization this particular set of pieces were not covered. this is someone that is called an abuse victim in the derivative be set trap. someone who is married to someone who was over on a temporary visa. there's a house is not illegal but on a temporary visa. when they are beaten by this person they are not able to get any kind of help. and i have a story of someone in minnesota. the abuse began on the day she got married. soon after she got married she accompanied her husband to the u.s. and they had a child but the past five years she has been in the u.s.. her husband has treated her like a slave and physically assaulted her. she has never been able to call the police be

mr. flake. >> senator feinstein, and made a mistake earlier. i thought you had finished your amendment but you have another one? >> or microphone? bythis is co-sponsored senators cornyn, flake, and cruz. i thank them for their support. this has to do with creating some additional border federal judgeships and it would create judgeships andl convert two to permanent, three in the eastern district of california, two in the western district of texas, one in the southern district of texas, and two in arizona. it converts the central district of california to a permanent judgeship, and one in arizona, to permanent status. these are all districts with a very heavy caseloads in which immigration makes up a big percentage of a criminal files. it is paid for by a $10 increase in civil filing fees as an offset. understand, senator grassley, you have a second agreement? providing58 whistleblower protection for employees of the judicial branch. congress has consistently recognized the value of whistleblowers in government. i co-sponsored the whistleblower

mr. chairman. >> i'm sorry. >> may i? very brief. >> senator feinstein. >> i know this is tough for my colleagues. and it's not like i -- you know, when i was 21 when my mom died, 22 when my dad died. my is sister was 13. i had to adopt her for her to get air force benefits in case something happened to me when i went on active dutyy. i get it very much about the relationships of siblings. had a lot of people help my sister and myself. but the bottom line is that i've listened and we've allowed people who have been waiting in line for the last five years to get in without the merit-based system. i've been bending over backwards to try to create a real family component. but this is what's been driving my train about immigration, is to replace in the future a date certain, three to four years from now, where we change the way we do immigration, there's a family component but i am not going to go back to chain migration. we're living in a very competitive world and these visas have to be earned and i can assure you the way we've set up the points system, th

mr. chairman. >> senator feinstein? >> i'd like to call up amendment feinstein 4 which is co-sponsored by senator cornyn, and i want to thank him for his support. since 9/11 u.s. citizenship and immigration services, cis, has worked with law enforcement and the intelligence community to develop anti-fraud mechanisms and security screening measures to enhance the security screening process used for its asylum and refugee programs. so today biographic and biometric checks are done by checking asylum and refugee applicants against databases maintained by the department of homeland security, the fbi, dod, state and the national counterterrorism center. this amendment would essentially codify these national security checks that cis is currently conducting as part of the asylum and refugee process. and, therefore, secure that they will be continued. in addition, the amendment would give secretary of homeland security the flexibility in the future to utilize other federal records or databases that would enhance the cis screeni

and i yield to senator feinstein. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i think you are exactly right. i agree with much of what senator grassley has said. however, this amendment essentially prohibits changes made by the bell, taking effect until a year after the director of national intelligence commit it for congress. a review of the intelligence community's and inspector general for the handling of the boston museum. this would prevent changes to the adjudicatory process and the student visa program from taking effect until this is unrelated with a report on the boston marathon, the amendment requires the intelligence community to include two items. asylum process, student tracking. we're not part of current reviews and are not within the scope. review has already begun. it is narrowly focused on the possession and what was done with it with information sharing. specifically, the inspectors general told the staff that they are focusing on this and what information the intelligence community have on the family before the attacks took place as well. was

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator feinstein. senator johanns. >> mr. chairman, thank you. and madam secretary, welcome. glad to have you onboard. let me, if i might, shift focus if i could to a couple of questions about the sequester. i have a little bit of the unique experience here, because i was a member of the cabinet as you probably know during the bush administration, sector of agriculture -- secretary of agriculture. i certainly appreciate the fact that the sheet of music using from comes from an office that is oval in this town. if you know what i'm saying. and every cabinet member has talked about the sequester kind of in the same terms you have talked about in your testimony. and i must admit it's got an aura of the sky is falling the sky is falling. now, you're also talking to a former governor, a former mayor, balanced budgets during good times and bad times. when times were good and the revenues were good, you could do some more things but when times were bad, for example, post 9/11, you just kind of had to deal with it. when i came here in 2005, and somebody

i'm glad senator feinstein and senator leahy had made efforts to do that. in your mind, mr. connor, what, in addition to dairy , by the way, senator, the chairman since -- you say the cows only going to milk you seasonally, they don't like it. they don't know what you're saying. they . >> they do in vermont. maybe not minnesota. [laughter] okay, i know the chairman is deadhead. i'm no comment. [laughter] on where he got -- [inaudible] [laughter] sorry, senator. [laughter] >> the senator have questions? >> i have no idea where it was. i wanted to -- what are the aside from dairy what are the one or two most helpful aspect of this? >> well, again, senator, you know, we have a problem in american agricultural today. it's reflected in the fact that, you know, much of the work force is currently undocument the. for anything else we have recognize that the problem exists today. so the status quo is in intolerable. across all of the agricultural sector, the notion you are going give us the ability to actually have a legalized work force that we know is legal. can verify that. the f

senator feinstein? >> mr. chairman, madam secretary, i want to add my words of welcome. i had the opportunity to meet with you and i look forward to work with you. i would like to begin by thanking the gentleman on your right. i have known david hayes for the 20 years i have been just about in the senate. it began with his negotiation of a quantification settlement agreement, which we in a lot ofia offered cholera river water, but the negotiant be conducted. but since those times, mr. hayes has been the point person for the most contentious issue in california, which is water. he has been really quite wonderful in terms of moving to see that the department anticipates problems and moves administratively to solve that. i'm very grateful for that. he is going on to teach law at both of our all maters, stanford, and served at the hewlett foundation. david, i want to wish you all the good things. you have been just terrific. and your service to the country has been remarkable. i want to thank you for that. that and secretary, i would like to associate myself with the comment

feinstein. >> just a couple mr. chairman. i think for those of us sitting at this table this is the only chance we are going to have to reform what is a very broken system and to bring a lot of people who have worked very hard in this country out of the shadows. so i think for most of this is probably just about the most important piece of legislation that will come out of the committee and i want to say thank you to those who have worked on it. i want to thank senator hatch who helped with the ag jobs part of it and senator schumer. i have one concern and i want to express it. senator kyl and i for years were to try to get the full funding of the federal responsibility to pay counties for jail detention and prison payments. this is called this gap program. over the years the federal participation has just dropped in more and more of the responsibility has fallen onto the local government and that is just a fact. yesterday i was visited by the leadership of los angeles county who was concerned that what we do here does not tr

mr. chairman. you talked earlier about -- >> my mistake. it was sent to feinstein who was next. >> of course i will be here. thank you. spent and i thank the senator from california who has reminded me of that. that's the schedule i announced earlier, of course. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. thank you, senator klobuchar but i would like to call of amendment number three, feinstein three. and his amendment -- this amendment it would provide 5000 immigrant visas for displaced tibetans from india and nepal over a three-year period. i would like to give you the rationalization for it. conditions inside tibet today remain bleak. th state department finds severe repression in tibet, has documented a litany of abuses against tibetans by chinese authorities, including a heightened crackdown in response to the more than 110 self-immolation's by young tibetan monks. this amendment is modeled after legislation in 1990 that brought 1000 tibetans to the united states at no cost to the government. under this program, integrating tibetans were supported and integrated int

mr. president, do you really want to keep america safer? senator feinstein, do you really want to protect our kids? senator schumer, do you really want to keep them out of the wrong hands? then prove it. prove it by prosecuting violent criminals, get serious about school security, and prevent by fixing our mental health system that everyone knows is broken. while you do that, do one more thing. leave our freedom alone. [applause] as dishonest as our opponents are, don't forget they are also ignorant. ignorance is sometimes bliss, it also has another name. joe biden. [applause] [laughter] biden is the ringleader of obama's gun control task force. let's just say she has some interesting ideas on self.-- self defense. take a look. >> buy a shotgun. >> joe biden on self-defense for women. >> you want to protect yourself, get a double barrel shotgun, as i told my wife. i said come until there is ever a problem walk out on the balcony here, but that double barrel shotgun and fire to blast outside the house. >> more than 300,000 women face aggravated assault every

mr. president, do you really want to keep america safer? senator feinstein, do you really want to protect our kids? senator schumer, do you really want to keep them out of the wrong hands? then prove it. prove it by prosecuting violent criminals, get serious about school security, and prevent by fixing our mental health system that everyone knows is broken. while you do that, do one more thing. leave our freedom alone. as dishonest as our opponents are, don't forget they are also ignorant. ignorance is sometimes less, it also has another name. joe biden. [applause] biden is the ringleader of obama's gun control task force. let's just say she has some interesting ideas on self. take a look. >> by a shotgun. >> joe biden on self-defense for women. >> you want to protect yourself, get a double barrel shotgun, as i told my wife. i said come until there is ever a problem walk out on the balcony here, but that double barrel shotgun and fire to blast outside the house. >> more than 300,000 women face aggravated assault every year. joe bidens answer. >> fire two bla

mr. chairman. >> go ahead. >> i don't intend to be very long. before i call up hatch nine, i -- >> redo that. before we do that, senator feinstein had a unanimous consent. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i appreciate it. >> your mic's on. >> on the first amendment, which had to do with drones not flying over the cities of southern california, there was a need to put in a small exception. this has been drafted. it says the limitation under this subsection shall not restrict the maritime operations of u.s. customs and border protection. so i would move that amendment. >> is there objection to the amendment? i understand there's no objection. without objection, it is amended. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator hatch. thank you for your forbearance. >> before i call up hatch amendment num >> i have circulated several other amendments related to title iv, other than the one i am about to call up. i want to work with this bill to address those important issues. as it currently stands, the bill will render the visa categories simply unworkable. it means little if the rules and regulations after -- actually discourage their us

senator feinstein has not spoken before us. >> just a couple, mr. chairman.for those of us sitting at the table, and this is the only chance we have to reform is a very broken system and bring a lot of people who worked very hard in this country out of the shadows and for most of us, is probably about the most important piece of legislation that will come out of the committee. i want to see thank you to those who worked on it and thank you to senator hatch who helped with the ad jobs part of it and senator schumer. i have one can turn in i want to express it. senator kyl and i work to get full funding to pay counties for detention and prison payments. over the use of federal participation has just dropped it more and more responsibility has fallen to the local governments and that is a fact. yesterday was visited by the leadership of los angeles county he was concerned that we do here, not transfer costs onto the states in the counties. los angeles has 1.1 million in documented in the total population and its members here know there's no federal benefits that

senator feinstein -- she has time if she would like to. >> just a couple, mr. chairman. for those of us sitting at this table, this is the only chance we are going to have to reform what is a very broken system and to bring a lot of people who have worked very hard in this country out of the shadows. and so i think for most of us it is probably just about the most important piece of legislation that will come out of committee. i want to say thank you to those who worked on it and thank senator hatch who helped with the ag jobs part and senator schumer. for yearsyl and i worked to get full funding of the federal responsibility to pay counties for jail detention in prison payments. this is called the scap program. over the years, federal participation has dropped, and more and more of the responsibility has fallen on to the local governments. and that is just a fact. yesterday, i was visited by the leadership of los angeles county who was concerned that what we do here, not transfer costs on to the states and the county. los angeles has 1.1 million undocumented. they have

