mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent to speak in morning business for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i rise to honor the memory of jesse owens, an olympic record breaker and pioneer on the track and off the track who was born 100 years ago tomorrow. born in alabama as the youngest of ten children, james cleveland owens moved to cleveland, ohio, with his family at the age of 9, leaving the south during the great migration, those several decades between 1910, roughly, and 1970. jesse's family came north seeking economic opportunity and greater personal freedom. his father left his work as a sharecropper in the south, something difficult to do because so often the landowner held th

mrs. shaheen: thank you, mr. president. ly here to speak to the shaheen-portman legislation that's on the floor, the energy savings and industrial competitiveness act. but i have to start by responding to my colleague from louisiana, because, first of all, i appreciate that he wants a vote on this issue of the o.p.m. ruling. you know, there are a lot of things that i would like to see a vote on, but -- and i understand that he's saying he's not opposed to the bill, which i very much appreciate. but the fact is, he chooses to be here to hold up this bipartisan piece of legislation at a time when we could get some real agreement on energy legislation coming out of the senate, the first time since 2007 that we've had an energy bill on the floor. this is a bipartisan energy bill. it's a bill that has over 16 bipartisan amendments that have been vetted by the energy committee that have support, not just from the chairman of the energy committee and the ranking member but from the committee staff, from senator portman and myself.

mrs. shaheen: thank you, mr. president. i also wanted to respond to my colleague from louisiana, because i appreciate his interest in addressing some of the concerns on health care that have come up. i would certainly like the opportunity to correct a lot of the misinformation that's out there in the public. but, again, i think there are other opportunities to do that. we should not be doing that on an energy bill that has such bipartisan support. you know, he's talking about wanting to get a vote on his legislation. senator portman and i have been waiting for three years to get a vote on this legislation and for something that has such overwhelming support i would hope that my friend from louisiana is going to be willing to be flexible and think about how he can address the concerns he has and yet let the debate on this bill go forward. we have, as senator wyden said, 16 bipartisan amendments that have already been vetted by both sides on the committee, that are ready to go, that i think we could probably get a voice vote

mrs. shaheen: i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes and following my remarks senator portman are permitted to speak for up to ten minutes in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. ms. sheen: -- ms. ?een mrs. shaheen: i know we've heard this morning what is rightfully at the forefront of all of our minds this week is the debate over whether to authorize the use of force in syria. this is a very serious matter as we all know. it raises a number of geopolitical and national security issues, and the decision to undertake military action is not one to be taken lightly. i'm very aware that people are war weary, that they're concerned about the consequences of the use of military force. consequently, i think we should pursue every possible diplomatic solution prior to engaging in military action and i welcome the possibility of international cooperation to secure and destroy syria's chemical weapons stockpile. i hope that russia is being serious and that they will take real, legitimate actions to quickly follow through on what

mr. cardin: madam president, i want to commend senators shaheen and portman for their hard work in bringing a bipartisan bill to the floor that would boost energy efficiency in government, in industries, in commercial and residential buildings. this bill will help increase our economic competitiveness, enhance our national security and combat global climate change. nlrb improvements are -- energy efficiency improvements are a cost-effective way to reduce pollution, increase the competitiveness of our manufacturers and put people back to work in the building trades. we don't have an energy problem in this country. we have a waste problem. this last october, the department of energy and lawrence livermore national labs calculated we waste 57% of all energy produced, 57%. we are becoming more energy efficient, but we have a long, long way to go, which is why shaheen-portman bill is so important. i would like to talk about two changes that i would like to see in the tax code that would help us achieve our goals of energy efficiency. i have worked on two bills in this regard and i will be talkin

mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i'm pleased to join my colleagues on the floor today, the members of the appropriations committee and others who have been down to speak in support of passing this continuing resolution. i'm a new member of the appropriations committee, and i've been very impressed with the work that our chair, senator mikulski and ranking member shelby have done. they have crafted the appropriations bills that would really address the budget for the coming year. those appropriations bills would replace the harmful cuts from sequestration. those are cuts that people on both sides of the aisle have said they opposed. but unfortunately, because of the obstructionism, we've seen so clearly this week, those bills haven't yet come to the floor. and so we need a short-term c.r. to keep the government open. now, we all know that the continuing resolution that's before us today is not ideal. it's short term and it doesn't replace sequestration. so it doesn't either deal with the cuts or give busine

mr. president, i rise today to speak to the energy savings and industrial competitiveness act of 2013. s. 1392 or more commonly referred to here by the names of its lead cosponsors shaheen-portman. this is a bill, mr. president, that allows us to turn back to the issue that so many americans have been asking us to focus on -- jobs, competitiveness, manufacturing. the steps we can take to put our country back on the right path for our future. mr. president, this bill is centrally about energy efficiencies and all the different ways that energy efficiency used wisely can strengthen america. an america that uses less energy is an america taking less from the earth, an america less reliant on other fuels that power our lives and livelihoods, an america whose people won't need to mortgage their futures in order to cool their homes. an america that uses less energy is an america that will never again wait in long gas lines, that in the summers won't have to sweat through brownouts and in the winters won't have to make the tragic choice between feeding their families and keeping them warm. mr. president, these have been some tough economic times for our nation in recent years,

