ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: today the senate will vote for the fourth time on a -- a procedural vote to take up the house homeland security funding bill. we're going to be voting on the cloture to motion to proceed because it is a parliamentary way of dealing with the funding for the homeland security department which runs out on friday. mr. president, you are the ranking member on the homeland subcommittee. you did a fantastic job working with senator landrieu creating a funding framework that had bipartisan and bicameral support. i really congratulate you and the way the committee worked. now, we should be voting on the final passage for a clean homeland security bill. now, the bill, you know, when we say "clean" this is washington-speak. people don't know what clean bill is. i mean is there a dirty bill? is there a dusty bill? is there a muddy bill? no. what we're talking about is meaning no riders on the bill and in this case, no poison pill -- no poison pill riders. there was no disagreement finall

ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president as the vice chair of the appropriations committee i rise to speak on the homeland security funding bill. madam president, this morning we the senate moves to fulfill its responsibility, its national responsibility to pass the homeland security bill to fully fund it through the fiscal year 2015. this fulfills a constitutional oath that we senators took to protect and defend the constitution and the people of the united states of america against all foes, foreign and domestic. the domestic is here today. the domestic is in homeland security. the domestic is in what we need to do to fulfill our responsibility. we take oaths to the constitution. we say we want a constitutionally driven government. so do i. we need to get off of our press releases and pass this bill. i am really proud of the fact that we on the appropriations committee did our job, and we did it in december. the subcommittee chairs on homeland security did their due diligence and came up with an af

ms. mikulski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: thank you very much. mr. president, i'd -- i had come to the floor really to speak about the issue of the funding for the homeland security bill, but i want to note and acknowledge the comments just made by my colleague from tennessee, senator alexander the chair of the health education committee. i couldn't agree with him more. hello, america. two senators, different parts of the country different political parties, different political views on some social issues and whatever but i couldn't agree more with this outstanding report whose original idea came from the gentleman from tennessee. when we worked on the reauthorization of the higher education act about five years ago now one of the -- we agreed we had agreed upon goals -- to make college more accessible, to also make college more affordable to always insist that that college offer a quality education and than students on the campus be safe and secure so that they could be in a true learning environment. as we looked a

ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president i ask to speak in morning business as agreed upon. mr. president, before the leader leaves -- excuse me -- the democratic leader leaves, in the warmest and most enthusiastic way, i want to welcome him back. he looks like he's been in a big fight, and i'm sure that he won. and it's just wonderful to have him back in his leadership role here right at his duty station. and we look forward to following him and to work with him and to try to forge these bipartisan leaderships. mr. president, i come to the floor to call for a vote against the motion to proceed to h.r. 240, the house homeland security funding bill. now, this is a shock for senator barbara mikulski to call for a vote against a motion to proceed on an appropriations bill. for the last two years i've been on the floor speaking out pounding the table saying let's bring up bills let's bring them up one at a time. so now why am i on the floor asking for a vote against motion to proceed on the homeland security funding bi

ms. mikulski: and the abc of a quorum as we call for a quorum i ask that the time be equally divided. the presiding officer: without objection. mikulski: i note the absence of a quorum and have a unanimous consent request the time be equally divided between the parties. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. shaheen: i was very pleased to hear the ranking member of the appropriations committee senator mikulski, who has done such great work on the committee and in putting together the bipartisan agreement that was negotiated last december with the chairman of the house appropriations committee congressman rogers, that was a bill that as she pointed out funded the efforts of the department of homeland security to keep people safe, to address emergencies, to try and protect us from cybersecurity threats a whole range of efforts that go on within the department. and i wanted her to hear a comm

ms. pandith, president obama's legislation had what is being called a glaring ambiguity, looking at enduring offensive combat operations and senator barbara mikulskif maryland said that it has to have a time clock to it. how do you interpret this phrase? ms. pandith: i do not want to interpret that phrase. there is a piece in the legislation that talks about the component that i was just discussing in terms of how we look at defeating isil in terms of the ideology. when you are looking at the conversation that i hope we will have, the bipartisan conversation that we are having, we will look at all contours of how we effect this, and to put time limits or regional pieces to this at this stage without having the kind of conversation that we need to have i think limits us, and i think we need to be as creative about how we think about how we go after this threat, as we ever have been. you began by asking me what the difference was right after 9/11 and today. the threat has amassed in size in such a capacity that we are looking at a global threat of an ideology that is affecting every part of the world, affecting our country and other countries that h

ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: today the senate will vote for the fourth time on a -- a procedural vote to take up the house homeland security funding bill. we're going to be voting on the cloture to motion to proceed because it is a parliamentary way of dealing with the funding for the homeland security department which runs out on friday. mr. president, you are the ranking member on the homeland subcommittee. you did a fantastic job working with senator landrieu creating a funding framework that had bipartisan and bicameral support. i really congratulate you and the way the committee worked. now, we should be voting on the final passage for a clean homeland security bill. now, the bill, you know, when we say "clean" this is washington-speak. people don't know what clean bill is. i mean is there a dirty bill? is there a dusty bill? is there a muddy bill? no. what we're talking about is meaning no riders on the bill and in this case, no poison pill -- no poison pill riders. there was no disagreement finall

ms. mikulski: first of all, i thank the gentlelady for bringing representative carter's comments to my attention. i absolutely do agree with your analysis and actually even the comments by representative carter. we should have a sense of urgency in passing the homeland security bill. the terrorists and the bad guys whether they're organized crime trying to get across our borders, whether there's the terrorists watching us, they're saying hey, they're so busy fighting each other they don't have time to think about fighting for ourselves so they're watching us, they're laughing at us because while we squabble and quibble and dribble, they're out there plotting against us. and, madam president -- and i say to the chair -- the ranking member of the subcommittee, i do think that there is a sense of urgency. i also want to comment on the house. when we were working in the closing hours on the actual money part of the bill, i found remarkable bipartisan consensus. left to our own, you know, analysis about how to be, you know wise stewards of the taxpayer dollar, make those important security investment

ms. mikulski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president i rise to talk about the department of homeland security and the necessity to fund it. earlier today the president submitted to the congress a document for an authorization of military force. i take the president's request very seriously. i look forward to the analysis that will be done by the foreign relations committee and the armed services committee and debate on the floor. but why did the president send it and why did many in the congress call for it? it's that everybody says we've got to do something about isil. and you know what? i think we do have to do something about isil. what a ghoulish, barbaric terrorist group and there is no doubt that there has to be an international effort to strike them from the planet and that the united states has to be part of it. but you know what comes out when we talk about isil is the need to have a strong robust counterterrorism effort. now, if we're going to fight counterterrorism we must fund the agency who has a principal respons