mr. sanders? ms. murray? mr. one? mr. murray? mr. king? mr. chairman? chairman: the amendment is defeated. senator crapo's amendment on chokepoint. senator: this is the amendment to terminate operation choke point, the department of justice effort to identify disfavored businesses in the united states and try to deprive them of access to financing in our system. one of those industries has been identified as the second amendment industry, the firearms industry. there are others. once they got caught with this, they said we will eliminate our list of bad actors. they say do not make us stop doing this operation. they always could stop, and they can stop fraud in the future. we do not need to allow the operation to continue. chairman: opposition? senator: there areone is going against payday lenders breaking state laws and violating the contract. the second is a situation in california where free credit cards were given out to secure bank numbers and it was stolen out of accounts. >> i remind everybody what the banks said. they said the amendment would in

murray: that's correct. mr. enzi: you want to have greater expenditure for one year and spend it over 10. ms. murray: it replaces sequestration. we're racing to another government shutdown and a very bad crisis that impacts our economy and impacts defense and nondefense. this allows our appropriations committee to start moving forward in a responsible way for this year. mr. sessions: but i see page two, it increases revenues, i have some hesitation on it. i know which budget baseline we wruse will be taken into consideration by the time we do conference at the -- mr. enzi: i know which budget baseline we use will be take intoon consideration by the time we do conference. mr. enzi: we'll start talking at about 2:00, we'll have our first vote around 5:00 we'll be on this monday. ms. murray: great. i ask for a vote. >> i just wanted -- does this change the baseline? there's $77 billion -- ms. murray: c.b.o. made projections in january. they updated them in march. we take the c.b.o. projections from march current law

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president i ask consent the sanders amendment number 777 be modified with the changes at the desk. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mrs. murray: and i ask consent to have the following senators as cosponsors to his amendment -- boxer markey, schatz. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: and mr. president i ask consent the pending amendment be set aside so that i may call up amendment number 801. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from washington mrs. murray proposes an amendment numbered 801. mrs. murray: mr. president i ask consent further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president as many of us have said here before, a budget is far more than simply numbers on a page. a budget really is a statement of values and priorities

mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president this amendment that i'm offering today would simply expand access to paid sick days and give -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mrs. murray: thank you mr. president. it will expand access to paid sick days and give our families some really much-needed economic stability. you know, working families should not have to sacrifice a day's pay or sacrifice their job altogether just to take care of themselves or a sick child but today in this country 43 million of our nation's workers do not have access to paid sick days. this amendment would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days over the course of a year, and it will not only help our families, it is good for business. paid sick days boost productivity and in cities and states that already have paid sick leave laws

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you mr. president. i come to the floor with a simple message for our republican colleagues. enough is enough. the bill that we are debating today, the justice for victims of trafficking act, should be, without question, bipartisan. because a bill about combating trafficking is no place for politics and that means it is no place for harmful partisan measures that restrict women's reproductive health options. so it is deeply disappointing that over the last week republicans have insisted on including such a provision in the justice for victims of trafficking act and then instead of working with us to take this provision out get this bill done and move on to other important work, they've dug in their heels. mr. president, democrats want to work with republicans on this legislation and get it back on track. we've put forward a substitute that takes out the politics and focuses on what matters in this debate, which is helping the survivors of trafficking get the justice that t

mrs. murray: mr. president right now the ranking member of the judiciary committee is working on alternative legislation that would take out the divisive, harmful expansion of the hyde amendment and keep this effort focused on survivors who need support and deserve justice. so democrats are laying out a path to keep this bill bipartisan and get it done, and i hope our republican colleagues will reconsider the partisan approach they've taken and work with us. i hope they will think about why it just doesn't make sense to choose partisanship over trying to just address a truly horrific problem in our country especially one that we have all agreed needs to be solved. and i hope that they will commit to putting politics aside and join us to make this bill the bipartisan effort that we all hoped it would be. thank you mr. president. i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. gra

mr. sanders. ms. murray. mr. wyden. ms. stabenow. esther white house. mr. warner. mr. merkley. ms. baldwin. mr. kane. mr. king. mr. chairman. chairman enzi: aye. clerk: mr. chairman, the yeas a re 15, the nays are eight. chairman enzi: that amendment has been adopted. >> the side-by-side includes creased job opportunities increase welfare programs, and potential -- protection for benefit cuts. this is the same amendment as senator sessions' amendment but understanding that there are some important programs, such as the earned income tax credit, ssi, funding for cervical cancer protection, meals on wheels, and many other programs. what i do not want to see is those programs cut. of course we can make changes but it is important that we do not cut programs for the most vulnerable people in this country. sen. sessions: i understand what senator sanders is suggesting. as is so often the case, i think it is excessive commitment to the status quo. we really need to consider some of these programs should be consolidated even eliminated and others increased. if we do that in a creative way