mr. president, a lot of happy talk about what a great piece of legislation this is, and it is. even though i have worked with senator shaheen and senator portman, oh, there will be no amendments, we have all bipartisan amendments, of course we're diverted totally from what this bill is all about. why? why, mr. president? because the anarchists have taken over. they have taken over the house. now they're here in the senate. the speaker couldn't pass a simple c.r. today. when asked at a press event yesterday, as was reported to me on the news today, they said what's next? he said do you have a couple ideas? give them to me. they'll be shot down also. we're in a position here where people who don't believe in government -- and that's what the tea party is all about -- are winning. that's a shame. there has not been a single amendment allowed to be offered in this legislation that has anything dealing with energy. oh, all kinds of different issues. defund obamacare. and i guess that's the new -- as the fiscal year comes to an end, i guess that's what it's all about. you do what we want, get rid of obamacare, or we're not going

shaheen. senator rich. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ms. patterson, i have a series of questions for you on syria and on egypt and others, but i'm going to set those aside because i've got to tell you, i'm shocked, i'm absolutely shocked to sit here and have you describe the sanctions against iran after you have reviewed them, as you said, and your conclusion that they've been effective. and you describe them as successful. you know, i'm one that was a sponsor of those. i've promoted them. i had reservations about them, but i gotta tell you, if this is the administration's view that these have been effective and successful, i hope you'll take the message back to the state department that this is not a mission accomplished moment. i think they've been an abject failure. you heard the chairman describe about the new sentry fumes they brought in -- centrifuges they brought in, about the new technology they're using. i mean, i don't understand this. i'm taken aback by your description of what the sanctions have done. these sanctions were not pu

shaheen. >> thank you, ambassador patterson and mr. starr, for your willingness to continue to serve the country and take on these important posts at a critical time. ambassador patterson, i especially appreciate the kindness you show to a number of us when we visited pakistan during your tenure there, and your great work in egypt at a turbulent time. i actually want to start, ambassador patterson, by asking you about the special immigrant visa program. having served in some of the countries that have been critical to the efforts in iraq and afghanistan, and, as i'm sure you are aware, the special immigrant visa program was established by congress to address those people in iraq and afghanistan who have been very helpful to our efforts there and in many cases risked their lives and their families' lives to help ensure that the americans who were on the ground were safe and able to accomplish their missions. i am very troubled that we are here with the special immigrant visa program for iraqis due to expire at the end of this month. i h

shaheen. >> thank you, ambassador patterson and mr.ke on at a important posts critical time. ambassador patterson, i especially appreciate the kindness you show to a number of us when we visited pakistan during your tenure there, and your great work in egypt at a turbulent time. , actually want to start ambassador patterson, by asking you about the special immigrant visa program. in some of the countries that have been critical to the efforts in iraq , as i'manistan, and sure you are aware, the special immigrant visa program was established by congress to address those people in iraq and afghanistan who have been very helpful to our efforts there and in many cases risked their lives and their families' lives to help ensure that the americans who were on the ground were safe and able to accomplish their missions. i am very troubled that we are here with the special immigrant is duerogram for iraq to expire at the end of this month. i hope we will see willingness on the part of the house to extend this program. i know the senate is very

mr. president, i want to again thank chairman wyden, ranking member murkowski as well as senators shaheen and portman for their tireless work on this bill and i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i want to raise another important energy issue that i've worked on this year that impacts nearly every family, business and industry in america. that's the price of gasoline. this past may in minnesota, in just one week we saw gas prices spike 40 cents higher per gallon and over 80 cents higher in just one month. we actually had higher gas prices than hawaii at one point. i notice my colleague from hawaii is on the floor. we know that the sharp spike in prices was caused when a number of refineries including those in illinois and indiana that serve minnesota and the region went off-line for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. i understand the need to adjust and make those necessary repairs, but scheduled, routine maintenance should not be an excuse for major gas shortages and steep price spikes. think about it. it's scheduled. there has to be a way to stagger the scheduling so peopl

mr. levin: madam president, i'm introducing today along with my colleague, senator whitehouse, senator background begich, and r shaheen, the stop tax haven abuse act, legislation that is geared to stop the estimated $150 billion yearly drain on the u.s. treasury caused by offshore tax abuses. offshore tax abuses are not only undermining public service in our tax system but widening the deficit and increasing the tax burden for the rest of american families and businesses. this bill eliminates incentives to send jobs overseas, it combats offshore tax abuses, raises funds to fund our programs. it could be part of an alternative deficit reduction package to substitute for sequestration this year. but it should be adopted in any event because the loopholes that we would close serve no economic purpose other than tax avoidance. that's not an economic purpose. as far as i'm concerned. and these loopholes shouldn't exist even if there were no deficit. we should close these loopholes on principle. they are blatantly unfair and we should end them regardless of our deficit, regardless whether sequestration is in effect. but sur