ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the united states has always been a country of refugee for the persecuted, a protector of life and individual freedoms. this is evident in the entire purpose of our nation's asylum program under which foreign nationals who can show a credible fear of persecution in their home country may apply for and receive shelter here. but flaws in the asylum program leave it vulnerable and open to exploitation by those who mean us harm. i have, therefore, proposed two amendments to the immigration reform bill: amendment number 1391 and 1393, that are designed to lessen those flaws by giving asylum officers the tools that they need to dismiss frivolous claims and more important, to ensure that derogatory information about applicants who may wish to harm us is reviewed during the application process. mr. president, before i outline those amendments in detail, i would like to discuss the circumstances under which the suspects in the boston marathon terrorist attack came to

ms. collin is going to disagree say look, we shouldn't be concentrating on the pushers and the deeferls.se it takes two to make the sale and all of that and you say? >> i say loosening the drug laws would create more drug use. and that means more crime. more overdoses. more kids dropping out of school. it wreaks havoc an our country. >> what about giving that harsh mandatory 10 to 20. they are putting a lot of these guys away for a long period of time. does the crime fit the punishment? >> i believe it does. i believe it does. i have a support group of families who have lost children i get calls from moms. you i can't believe the cries. i have never heard sounds like this. >> are they angry with the pushers? >> the first thing they want do is get their hands on the drug dealer. >> i thought that was prevailing wisdom but you disagree with me and ms. cats and there are others who feel the way that you do that you shouldn't put these drug pushers in jail. and why do you feel that way? >> i adamantly disagree with you, bill, i think our drug sentences are harsh enough draconian enough. we i

ms. collins: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise this evening to discuss an amendment that i've filed to the immigration bill. it's senate amendment 12 1255. it would ensure that the funding for an important border security program known as operation stone garden continues to be allocated by the department of homeland security based on risk. without my amendment, 90% of the $50 million in funding for this program awarded annually would be earmarked for the southwest border. what i'm proposing is that we not put a percentage in the bill but, rather, allow for a rick-based assessment of where operation stone garden moneys would best be -- risk-based assessment of where operation stone garden moneys would best be spent. this operation has been extraordinarily successful in my state of maine. it has helped federal, county, state and local law enforcem

ms. collins?riations committee has been meeting this week and we have been reporting bills out on a bipartisan basis. what i think's going to happen is starting next week as these bills come before the full committee there will be a dispute over how much the total spending for discretionary money should be. there's the difference of between $966 billion in the republican plan and $1.58 trillion in the democratic plan. so we're going to have to reconcile that, but i'm still holding out hope that we're going to come together and come up with a long-term plan for a budget and that means addressing the entire budget, not just the 36% that's under the jurisdiction of the appropriations committee. >> that's very ambitious. i hope you're right. i say this, senator casey, so far the president has been very firm on this. a lot of people say i'm not worried about the debt ceiling. that doesn't come up until way later in the year, but do we have to go to the tipping resolutions, threat of a government shutdo

ms. cobb, where are you? congratulations. (applause) >> take that applause. our next graduate, quincy collins, mr. collins, congratulations. (applause) >> our next graduate, juan jones. mr. jones, recipient of a scholarship, congratulations, mr. jones. [cheering and applauding] >> our next graduate, chaie louie. did i pronounce it right? did i pronounce your name right? come here and tell me your name. i'm so sorry. >> [inaudible]. >> [speaker not understood]. sorry. (applause) >> our next graduate, john mcdonald. [cheering and applauding] >> mr. mcdonald, congratulations. yeah. (applause) >> that's wonderful. our next graduate, chantelle mc neil. ms. mc neil, come on down. congratulations. (applause) >> our next graduate, ashley nash. ms. nash, congratulations. (applause) >> our next graduate, francois palette, congratulations. (applause) >> that's great, congratulations. our next graduate, caitlin perkins-council. ms. perkins-council. (applause) >> our next graduate, maurice ross. mr. ross, congratulations. (applause) [cheering and applauding] >> nice. our next graduate, naja skinner. ms. skinner, congratulations. [cheer