mrs. murray: mr. president? mr. president? mr. schumer: can we have order mr. president. the senator from arkansas is recognized. mr. cotton: this amendment establishes a reserve fund to ensure the fish and wildlife service considers the cumulative economic impact of a habitat designation not just the critical habitat a. critical habitat designation provides additional protections for an endangered species but states like arkansas have seen critical habitat designations that do not take into account the full economic impact on farmers, ranchers and landowners. previously the full economic impact of a designation was. that's been modified recently so only the marginal impact between the endangered species listing and a critical habitat designation is considered. any reforms should not change the listing process and i would not suggest that we should change the listing process in this measure. i simply want to account for the full economic impact of such designations and i urge my colleagues to cast a "yes" vote. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator

mr. murray. so they are working on that right now. it is reported to be a five-year, 42 million-dollar contract with 21 million of that guarantied. they also announced and we heard from ryan matthews, running back, formally of san diego. a three-year contract, 11 million-dollar, five of that is guarantied. so, the the running back position just might be healthy, if, in fact, dimarco murray is a philadelphia eagle. as you said that really hurts the dallas cowboys, in fact there are reports on social media that jerseys are being burned in dallas. coming up we will hear from cornerback walter thurmond who signed a one year deal and from ryan matthews. we will hear from those guys later in sports. from the novacare center i'm beasley reese now back to you in the the studio. >> thanks so much. so much drama. eagles fans are hanging on every tweet and news report wondering what will happen next with chip kelly the mad scientists. we caught up with some very excited fans today. >> i guess we're okay. i believe in chip. >> it has been kind of

sanders, no. >> mrs. murray todd nod. >> mr. widen. >> no. >> miss stabenow. >> no. >> were whitehouse. >> no,. >> mark merkley, no. >> miss ball win. >> no. >> mr. cane understand nod. >> member king. [inaudible] >> mr. chairman, aye. >> the yeas are 12, the nays are 10. >> the resolution passes. and i'd like to thank all the members for their tremendous cooperation getting this done. it is important that if you have any necessary documents to be filed, it has to be done tomorrow in order that the resolution can be brought to the senate floor next week. the deadline for submitting additional or minority views is no later than noon tomorrow. any views muss have a member's signature and we'll begin debate at 2:00 on monday. >> you also need to -- >> ready or not. >> staff can make technical and conforming changes. >> and may add to the chairman's mark of facts and figures to complete the charts. >> can add the numbers for the facts and figures. and complete the charts. >> congratulations. >> well done. >> thank you. >> have to ga

mr. gilbert murray. mr. murray was going to take this package up to mr. dennison in northern california, but when he went to open it, the same kind of bomb that mr. mosher received with all the power and destructive power, it just had no chance as he was sitting at his desk and opened that package. >> can you talk about what the unit bomber was doing to avoid attention? >> i can. we were after somebody that knew a lot. that was certainly to smart to leave a trail. we had no idea how smart he was. theodore kaczynski was a genius. he went to a great deal of work and effort to make sure he didn't leave a trail behind. for example, all of these bombs were handmade. gary mentioned seeing something shiny, it was probably something fashion from chrome on an old junk car. he would start with the bombs. he would build them from scratch. when we try to trace things back from a bombing crime scene forensically, in these cases we couldn't trace them back to anything. he would take casings off the battery so you couldn't find where a battery had been bought. it starte

mr. sanders. no. >> miss murray. mr. wind miss stabenow -- wee leave our coverage of the senate budget committee's markup proposal. they have informed us that this meeting will continue until it's done. also you can continue watching this meeting on our companion network c-span. >>> it is a celebratory day here for us at the c-span networks today. today marks the 36th anniversary of the house of representatives first being televised. and representative al gore made that first speech. you can see his comments only at c-span.org. created by the cable tv industry and brought to you as a service by your local cable or satellite provider. >>> the hill reports that president obama has taken a order to cut government's greenhouse gas emissions by 40%. also directing the federal government to get 30% of its renewable resources by twnts2025. the president spoke at the city club of cleveland. he talked about complete and the middle class and criticized the budget proposal. he then took questions from the audience. this is about an

mr. murray that can get people excited?k about his style. >> he is a one cut back, he get offer to great start. he is a power back. he's north-south runner. that's what it is. and he's the leading returner in the entire nfl for the past year. >> he gets it done no doubt about that. what do you think is going through chip kelly's mind right now? i'm thinking he has to concentrate little more on defense now? >> it is hard to tell. because chip kelly's mind goes a mile a minute. don't forget he as choir three defensive players he wanted, exciting young linebacker, byron maxwell, who was the number one corner in the free agent market, and a guy that he knows well from oregon, who has had couple of injuries, but seattle and the giants, but is considered to be very talented corner, walter thurman. so, what pieces are next? you can figure that they're still looking for help at safety. that would be the one more area that you are looking for although, there is the possibility, that nolan carol who required last year from miami, he

mr. gilbert murray. he was he was going to take this package up to northern california. he went ahead to open it to see what was in it and the same kind of bomb with all the power and destructive power and just had no chance. >> can you talk a little bit about what the unabomber was doing to avoid detection? >> at the time we realized we were after someone who knew a lot and was too smart to leave a trail for himself we had no idea how smart he was. it turns out he was a genius he went to a great deal of effort to make sure he did not leave a trail behind. all of these bombs were handmade. he mentioned seeing something shiny it probably was something that was fashioned from chrome in the cabin of the kaczynski. he would build them from scratch. normally when we try to trace things back in this case we could not trace anything. so he took sandpaper and sanded these devices very carefully to make sure they did not have any of his fingerprints on them. he wore gloves. in one instance he went to the men's room at the bus station got down on the floor and gathered for -- gath

mr. murray had replaced him. the unabomber was proud of himself.atter that his bomb had killed the wrong man. they were engaged in the same kind of work, which was anti-environment in his opinion. and so it was okay. >> i'd been to a number of bomb scenes over my career, and the last one in sacramento was probably one of the more horrific. the shrapnel is usually what maims or kills the victim. most of the cases, nails, staples, and screws were used. that's an antipersonnel device. that's used to maim or kill. >> when you go to those crime scenes or when you see the devastation that was left behind and then you read about what he says and how he felt about those bombs, it's really chilling. it's chilling that someone can think like that, behave like that, and do that kind of thing. >> by now, the unabomber had been at large for almost 17 years. >> we talk about lone actors a lot, how difficult they are to catch. the unabomber was the lone wolf in the most classic sense. >> socially, he defined himself as a social cripple. but technologically, ironi

mr. murray. so they are working on that right now.llar contract with 21 million of that guarantied. they also announced and we heard from ryan matthews, running back, formally of san diego. a three-year contract, 11 million-dollar, five of that is guarantied. so, the the running back position just might be healthy, if, in fact, dimarco murray is a philadelphia eagle. as you said that really hurts the dallas cowboys, in fact there are reports on social media that jerseys are being burned in dallas. coming up we will hear from cornerback walter thurmond who signed a one year deal and from ryan matthews. we will hear from those guys later in sports. from the novacare center i'm beasley reese now back to you in the the studio. >> thanks so much. so much drama. eagles fans are hanging on

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president i come to the floor this afternoon to join my colleagues in taking a step back from the partisan bills on the floor this week to talk about the ways that we should be able to work together to grow the economy and help our working families. mr. president, democrats have an economic theory that we're pretty confident about. we believe that real, long-term economic growth is built from the middle out not the top down. we believe government does have a role to play in investing in our working families and making sure they have the opportunity to work hard and succeed offering hand up to those who want to climb the economic ladder and provide a hand up to themselves and their families. we believe our government and our economy should be working for all families, not just the wealthi

mrs. murray: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you. i want to thank senator mikulski for offering this really important amendment because i believe that real long-term economic growth is built from the middle out not the top down. and our government and our economy should be working for all families, not just the wealthiest few. we in congress need to be focused on raising wages and expanding economic security and making sure our workers have the opportunity to work hard and succeed, and that's exactly what the amendment that the senator from maryland has offered will do. it would build on the promise of the equal pay act to help close the pay gap between men and women. today on nearly half of our workforce isn't earning equal pay for equal work. in fact, women across the country, as we know, get paid just 78 cents for every dollar a man makes for the same work. that's not just unfair to women it hurts our families, it hurts our economy and we need to fix it. last year at a nearing in the health education labor and pe

