ms. ayotte: thank you. mr. president, i first of all want to thank my colleague from georgia who is the ranking member republican on the senate intelligence committee. so senator chambliss has seen so much in terms of the real threats that we face from terrorists in this country, and i appreciate his leadership on ensuring that america remains safe, his leadership on this issue of ensuring that the guantanamo detainees are not released to get back in the fight against us, to attack not only our soldiers but us and our allies, and i guess i would start with this, is the defense authorization right now, as it stands, and even the side-by-side offered by chairman levin, that is a dramatic change from current policy of where we are now with regard to guantanamo and the transfer of guantanamo detainees internationally into the united states of america. between last year's defense authorization and this year defense authorization. so what has changed? the only thing that has changed is the fact that the re-engagement

ms. ayotte: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, madam president. today i rise to talk about the impact that obamacare is having on the people of my state, the state of new hampshire. it's been over a month since the health care exchanges have opened, and in that short time we've already seen so many problems with obamacare. frankly, it's a mess. the failure of healthcare.gov is something that has revealed deeply troubling incompetence in terms of implementing a web site that people can use and have access to and is security and protects their private information, and, frankly, we're in a position where really the web site is merely the canary in the coal mine. the flaws in this law are much deeper than the web site. even former supporters of obamacare are telling me that it's not working. i'm hearing from my constituents about this, and, frankly, i feel very badly for them because so much of what's happening to them is as a result of how the law is drafted and concerns that were brought forward years ago at this p

ms. ayotte: may i ask the quorum call be the rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ayotte: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to talk about a very important issue that i spoke about on the floor yesterday, and that is eliminating sexual assaults in our military, making sure that victims are supported, that they get the support that they need and yesterday on the floor i talked about important reforms that we are doing together on a bipartisan basis to make sure that victims receive special victims counsel so each victim is now going to receive an attorney that represents him or her in the system and stands up for their rights, making retaliation a crime under the uniform military code of justice so victims of sexual assault understand that they will if they are retaliated against, that there will be a crime for that and, in fact, those who retaliate will be brought to justice. and the many other of dozens of reforms that are in the defense authorization. but today i want to talk about a very important issue, and i see on the floor senator mccaskill, who i believe

ms. ayotte: may the quorum call please be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from new hampshire is recognized. the presiding officer: thank you, madam president. madam president, first of all, i want to rise today to thank my colleagues. and, first of all, i'd like to thank my colleague from maine, the senior senator from maine, senator susan collins, for the important work that she's been doing on the employment nondiscrimination act. i would also like to thank my colleagues for supporting an thapld that was brought forward -- an amendment that was brought forward recently and passed by this body, the portman-ayotte-heller-hatch-mc cain amendment. i firmly believe that people should be judged based upon the quality of their work. discrimination has no place in the workplace. in my home state of new hampshire, we have a long bipartisan tradition of working to advance commonsense policies, and new hampshire already has in place a state law preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation. i appreciate that the employment nondiscrimination act i

ms. ayotte: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, mr. president. i came to the floor yesterday to share so many stories that i'm receiving from my constituents about them receiving cancellations for policies that they wanted to keep, higher premiums under this law. each story is very sad, and i feel badly for the people of my state and across this country who are suffering under this law. my constituents are pleading for relief. here's just one example. a small business from peterb0oro, new hampshire, who voted for president obama twice told me her family has a household income of $50,000, and their total health insurance will now cost over $19,000 for the year. which is more than their more than. and their local hospital isn't even on the exchange because in new hampshire we only have one insurer on the exchange and 10 of our 26 hospitals have been excluded from that exchange. this constituent from peterboro wrote to me, "we are frustrated, afraid and angry beyond words. i urge a postponement of implementation of t

ms. ayotte: would the senator from south carolina yield for another question? mr. graham: yes. ms. ayotte: under this situation where you said we have commanders that aren't going to ignore what is brought before them in an investigation from their jag lawyer, particularly on a sexual assault let's assume they did do that even though the evidence isn't there that they do it, under our proposal the proposal that i have that senator mccaskill has and senator fisher, that decision, if a commander makes the decision not to bring the sexual assault case, it then goes up for review of the civilian secretary of whatever forces the army, air force navy. what do you think that does in terms of accountability? mr. graham: if you want to improve the system and we all do -- i'm not questioning anybody's motives -- if a commander knows when they turning down the jag's advice and one of the four situations we've identified -- sexual assaults the nature of the discussion here, that decision will be reviewed by the secretary of the service. i can assure you that will do more good to make sure comma

ms. ayotte: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: i thank you, mr. president. i want to thank my colleagues, senator collins, senator mikulski for their leadership on this issue and for bringing this important discussion to the floor today. i also want to thank senator murkowski, who i see in the chamber as well, who has been a leader, as well as senator mccaskill, who is a member of the armed services committee with me. this has been an issue that has brought people together, and it has brought people together for the right reasons. an issue that the women of the senate have really, i think, driven but it's important to understand that this is not a woman's issue. the issue of ending sexual assaults in our military is an issue for everyone. this is an issue about justice. this is an issue about fairness. this is about making sure that victims of crimes, both men and women get the justice that they deserve, get the support that they deserve in our military and that they understand and appreciate that we want them to have a cli

ms. ayotte: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank my colleague from pennsylvania, senator casey, for his leadership on amendment 2172, which is very important. and i appreciate that what he just said on the floor, the cases of the bravery of afghan women, the leadership that they have shown under tremendously difficult circumstances and how the sacrifice that we have made to ensure that afghanistan and our men and women have made in uniform to ensure that afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists again. and one of the keys to that is that no society can be free, no society can have true safety and security unless the women in the society also have safety and security. and i want to thank senator casey for his leadership of ensuring and standing by for afghan women, because we cannot succeed in afghanistan if women go back to what they endured under the taliban, which was horrific and was wrong. and none of us should accept. so he really has been a leader on this, and i thank s

ms. ayotte: thank you mr. president. last week i came to the floor to discuss the negative impact that obamacare is having on the people of new hampshire and i shared dozens of compelling stories from my constituents who are telling me that they're seeing their coverage canceled and they are seeing their premiums rise. mr. president, these sad attorneys to continue to arrive in my in-box every day. and these are real people, and they're having great difficulty with not only the web site, but structural problems that exist with the law itself. they deserve to have their voices heard here on the floor of the united states senate and i will say that as one of my constituents said to me, lives in new hampshire are depending on it. last week president obama said he was sorry to those who are now receiving cancellation notices but a simple apology falls short because the structural problems we are now seeing with this law including the cancellation notices that too many of my stitch rents are receiving, are problems that many

ms. ayotte: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: i would urge my colleagues to eight vote against amendment 2175, if you want to bring the 174 gitmo detainees to the united states, that's what this amendment will allow the administration to do. and the plan that they're going to submit requires no congressional oversight, no approval, and does not answer the question. the chairman said that they will not get any additional legal rights. what about constitutional rights, if they are brought to our snoil will they have to be told they have the right to remain silent in if we catch the current head of al qaeda tomorrow, will he have to be read miranda rights? because thea's that's what's happening now. that is the real question here. that is not required to be answered by their plan that the administration. and we have no oversight over that plan, madam president. i would urge my colleagues to vote "no" on this amendment. mr. levin: madam president, 15 seconds. ask unanimous consent. the presiding officer: without objection. mr.