mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, next week americans are going to spend time honoring and commemorating the men and women who died fighting for our great country. memorial day is a day to reflect on and give thanks for the sacrifices made by those who made the ultimate sacrifice. but it's also a day to look forward and to think about what we all can do to help our veterans who also sacrifice so much and who deserve our support when they come home. so, mr. president, i come to the floor today to discuss an issue that, quite frankly, defies common sense. the high rate of unemployment among recently separated veterans is an issue that continues to make the transition home for veterans harder than ever. despite the fact that our veterans have the leadership ability and the discipline and technical skills to not only find work but to excel in the workforce of the 21st century, our veterans continue to struggle. despite the skill and talent and training of our veterans, statistics have continued to paint a grim

quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mrs. murray: mr. president? i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. it's very hard to believe that today marks exactly two months since i first came to the floor to advocate passage on the senate's version of the violence against women act. i was very encouraged to see our body finally come together and eventually support this important legislation. the violence against women act has helped provide lifesaving assistance to hundreds of thousands of women and their families, and it certainly was a no-brainer to make sure all women had access to that assistance. however, i was very disappointed to learn that a day after we passed it, the house republicans pulled an immediate u-turn and introduced their version of the bill that would undo the commonsense progress we made. the house republican version of sra*u --

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. and i want to thank senator conrad for his tremendous leadership on this critical issue. mr. president, at the end of last week, republicans in the house of representatives passed legislation that continues their mad dash away from the bipartisan budget control act and really reflects the up upside-down priorities that are guiding their party and stands absolutely no chance of passage here in the senate. mr. president, i think it would be very helpful to point -- at this point to remind my colleagues of the recent history that has brought us to this point. in august of last year, democrats and republicans came together and we agreed to the budget control act to cut spending and put in place a process for additional deficit reduction. the purpose of that bipartisan agreement was to move towards serious deficit reduction and to give some consistency to the federal budget so the american p

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr.unless congress acts, interest rates for many of our students, over 100,000 of them in my home state of washington, is going to double in just 55 days. on july 1, the law we passed that held rates on federally subsidized stafford loans to 3.4% will end, and rates are going to jump overnight to 6.8%. that is going to add $1,000 to the cost of loans for these young people. and it's going to be another huge strain for students and families who are already fighting to afford college and still struggling in this tough economy. mr. president, this isn't just an abstract issue for me. for me it's very personal. pell grants and student loans were what allowed my six brothers and sisters and i to go to college when my dad got sick and had to leave his job. they were what made college affordable for us, and they were what allowed each one of us to pursue careers and give back to our communities. because our government was there for us at a very tough time for us, those seven kids in my family gr

mr. david murray. >> in 1993 the ira lost warrington killing two small boys and injuring 60 others. last week in memorial plaque was stolen. government legislated to promote the sale of metal. something to consider further is the aggravating factor. >> my friend makes an important point. the whole country was shot by that memorial and everyone remembers the bomb and the people who died in that bomb. he is right to say we already legislated and made this an offense and doing everything we can to sort out the problems of a scrap metal trade. >> his suggestion of an aggravated offense but every court in this circumstance is able to hand out exemplary sentences because public justice is important and the public are appalled by what happened. >> question 2, mr. speaker. >> two ways of measuring unemployment. the international labor organization definition includes full and part-time students which is just over a million or the claimant time which stands at 466,000. youth unemployment is too high on either measure cohen noted 40% under the previous government. recently fell by 17,000 in t

mr. david murray. >> in 1993 the ira lost warrington killing two small boys and injuring 60 others. last week in memorial plaque was stolen. government legislated to promote the sale of metal. something to consider further is the aggravating factor. >> my friend makes an important point. the whole country was shot by that memorial and everyone remembers the bomb and the people who died in that bomb. he is right to say we already legislated and made this an offense and doing everything we can to sort out the problems of a scrap metal trade. >> his suggestion of an aggravated offense but every court in this circumstance is able to hand out exemplary sentences because public justice is important and the public are appalled by what happened. >> question 2, mr. speaker. >> two ways of measuring unemployment. the international labor organization definition includes full and part-time students which is just over a million or the claimant time which stands at 466,000. youth unemployment is too high on either measure cohen noted 40% under the previous government. recently fell by 17,000 in t

mr. reid: we have harkin and murray but they're not here. mr. alexander: i was going to defer to senator harkin and senator murray. mr. reid: they obviously are not prompt, like you and me. mr. alexander: [laughter] well, we have good habits. mr. reid: it's the senator's choice as to whether he wants to wait for them. please go ahead. mr. alexander: all right. thank you. i thank the majority leader. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, i will. we are -- and i thank the majority leader for bringing this bill up. he and the republican leader have put on the floor a piece of legislation that affects nearly every american family. now, this won't have the fire works that some things we do has because we have a lot of agreement about it which is one reason it's on the floor. it's gone through the committees. senator harkin and senator enzi have worked carefully with all the republicans, all the democrats on the committees and many other people on a complex piece of legislation for a year to put on the floor l

mr. bertoni. >> chairman murray, ranking members burr, members of the committee, good morning. i'm pleased to discuss the department of defense to improve the performance of the integrated disability evaluation system or ides. since its start, we've montoward the evolution of this process and made several recommendations to address design and other challenges. my statement today is based on the ongoingwork for this committee and focuses on the extent to which ides is meeting key performance goals and ongoing efforts to improve performance. in summary, we found that overall time have worsened with the average number of days to complete claims for the average service duty members increasing from 230 days in 2008 to 394 days last year which is well above the stated goal of 295 days. during the same period the proportion of active duty cases that met timeliness goals also decreased very steeply from 16% to just 19%. with the exception of the evaluation board claims ides fell consistently short of interim timeliness goals for the medical evaluation board, transition and benefits pha

mr. bertoni. >> chairman murray, good morning. i'm pleased to discuss the department of defense to improve the performance of the evaluation system. since it started, we have monitored the evolution of this process. my statement today is based on the ongoing work for this committee and focuses on ides meeting goals and performance. in summery, overall time has worsened with the average number of days for claims to 394 days last year. it is well above the stated goal of 295 days. during the same period, the active duty cases decreased from 63% to 19%. with the exception of the physical evaluation phase, we fell short with the medical evaluation board, transition to benefits phases. in 2011, only 20% of active duty cases met the targeted goal of obtaining a decision. v.a. assessed service member satisfaction in surveys. computing average scores of satisfaction. in fact, using an alternative calculation that eliminates mutual responses, we found satisfaction rates lower in d.o.d. reports. they have under taken a number of actions. ma

mr bertoni. >> chairman murray, ranking member burr, i am pleased to discuss department of defense veterans affairs performance of the integrated fiscally evaluation system which is the standard process for disabilities worldwide. since it started to monitor the evolution, we made several recommendations for other challenges. my statement is based on the ongoing work for the committee and focus on how ides is meeting ongoing efforts to improve performance. we found overall time is worse than the average days to complete can't claims for active-duty service that is increasing from 283 days in 2008 to 394 days last year. that is well above the stated goal of 295 days. in the same period the proportion of active duty cases also decreased very steeply from 63% to 19%. with the exception of the physical valuation board phase ides claims fell short of interim medical evaluation board, transition, benefit phases. processing delays were significant completing medical evaluation board processing. in 2011 only 20% of active duty cases met the goal for obtaining medical board decisions. in addition to timelin

murray and mark crowley. thanks for around with me. mark, you and your team refer to him as mr 48%. >> we did so because the numbers really struck at us. not only was president obama's new approval rating at 48% but his head to head match-up with mitt romney was at 47%. so there are two ways to look at this. on the one hand, president obama is leading mitt romney. he is close to 50%. he is in the high 40s. but he is not in the safe territory. when you're an incumbent president, you want to be at 50% or higher. he is almost there. he is like on the knife's edge. all of a sudden being at 45 or 46% is much different than being at 48 or 49%. one could be the difference in winning and losing. >> in florida, as you pointed out. the president leads romney 48-44. let me play what joe scarborough, a native of florida, had to say on his program, "morning joe." >> it is such a republican state. and going down to palm beach, broward, and talking to some jewish leaders down there over the past couple years, there is a supreme disconnect between barack obama and the people that helped democr