. >> seeing no opposition, senator murray. >> mr. chairman i would like to offer an amendment right now that should be pass out to build on reserve funds so that the chairman included in fiscal year 2016 budget for additional invests in programs that support our veterans and our servicemembers. there is no more solemn promise we make as a nation than our commitment to care for the men and women who serve our country. and these men who put their lives and limbs on the live to protect our country and our freedoms and our way of life. we need to meet that promise to care for them. so this amendment builds on the existing reserve fund to additional support and resources for critical programs that help our veterans and servicemembers access health, job training programs specialty services and would allow us to expand the eligibility for the comprehensive caregiver support program to veterans of all eras. this is a critical program that helps our veterans stay in their own homes, with their loved ones and out of the hospital and give them

mrs. murray: thank you mr. president.eal long-term economic growth is built from the middle out not from the top down. and our government has a role to play in investing in working families making sure they have the opportunity to work hard and succeed and offering a hand up to those who want to could climb the economic ladder and provide a better life for themselves and their families. our government and our economy should be working for all families not just the wealthiest few. thankfully we've had the opportunity to put some policies into place over the past few years that have pulled our economy back from the brink and have started moving us in the right direction. we're not there yet but across the country businesses have now added almost 12 million new jobs over 59 straight months of job growth including almost one million manufacturing jobs. the unemployment rate is now under 6%. health care costs are growing at their lowest rate in almost 50 years while millions more families have access to affordable coverage. th

mr. sanders no. ms. murray, no. mr. wyden. ms. stabenow, mr. whitehouse. mr. kane, mr. king. mr. chairman. senator enzi: yes. the clerk: the yeas are 12 and the nays are 10. senator enzi: the amendment has failed. the next one -- the amendment is passed. the amendment is passed. sorry. next one is the kaine amendment. senator: this is an amendment to promote c.t.e. education co-sponsored by senators baldwin and portman. senator enzi: any opposition, seeing none. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. . it is passed. next the ayotte amendment and there is a democrat side-by-side on this one. has the side-by-side been distributed? senator: can i move my vote after. we are awaiting a ruling by the parliamentarian. can i move my vote until the end? senator enzi: there is a side-by-side which has been handed out already. two minutes of debate each side? senator: my amendment creates a neutral deficit reserve fund to america's treasures and grow our rural economies in a balanced way. the side-by-side ties the well-being of rural economist and our spectacular treasures we reveer to

mrs. murray: thank you mr. president. mr. president, we are debating a bill today that should be about something we can all agree on. eliminating human trafficking. this bill should be about protecting women's health and rights and about fighting back against the unacceptable presence of human slavery in our country. in other words if anything should be bipartisan, this bill is it. i know many of us were hoping this bill, are the justice for victims of trafficking act would be an example of republicans and democrats working together, because surely we can agree these problems need to be addressed and urgently and that the gridlock and dysfunction we see far too often in congress should have absolutely no place in this discussion. so mr. president, i am appalled that on a bill intended to help women, republicans actually have chosen to double down on their political fight against women's health. they tried to sneak in a provision that would hurt women and drag this bill into yet another partisan fight. they just can't seem to

murray. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment fixes the problem we all know is coming which is a quester for the next few years based on the agreement from the last few years. basically a mixture of the defense and nondefense equally replaces $157 billion a quester coming out. this keeps us out of a giant nightmare this fall that i know it's coming out of free don't deal in this budget. i urge your support. >> we do take seriously the call for future legislation regarding possible modifications budget control act it will take a look at the act right after april 15th when we get the budget done. so there is a highly flexible deficit natural reserve fund to address the matter already in the resolution. this amendment is a tax and spend amendment calling for unspecified tax increases of 157 billion increase discretionary spending today. i urge my colleagues to vote no. >> mr. chairman, i would note the underlying bill has $5 trillion in spending cuts. in this a quester replacement we replaced it with $157 billion in t

murray or her designee. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you mr. president. i rise to speak about the national labor relations board and the reforms that have been proposed the new rule, and i rise first of all to provide by way of a predicator background what happened in 1935 when the national labor relations act was passed. a lot to talk about in that act, but just like when a major piece of legislation passes, we have findings that undergird the statute itself. i won't go through all those today, but i think some of the language in there is especially appropriate for what we're talking about. the findings in summary spoke to the benefits of collective bargaining the benefits of organizing and collectively bargaining and asserted at one point very early in the statute in the findings, the first couple paragraphs of the findings that experience -- and i'm paraphrasing this but i'll get to specific words in a moment -- but experience has shown that collective bargaining

