have worked with many senators on both sides of the aisle senators heitkamp, gillibrand, ayotte murkowski on a simple yet straightforward amendment which incentivizes state and federal cooperation on this important issue. the mann act cooperation amendment will free up federal resources by allowing state attorneys general and local d.a.'s to prosecute human trafficking cases that would otherwise be a sign to federal government prosecutors or if federal government prosecutors do not have the resources to take on such cases oftentimes they're not going to be pursued. at the same time this amendment preserves the federal prosecutor's ability to exercise prosecutorial options while importantly increasing transparency about decisions made on human trafficking cases. mr. president, in human trafficking cases it's often local investigators and local prosecutors who have the most information on these cases. as alaska's attorney general i saw this firsthand. we usually had great cooperation with our partners in the federal government. but when the feds can't take on human trafficking cases due to

i know my colleagues, senator wyden and murkowski, the gao, the interior specter, i'm sorry, interior -- interior inspector general and i'm concerned we consider the real impacts of climate change on our public lands. this isn't an issue that is important to places like washington and alaska, to many places in our country than tacoma news tribune recently pointed out many of the related climate impacts at mt. rainier national park. and in the past decades about glaciers melting and snowpack decreased as much as 18% between 2003 and 2009 so these are real issues everything from mud slurries to floods to repairing park infrastructure and we all know that historic drought conditions in california and the west have demonstrated climate-related change are present challenges to businesses, to the government, to families and because of this, i'm pleased that the budget includes a 15% increase for climate-related research. so i hope that this will help us bring bitter understandings about how to prepare for these issues, similar wildfire impacts throughout the community, our state experienced

murkowski: thank you mr. president. mr. president, i have two amendments that i want to speak to very briefly this evening that i hope wreak have an opportunity to consider tomorrow when we move to a very accelerated process. and one of them relates to lands and one relates to water our oceans. and how we move about on our oceans. the first amendment that i would like to speak to is an amendment that would establish a neutral reserve fund for land calls transfers and exchanges. and before i get to describing that, i want to take just a couple minutes and speak to the overall budget itself in comparison and contrast to that submitted by the president. the budget before us i think is a stark contrast to the president's request which simply pretended that sequestration didn't exist never came remotely close to balancing, and would have led to the return of trillion-dollar deficits by 2025. the republican budget that we have in front of us as compared to the president's request well far from perfect believe me far from perfect

murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i request the proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that claire klinglepeel an intern on my staff be given privileges of the floor for the duration of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president it's quiet this afternoon. we've just been notified we're not going to be having any further votes this week because washington, d.c. is in the grips of anticipating a winter storm. it's march 4 and i think most people here in washington had hoped that winter had already come and gone, but that's not the case. in my home state of new york -- of new york. in my home state of alaska, this is the time of year that we welcome winter. we embrace winter. in fact, i'm going to be going up to the state on friday to attend the kick-off of our biggest sporting event which is the iditaro

and we have that answer, as we promised, it is senator jeff flake, thad cochran, lisa murkowski, corkerats. >>> today in boston, jurors in the trial of dzhokhar tsarnaev were shown videos of moments before the bombings and just after. >> jurors saw some critical evidence today in the form of surveillance video. the fbi says it shows dzhokhar and his brother on the marathon route, then it shows tsarnaev himself at the scene of the second bombing and later still, casually shopping. just after the second marathon explosion, the fbi says video caught dzhokhar tsarnaev running away, while firefighters rushed toward the blast scene to help. about 12 minutes before the bombings, a surveillance camera mounted on this corner captured video of two men carrying backpacks on the marathon route about two and a half blocks from where the bomb went off. the fbi says video shows tsarnaev at the site of the booming just before the blast. severely wounded herself, this witness recalled waking in the hospital and saying to look for her friend. and this witness said it was the last time she did anything on

melissa: senator murkowski calling out colleagues afraid of a little snow. the alaskan republican balking at weather-related shutdown finding herself alone at capitol. watch this. >> 2:48, in the afternoon. and i'm here in the dirksen senate building. these are all offices of members staff, committeeses. but there is nobody here. >> see but i like them to stay home. she is complaining that nobody is at work doing anything. they're not spending my tax dollars. stay home. stay home. she is from alaska. >> they're tougher in alaska. melissa: a little bit tougher in alaska. a little bit tougher. tom, what do you think? >> shortly we'll hear sarah palin chime in. melissa: she can see russia from her office. no, charlie, forget it. forget it. >> say president obama wants -- melissa: all right. returning to the fight. released gitmo detainees are wasting no time coming back to terrorism. shocking. the samsung is pushing to quote, go full consumer by end of the year. who is buying this thing besides charlie? more "money" coming up. ♪ so,as my personal financial psyc

