ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: thank you very much, mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be able to speak in morning business for no more than ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: thank you very much, mr. president. i rise today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of medicare. 50 years ago on july 30, 1965, president lyndon johnson signed into law the legislation to create medicare. mr. president, i say "thank god for medicare." it was a great idea 50 years ago. twit was a great idea 50 months ago, 50 weeks ago, 50 minutes. and i stand on the senate floor to say, we must keep medicare as medicare, keep the integrity and solvency of medicare. we cannot turn medicare into a voucher. we cannot dilute it, phase it out, or eliminate it. and i will say to this, until my last vote is cast in the senate, i will defend medicare. i saw what this meant in 1965. that summer i had just graduated from the university of maryland school of social work. change was in

ms. mikulski: thank you very much mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous cons ent th able to in morning business for no more than ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: thank you very much mr. president. i rise today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of medicare. 50 years ago on july 30, 1965, president lyndon johnson signed into law the legislation to create medicare. mr. president, i say "thank god for medicare." it was a great idea 50 years ago. twait was a great idea 50 months ago, 50 weeks ago 50 minutes. and i stand on the senate floor to say we must keep medicare as medicare keep the integrity and solvency of medicare. we cannot turn medicare into a voucher. we cannot dilute it, phase it out, or eliminate it. and i will say to this, until my last vote is cast in the senate, i will defend medicare. i saw what this meant in 1965. that summer i had just graduated from the university of maryland school of social work. change was in the air. the civil rights movement was making its progress t

ms. mikulski: thank you very much mr. president. i come here today to speak about the bill pending before us called every child achieves act. this is the successor to the no child left behind which is the successor to the reauthorization of the elementary secondary education act. 50 years ago in 2015 -- in 1965 as part of lyndon johnson's morning to end poverty in the united states of america and to lift all -- be able to lift people up, he asked congress to pass the elementary and secondary education act. it was the first act legislative act where the federal government was involved in education. up until that time, education was thought of as the purview of the states and local districts. senator johnson -- excuse me, president johnson agreed to with that as did the congress, but at the same time they knew that there were children living in abysmal situations of poverty and at the time of a national prosperity he wanted to lift those children up. great legislation passed during those 50 years, head start which continues to be a ha

ms. mikulski: thank you very much. well mr.president i'm here today to stand up for maryland and for all of the students that could lose resources under an amendment offered by the gentleman from north carolina, senator burr. now, there's much that i admire about senator burr, but his current amendment is really -- really would cause maryland tremendous problems. the burr amendment would punish states that make significant investments in those students who need extra help. this amendment would not do one thing to lift kids out of poverty or to close the achievement gap. in fact, it makes it worse. the so-called hold harmless provision that is in the bill does not hold maryland harmless. it doesn't prevent any of the maryland school districts from losing money. under the burr amendment maryland would lose $40 million. let me repeat, under the burr amendment, maryland would lose $40 million. now, maryland knows that i've always been on the side of students of teachers, of those who run programs, and the taxpayers who pay for them

ms. mikulski: thank you very much mr. president. first of all, i want to compliment the senator from connecticut on his initial statement related to student privacy. i think it's an essential element to clarifying privacy is meant to protect but not inadverted opponently inhibit our ability to give help that those that so desperately need pit. i want to associate myself with his remarks on really doing something about the background check, the timely response. i think the massacre in emanuel a.m.e. deeply troubled the nation. the very least thing that can come out of this is not only the flag coming down and all that it meant but other barriers to safety should come down as well. and i want the gentleman from connecticut to know that he has my admiration and my support. mr. president, while we're waiting for the vote in approximately 15 minutes i know that senator kaine will be coming to the floor to talk about an important post secondary educational remediation reform. but i wanted to comment on the 21 million federal employees who

ms. collins: thank you mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to introduce the federal information security management act of 2015. i'm very pleased that senator warner, senator mikulski, senator coats senator ayotte and senator mccaskill are joining me in this bipartisan effort to strengthen cybersecurity in federal agencies. i very much appreciate their input into this bill and their support. mr. president, the cyber attack that stole sensitive personal data from millions of current former and retired federal employees from the poorly secured databases at the office of personnel management underscored the extraordinary vulnerability of our federal computer networks. but for the more than 21 million americans infected and indeed, for our country the threat from this theft continues. whether it is the risk to the individual of identity theft or the impact on our nation of the compromise of the identity of those dealing with classified information or the potential for espionage or blackmail the threat remains extremely serious. worst of all mr. president are better -- worst of all mr. president, better security of computer networks at o.p.m. might well have prevented t