senator stabenow i believe has to go. set her, and you have five minutes that you can donate to the senator stabenow and then you would be recognized next? >> i would be happy to lend five minutes. i did enter the room earlier but i got here before you and i have to get here after you saw that i recognized. welcome and i want to join colleagues indicating that i think that we are very fortunate to have your willingness and to public service. from the michigan perspective i want to reiterate what you and i have talked about on so many fronts that not only. the issues and of climate energy independence and michigan is very engaged in the areas that you are involved and as you know wolfe's. the technology alternative energy and i'm very pleased to say michigan as number one and the korean energy patents for the country there are other issues as well, safety issues and others but when we look at the fact that the world's largest manufacturing economy is in america, about 18.2% of the global manufacturing done here for the fir

we are grateful for the support of senators jerry moran of kansas, debbie stabenow of michigan as well as congressman ted poe of texas, petter welch of vermont, and chris gibson of california, our original cosponsors. this bill does not change benefits for traditional energy sources at all. it doesn't touch m.l.p.'s and their benefits for oil and coal and natural gas, it just allows renewable energy projects to compete fairly by also accessing this tax advantage capital formation vehicle. it gives an squall equal changs to projects using energy from the wind and the sun and biomass, projects that use breakthrough technologies to provide affordable homegrown energy for the projects to come. this is a new and improved version of the national parity act from last year. we introduced a version last year that got strong support from republicans and democrats as well as outside interests and the business community. this year we're expanding the scope of the bill to include additional energy projects that qualify as m.l.p.'s. waste heat to power, carbon capture and stourpblg. biochem -- stora

and i know that the chairperson of the committee, senator stabenow, has heard the same thing. and all members of the committee know, i think, the value of crop insurance. i mean, all members of the distinguished committee on agriculture. so as we head into another round of farm bill debates -- and i know the chairperson would like to get it done, would like to mark up a bill in the next three weeks. i don't know if that's possible or not. we'll see. we did that in two and a half days in the last session of congress. whether we can do that kind of thing again, i'm not sure. but i'm constantly asked for my priorities, and my priorities reflect what i have heard from farmers and ranchers at home and their bankers and their lenders and everybody that wants consistency. the number-one priority for the farm bill is crop insurance. if you doubt the importance of crop insurance, look what it has provided the past two years. it's rather unbelievable. since 2001, madam president, we have faced the worst drought since the dust bowl in kansas, oklahoma, texas and in nebraska now. and in s

new york's kirsten gillenbrand, susan collins of maine, dianne feinstein of california and debby stabenowchigan. the only no so far, new hampshire senator gene shahene. jeff charbonneau teaches science. president obama got in touch with his inner geek where he talked to students discovering new ways to do everything from detecting pancreatic cancer to converting garbage into fuel. >> let me start by saying in my official capacity as president, this stuff is really cool. >>> so the president also took part in one exhibit look here, pedaling a bicycle-powered water filtration system, former congressman, anthony weiner is back in the twitter-verse, the first thing he sent from his new anthony weiner handle is a link to a policy paper he wrote called keys to the city. >>> and president george w. bush is mounting a comeback of sorts according 0 a new poll. 47% of his approve of eight years in office, a seven-year high. i'll see you back tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., joining me will be teri sewell, ann lewis, and mark mckinnon and ron reagan will be here. "now" is up next. i'm really glad that girl s

stabenow: thank you, mr. president. first, i would ask unanimous consent that laura flint, a detailee on the senate judiciary committee, be granted senate floor privileges for the duration of calendar year 2013. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. ms. stabenow: thank you very much, mr. president. we're about to enter into an incredibly important debate about a series of issues relating to violence, specifically gun violence in our communities all across america, and today i rise to speak about a very important bipartisan amendment that i will be offering with senator roy blunt and others called the excellence in mental health act that addresses a very important piece of the discussion. it's really an opportunity for us to come together amidst a lot of controversial debate and agree on something that's a very important piece of the puzzle in terms of having access to comprehensive, quality mental health services in the community. this weekend, we heard from francine wheeler whose 6-year-old son ben was

. >> senator debbie stabenow thanks for coming in. >>> a reminder, we have an nbc news exclusive comingtomorrow on "today." my friend savannah guthrie will interview the president. they'll discuss guns, immigration, north korea. it's a lot that the president hasn't talked about lately. it will all be there, tomorrow on "today." we'll have some highlights from it after today. >>> up next, the tea party favorite heats up the senate race in alaska. >>> plus remembering congressman charlie wilson. the late ohio lawmaker served only two terms in washington but he made history in how he got there. we'll tell you how. >>> that brings us to today's trivia question. in 2006 charlie wilson was elected to congress by a write-in campaign. how many people managed that feat before him? we're just talking about the house here. the first person to tweet the correct answer gets the on-air shoutout. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." good luck googling this one. my mantra? trust your instincts to make the call. to treat my low testosterone, my doctor and i went with axiron, the only un

way the women have tended to lead on a number of bills this past year in the senate from debbie stabenowss the transportation bill. and one of the things we all talked about, how the women can play a major role in bringing people together to get a budget deal to avoid some of the things we're seeing right now, sequestration and also to bring our debt down in a balanced way. we also mentioned cybersecurity, how he's very focused on that and concerned about some of the latest break-ins and talked to him about energy. it was a really good, broad discussion. >> did you talk about sequestration and the fact that flight delays are affecting the country and a lot of airlines? >> yes, we had a lengthy discussion about the faa and that he has worked with secretary lahood, the head of the transportation department, really to do everything to try to squeeze that budget, given the constraints on the sequestration. >> so what might the white house do about delays? they shift funds around. is it something that he suggested they may take action on? >> well, the first thing he wants to see is a bipartis

wild community capacity -- build community capacity led by senators stab now and blunt -- senators stabenowreally directly goes after the mental health piece of this discussion, and there isn't. they've sort of, you know,'s eshoo t these two plans. they want to separate it in order to pass it. doctor, what about you? would you be in face-to-face of a database that doctors could register, you know, people who they feel it would not be safe to allow to have a gun? is that a possibility, or is there a better way to do it? >> well, you know, you always have to balance privacy rights with public safety. but unfortunately, i think we're at a point in our society now where we do need some sort of database that red flags these people who have a higher potential of violence. as a field, you know, psychiatry, we're not very good at predicting future violence. but we do know that people with certain types of disorders have a greater propensity for violence. martha: chuck, last word on this, you know, because the gentleman that we showed in those pictures, and i guess i use that term loosely, but they

senators dick durbin, diane feinstein, jack reed, mary ,andrieu, and debbie stabenow sheldon whitehousejeanne shaheen, michael bennet, and chris coons were the democratic -- that that attended jericho attended." tony, republican. hi, tony. caller: i wanted to bring up the fact that yesterday the -- obama was out there and the democrats were talking about how the nra by then calling people liars and that kind of stuff. what amazed me that they never talk about all these lies that had to do with obamacare. lie after lie after lie to that is all these democrats do is lie, but they call other people liars. i think that all the companies are to make sure that when they have to lay off people for obamacare, make sure it is your democrat voters that go and send the voters a message to stop sending these democrats in their. host: another article from this morning cost is -- this morning 's newspapers. , * among tea paul party voters, said wednesday he is considering running for resident in 2016, in part because a white house bid would give him a larger microphone for his ideas. he said he would

i feel obligated to senator stabenow that she should have the opportunity to offer herame. i feel an obligation to senator coburn that he should be able to offer his amendment on background checks. i feel an obligation to a number of senators whom we have to do a better job on the issue dealing with veterans. so we're going to have time to work on what people want to do before we come back to this. and it will give opponents an opportunity to decide what they want to do when we get back on this, and it will give antigun advocates time to make their voices heard by republican senators. there is progress made on the bill. we passed a couple of amendments today, a republican amendment and a democratic amendment we passed today. what i suggest to the senate is it wlnt from toeturn to square one procedurally. i think that's good. i'm committed to ensuring that any bill we pass include an expansion of background checks, close the gun loophole, gun show loophole and to cover private sales. so this afternoon i'm going to file cloture on the motion to proceed to the marketplace fair

i hope to have shortly after we finish this list of amendments the ability to move to senator stabenow and she's worked with another bipartisan piece of legislation to even go further in doing something about the mental health problems that we can alleviate, at least on occasion, these terrible, terrible tragedies. as i've said many times, mr. president, the efforts won't stop every criminal bent on violence, but last year's terrible tragedy in newtown was a wake-up call that we're not doing enough to keep our citizens safe. it's hard to even comprehend the scope of the trag did i, let alone recover from it. part of the healing process is this remarkable cefertion about how to prevent violence in america. that conversation is taking place in america today because of boston and because of the thousands of people killed with guns every year. part of the healing process is examining what can be done to prevent more tragedies like the ones in newtown, connecticut, you a rohr a, colorado, oak creek, carson city, nevada, and multiple other places. i believe if we can save the life of a singl

it looks like one of the night vision equipment stabenow circuit in arizona area is given from the military. back then come the same three feet in front of you is a big deal because that's in that we didn't have the ability to do that. many fassler is a knowledge he available today in terms of their ability to see further and with more clarity of some differentiate the type of threat they see in the desert. this depiction captures one piece of technology over the course of the last two years that the enhanced durability to protect this country. >> one more and i'll yield to senator mccain. >> again, this is a snapshot of april for an after picture. if memory serves, this is up in the tucson sector. the top photo depicts a section of the border many years ago. we refer to it appropriately look at the photograph essay -- and the picture below is the same area with a level of infrastructure includes primary offense and all weather roads with access laterally from one area to the other to respond to different threats. you'll see a secondary sense in the background and integrated towers that pro

which i'll reintroduce with my partner group of colleagues, senators moran and murkowski, as well as stabenow, later this week would level the playing field for renewables and give these new technologies a fighting chance in the emerging e marke as weakeheseorts of steps and others, we must also be mindful of the -- the need to reduce our nation's dangerous deficits. but we also need to make sure we're not taking away the tools we desperately need to prepare for these changes to our planet. that means sustained support for scientific research and protecting the programs that are channeling this vital data to our states. the bottom line, in my view, is that climate is already changing. we know that. with this knowledge comes the responsibility to reduce our emissions to mit gatt the -- to mitigate the acts, and to prepare for and take action with regards to these coming changes. climate change is happening, mr. president. it's happening right now. and while it may have local impacts, it has global causes and we ignore these at our peril. i believe we have a responsibility, a responsibility to