thank you. >> tom udall, ladies and gentlemen. i do want to bring in jimmy williams, the executive director of the get money out foundation and author of the get money out amendment, which has, what i would argue, still some of the most aggressive language in really carving out money's role in the political system, making money, not speech. and really using that ncaa construct. jimmy, at the same time, you have to be encouraged to see senator udall step forward, and with the escalating nature of the debate around passing a constitutional amendment to get money out, this has to be encouraging. >> it's very encouraging. listen, tom udall is one of the -- and i'm not saying this because he's a democrat, he's one of the most thoughtful members of the senate, and he was in the house. he's a pretty smart guy. and the good news is that he has an amendment. he said something very interesting, which is that the american people, and you said this as well, don't trust the courts. if that's the case, then i would suggest that we have to go al

and we start with senator tom udall, democrat from new mexico, who introduced the amendment this week. and senator, educate us, what is that it you are working on? >> well, what we're trying to do is exactly what you were talking about, dylan. citizens united has unleashed a flood of special interests money, of corporate money. the decision itself allows corporate treasuries to now be a part of the campaign system. take, for example, exxon, with a corporate treasury of $80 billion. they can go out and flood the electoral system with that money. and what we're saying and we've had enough of that. we need a constitutional amendment so that congress can take back the authority to legislate on campaign finance reform. the supreme court has taken it away from us, they've taken it away from states, they've taken it away from cities. we want it back and we want to put some reasonable limits on so that the place isn't just flooded with this special interest and corporate money. >> 94% of the time, the candidate who raises the most money wins. that's not an election, senator, that's an auction

i'm half excited and a little skeptical and i'll explain why in a second so you have senators tom udall all and michael bennett proposing they are . a constitutional amendment and it sounds good on paper what they're asking for is to end corporate personhood which is something that i'm definitely in favor of they want to overturn citizens united which has been completely toxic to our political system however they want to allow congress to regulate campaign finance ok and they are not putting any language in this constitutional amendment that would dictate what the regulations should be so they're leaving it up to congress which makes me a little skeptical because is congress willing to bite the hand that feeds i don't really think so the majority of people in congress right now are bought so are they really going to be. strong leaders in campaign finance i doubt it but i don't even think we're going to get to that point i don't think that this cause. constitutional amendment will even get the votes necessary from legislators in order for it to pass our will so tell me how you would like

provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: the senate will debate s. 1769 and s. 1786. one is a democratically sponsored infrastructure bill, the other is a republican sponsored. the time until 3:00 will be equally divided and controlled by between the two leaders or their designees. at about 30:00 there will be up to two roll call votes. the first will be on the motion to proceed on s. 1769, the rebuild america jobs act. if that is up successful there will be a second vote on a motion to proceed to s. 1786. both motions will require 60 votes. we expect votes on a number of judicial nominations today. mr. president, yesterday evening i called my friend from searchlight, nevada, named arthur frajello. arthur's family has been in searchlight for 345e7b many years. -- many, many years. his mom and dad have passed away but i keep in touch w

introduced this amendment with several original cosponsors, senator mike lee, senator rand paul, tom udall and senator sherrod brown and by like to thank them for joining in this effort to address our military presence in afghanistan. and the fact that our military forces have done such an excellent job of completing the original missions of destroying al qaeda training camps and bringing to justice those responsible for 9/11. but over this past decade, our mission has changed to one of nation building, a mission that is obstructed by vast corruption, by extraordinary traditional cultural resistance to a strong central government, and by very high illiteracy rate. these factors should have us rethinking how to have the most effective use of our military forces, our intelligence assets, in taking on the war on terror. and that we should be engaging in counterterrorist efforts using our resources wherever the terrorist threat emerges across the world rather than concentrating these vast resources in afghanistan. our sons and daughters and fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers could not hav

provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties f the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in morning business for one hour, the republicans will control the first half and the majority will control the final half. following morning business, the senate will begin consideration of s. 1867, the defense -- the department of defense authorization bill. we expect to receive the conference report to accompany h.r. 2112, the agriculture, c.j.s., and transportation appropriations bill, which also contains the c.r. relating to today's session. the information i've gotten from the house that could change, as iisthat it will be late. i've spoken with senator levin earlier today. it appears that we'll have to be in session to work some of that bill tomorrow, so we may not be able to complete the conference report and the continuing resolution today. w

provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. #. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: the senate will be in a period of morning business until 10:00 a.m. at 10:00 a.m. there will be two hours of debate. around noon two roll call votes on the motion to proceed the joint resolution of disapproval regarding net neutrality and cross-border air pollution. there will be votes in regard to h.r. 674, the 3% withholding repeal act and a cloture vote on the motion to proceed on the energy water appropriations bill will occur later in the afternoon. these votes are currently scheduled for 2:30 today but we expect to get a unanimous consent agreement to begin those as early as 1:45 today. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the time under the previous order for rupblgs of considers -- resumption of consideration of h.r. 674 be modified and the senate resume the bill at 1:30 p.m. and t

thank the original cosponsors who have worked hard on this amendment, senator mike lee, senator tom udall of new mexico, senator rand paul, and senator sherrod brown. the united states went to afghanistan with two main goals that were laid out by president bush: to destroy al qaeda training camps and to hunt down those responsible for 9/11. mr. merkley: our very capable american troops and our nato partners have pursued aggressively these objections -- objectives. there are very few al qaeda operating in afghanistan. secretary of defense leon panetta said in june 2010 that there were, at most, only 50 to 100 al qaeda members in afghanistan. afghanistan is no longer and has not been for some time a central arena for al qaeda activities. american forces have also effectively pursued the second objective: capturing or killing those who attacked america on 9/11. in recent years, america has captured or killed two dozen high-level al qaeda operatives, including khalid sheikh mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the september 11 attacks, 9/11 attacks, was captured in a raid on a house in the pak