ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be withdrawn. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: reserving the right to object. i understand we're moving to consideration of the transportation and h.u.d. appropriations bill. is that correct, mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. wicker: and reserving the right to object just for point of clarification, i am under the assumption that the bill will move under regular order requiring a 50-vote threshold for all amendments. could the senator from maine tell me if i am operating under the correct assumption? ms. collins: mr. president, i want to ensure the senator from mississippi that for germane amendments, regular order will be in effect. mr. wicker: i thank the senator for her assurance, and i withdraw my reservation. ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: wi

ms. collins: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms ms. collins: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 2577, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 138, h.r. 257, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: i would ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: thank you, madam president. i want to talk about friday night for a few moments. in connecticut on friday night, the world really did stop. thousands of people in my state watched their television set or their smartphone as images like this one poured in from the bloodsoaked streets of paris, horrific reports of scores dead, more badly wounded. and deep do

ms. collins: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise today on the eve of veterans day to urge my colleagues to support the fiscal year 2016 military construction and veterans appropriations act. this marks the first time in two years that we have had the opportunity to debate, amend and vote on this important legislation on the senate floor. it is vital to those who serve and to those who have served our nation. madam president, i first learned to honor our veterans from my father. my father is a world war ii veteran who was wounded twice in the battle of the bulge and earned his purple heart and his bronze star. it was he who would take me to the parades on veterans day and on memorial day and boost me high on his shoulders, and from the best vantage point in the parade, i would watch our veterans march by. and he taught me of their sacrifice and that we have a never-ending obligation to thank those who wore the uniform of our country. passing this bill fulfills important obli

ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr.president, i come before the senate to express my strong support for proceeding to the fiscal year 2016 defense appropriations bill. this bill provides vital funding for the men and women of our armed services at a time of serious and growing threats to our own national security and at a time of troubling instability and violent conflicts in many countries around the world. proceeding would allow the senate an opportunity to debate defense funding in an open and transparent manner and to meet our constitutional obligations. mr. president, i am truly perplexed to hear some of my dear friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle suggest that there is a republican plan to enact only the defense appropriations bill and then proceed to a continuing resolution for all of the other vital appropriations bills. it would be an understatement to say that continuing resolutions are certainly not the preferred option of the appropriations committee, and i say that as a proud member of that

collins: has cms terminated any loan agreements? ms. jarmon: i am not aware. dr. cohen: we have terminated the loan agreements for the 12 co-ops that are shutting down. rep. collins: did we get any money back? dr. cohen: in vermont, we did get the vast majority of the money. there was some funding that was used in start up funds that was not recovered. on a go forward basis, we are making sure that consumers have coverage through the end of the year. the entities will be operating through the end of the year. at that time, we will do a run out of claims and understand the financial health of the organization and use all of our ability with the terms of the loan agreement to recover funds. rep. collins: that is not the case in new york. the co-op in new york which lost $250 million and is shutting down in two weeks time -- that does not line up with your testimony. dr. cohen: that is why we are doing so much of the hard work right now before the open enrollment period to make sure we understood the financial health of any one of these co-ops and because we want cons

collins. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ms. enomato. one of the current issues in the current men tal health system is that it's often for too difficult for parents to get help for their adult children who are suffering from serious mental illness. over the past few months i have gotten to know joe gruse from maine who has told me of what happened to his family. i would like to share his story with you and my colleagues in the hope that we can work together to come up with some kind of solution. as we look to revise our mental health laws. joe's son was 24 years old at the time of this tragedy. he had schizophrenia and yet he was discharged by or from a psychiatric hospital and returned home without the benefits of the medication. he had a history of serious and persistent mental illness, but he had been advised by federally funded advocates that his parents had no right to participate in his treatment or to have access to his medical records. according to his father and an extensive wall street journal piece, eventually his medical rec

collins for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. maybe to follow-up a little bit on ms. degette's questions, dr. robinson, on the pandemic flu, the h1n1, that's been in stockpile for ten years, what's your -- since it's never humans? >> there has been a number of individuals that have been infected with h5n1. >> right but it didn't jump. >> it's not easily transmitted man-to-man. >> right. what basis did you characterize or decide how to produce the h5n1 vaccine since it's never really jumped from animals to humans? >> we've been working over ten years to put together the h5n1 vaccine plans with cdc and with industry partners and were actually able to successfully make the first one that was licensed in 2007 more recently with adjectvents. we can do it quickly. we had an experience in 2013 for another avian influenza virus in which we were able to use egg, cell to make those vaccines sooner. >> so let's say that something happens and it does become a pandemic, is your organization looking at any post symptomatic treatments? it's so deadly, especially in this case healthy individuals for any post

ms. jarmon: i am not aware. dr. cohen: we have terminated the loan agreements for the 12 co-ops that are shutting down. rep. collins: did we get any money back? vermont, we did get the vast majority of the money. there was some funding that was used in start up funds that was not recovered. basis, we ared making sure that consumers have coverage through the end of the year. the identities will be operating through the end of the year. at that time, we will do a run out of claims and understand the financial health of the organization and use all of our ability with the terms of the loan agreement to recover funds. rep. collins: that is not the case in new york. which lostn new york $250 million and is shutting down in two weeks time -- that does not line up with your testimony. dr. cohen: that is why we are doing so much of the hard work right now before the open enrollment period to make sure we understood the financial health of any one of these co-ops and because we want consumers to be confident that there would not be a midyear rozier at any one of these co-ops. in the case of new york, we went to wind them do