wyden? mr. wyden votes yeah. >> other members wishing to vote or change the votes? seeing none the clerk will report the tally. >> mr. chairman, on that vote there were four ayes and three nays. >> four ayes, three nays. the amendment is agreed to on the senate side which then sends it to the house side. does the house have the language of the bill? i think we do have it. i will claim the time on the majority side and would just note that this amendment to the pain management task force was never raised as part of either chamber's deliberations that we're aware of during committee or floor considerations. particularly given some of the vague terminology used, it could have unintended consequences that have not been carefully considered such as making qualified participants less willing to participate in the task force, including some of the foremost experts in pain management. it could also cast unwarranted doubt on the integrity or validity of the recommendations raised by participants, including patients and veterans so i would respectfully urge my colleagues on t

wyden. >> aye. >> mr. wydenim votes aye. >> votes aye. >> votes aye. >> mr. chairman on that vote there were four ayes and three nays. >> four ayes, three nays. the amendment is agreed to on the senate side which then sends it to the house side. does the house have the language of the bill? i think we do have it. we do have it. i will claim the time on the majority side and would just note that this amendment to the pain management task force was never raised as part of either chambers deliberations that we're aware of during committee or floor consideration. particularly given some of the vague terminology used, it could have unintended consequences that have not been carefully considered such as making qualified participants less willing to participate in the task force, including some of the foremost experts in pain management. it could also cast unwarranted doubt on the integrity or validity of the recommendations raised by participants, including patients and veterans. so i would respectfully urge my

senator cardin. >> thank you, senator wyden. dr. conway, thank you very much. i would want to drill down a little bit as to what your objectives are, particularly as you move towards the second phase of the demonstration to as i understand the first phase, as i was listening to senator portman's question, it's revenue neutral. your those challenges to understand what you're trying to achieve and trying to do it in a way that uses current resources more effectively in dealing with the reasonable costs associated with administering these drugs. the second phase i'm not quite as clear as to your objectives. and that is, is it your anticipation that it will save projected costs? if it's going to say projected costs, do you know the range of your trying to get to in that second phase? >> yeah, so we believe both phases have the potential to maintain or generate savings and improve quality for patients. and the second phase, as we put in the proposal, we would come forward with, in the future, the specifics around drug classes and that there is arrangements. we have

>> thank you, senator wyden. you correctly note the growth in part "b" drug spending, and it's been an over 8% growth year on year since 2007. i share your concern on access to medications. the current environment, as you noted with co-insurance and potential for 20% co-insurance, as you can imagine for seniors on a fixed income, you know, 20% of the $10,000 cost or whatever it might be can be a substantial financial hardship and can limit access to medications. we also did propose this test because we had not to date had a proposal directly in the drugs based in paying for value. we do think paying for value is important, as you said, across the health system including in the drug space, and so we -- hence, we made this proposal. we have other proposals that include drugs as a part of the proposal but we do think for paying for value in drugs is important similar to how it is important whether it's hospitals, physicians, et cetera. >> does this threaten the sustainability of the program for future generations, a

wyden: i'm going to address this morning, mr. president, two issues which the senate finance committee has spent a considerable amount of time on and both of them are examples of how the senate is leaving important work undone on its way out the door. and i'm going to begin by discussing the opioid bill. now, if there ever was an issue that ought to be unifying in the congress, that ought to bring democrats and republicans together to surmount an important challenge, it ought to be opioid addiction in america. this is a crisis indiscriminate of geography and politics. the reality is opioid addiction is ripping through our communities like wildfire. a recent editorial in one of my home state newspapers captured the urgency, the extreme urgency of the opioid struggle with the addiction, and i quote, "opioids are winning. after months of work, the senate and the house has come up with an opioid bill." i can give my assessment in a sentence. it is a half measure. the job is far from complete. and certainly nobody ought to be taking v

wyden: i note the ab-- mr. merkley: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i rise to ask if we are in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. kaine: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaine: mr. president, i rise briefly to offer a tale of two cities. my comments are in a deep and disturbed reaction to the police shootings of alton sterling in louisiana and ferlando cast teal in minnesota. these shootings, one an african-american father of five selling c.d.'s at a convenience store and one of a beloved african-american school cafeteria supervisor are shocking. all people of goodwill have to ask in the words that president obama uttered an hour or so ago, what if something like this happened to somebody in your family? the first city is the world of american police officers. our law enforcement officers are

wyden the clerk will report the title. >> it will be considered as read the gentleman is is recognized. >> this is an amendment to make sure that when you have a task force the interagency task force he don't have the fox to guard the hen house there are members that are serving as part of the task force in what is important if there are clear rules to make sure there is not biased in the work there will be represented as their professional associations that often receive substantial amount of funding i have raised this issue before with the secretary of the national academy of medicine and it seems if you have nonfederal participants you should have clear guidelines to make sure any financial interest the conference language has no safeguards to ensure that either occurs this does not micromanage but does require there should be rules that special interest don't hijack the work of the task force indeed hopi way area a whole my colleagues will support the amendment as a conflict of interest in their urge them to support this in a bipartisan way i hope colleagues will support it and i y

