Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to the National Constitution center. Im jeffrey rosen, the president of this wonderful institution, the National Constitution center is the only institution in america chartered by dock congress to disemanate information about the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis and to fulfill that inspiring goal, we have a series of programs we call ourselves americas town hall and we bring together the best voices from all sides of the spectrum to debate the constitutional issues in the center of american life. In the next few weeks we have a series of programs that i hope youll join us for, including on june 20, david boies and ted olson will come to discuss their new book about marriage equality. On june 26, well have a wonderful debate with our partners at intelligence squared about the constitutionality of restrictions on Campaign Finance reform. On june 16 well have discussion of the cell phone case thats the Supreme Co
Mr. Carper mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from delaware. Mr. Carper mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Carper thank you mr. President. Well mr. President Congress Says here we do a lot of oversight, oversight thats focused on what is going right and also what is going wrong in our government. Theres a lot of each actually. That oversight is critically important work. Sometimes overlooked but critically important. I think its also important to stop and recognize where things are going right from time to time and people that are doing the right thing. Following in the footsteps of one of our former colleagues here i dont think the presiding officer had a chance to work with him but ted kaufman served here for two years. He succeeded joe biden and went off to do some other job. I think Vice President maybe thats what he is. And then before senator chris coons was elected two years later,
Noted in my testimony in 2013 as a result of spending and Information Technology the Information Technology business, modernization problem for the irs was taken of the highrisk list having been there for 14 years. It was proven in the i t area that if we have the funding we can make significant progress. Is great for the i t area but other areas need to be addressed and 25 years is far too long. Time to put some teeth into it. I now recognize the gentleman from florida for five minutes. Commissioner koskinen, a year ago the senior irs leaders and learned lois lerners hard drive had crashed. There was an issue about getting her emails off of backup tapes, you wrote a letter to Senate Finance in june of 2014 saying there were problems with her emails and backup tapes had been destroyed. And on june 20th you testified before the ways and means committee, went to Great Lengths and made extraordinary efforts to recover lower as lerners email please let me ask you this, after the irs began
Conditioned on this question the incoming secretary needs to have the courage to speak truth to power to congress, yes but also to his commander in chief. Half. Mr. Durbin mr. President . Speaking in morning business, i rise to express my support for the president s nominee dr. Ashton carter to serve as our nations 25th secretary of defense. A few words of thanks first for chuck hagel our former colleague in the senate who served as secretary of defense. Hes a friend. Hes had a long career in public service. Hes a veteran from vietnam and the people of nebraska rewarded him by asking him to represent them in the United States senate. As our nations first person 6 enlisted rank he had a unique ground level view on matters of war and peace and a strong, strong commitment to our troops. I thank chuck hagel for his service. Dr. Ashton carter has an impressive distinguished record of service as well in government. An advisor scholar. He has what it takes to be a great secretary of defense.
The storm began before noon increased in dramatic intensity and then finally tapered off toward midnight. That evening. This hurricane was and still is the deadliest recorded national event. In the history of the United States. Watch all of our events from galveston, saturday at noon eastern oncspan 2s book tv. Barbara mikulski is announcing her retirement this morning in baltimore. She addressed the media this morning. She is 78. A high land town native and maryland senior senator. She served in the senate since 1987. Up for reelection next year. Shae became the longest serving woman in the history of congress in 2012. First lekked to the house in 1976. That announcement happening this morning at 11 00 eastern, which is right about now. Up next, water experts discuss significant challenges affecting rural areas. They testified friday before a house energy subcommittee. They also addressed upgrading Water Systems and the need for more access to funding and regulatory compliance. I woul