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senator thune, welcome. so we learned yesterday that federal agents notified more than three son companies last year that their computer systems had been hacked. i'm certain there many more breaches that we never hear about. in my zeal a number of years ago, i asked the sec if they would sort of make it a requirement that every time somebody was hacked into, that had to be reported to the sec, put on the website for the vengeance of the shareholders, because that's the kind of information they need to know if they're going to buy or sell or whatever. that's haphazard at best. so target is going to tell us today that they take data security very strictly and that they follow their industries data security standards. but the fact remains it wasn't enough. the credit card numbers of 40 million people and e-mail addresses of nearly 70 million people were potentially stolen under their watch. my staff has carefully analyze what we know at this point about the target breach. in a new report that identified many pr

i thank senator thune for working on it. what brought 86 together is democrats said we've really seen all these special interest tax breaks clutter up the code. there have been thousands and thousands of them. republicans said, okay, we're concerned the tax code is incredibly inefficient. it's not doing what's necessary for growth. in effect, both sides said they could support the other. nerds, right at the get-go, there was a major opportunity for common ground. i think we found another one given the fact consumers drive about 70 appearanpercent of thec activity in the country, we ought to do something to help the middle class. senator gregg and senator coates and myself and another have come up with a paid for middle class tax cut, paid by eliminating a host of the other special interest breaks and tripling the standard deduction. give me your thoughts if you might for a minute before we recognize senator thune, what are other areas where there's opportunity for common ground? in other words, we know that there's differenc

thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, yesterday we -- the democrats in the senate here held a news conference in which they rolled out their agenda, which has been described differently by different news organizations. the headline from the "washington examiner" said majority threatened, democrats take up populist agenda to distract obamacare." "the wall street journal" said "senate democrats try to change subject from obamacare." and "the new york times," in reporting on that story, their headline was democrats as part of mid-term strategy to schedule votes on pocketbook issues, so that was a little more perhaps flattering headline. in the story in "the new york times," it goes on to say that the proposals have little chance of passing. democrats concede that making new law is not really the point. rather, they are trying to force republicans to vote against them. and later on in the story, "the new york times," it goes on to say part of the goal is to energize a democrat base which will be crucial to turn out

now, earlier, my colleague luke russert spoke to south dakota republican senator john thune and askedhe agriculture industry has been so successful. >> i think part of it, luke, is just there's really strong global demand for american agricultural products, and it's raised commodity prices in this country, and when commodity prices are good, more people want to farm. our state of south dakota is the $21 billion industry in our state. and so, it's the number-one driver of our economy. we pay close attention to it. it has put a floor under our economy. and i think it's helped the national economy in the same way. when you have a really strong agricultural sector, it helps sort of prop up some of the other areas of the economy that aren't performing so well. >> and that's now allowed you to keep your unemployment rate so low? >> it has. you are our unemployment rate is higher than north dakota, 2.6%, and nebraska is about 3.5%. so we're number three in the nation. i think that's part of it, because when the ag economy performs well, then the other businesses, when the farmers come in, th

secretary. >> thank you, senator thune. a couple business matters and then we can wrap up on the question of hearing from you with respect to ukraine, secretary lew. all we're interested in is getting a sense from the department what kind of guidelines and principles we ought to be using in evaluating those of proposals that have been advanced by senators in terms of holding russia accountable for the incursion into the ukraine. obviously, matters like timeliness, effectiveness is what we want to hear from you on, if you could get that to senator hatch, that would be great. althou also, i expect senators may want to submit questions to you in writing and hold the record open until friday on that. also, just because i know members and staff have some questions with respect to the business meeting that have been noticed for this morning, we obviously don't have a quorum at this time. we do have some organizational issues to work through. it's my intent to consult with senator hatch and have a business meeting off the floor. t

thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i come to the floor today to discuss the fourth anniversary of obamacare. four years ago this past sunday, the president signed his health care legislation into law. the measure was jammed through congress on a party-line vote against the strong objections of republicans and of the american people. democrats and the president assured everyone that this opposition was temporary. when people find out what's in the law, they will like it. democrats and the president promised. four years later, however, that isn't the case. the majority of the american people still disapprove of the law. and why do they still disapprove? well, because the president's health care law has failed in every possible way. you have got canceled health care plans. you have seen people who have lost their doctors and lost their hospitals. you have seen soaring premiums, higher out-of-pocket costs, lower pay, disastrous web sites that have left tho

senator john thune has been watching the administration to make sure some of them don't get that gift the american people get that gift. >> every american ought to be outra outraged. this is cronyism at its worse. basically, the president said he and his friends are above the law. because there is a tax insurance that is designed to apply to all plans. what the president did is waive that for self-administered plans, namely unions so that they don't have to pay the tax. and because the tax is designed to raise a certain revenue that means everybody else has to pay a higher tax. >> so they have to get -- under the law i think it is $25 billion in the first year raised. forgive me if that is wrong. if you take the unions out of that, or some core group of unions out of that you still have to get to that number and the rest of the american people have to pay it. >> the tax is designed to absorb the cost of people with pre-existing conditions. well, when you exempt a big group of people like they have with the unions what that means is other employers, charities, faith-based organizations

