mrs. hagan: thank you. mr. president -- the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. agan: equal pay for equal work is just basic common sense. i hope that this body can come together to address this disparity that exists in north carolina and around our country. senator mikulski, thank you again for the work that you are doing on behalf of this very, very important bill that is truly going to make a difference in the lives of women throughout our country as well as their families. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, this is the time allocated for both republicans and democrats to speak, and we invite our republican colleagues to come and even within the republican party we know there are those who agree with us and those who don't. for those who agree, we'd love to hear their voices. and for those who don't, well, let's have a debate. let's take a look at what are some of the issues being raised in -- as a criticism of the bill. we're ready to talk abou

mrs. hagan: mr. president? the presiding officer: is noter from south carolina. mrs. hagan: calm my amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: mrs. hagan proposessen amendment number 2366. mrs. hagan: i ask that further reading be dispensed with. fer he if without objection. there will be two minutes of debate equally divided. mrs. hagan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator north carolina. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. mr. roberts: the national is not in order. the senator has a very commonsense amendment o amendme. hague thank you, mr. president. mrs. hagan: as everyone knows, federal crop insurance policies are extremely technical and complex. my amendment seeks to give farmers additional access to clear, concise information about crop insurance policies and programs approved by the usda. this commonsense amendment seeks to accomplish this goal in two ways. first, it will require the secretary of agriculture to report back to congress on the status of the agency's effort to comply with the president's exe