larger than the states of alaska, delaware, allied, idaho, maine, mississippi, montana, north dakota, nebraska, new hampshire, rhode island, south dakota, vermont, west virginia and wyoming. district resident generate $7 million in local tax revenue. d.c.'s annual budget is the $13 million. we also possess nearly $2 billion in our rainy day fund. unlike the 50 states of america, the district of columbia has to get permission from congress to spend our own money. that is not right. we demand the right to govern ourselves, our money and our destiny like the other 50 states. now today, how many of you have traveled from another state to get here? do you know if you decide to live here, taken a resident of the district of columbia, you lose voting representation in congress? simply because you live in the district of columbia. in the united states between the states of maryland and virginia, you lose only representation in congress, and immediately become subject to taxation without representation. did you know the first african-american attorney general of the united states, eric holder

, georgia, dakotas, and texas, and you ask typical americans what they want their representatives in the congress to do, protecting medicare and social security is right at the top of the list. i hear it in every town hall meeting. i have had more than 700 of them in my home state and i have to believe many colleagues, sewed south dakota and elsewhere are hearing the same thing. medicare policy should be for strengthening medicare in the future and the same principle goes for social security. yet twice now these vital programs have been used to fund budget deals and medicare sequestration is sticking around long past its original expiration date. this legislation preventing a default is coming down do the wire. i would tell colleagues this is a must-pass bill. i support it and i would urge democrats and republicans to do so as well. i would say we talk about where we go from here. the bottom line has to be the process of reaching a budget and keeping the lights on in this wonderful institution, the people's branch, keeping the lights on and the process reaching a budget has to change. th

of law enforcement, and spent a lot of years as north dakota's attorney general. when people said where is it the fbi gets along with the rest of the states? i would raise my hand. we have a terrific relationship with the fbi and local law-enforcement but we lose and we failed in indian country. you can't protect a whole state when you have a huge amount of land and a huge opportunity for people who are peddling poison to basically go undetected, invisible and not even any threat at all of prosecution right there on the reservation. and people who can move are moving, and people who can't move are being exploited. i'm wondering if within the fbi and within the department of justice and your counter agencies whether there is an opportunity to really do more search work in indian country, especially in my part of the world. >> the answer is, yes. and thank you for the. it's not take it on me because i agree with you totally, and i'm so grateful for your passion because i've had a bunch of meetings on this as a director. my children when i became director just returned from redshirt

illinois, to georgia, to the dakotas, to texas and you ask typical americans what they want their representatives in the congress to do, protecting medicare and social security is right -- right at the top of the list. i hear it in every town hall meeting -- i've had more than 700 of them in my home state -- and i've got to believe many colleagues in south dakota and illinois and elsewhere hear the same thing. there is a longstanding tradition that says changes in medicare policy should be for strengthening medicare in the future. the same principle goes for social security. yet twice now these vital programs have been used to fund budget deals, and medicare sequestration is sticking around long past its original expiration date. this legislation preventing a calamitous default is coming down to the wire, and i would tell colleagues, this is a must-pass bill. i support it, and i would urge democrats and republicans to do so as well. i would also say, we talk about where we go from here. it is important to recognize that medicare and social security must not be used as a.t.m.'s for

dakota's attorney general. when people said where its the fbi gets along with the rest of the states? i'd rates my -- raise my hand. he have a terrific relationship but you lose and fail in indian country, and you can't protect a whole state when you have a huge amount of land and a huge opportunity for people peddling poison to basically go undetected, invisible, and not even -- any threat at all of prosecution right there on the reservation, and people who can move are moving, and people who can't move are being exploited, and so i'm wondering if within the fbi and within the department of justice and your counter-agencies, whether there is an opportunity to really do more surge work in indian country, especially in my part of the world. >> the answer is, yes. thank you for that. it's not picking on me because i agree with you totally, and i'm so grateful for your passion because have had a bunch of meet little on this as director. i my children just returned from hed red shirtable and my girls said, you have to do something. but it's like -- i describe it as a crime scene w

dakota they enacted pregnancy accommodation. in oklahoma as a enacted and online voter registration bill and these are just a few examples of progressives in red states and no other state proved what is possible in advancing a progressive agenda than oregon. this year they passed a series of reforms to improve workplace standards by requiring sick leave and prohibiting employer retaliation against workers for discussing wages. they address the leasing concerns by banning profiling and instituting body cameras, past public safety measures that further background checks on gun purchases and made major changes to their education and voting system. you can find all of this in our report. in addition, working with all of you, killed bad bills in states related to pre-emption of local laws and attacks on the clean power plant. do you remember that indiana religious refusal bills that passed in march of this year? which basically gave legal right to discriminate for businesses and others to discriminate against the lgbt community? you haven't heard about this because we have been working with g

. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, this week, we have been discussing taking up legislation to address the problem of sanctuary cities. in fact, just earlier today, we had a procedural vote on a motion to proceed to actually get on the bill. it failed. it got only 54 votes. the threshold here in the senate to get on a bill is 60. democrats here in the senate decided to block consideration of this bill and to put that 60-vote threshold in play, and as a consequence, it failed. we got 54. i think only two democrat senators voted to proceed to this legislation, and, mr. president, i would argue that is very unfortunate because this is a -- this is a piece of legislation which is -- which represents common sense. it represents what i think the american people want us to be focused on when it comes to this issue of dealing with crime in our communities,

states like west virginia, north dakota. we produce some of the most affordable and reliable energy. policies that are ripping the american dream away from families in my state and communities. our families want and deserve healthy and clean air, water and they want to live in a great environment. but policies from washington that pit one state against another and prioritize certain communities and certain jobs over others are bringing the livelihoods of many to a halt. members of congress, on behalf of americans across the country, we now have the opportunity to express those concerns with these carbon mandates. we have an opportunity to weigh in about whether these burden some regulations should go into effect. i believe that a majority of my colleagues understand the need for affordable and reliable energy and that's why i'm confident that congress will pass these resolution and place this critical issue of america's economic future squarely on president obama's desk. with the international climate negotiations in paris scheduled for december, the world is watching whether the un

try to on the issue. >> in north dakota we have a large native america population. [applause] we have a tribal members testify and to with your whites or blacks or native american and calling up the behavior in some committee hearings when the chairman is addressing some one of the different ways to notice did you treat people differently i have never lived on a reservation they know lot more than i do about those things connected with their fellow americans what a concept. [laughter] one of the reasons and have a progressive caucus is a have the value or stability. but most things i agree with the president but we are on different pages big-time. rigo fallout because of it we just work on what we can and. the progressive caucus base helps us of '08 the personality base you have a progressive caucus it your state which i strongly urge you to urdu, how we engage a leadership you would be surprised often leadership is looking for leadership. [laughter] to see everything get behind that. is a more extensive conversation with a progressive caucus to help you replicate the ideas to of

. [applause] in north dakota, they enacted pregnancy accommodation. in oklahoma they enacted online voter registration bill. these are just a few examples of progress serves in red states. of course no other states this year approved what is possible in advancing progressive agenda than in oregon. this year they passed series of reforms to improve work place standards and requiring sick leave and prohibiting employer retalltation for discussing wages. banned profiling instituting body ramps. further background checks on gun purchases and made major changes to the education and voting systems. again you can find all of this in our report. in addition, working with all of you, six helped fight and kill bad bills in states related to preemption of local laws and attacks on the clean power plan. do you remember that indiana religious refusal bill that passed in, i think it was march of this year? which basically gave legal right to discriminate, for businesses and others to discriminate against the lgbt community? one of the reasons you haven't heard about many more of these passing or

that has to be part of the figure. even over rural north dakota or whatever, you should not be at 20,000 feet. >> let me go further than. how would you classify near miss? >> i did a lot of collision risk estimation. itit is a collision avoidance system for manned aircraft. and as part of the analysis we use the definition of 500 fed 100 feet vertically. that is wherethat is where manned aircraft. there is nothing magical about this definition. >> captain, would you agree with that definition? >> currently there exists a criteria for near miss. >> talking about his definition, would that be satisfactory? >> i do not believe so because it does not reside anywhere near what we would need to avoid the collision. >> can you get to the chairman what you would estimate a near miss would be? >> i am not sure we are equipped to do that analysis, sir. >> can you query your pilots and asked them to opine on it? >> we can ask them. >> let me go really quickly and finish out mr. whitaker. some have suggested your rule-making has not been expeditious. and i believe in your earlier testimony he

