mrs. mccaskill: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: you know, madam president, every once in a while it is probably a healthy thing for all of us to sit back for a moment and reflect on why we're here. what is the united states senate supposed to be about? why do we come to the senate? why did our founding fathers lay out a constitution that had these branches of government, and in the branch of government that we reside in, we are called the legislative branch. so what is that about? i think what the founding fathers wanted us to do is to make our laws reflect the values and priorities of the american people. and the paycheck fairness act is a simple step towards making our laws reflect two of the most important values we have in the united states of america. i guarantee you if i walked up to any of my colleagues that intend to vote against this and said do you believe in equality and justice, they would say of course we believe in equality and justice. then why would you not support this legislation? because it is just that

mrs. mccaskill: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: you know, madam president, every once in a while it is probably a healthy thing for all of us to sit back for a moment and reflect on why we're here. what is the united states senate supposed to be about? why do we come to the senate? why did our founding fathers lay out a constitution that had these branches of government, and in the branch of government that we reside in, we are called the legislative branch. so what is that about? i think what the founding fathers wanted us to do is to make our laws reflect the values and priorities of the american people. and the paycheck fairness act is a simple step towards making our laws reflect two of the most important values we have in the united states of america. i guarantee you if i walked up to any of my colleagues that intend to vote against this and said do you believe in equality and justice, they would say of course we believe in equality and justice. then why would you not support this legislation? because it is just that

mr. friedman. >> thank you, chairman. chairman mccaskill, ranking member heller, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. to begin, i would like to say that on behalf of everyone at nhtsa we are deeply saddened by the lives lost of the crashes involving the general motors switch defect. the victims, families and friends, several of whom i know at the hearing yesterday and some who maybe are today have suffered greatly. and i'm deeply sorry for their loss. safety is nhtsa's top priority. our employees go to work every day trying to prevent tragedies like these are our work reducing dangerous behaviors behind the wheel, improving the safety of vehicles, and addressing safety defects has helped reduce highway fatalities to historic lows not seen since 1950. in the case of the reseller recalled general motors vehicles, we are first focused on safety and ensuring the general motors identifies all vehicles with defective ignition switch, fixes these vehicles quickly and is doing all it can to inform cons

mr. rubio and ms. mccaskill in the legislation and they were of the multi-stakeholder system. we are united with our colleagues across the aisle in ensuring that the preservation of freedom and the preservation of the multi-stakeholder system. and i think the first question that is asked is how are you going to keep icann from being taken over by government? the fact of the matter is icann is not the u.n.. icann is an organization that is structurally set up to not allow anyone stakeholder to take over the system. so governments can no more take over icann than google can take over icann or a single academic can take over icann. now if we need to look at the structure to ensure that there are proper mechanisms in place and that's part of the process going on now so there are checks and balances and accountability, those are all perfectly valid questions and i think we will be working in briefing the hell regularly on how the process that icann convening in bringing the stakeholders together will answer those questions and ensure the proper protections are in place. ultimately

senator mccaskill, claire mccaskill asked her why has she not fired the engineer who was in fired of the cobalt ignition system? >> has mr. giorgio been fired? >> as the investigation has only been going on for a couple of weeks we've made process steps as i return to the office we'll start to look at the people implications. >> so he has not been fired. >> no, highways not. >> there is a document that he signed under his name mr. day di giorgio, he signed it approving of the change. now, it is hard for me to imagine that you would want him any why where near engineering anything. >> specifically why these ignition switches had been changed and not changing the part number. here is dean heller. >> it is incredibly unusual for a car company to change the car part and not change the car number. government investigators requested that g.m. provide any documents chronicling the switch change and who in company provided it. >> heller pointed out that g.m. had asked for and received bankrupt protection to bail it out and keep it in business and provide it from protection from past mistakes like the ignition switch problem. >>

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator mccain. senator mccaskill. >> thank you. secretary mchugh, the defense finance and accounting services was set up by the secretary of defense back in '91 in an effort to try to better manage the business systems at the department of defense. and since its inception, they have consolidated more than 300 installation-led offices and denying sites, reduced the numbers of systems from 330 to 111, and obviously, they work off a working capital fund where they charge their customers. there's not a direct appropriation. i was a little concerned when i saw you launched an army financial management optimization task force pursuant to your directive that would move from the dfas some functions directly in the army, and i worry about that and so what i need to ask you is why, and because what we're going to do is if everybody does that, we're back to where we began with a lot of duplication, a lot of one branch not knowing what the other branch is doing as far as systems. as we're trying to get to an aud audit, it seems to me that deci

claire mccaskill issuing a statement concluding based on these allegations and their investigations that the homeland security department inspector general was compromised during this period they found mredwards jeopardized the independence of the homeland security department inspector general during his departure there. he spent two decades the federal government and abruptly resigned a few days before he was expected to face aggressive questioning before the senate committee, jenna. jenna: if this is a bipartisan report. >> this is extremely important because it strips away any issues it is politically motivated. jenna: thank you. >> you're welcome. jon: troubling accusations on capitol hill. for more on the fallout, let's check in with the associate editor for the hill. editor the national review and fox news contributor. sort of set the scene for us, department of homeland security has the third biggest budget of any federal department? >> oh, yes. not only an enormous department, but a very significant job, a challenging job and often conflict ridden job for the agency you are working within, essential to preserving the credibility and legitimacy of the operations of government. w

, yibled, schatz, heinrich, baldwin, boxer, stabenow, hirono, hagan, landrieu, mccaskill, shaheen, feinstein, klobuchar. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: mr. president, thank you very much. for that recognition. i come to the floor today to talk about jobs and about one sector in particular, -- maybe we should should have a job sector to fix this desk but that's not what i'm here to talk about. one job sector that's created tremendous job growth in colorado and across the united states and that's wind energy and the jobs that it's brought to our state. during last thursday's markup in the finances committee, we worked in a bipartisan fashion to include a two-year extension of the production tax credit known as the p.t.c. any -- and the investment tax credit known as the i.t.c. for wind energy. the wind credit has enjoyed broad bipartisan basis over a number of years ranging from its original champ, cons to be a c