mr. x. he's not admitting who he is. >> reporter: and even his former lawyer says she doesn't know he real name. >> i have no idea. >> reporter: helen mac murrayshe fell for the pitch that the u.s. navy veterans sew yags was a legitimate charity. >> he was the greatest patriot. my whole family is navy. i was thrilled to be able to help an association that was going to be helping people like my dad and father and uncles, all of whom were navy veterans. >> reporter: as the money poured into the charity, mac murray grew concerned and finally went to the fbi, when, she says, she realized that thompson had created fake records. >> the only thing you would p prepare a fake diary and you didn't give it to the homeless vets. >> reporter: as authorities began to move in, mr. x fled and led authorities on a cross-country odyssey, traveling only on bus from tampa to new york to providence. then, it was onto boston, up california to seattle and finally, portland, where u.s. marshal william bolden and his team found him. >> at one location, he was an employee at boeing, at another location, he was a visiting scholar or a professor from a university. >> rep

murray see. -- peter morici. >> mr.orici, i was wondering if you felt as an educator that making the entire focus of education some kind of remuneration, does that not detract from having students involved in fields of signs that have more exports of, and, you know -- the thing that detracts from america in the long run due to the absence of that kind of drive that exists with the idea of learning for learning is sick? guest: learning for learning's stake is important, but can we afford to have half the population to that, i do not think so. there is a balance to be struck. a lot of liberal arts institutions askew two notions, but they can do things at less cost, and that they should have a vocational contention. students need to live a life. that is what you're talking about what general education, and i also need to earn a living. it is becoming apparent that many college graduates cannot earn a living that is commensurate with the cost of their education as computed by the debt that they have. we have to have a balan

. >> host: carl from murray, kentucky, e-mails in to you, mr.kyle: what inspires you to write the autobiography? >> guest: actually, i was dead set against it. it is something that i felt like these guys who got out and did this kind of thing, they were selling out. and i did not want to be a sellout. it's, basically, taking my try dent and -- tridepartment and cashing it in for some publicity. i was completely against it. but then as i found out there were two other authors who were actively seeking my story. they were going to write the book. and if book was going to be written, i wanted to make sure it was done the right way. i didn't know someone else writing a book about me and it being another chest-beating story of, hey, look at me, look at what i've done. when i wrote it, it gives the credit to the proper people, the guys around me that were the true heroes, and the only reason i even look good is because of those guys and their heroics. so this story gives credit to those, whether it was the seals, the soldiers or the marines. those guy

. >> host: carl from murray, kentucky, e-mails in to you, mr.kyle: what inspires you to write the autobiography? >> guest: actually, i was dead set against it. it is something that i felt like these guys who got out and did this kind of thing, they were selling out. and i did not want to be a sellout. it's, basically, taking my try dent and -- tridepartment and cashing it in for some publicity. i was completely against it. but then as i found out there were two other authors who were actively seeking my story. they were going to write the book. and if book was going to be written, i wanted to make sure it was done the right way. i didn't know someone else writing a book about me and it being another chest-beating story of, hey, look at me, look at what i've done. when i wrote it, it gives the credit to the proper people, the guys around me that were the true heroes, and the only reason i even look good is because of those guys and their heroics. so this story gives credit to those, whether it was the seals, the soldiers or the marines. those guy

bingaman, lieberman, klobuchar, murray, begich, blumenthal, nelson of nebraska, leahy, conrad, johnson of south dakota, brown of ohio, cardin, whitehouse, kerry, akaka, and harkin. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, this is the -- i have spoken before, madam president, abouts the importance of the f.d.a. bill, something we have to get done. literally, people's lives dpep depend on it. it addresses so many things with the f.d.a. to make it a better position. we have to get this done. as i've said before, if my republican colleagues don't like the bill, offer an amendment, offer an amendment to take that out, put something in, if you don't like it. but i would hope that we don't have to go through voting on cloture on monday night. we should be legislating this coming monday. so i am stunged that once again our motion to proceed when there's been an agreement that we would proceed to this with relevant amendments, which everybody says that that's what they want to do -- it's not germane amendments, which is very narrow;s it relevant amendments. it gi

mikulski, reid of nevada, cantwell, murray, lautenberg, bingaman, whitehouse, shaheen, udall of new mexico, klobuchar, levin, warner, pryor, reed of rhode island, and gillibrand. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived and the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to s. 3220 occur at 2:15 p.m. on tuesday, june 5. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, we're going to arrange a vote monday night on one of the members who is trying to become a judge. one of the nominees, i should say. i note -- a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i want to take a few moments this afternoon to do something that has become a bit of a ritual with me, and that is to try to take some time each week to speak about the damage that we are doing to our atmosphere, to our oceans and to our climate with the relentless carbon pollution that we are discharging. as each week goes by, the information continues to pile up about the harms that we're causing. a recent story says that rising temperatures could el