ms. wagner: thank the gentleman from georgia, congressman collins, for putting this special order together. mr. speaker, in his time served in office thus far, president obama has said he's for the reduction of government red tape that places an unnecessary burden on the american people. again and again he's extoled the virtues of transparency and bipartisanship in an effort to put people back to work. but, if we look at his track record, this has simply turned out to be yet another string of broken promises and a failure of leadership. in his first term alone, president obama has finalized 130 major rules, a shocking 160% increase over the previous term under president george w. bush. this alarming growth in government is an assault on our free enterprise system and on our individual liberty -- liberties. either the president is not interested in keeping the american people's trust or he simply does not have a handle on his own federal agencies. given recent events, either of these could very well be true. the truth, mr. speaker, however, is that costs from new regulatory burdens on ameri

collins votes no. mr. meadows. mr. meadows votes no. mr. bentavolio. votes no. mr. desanties. votes no. mr. cummings. mr. cummings votes aye. mrs. maloney. mrs. norton. ms. norton votes aye. mr. tyranny. -- tierney. votes aye. mr. clay votes aye. mr. lynch votes aye. mr. cooper. aye. mr. conley. mr. conley votes aye. ms. spear votes aye. mr. cartwright. mr. cartwright votes aye and mr. pokan. votes aye. mrs. duckworth. mrs. duckworth votes aye. ms. kelly. ms. kelly votes aye. mr. davis. mr. davis votes aye. mr. welch. mr. welch votes aye. mr. cardenas votes aye. r. horsford votes aye. ms. grisham. mr. jordan. you're not recorded. >> mr. hastings. how do you vote? >> no. >> mr. hastings votes no. >> does anyone else seek ecognition for the vote? the clerk will report. >> on that vote, mr. chairman, 20 noes and 16 ayes. >> the amendment is not agreed to. since we have a vote on the floor and wanting to leave ample time on the underlying resolution, we will stand in recess after -- we'll do one more on the underlying -- yeah, we'll stand in recess until five minutes after the last vote. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyr

collins votes no. r. meadows votes no? mr. desantos votes no. mr. cummings votes aye. s. norton votes aye. mr. connoly votes aye. r. cartwright votes aye. ms. duckworth votes aye. r. cardenas votes aye. r. jordan, you are not recorded. > mr. hastings, how do you ote? >> no. >> mr. hastings votes no. >> does anybody else think recognition for the vote? the clerk will report. > 20 nos, 16 ayes. >> the amendment is not agreed to. ince we have a vote on the floor, we will stand in recess -- we will do one more on the underlying -- we will stand in recess until five minutes after the last vote. >> pursuant to the previous nnouncement, the committee will come to order. is there anyone here who wishes to speak on the resolution? i'll be patient. i'll recognize myself. lest we lose the time. today we have had ample debate on the question of a traightforward resolution, did ms. lois lerner on may 30, 013, in all or part, proceed after asserting her fifth amendment privilege and if so, did she waive? that will be the question to be decided in the vote that will come momentarily. it is my assertion that she did. having heard the debate, i have not cha

collins of new york, mr. moran, mr. duffy, mr. poe less, mr. coffman, mr. meeks, ms. lee, ms. degette, mr. issa, and myself. and the essence of what this is all about is it would repeal the dairy market subsidization program and this program serves as a supply-and-control mechanism which distorts the private markets through which government intervention takes place and which unnecessarily fixes prices. as a result, american families pay higher prices for milk products and american dairy exports are unnecessarily limited. and this amendment, which i speak of, 194, known as the goodlatte amendment, would replace the stabilization program with a voluntary margin insurance program, allowing producers to effectively manage their risk without unnecessary government intervention. this government intervention that will simply rise prices for consumers. it's an important amendment. it's drawn a lot of attention, and i would like to stand up and offer my support, since i will not be here probably for the discussion of the bill at the time that the amendment comes up. i lend my support because i think this is one of t

collins, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have a district that has been very much affected by the discussions going on. i appreciate, ms. martinez, your comments. i take great offense at yours, ms. tumlen. i'm not sure why you are here today except to bring forth the point of making georgia -- of which i was a part of that state legislature -- >> and arizona and orrs who attempt -- others who attempted to do so in a way that may or may not have been in your opinion right and some part which was struck or put on hold by the courts, but the vast majority of the law was upheld. i think you're right, ms. martinez, to draw lines are not good. but to walk in to here and to take account officers, to take in account me personally or others in the legislature who honestly tried to work through these issues -- maybe not to your satisfaction -- but did so at the request of those who voted for us, the same ones who sent me here is not a good thing. it is not helpful. because as one who is trying to work through this in a very conservative district, one in which we struggled deeply with these issues, in which there is a large hispan