senator shelby: senator shaheen? senator shaheen: thank you very much for your service and for being here. i guess i want to start with administrator leonhart, because i want to follow up on senator capito's comments, about thate h eroin epidemic. we have been seeing it in new england. in new hampshire in the last 10 years, we have seen people admitted to state treatment programs increase 90% for heroin use, 500 percent for prescription drug use, so it is truly an epidemic. one police chief said if we have somebody shooting up at 2:00 in the parking lot in target in bedford we know we have a problem. we have a problem. what i am interested in is not which lanes people are in. i am interested in what coordination is going on between agencies, and specifically, one of the things i have done a series of roundtables meeting with law enforcement, treatment officials and the medical community in you have to because one of the things that we have heard is that the heroin abuse is the result of prescription drug abuse. and t

[traditional arabic music played on an oud] (shaheen) the oud is actually the most prominent instrumentic music. it has basically five double strings and one single low string, and it has a fingerboard here that is fretless-- open fingerboard and this is how the quartertone quality is being produced, because you can slide and produce all the sounds. [plays example] usually the oud is being played in the context of the small ensemble or a larger one as accompaniment to a vocalist or as a solo instrument. it's a very old instrument. it comes from the guitar family in persia. it's the ancestor of the lute and the guitar family. the oud is actually the most prominent instrument in arabic music, and it's as valuable as the piano for the western composer or performer. as far as i'm concerned, this is one of the greatest instruments in the world. it's very dear to me. ♪ her cheeks were like the lily white ♪ ♪ that bloom in yonder valley oh. ♪ (narrator) the human voice is perhaps the most flexible of all instruments. [singing traditional japanese music] [choir singing] the great variety of voc

senator shaheen: thank you. i want to make sure i understood is something that i think you said, secretary carter. and that was that -- i didn't get this quote down exactly correct, but you said something about believing that the 2001 aumf gives us the ability to protect ourselves if we are attacked? did i understand that accurately? defense secretary carter: it is more specific than that and the legal interpretation is more specific than that. i was simply saying that the existence of that since 2001 has provided the authority under which we have protected ourselves. it is quite clear we need to protect ourselves. senator shaheen: but the question i have is do we need that aumf to protect ourselves if attacked. what i'm try to figure out is why -- is whether we should insert specific language in this aumf that acknowledges that the fight we are engaged in now is one that is covered by this aumf and therefore the 2001 is not part of the action that we are doing now. secretary carter: i will explain my understand

(shaheen) the basics of the structured and improvised music is the maqam system.m you have a set of scales that has certain characteristics. a certain feel, a certain mood. for example, there is a certain maqam that could relate very much to an evening time for example, or certain maqam can relate to a sad state of being. for example: [guitar plays tune using chromatic scale] in arabic music, the intervals is very much identified by what we call quatertones or microtonal intervals. and these are intervals that from my experience with the western ear it's very difficult to hear this quality because it's an interval or distance between two pitches that the ear is not used to. for example, if we listen to the third note, and i'm going to count this is the first, the second, and the third. again. okay, so these are the first three notes in a scale that ifamiliar to many people that's called minor scale. okay, we can call it also-- we call it in arabic music nahawand it has a name. now let's listen to the third note in a different scale. first, second, third. and we ca

we saw during the debate over the shaheen portman energy bill. we saw during congresses drawn out debate over the reauthorization of violence against women act. yet another issue that should be free of partisan politics. this body shouldn't let ideological ground setting divisive issues stall and kill bipartisan legislation that will make a difference for people particularly for the most vulnerable people in this country, victims of trafficking. this bill is no exception to. a bill of human trafficking should not be a method of expanding the government's powers to dictate women's personal choices. women's health care decisions. i join my colleagues in urging the senate to stop using this legislation and others like it to advance an ideological agenda and help the women, men and children who are being trafficked across this country. i yield my time. >> joining us on the phone is simply following the story for "politico." she is on capitol hill. thanks for being with us. this story has been percolating over the last couple of days. explain what hap