, massachusetts and south dakota have looked into allegations of wrongdoing at planned parenthood affiliates. can you report to your knowledge what they have found? >> all of them found that there was no basis for any finding of any wrongdoing by planned parenthood. ends of those investigations were dismissed. >> now, what would happen to women if roe v. wade were overturned? as you know, the landmark case involving a woman's right to choose your would women still choose to end their pregnancies? with those procedures be safer than those provided by planned parenthood today? >> it's true an unfortunate that when abortion was illegal in this country women did seek abortions, and, unfortunately, most illegal abortion are dangerous and for women's lives in jeopardy. and women do nonetheless seek out abortions. so it is imperative that abortion remains safe and legal in this country. >> thank you. now, there's some who want to push to defund planned parenthood. some have claimed there's enough other clinics to absorb planned parenthood patients, if planned parenthood affiliates are forced to clo

. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are in a quoirk. mr. hoeven: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: i ask to speesh on the issue of the 2016 energy and water development appropriations bill, the bill that now in fact is before the senate. we just voted at 2:00 this afternoon on the ndaa, national defense authorization act. and that's very important because we need to pass that legislation for our military, and in fact we did. and we passed it with 70 votes. that's incredibly important because the president has threatened to veto on the national defense authorization act. and this is legislation that's passed the house. now it's passed the senate. it's going to the president. and if he vetoes it, we need to have the votes to override, because we've got to get that legislation done for our men and women in uniform. not only, as i spoke earlier on the floor, is it about making sure that we're doing our job on b

home state, and i've got to believe many colleagues, south dakota and illinois and elsewhere, hear the same thing. there is a long-standing tradition that says changes in medicare policy should be for strengthening medicare in the future. the same principle goes for social security. yet twice now these vital programs have been used to fund budget deals, and medicare sequestration is sticking around long past its original expiration date. this legislation preventing a calamitous default is coming down to the wire, and i would tell colleagues this is a must pass bill. i support it and i would urge democrats and republicans to do so as well. i would also say, we talked about where we go from here. it is important recognize that medicare and social security must not be used as atms for other spending in the future. the bottom line has to be that the process of reaching a budget and keeping the lights on in this wonderful institution, the people's branch, keeping the lights on and the process of reaching a budget has to change. congress cannot continue to just go from crisis to crisis t

nation, so welcome to the panel. let me also introduce representative jessica hatch of north dakota, house of representatives, doing some great things. jessica, thank you for being here today and thank you for your great work and assistant majority leader gary holder winfield of connecticut senate. [applause]. >> i think you have some friends around here and they have been making the most of their majority and senator vincent of south carolina state senate who did some really-- i just want to say so very impressed with you guys yanking down that odious, nasty, ugly, traitorous symbol. [applause]. >> it takes a lot of guts and we definitely appreciate that effort. with that, why don't we start out with jennifer williamson of oregon. come on up here. give her a hand, everyone. [applause]. >> thank you, everyone. i am super excited to be here today to talk about what we have done in oregon and thank you for your kind words and your supports last night and this morning. it's been a tough one to four hours at home, so thank you for that. so, it's like a love fest for oregon, this confere

:# snoot quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. ms. heitkamp: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. heitkamp: thank you, mr. president. we're here on the floor today in celebration, in celebration of the american democracy that occasionally things can work and that we can overcome extremes in our country and actually pull together to do something for american manufacturers, to do something for american businesses, and to do the right thing. i know that my colleague from -- the senior senator from the r great state of washington is on a short time frame, so before i proceed with my remarks, i'd like to yield the floor to senator murray. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i am delighted to be here with my colleagues, and i want to thank the senator from north dakota for her exhilaration. we all share that because of the vote last night in the house overwhelmingly in support of ex-im. i'm here today to reiterate my str

is just a breathtaking sight. if. if you are ever in north dakota, everyone's favorite vacation spot, be sure to go they're just want the bismarck. >> thank you. >> hi. after the mandan move north, how do they interact? >> great question. yes, mandan and hidatsa were allies, but they did not always get along. we can think of comparable cases in the us today. so whenever lakota threatened you could count on them collaborate, but why did they stop where they did? they would not let them go any further. there were some conflicts between the two. that is an excellent, excellent question. hidatsa protected their bison hunting territories. >> thank you. >> you welcome. >> thank you for a very good talk. could you add just a couple of additional comments about the mandan relationships with other tribes to their stay in that part of america? >> absolutely. mandan villages where the hub of commerce on the planes. i sometimes described them to be bless walmart but not tacky. with this like vibrant, cultural and social life. if you can imagine kyowa, arapahoe, cheyenne, trees, even a jew boys,

unique ways to solve current issues and problems. we see examples in texas and north dakota of innovative ways to improve the economy. texas tort reform helping us with health care costs and find horrible ways to reduce health and access to good health care and help boost the economy and not be a drag on the economy. we see in education, we have significant examples in arkansas where we are directing monies to medicaid reform. we were just in new york recently and we looked at a new school there in new york city in the great state of new york, where we have a corporate sponsor. ibm is stepping forward and saying that's helped somebody at risk kids here. from ninth grade for the next six years and have them attend the school, gets six years of education, graduate not with just a high school diploma but with an associate degree and be the first in line to get a job at ibm with salary starting at the $2000 plus benefits. this is what remarkably well and outside the box thinking coming from the state of new york on how we can do a better job with education. welfare reform. the cons

] in north dakota they enacted pregnancy accommodations. oklahoma they enacted an on line voter registration bill and these are just a few examples of red states. of course no other state this year proved more possible in advancing a progressive agenda than oregon. this year they password twice standards by requiring sick leave and they address police concerns by banning profiling and instituting body cameras. they pass public safety measures that further background checks on gun purchases and made major changes to their education and voting system. again you can find all of this in our report. in addition to working with all of you stage related to prevention of local laws and tax on the clean power plan's. do you remember that indiana religious refusal bill that passed and i think it was march of this year? which basically gave a legal right to discriminate for businesses and others to discriminate against the lgbt community? one of the reasons you haven't heard about many more of these passing or any of these others passing is because they have been working with groups to in

benefits. let kneel you this, mr. president: you know in your great state in the dakotas, the senator from arkansas know,the senator collins knows from maine, the biggest complaint we get is about the lack of timely responsibility in determining disability claims in the v.a., right? we have veterans waiting 478 days to get a disability claim on an injury they suffered fighting a war for us. 478 days is almost two years. that's terrib terrible terribly. it provides money to ex-sme diet disability claims. you tell me, senator from nevada, what's more important -- taking care of these guys who have taken care of us or just debating on the senate floor a bunch of hot air that means no difference to the american people? it is time we fished and cut bait. it is time we set the priorities and it is time we honored our commitment to those who have honored their commitment to us, the veterans of the united states. america. so as chairman of the most bipartisan committee in the united states, the veterans' affairs committee, which the ranking -- which the presiding officer is miami of t

solar projects and spearfish south dakota reports for this piece that purchased an old mining hydro plant to we have it to generate their own power so the range surprise me with the types of communities that decided to get involved so the question is why do day to that so that his the variety of reason to develop their own power but burlington had rested their utility at the time turned it into a municipal utility a century ago for many. the rates were too high. not surprising still a reason many try to get in and on community power as a source of revenue and public power consumers pay less on average they and private consumers. boulder colorado recently did not renew the contract because they retired of the company dragging its feet and said we will do what aerosols'. another reason is to get more responsiveness from the company winter guarded needed a series of upgrades the private providers said we would not do as they would not renew the contract they turn to the municipal utility they invested taxpayers' dollars and now they pay less than ever before another common reason is th

train control implementation. i want to thank my colleague from south dakota, senator thune. he is the chairman of the committee that i'm on, the commerce committee, for his leadership in advancing this effort and allowing us the opportunity to deliver that certainty that we need on this important issue. there's no allegation that those who are implementing positive train control, there's no allegation that they are inattentive, they lack desire. there's another suggestion that it's an undue delay, that they are not doing what needs to be done. every indication we have from all the experts is -- has nothing to do with a lack of commitment to the railroads. it has to do with the fact that we can't get there in the time that we had hoped for originally when we set forth this requirement. so we know there's a pending implementation date, a deadline of december 31. we know it is unattainable. it's unattainable despite the fact that billions of dollars have already been spent to get p.t.c. installed as quickly and safely as possible. but the reality is that without an extension of that dead

democratic state legislators from oregon, south carolina, north dakota, and connecticut talk about the recent legislative accomplishments. this hour and 15 minute discussion is moderated by congressman keith ellison. >> we will have an incredible panel next and then get you to the most important break, which is lunch. my name is roger coyle. there we go. i am actually here into roles, 1st and foremost year as the board chair of six. so i would like to -- thank you very much. and i would like to, at this moment, recognize our board. many board. many of you are involved in nonprofit organizations, many in there own campaigns. obviously this organization obviously this organization would not have been able to be created and thriving without its board. we have can sunshine who is not here, andrea you met earlier this morning, naomi, from the nea commander's and , afl richard trumka, and if i could have a special note for our founder who is here at this table, just a round of applause. [applause] you know, i think like a lot of folks, joel rogers has been fighting on these issues, an academ