ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from the great state of alaska. ms. murkowski: i ask that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: i ask unanimous consent the privilege of the floor be granted to my interns interns -- molly oskanill, robin spaulding, will pate and kevin allen for the rest of the month as well as the month of july. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm going to be getting on an airplane tomorrow morning to head home to join with alaskans coming together to celebrate the life of a man that you and i affectionately know as bulldog. this is frederick charles becker, iv, and i think as alaskans gather to celebrate the life of truly an extraordinary man who served his country so honorably, we will remember with great fondness a veteran who was passionate about his country, a veteran who was passionate about his state and a veteran who truly had a love of life that he shared with so many of us, and i know i was

ms. murkowski: and with that, mr. president, i thank you and i yield the floor to my colleague from north dakota. the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: i'd like to thank the senior senator from alaska. i appreciate that. i rise today to speak in support of the ndaa, national defense authorization act, which we are currently working on. the ndaa is clearly one of the most important pieces of legislation we take up in congress because it authorizes vital programs designed to keep our nation secure and our people safe. we have worked very hard to make sure that the bill upholds the nuclear missions at our missile bases as well as unmanned arrow systems. the u.a.s. missions that have emerged as a vigorous part of our nation's defense. i want to commend the chairman and the ranking member for their good work in bringing this bill to the floor. it's a massive undertaking, and in particular i want to thank them for their support on some important priorities. this bill fully authorized programs to

ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. murkowski: first of all i rise to say despite what was just said, i'm not in -- ms. mikulski: first of all, i rise to say despite what was said, i'm no the in the pocket of gross require brokers. i'm knot in the pocket of grocery brokers. i'm not for something called grocery brokers. i'm here to stand up for military and military families. so i want the record to show that. i don't even know what grocery brokers are. i know what a grocery store is because my father ran one and i worked in one and learned a lot from the kind of values that my father ran his business on. now, let's talk about a d.o.d. man dated report that we did last year when we discussed this. the report acknowledges the privatization would not be able to replicate the range of benefits, the level of savings, and the geographic reach provided by the commissaries while achieving budget neutrality. d.o.d. is continuing its due diligence on privatization. it's still assessing the privatization of all or portions of the c

senator murkowski: ms. humphries, will come. ms. humphries: good morning. my name is becky humphries. i am the chief conservation officer for the national wild turkey federation. the turkey federation is a nationwide nonprofit. but we do on the ground conservation work. were originally formed to restore the loud turkey to its original habitat in this country. but we now have shifted in the save the habitat, save the hunt. through this initiative, we are a large partner with the u.s. forest service. three chapters in every state of the nation and a team foresters.sts and forrester' we've delivered thousands of projects across the united states. we are a leader in stewardship contracting. even though we don't have a mill or do anything with wood products, through storage -- through restorative contracts, we are among the top timber buyers in the country. a discussionupport draft before us today. we appreciate the committees -- we feel very strongly that they go hand in glove. must fix both if we are going to be successful. we strongly applaud active managemen

ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: i move that the senate disagree -- the presiding officer: under the previous order, the chair lays before the senate a message from the house of representatives. the clerk: resolved, that the house insist upon its amendment to the senate amendment h.r. 2577 entitled an act making appropriations for the department of transportation and housing and urban development and so forth and for other purposes, and ask a conference with the senate on the disagreeing votes of the two houses thereon. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i move that the senate disagree to the amendment of the house, agree to the request by the house for a conference and authorize the presiding officer to appoint conferees. and i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the cle

ms. murkowski: mr. president, last week i had the opportunity to pay tribute to -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. last week i had an opportunity to pay tribute to a gentleman by the name of fred becker. we knew him lovingly and affectionately as bulldog. he was a veteran. he was a veterans activist and he passed away on june 11. this past friday bulldog's remains were interred at fort richardson in anchorage. he occupied a very special place in my heart, so it was important that i was there to attend those services. it was really quite a spectacle. bulldog was a leader of several veterans motorcycle groups, so there were more than 100 of his fellow veterans all on bikes that accompanied the remains to the final resting place there at fort richardson cemetery. but if that were not special enough in and of itself, there were several hundred airmen and soldiers, some say 400, that were lined up once you went through the gates there on fort richa