i know my colleagues, senator wyden and murkowski, the g.a.o., interior -- interior inspector general, many press articles have been raised about this issue and i plan to raise my own concerns about this as well. similarly, i'm concerned that we adequately consider the real impacts of climate change on our public lands. this isn't an issue that's important to places like washington and alaska, to many places in our country, it was recently pointed out many of the related climate impacts at mount rainier national park. in the past decades about glaciers melting. floods, repairing park infrastructure, and we all know that historic drought conditions in california and the west have now demonstrated climate related changes are present challenges to businesses, to the government, families, and because of this i'm pleased that the budget includes a 15% increase for climate related research. i hope that this will help us bring better understanding how to prepare for these issues. similar the issues of wildfire impacts throughout the community. last year our state experienced one of the worst

murkowski number 838. inhofe number 649. i further ask consent that there be two minutes equally divided between the managers or their designees prior to each vote and that all votes after the first in this series be 10 minutes in length. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. enzi: for the information of all senators, this will be the first series of votes today. i'd suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. cochran: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. cochran: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and to -- first of all suggest that the quorum be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cochran: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up my amendment number 932. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from mississippi, mr. cochran for himself and ms.

thanks for being at the hearing last week in front of senator murkowski's committee. true has heard my story many times so i will have to watch and make sure i don't do any repeats this morning. because there are so many people that i've have heard me talk another opinions -- venues i thought it would take a different course and i will start off with an alaska story. back last fall i went up to alaska for my second series of listening sessions. we rented city of kotzebue and there was an alaska native who got up to talk to us. my recollection his name was -- he says subsistence hunter and he's involved with marine mammals very articulate and interesting individual but he was talking about the challenges of washington coming up and telling alaskans what to do etc. etc. an example used was he said one of the department sent the seau expert appear to talk to us us. it kaluza it is a seal hunter and it has been in his culture and his tribe for thousands of years. as i looked out across the bay i could understand why. everywhere he looked you could see the heads of seals a

>> i will admit in speaking and listening to alaskans as recently as last week, our senator lisa murkowski maria cantwell held a hearing last week on the day that the government was shut down, before the energy committee in the senate, i think senator murkowski couldn't there the possibility of shutting down a hearing on the arctic on the day that it was snowing in washington. [laughter] we are getting attention to it. there were alaskans on the panel with me, and they brought up the same concerns. i guess what i would say is that part of our challenge is raising the visibility of the arctic. as we sit here right in the spot, we are 3500 miles from the northern most point of the united states and alaska, right there in the center of the arctic. 3500 miles, and a lot of candidate in between. so, there is not a connection between the american people and the arctic. we only have 50,000 americans who live above the arctic circle in northern alaska. now, i think most alaskans, the rest of the state, also have a connection to the arctic. they understand it. but it is not a large population. some

the committee's chairman alaska senator lisa murkowski, questioned secretary jewell about the administration'silling in 12 million acres of the arctic national wildlife refuge. >> call the hearing to order this morning. we're here this morning with secretary jewell and mr. connor, thank you both for being here. we're here to review the president's budget request for the department of the interior for fiscal year 2016. i just want to make sure i got the chart. and i'm going to spend a little bit of my time here this morning in opening comments to talk about the many ways in which this administration and the actions are having impact, negative impact in hurting my state. secretary jewell, you and i have had many opportunities to visit one-on-one, as well as your trip to alaska which i appreciate you making last week and i don't want to make this personal, but the decisions from interior have lacked balance and instead of recognizing the many opportunities that alaska has with regard to resource production, you have enabled an unprecedented attack on our act ability to responsibly bring these res

