senator toomey? >> i move the committee consider the amendment notwithstanding the committee of the chair. >> under the committee rules, for them to have the ruling of the chair, two-thirds of the members present have to agree, and thus, proxies are not in order. the question before the committee is, shall the committee consider the amendment notwithstanding the ruling of the chair? a yes volt would allow consideration of the amendment, and a no vote would sustain the ruling of the chair. i believe that a recorded vote is appropriate, and the clerk will now call the roll. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] >> the clerk will announce the results of the vote. >> mr. chairman it's nine as 13 nays. >> it's not agreed to, and, colleagues, we are done with the extended pack yag here, certainly under ten minutes. all colleagues stay -- >> mr. chairman? >> yes? >> recognized for 30 # seconds, if i may? >> please. >> senator casey and senator toom eric y made a great pitch for the economic impact. i think wh

toomey. mr. toomey: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: thank you, madam president. i want to thank my colleague from west virginia, senator manchin, for his terrific efforts on this legislation. i also want to thank our other cosponsors, senator mcconnell and senator inhofe, for their support as well. the tragic story that inspired this bill has a connection to my state of pennsylvania and senator manchin's state of west virginia. so it made it kind of a natural, natural for us to work together on this. it's a terrible story indeed, madam president. i just want to summarize it because it goes to the heart of why i'm here this morning. the story begins in delaware county, pennsylvania, where one of the schoolteachers was found to have molested several boys and raped one. prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to actually press charges, but the school knew what had happened so they dismissed the teacher for this outrageous behavior. shockingly and so disturbingly, the school also helped this teacher to get a new job so th

i look forward to offering one or two amendments including with senator toomey to help small business and have a dialogue with my colleagues on ferc to to set a foundation for what i hope to be a success in the future. >> thank you senator menendez and i know you are doing important work and i look forward to working with you. senator toomey. >> i too want to say in a body that is not considering nearly as much legislation as it ought to on the floor and far too committees are not working i commend you for a meaningful substantive open markup. this is exactly what we should be doing and i commend you for that. i think it's unfortunate we are continuing for another two years in this case a very flawed policy of the temporary tax code and i was encouraged by your insistence that this is the last of them. that is very important. i think of the many items in this list of extenders many of them fall into one of two categories. there is a handful that are unambiguously pro-growth and encourage economic activity without discriminating or distorting economic activity and though should be made

senate. >> the manchin/toomey amendment was defeated despite broad popular support. and a new study out of princeton and northwestern university could explain why. two political scientists looked at almost 2,000 policy cases over 20 years, trying to answer some basic questions. does public opinion translate into actual policy? and whose opinion matters? they found that average citizens' preferences have essentially zero estimated impact upon policy change. you heard that right! the average voters' opinion just doesn't matter. so what does? major business interest groups, like the gun lobby, and rich people. the researchers found that while the opinion of the average american has zero impact on policy, the opinions of economic elites have a very large, positive independent impact. this is certainly not the box we learned about in school. ♪ we're going to elect a president ♪ ♪ who's going to do what the people want ♪ >> in fact, it sounds like the textbook definition of oligarchy, government by the few. so if the will of the people is not enough to get something popula

toomey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: mr. president, i rise to speak on senate bill 96, the protecting students from sexual and violent predators act. before i do that, mr. president, i want to say a few words about the terrible event that occurred this morning in pennsylvania. the students at franklin regional high school in murrysville, pennsylvania, suffered a terrible, devastating tragedy this morning. a person -- and this person is believed to be a fellow student -- took out a knife and attacked his fellow students before the start of the school day. it appears as many as 20 people were injured, some severely. our thanks go out to the first responders who did respond as rapidly as they could, and our prayers go out to those who were injured and their families at franklin regional high school. mr. president, i want to turn to this bill that i have introduced, the protecting students from sexual and violent predators act. it's senate bill 1596. i want to thank my cosponsor, senator joe manchin and senator mitch mcconnell.