speak next ask once the debate is done by senator feinstein, senator mccain have 15 minutes discussing farrm bill amendment. >> without objection. >> mr. president. >> is there objection to the original request? the senator from utah. >> or 61 days come several macculloch some have objected to the request for unanimous consent to circumvent regular order, to go to conference on. they want permission to skip a few steps in the process and jump straight to the closed-door backroom meetings. dare come to senior negotiators in the house and senate will be free to wait until an artificial deadline and ran through him read. but the country backed up against another economics of crisis were concerns that they will exploit the opportunity to sneak a definite increase into the country. we think it's inappropriate and objecting to this dysfunctional and republican and democratic process has invited anger and criticisms from colleagues on both sides of the aisle. we just don't get it. we just don't get it were told. proceeding to a secret closed-door backroom 11th hour deal is the way the process works and the white house works. it's the way was

mr. chairman? >> we're still on the grassley amendment. senator grassley, then senator feinstein. >> thank you. just to clarify the amendment i'm offering, and going to withdraw, but to bring up flaws in the bill, we've been discussing flaws about the exit/entry system. my remarks are in regard to the employer monitoring system. this amendment would require the electronic employer tracking system to be fully implemented and fully deployed prior to the admission of w nonimmigrants. on page 849 the bill says, quote, the secretary through the u.s. citizenship and immigration service shall implement an electronic monitoring system to monitor presence and employment of w nonimmigrants. such system shall be modeled on the student second and change visitor information, cvis and cvis 2 tracking system of the united states immigration and customs enforcement, end of quote. this language poses questions. first, are we going to mandate employers use e have-verify andw system not established yet. we mandate that employer use e-verify but then monitor it on a system not yet established. second, are we going

ask once the debate is done that senator feinstein, senator mccain have fifteen minutes to discuss a farm bill amendment. thank you. >> without objection. >> mr. president? >> is there objection to the original request? >> reserving the right to object. >> the senator for utah. >> for sixty one days several of my colleagues and i have objected to the majority request for unanimous consent to circumvent regular order. to go to conference with the house and budget. they want permission to sip a few steps in the process and jump straight to the closed car door back room meeting. there senior negotiators from the house and senate will be free to wait until a convenient artificial deadline and ram through the comprise. mostly unread. and with the country back up against another economic cliff crisis, we're concerned that they will exploit that opportunity to sneak a debt limit increase to the budget. we think that is inappropriate. and yet objecting to this dysfunctional unrepublican, undemocratic process invited anger from colleagues on both sides of the aisle. we just don't get it, you see. we just don't get it, you're told. proceeding to a secr

mrs. mccaskill: there is an objection to the modified request. ms. stabenow: i'm not trying to object, i do have for purposes of colleagues who want to speak next that once the debate is done senator feinstein and senator mccain have 15 minutes to discuss a farm bill amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. is there objection to the original request? mr. lee: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: for 61 days my colleagues and i have objected to the request to circumvent regular order to go to house on conference on the budget. they want to go straight to closed door back room meetings. there senior negotiators in the house and senate will be free to wait until a convenient or official deadline and ram through their compromise undebated, unamend and mostly unread. with the country backed up against another economic cliff crisis, we're concerned they will exploit that opportunity to sneak a debt limit increase into the budget. we think that's inappropriate. yet objecting to this dysfunctional unrepublican, undemocratic process has invited anger and criticism from colleagues here on both sides of the aisle. we just don'

senator feinstein, i understand that you have amendments number 11, drones outside of border areas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. lastmbers will recall, week i offered a substitute amendment that would limit the use of drones to along the southern border itself and not the whole region within 100 miles of the border. the reason for that is that we have several million people within 100 miles of the border in cities in orange county, san diego county, reaching all the way up to long beach within that mileage. soon his record and mentioned he was concerned about because texas is different and he saw drones as being valuable with that respect. we have worked together and i am submitting an amendment here that says in essence, the united states border patrol may not operate unarmed, unmanned aerial vehicles in the san diego and l centro sectors except within three miles of the southern border. so that, in essence, exempts what i'm concerned about in the city of san diego, other cities having these drones flying overhead. san diego has a vague international airport. there is one last concern, and that was