we have not seen a credible challenger to lisa murkowski. we are hoping that her score will improve. she was the lowest ranking republican on our scorecard last year. host: 27% guest: 20 -- 27%. we are hoping that she will support a repeal of obamacare, a balance of budget, a lot of things that would raise her score. we don't target them. we wait to see a race develop, and we don't see one developing at this point. host: "political" says you'll get involved in the presidential race. what now do see as the hopefuls? guest: we typically do not get traditionally do not get more involved for this candidate or not. we have pointed out all the records. i would love to come back and share those with you. we have pointed out when a republican says they are conservative, but increases taxes and really unconservative -- are not conservative on the economy. this year it is different. we have a great field out there. three of them are people that the club supported in the race for senate. thinking about it, at least. marco rubio, rand paul, and ted cruz

i hope that the amendment that she and senator murkowski and i and others have written in support, i hope it will become become -- will be in the final bill as it's passed. again, i thank my friend from maine for her hard work, and i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president i know the distinguished senator from vermont and from maine -- the presiding officer: senator, the senate is in quorum call. mr. cornyn: i apologize. i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: i was just going to say i know the distinguished senator from vermont and maine have been here talking about an amendment that they would hope to offer to this trafficking this antitrafficking bill. but the sad fact is no one's going to get to offer any amendments to this bill unless the democratic leader, senator reid decides that we're going to have an open amendment process,

i'm just glad that bob corker for one, jeff flake, lamar alexander, susan collin was, these sa murkowskisign this letter i think they showed good judgment. >> before you go. i would love to get to you weigh in on the issue relating to hillary clinton's private e-mail system out of chappaqua. do you think she should have done that? was she trying to get around the rules, in your opinion, and what do you make of this being a major headline? some say it is an attack on her. >> i would like to hear her explanation explanation. i think dianne feinstein was right. she should come forward and explain the situation. let me tell you, in the senate members of the senate many of us who have e-mails, are instructed by the senate not to do anything of a personal or political nature in our information account. so we have two separate e-mail accounts. many senators do. it is what we are instructed to do. i would like to hear her explanation of why she did it and what was covered by it. and she has called if i'm not misstake.the disclosure of all the e-mails. sounds like you question her action there is

murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president i'm here to call up amendment number 838. the presiding officer: the amendment is already pending. ms. murkowski: mr. president senator sullivan and i have come together to move forward on this amendment. it provides a spending neutral reserve fund for the sale, the transfer or exchange of federal lands to state and local governments. i want to make sure that folks understand. this is not selling any land by itself. only subsequent legislation can do that. it would require us to come back and just as we do now with exchanges, conveyances sales move legislation through. what we have done, we've made sure that all lands that included within national parks national preserves and national monuments are excluded, so there can be no effort to -- to purchase or exchange there. our amendment will allow us to craft balanced bipartisan legislation to empower states improve conservation systems and promote ec

out and just acknowledge the great work by the chair of the energy and natural resources senator murkowski of alaska, who has been a great partner in quickly moving this legislation forward. the sportsmen's act of 2015 is gaining new momentum and earning widespread bipartisan support. from both sides of the aisle from the east coast to the west coast and frankly everywhere inbetween. improving access for hunters and anglers, restoring wildlife habitat and protecting the way of life that so many of us cherish are things we can all agree on. because as americans we all have a unique and deep connection to the outdoors. the sportsmen's act of 2015 includes a broad array of bipartisan measures to enhance opportunities for hunters and anglers and outdoor recreation enthusiasts. it reauthorizes key conservation programs improves access to our public lands and helps boost the outdoor recreation economy. hunting is a way of hive for me and for many families across this great nation. and like many new mexicans, my 11-year-old son and i went elk hunting on public land last fall and the bull elk that

murkowski: i thank my friend and colleague from north dakota for your leadership. you have been dogged, not only as we have advanced this measure through the floor and through the process but truly over the years. it just seems inconceivable that six-plus years 2,350 days since the company seeking to build the keystone x.l. first submitted its cross border application. it's almost inconceivable. and i thank my colleague from west virginia who just spoke who articulateed some of the myths and misconceptions that have been out there. the senator from north dakota enunciated them as well. but when you think about where we are today and a recognition that this veto override that is in front of us, this is bipartisan energy legislation. the first bill that we've sent to the president this year, bipartisan strong support around the country from an environmental perspective from an energy security per speck perspective and from a national security perspective. the keystone x.l. pipeline is what we should endorse. it is wrong and it is shortsighted that this president has