i went to my senators, casey dropped a bill and toomey came on board.ave issues where it's not moving. i've been down since last march. it's almost been a year since the house bill dropped and nobody is moving putting this bill on the floor. >> is there opposition to this bill that would mandate secondary doors? >> there is, unfortunately. and i don't know why there is. the head of the tni is in the house, and they are not allowing this bill to come out for a vote. congressman schuster is the congressman who is the head of the tni. he has released it to the tni committee and it's not moving anywhere. >> people who are watching and agree can pick up the phone, send an e-mail, get on board and encourage congress to be supported to you. thank you for what you're doing. >>> lots of theories as to what happened to flight 370 and airline officials don't seem to know more than anybody else. i went across the street and asked folks, what do you think happened? >>> for the families of the missing on flight 370, the past 28 days have been a singular and solitary

you and the worst someone named pat toomey over senator specter if i'm not mistaken. [applause] >> he went out on a limb. >> i was lectured that he couldn't win in pennsylvania and that we needed to support moderate. and what i found all over the country is that if the voters wanted a moderate if they were going to vote for democrats and what we need is inspiring conservatives and folks that understand our ideas make life better for people, that i went out on a limb in florida for rand paul and i had been in the senate to realize we couldn't change the senate until we changed some of the people who were there. once that happened after 2010 i saw all of the pressures in washington started cutting the legs out from a number of all of these good guys. i had seen if he went outside of washington and engaged people correct me with a good message and good people, you could do what everyone said was impossible and that encouraged me but i realized we couldn't win from the inside. i could make a little bit of the difference hoping elect folks from stopping the bad legislation

our black box returned before coming to washington was because our united states senator, senator toomey letter to mary barra about how gm had treated us and to return the black box. he also wrote a letter to nhtsa. the last two days at the hearings between the house and the senate, the idea that she had a tough time of it, if anybody is reporting that, it's not the case. if anybody had a tough time and has been frustrated and aggravated, it's been the families and the congressmen and the senators who have been trying to get answers from her. they're the ones who have had a couple tough days. she just gives the standard answer which we have to do our internal investigation. they're asking her very basic questions that have been well publicized in the media concerning dates, when there were various recalls, and when they have known about problems. they're asking her all sorts of questions, and she will not even respond there. then when they ask her -- demand more answers such as who was aware of these problems and when, she refuses -- >> mr. ruddy, the show is just about to end. we hate t

in fact interestingly enough toomey in the last year or two that phrase has come back into the public discourse on little bit. so anyway, i think that american exceptionalism sort of freezes the story. another major theme in aspect of the history and culture is of course diversity. many different people. human difference which i think has been central to the country's history again from the beginning when the colonial period began and got underway then you had three different major population streams coming european, native american and african's sort of converging in the country. this was totally without precedent and again to the present day the freedom of diversity and the mixing differs and has been central to our culture and history and to our lives and obviously to the school that speaks of that. and one more thing to mention, this is a story of failure. and if there is a connection to the larger that isn't so much the history of such, but the way that we understand our history. we don't think, we don't like to think much about failure. american history is supposed to be a succe

mentioned earlier, and it will finally repeal the job-destroying medical device tax, which senators toomey and hatch and coats have been tirelessly fighting. my amendment ensures that veterans and the long-term unemployed are not punished by the costs of obamacare, the employer mandate in that legislation. senator blunt has raised that issue in the senate on behalf of veterans and in the house, a similar bill passed by a margin of 406-1. mr. president, my amendment also provides permanent targeted tax relief to millions of small businesses. small businesses create 65% of all new jobs yet this administration's done little more than punish them with more regulations and higher taxes. the amendment also halts the harmful e.p.a. regulations until the e.p.a. conducts additional analysis of the impact those existing rules would have on jobs. it is time, mr. president, that this body recognizes the policies the other side is advancing are not achieving the outcomes that they claim will occur. we need to renew or commitment to helping all americans, including women, find job opportunities that all

