Transcripts For CSPAN2 Senate Session Part 2 20150323

Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be a sufficient second. And the clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer have all senators voted . Any senator wish to change their vote . If not the yeas are 89. The nays are zero. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. The president will be immediately notified of the senates action and the senate will resume legislative session. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from south carolina. Mr. Graham the senators amendment 323 is pending and senators should expect a vote in relation to that amendment at noon tomorrow with at least one additional roll call vote in which, to be stacked before lunch. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate Resumes consideration of s. Con. Res. 11 tomorrow morning there be 38 hours of debate time remaining. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Graham i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Graham thank you mr. President. I ask to be recognized for ten minutes. The presiding officer the senator from south carolina. Mr. Graham thank you very much. Mr. President , i want to raise an issue before the body. I dont know how accurate the press reports are but apparently the chief of staff of president obama mr. Macdonough today spoke in town to a group called jay street, which is an organization supportive of u. S. Israel relationship apparently, and heres what he allegedly said said. He basically said that an occupation that has lasted more than 50 years must end. So the chief of staff of the president of the United States, speaking in washington today called the israeli presence in the west bank an occupation. The chief of staff of the president of the United States is looking at a world completely different than the one im viewing. To mr. Mcdonough and president obama, dont you realize that the last time israel withdrew in the middle east, palestiniancontrolled territory was the withdrawal from gaza, and that when israel voluntarily left gaza, hamas took over gaza. Theyre a terrorist organization and they fired up to 10,000 rockets from gaza into israel. Today, israel has a presence in the west bank. Today, israel is surrounded by radical islamists unlike any time that i can remember. The language used by the chief of staff of the president of the United States is exactly what hamas uses, so now our administration is taking up the language of a terrorist organization to describe our friends in israel. And here heres a question to the American People. Would you withdraw from the west bank give the situation that exists today on the ground between the israelis and the rest of the region, would you at this moment in israels history completely withdraw from the west bank, given the experience in gaza . Does anybody on the left think thats a good idea . Does anybody in israeli politics agree with the characterization of the chief of staff of president obama . Does mr. Herzog or anyone else in opposition to Prime Minister netanyahu agree with this characterization . Is your country occupying the west bank . Are you there to make sure that the west bank doesnt turn into gaza . I talked with the Prime Minister saturday and i congratulated him on a decisive victory and i look forward to working with him, and he told me very clearly that he believes a twostate solution is not possible as long as the Palestinian Authority embraces hamas which controls the gaza strip and a terrorist organization by any reasonable definition. Who do you make peace with, mr. President . What kind of deal with you make when half the Palestinian People almost, are in the hands of a terrorist organization who vow to destroy you every day . What kind of deal is that . So do i want a twostate solution . Yes, id like a twostate solution where the palestinians recognize the right of israel to exist and they have the ability to chart their own destiny. Theyre not anywhere near there. The palestinian communitys broken into two parts. The Hamas Terrorist Organization controls an essential part of the palestinian community. They wont recognize israels right to exist. Theyre using the territory they hold as a launching pad for attacks against israel routinely. These are the people that launch rockets from school yards and apartment buildings trying to blame israel from being for being the bad guy when they respond. All i can say is when i thought it couldnt get worse it has. When i thought we couldnt reach a new low in terms of this white houses view of the middle east, we found a way to reach a new low. Today the chief of staff of the president of the United States used language used language that has been reserved for terrorist organizations up until now. So mr. Mcdonough president obama, you are completely delusional about the world as it is. Youre negotiating with the Iranian Regime and the president s new years greeting to the iranian people called for them to speak out in support of a nuclear deal. Mr. President , dont you understand that in iran, you cant speak out. That if you do speak out and petition your government, you will get shot or put in jail . You dont understand that . Youre talking to people as if they have a voice. Youre talking about the regime as if there is some kind of rational actor. In that same years greeting, he complimented the regime headed up by the ayatollahs as being cooperative in terms of their Nuclear Negotiations with the p p5plusone. What the president didnt mention is this terror is spreading terror unlike any time in recent memory. They are wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. As we negotiate on their nuclear deal, they are still the largest state sponsor of terrorism. They called for death to america two days ago. So to the Obama Administration, wake up and change your policies before you set the whole world on fire. Please watch your language because our best ally in the region the state of israel, does not deserve the label of occupier given the facts on the ground and they do not deserve to hear from the chief of staff of the president of the United States language thats usually reserved for a terrorist organization. So when i thought it couldnt get any worse it has. And let me put the Obama Administration on notice. You may not like the fact that Prime Minister netanyahu won but he did. And heres what you need to understand. If youre recalculating the administrations support for israel in terms of how you handle resolutions in the United Nations, you need to understand that congress will recalculate how we relate to the United Nations if you stand on the sidelines and let the u. N. Take over the Peace Process. There will be a bipartisan, violent backlash in this body if the Obama Administration does not veto a u. N. Resolution defining the Peace Process in the Security Council avoiding direct negotiations between the parties. Im here to tell you one of the casualties of a haphazard Foreign Policy could be the relationship between the United Nations and the congress. I promise you there is bipartisan support in this body for two things to stand firmly with israel and not to allow the u. N. Security council to take over the Peace Process and to find the terms of a deal, and secondly if there is a deal with the iranians over their Nuclear Program if this Administration Takes that deal to the u. N. Security council bypassing congress, not coming to us first, there will be a great backlash regarding that move. So to the Obama Administration, israels not the problem. The israeli people have not killed one american soldier. The israeli people are in a dispute about their survival with the Palestinian People. The israeli people gave land to the palestinians. In return, they got 10,000 rockets. And you want them to do it again. Cant you understand why israel may not want to withdraw from the west bank, given the history of gaza . If you cant youre completely blind to the world as it is and your hatred and your disgust and disdain for the Prime Minister has clouded your judgment. So to our friends in israel, there can only be one commander in chief and thats the way it should be, but there are 535 of us in the house and the senate, and we do have your back. We will not sit on the sidelines and watch this rhetoric enacted into a in a manner that would put you at risk beyond what you already have in terms of risk. This is a low point for me, that an administration, an american president administration, the chief of staff of the american president would use this language but it fits into an overall pattern that i think is very destructive. And to president obama and mr. Mcdonough, your Foreign Policy is not working. If you dont get that, then god help us all. Because what youre doing in the middle east is not working. Youre making everything worse. And now you have added fuel to the fire. I hope that there will be some selfcorrection at the white house, that we will not take this rhetoric any further than we have today that there will be a reevaluation of whether or not its appropriate to call the israeli people occupiers given the facts on the ground. Only time will tell, but i do understand this without any hesitation. There are many of us in this body who will not put up with this. We will push back. Israel has not killed one soldier, u. S. Soldier. Israel hasnt toppled any of their neighbors. Israel doesnt chant death to america. You may not like the outcome of the israeli election, but it was up to the israeli people to decide and they have decided. And all of us got into this body the same way. People at home voted for us. Under our constitution, we have an equal voice to that of the president , in terms of checks and balances. Even though he is the leader of american Foreign Policy and the commander in chief we do have the right too to speak on such matters. So here is my voice and i think i speak for many on both sides of the aisle. To the israeli people. Do what you have to do to defend the jewish state. To the president of the United States and mr. Mcdonough the language you used today is very unhelpful and quite frankly disconnected from reality. And i would end with this. Would any member of this body, if they were in israeli leadership withdraw from the west bank, given whats going on in the region . Would any member of this body be as restrained in responding to a rocket attack coming from a neighbor as israel has been restrained . What would we do if some terrorist organization next door to us launched a rocket trying to kill our children . Would we be as restrained as our israeli friends . I doubt it. So im asking this body to walk a mile in the shoes of the israeli people and understand why this statement is so offensive and has usually been reserved for terrorist organizations. Not the leader of the free world. I will yield back and notice 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 iowa. Mrs. Ernst i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Ernst as we begin this week with the serious and necessary discussions about the budget i rise today to talk about something that is very personal to me, something that is incredibly close to my heart. The service and sacrifice of our nations finest men and women those that safe in our armed forces. And as the budget process moves forward, we must ensure that our National Security needs are met and that our veterans can receive the muchneeded care and assistance they deserve. You see growing up on a farm in rural southwest iowa, my parents instilled in my sister, my brother and me the importance of hard work, service, and sacrifice. In the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at iowa state university, i was very fortunate to attend an Agricultural Exchange in ukraine when it was still part of the former soviet union. The iowa students and i lived on a collective farm for a number of weeks. In the evening when the Community Members came together together we did not talk about agricultural practices like i anticipated. What we talked about was what it was like to be free, what it was like to be an american. Those were the things the ukrainians wanted to know. They wanted to know about freedom, our republic democracy. Just a few short years later they became an independent nation. They are a sovereign nation. It was then that i better understood what it meant to have freedom and how much people elsewhere truly desire it. I wanted to do my part to ensure our country always remained free. That realization led me to make a decision when i was 19 years old to join the army reserve Army Officers Training Corps commonly known as rotc. For over two decades ive had the great honor of wearing our nations uniform. Today i serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa Army National guard and ive been privileged to have led and commanded at many levels from platoon to battalion. From 2003 to 2004, i served as a Company Commander in Operation Iraqi freedom. My unit was tasked with running convoys throughout southern kuwait kuwait, and southern iraq. As a soldier i learned firsthand the vital role that citizen soldiers play. Citizen soldiers are folks who train for military duty so they are prepared to defend in the face of an emergency. These men and women take on this task voluntarily and can be called upon to serve at any time. While overseas i had the opportunity to serve alongside some of the finest americans our bravest men and women. I saw firsthand how dangerous threats against our nation can be. It is becoming increasingly important that our military, our active duty, National Guard, and reserve are always working together as one cohesive unit. We are strongest in numbers when working together to build one another up and support one another. Our mission is clear and we come from all corners of the country united on the same goal to defend our freedom. Ii continue to remain focused on strengthening our National Security both in my role in the iowa National Guard and on the Armed Services committee where we discuss ways to support our exceptional military and develop bipartisan strategies to confront terrorism and destroy al qaeda isis, and those who are radicalized by them. Here in the senate we also have an incredible responsibility to not only make sure our country is protected but to also ensure we live up to the promises made to our veterans. These men and women are trained and have selflessly sacrificed in defense of our freedoms, and our way of life. However, we must ensure that our veterans are prepared to transition back to civilian life. They deserve nothing less than the benefits they were promised and a quality of care we can all be proud of. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. According to the v. A. , there are approximately 22 veteran suicides per day. We hear this number from time to time but think about it. 22 veteran suicides per day. In november, 2014, testimony before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee the v. A. s chief consultant for Mental Health said the average wait time for a Mental Health appointment at the v. A. Is 36 days. We can and must do better for our veterans. If a nonv. A. Mental Health Care Professional can reach a veteran one day one week, or even two weeks earlier than 36 days, congress nor the v. A. Should be an obstacle to affording a veteran potentially lifesaving Mental Health treatment. Veterans themselves are the only ones who know their Mental Health limit and a veteran should receive the benefit of the doubt at where that limit is. Not the v. A. This is an issue that impacts all eras of veterans. Since coming to washington, ive heard from many veterans on this very issue. One veteran in particular from the vietnam war era admitted that he had twice attempted suicide. This veteran felt like he didnt have anywhere to go. We have to do better. Today as my first piece of legislation in the United States senate, i am introducing the prioritizing veterans access to Mental Health care act. This legislation provides an option for our veterans to receive Mental Health treatment until they can receive comprehensive Mental Health care at the v. A. This authorization for Mental Health care provides a backstop other than the emergency room for our veterans. Ultimately the e. R. Should not be considered a backstop for delayed Mental Health care at the v. A. , as most veterans who seek Mental Health treatment at Emergency Rooms do so when they have reached the limits of their suffering. There is no acceptable v. A. Wait time for Mental Health care for our veterans. The limits to how much suffering a veteran can endure simply cannot be accurately measured by the v. A. Or by any medical professional. Specifically, this legislation puts veterans Mental Health care first and foremost, provides a backstop to v. A. Mental health care and prioritizes incentives to hire more Mental Health care professionals at the department of veterans affairs. This act does several things. First, it gives the amends the act of 2014 to where a veteran is instantly authorized nonv. A. Care if a veteran provides an electronic or hard copy statement in writing that he or she is not receiving adequate or timely Mental Health care at the v. A. This eliminates the 40mile and v. A. Wait time triggers for Mental Health care under the choice act. Second it prioritizes incentives for the hiring of Mental Health care professionals at the v. A. And third it provides the v. A. 90 days to enact the program. I hope this legislation will receive broad bipartisan support because ensuring our veterans have access to the Mental Health care they deserve is not a conservative or liberal concept, its not a republican or democrat idea. Its an american value. If we do not stand up for americans americas tenacious survivors, who will . Thanks to these brave men and women we are able to stand on this floor and fight for our beliefs and ideals. These veterans fought for us and defended us tirelessly. They endured more than some of us can ever imagine. The invisible wounds of war can no longer go unnoticed. Now it is our duty to do all we can to thank them and ensure they have access to quality Mental Health care, the health care they deserve. God bless these men and women and let us strive to do better for them. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer will the senator withhold her request. Mr. Mcconnell i wanted to congratulate the new senator from iowa not only for her service in americas military all of these years but her service now in the United States senate. She is obviously bringing to the senate real expertise about the needs that she addressed in her first piece of legislation. I expect it will enjoy broad bipartisan support particularly with the sponsor having such firsthand knowledge of the needs of these returning veterans and so on behalf of all the members of the senate i just want to congratulate the senator from iowa for her new bill and for her first remarks. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader of the senate. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. The presiding office the presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask that when the senate completes its Business Today adjourn until 9 30 tomorrow. Following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. The senate resum consideration of s. Con. Res. Is 1. Finally, the Senate Recess from 12 30 to 2 15 to allow for the wokely conference meetings and all time during the recess count against the time remaining on the budget resolution. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President senators should expect a roll call vote in relation to the pending sanders amendment around noon tomorrow. If there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senator inhofe. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Inhofe mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Inhofe i ask unanimous consent that the following if he is low be grafntsed floor privileges for the first session of the 114th congress rebecca farr, elizabeth agree toby and patrick buzzard. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Inhofe i want to make a comment about some legislation that we have introduced, actually last week. It is going to be of supreme interest to a relatively small number of people. Those people in america who are general aviation pilots. It actually affects another people too but this is something that is very significant and i just want to kind of talk about it for just a minute. Its important to pilots and Aviation Enthusiasts all over the nation, but over the course of my time, i have i can recall when there were so few of us that were active commercial pilots that those individuals who had problems, particularly in our state of oklahoma, they would all come to me because they knew i had an understanding of this, and so people have come in for help. One such person was bob hoover. Bob hoover arguably may have been the best pilot at his time. Hes still flying today. Hes in his 90s, i guess by now. But about 1015 years ago one inspector didnt like something he did and he took away his license. We have literally thousands of people who make their living Airline Pilots and others, and in the case of boob whoever hes the person in the case of bob hoover. Hes the person that could go up in a shrike. He had put a glass of water up on the top of the dash and he would do a barrel roll and the water would not tip over. This guy was just incredible. Well anyway, it took an act of congress that i introduced and passed to get him back into the air and thats why this is so important to a lot of people. I never realized, even though i personally helped a lot of people who were having problems with their regulations and with an alleged offense by the f. A. A. , it will it happened to me. When it happened to me, all of a sudden i realized just how frustrating and drawn out the process can be. In 2011 i introduced the pilots bill of rights. I did that to address some serious deficiencies in the relationship between pilots and the f. A. A. There are a lot of really great people the pilots, and certainly the f. A. A. , the occupier of the chair right now and i both are aware of this. In Oklahoma City we have several hundred such people. Theyre easy to get along with and not overbearing. But any bureaucracy can have a few people who really want to create problems and say no. So we introduced the pilots bill of rights. This was in august of 2012, to ensure that pilots, like everyone else, could be treated fairly and equitably in our justice system. I think this is probably pilots are the last group of people who are fall into that category that we see so prominently in other countries where you are guilty until proven innocent. And so, anyway, we passed the pilots bill of rights and there are a few things in there that were over that did not get the congressional intent that was originally meant to be. And so to remedy this we introduced s. 51, its the pilots bill of rights ii. Weve got its a bipartisan thing. I think right now were sitting on 12 republicans and 12 democrats that will be cosponsors of this bill. There are eight sections in the bill three general subject areas. First, the legislation reforms f. A. A. s overly burdensome medical certification process by expanding an existing exemption for light sport pilots to include more qualified trained pilots. Let me just speak for a a moment on the safety concerns. There is a small minority of people who think that expanding an exemption like this automatically decreases safety. Well thats not true of this bill. And i have the numbers to show it. A medical exemption was issued for pilots of light sport aircraft aircraft that weighed less than 13,20 pounds, had only two seats and had several restrictions. The entire country there are about 9,500 of them. I. T. Been over ten years since the f. A. A. Issued this exemption. Since then, not a single accident by a light sport aircraft has occurred that was related to medical deficiency. A joint study was done by the aopa and the eoa on the 4 6,000 aviation accidents that occurred from 20808 to 2012. Only 99 had a medical cause as a factor. Thats less than onequarter of one percent of all accidents. And of those 99, not none would have been prevented by the current thirdclass medical screening exemption that was in process at that time. Now, extending that medical exemption for aircraft to includes planes weighing up to 6,000 pounds up to six total passengers including the pilot would add airmen and aircraft to an existing medical standard without degrading or create being substandard safety. This approach has been endorsed by the flying Physicians Association and the aopa medical advisory board. Both organizations are mapped of pilots who are are made up of pilots who are also medical doctors. This bill does not change the certification standards to obtain a pilots certificate and all pilots have to still possess the pilot certificate and pass the required practical tests in flying and that type of thing p. The bill does create consistency for aviators across the country where inconsistency has been felt. Now, the second thing in fact, i would say this we have documented cases where you have two people who had the same problem medical problem. One in detroit and one in tulsa oklahoma where theyre treated completely differently by the medical doctors that were the examiners. This will add scwinscy. The second thing it does is extend the Due Process Rights preserved in the original pilots bill of rights to all f. A. A. Certificate holders. This would be other People Holding f. A. A. Certificates and it is not necessarily a pilot certificate. Now, when Congress Passed the original pilots bill of rights, we intended to allow pilots to appeal a decision by the f. A. A. To the National Transportation safety board the ntsb, and then pilots could appeal to a federal court. We did this because a reveal of the Federal District court is a de novo. That means that they start with the pilot getting a whole new trial, not using the same evidence as was used for the f. A. A. Understand for the ntsb. Now, in two separate cases Federal District courts ruled that my original bill did not require a full hearing of the facts. This legislation expensively spells out the option to appeal an f. A. A. Enforcement action to Federal District court for a guaranteed de novo trial meaning a new and independent review of the facts is guaranteed for these individuals. This legislation also increases transparency for all f. A. A. Certificate holders subject to an investigation or enforcement action by holding f. A. A. Accountable for communicating with Certificate Holders. The f. A. A. Is now required to articulate a specific description of an accident or incident under investigations to parties involved in the investigation and provide specific documentation relevant to the investigation. While this is something that has happened in many cases its not happened in all of them. This bill ensures that Certificate Holders these are pilots under investigation are afforded the basic fairness. They know why theyre being investigated. They have the appropriate documentation to prepare and request respond to f. A. A. From a position of knowledge and certainty in all cases. I mentioned i had a personal experience. One of those when this actually happened down in south texas they claimed that i was not cleared to land and it took me four months to get a recording of the particular person who happened to be the valley approach clearing me to lafnltd i am a United States senator. It took me four months to get it. I figured that others may not be able to wait this thing out and they would have lost their certificate. So as i say, it is not a big deal to the general public but it is to anyone who is a pilot. Now, im expanding the original pilots bill of rights to expand transparency for Certificate Holders so they have information and resources to defend themselves if it should be necessary. The third thing it does is expedites the updates of the notice to airmen. A notam, a notice to airmen, something that is the responsibility has historically been the responsibility of the f. A. A. If there is a problem on a runway that were going to land, its gimmick to be closed its going to be closed, theyre going to be doing repairs Something Like that, they have to publish a notam. In theory, practice it doesnt work that way. There was never a notam. They said there there was a notam. You have to take their word for it. This forces them to in fact, the pilots bill of rights, number one was something that was in direct was supposed to force the f. A. A. To publish notams in a commonplace where people would know where they are, and they just havent done it. So now weve strengthened that to say that if a notam action is not placed where it can be found, then they cant use that as an enforcement action against a pilot. So that should resolve the problem. The fourth the pilots bill of rights ii extends liability such as aviation medical examiners, pilot examiners and other individuals. That was the intent of the original bill. It wasnt specific. This has given a lot of individuals willing to serve on as individual designees a disincentive. Now, this my bill provides and removes the disincentive, ensuring increased access to medical professionals and designees to sign off on check rides and flight wornliness of experimental aircraft and all of that. So they would get the same protection. And this extends also its kind of the Good Samaritan law. There are a the love times when pilots are notified there are a lot of times when pilots pilots are notified theyre asked to use their aicialght to aircraft to provide some worthy cause. I can remember one time down in caracas, venezuela. It had been wiped out by a tornado many years ago. I took 14 airplanes out there to help these people out. If something had happened to one of the airplanes, something had happened and caused someones injury or something they wouldnt be protected. They didnt have a good is a samaritan law. So a the love people wont do this. People have actually lost their life. Because they didnt get the help people would volunteer their equipment to go help people. So anyway, we have a Good Samaritan law and this should take care of that problem. Ive seen many times when people are inspired as a volunteer and ive done the same thing myself, but theres a disincentive to do that. So the pilots bill of rights ii is sensitive to the needs of pilots airmen, and the general Aviation Community. They have worked closely with me on this. I have to say that the they have worked all the way through this thing and are fully supportive as all their individuals are. I dont know of anyone in the Aviation Community who isnt fully supportive of this. So we have introduced this bill. Its bipartisan. Its something that senators manchin and boozman theyre the first two individuals because theyre the cochair of the senate general aviation caucus. Theyre cosponsors of this bill. So i encourage members. Hopefully this will going to the Commerce Committee and well be able to gate hearing on it very soon well be able to get a hearing on it very soon. The and i can tell you right now, mr. President that the house members over there are wait being for it to come over and were anxious to get this bill passed. I know this is something that isnt of concern to an awful lot of people in this country. But i can tell you it is a big concern to people who are pilots. With that, i wont suggest the absence of a quorum because i think that that will conclude. So we are ill wait for your adjournment call. The presiding officer the Senate Stands mr. Enzi mr. President last week the Senate Budget committee took an important first stepn helping mr. President last week the Senate Budget committee took an important first step in helping to change the way we do business here in washington by reporting out a balanced budget. This week we take this next step as the Senate Begins debating how best to make the government live within its means and set spending limits for a nation but we are running out of time and unless we do something sooner nation will be overspending nearly a trillion dollars a year year. Now thats actually 1 trillion a year. A trillion makes it sounds rather trivial. Its a thousand billion dollars a year of overspending. Now heartbreaking taxpayers are paying attention. About 24 states have passed a constitutional balanced Budget Amendment and there are 10 more that are working on it. If all of these things passed similar measures will have 34 states needed for Constitutional Convention on a balanced budget that we will be forced to act. If it isnt all of them they are saying it will be all of us. We like to represent our constituents. In the face of such demands we should ask or someday it will be out of our hands. One of the best ways to balance their budget is to make our government more efficient and effective and accountable. If congress does its job we can have flexibility and eliminate what is a working starting with the worst first then we can eliminate waste and streamlined whats left. But to do this First Congress must do something it hasnt done in the past eight years. That scrutinize every dollar for which they have responsibility. Actually with the billions of dollars we spend every single year they will be lucky to scrutinize every Million Dollars dollars. If Government Programs are not delivering results they should be improved and if they are not needed they should be eliminated its time to prioritize and demand results from our Government Programs. To the process of getting the budget together discovered that we had 260 programs that havent been authorized to read what is an authorization . Will be committees are the people and experts in a concentrated concern over that particular area and they passed the new programs, the details of the new programs. The amount that can be spent on those programs. The way that we can measure them and get them done. I discovered 260 of those programs that we are still funding have expired. Their authorization ran out. One thing thats in those authorization is some kind of a sunset date and we passed the sunset date on 260 programs. So what . We are only overspending according to the authorization 293 billion a year on expired programs. Yes, some of those programs are absolutely essential. What we need to do though is have those committees that have the expertise go back and review them and reauthorize them and set the new limits and the new matrix for what they are supposed to be doing so we can tell if they are doing their job. 260 programs. Some of them the last time one of them expired in 1983. A whole bunch of them expired before this century. So we know this will be a challenge for every Single Member of congress but i believe we are up to the task because the American People are counting on us. This week Hardworking Taxpayers will also get to see something they have been waiting to see and thats an open and transparent legislative process that will see members from both sides of the aisle offering debating and ultimately voting on amendments to this resolution resolution. Republicans will offer amendments that will enhance fiscal discipline built a Strong National defense, boost their Economic Growth, tackle obamacare, protect education and help make our government more efficient accountable to Hardworking Taxpayers. What this budget does do we often hear people say this budget does and what it does not do but here is what this budget does deal. It balances the budget in 10 years with no tax hikes. It protects our most vulnerable citizens. It strengthens the National Defense. Improves Economic Growth and opportunity for hardworking families. It slows the rate of spending growth. To preserve Social Security by reducing spending and other areas to fully offset Social Securitys rising deficit and encourage our nations leaders to begin a bipartisan bicameral discussion on how to protect Social Security and avoid the acrosstheboard Social Security benefits that occur under current law. It protects our seniors by safeguarding Medicare Forum insolvency and extending the life of the Medicare Trust fund by five years. It ensures medicaid savings medicare savings under the President Health care law dedicated to medicare instead of seeing those changes go to other programs and more overspending. It continues funding for Childrens Health Insurance Programs chip and creates a new Program Based on chip to serve low income working aged ablebodied adults and children who are eligible for medicaid. It increases state flexibility in designing benefits in administering Medicaid Programs to ensure efficiency and reduce wasteful spending and provide stable and predictable funding so longterm support a sustainable through the federal government for the states. So to begin this debate this week is worth noting that strong Economic Growth will provide a balanced budget and that can provide and will serve as a foundation for helping all americans to grow and prosper. A balanced budget allows americans to spend more time working hard to grow their businesses or advance their jobs instead of worrying about taxes and inefficient and ineffective regulations. Most importantly it means every american who wants to find a good paying job and a fulfilling career has the opportunity to do just that. There are problems however with the family budget. Family income is not growing as it should and this has the higher consequences for our future. If Family Income does not grow it becomes very difficult for parents to pay for their childrens education and further on training needs. Likewise slow Family Income growth means less money set aside for retirement, health care, down payment on a house and money to get the next generation started because job growth has been so slow since the beginning of the recovery. Its not surprising that Income Growth has been slow too. A lot of people fail to note that when jobs and income slowed down together the real victims are your hopes, your dreams and your aspirations. Moreover these trends slow growth and jobs and incomes are relatively related and reason. Anyone listening to me today would be confused by the term Family Income. It clearly means that cash to families receive from their jobs and their investments. Its the stuff that goes into a savings account, into a Retirement Plan come into education for the kids and the household rainy day fund. You can count it and its tangible. One of the other things i discovered as i was going through this process is that we have some things we called trust fund and ive discovered you had better not trust them. There is no cash in the trust fund. Normally that would be investments that can be withdrawn and the bills paid so i think if we really were doing a Financial Statement for the federal government would have to move those trust funds over to accounts payable because we are backing them in the full faith and credit of the federal government and i hope we can make it so that is full faith and credit and thats why we need to change some of the things we are doing right now. Last year we spend spent 231 billion on interest. Thats on an 18 trilliondollar debt. Now, and the president s budget thats proposed to go to 780 billion. Thats more than we are spending on defense more than we are spending on education, more than we are spending almost any other function that the federal government does. Now if 230 billion is 1 what happens if we go to the normal rate of 5 . Oh goodness. We only get to make choices on 1,100,000,000,000 so virtually all of the money that we have would go to interest. No National Defense, no education no other function that the federal government is involved in. Our overspending is killing us. Yes they there two ways that you can reduce overspending. One is to cut spending. The other one is to raise taxes. We are already collecting more money than we ever have in the history of the United States. So how were we going to solve this problem of the interest itself from bankrupting us . This budget is designed to put us on a path to do that. It will not solve everything. We have only had about eight weeks to do what hasnt been done in a budget in six years so i hope youll bear with us during the course of this process. I am an accountant. Im also the chair of the Senate Budget committee and we have such a Monumental Task of confronting americas product overspending and balancing our nations budget. Incidentally under the president s budget the overspending this year is 468 billion. Remember we get to make decisions on 1,100,000,000,000. If the Constitutional Convention i talked about that the states are putting together, 20 fault fault 24 already and another 10 makes it mandatory we would have to cut 50 . We are not able