. >> secretary shaheen. i'm having trouble with all of these secretaries. you can all serve extremely well in those positions. i apologize for the demotion. >> thank you. senator corker, i appreciate that and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. i want to begin by just sharing the frustration that we've heard from other members of this committee about the slowness with which we are providing assistance to ukraine. on the weapons side not just about the decision which seems to be taking a very long time on providing assistance. but the other forms of assistance that would be helpful to the ukrainian mull tear that's in the field. and i had an opportunity to meet last week with some representatives from ukraine, a member of parliament and some others. and one of the things they talked about was -- and i got into a back-and-forth with them about the reservations that have been expressed by this administration and by chancellor merkel and other europeans and providing weapons and the extent to which that might escalate the conflict. and they

shaheen: thank you very much mr. president. i'm pleased to join my colleague from georgia senator isakson in supporting biennial budget amendment. this is legislation that we've been working on. this will be the third session of congress now. and it's a response to what i think we would all agree is a broken budget process here in washington. since 1980 we've only had two budget processes that have been finished on time, according to established process. in that time frame since 1980, when as senator isakson pointed out, every president has endorsed biennial budgeting congress has resorted to more than 150 short-term funding bills or continuing resolutions. that's no way to govern. and while we've made progress in recent years to reduce our deficits, we need reform of our budget process. senator isakson pointed out very eloquently how this proposal would work. in new hampshire where i served three terms as governor, i had a legislature that was -- were members of the other party and yet we were able to pass biennial budgets thr

and with that, i see that the great senator from new hampshire, senator shaheen is here. thank you mr. president. i yield the floor. mrs. shaheen: mr. president? ms. mikulski: will the gentlelady yield for one minute? thank you. mr. president, i just wanted to say, this is not a democratic woman's issue. we are in this on a bipartisan basis. i wanted to note that the democratic women are here because the republican women are chairing committees and subcommittees. i though the other gentlelady from new hampshire, senator ayotte, will be on the floor shortly. the distinguished senator from maine, the senior republican woman, is at a very important navy appropriations committee. so when you see us, just don't think that it's just us here. it's all of us together. but their responsibility has them at another duty station right this minute. so i just want to explain where we all are and now yield the floor back to the -- senator shaheen from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: thank you mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: i would just l

jean shaheen. none of those people are running for president, and there is no sign that any of them will run for president, but as the beltway press lost their minds on the clinton e-mail this week this was the democratic freakout fallout from that media frenzy. it was novel and interesting. we have not seen that kind of freakout from the left. but when that public freakout finally happened this week, it was not the most coherent discussion. it was noise, interesting noise. while all of that was happening, there was all of that hubbub in the press. this week the republican field for president seems to have shrunk by one very high profile contender. there was this one politico story about the chris christie folks holding a closed door meeting in dc to try to reassure power players that he is still running. there was that one story. their stated concern, what has been written up thus far in the beltway press for the christie would be campaign, which is money. chris christie's big advantage for runnin

should say, that they are planning to hire several aides who worked on the campaign for senator jeanne shaheen. you see her with the former secretary. she faced a tough battle from the republican scott brown last november. in new hampshire, secretary clinton is planning to put together a team and is edging closer to do that. in the last few moments, the republican national committee making a lot of the fact that elizabeth warren, the democratic senator, smn rumored to looking at challenging the former secretary. just in the last few moments, ready for warren, this draft elizabeth warren move. put out an interesting e-mail. if the past two weeks have shown us anything, just it's just how badly we need elizabeth warren in this race. for 11 straight days the political world has been forced on nothing but the focus on e-mails. while there are issues about transparency and open government to consider, it's drowned out all discussion of anything else. interesting you have people on the left trying to make something out of the e-mail controversy but also interesting the republican national committee