feinstein, i understand you have amendment number 11. sub drones outside the border areas. you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman.if members will recall, last week i offered a substitute amendment that would limit the use of drones to along the southern border itself. nan not the whole region within 100 miles of the border. the reason for that is we have several million people within 100 miles of the border. county, san orange diego county, reaching all the way up to long beach within that mileage. senator cornman mentioned he was concerned about it because texas is different and he saw the drones as being valuable with that respect. i amve worked together and submitting an amendment here that says in essence the united states border patrol may not operate unharmed, unmanned aerial vehicles in the san diego and l sent show sectors except within three miles of the southern borders. that exempts what i am concerned about, the city is san diego, other cities having these drones flying overhead. san diego has a big international airport. there is one last concern. that was just brought to my contention. a concern of

mr. president, and i appreciate serving on that committee and our job is to actually find money and direct funding to build some of these water resource projects. just yesterday, senator feinsteinheld a hearing and she chairs our committee, senator lamar alexander is our ranking member, on the budget for the corps of engineers. and i see my good friend, ben cardin, here and others that are very interested in projects in the wrda bill, but they will be shocked to know -- shocked to know -- that when we asked -- i asked joellen darcy, the leader of the corps of engineers, civilian leader of the corps, what was the number of backlogged projects, new construction projects that were backlogged and how much money was in the bill to build them this year, the first number was $1.6 billion. that's how much is in the appropriations bill roughly to build new water projects in the country, $1.6 billion. it sounds like a lot of money until you hear the second answ answer. then i asked her, how many projects are in the queue for funding, ready to go, meritorious projects, urgently needed new construction? and she said, $60 billion. okay. we have $1.6 billion in the budget to spend and we hav

feinstein number 6 in addition to leahy one. >> senator lee -- i appreciate what senator corn anyone -- cornyn said. we have worked closely together on this. senator lee go ahead. >> thank you, mr chairman. a very quick question for you on leahy one. line seven and eight of the amendment makes clear it also prohibited any study from being conducted with regard to fee. s. can you tell me why that is important? >> put that in the -- the obama administration, their budget, had proposed a study to lead to the imposition of a fee. i just don't want to open that door at all. the idea of having a fee -- and i totally disagree with the administration on this -- the idea of having a toll booth in effect on our borders, our nation of all nations, to too this on our northern and southern borders, where we have had such a relationship as senator cornyn just talked about, on the southern border, as i know living an hour's drive from our northern border, i just don't want to open this door or have them waste money on planning for something that, frankly, i feel the majority of republicans and democrats in the congress would oppose. >> mr. chairman? >> senator hatch. >> i agree with you. i th

on the senate side, senator feinstein, pointed out to the army corps of engineers with us how reasonable senator alexander was trying to be, how reasonable this approach was. mr. cooper: i think we can say with some certainty that this is something that should be overwhelmingly supported by this house. for my colleagues, the cumberland river is perhaps unknown to you. it's a beautiful river. every elected official that i am aware of in our area, democrat and republican, supports this legislation. safety is an issue, but so is overreaching. our friends at the corps occasionally they are a little bit tone deaf, especially if they get transferred in an out a little bit too quickly. this is an amazing little way to fish here below the dams. some of you not realizing fish is this big, some of these fish are 30 and 40 pounds. this is a magnificent recreational resource that has been unfairly harmed by proposal corps action and by officials who will soon be moving away from our area and living in other part of the country. he's a fine gentleman but this is a chance for us to claim our local rights, traditions, freedom to fish. i ask ply colleagues to support s. 982,