but i just wanted the committee to know we'll go to senator thune, then we'll take as short a recess as we can, come back and conclude the hearing. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. mulligan, we know the target breach affected two types of data. one was the payment card data of approximately 40 million target shoppers and other perm data of -- personal data of up to 70 million customers. what steps have you taken to provide your customers the assurance that their personal information's going to be protected going forward? >> senator, immediately upon identifying the malware, we removed it from our system, we closed the portal that created the access point in the first place, we've narrowed the scope of who has access to our systems. we also began an investigation and hired a third party adviser to do an end-to-end review. not just forensics, but a review of our entire data security, technology processes and controls. from that we will have additional learnings, and we've already taken steps that we've learned from there. we've enhanced our data segmentation, hardened our perimeter, and

being shifted in the marketplace. 4 i'm -- >> i am going to recognize senator thurmond -- senator thune. we have five votes scheduled. we will work that out. recess ande a short come back and conclude the hearing. mulligan, we're still learning all the details of the target reach but we know that affected two types of data. one was the payment card data of approximately 40 million customers and personal data of up to 70 million customers. the question is, what steps have you taken to provide your customers the assurance that their personal information is going to be protected going forward. we have taken several steps. we immediately removed the malware from our system. we close the portal that created the access point print we narrow the scope of who has access to the system. the scope of who has access to the system. we have a review of our entire data security, processes, and controls. from that we will have additional earnings and we have taken steps that we have learned from their. we have in hazard data segmentation. perimeterrdened our and we have increased malware detection was

john thune says the gift has happened, it has been given, can it be taken back? there have been special deals in the beginning, there was the cor cornhusker kickback, then the louisiana purchase, the special deal for louisiana, the gate gatorade, since the law has been implemented, the president is delaying suspending portions of it over two dozen times. now it is the hardship exemption. well, look, the solution to this is to give a hardship exemption to everybody. and republican senators believe that we ought to repeal the individual mandate and restore the money raised by repealing the individual mandate to the medicare program to restore medicare advantage and other programs for seniors that have been used to fund all of this. >> but that is not going to happen with a democratic president in the white house. with barack obama in the white house. so that -- right now that is just talk. is there any realistic you know, workout or end around, whichever you know the people want for this law? >> well, the roadblock is the democratic senate. you know one thing the v

. >> here is john thune talking about what he thinks should be done. >> obamacare is making things forclass much, much worse. not better. and that just comes out in this report over and over again. and so what we would argue is if the president really does want to make things better for the middle class, a good place to start would be to put this thing on hold for everybody rather than just selecting a few people he wants a delay or exempt or carve out from obamacare, let everybody have a break from obamacare. and let's start over and do this in a common sense way that actually does lower the cost of health care and expand care for middle class americans. >> saying it for a while. is it working? >> well, there's no doubt obamacare is unpopular nationally and remains that way. the problem for republicans is they haven't settled on an alternative. now they're talking about repeal. they say replace all the time. we want to replace it. with what? they have to come up with something. >> they have many. they haven't settled with one. >> that's one of the advantages, that obamacare has burnt

senator john thune joins us. nice to see you, sir. >> nice to see you, greta. >> so, there is a delay, i suppose some people are having a little trouble with the system. >> well, if you listen to what senator reid said today at a press conference, the reason that people are having problem with this is because they are not educated on using the internet. now, that's. >> but that assumes that you have an internet that works. >> right, right. right. but that's on top of statements that he made previously on the senate floor where he said that these stories being told people are just making them up, essentially called the american people liars. so, i mean i think they are desperately looking for some way to explain why you have now like 30 delays in this most recent one piled on to the previous ones basically is just another example that this law isn't working. they know it's not working. they obviously want to protect vulnerable democrats who are running for re-election this year. i think that's basically what these

i want to thank our cosponsors, senators murray, thune, hirono, baldwin an heitkamp for their support of this amendment. i want to thank senators harkin and alexander and mikulski and burr for working together to bring this bill to this point. thank you very much, and i would yield to my colleague from north carolina. mr. burr: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: mr. president, i rise in strong support of the amendment. i urge my colleagues, this is a reasonable improvement to the bill, and i think senator franken stated it very well. this amendment increases the amount of ccdbg funding set aside for tribes from not more than 2% to not less than 2%. sounds like a big difference -- or not much of a difference. but this has a tremendous impact on the predictability of tribes, the dollars that are going to be available to them. so i would urge my colleagues to support the franken-murkowski amendment. i yield the floor. mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i just want to join with senator burr in