mr. chairman, far going so far over my time. >> no that is fine. >> senator murray, do you have any concluding remarks? >> dr. hamburg well-stated. thank you to both of your testimonies. senator alexander i look forward to working with you on this. >> thank you, senator murray. dr. collins, just for the record if you know offhand the success has declined over 30 years. what about the absolute number of grants, has that gone down too? >> the absolute number of grants we fund versus those we receive it has been bouncing around, under 10,000. >> about 30 years ago it was what? >> i have to get you the number. >> i was trying to compare that with the success rate. >> of course the biomedical research community has grown in that timetable. >> right. >> i can get you specifics. would be interesting to see that. thanks to both of you. dr. hamburg, thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> it is very important that you were here and we thank you for your six years of service at fda. i hope you will accept our invitation to stay in touch with us over, especially over the next year as we work on these

mr. chairman for going so far over my time. >> that's fine. senator murray do you have any concluding remarks? >> i would just say dr. hamburg, well stated. thank you to both of you for excellent testimony. i think this was a really good hearing. senator alexander, i look forward to working with you on this. >> thank you, senator murrifment and dr. collins just for the record, you mentioned the success rate has declined over 30 years. what about the absolute number of grants? has that gone down too? >> the absolute number of grants that we fund versus those we receive it's been bouncing around but it's under 10,000 now for new competing -- >> but 30 years it was what? >> i would have to get you the number. >> that's what i was trying to compare that. >> the biomedical research community has grown in that timetable. i can get you the specific numbers. >> it would be interesting to see that. but thanks to both of you. thank you for being here. and it's very important that you were here and that we thank you for your six years of service at f.d.a. and i hope yo

mr. chairman, if i might. i think the agreement you and senator murray reached was important and one of the reasons that we've been operating in a more normal way these last two years and one of the reasons the budget could be on time this year. >> yeah. >> so i think working together is important. we obviously present our view of the best way to do it in our budget and we need to work on a bipartisan basis. >> and my point is let's stick with what we had and it is the best way forward. second let me ask you about pass-throughs. it is a good step in the right direction. and mind you and you know this, 80% of american businesses aren't corporations they are pass-throughs. they file taxes as individuals, sole preprite or ships llcs. the issue of greater concerns these days is unlike the big public companies with large cash and ability to borrow at low interest rates and the post dod frank have found it hard to find credit as banks have restricted lending so we have a cash flow issue. they need cash flow from the current operations just to meet payroll and keep people working but our current broken code makes it

mr. chairman, for going so far over my time. >> no that's fine. senator murray do you have any closing remarks. >> dr. murray, well stated. thank you for both of your testimony. this was a good hearing. senator alexander, i look forward to working with you on that. >> thank you. and dr. collins, do you know off hand, you mentioned the success rate has declined over the years. what about the absolute number of grants? has that gone up? >> the absolute number of grants that we fund versus that we receive. it has bounced around, it was 10,000 -- >> 30 years ago it was -- >> i'd have to get you the number. >> i was trying to compare that to the success rate. >> but the biomedical community has grown. >> it would be interested to see that. >> thank you to both of you. thank you for being here. very important that you were here and we thank you for your six years of service at fda. and i hope you'll accept our invitation to stay in touch with us, especially over the next year as we work on these issues. dr. collins, you're going to still be here. >> i am. >> and we're

mr. chairman, if i might i think the agreement you and sfloert senator murray reached was important and it is one of the reasons we've been operating in a more normal way these last two years and one of the reasons the budget could be on time this year. i think working together is important. we onbviously present our view of the best way to do it in our budget. >> my whole point is let's stick with the formula we have because it woshgdz beforerked before. i think it is the best way to go forward. second, i want to ask you about pass-throughs. i'm glad you said business reform instead of corporate which is a good step in the right direction. mind you -- i know you know this -- 80% of american businesses aren't corporations. they're pass-throughs. they file their taxes as individuals, sole pro pry poreshipspore proprietorships, sub-s. unlike big public companies with a lot of cash on their balance sheets the ability to borrow at historically low interest rates, the close dodd-frank closely held businesses have found it really hard to obtain credit these days as banks have restricted lending.

murray. thanks for being with us today. >> thanks betty. >> do you agree with that? that mrs. clinton needs to clarify this before it spirals out of control? >> that's right. so far all she's done has tweeted that she's going to release her documents and e-mails from when she was secretary of state, but we haven't heard a real plan about getting that information what the timetable would end up being. senator feinstein is right. the only way for her to put this in the rearview mirror is for her to come down come clean, answer the questions people have. one of the biggest questions people have is why did she have a private e-mail account to do public business where most of the other cabinet secretaries and agency department heads had dot-gov accounts. of course, why she had a home brew system not even just a simple private e-mail address, but an entire system and what that was used for. her being able to answer these questions, to be able to promise a timetable to get the e-mails would go a long way to putting that in her rearview mirror. >> seems like the longer the questions r

mr. chairman, if i might, i think the agreement you and senator murray reached was important and it is one of the reasons we've been operating in a more normal way these last two years and one of the reasons the budget could be on time this year. i think working together is important. we obviously present our view of the best way to do it in our budget. >> my whole point is let's stick with the formula we have because it worked before. i think it is the best way to go forward. second, i want to ask you about pass-throughs. i'm glad you said business reform instead of corporate which is a good step in the right direction. mind you -- i know you know this -- 80% of american businesses aren't corporations. they're pass-throughs. they file their taxes as individuals, sole pro pry proprietorships, sub-s. unlike big public companies with a lot of cash on their balance sheets, the ability to borrow at historically low interest rates, the close dodd-frank closely held businesses have found it really hard to obtain credit these days as banks have restricted lending. so why have a cash flow issue. t

mr. chairman, for going so far over my time. >> no, that's fine. senator murray, do you have any concluding remarks? >> dr. murray, well stated. thank you for both of your testimony. this was a good hearing. senator alexander, i look forward to working with you on that. >> thank you. and dr. collins, do you know offhand -- you mentioned the success rate has declined over the years. what about the absolute number of grants? has that gone up? >> the absolute number of grants has been bouncing around. it was around 10,000. >> 30 years ago it was -- >> i'd have to get you the number. >> i was trying to compare that to the success rate. >> but the biomedical community has grown in that timetable. i can get you the specifics. >> it would be interesting to see that. >> thank you to both of you. thank you for being here. very important that you were here and we thank you for your six years of service at fda. and i hope you'll accept our invitation to stay in touch with us especially over the next year , as we work on these issues. dr. collins, you're going to still be he

mr. gibson? >> i appreciate the panelists, and i for one have been listening these many months and years, i think the services have provided great detail and impacts on the sequester. i voted for ryan murray, that gave us reprieve for two years, i hope that we have the wisdom and the will, we summon it up to replace hopefully in total, the sequester, but at least for a period of time to give some stability for the services going-forward. mr. chairman, you mentioned agility, just a few moments ago, that's where i want to go with this. two different types of threats. with nation states, so much of the world's actions can be explained by this concept of deterrents. and deterrents roughly assembled through capability and will. and i'm interested in delving into strategic maneuver. restoring the global response force capability. i'm interested from each of the services your commitment from the global response force. you can include modelling and simulation and exercises. >> i believe i'll be the same. the problem we have is, feeling the global response force and all our assets are being used in operations everywhere else. the air force is that we have a limited capacity now in certain key area

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: there are two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the murray amendment amendment number 951. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, as a former preschool teacher, i have seen firsthand the kind of transformation that early learning can inspire in a child and i believe that we should be investing more in our children not less. so today i'm offering an amendment to expand access to early childhood education so more kids can start kindergarten ready to learn. this amendment would expand high-quality early learning opportunities for low- and moderate-income three- and four-year-olds and build on the investments that governors and legislator across the country regardless of party affiliation are already making to improve early learning opportunities through public-private partnerships. it's fully paid for by closing wasteful tax loopholes. so mr. president, i hope that our colleagues can support thi

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i think we all believe that in our country, all students should have access to a quality public education, regardless of where they live or how they learn or how much money they make and education is one of the smartest investments we can make. now, chairman alexander and i are working together on a bipartisan process to fix the broken no child left behind law and i believe that we are going to make progress in the coming weeks. and i appreciate his working with me. but, mr. president the fact is this amendment isn't needed. the common core was not mandated by the federal government. race to the top did not mandate adoption of common core. gsca waivers has not mandated the common core. federal law already prohibits the federal government from requiring states to adopt certain standards or curriculum. and, by the way, this is a -- quote -- "spending neutral reserve fund" that i think we should all be aware of for the first time is in this republican budget. so mr. president