ms. collins: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, i'm told that the senator from washington state has the -- has a very brief statement she would like to make, so i would ask unanimous consent that she be allowed up to three minutes to make her statement before i reclaim the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: thank you, madam president. i thank the senator from maine and i'll explain to her later how maine continues to play a very interesting role in such an important issue. but, madam president, i come to the floor because the patent office has just ruled that the name of the washington football team is not patentable because it is a slur. so we're so excited to know that finally people are recognizing that this issue can no longer be a business case for the nfl to use this patent. they will not be able to forcefully exclude other people for having derivatives of this logo or the name and thereby it's putting a big dent in the business case that the nfl has. now, so many people ha

ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, it appears that i first need to say to my colleagues and to those who are listening that there is no one in this body, in the trucking industry, among their customers who wants to see trucking accidents. all of us are committed to safer roads and to make sure that freight is delivered in a safe manner in this country. in fact, madam president, the former administrator of the federal motor carrier safety administration said in a letter to the committee dated june 17, "the fact is that the senate transportation, housing and urban development bill, which contains a temporary suspension of two new provisions in the 34-hour restart rule makes the roads safer, makes the roads safer." and that is what this debate is really about. and i'm very disappointed to see that the senator from new jersey is otherwise engaged and not listening to these comments. let me start with a fact. the fact is, under current law, under the collins amendment, under the provisions that we reported

ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to honor a great american. president george herbert walker bush, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. as i reflect upon his remarkable life, i am amazed that he has managed to pack so many accomplishments into just 90 short years. in fact, mr. president, today president bush will mark this milestone by doing what he has done on other birthdays so many times. he will jump out of an airplane. or, as barbara bush once put it, he will jump out of a perfectly good airplane. president bush has spent every summer of his life except during the war years at the family home in kennebunkport, maine. a few years ago his neighbors in kennebunkport came together to acquire a navy ship's anchor in his honor. it is a fitting tribute for president bush so often describes walker's point in maine as his anchor to the windward. it is fitting in another way as the navy aviator in world war ii, as a member of congress, as u.n. ambassador, as an envoy to china, as dir

ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

ms. grady, we have bobby collins. >>> good afternoon. to me it's about choice and access. i want the choice to spend my dollars in the community where i want to. i want to be able to support businesses that i want to support. one of the things for me is target, and i have the opportunity to witness them support a low-income neighborhood, come in, tear out the whole library, put in an amazing library and fill it with brand-new books. mom and pop businesses are not always able to do things like that. forv me it's also about bigger stores being able to come in, providing better jobs, providing health benefits, and providing a living wage and helping to take the youth off the street, which gives them something to do. a lot of the times they can't find jobs. my daughter applied for the city of san francisco from the job program. while she did get an interview, too many youth to give job to all of them. we bring in bigger stores, we're able to provide these kids a place to go, a place to work, a play to earn an income, learn how to budget, learn how to save, and get prepared to

welcome back katie nixon. , and dorothy weaver joins us as well, chairman and cofounder of collins capital. ms. weaver was the former chairman of the miami fed. welcome. nice to have you here. dorothy, i want to start with you if i can't. the revisions to the down side, does that have you worried? i know you look for strategic opportunities in the market, but does that have you worried at all? >> no, i think it's a reflection obviously that we are in a slow growth environment, as much as we would like to see growth kick in, it is going to, i think continue to be a slow growth environment. that's why we're not trying to call directionality, but look for both longs and shorts that can be noncorrelated, but looking for special opportunities. >> i think that kind of dove tails with your forecast, you're generally optimistic about the economy, and you haven't changed your strategy. >> we really haven't, sue, but i agree with what dorothy said. clearly we're in a slow growth environment. the first quarter was incredibly noisy. we still think us gdp growth will be good enough to prevent tightening an

ms. lowell. >> my pleasure. my apologies. [speaker not understood] the executive director. this is my deputy robert collins. and in a second we're going to have a slide to show you the mission of the rent board. i always come before you saying that my goal is to be the least of your problems, but not this year. i think [speaker not understood] we're experiencing a bit of an affordability crisis in san francisco. the mission of the rent board -- we can just follow along, if you don't mind. the mission of the rent board is basically to protect tenants from excessive rent increases while ensuring landlords fair and adequate rents for trying. in order to do that, our two basic services are public information and counseling and administrative hearings. and at the moment we have a 2 to 3 month backlog for priority cases for hearing and a 5 to six-month backlog for all other cases. i don't want to tell you that this is acceptable. this is completely unacceptable. in order to address this backlog we have received the support of the mayor's office and dhr to staff up one additional position in each of those two key

ms. feinstein, mr. chambers and senator collins who was my authorizing chairman when i was last in the government is a pleasureto be here. i would like to make two points. first i do not believe we should "-end-double-quotes in program. it will put u us * and as senatr came strongly suggested slow our response to serious terrorist incidents and it is in the dark with respect to the data as senator collins and senator rockefeller made it clear and as senator mikulski as well we do not know how long that the data will be stored or how it will be protected. the privacy or the security of the searches that are being conducted. it's a very serious risk that we are taking for the payoff that in my view is minimum. but what i would like to talk about in the main part of my presentation is the second step, the kind of piling up staff of the house undertook to fix. not only are we going to end the collection that we are going to require that you show that you have line of a list of five identifiers that you're asking for and if it isn't on that list or doesn't look a lot like something on that list, you cannot ask for

ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent that the collins substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent that the foreign relations committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 453. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 453, condemning the death sentence against miriam mishaug, a sudanese christian woman. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent that the rubio amendment to the resolution be agreed to, the resolution as amended be agreed to, the rubio amendment to the preamble be agreed to, the preamble as amended be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 4

ms. brown: thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. benishek: madam speaker, i recognize my colleague from new york, mr. collins, for three minutes. mr. collins: i thank the gentleman from michigan for his leadership on this important issue. i come to the house floor tonight to speak in support of the demanding accountability for veterans act, which i'm proud to co-sponsor. you'd think congress wouldn't have to act to demand accountability from the v.a. on behalf of our veterans, but sadly, as everyone knows, that's not the case with the current v.a. the v.a. is supposed to provide service and benefits that all our veterans have earned by protecting our freedom. instead what we have in too many cases is a bunch of bureaucrats in both washington and in the local facilities who seem content to collect a paycheck and not serve the public. enough is enough. the least we should expect is when the inspector general issues a corrective action report about a public health or patient safety problem v.a. employees would be held accountable for fixing it. at the v.a. hospital in buffalo, new york, right outside my distric