presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i, too, rise in objection to toomey 115. i ask the -- the presiding officer: madam senator, the senate's in a quorum. ms. mikulski: i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: and i speak on the toomey amendment. i want to reiterate what my colleague from illinois said about this amendment. senator durbin chairs the subcommittee on defense. he is the -- just recently took this over, because -- as -- with the passing of senator dan inouye, senator dick durbin has now assumed the chair. and it's a committee that we're now looking at the funding, and what we do see -- and i, too, have met with the department of defense, whether it was secretary hagel -- under secretary -- i mean, deputy secretary ash carter. i've talked things over with general dempsey. and, you know, when they talk about what are the big-buck expenditures in defense, is it guns, is it bullets, is it body armor, is it tanks, planes? the exploding costs are in the area of

this amendment. thank you, madam president. i yield back my time. ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i rise to speak on the cruz amendment. as i said, i'm glad senator lee had his chance. as i said, the cruz amendment would prevent the department of health and human services from implementing funding for the discretionary spending aspects of the affordable care act. as the presiding officer knows of the affordable care act so well and played a major part in it when she was a member of the house of representatives, you know that this would be -- have disastrous consequences. its consequence would essentially defund the affordable care act. they call it obamacare. i call it obamacare. as i said earlier, obama does care, and that's why we passed that legislation in the first place. the cruz amendment would issue or enforce -- it means that c.m.s. couldn't do their job to, for example, issue regulations on ending gender discrimination. you can say there are all these pages of regulation, but why should you and i

amendment aside for consideration of amendment -- ms. mikulski: mr. president, the house is not -- the senate -- the house is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will please come to order. mr. inhofe: thank you very much. ms. mikulski: i know there is a lot of gloating. i don't mean yours, sir. mr. inhofe: thank you. mr. mikulski: could we kind of keep it quiet so senator inhofe could offer his amendment? mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: would my friend yield so i can make a brief statement? you will get the floor when i finish. mr. inhofe: yes. mr. reid: mr. president, i have been waiting today to take just a moment to honor myron fleming, director of doorkeepers, who is retiring after 40 years working on capitol hill. he began working in the capitol with the office of senator howard metzenbaum of ohio. he has worked in the senate for 33, 34 years, and prior to that, he worked in the house of representatives for seven years. he is someone i have watched over the many years that i have been here. he is really a wonderful persona

approach we need to take. ms. mikulski: thank the gentleman for his really insight fled and cogent comments, a greater fighter for virginia. i want to work with you, too. so we create a climate that senator shelby and i do, no brinkmanship, no ultimatums, let's get the job done. we need to do our job so we are people get to do their job. and keep america rolling. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: if i can have 15 minutes to speak, 15 minutes to speak for a topic on revenue sharing. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: thank you very much. madam president, first i want -- i wasn't coming down to speak on appropriations and the c.r. but i want to say thank you to the chairwoman and the ranking member for working in a bipartisan way to try to find a solution to find an ability to ensure that at the end of the day we keep this government operating and moving forward. i thank them for that. madam president, today i rise to make some exceptions i want to take some exceptions with so

minutes; republicans the second 30 minutes. chairman mikulski and ranking member shelby are expected to make opening statements at 11:00 this morning. just as an aside, mr. president, this is a new day in the senate. we're so grateful for the hard work of mikulski and shelby. the amendment that's offered is their amendment, their substitute amendment. and i'm very proud of the work that they did. we're going to have to work through a number of amendments, but when it's all over with, we're going to send a bill that i hope the house will accept. if not, we'll have a quick conference. i hope that's not necessary. and continue the work on our other appropriations bills and finish the problems we've had in being behind now. the c.r. will fund the government until october 1, and then we would hope by then we could complete work on our appropriations bills, in 2014 we won't have to go all this again. we'll recess from 12:30 to 2:15 today for weekly caucus meetings. we've extended that an extra 15 minutes because the president will be here today. we expect to be in consideration of

requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is not agreed to. ms. mikulski: move to reconsider. mr. mccain: move to lay on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent to speak up to two minutes and after my remarks the senior senator from arizona be recognized. the presiding officer: is there objection? is there objection to the modified request? without objection. mr. brown: madam president, thank you. i want to not yet call up, i've been working with chairwoman mikulski on this until they get an agreement but i'll just discuss for a moment amendment 83 i'm cosponsoring with senator isakson of georgia. it really does help us restore as chairmanwoman mikulski has been working towards, regular order in this chamber. this is an amendment having to do with some chang dealing -- language dealing with a private project and customs and privatization that senator landrieu has supported. i've spoken with senator landrieu about this issue. we need to

. mikulski: mr. president -- madam president? madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: madam president, you've heard me speak to the democratic caucus and to the press that moving the continuing resolution, or i should call it the continued funding resoluti resolution -- remember, continuing the funding for fiscal year 2013 to our fiscal new year's eve, october 1, is our goal. we don't want a government shutdown. we don't want a government slamdown, lockdown. so we've been working very, very diligently on a bipartisan basis to fashion a bill that would get 60 votes so we'd be filibuster-proof. you know, madam president, in the old days, majority ruled. well, now it's super majority. that's not a fight i'm going to do here on this bill. my job is to keep the government funding, to work on it in a way that is open, transparent, bipartisan and hopefully bicameral. in order -- and i said this was like a helicopter leaving a disaster area, the last one, and i was trying to get, you know, the cargo

is a 60-vote threshold, adoption of the mikulski-shelby-mikulski substitute amendment and cloture vote on h.r. 933, the underlying bill. mr. president, for the last few years, our republican colleagues have been hollering and yelling and screaming that the senate hasn't passed a budget. they have done so in spite of the fact that republicans in both chambers voted for the budget control act which sets spending levels for the last two years. it was a law. every reasonable political observer admits the budget control act which had the force of law was a budget, period, but no because it was -- it was not a resolution, it was a law, which is much stronger than any resolution we do here. they have yelled and screamed, as i've indicated. still, republicans pined for the days of the so-called regular order and the senate would vote on a budget resolution that would set spending priorities for the fiscal year. republicans, we were told, we heard, we saw, were desperate to have a budget debate, desperate. let's -- and had charts out here. they were desperate for an amendment. they wanted

very kind sentiments. i yield. ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: what a wonderful time. i'm proud to serve with you, senator mccain. it's -- you know, america has so few heroes. america needs all the heroes that we can get, and people that could identify -- not come mick book figures in weird costumes, but men and women who put themselves in harm's way or do daring and dashing things for the good of other people. and i.t. just an honor. -- and ids just an honor. we occasionally have our dust-up, but that's part of the fun. i want to salute you in the warmest and most sincere way. god bless you. we wish you really good health, really a good voice and occasionally a good amendment. but again it's an hadn't. and, senator, if i might speak to the republican leader, i'm so glad you did this today, because i think in the heat of trying to get a c.r. dong, we need to take a -- c.r. done, we need to take a pause, understand why we're in it together, why we should respect each other, work with each other, and take a moment or tw

i indicated yesterday, i didn't like everything in that bill, but we had senator mikulski and senator shelby working together. they checked in with me and senator mcconnell to let us know how they were doing, and they did well on their own. they didn't need our help. and they came up with a plan that was fair and as balanced as could be under the sequester situation. and it was bipartisan. the amendment that is being filibustered is sponsored by mikulski and shelby. so this is a real shame, mr. president. i said last week when we were going on to this bill that we would have opportunities for amendments. i just hope that we can get on the bill, have some amendments offered. but each day that goes by -- and we've wasted two so far -- we're unable to have the amendment process. we had yesterday waiting all day, harkin and cruz because that's the first democratic amendment, the first republican amendment. there are still -- they are still on deck waiting to come whenever the umpire says that we can go fire. umpire being one senator saying we can go forward. mr. mcconnell: mr. pre

, shelby and mikulski, worked very hard and they have made progress over the weekend. we have condensed the number of amendments that are being talked about seriously. i commend them and their staffs for all their efforts. i have spoken to both of them this morning. they have not yet, though, reached an agreement. i think we are getting close. i hope that's the case. just before coming in here, i spoke to one of the staff members, and he's reaching out to senator shelby's staff before presenting it to the two senators for their approval. we have frankly had trouble getting both sides to agree on a finite list of amendments. there are a lot of amendments people want, but he objects to this, she objects to that, and there is still hope that we can have a limited number of amendments and vote on those and move to final passage of the bill. one way or another, we have to move forward on this bill. on wednesday, i filed a motion to invoke cloture on the pending substitute amendment and the underlying bill. on thursday, we postponed that cloture vote, anticipating that an agreement could be reach

colleague, senator mikulski, the chair of the appropriations committee. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: thank you very much. senator coons. i probably won't take ten minutes, but what i speak about is really the -- is really compelling. later on during the vote-a-rama, i will be offering an amendment that will create a reserve fund that should we pass the paycheck fairness act, it will in no way negate the spending within our budget. it is essentially the functional equivalent of a sense of the senate resolution that the senate should pass the paycheck fairness act. we talk a lot about growing the economy. the economy will grow when people work. the people that are entering the work force that have been one of the driving forces for the last 30 years are similar, and although we are in the work force full force, we are still not being said equal pay for equal work. it is outrageous. and if you want to grow the economy, pass paycheck fairness where we are not harassed for simply trying to find out what is our pay, how can we get equal pay for the same job? wo

budget battles get? golly, doesn't seem like they could get any worse. barbara mikulski joins us next. >>> milwaukee police chief edward flynn, this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. email marketing from constant contact reaches people in a place they're checking every day -- their inbox. and it gives you the tools to create custom emails that drive business. it's just one of the ways constant contact can help you grow your small business. sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact.com/try. because every flake is double-toasted... splashed with sweet honey... and covered in rich double-roasted peanuts. mmm. [ hero ] yummy. [ male announcer ] kellogg's crunchy nut. it's super delicious! ya. alright, another one just like that. right in the old bucket. good toss! see that's much better! that was good. you had your shoulder pointed, you kept your eyes on your target. let's do it again -- watch me. just like that one... [ male announcer ] the durability of the volkswagen passat. pass down something he will be grateful for. good arm. that's the power of german engineeri

, and i'm very grateful for his kind remarks. i yield the floor. ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i want to say that first of all we've had three astronauts -- three astronaut senators. we had senator bill nelson, who just spoke so eloquently about the planet and the way he saw it. our own very beloved and hero with the right stuff, senator john glenn. and also senator jake garn, our wonderful colleague who retired many years ago, but was also on the v.a.-h.u.d. committee. and when i first came to the senate, it was senator garn who really along -- was really one of the members of the other side of the aisle that really helped me learn the senate and really gave me a tremendous introduction to the space program. in fact, we went in a bipartisan way to every space facility on this country -- in this country so we could learn what were the great assets we had, how we needed to fund them, and what was the future of the american space program. so we've had three senators who were certified astronauts and actu

is gay, has changed his opinion. liza mikulski says her views are evolving. hashe president himself said his views evolved. i would not be so ironic using the word when applying it to republicans. aboute thing i would say the supreme court is i hope they learned the lessons of roe versus wade. ruth later ginsberg said that that decision stymied -- ruth bair ginsberg said that decision got in the way of a political process and took it out of a political arena. it gave a lot of people the sense that they had been robbed of the opportunity of being involved in the process and that is why 40 years later you have marches. i hope they understand that to do this, as you showed with the pupil, with opinion changing so rapidly -- with the pew poll, with opinion changing so rapidly, the best thing the allow this to is change with the expression of popular will. even if they end up on the wrong side, they had a legitimate shot and a decision has legitimacy in and of itself. >> for the record, north dakota this week enacted the toughest restrictions on abortion in the nation. opponents say they

think we need to give credit to senator barbara mikulski on this. she negotiated a great deal in the senate and also the house. she has come through as a top- notch legislator. that said, bigger problems are ahead of us. >> the 8% of defense will kick in, so there will be furloughs. >> they have delayed the furloughs because of the continuing resolution. >> that is a good point because 28% of all federal hires are we talk about how much we revere and respect and admire veterans. they are the ones that will get laid off. >> the republicans are lucky that the ryan plan does not have a chance. if the american people got wind of the kind of cuts that would happen under this budget, and most people do not pay attention to this back-and-forth, but it started to happen, they would not like it at all. you can see that in all the data. >> i hate to be critical of you -- actually, i do not really. but you missed the story on the budget. the real news is the senate offered a budget for the first time since 2009. the ipad did not even exist the last time. [laughter] that is completely dead on ar