to do that. It was tough enough to balance the budget over a tenyear period but thats a tremendous task that we have ahead of us if we are going to take care of balancing our nations that and bring it down to where its a manageable level where we can afford the interest on it. Before coming to Congress Iran a Small Business in wyoming for many years. I served as the mayor of my hometown. Then i served as a legislator and of those roles one of the most important jobs i had was to ensure my budgets were balanced every year. In time we were able to even build some rainy day account in wyoming. So far there has never been a crisis so bad that it has rained. Its time to begin responsible accounting in washington washington because white while you can i about the numbers the numbers never lie. The worst kept secret in america this administration is spending more than ever and taxing more than ever. The president s budget increases tax dramatically and still doesnt get us to a balanced budget. In fact, at 468 billion in overspending this year in the tenth year we will be at a trillion which is 1 trillion overspent. It never goes down. He keeps going up. We have got to reverse that trend. Otherwise, well i have art he explained that. The federal government should spend your tax dollars wisely and responsibly and give you the freedom and control to pursue your future the way you choose. Hardworking taxpayers deserve a government that is more efficient, more effective and more accountable. That should be something both parties can agree on because i have never heard anybody say they want a more inefficient and ineffective government. So runaway spending habits over the past six years have created the dangerously growing great that because the spending now pay later is deeply ingrained. Actually in to the president s budget it is even paying late of its inclusion federal levels of revenue have hit record highs. We have spent nearly a trillion dollars a year. Thats 1 trillion the more washington overspends the more debt we owe and the more is added to the future generations will have to pay. To me today at americas debt to lose 80 gillian dollars and affect every man woman and child now owes more than 56,000 on that debt and the numbers expected to grow more than 75,000 over the next decade unless we make important changes. Guess thats every man woman and child. If someone was born this morning they owe 56,000 on that debt. Every dollar we spend is another dollar we wont be able to use for individuals in need or another dollar available for taxpayers for their own needs. Its time to stop talking and start acting. Washington has to live within its means just like hardworking families do everyday. They have to deliver an effective and Accountable Government and the American People that supports them as a mustang gets out of the way when it should. We didnt get here overnight. We wont be able to fix fix it overnight but we can begin to solve this crisis if we act now. Republicans have put forward a responsible plan that balances the budget in 10 years with no tax hikes. Protects are most vulnerable citizens stinks of our National Defense and improves Economic Growth and opportunity for hardworking families. A balanced budget means real accountability in washington and insurers programs actually accomplish what they set out to deliver which goes back to my thing about 260 programs that expired and we are still funding to the tune of 293 billion. A balanced budget supports Economic Growth for hardworking families and creates real opportunity for all americans to grow and prosper. At balanced budget allows americans to spend more time working hard to grow their businesses or to advance their jobs instead of worrying about taxes and an efficient and effective regulations that drive their opportunity down. It also means our job creators can find opportunities to expand our economy and most importantly it means every american who wants to have a good paying job in a fulfilling career has the opportunity to do that. That is what a balanced budget means for our nation and thats what the American People deserve deserve. Congress is under new management and by working together to find shared ground on Commonsense Solutions we can deliver real results and have real progress. Mr. President i yield the floor and reserve the balance of my time. Mr. President. The senator from vermont. Thank you mr. President. Let me just began by commenting on a few of the thoughts by my good friend senator enzi. Senator enzi says the Economy Today is not where it should be and he is right. I dont think anybody thinks the economy is where it should be in terms of low unemployment, high wages. No debate about that but i asked the American People to think back six and a half years ago at the end of president bushs term to what the economy was like. At that point we were not gaining the 200,000 jobs a month that we are gaining now. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. At that point, the deficit was not 480 billion word it is today, it was 1. 4 trillion. At that point the stock market was not soaring as it is today. The worlds Financial System was on the verge of collapse. So lets begin by putting issues into perspective. Nobody that i know thinks that we are where we should be economically in America Today that anybody who does not understand despite enormous republican obstructionism that we have made significant gains over the last six and a half years would i believe be very mistaken. Mr. President as we all know the federal budget that we are working on now is not an appropriations bill. It does not provide explicit funding for this agency or that agency. What it does do is lay the foundation for that process. The total amount of money that the approach rate appropriations money has had to spend. In other words this budget is more than just a very long list of numbers. The federal budget is about our National Priorities and our values. It is about who we are as a nation and what we stand for. It is about how we analyze and assess the problems that we face and how we go forward in resolving those problems. That is the task of the senate now is about to undertake and it is a very, very serious responsibility. Mr. President let us be very clear. No family no business, local or State Government can responsibly write a budget without first understanding the problems and challenges that it faces and that is even more true when we deal with the federal budget of some 4 trillion. As i examined the budget by the republicans in the house and here in the senate this is how i see their analysis of the problems facing our country. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, perhaps the most important issue facing this country, a huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top one tenth of 1 . My republican colleagues apparently believe that the richer people in america need to be made even richer. It is apparently not good enough for our republican colleagues that 99 of all new income today is going to the top 1 . Not good enough. It is apparently not good enough that the top one tenth of 1 today on almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 . Clearly in the eyes of my republican colleagues, the wealthy and the powerful and the big Campaign Contributors need even more help. Not only should they not be asked to pay more in taxes, not only should we not eliminate huge loopholes that benefit the wealthy and large corporations some of my republican friends believe that we should protect these loopholes, not change them at all bird maybe even make them whiter. Its apparently not good enough that Corporate America is enjoying recordbreaking prize prize profits and the ceos of large corporations earn some 290 times what the average employees make. 290 times more. Currently not good enough create since 1985 the top one tenth of 1 has seen in more than an 8 trilliondollar increase in its wealth than it would have if wealth inequality had remained the same as it was in 1985. An 8 trilliondollar increase in wealth going to the top one tenth of 1 . But apparently my republican colleagues not only do not talk about this issue, they will do nothing to address the massive wealth and inequality that this country faces. It is apparently not good enough for my republican colleagues that the wealthy as 14 people in this country, 14 people have seen their wealth go up by more than 157 billion dollars over the past two years alone, 14 people saw an increase in their wealth by 157 billion and the republican budget talks about cutting food stamps and education and nutrition. Because we are presumably a poor nation. While we are not a poor nation. We just have massive wealth and income inequality so the vast majority of people are becoming poor but people on the top are phenomenally wealthy. That is the reality that we must address. Mr. President , manifested in the house and Senate Budgets, my republican colleagues are ignoring a very significant reality and that is that millions of middleclass and working families, people who are often working longer hours for lower wages, people who are seeing significant declines in their standard of living over the last 40 years while i republicans say those people who are struggling come those people who are trying to feed their families those people who are trying to send their kids to college, those are not the people that we should be helping. Why do we have to worry about the top 1 . Madam president at a time when over 45 million americans are living in poverty and that is more than almost any time in the modern history of our country and many of these people are working people people working 40 or 50 or so weak at substandard wages. My republican colleagues think we should increase poverty by ending the Affordable Care act by slashing medicaid, by cutting food stamps and the earned income tax credit. At a time when almost 20 of our kids live in poverty, the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world our republican colleagues think that maybe we should even raise the poverty rate a little bit him on our children by cutting childcare, by cutting head start, by cutting the refundable childcare tax credit and maybe lets even go after Attrition Program nutrition programs for hungry children. Madam president the rich get much richer and the republicans think they need more help. The middleclass and working families of the country become poor and the republicans think we need to cut programs they desperately need. Frankly those may be the priorities of some of our republican colleagues but i do not believe that these are the priorities of the American People. Madam chairman today the United States shamefully remained the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care for all people as they write. Today, despite the modest gains of the Affordable Care act we still have about 40 million americans who lack Health Insurance and millions more who are underinsured. And what is the republican response to the Health Care Crisis . They want to abolish, do away with completely the Affordable Care act and take away the Health Insurance that 60 million americans have gained through that program. So here you have 40 Million People with no Health Insurance and the republican response is well lets make it 56 Million People. And if you add the massive cuts they have proposed to medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program even millions more would lose their Health Insurance. Does anybody for one second think this vaguely makes any sense in a realworld . People are struggling to try to find Health Insurance and the response is lets cut 56 billion lets cut 16 million off the Affordable Care act and millions more half of medicaid. And while the Senate Budget resolution got medicare as we know it unlikely house it does make significant cuts. Further when you make massive cuts to medicaid it is not only Health Insurance for lowincome people who suffer you are also cutting the nursing home care for seniors. These are elderly people 80 90 years of age in a nursing home and one might argue that these people are the most Vulnerable People in this country, the most helpless people, fragile people and we are going to cut programs for them. Now madam chairman i talked a little bit about the devastating impact that the house and Senate Republican budget will have on the American People but i think it is equally important when you look at a budget to talk about not only what a budget does but to talk about what a budget does not do. The Serious Problems that it does not address. Madam president they tell us the American People and when asked what their Major Concerns are what they almost responded is saying is jobs, wages and the economy. Thats generally speaking democrats, republicans independents its the economy jobs and wages. Time. Youth unemployment, an issue that we almost never discuss is at 17 . And africanamerican youth unemployment is much higher than that. What the American People want and what the republican budget completely ignores is the need to create millions of decentpaying jobs. If you go out to maine to vermont, to wyoming to california, you ask people what they want and they would say we need more jobs, and those jobs should be paying us a living wage. In my view and in the view of many economists, if we are serious about creating jobs in this country the fastest way to do it is the fastest way to create jobs in the country is to rebuilt the crumbling infrastructure, roads, bridges, waste water plants airports broadband in rural areas. According to the American Society of civil engineers