mrs. shaheen: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i also ask consent to speak for about five minutes on the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. shaheen: thank you. i am here to join my colleagues, and i had the great pleasure of being in the chair for awhile this afternoon to hear some of the testimony relative to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. it was very eloquent and it was bipartisan. and i want to begin by thanking senators kerry and lugar for their efforts in the foreign relations committee to not only pass the treaty in committee but to bring it to the floor for this consideration. i certainly support ratification of the disabilities convention because it's the right thing to do and because it puts the united states back where we belong, as leaders of the international community in defending, protecting and promoting the equality and rights of all people in our world, regardless of their situation. from equality and nondiscr

mrs. shaheen: first of all, thank you very much to my colleague from oklahoma. appreciate his graciousness in allowing me to speak first. i'm here to support senator udall and his amendment which would restore the department of defense's ability to invest and advance biofuels. i don't think we should be tying the hands of our military as they try to manage a significant national security threat, and that is our energy independence. no matter how you look at it, as long as we are dependent on other nations for our energy, we have a fundamental strategic vulnerability. fortunately, for the first time since the oil crisis in 1979, our military is making

conrad, mansion, bingaman, rockefeller, cardin, nelson of nebraska, pryor, shaheen, coons, klobuchar, webb, warner and bennet. mr. reid: i ask consent that the mandatory quorum require under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to calendar number 419. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada moves to proceed to calendar number 419, s. 3525, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2013 for military activities of the department of defense, for military construction and for defense activities of the department of energy to proscribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: we're going to complete work on this bill; that is, the one that we had the -- prior to the clerk announcing the defense authorization bill. we're going to complete the work on the sportsmen's bill before we go home for thanksgiving. people are going to have an opportunity to vote for that bill, eith

shaheen. >> thank you mr. chairman. and thank you very much, general for being here today and for taking on this assignment and what is a very challenging times both for the military and also as we look at the challenges before us in afghanistan. i want to follow up just a little bit on the issue that senator mccaskill raised relative to sigar and we had a conversation about this. i wonder if you could just first of all outlined how you think the sigar's work is going in afghanistan and how you expect to continue to follow up as commander working with sigar in this capacity and also and as you did yesterday continuing to work closely to not only address the recommendations that are being made, but to talk about how that work can go forward in a way that is cooperative. >> senator come thank you for that question. based on my discussion with general allen, it is clear to me that they take the results of the report very seriously pity it was a continuous dialogue back and forth between the staff at isaf in the specials in

mrs. shaheen: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: thank you, mr. president. i rise to speak to a provision that's actually in -- already in this bill, the ndaa authorization bill before us. it's a provision that would provide for reproductive health parity for women in the military. you know, we talk a lot in this chamber and in the armed services committee about the service of our men and women in uniform. we talk about their courage in the face of our enemies. we talk about their selflessness as they continually deploy around the world, sometimes uprooting their families and sometimes leaving them behind. we talk about our responsibilities to the men and women who are serving from the tools they will need to accomplish their missions to the support they've earned when they return home. i'm pleased, as i know we all are, about the growing recognition of the unprecedented contribution that our female service members are making to our national defense. the

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to adds senators shaheen, collins, schumer, stabenow, whitehouse, coons, udall of new mexico and senator tester as cosponsors. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. hagan: mr. president, i spoke about this bill last night at length and i want to give a brief summary today of this amendment. this bipartisan amendment would remove provisions from the underlying bill that prohibits the department of defense from participating in a program with the departments of agriculture and the department of energy and private industry to develop advanced biofuels refineries. it is a 1-1 match. as the largest single consumer of fuel in the world, the d.o.d. uses approximately 120 million barrels of oil each year, spending over $17 billion in fiscal year 2011. this dependency on a single source of energy leaves our military readiness at risk. and when the price of oil goes up $1, it costs the navy an additional $30 million. we are looking at an investment here of $170 million by the department of the navy. just last year alone, this additional fuel cost forc