ms. cantwell: i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: i thank the president. i join my colleague from washington to recognize the heroic efforts that are underway in the state of washington, battling wildfires, the individuals that are trying to protect their homes and property, and our hearts go out to the families friends of robert kazusky, who suffered a heart attack trying to save his own home. i want to thank the local, federal and state agencies that are working together to meet the needs of extinguishing these multiple fires and for what they've done to save lives in what is the largest wildfire in our state's history. i want to thank all the community organizing individuals who have done so much work in their individual communities to support the efforts of the firefighters and to work with everybody in the community to make sure that every aspect of security and safety are there for the families who have lost their homes. and i want to thank the individuals who have been working to provide shelter and to help their neig

ms. cantwell: thank you, madam president. i rise in strong support of the protect women's health care from corporate interference act, and i want to thank my colleague, senator murray from washington, and my colleague, senator udall, from colorado for introducing this bill, and senator murray for her long champion efforts on women's health. i'm very proud to support this bill. i guess i would say to my colleague who i know feels passionately about these issues that the issue is really how important prescription benefits are to women's health and particularly how important prescription birth -- contraception is to women and the fact that it's not an add-on to our health care. it's an essential part of our health care. so i hope it doesn't really take us getting a majority of women on the supreme court to convince people how central this issue is to the health care of women and why we don't want to deal with a boss who decides to say i don't want to cover that in your employee benefit package. so i hope that my colleagues get a

ms. cantwell: thank you, mr. president. i appreciate the comments made by the senator from connecticut, and i come to the floor to talk about a very important issue, u.s. manufacturing jobs, and what the united states senate needs to do to make sure is that we're protecting u.s. manufacturing jobs. i'm speaking of the need to reauthorize the export-import bank, a credit agency that helps u.s. manufacturers and small businesses sell their products to overseas markets. some of you may have read recently comments by some of our colleagues where they have shifted their position and the agency is set to expire on september 30 of this year, and it's so critical that we reauthorize this program because it's such an important tool for u.s. manufacturers. over the last few weeks, fringe organizations and activists have suddenly tried to turn this into a political casualty saying that we should kill the program, and i'm here to advocate that it is a win-win situation for american manufacturers, for american taxpayers, and for the job