champion of public broadcasting award. we also given to senator barbara mikulski. she has been a steadfast supporter of public television for her entire career in washington. talking a lot of time with members of congress and their staff about what it is that we are doing at the local level. we bring our station managers to , as well as community leaders who support our enterprise in local areas to tell them our stories about the community service that we provide. we also ask members to come stations and local communities and see on the ground what it is that we are doing. the more that they see, the better that they like what we do. we are encouraging more and more interaction. the more we get, the better off we will be. >> many congressional champions are democrats. issue funding becoming more bipartisan? >> i do. there is a great public media summit at the end of february. can meet with their senators and representatives. what we found is that there is a bit of a seachange in terms of the bipartisan support that we can now count on. for the last couple of years, it has been difficult, b

joe biden, joe lieberman, chris dodd, tom daschle, barbara mikulski -- >> keep going, i love this. mikulski. all the liberals. >> john kerry did not vote for it. ted kennedy did not vote for it, but the majority -- 85 senators voted for it, and now we're in a position -- >> what did doma do? >> doma basically designated marriage as between a man and a woman and basically said that the -- >> all federal payments -- >> -- states wouldn't have to recognize -- >> that most important -- that's true, didn't have to recognize -- >> outside of that definition. >> virginia would have to recognize maryland, but it also said for federal purposes, social security, medicare, there's no such thing as gay marriage. >> i think president clinton says -- >> i love this conversation. maggie, thanks so much for coming on. i love this conversation especially from a political point of view. dee dee myers thank you. a model, by the way. she was at my bus stop recently on the bus stop. very demure. >>> up next, the jockeying for 2016 -- it's all true. the jockeying for 2016 has already begun on both side

. last night, there -- ms. mikulski: mr. president, not to object, what is the parliamentary situation? are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not in a quorum call. ms. mikulski: are not? the presiding officer: are not. ms. ayotte: thank you. last night, the majority leader of the senate came to the floor and on the continuing resolution, which is essentially the only bill that we will consider this year of the funding of our government, it's over a trillion dollars in taxpayer money, came to the floor and brought forward a unanimous consent agreement that only contained a handful of amendments that could be brought to the continuing resolution, and many amendments that were germane and in my view reasonable had been advanced, brought to the attention of both sides well in advance, were denied an opportunity for a vote on the floor. because of that, i objected to the consideration of the continuing resolution, the unanimous consent agreement because frankly, i think when you're spending over a trillion dollars and the only funding bill we're going to vote on essentially

conciliation and hard work. we stayed in close touch with senators mikulski and shelby as they managed the bill in the senate, as a result the senate added no poison pills, to the bill that passed the house last week. even if a continuing resolution is not the most preferable way to fund the government, i believe this bill is the best we can do under these tricky circumstances. and i want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and other side of the capitol for working closely with us and the committee over the past few weeks. we still face a long haul for the rest of the year. it may seem far down the line, but the beginning of fiscal 2014 is only six months away, not to mention the other fiscal challenges that we face. passing this continuing resolution today lays the groundwork for a path forward. it takes a looming fiscal deadline off the table to allow us to finish the rest of our work and ensures our government keeps its doors opened through all of that. now, mr. speaker, all the members of this body know that the real work of the body is done by staff. in the case

not get that vote done with? senator mikulski has led in a beautiful way with senator shelby -- a very bipartisan fashion. let's vote on that bill, keep the government open, as senator mikulski said, "show the country we can work together," and get to the one thing the republicans have been saying, not for months but for years, that the democrats have not done a budget. now, the truth is, instead of doing a budget, we did the budget control act. so of course we distinguis did . as a matter of fact, the budget control act was actually, in many ways, more specific than a budget. but set that aside, they went out on the campaign trail, they attacked democrats, "where's your budget? where's your budget?" well, guess what? under the able leadership of my friend from washington, senator murray, there is a budget, and it is well-done. and it has strong deficit reduction and strong investments. it's balanced in a way that the ryan plan is not. it saves medicare where he destroys it. it invests in education and infrastructure, where he destroys that. his budget budget is a wrecking. our bu

-- then referring to senator mikulski in yielding time to her as well -- as well as our great colleague from minnesota, senator klobuchar and others that wish to speak as we proceed with the debate on this resolution. let me just take a moment and say that today, the house has passed their budget, called the ryan republican budget, and it effectively rolls back health care for women in this country. our budget does exactly the opposite. we protect and strengthen access to health care for women. under health reform, which we strengthen and support in our budget, insurance plans, as we know, are required to cover women's preventive care, things like annual wellness visits, domestic violence screenings, contraception without co-pays and coinsurance or deductibles. and the republican budget that was passed today would take away those protections. under the budget that they passed today, 1.3 million women in michigan alone could lose their health care. insurance plans are now under what we have passed are now not allowed to discriminate against women. that's part of health reform. being a wo

republicans on regarding the budget? >> well, what's really key is senator mikulski who's the tom dem and i have been working very closely together. remember, the reason the democrats couldn't vote for the continuing resolution, it reaffirmed the sequester, which means a major cut. it only updated defense and the military construction bill to reality. and the other ten bills were left from two years ago. so if barbara mikulski works with me and the senator and we work across the aisle, i think we have a great chance of bipartisan support in the house, and then it will go to the president. >> speaking of the president, there was, of course, this big dinner last week in washington, d.c. president obama sat down with about a dozen or so republican senators, and there are reports that out of that dinner came the president's willingness to talk specifically about reforms to medicare. how far do you think that he's going to be able to move democrats in the house spechkly on the issue of medicare? >> first of all, if we recall, it was a month or two ago that the president had speaker boe

bill that senate democrats-- some of them liberals-- harry reid, barbara mikulski, the chairman of the appropriations committee, have their fingerprints all over it. that means a probable repeat of a dynamic we've seen with every tough vote. there may not be -- in fact there likely won't be-- a majority of republicans to prevent a government shutdown. john boehner thereof rely on nancy pelosi to provide the votes. she has more say than she used to. >> suarez: unlike these other deadlines, is the thought of a government shutdown so frightening for political reasons some of the players near they may have to bend in order to avoid the clock running out on march 27? >> well, that's exactly what you see here, the leaders on both sides appear to have decided that a showdown over a shutdown is not in their interests. there have been bloody fights in the past, everybody knows that, there a couple more to come in the future. everybody decided that the polls are telling them that the shutdown won't be in their interest. it's uncouraging in that that house is going to acting with a three week

government through this fiscal year negotiated by appropriations chairman, senator barbara mikulski and ranking member senator richard shelby is now being blocked and blocked by two republican senators, senators john mccain and tom colbert. those senators insist they have not had time to read the 500 pages. here to discuss what lies ahead in this -- what is shaping of to be above the budget. fred barnes. first year of assessment is to two republican senators blocking will look like a piece of legislation that was well on his way to making it through. >> it will make it through. they have until march 27 to is the money is not approved and signed by the president. the government would have test cs for while. it will happen. asking for 72 hours. at think this was not really that much of a flap given that harry reid got all whipped up about it. this is a guy who is not presented a budget in the last four years until today when they finally did. you were saying something earlier. remember, about the president coming in with his budget later. it used to be cliche. the president proposes a

visit may differ from president obama's first trip abroad in 2009. then we will turn to david mikulski, a key is just off a plane from israel. he met with senior israeli, a senior palestinians, just as the new government was being formed. there is no truth to the rumor that a good broker of the final agreement. david brokered the final newement for this government. he brings fresh insight from his trip abroad. our third speaker will be might senior mike singh, director on the national security council during the bush administration on the middle east. he brings a perspective not just from his planning for president bush paused trip to israel, but also an overall view about where beforesit fits in addressing key objectives on america's middle east agenda. a lot of important insight. i will turn the podium over to dennis. we will hear from our three speakers and then open it up for your questions and comments. >> thank you. i know you are all here because you want to not hear about the middle east, but you want to hear about how i am approaching wreck tautology -- racketology. you'll hav

authority. i talked to senator mikulski about it. she has a similar vision in mind. i know the chairman also has some amendment dealing with the i.c. i want to encourage you to make the consequences of sequestration known to the senate leaders and the house leaders because that is where the decision is being made. it is critical that they hear from you and from all members of this panel about what the consequences would be, particularly in light of the dyer threat situation that we face. -- dire threat situation that we face. i want to turn to iran. during a senate armed services committee, the current diplomatic and economic efforts to stop iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon capability are not working. do you agree with that assessment? >> not completely. i think i indicated earlier that that it is having a huge impact on iran. they'll will have an influence on the decision. we can see indications of that. where i do agree is that the sanctions and thus far have not induced to change on the iranian government policy. >> i think the fact that they have not produced a change s

. and we also need to look at transportation. >> reporter: senator bar ba mikulski, who heads the committee in charge of spending, at work while most of her senate colleagues are home for the weekend, expressed frustration that congress is gone. >> i'm here. i'm ready to go. i waited for the photo-op back at the white house to come here to give me instructions. >> reporter: speaking of congress skipping town, the president took note of the empty capitol while trying to put real-life faces on forced spending cuts. >> now that congress has left, somebody's going to be vacuuming and cleaning those floors and throwing out the garbage. they're going to have less pay. the janitors, the security guards. they just got a pay cut. and they got to figure out how to manage that. >> reporter: but we checked on that, and it turns out the president was not exactly right. the senate sergeant at arms told cnn neither capitol police nor janitors will see salaries slashed, only limited overtime. the only announced effect so far at the capitol is some entrances will close, a small inconvenience to la

talked to senator mikulski about it. she has a similar vision in mind. i know the chairman also has some amendment dealing with the i.c. i want to encourage you to make the consequences of sequestration known to the senate leaders and the house leaders because that is where the decision is being made. it is critical that they hear from you and from all members this panel about what the consequences would be, particularly in light of the dyer threat situation that we face. -- dire threat situation that we face. i want to turn to iran. during a senate armed services committee, the current diplomatic and economic efforts to stop iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon capability are not working. do you agree with that assessment? >> not completely. i think i indicated earlier that that it is having a huge impact on iran. they'll will have an influence on the decision. we can see indications of that. where i do agree is that the sanctions and thus far have not induced to change on the iranian government policy. >> i think the fact that they have not produced a change suggests that they are

committee, barbara mikulski is working with the ranking member, senator richard shelby of alabama. it ran into a big stumbling block when senators coburn and mccain threatened to put a hold on the bill because of all the pork in it. that drew swift condemnation this morning from senate majority leader harry reid. listen up. >> now i, just alert everyone, we have, easter recess coming a week from friday and we're not going to be able to do that. a budget has a locked in amount of time, 50 hours. plus the votathon. so everyone should be prepared to change their plans first few days. we hope it is the first few days of easter recess. we're not even on this bill. and that is such a sad thing. >> reporter: here's look at some of the pork coburn and mccain found in the bill. it provides $65 million for pacific coast salmon restoration for states including nevada. nevada salmon. it directs the department of defense to overpay on contracts by an additional 5% to contractors who are native hawaiian owned companies. it provides $154 million for military alternative energy research initiatives. the

amendment number 156, for ms. mikulski amendment number 431, for ms. ayotte amendment number 158, for mr. cruz amendment number 202, for mrs. murray amendment numbered 439, for mr. crapo amendment numbered 222, for mrs. she haoepb amendment -- shihan amendment number 438. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i want all of our members to understand that the second amendment that we will be voting on tonight is the ryan budget. there seems to be some resistance among my republican colleagues in bringing up the house republican budget for a vote, and it's pretty easy to see why that is. last year's house republican budget was in fact soundly rejected by the american people in the election. and since then it continues to be very clear. the american people prefer a balanced and fair approach that puts our economy and our middle class first. not an extreme irresponsible approach. unfortunately, house republicans put forward a budget last week that doubles down on the rejected ideology that the american people spoke about. and they have a new talking p

senators rockefeller, wyden, mikulski, and i have all served on the committee for more than a decade, and senators chambliss and burr are near that total, and both served on the house committee before coming to the senate. so you have some veterans on that committee who have watched and be listened -- and listened. we spend a minimum of two hours in a committee meeting twice a week, and often longer. we cannot take home notes. notes go in the safe. we cannot take home classified information. so it means a lot of reading, wherever you can get the time to either go to a skiff or in some way, shape, or form find a way to read the classified information which runs daily like this. we see everything except for the president's p.d.b. that's' the president's daily brief. all of the other information from all of the agencies stream through this committee, and it's really vital that we read it because that's where we find out where the threats are. we have been able to truly understand the relationship between the intelligence committee and the intelligence community. and the importance of ha

senator collins and mikulski. it would be funded entirely by private funds. host: the next call is kevin joining us from west hartford, conn. good morning. caller: thank you for having an interesting and informative best answering our questions this morning. the question i have is -- between the women's movement and peace movement in united states history. guest: excellent question. the women's movement, especially during this era that recall the progressive era from 18 '80s to 1890's up until the first world war, brought a number of movements for social reforms and an international peace movement was one of them. many women were involved in both movements. many women had training in the suffrage movement, gained their political participation experiences, and then continued them beyond the suffrage movement into the peace movement. host: what is the message today to those marching here in washington? guest: i think the message today is it is important to remember that in 1920 women weren't given the vote. there were 72 years of struggle , of violent confrontations, and political ma

passed the house yesterday will be modified somewhat in the senate. barbara mikulski from my state the chairman of the senate appropriations committee, has been working with her colleagues to try to make sure that we do our job in congress and prioritize some of the spending on the nondefense side. what the house did was they provided some prioritization of spending for defense but not for nondefense. so there are improvements. the biggest short coming of what happened in the house yesterday was once again, we failed to deal with the sequester. and sequester is just a fancy washington word for loss of hundreds of thousands of american jobs. in fact, the nonpartisan congressional budget office estimates if that sequester remains in place through the end of the calendar year, we'll see 750,000 fewer american jobs. 1/3 less economic growth this year! we can't afford to do that! which is why yesterday for the fourth time in the house of representatives, i asked on behalf of my democratic colleagues for the opportunity for a vote on our plan to replace the sequester in a balanced way. you g

who is in charge of the spending bills, barbara mikulski of maryland. and even she expressed frustration, which she called a photo op yesterday. listen to this. >> we've hit march 1st, we've hit sequester. let's to go. i'm ready for the photo op at the white house to give me instructions. i can make strategic cuts and i can do it on a bipartisan basis. we've got to to go to work. >> you know, the issue, fred, that led us to where we are right now, both sides dug in on their philosophical fundamental differences which is whether to deal with the tax deficit by having tax increases or spending cuts. democrats offered to do it 50/50. republicans said, no, we did way too many last year and that's why we are where we are right now. >> so these cuts will span something like six to eight months. meantime, you know, there's another threat looming this month and that could lead to a government shutdown. so how much of what has just happened as of yesterday kind of set the stage for potential government shutdown by the end of the month? >> probably the only positive thing that came out

mikulski's place and she is no longer in politics. i am going to different communities and trying to see if we can assist you in finding jobs. if you are in the job, prepare you just in case something is coming. i hope everybody comes out. my number is301-495-7799. -- is 301-495-7799. i know we will be working together to see that everyone gets into a job and that we create new jobs. host: talk about the reaction from constituents. what are you hearing from constituents? caller: some of them did not have jobs. we had an extension last year for unemployment. i do not know if we will get that extension again. we have to be preparing ourselves. i hope each community can come and help itself to meet the community needs. this is u.s. senator denise wittington. guest: networking is a key to getting people back into the workforce. there are stories about how often people get jobs through people they know or through networking, either on social networks or in person. host: nancy michigan is up next. -- lansing, michigan is up next. caller: i have some information to you -- for you. canada had a min

in this town described as a slap down by barbara mikulski, critical on the senate floor of and then the, exchange with senator feinstein. guest: he has irritated some of his senior colleagues who believe he is a little too blunt, rising a little too fast. he is getting cheers from the right for battling the left on capitol hill and for not backing down on his views. his dichotomy. part of his appeal is that he is doing these things, but also it is challenging his long-term .uccess in the senate to b i do not think he cares. he really believes he has a conservative agenda, he is a princeton-harvard educated lawyer. it is not thinking needs to sit on the sidelines for too long. he thinks he can dive right in and be a jim demint type figure and push the party to the right. program is carried live on c-span radio. we welcome our listeners on xm or wcsp fm. we have this -- guest: he does have that cadence. you could interpret that as a compliment. scott walker, the governor of wisconsin, he is the son of a baptist preacher. have a similar style. they're able to walk around a stage, not j

senators mikulski and shelby on their work on the bill that will fund the government for the rest of the year. i think it was a massive opportunity and expenditure of effort that they did, but what i want to point out is that they had the opportunity to work things out together. together. that's bipartisan. that means that -- sitting down together and figuring out what both sides think are the priorities and seeing if there isn't some way to put those into a single budget. i know that hasn't been done in years but it's something that i imagine america dreams about. i wish the majority would have -- would have provided that same opportunity to the budget committee. maybe then the majority would have brought a bipartisan budget to the senate floor. this doesn't have to be a shooting match. it can be a realization of a way to match spending with the revenues that we've got. i was disheartened last week when i finally received the majority's budget to see that it simply continues the mantra of tax and spend. you know, we can't tax the american people every time that congress screws up. e

the government at the end of the fiscal year. i applaud the work done by chairman mikulski and ranking member shelby. these two individuals are seasoned veterans. they have worked hard to get this legislation done, as only they can do. they are two of our most senior members and two of the most respected members. the measure that we're going to work on starting today was passed by the house of representatives last week. it's not perfect. we hope to improve upon that. there will be amendments offered. we're working on a process to consider those amendments. this week we'll offer another opportunity for the senate to return to regular order, an opportunity for this body to legislate through cooperation, through compromise, as we used to do. this legislation will be a test of the senate's goodwill. america's economy is poised to grow and expand. the last thing it needs is another manufactured crisis such as a government shutdown to derail its progress. mr. president, for some public servants, the political fires lit by their first trip to washington, whereby -- being moved bay mem

to chairwoman mikulski on the budget control act in cutting $1.6 billion from the current level which would have serious consequences. specifically the letter detail cuts to the f.b.i. suggesting furlough of 775 special agents, most important assets to the national security and law enforcement. but the reality is as of yesterday, the department of justice was advertising for over 100 job openings on u.s.a. jobs web site. these include positions such as cook supervisor, dental hygienist, law librarian. and the department's web site has over 50 attorney positions listed since january 14. the memorandum was being issued by o.m.b. instructing agencies. so i'm skeptical about your description of severe negative impacts on the impact including the estimated loss of federal agents fighting national security. further, your letter to the chairwoman failed to discuss cuts to conference expenditures, which more than doubled between 2008, 2010 and failed to discuss reductions in travel or other nonmission expenditures. what has a high priority when it comes to sequester? how do you reconcile the

rhode island, carper, coons, casey, pryor, nelson, begich, mikulski, murray, levin and manchin. mr. durbin: i move the senate proceed to a period of morning business with minority permitted permitted each. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: i ask that when the senate complete its business, it he a jurn until 10:00 a.m., the journal of proceedings be approved to debate debate and the following any leader remarks the senate resume executive session in consideration of the brennan nomination, further that the senate recess from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. to allow for caucus meetings. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until >> i believe the united states has many fantastic qualities. i believe that many many people have the possibility of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and i think every year that is less and less probable. but the united

, match 297, stabenow 432, grassley 156, mikulski 431, ayotte 158, crusts 423, crapo 222, shaheen 438. and that the time until five after 8:00 be equally divided between the two managers, make it the ten after, until 8:10 be equally divided between the managers or their designees, prior to votes in relation to the sessions motions and the first four amendments. all after the first vote be ten minute votes, two minutes divide in the usual form, no amendments be in order in relation to these items, and that following the votes this evening, the remainder of today's session be for debate only on the concurrent resolution. further, when the senate convenes at 9:00 a.m. on friday, march 22, the senate resume consideration of s. con. res. 8 with the time until 11:00 a.m. equally divided between the two managers or their designees. at 11:00 a.m. the senate proceed to votes in relation to the remaining amendments above listed. that there be two minutes equally divided prior to each vote and automatic after the first vote in this sequence be 10-minute roats votes. upon disposition. last amendm

regard to a letter you wrote to chairwoman mikulski on the budget control act in cutting $1.6 billion from the current level which would have serious consequences. specifically the letter detail cuts to the f.b.i. suggesting furlough of 775 special agents, most important assets to the national security and law enforcement. but the reality is as of yesterday, the department of justice was advertising for over 100 job openings on u.s.a. jobs web site. these include positions such as cook supervisor, dental hygienist, law librarian. and the department's web site has over 50 attorney positions listed since january 14. the memorandum was being issued by o.m.b. so i'm skeptical about your description of severe negative impacts on the impact including the estimated loss of federal agents fighting national security. further, your letter to the chairwoman failed to discuss cuts to conference expenditures, which more than doubled between 2008, 2010 and failed to discuss reductions in travel or other nonmission expenditures. what has a high priority when it comes to sequester? how do you reconci