jeanne shaheen has been very good to work with. almost everybody in new hampshire is a woman in government. one guy in congress. new hampshire is isil's worst nightmare -- women running the place. [laughter] >> one question from aarp. >> thank you senator. great presentation. your priorities are right. the security of the country comes the first really. i am and volunteers spokesperson for aarp. we talk a bit before. i am glad you mentioned about your sister being held vessels of security. in -- being helped by social security. we would like to know what would be on the table for consideration in strengthening social security today. sen. graham: what would be on the table is making it solvent for 75 years so that the people coming after us would have it. how many of you have a 401(k) plan? how many of you worry about outliving your 401(k) plan? social security in the future will be as important to the american worker as it was in 1935. you can outlive your 401(k) plan and it is the only defined-benefit plan left in america a musty

jeanne shaheen will save us. none of those people are running for president. there's no sign that any of them will run for president. as the beltway lost their minds this week, this was the democratic fallout from that media frenzy. it was novel and interesting. we haven't seen that freakout on the left about hillary clinton's prospects and there being no plan b if she doesn't work out. but when it finally happened this week, it was not the mostly coherency, it was mostly noise. while there was all that hubbub this week in the press, quietly without any sound at all, this week the republican field for president seems to have shrunk by one very high profile contender. and i'm not sure the beltway press has even noticed it yet. there was this one politico story about chris christie trying to reassure power players and republican politics that governor christie is still running. there was that one story. their stated concern, what has been written up thus far in the beltway press is the real worry for the christie campaign was money. his whole big picture strateg

reintroduced the syrian war crimes accountability act along with my colleague, senator rubio menendez shaheen and peters. this bipartisan legislation establishes a syria-specific standard of reporting and accountability for crimes against humanity. the bill requires the u.s. state department to report to relevant committees on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in syria. this would include an account of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the regime of president bashar al-assad and extremist groups and other combatants involved in the conflict. today as i stand here on the floor of the united states senate the violence is continuing unabated. so my colleagues may be aware of a syrian defector and photographer named caesar. he fled from syria in 2013 with more than 55,000 photos documenting the forure and murder of more than 11,000 civilians. last week some of those photos were put on display at the united nations. we must shine a light on the atrocities that have been committed in syria and demand accountability. ignoring these violations sends a message to the g

shaheen: thank you. madam president this past weekend we saw a huge commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the selma to montgomery voting rights march. i rise to honor the work and sacrifice of jonathan myrick daniels. he was a young episcopalian seminary student from keen. the presiding officer certainly knows his name and keen very well. he was from keen, new hampshire and he answered reverend martin luther king jr.'s call for clergy to travel to alabama to join him on that march. jonathan lost his life five months later in an act that reverend king called one of the most heroic christian deeds of which i have heard in my entire ministry. although jonathan had originally intended to spend a short time in the south and then return to his studies at the episcopal theological school in boston, he felt compelled by events to remain in alabama through the spring and summer to register voters with the episcopalian society for cultural and racial unity. on august 14 1965, jonathan was arrested along with a

. >> secretary shaheen? >> we are all getting promotions today. thank you. thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. i want to begin by sharing the frustration we have heard from other members of this committee about the slowness with which we are providing assistance to ukraine. on the weapons aside not just about the decision which aims to be taking a lot of time but the other form of assistance that would be helpful to the ukrainian military. -- seems to be taking a lot of time. i had the opportunity to meet with representatives of ukraine. one of the things they talked about was -- i got into a back and forth with them about the reservations that have been expressed by this administration and chancellor merkel and other europeans about providing weapons and the extent to which that might at slate -- as click the conflict. they set a couple of things that resonated with me. they were not sure that the conflict could be escalated to much worse than they expected to be. there was a real symbolic impact should we provide offensive weapons that

. >> first of may think my colleagues for the great hard work they have done jeanne shaheen head of the homeland security subcommittee, tom carper ahead of the homeland security authorizing committee. now we are just days removed from isis arrests in brooklyn new threats from al-shabaab and only five days away from a shutdown of the department of homeland security. today democrats rejected further attempts by republicans to play politics with the department of homeland security. there are only two reasons to go to conference. first to negotiate new funding levels to dhs were second to put more extraneous immigration riders back into this bill. this bill is negotiated by both parties of both houses in with days to go before dhs funding expires it's time for republicans to stop trying to tie funding for dhs to their battle against the presence policies on immigration. the place for that fight is in the courts is said by my dear friend tom. this has artegon too far. isis is not funded a week of the time. al-shabaab is not funded a week at a time. the department of homeland security shouldn

jeanne shaheen has been very good to work with. almost everybody in new hampshire is a woman in government. one guy in congress. new hampshire is isil's worst nightmare -- women running the place. [laughter] >> one question from aarp. >> thank you senator. great presentation. your priorities are right. the security of the country comes the first really. i am and volunteers spokesperson for aarp. we talk a bit before. i am glad you mentioned about your sister being held vessels of security. in -- being helped by social security. we would like to know what would be on the table for consideration in strengthening social security today. sen. graham: what would be on the table is making it solvent for 75 years so that the people coming after us would have it. how many of you have a 401(k) plan? how many of you worry about outliving your 401(k) plan? social security in the future will be as important to the american worker as it was in 1935. you can outlive your 401(k) plan and it is the only defined-benefit plan left in america a musty

shaheen: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president i ask today that the quorum call be lifted e. the presiding officer: without objection. hiroshimamrs. shaheen: i'm here to discuss the legislation that i introduced last week to aid the recovery of survivors of human trafficking. this bill, which i've also filed as an amendment to senator cornyn's justice for victims of trafficking act will make important strides towards helping survivors of human trafficking free themselves from the social stigma that's associated with their victimization and help them rebuild their lives as productive members of society. and i just want to start by sharing the story of a young woman that was featured on npr cephal weeks ago. -- several weeks ago of of. she is a human trafficking survivor. her story is far too exphon. she was raped for the first tame at age is 1. at 13 she was lured away from her family and vauntsly forced into engage in commercial sex. she talked about the physical trauma she endured at the hand of her captor. her skull wa

. >> secretary shaheen? >> we are all getting promotions today. >> and y'all could all serve extremely well in those positions. sorry for the demotion. >> thank you. senator corker, that. thank you to all our witnesses for being here today. i want to begin by sharing the frustration we have heard from other members of this committee about the slowness with which we are providing assistance to ukraine. on the weapons side, not just about the decision which seems to be taking a very long time, providing assistance but the other forms of assistance that would be helpful to the ukrainian military that's in the field. i had the opportunity to meet with representatives from ukraine, a member of parliament and some others, and one of the things they talked about was, and i got into a back and forth with them about the reservations that have been expressed by this administration and by chancellor merkel and other europeans about providing weapons and the extent to which that might escalate the conflict. they said a

jean shaheen has been very good to work w. almost everybody in new hampshire is a woman in government. you have one guy in congress, right? new hampshire is isil he is worst nightmare women running the place. host: another question. >> thank, senator. great presentation. your priorities are right. security of the country comes first, really. i'm a spokesperson for aarp. we talked before. i'm glad you mentioned about your sister 14 years old helped by social security. here in new hampshire we have 18,000 children on social security security. it sis financially challenged. we all agree. we would like to know what would be on the take for consideration in strengthening social security today. senator graham: what would be on the table is making it solvent for 75 years so that the people coming after us would have it. how many of you have a 401-k plan? how many of you worry about outliving your 401-k machine? social security in the future will be as person to the american worker as it was in 1935. you could hit rally outlive your 4

shaheen: thank you very much mr. president. i appreciate and support the comments from my colleague my neighbor from vermont senator sanders, and am pleased to be here to support senator warren's bill which i am cosponsoring. this amendment would allow our young people to refinance their student loans. student loan debt is the second -- has now surpassed credit card debt in this country. this is an issue about the economy of this country but even more important it's an issue about the future of our young people. in new hampshire, student loan debt we have the second highest student loan debt in the country. i have talked to young people and their families who say they are delaying getting married they're delaying having children delaying buying houses because of their student loan debt. and yet families can refinance their houses, refinance their cars, they should be able to refinance their student loans. this is critical to getting our economy moving again in the way it should, it's critical to ensuring that our young people h

senator shaheen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you to secretary kerry for all the great work you've been doing and for being here today. i want to start first with about asking about our humanitarian efforts to assist syria in particular and jordan, and also lebanon as we look at the threat from isis and the support we've gotten, particularly from partners like jordan and lebanon, who are really struggling under the refuse -- refugees in their countries and ask if you could talk a little bit about what we're requesting in the budget to address that and what we hope that will do. >> sure. well, senator, let me -- i'm really glad you asked that because i think this is one of the reasons i think we all have to buckle down and figure out how we're going to come together around the next -- around the syria component of this because the truth of the matter is, as syria is disintegrating under the pressure of the sectarian struggle, three-quarters of the people of syria are now displaced. and about half of those three-quarters

. >> secretary shaheen? >> we are all getting promotions today. thank you.o all of our witnesses for being here today. i want to begin by sharing the frustration we have heard from other members of this committee about the slowness with which we are providing assistance to ukraine. on the weapons aside, not just about the decision which aims to -- which seems to be taking a lot of time, but the other form of assistance that would be helpful to the ukrainian military. i had the opportunity to meet with representatives of ukraine. one of the things they talked about was -- i got into a back and forth with them about the reservations that have been expressed by this administration and chancellor merkel and other europeans about providing weapons and the extent to which that might escalate the conflict. they said a couple of things that resonated with me. they were not sure that the conflict could be escalated to much worse than they expected to be. in fact, under the current circumstances, and that there was a real symbolic impact should we provide offensive de

. >> first let me thank my colleagues for the great work they have done, jean shaheen head of the homelandecurity subcommittee ted carper he on aappropriations. we are days removed fl iceis from brooklyn arrests and five days away from the shutdown of the department of homeland security. today, democrats rejected with republicans to play politics with department of homeland security. there are only two reasons to go to conference. first, to negotiate new funding levels for d.h.s. or second to put more extraneous riders back into this bill. this bill is already negotiated with both parties in both houses and with days to go, time for republicans to stop tying funding for d.h.s. against the president's policies on immigration. the price for that is in the courts. this has already gone too far. isis isn't funded a week at a time or al-shabaab and the department of homeland security shouldn't be either. how can we be secure when congressional republicans won't even promise to keep the lights on for more than a week at a time. it's time for speaker boehner, now that the senate has once again in

and i would yield to my colleague, senator shaheen. mrs. shaheen: thank you mr. president. this is about ensuring that women are not discriminated against because they want to have children. this is making sure that women don't have to choose between their jobs and their families. it's about ensuring that all women can be reassured that if they are pregnant -- the presiding officer: the senator's times has expired. mrs. shaheen: -- their employer has to provide reasonable accommodations. i hope my colleagues will vote for this. mr. enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator wyoming. de-disee i want to declare that -- mr. enzi: i want to declare that republicans are committed to fair and equal treatment of women as well. the congress passed the pairptsal and medical leave act of 1993. congress may need to enact this specific legislation through committee in order to address this issue. this amendment does confirm the ability of the committee of jurisdiction to draft legislation. we'd be happy to accept this on a voice vote. a senator: roll call vote, mr. preside

shaheen: thank you. well mr. president here we are again where we were last monday, with about five days left before funding runs out for the department of homeland security, so if it feels like groundhog day, it's because it is groundhog day. we just can't keep playing those kinds of games with this agency's funding. those who are blocking action on the funding bill for the department of homeland security have a clear choice. are they going to prioritize politics or are they going to prioritize national security? last friday, the senate passed a bill with 68 bipartisan votes a bill that fully funds the department of homeland security without any controversial riders attached to that bill. i'm hopeful ever hopeful that the house will follow our lead and immediately take up the clean senate bill. we cannot, we should not replay the chaos that we saw last week, the brinkmanship really needs to end. it's time to -- for congress to pass the department of homeland security funding bill. whether it's threats to the mal