republicans like john thune say that is in part because of all these tweaks. >> if they really carede american people, they would delay this law in its entirety. and, that would be the best thing they could do. then work with us in an approach that actually does address the costs of health care in this country. >> reporter: you hear republicans on the hill also saying when they try to repeal or change the law, they're accused of sabotage, but when the president changes his own law, the white house says that's a good thing. jenna? jenna: how is the white house responding in general, ed? >> reporter: well, the white house officials as well as top democrats on the hill are defending the president saying what he is trying to do is give consumers more flexibility. this particular issue with delaying and allowing the ability with this two-year delay for people to keep individual plans, democrats say like chris van hollen, that is what republicans are yelling about, people like the plan if they liked it keep it. president is boeing back to do that. chris van hollen said stick with it. >> yo

thune: it's reducing americans' health care choices, and it's encouraging employers to cut hours and benefits. our health care system may have needed reform but this was not the way to do it. even the president's strongest supporters are having buyer's remorse. and, madam president, a lot of americans are hurting right now thanks to the president's health care law. as we hear from more and more americans, more and more south dakotans, people all across this country who are struggling under the law's burdens, i hope that democrats here who i believe privately are rethinking their vote for this law, will have the courage to publicly join us in calling for its repeal. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: thank you, madam president. last night the majority party had a all-night session talking about energy but there's no specific action plan with legislation drafted and introduced that let's just, instead of talking about it here on the senate floor, let's do it. let's start voting. let's pass it

strong conservation protection in that bill and new ideas like the sod saver provision that senator thune and i introduced and got signed in to law. so for the people of our state, the economic impacts of climate change is about their livelihood. it's about a way of life. i mentioned the 2012 drought. it was the worst drought since 1956 and cost over $30 billion in damage nationwide. the drought was uneven in our state. you would visit one farmer, their crops were fine. you'd go down to the next county and their crops would be devastated. at the same time, as some farmers were experiencing not enough rain, farmers in other parts of our state actually lost their crops due to flash floods. research that looks at weather changes in minnesota indicates that extreme weather events, which include heavy rainfall, are becoming more and more frequent. these are costs that are borne heavily by farmers, ranchers, by consumers. these production costs lose revenue, they lose supply, they drive up costs at the grocery store for everyone. now, one of the things that i don't think people always think abo

which we don't know, it also makes just as much sense because we're not going to avoid radar below 5 thuneso now the big question of them all. when we're dealing with this, i have my phone and you can find it anywhere. we're assuming so many people on board had it. what are the different factors we can check off about why the plane hasn't been located by those devices? >> well, this plane didn't have that system on board. it's a separate system from t-cas or transponds are and you have a separate system on the phone to have we five for your head fence. is sometimes when you're flying on the plane and up foye gch they actually had to hit a tower and that was one of the within. >> what about when they were going back offer malaysia, if it's true about this left-hand turn. >> that's what suspicious to me, they did have to go back over land and there's a possibility they would have passed a power but there were none if it was taken and there, wouldn't they then come into play? >> they should. there's loss of, the cell phone was was within range of some program, you would think out of 219 with

thune. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say nay. the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. under the previous order, the question occurs on amendment number 2842 offered by the senator from massachusetts, ms. warren. all those in favor say aye. all opposed, say nay. the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. under the previous order, the question now occurs on amendment number 2839, as modified, offered by the senator from colorado, mr. bennet. all knows in favor say aye. all opposed, say nay. the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. -- as modified. mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam, i move to table all the previous voice votes that we just had and then to lay that on the table. the presiding officer: does the senator wish to move to reconsider? mr. harkin: i move to reconsider and then move to lay that reconsideration on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations whic

thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak up to 12 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i, too, want to lend my voice to -- i was listening to the discussion that just occurred on the floor. i don't think there's any group of americans more deserving of our support than the men and women who have worn the unilateral for the purpose of this country -- the uniform of this country and so bravely and courageously defended america's freedom and our democracy. and i and i soa hope, like my cs who speak spoke just a minute ago, that we can come to an agreement that would allow us to do the things on which we agree. there are so many things -- i think that 80% of the debate last week between what the senator from vermont proposed and the senator from north carolina proposed were the same things, and we ought to be able at least to $those things we agree on -- to do those t

they included senators alexander, corner, grassley, hatch, johanns, roberts and thune. i hope that the senate will provide the same support to the philippines that it provided to haiti. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the finance committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1821, that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that the hirono-heller amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, that the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, further, that upon passage, the bill be held at desk and that if the senate receives from the house a bill the text text of which is identical to s. 1821 as passed by the senate, the senate proceed to its immediate consideration of the bill, the bill be read three times and passed without any intervening action or debate. finally, the passage of the senate bill be vitiated and the bill be indefinitely postponed and all motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. sessions: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator