stabenow: thank you. and we want to do this today because today marks the 50th anniversary to the day that president john f. kennedy signed into law the community mental health act. the good news is, is he signed this act. the unfortunate news is that it was the last act he signed in his life. but we today want to recognize what that has meant to so many people across the country. this put in place the ability to serve people in the community that have mental health issues rather than just being in institutions. being able to serve people closer to home or at home, to be able to give them opportunity to get the help they need and still be active and successful in the community. i think so many of us have been touched by mental health issues, which, by the way, is part of physical -- it's not mental and physical health. i think it's about time, and i know my friend would agree, that we start treating illnesses above the neck differently than illnesses below the neck. it's about comprehensive health care. b

stabenow: "the chairman of at&t. it is unthinkable the united states could default on its financial obligations and it would be the height of irresponsibility for any public official to consider such a course. our country deserves better. the people of this country deserve better. and we've got to do better for them. i would yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i'm glad to join this debate which throughout the afternoon has been peppered with the assertion that either majority leader reid or the president or democrats in general will not negotiate, that we will not negotiate. i remember when i was younger there was a radio commentator, a man named paul harvey. and his little motto in his radio bits was to surprise you with the rest of the story. well, will not negotiate, you don't even have to go to the rest of the story. go to the rest of the sentence. the rest of the sentence is that the president and the majority leader

i was thinking as you were speaking earlier and chairman stabenow was speaking, how fortunate we are to have two of you as chairs and the two ranking members in senator cochran and congressman peterson. as senator stabenow mentioned the work with senator cochran, he and i are served together for decades. we've both been chairs or ranking members of the senate agriculture committee. we've served on seven farm bill conferences since 1981. i could show you the scars, but having people with experience like the two chairs here and the two ranking members here helps a lot. it's been 13 months since the last farm bill expired. i have farmers in rural communities in vermont telling me every day how imperative it is we overcome our differences. it's not only a farm bill, it's a trade bill, a hunger bill, a conservation bill, a reform bill, innovation bill, deficit reduction bill. it's also a job creation bill. we passed a bipartisan bill twice in the senate. we had -- republicans and democrats, we each had to give some, and we did it. it reforms commodity programs, ends trade distorting polic

i thank you, and ranking member peterson, chairman stabenow, and ranking member cochrin. thank you for the meeting, and i convey appreciation to each member around the table and hard work you have put in over the last several years. the agriculture industry forms the backbone of the 12 rural counties of florida's second congress district. your shared commitment to advancing sound, agriculture policy is greatly appreciate by my people. in particular, chairman lucas, i thank you for your friendship and your leadership in the house. sir, i said to many people you deserve a purple heart for getting us to this point, and i thank you for your patience and your hard work. i'm honored to participate in the process. both as a former member of the house ag committee and as the only member of the conference committee from the state of florida. the second largest specialty crop producing state in america. this farm bill represents a critical step forward for our farmers, growers, and ranchers, and i look forward to doing all that i can do to help restore the certainty that they deser

stabenow: i ask you dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: i thought there were others wishing to speak and since there are not, i want to take one moment to speak about something else that is running out today that i am deeply involved in and deeply concerned about, and that is the farm bill, the five-year agriculture nutrition conservation policy of this country. we are seeing the end today of the extension that was put in place last year because of house inaction. starting tomorrow, we essentially begin to operate on fumes. we will see a time period, a few weeks when we don't see the full impact of having no farm bill. and it is incredibly important that we use this time immediately to negotiate a final farm bill that will not only reduce the deficit as our bill does of $24 billion, but one that can get strong bipartisan vote as we did here in the senate with over two-thirds of the senate twice voting for a comprehensive reform bill that addresses supporting our farmers and ranchers from a risk management standpoint while elimina

so we are going to pivot back to jobs. >> senator debbie stabenow, michigan, good to have you on "the." >>> coming up, a house stenographer gets kicked out. nothing happens when elected officials make bizarre rants, i might add. >>> and still ahead, a right wing conspirator thinks president obama wanted the shutdown? >> next i'm taking your questions. stay with us right here on msnbc. [ female announcer ] who are we? we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. turning dreamers into business owners. trust your instincts to make the call. to treat my low testosterone, my doctor and i went with axiron, the only underarm low t treatment. axiron can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone youn

dimension stabenow? -- did i mention stabenow? okay. let's go over it again. schumer, murray, baucus, mikulski, warner, cardin, klobuchar, whitehouse, stabenow. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. and i rise here because we are getting very close to a time of crisis. perhaps one of the greatest economic crises this country has known. i have many good friends on the other side of the aisle, and i don't doubt for a moment their motivation, their desire and their love of country. it's every bit as strong as those of us on this side of the aisle. and so i make a heartfelt plea. we must come together and avoid a default of the united states. many have said, i've heard some even say on the other side that default doesn't matter. or it doesn't mean much. well, let me explain the danger. there is a very real chance that if we default, there will be a recession greater than what occurred in 2008 and all too real a possib

stabenow: 16 million people. mr. president, the biggest jobs bill in the past year is the farm bill. rural economic development, energy, food-related industries, our conservation efforts, our help for people who are caught up in their own personal economic disasters, which is so critical, they are all counting on us. the men and women who are working hard right now to bring in the harvest are counting on us to get this done. they need a farm bill. we did our job. i'm grateful for leaders on both sides of the aisle who came together. that's how i know that we can stop this shutdown, that we can pay our bills, because we -- we've done things together in the united states senate. we need our colleagues in the house to be willing to step up and do the same. people have waited long enough. it's time to get it done, and it's time to get it done now. thank you, mr. president. i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. coats: mr. pr

cosponsor of the start-up innovation tax credit, something senator rubio and senator schumer and stabenow as well as senator moran have cosponsored and introduced and discussed over time. it would help with access to capital for early stage start-up manufacturers. there are a lot of things we can discuss going forward but for today i am grateful for your leadership with senator brown on this bill that would help strengthen the national network of manufacturing innovation centers. you are a strong leader for manufacturing in your home state of missouri, and i'm grateful for a chance to spend some time with you on the floor today discussing that good bill and your good ideas. mr. blunt: let me talk about the start-up act we've worked on, i think you mentioned all the cosponsors of that, senator rubio, senator stabenow, senator mccain, senator schumer and enzi and what that does is try to extend the opportunity of research and development to start-up businesses. the way the tax credit works if you're -- you can deduct those costs from the taxes you pay but if you're a start-up business you o

i appreciate the leadership of senator stabenow, senator cochran and the doggedness of chairman lucas. the act of 2013 is a bipartisan reform bill that provides tangible and workable solutions that continue our commitment to the hungry, to rural communities and the land and saving taxpayers $24 billion. over the past two years, i've held a series of round tables, perhaps two dozen of them, in ohio where i've asked farmers to tell me what this year's farm bill should look like. ohio's farmers did more than give opinions. they came up with specific answers, gave me insight and guidance and valuable suggestions. they told me that they don't need and don't want direct payments, so i worked with my friend senator thune to improve the safety net and ensure farm production and planting decisions are determined by the market and not by the government program. simply put, ohio's corn and soybean farmers must have a program that decouples target prices from planted acres. that's why i strongly support the senate's commodity title. senate's rural development energy titles provide the mandatory f

they did put in some -- they went towards chairwoman stabenow and put in specialty crops, the thingsally eat, consume that make us go. but they're going to have to figure out the s.n.a.p. stuff. you can't legitimately say, you know, the average person on snap is ten months or less. ten months or less. they make it sound like people are sitting on welfare for 15 years, which is not the case. >> right. >> that's the big divide. that's the bridge they've got to cross. they've got to fix that. after that, you're just talking about numbers at that point. the house and senate bill are pretty close. >> they have to figure it out. jimmy, i can guess your answer to this one, but we asked our halloween facebook fans if someone came to your house trick or treating as senator ted cruz, what candy would you give him? we've had some real creative answers. good-b goobers, gummy works and jaw breakers. like us on facebook and check us out on thecycle .msnbc.com. there's also several halloween themed pieces. what would you give ted cruz in terms of coming to your house as a trick or treater? keep it

as chairs and the two ranking members, senator cochran and congressman peterson, as senator stabenowtioned, the work with senator cochran, he and i served together for decades. we both have been chairs or ranking member of the senate agriculture committee. we worked on seven farm bill conferences in 1981. i can show you the scars. having people with experience, like the two chairs here and the two ranking members here helps a lot. it's been 13 months since the last farm bill expired. i have farmers and rural communities in vermont tell me every day how imperative it is we overcome our differences. it's not only a farm bill, it's a trade bill, it's a hunger bill, a conservation bill, deficit reduction bill, it's also a job creation bill. we passed a bipartisan bill twice in the senate. we had the republicans and democrats. we each had to give some but we did it. we assured a farm bill that supports nation farmers, rural communities, alleviates hunger, reforms commodity programs, ends trade destroying policy, creates jobs and saves taxpayers $24 billion. not bad. on dairy, farmers acro

next, senator stabenow. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman and mr. secretary. i'd just like to ask that we put in the record the complete letter from the national association of manufacturers and i would read one sentence>> "a default would put upward pressure on interest rates, raising both short and long-term costs of capital and discouraging business investment and job creation in america." >> thank you, senator. senator nelson? >> 10 seconds. mr. secretary-- >> [inaudible] >> i'm concerned that you have indicated that we might agree to a short-term extension on the debt ceiling and i think that would be counterproductive -- we'd be back in this soup right at -- at the end of that short-term extension. i commend the president for standing firm. we can't negotiate over the debt ceiling. national security is another consideration. i'll put that in the record. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank -- thank you, senator. senator cardin? >> mr. chairman, thank you. secretary lew, thank you for being here and thank you for giving us -- it's our responsibility to pass t

and i appreciate the work that chairman, senator stabenow has done, our ranking member, senator cochran for their tireless toefrts try to get a new -- efforts to get a new farm bill enacted as soon as possible. this past week's snowstorm is only one example of the urgency behind that to get it done so the programs can represent the farmers and millions and others who rely on agriculture. in my state of south dakota it is our number one industry. we have so many farm and ranch families who look to their leadership here in washington, d.c. to provide some certainty with regard to the rules that they're going to play by. and when we do extensions like the one that we're in the middle of right now, we did a one-year extension last year of the old farm bill, but we don't make the reforms, some of the changes that are necessary to update a farm policy and we don't give producers the certainty that they need as they make their planning decisions for the future. and so getting a five-year, a multiyear reauthorization in place is really important and it's really timely. and my hope would be that

senator stabenow, chairman of the senate agriculture committee made this change in the food stamp program that will save $4 billion and i think will not create hardship, in fact, it closes what may be a loophole. now comes thowns and their -- the house of representatives and their sue view is much different. they want to cut $40 billion, ten times as much over the next ten years. when you look at the approach they're using for these cuts, ten times the amount cut by the senate, you understand how they get their so-called savings. they take almost $4 million -- 3.8 million people out of the program. children, single mothers, unemployed veterans, and americans who get temporary help from the food stamp program. the house would cut $19 billion and 1.7 million people from snap by eliminating the authority of governors of both political parties to ask for waivers so that low-income childless adults under 50 can still receive benefits beyond the three months that they do ordinarily. this says that governors looking at their state with high unemployment understand that there are people in need.

amended, signed by 16 senators as follows -- reid of nevada, durbin, murray, boxer, leahy, whitehouse, stabenow, bennet, rockefeller, tester, reed of rhode island, warner, kaine, cardin, schumer and coons. the president pro tempore: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is is it the sense of the senate the debate on h.r. 2775 as amended shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory. under the rule, the clerk will call the roll. vote: >> there are two votes on the senate floor, this is the vote on cloture which would -- on the bill that would reopen the government through january 15 and extend the debt ceiling thru february 7. s the plan agreed to by senate negotiators and announced on the senate floor earlier today by majority leader harry reid and commented upon by the republican leader, senator mitch mcconnell. doing something different here on c-span, carrying live coverage of the senate while hearing from you as the vote gets under way. if you'd just like to watch the vote itself and hear the call of the role, that is on our companion n

i would have liked to have seen a farm bill that has been worked on so hard by senator stabenow, the gentlelady from michigan, and senator roberts, the gentleman from kansas. thathey've worked wonderfully oa bipartisan farm bill. it was something really to be proud of in the senate. i would have liked to have athatched to the appropriation -- attached that to the appropriations, but we decided no riders, nothing cute, nothing clever, no earmarks, nothing like that, straightforward money bills ready to go to conference. we couldn't get it. but they are passed -- they are passed in the appropriations committee. we are waiting to get to work. so i'm going to conclude by saying this: the republican -- the tea party republicans say they don't have the votes in the house to reopen government. give it a chance. put the vote to the floor. if we win, government is reopened. if we lose, at least we offered a suggestion and back toed to -d back to the drawing board. but the solution to reopening the government lies on speaker boehner's desk. he says he wants to have a conversation. we say, pick

stabenow: thank you, mr. president. we're hearing a lot of discussion right now about the role of government, the role of the public sector. we know that there's a minority of the minority in the house of representatives who ran on shutting the government down, were elected, think they've achieved something, as we see the economy teetering now, as we see people who have been put out of work, who have mortgages and car payments and imernz their -s about their children and so on, all the services that are in jeopardy, from food safety to law enforcement to what happens in the case of an oil spill and all of the things inbetween. and i've found it interesting that with our colleagues who have embraced the idea that in the greatest country in the world, in the greatest democracy in the world, that there is no need for the public sector. now, no one else, by the way, is having this debate around the world. nobody is having a debate. they are embracing every tool of the public sector to embrace their private sector, to try to

stabenow: let me go on and conclude with this.we have heard earlier on the floor from the junior senator from texas who spoke eloquently about the great work being done by the veterans health care system. and it's unfortunate that it took a government shutdown for my colleague, madam president, if i might say through you, to understand how important a completely government-run health care system is. the v.a. is completely government run and funded. and colleagues who are opposing people buying private insurance through private exchanges to make their own decisions about what works for them, who are saying it's the end of the world if families can buy insurance that's more affordable for them and that they can actually get what they're paying for because doctors can't kick them off when they get sick, or block them from getting insurance with a preexisting condition, saying that's awful. but a completely government-run health care system called the v.a. should be funded. well, i happen to agree with that. our system through the v.a

before i go on about the details of this senate bill, i would like to thank chairman stabenow for her incredible leadership and perseverance in getting us to this point that has been so long awaited. under chairman stabenow's leadership, the senate agriculture committee put together a farm bill that strengthens the safety net for our nation's farmers and ranchers, warms and streamlines our agriculture and conservation and nutrition programs while still keeping them strong and as i mentioned reducing $24 billion from the nation's debt. throughout the process, we faced unprecedented challenges and delay. we have the lack of a dance partner over in the house, but then of course we have the traditional issues -- regional disputes about how certain crops and commodities should be handled, some few partisan issues here and there, but somehow we were able to come together to the point where the senate bill was supported by 68 senators, madam president, including 18 republicans. i believe that this is a testament to the open process we had, the endless amendments that we voted on on the floor

amended, signed by 16 senators as follows -- reid of nevada, durbin, murray, boxer, leahy, whitehouse, stabenow, bennet, rockefeller, tester, reed of rhode island, warner, kaine, cardin, schumer and coons. the president pro tempore: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is is it the sense of the senate the debate on h.r. 2775 as amended shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory. under the rule, the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the president pro tempore: there will be order, please. on this vote the yeas are 83, the nays are 16. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, -- under the previous order, cloture having been invoked, all time is yielded back, the clerk will read the title of the bill for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 193, h.r. 2775, an act to condition the provision of premium and cost sharing subsidies and so forth and for other purposes. the president pro tempore: the question occurs on the passage of h.r. 2775 a