ron wyden was a nader like white panther.sented senior citizens who were poor in his home state. ran for house and senate and won one of the few examples. -- ran for house and senate and won. one of the few examples. i want to go back more to your sons video. when that video came out, it was 2001 for the race. when did it hit the sundance air waves? there were some deep things. -- iffy things. there was one thing that i begged him to cut and he did. as a footnote, primary night for mayor when i won the runoff. when i got into the runoff, i'm sorry. i called peter valone. a very formidable city council speaker and chatted before returns were known and he said he may get into the runoff. i get on the phone and say to someone, he is creating his own reality. i say only because i have to say everything now 15 years later. it was ungenerous and it was not relevant to anything. >> here is some of the video from that very night. and i think the family. [laughter] [indiscernible] >> that was painful. >> a lot going on. >> that was th

senator mikulski, barrasso, risch, cornyn, cantswell, wyden and sanders. and i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 223 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to disagree to the house amendment, agree to the request from the house for a conference, and the presiding officer appoint the following conferees, murkowski, barrasso, risch, cornyn, cantswell, wyden and sanders with respect to s. 2012, an original bill to provide for the modernization of the energy policy of the united states and for other purposes. signed by 17 senators. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the mandatory quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: and i ask consent this cloture vote occur at 3:30 p.m. today with the time from 2:

i want to thank leader reid and senators murray, schumer, leahy, wyden, alexander, and all the members of the conference committee for their steadfast support of these reforms. an importantly, i want to thank and recognize all of their staffs and my staff for their tireless work through late nights and weekends to get this bill to the finish line. this legislation is informed by the collaborative efforts of a broad range of outside health and veterans organizations, and i'm grateful for their expert contributions. and i cannot forget the incredible work of the senate legislative counsel, specifically tom haywood for his expert drafting and redrafting and redrafting and technical expertise on this bill. today we send major veteran reforms by the jason simcakoski opioid memorial act to the president's desk for his signature and i am proud we have put aside differences to join together to fix what has been broken and help restore the sacred trust with our veterans and their families. the simcakoski family has inspired us by showing tremendous courage and strength in sharing their tragic s

on our side, on the senate side, senators grassley, alexander, hatch, sessions, leahy, murray, and wyden. i also want to thank all the house conferees. they did some good work, and i know each one of those members i just mentioned has a real passion for this issue, they care about this issue, and frankly i want to thank my coauthor, senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island, because he did a pretty good job talking to the conferees on his side of the aisle, as some of us, including me, talking to the conferees on our side of the aisle. senator whitehouse and i started this process over three years ago. we had five conferences here in washington, d.c. we brought in experts from all around the country. and so, yeah, we have a real interest in getting this done, and i comefnedz him and congratulate him -- i commend him and congratulate him for this result as well. i know that those who are in the advocate community -- in other words, people who work in this field every day, prevention or treatment, law enforcement folks, health care folks -- are also very happy that this conference report

. and we have senator alexander, senator peters, capito, wyden, many others to thank for that. we also focused on grid modernization, on cybersecurity, the national parks centennial and conservation policies. and these are all bipartisan efforts, and all of those are a part of this bill. but now we have to vote to determine whether we will keep going in the last stretch of this legislative process or whether the senate says, well, all that work that you did, we're not going to move forward with it. i don't think that that is a good option, and i hope it is an option that this chamber will reject. my very strong preference is that we keep going. i think that we should agree to conference with the house of representatives because i know the conference process can produce a worthy bill that becomes law. and i think it's fair to say that it will not include everything that is on the table right now. but anyone who has looked at what each chamber has passed knows that there is plenty, there is plenty out there that we can agree on. so i've got a few assurances for members who may be

however, in a march 19, 2014, letter to senator wyden of the senate committee on finance, commissionerkinen said, quote, we are transmitting today additional information that we believe completes our production to your committee and the house ways and means committee. in light of those productions, i hope that the investigations can be concluded in the very near future, end quote. at the time he sent that letter, he knew that the document production was not complete. commissioner koskinen did not -- did not notify congress of any problem until 2013-2014 -- excuse me, june 13, 2014, when he concluded the information on the fifth page of the third enclosure of a senate committee on finance. wherefor, john andrew koskinen warrants impeachment and trial and removal from office. article 4, john andrew koskinen has failed to act with confidence and forthrightness in overseeing the investigation into internal revenue service's targeting of americans because of their political affiliation as follows. commissioner koskinen stated in a hearing on june 20, 2014, that the internal revenue service