chris toomey joins us. when you look at the green arrows. merger and acquisition activity. is this a new catalyst that you need? >> i think we are in a situation where the global economy is expanding and i think corporate balance sheets is underway. one of the key catalysts is going to be m and a activity. i wonder about p the structure of deals. a lot of these deals are made up of cash and stock. it depends on the individual situation and industry that we are balking about. as long as we continue to see deals being down. n now that we are half way through the earnings season clearly it looks like eps grown. did you get the guidance and the out looks that you needed on the markets? >> i think the out look has been continuing to come down. 40% and 10%. that is in line with what we have seen in the past. the market has taken into the account the bad winter affected earnings. but we are seeing clear winners and losers in this market. >> the market has gone nowhere. >> the average company. >> when we were coming towards the end of last year the

joe scarborough, it's not often i give joe credit on the survey, with senator manchin and senator toomeye right wingnut that said i walked barefoot until i came to congress. >> i'm not saying any part of that wasn't true. but sometimes the truth has to be clear. >> okay. let's pick up on what john was just talking about there. in a recent interview with the "the new york times" as john was suggesting, former mayor michael bloomberg reflected on his legacy of attacking gun safety and obesity saying, quote, i am telling you, if there say god. when i get to heaven, i'm not stop to be interviewed. i'm heading straight in. i have earned my place in evan. it's not even close. that is humility. >> that is confidence, peter king. >> yeah, li listen, i wish all s had the confidence of bloomberg. i would say he's going to make it to heaven. he'll probably get there before i will. we are different opinions on aspects of mike bloomberg. fact is, he got things done. he was an outstanding mayor. for 12 years in new york, the streets were clean. jobs were coming in. the city was expanding. and if anybo

toomey: madam president, this is the same legislation. for is same reason on behalf of senators coburn and cruz, i object. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. walsh: in the far northwestern corner of montana is one of the most special places on earth, the north fork of the flathead river. it's a gravel bed river that starts in british columbia and runs along the western half of graisher national park before arriving in flathead lake. the north fork is a world-class trout fishery with bull trout and cutthroat trout sharing the same waters that grizzly bears rely on for huckle berries. montanans have always enjoyed rafting, hiking and fishing and hunting in it. today about two million people visit glacier national park each year bringing $170 million into the local economy and supporting 2,750 jobs. for 40 years, montanans have fought to keep the north fork pristine. my colleague, senator jon tester and i are committed to taking this across the finish line. 40 years ago, montana and british columbia reached an historic agre

it will finally repeal the job-destroying medical device tax which senators toomey and hatch have been tirelessly fighting which has cost us by some estimates 30,000 jobs already in our economy because of this new job-killing tax. my amendment ensures that veterans and the long-term employed are not -- unemployed are not punished lie the cost of the employer mandate. it includes a provision that senator blunt offered that raised this issue on behalf of veterans and in the house it passed by a vote of 406-1. certainly we can find a few democrats who are willing to provide obamacare relief to veterans in the -- and the long-term unemployed. my amendment also provides permit targeted tax relief to small businesses. small businesses create 60% of all new jobs yet this administration has done little more than punish them with more regulations and higher taxes. thisthis amendment provides capl gains tax relief for investing in small businesses and expands options to increase cash flow. it allows small businesses to deduct more start-up costs and puts the self-employed on an equal playing fie

or the proposal from senators hatch, toomey and coats to repeal the tax on medical devices, a tax that has already negatively affected tens of thousands of jobs in this industry and stands ready to damage many more. then there's senator portman's bill to require executive branch agencies to conduct a cost-benefit anal sills of new regulations so that fewer burden p some, job-killing regulations emerge from the regulation. and senator lee and senator mcconnell's bills to give workings more flexibility in the workplace so they can make it to more soccer games and more dance reciteals while maintaining steady jobs. and senator rubio's bill to amend the national labor relations act to allow employers to give raises to deserving employees. and my own bill to help long-term unemployed workers by providing a onetime low interest loan to start a new job or -- the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. thune: those are the things we ought to be focusing on, mr. president. i hope we'll start and start creating jobs and opportunities for the american people. the presiding officer: