Floor Statements

Mr. President, I come to the floor today in support of S. 2450, the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014.

The preliminary VA inspector general's report of delayed care at the Phoenix Hospital uncovered serious and systemic failures in our VA system. The internal audit by the Veterans Health Administration confirmed these delays. These problems have dragged on long enough and must be addressed and corrected. I believe we must keep the promises we have made to our veterans. We can do this by giving them the same quality of service they gave us, and by providing them with the care they deserve. That is why I support this bill.

This bill contains a number of provisions that will improve veterans access to care when they need it the most by:

Sending care into the community and ensuring veterans do not have to wait more than 14 days to see a doctor or physician;

expeditiously hiring new doctors, nurses and other health care providers in locations that have shortages;

requiring the VA to upgrade their electronic scheduling software;

authorizing the VA to enter into 27 major medical leases that will increase access to care for thousands of veterans who currently have to travel long distances to get the care they need;

requiring the President to create a commission to evaluate access issues in the VA Health Care system;

and, creating a commission on capital planning for VA medical facilities to look at the processes to ensure our veterans are being treated in safe facilities.

There is also a provision that would allow the Secretary of the VA to terminate VA senior executives for poor performance. This provision would also require the Secretary to provide Congress a justification for any removal

within 30 days. I also support giving SES employees the ability to appeal to the Merit System Protection Board within 7 days of termination, providing them the protections from retaliation and discrimination they deserve.

In addition to supporting this bill, as the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have put money in the Federal checkbook to improve the veterans health care system so that wounded and disabled warriors get the care and benefits they need. I have worked to ensure veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, or a traumatic brain injury, TBI receive better diagnosis and treatment through the Defense Department and the VA.

I have also led the charge to reduce the backlog in processing veterans disability claims. I brought Secretary Shinseki to Baltimore to create a sense of urgency to end the backlog by 2015. I used my power as chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee to convene a hearing with the top brass in the military and members of the committee to identify challenges and get moving on solutions. I cut across agencies to break down smokestacks and developed a 10-point checklist for change enacted as part of the FY-2014 omnibus appropriations bill. This plan includes better funding, better technology, better training and better oversight of the VA.

The Veteran's Administration needs a new attitude from the bottom up in every facility across the Nation. It is time to turn the VA around. Veterans who have fought on the front lines should not have to stand in line for the care they have earned and deserve.

This legislation is a significant step in the right direction, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. President, I am proud to rise today to support the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. This bill would allow eligible students refinance their Federal loans, transfer private loans into Federal loans with better interest rates, and eliminates tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires. This bill would help more than 25 million students in the United States, including 481,000 student borrowers in Maryland.

Middle-class families and their children deserve a fair shot at higher education. Students deserve fair, affordable loans to help them get the education they need to succeed, and the working women of America deserve a fair shot at fair pay with equal pay for equal work. Right now, millions of American students are graduating from college and universities, but as they are handed their diplomas, they are being handed a lifetime of debt. The average student debt for 2012 college graduates was $29,400, and for the first time in U.S. history, student loan debt topped credit card debt at $1 trillion. When you are fresh out of college and paying living expenses and investing in a 401(k), these loans add up and become burdensome.

This especially affects young women struggling to pay debts against a wage gap. College-educated women earn just 82 cents for every dollar a man makes, but they don't get an 18 percent wage gap discount on their student loans. How can we expect women to achieve their dream when they are burdened with crippling debt and fighting against a wage gap that continues to grow over time?

Recently, a Maryland woman wrote to me. She is a single mother and was on welfare for 9 months after giving birth to her son but said she did not want to become a statistic. She pursued higher education so she could improve her life. She got a bachelor's degree and a master's degree and graduated in the top 5 percent of her class. While attending school, she worked full time and raised her son. She enrolled in an income-based loan program and despite paying more than requested each month, her interest rate has increased. She cannot care for her son and pay off $63,000 in student loans without assistance in refinancing her loans.

The women of America want more. Women make up almost half of the workforce and 40 percent are the sole breadwinners for families but still only make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. African-American women earn 62 cents and Hispanic women earn 54 cents. Even if they have the same grades, degree, and job title, women are consistently paid less in their first job out of college. On average, women will lose more than $431,000 over their lifetimes because of the wage gap. This doesn't just affect student loans; It affects their contributions to Social Security, pensions, and retirement security.

I am so proud of America's women. We have accomplished so much. We have gone to space, become CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies and even made it into the U.S. Senate. Today, women are graduating from higher education in record numbers. It is time to help them get a fair shot at achieving their dreams. That starts with equal pay.

Getting a college education is the core of the American dream. I am fighting to make sure that every student has access to that dream. Let's work together to make sure that when students graduate, their first mortgage isn't their student debt. Carrying the burden of student loans drags down young people's financial future, making it harder to buy a home, start a family, or save for retirement. I support Senator Warren's bill because it reduces debt and fights for American families. It lowers interest rates, giving everyone a fair shot at repaying their loans for a more secure financial future because women deserve a fair shot at getting equal pay for equal work.

I have said this often, but we in this country enjoy many freedoms: the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of religion. But there is an implicit freedom our constitution doesn't lay out in writing, but its promise has excited the passions, hopes, and dreams of people in this country since its founding. The freedom to take whatever talents God has given you, to fill whatever passion is in your heart, to learn so you can earn and make a contribution--the freedom to achieve.

When I was a young girl at a Catholic all-girls school, my Mom and Dad made it clear they wanted me to go to college. But right around graduation my family was going through a rough time because my Dad's grocery store had suffered a terrible fire. I offered to put off college and work at the grocery store until the business got back on its feet. My Dad said, ``Barb, you have to go. Your mother and I will find a way, because no matter what happens to you, no one can ever take that degree away from you. The best way I can protect you is to make sure you can earn a living all of your life.'' My father gave me the freedom to achieve. And this legislation will give millions of Americans that same freedom without adding a dime to the deficit.

Senator Warren's legislation should be passed in a swift, expeditious, and uncluttered way. It gives our students access to the American dream. It gives our young people access to the freedom to achieve, to be able to follow their talents, and to be able to achieve higher education in whatever field they will be able to serve this country.

While our work isn't done when it comes to ensuring access to affordable higher education, this bill helps us get there. While these bills will fix the problem today, I will continue to work with my colleagues to figure out a longer-term solution.

Madam President, I wish to speak in strong support of Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who has been nominated to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS.

HHS is a $1 trillion agency responsible for, among other things, managing Medicare, Medicaid, and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, ACA. HHS needs a strong leader. I believe Sylvia Burwell is up to the job.

President Obama could not have selected a better person to lead HHS into

future. I first got to know Sylvia during the Clinton administration, but I also worked with her when she was at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walmart Foundation. I really got to know Sylvia more recently as she ran the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. She played a pivotal role in helping Congress come to agreement on a budget deal last December.

Her work at OMB has prepared her to step up to challenge of leading HHS. She is a problem solver who knows how to work with Congress. She is also a mom with kids. I am confident that Sylvia will be an outstanding HHS Secretary.

It is my hope that she is confirmed quickly. It is important that HHS has a leader in place. It is important that Congress has a point person in place as we work to pass the fiscal year 2015 Labor-HHS appropriations bill. And it is important for the country to have a Secretary of HHS confirmed so we can move forward with implementation of healthcare reform.

I would like to take a moment to express my deep appreciation to Ms. Kathleen Sebelius--our current HHS Secretary. Whether it was as Secretary of HHS or Governor of Kansas, Ms. Sebelius has always been a bright, hard-working, and devoted public servant. Despite constant and relentless opposition, she fought every day in every way to make health insurance a reality for millions of Americans. She was a phenomenal partner and tireless advocate in efforts to improve women's health, expand mental health benefits and services, fight childhood obesity, and protect people from dangerous influenza strains. She was a fierce advocate for those most in need and she will be missed. I wish her and her family well in all future endeavors.

As I mentioned earlier, HHS is a $1 trillion agency. Every single person worldwide benefits from work done at HHS. For instance, HHS oversees the National Institutes of Health, NIH--our Federal agency responsible for finding cures and treatments for the illnesses and diseases that impact our families. HHS also oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC--our Federal agency responsible for protecting the public health by preventing, tracking, and managing the spread of disease. HHS also oversees the Food and Drug Administration, FDA--our Federal agency responsible for protecting our Nation's food and drug supply. HHS oversees the Administration on Children and Families, ACF--our Federal agency responsible for running the Head Start Program and helping lower income families afford childcare. In addition, HHS is responsible for overseeing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS--our Federal agency responsible for managing Medicare for our Nation's seniors and Medicaid for those in need. These are only a few examples of how we rely on HHS agencies.

We also rely on HHS for implementation of Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, healthcare reform remains a divisive issue, despite passing the House and Senate, being signed into law by the President, and being upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. It also remains divisive despite all the benefits we have seen so far: More than 8 million Americans have obtained health insurance thanks to healthcare reform. More than 3 million young adults have been able to stay on their parents' health insurance plans. More than 3 million people have been newly enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP. Thanks to healthcare reform, being a woman is no longer a preexisting condition and people can no longer be denied coverage or charged more for preexisting conditions. And thanks to healthcare reform's provisions to close the dreaded doughnut hole, more than 7 million seniors have saved $9 billion in prescription drug costs.

Despite the many successes of healthcare reform, there is still much to be done, and we need a Secretary in place to get that job done. We need a Secretary focused on ensuring smooth open enrollment periods that are glitch-free. We need a Secretary who is willing and able to work with States who are not yet where they need to be. We need a Secretary focused on protecting people's privation information in an ever-dangerous cyber climate, and we need a Secretary focused on getting young people enrolled in health insurance plans and focused on keeping premiums low for individuals and small businesses.

Running HHS is a big job. Ms. Burwell is the right woman for the job. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of her confirmation to serve as Secretary of HHS.

Madam President, I come to the floor today in recognition of the approaching Memorial Day holiday to express my deepest gratitude, respect, and appreciation for the men and women of our Armed Forces and for our veterans. In order to commemorate our vets, the first bill to be marked up and passed out of my Appropriations Committee was the Fiscal Year 2015 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill. I wanted to make sure that there is no question in anyone's mind that veterans are my No. 1 priority.

As the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have put money in the Federal checkbook to improve the veterans health care system so that wounded and disabled warriors get the care and benefits they need. I have worked to ensure veterans suffering from post- traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, or a traumatic brain injury, TBI, receive better diagnosis and treatment through the Defense Department and the VA.

In the bill that passed out of my committee today, we established even more checks on the VA by including an additional $5 million to investigate the wait time practices at all VA medical treatment facilities nationwide. Our committee must invoke even more oversight to ensure that the tragedy that occurred at the Phoenix, AZ VA hospital is not repeated again in other hospitals. The greatest power my committee has is holding the VA accountable by closing the purse strings of their budget. One way we are doing this is by restricting performance bonuses for medical directors, assistant directors, and senior executive services staff until after the inspector general completes its audit on wait times at nationwide veterans treatment facilities. We need to continue to ensure that the VA is being held accountable. That is why I, along with a number of my colleagues, sent a letter to President Obama demanding an investigation by the VA's IG to evaluate the secret lists being kept at the Phoenix VA hospital.

I have also led the charge to reduce the backlog in processing veterans' disability claims. I brought Secretary Shinseki to Baltimore to create a sense of urgency to end the backlog by 2015. I used my power as chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee to convene a hearing with the top brass in the military, VA, and members of the committee to identify challenges and get moving on solutions. I cut across agencies to break down smokestacks and developed a 10-point Checklist for Change enacted as part of the fiscal year 2014 Omnibus appropriations bill. This plan includes better funding, better technology, better training, and better oversight of the VA.

I believe we must keep the promises we have made to our veterans. We can do this by giving them the same quality of service they gave us and by providing them with the care they deserve.

We made a sacred commitment to honor those who served by giving them the benefits they have earned. I will continue to fight for better benefits and treatment for our vets. And I am committed to holding the VA accountable through the powers provided to me through the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. President, I rise in support of the Boxer resolution calling for international action and aggressive action from our own government in terms of the rescue of 276 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped from a boarding school their parents paid for them to be able to go to so they could learn.

It is an outrage that these 276 girls have been captured by the terrorist group Boko Haram. It is an outrage against these girls and an outrage in the international community, and we need to speak as a nation--women and men together--saying, what is this where a girl can't go to school simply because she is a girl?

There is strong evidence that, as we speak, these girls are being sold into forced marriages and sexual slavery.

