ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: i ask ms. mikulski: mr. president i ask that the call of the quorum be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: i now ask that the -- i ask consent the pending motion be set aside so that i may call up my motion which is at the desk. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from maryland ms. mikulski, moves that the managers on the part of the senate at the conference on the disagreeing votes -- ms. mikulski: mr. president i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: thank you mr. president. sorry that i didn't ask that the quorum be vacated. i was so eager to get started. because i rise to offer a motion to instruct the conferees based on a bill that i have offered for the last three congresses. that is the paycheck fairness act. what is the paycheck -- what does the paycheck fairness act do? it finishes the job that we star

ms. capito and senator cochran. over here at senator mikulskisenator reid senator schatz involved one and senator merck way. senator langford. >> thank you senator. madam secretary thank you for being here and thanks for the engaged in on this. there is a lot of conversation about the process. in your testimony you have notes of starting in 2009 there's a 1300% increase in medicare and what's happening in the appeals process. there's obviously a problem. while while you work celebrating the appeals process i would like to get down to some of the root causes. there've been multiple changes to the process. what is pending right now to continue to reform the audit process in the days ahead we on the appeals process which we can talk about separately but the root cause. >> it's important to step back. working on program integrity issues in terms of medicare spending. this is something that dr. coburn and others helped us focus on canvas was put in place so we could do the tracking. it has tracked and return quite a bit of money to the treasury in th

ms. mikulski: mr. president, i have an alternative and far more comprehensive approach than the gentlelady from nebraska just offered. though i respect her and her advocacy for women the mikulski amendment in the well would really take this, finish the job we started with lilly ledbetter. yes, it would deal with the harassment on the job issue if you deal -- if you ask for information, which the fischer amendment only dealt with. my amendment would go farther several steps farther. number two, it would provide punitive damages for women who have been wrongly denied equal pay for several years. and number two, it also eliminates these false reasons that people give for not paying equal pay for equal work. the mikulski amendment is more comprehensive, more robust and will really finish the job close the loopholes that big corporations have had for years. so i really -- if you like fischer, you're going to be crazy about the mikulski amendment. go all the way not just part of the way. i yield back my time