We, the women of the Senate, have written a letter on a bipartisan basis calling for the President to have the Boko Haram group placed on the international Al-Qaeda terrorist list and calling for sanctions to be imposed against them. We are heartened by the fact that the President is sending a team to help the Government of Nigeria find these girls, bring them home safely to their mothers and fathers, get the bad guys, and send an international message: Leave girls and boys alone.

There are additional rumors coming out that schools where boys had been attending, simply because they are in Western-based education, are being burned down and that the boys' lives are in danger. What kind of world is it where a parent, based on parental choice, can't send a child to school without thinking they could be kidnapped, abused, sold into sexual slavery, and so on?

We encourage the efforts by the U.S. Government to support the capacity of the Government of Nigeria to provide security for these schools and to hold these organizations accountable. We urge timely civilian assistance from the United States and allied nations in rescuing these girls.

Many of us believe there should be a regional African coalition to go in which knows the terrain to find these girls. But our President is sending military and law enforcement people to advise the Government of Nigeria, which has been slow to respond. It is not my place to criticize another President, but I wish they would have been more aggressive in a more timely way. Now we are where we are, so I hope we pass the Boxer resolution calling for international help.

I believe we in the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, should join the international voice calling for the rescue of these girls, the return of them home safely to their mothers and fathers, to capture and punish the bad guys, and that there be an international effort to let children of the world be able to go to the school their parents choose for them to go.

I thank Senator Boxer. We are going to be working together. The women of the Senate are going to be meeting with Secretary Kerry, and I believe this is an issue worthy of our attention, worthy of our time, and worthy of our vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter of support be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to speak on the nominations related to the cloture vote of Theodore Chuang and George Hazel.

Senator Cardin and I are recommending these two outstanding men to serve on the U.S. district court in Maryland. Senator Cardin and I are proud to nominate these men because of the outstanding qualities they will bring to the Federal bench in Maryland that has had a long and distinguished career of absolutely fantastic judges.

We have before us two Maryland judges who will be taking a different status--Judge Titus and Judge Williams. Judge Williams served in the Southern District of the Maryland Federal court--and we salute those two for

their outstanding service. On another day I will say what a great job they have done.

Senator Cardin and I take our responsibilities for recommending to the President the people of the highest caliber to serve as judges. We believe very strongly in the concept of an independent judiciary, people who will bring to the bench absolute integrity, judicial competence and temperament, a commitment to the core constitutional principles that have made our country great, and also though a history of civic engagement in Maryland--because a judge is not how many Law Review articles they write but can they administer equal justice and continue to honor equal protection under the law. Mr. Chuang and Mr. Hazel meet and exceed these standards.

Mr. Hazel comes with an incredible background. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney to the district court of Maryland. He has been the southern division coordinator on tough issues such as Project Exile, a Federal-State partnership addressing gun and violent crimes in Prince George's County and surrounding areas. He spent 5 years in private practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He is also a man of faith, involved deeply in his church, Metropolitan Baptist Church, where he serves as a deacon.

Most recently, he has worked with the Baltimore State's attorneys office. The Baltimore State's attorney's office faced a lot of challenges. It faced dated technology and difficulties in maintaining chain of custody on evidence. He came in to work with our new State's attorney, which is an elected position, and he is a real reformer. So whether you were a prosecutor or you were a defendant, you knew it was going to be one of the best well-organized offices in Maryland.

Hazel brought that kind of know-how to make sure the apparatus of government worked because that was all part of making sure people got equal justice: Did we have the right guy when we were a prosecutor? Did we have the right evidence? Did the prosecutor have the right tools? Did the public defender or their private counsel have the opportunity to provide the defense of them? We have been able to do that. Also, working in his church he has shown he has been available to provide all kinds of pro bono services.

He is a graduate of a distinguished law school and he is a Morehouse man. I think when he takes the Federal bench and takes that oath, we are going to be proud of the service he does.

Then there is Mr. Chuang, the one who has been under dispute today. Gosh, I wish the whole Senate could meet him as well as Mr. Hazel. This is a new generation coming into the Maryland Federal judiciary. Mr. Chuang's parents and his own story is that of the American dream.

Mr. Chuang's parents came with practically nothing from Taiwan seeking the American dream and a better life for their family. He worked very hard and then went on to some of our most distinguished schools. He went to Harvard Law School and Harvard University. He was a summa cum laude undergraduate and named by Time magazine as one of the high achievers. At Harvard, he was with the Law Review. But as I said, it is not how many Law Review articles one writes; it is, do they right wrongs in our society.

Yes, he has served at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; yes, he has worked in government positions; yes, he has worked in private practice at Wilmer Cutler; yes, he has been at the Department of Justice; and, yes, he did provide legal counsel to the State Department. I am going to talk about that.

First of all, I am kind of tired of this Benghazi witch hunt stuff, but I am not going to go into that. I respect my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Congress has a right to oversight.

But let me make the record clear: Mr. Chuang's role during his temporary assignment was as legal counsel providing legal advice and representation to his client. His client was the State Department. Although he provided legal advice related to the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, he did not have decisionmaking authority over whether to provide subpoenaed documents to the committee. That was at higher levels. If the committee had a beef with the State Department, they should have taken it up with the Secretary of the State, which I know they did.

During his 6-month detail, the State Department produced a vast majority of documents and witnesses requested by the HOGR.

In the case of the subpoena in question--which was for internal files of the independent Accountability Review Board that conducted the Benghazi investigation--the State Department agreed to produce most of the documents but has to date declined to produce memoranda of interviews of State Department personnel because disclosure of those witness statements may chill cooperation in future ARBs. Although State offered to discuss alternative means of serving the committee's request, the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform has not actively engaged the State Department on this since the fall of 2013.

Opposition to Mr. Chuang's nomination will have no impact on whether the State Department produces the documents, and he is not a State Department employee.

So I respect my colleagues for wanting to have cooperation. I don't dispute whether they have a legitimate grievance. I leave that in that field and domain, but I would say Mr. Chuang's role was that of a civil servant, providing advice to the leadership of the State Department on this matter. Then the State Department's job, at its highest level, was to negotiate with the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, chaired by Mr. Issa and the ranking member, our very good colleague Congressman Cummings of Baltimore.

So if we are going to vote against Chuang because the Secretary of State did or did not do something, I think we have other problems.

I ask for 1 additional minute to summarize.

If we continue to attack people because of the job they did for which they had no decision about, we are going to have a chilling effect on who comes into government.

If these two men whom I am recommending and whom the President has nominated were in private practice, they could be making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because these two men are duty-driven, with outstanding educations, backgrounds, and experience, they have chosen public service. I hope the Senate chooses them to serve on the Federal bench. This body is going to be very proud of them the way Senator Cardin and I are in bringing them to the floor's attention. I urge that we invoke cloture.

I yield the floor and ask that we follow regular order.

Mr. President, has the clerk reported the nomination?

Mr. President, I yield back all time.

Mr. President, I wish to express my strong support for increasing the minimum wage. It is outrageous that this Congress will not help middle-class workers.

This Congress needs to do two things to make sure we give a fair shot to everyone and build a stronger middle class: Raise the minimum wage and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

I am on the side of economic fairness and building a stronger middle class to bring opportunities to families across the Nation. What is economic fairness? It means that if you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve a fair shot at the American dream.

The minimum wage is at a historic all-time low. It has lost 30 percent of its buying power compared to its peak buying power in 1968. The minimum wage only pays $15,000 a year. That is $4,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would pay $20,200 a year--lifting that family of three out of poverty.

What does increasing the minimum wage mean for Maryland? Increasing the minimum wage will give 450,000 workers in Maryland a raise. Increasing the minimum wage will improve the lives of 210,000 Maryland children because their parent just got a raise. When we raise the minimum wage, we all move a rung up on the opportunity ladder.

Congress needs to raise the minimum wage so that hard work is worth it--because a full-time job shouldn't mean full-time poverty!

That is why I am an enthusiastic cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act. This bill raises minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 an hour over 3 years and indexes minimum wage to inflation in the future.

Minimum wage is a women's issue. Women make up two-thirds of minimum wage workers nationwide. Congress needs to raise their wages and make sure they are not being redlined or sidelined by outdated policies or harassed and intimidated when seeking justice for pay discrimination.

Being a woman costs more, and women pay more for everything. Women pay more in medical costs than men--an estimated $10,000 over a lifetime. Women are often responsible for childcare. Women even get charged more for dry cleaning! We are charged more for our blouses than men's shirts, and we are tired of being taken to the cleaners! When we earn less, we are asked to pay more.

Women are almost half of the workforce and 40 percent of them are the sole breadwinners in their families--they are tired of being paid crumbs!

Women continue to make less. Women are still making only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Women of color suffer even greater injustice. If you are African American, you earn 62 cents for every dollar a man makes. If you are Hispanic, you earn 54 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Everybody likes to say to us--``Oh, you've come a long way.'' But I don't think we've come a long way. We've only gained 18 cents in 50 years!

By the time she retires, the average woman will lose more than $431,000 over her lifetime because of the wage gap. That affects your Social Security and pension. It weakens your retirement security.

Not only do women make up two-thirds of minimum wage workers, women are nearly three-quarters of workers earning tips at their jobs. The minimum wage for employees who earn tips is barely over $2 per hour. The Fair Minimum Wage Act will slowly increase that base wage by less than $1 a year until it reaches 70 percent of the regular minimum wage. Increasing this wage will make a huge difference for women breadwinners who have so much to fear from a slow week in an off-peak season.

But this is not about men vs. women. It's about building a middle class. Wages have been flat for everyone. Men need a pay raise too. When they get it, we'll stand shoulder to shoulder with them--because we all need a raise to raise our families!

The Fair Minimum Wage Act is about putting change in the lawbooks and change in family checkbooks. I'm glad that Maryland is leading the way by passing legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2018. I will keep fighting to raise the wage nationwide, and I hope Congress will follow Maryland's good example.

Mr. President, today I wish to honor Gabrielle Batkin on the occasion of her becoming the staff director of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Gabrielle has a long career in public service. She served in Senator Frank Lautenburg's office, in Congressman Pallone's office, on the Senate Budget Committee, and joined my office in 2001. Gabrielle started on the Appropriations Committee's Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, then moved to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee, eventually becoming the clerk of the subcommittee. For the last year she has been the deputy director of the Appropriations Committee.

Gabby has played a part in some of my biggest achievements, including the most recent passage of the Appropriations Omnibus Package for Fiscal Year 2014. Her expertise and service ensured that America was well-funded and ready to get back to work after sequester and shutdown.

Throughout these wonderful 13 years, Gabrielle has been an invaluable member of my staff. Not only has she helped me immensely in my work as a U.S. Senator, but she has served the people of Maryland with distinction. Today I want to thank Gabrielle, her husband Josh, and her three wonderful children Henry, Will, and Charlie, for sharing her with us. I want to recognize her for all of the important work she has done and wish her the very best as she embarks on the next stage in her career.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded.

What is now the pending business on the floor?

I believe the number of that bill refers to the paycheck fairness bill; is that correct?

Mr. President, what a bloodless way to talk about such an important public policy issue--to use the motion to proceed--and very few people realize this. To simply get a bill on the Senate floor, we have to vote on a motion to proceed on whether we are going to take it up. And because this is now going to require a 60-vote majority, because of the invocation of this fog of filibuster, we can't even get to a majority vote on how to make sure women get equal pay for equal work.

No wonder people are fed up with us. They wonder why, when all is said and done, more gets said than gets done. I travel the State of Maryland in the United States of America, and people want us to do our job, to work on a bipartisan basis, hands across the aisle, work across the dome, to solve national problems.

We heard this morning the talk about the economy. One way to help the economy is for people to make more money. Do we know what is one of the best ways to make more money? Pay women equal pay for equal work. Also, enforce the law, the Equal Pay Act, that was passed in 1963. But we haven't been able to do it for several reasons, and this is what the paycheck fairness bill deals with.

Right now, there is a veil of secrecy in businesses all over America--a veil of secrecy about the fact that an employee cannot ask a fellow employee what they are making. An employee is not supposed to talk about their salary. They can talk about anything, but they can't talk about what the person next to them is making.

The second issue is if an employee in any way, particularly if that employee is a woman, tries to speak up for their rights to get equal pay for the same job--same pay, same job--an employee is often retaliated against. Then, businesses come up with lots of loopholes, which are bad. They use business explanations as bad excuses to avoid paying equal pay for equal work.

We want to pass this legislation to end the retaliation, close the loopholes, and lift the veil of secrecy. This, in many ways, will give American women not a raise but what justice demands.

I am here this morning to keep up the momentum which we have been able to maintain in this Senate. I am very proud of the fact that in 2009 we passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act which opened the courthouse doors to women. Now, as we continue 5 years later, we are listening to stories--terrible stories--about what has happened.

There was Kerri Sleeman--a mechanical engineer in Michigan--who was told that men had to be paid more in her company because they were breadwinners. She was a mechanical engineer doing the same job.

Latoya Weaver, a Marylander who wrote me, learned that the males at the hotel where she worked were being paid $2 more an hour than she was, which meant a total of several hundred dollars a year.

We want to end that discrimination--no retaliation, no loopholes, no veil of secrecy.

This has been going on a long time. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson, as part of the great civil rights movement that was sweeping our country, wanted to pass three civil rights bills: the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

He started with the Equal Pay Act because he thought it would be the easiest to pass and the easiest to enforce. Fifty years later, we are still fighting the battles on all three of those pieces of legislation, and today we are talking about equal pay.

(Ms. HEITKAMP assumed the Chair.)

Right now women are an emerging force in the workplace. Way back in the 1950s, only 11 percent of women were in the workplace, although many had been there during World War II as Rosies and kept our economy going.

Now they are the breadwinners in 40 percent of households. Women make up 40 percent of the households in which she is the head of the house or the prime or the breadwinner, and it is time to make the labor market reflect that--most of all the pay market.

When the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, guess what women made. Five cents for every $1 men made. Everybody said: We have to fight that. Fifty years later--now--women make 77 cents for every $1 men make. Over a 50-year period we closed the gap by 18 cents. Now what do you think about that? I think that is pretty unjust. I do not think it is even American.

We like to say: If you work hard and play by the rules, America will work for you. Well, women work hard. They play by the rules. Yet they work but America does not work for them.

For women of color, it is even worse. If you are an African-American woman, you earn 64 cents for every $1 a man earns. If you are an Hispanic woman, you earn 54 cents for every $1 a man earns.

You like to hear: Oh, you've come a long way. But I do not think we have come a long way with an 18-cent improvement in a 50-year period. Who in this Chamber thinks that earning 1 cent more every 5 years counts as ``coming a long way''? Maybe if we made 1 cent more every year since 1964 we would not think it is so terrific.

My constituents do not go for this--either men or women. Women want to stand up for their rights, and men want to stand up for the women they love. There are men all over this country, right this minute, who are in jobs they hate so their daughters could have the job they love, working hard so they can help them go to school, get the education, get the skills to be able to take care of themselves. This is why they have spoken up for dads.

Every week, in every month, as families sit down to pay their bills, husbands are looking at their wives and saying: Tell me about the pay. It doesn't seem right. I heard that George is making--I heard that Tom is making--but what about us? So men are outraged about this too. They see it as a fundamental fairness issue. They see it as a fundamental justice issue. And guess what. It is a family pocketbook issue.

We want change, and we want change today by voting for this bill. This way we will change the Federal lawbooks so we can help change the family checkbooks. This bill, as I said, will close the loopholes in the law which allow pay discrimination to continue to occur.

I will repeat, paycheck secrecy--making it harder to uncover pay differences--is hard to fight when you are prohibited from even talking about it. Businesses are under a gag rule. Then there is the retaliation. And then there are the loopholes.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is quite simple. They say: Well, didn't you deal with this with Lilly Ledbetter? Well, Lilly Ledbetter dealt with the statute of limitations. This bill is dealing with other issues. No longer can workers be retaliated against for sharing wages.

For years, Lilly--and she tells her own story, but it is the story of many--was harassed and humiliated for asking questions about coworkers' salaries. She found out that the guys were making more because of an anonymous note that was sent to her. Somewhere in the vast corporation of Goodyear, for whom she worked, a contractor--a Federal contractor, by the way--there was somebody, probably a wonderful man who worked with her, who wanted to help her out and told her.

But then she went on to try to do something. Well, guess what. She faced retaliation. First she faced verbal harassment. She faced threats to her very safety. She faced sexual intimidation. She really got it thrown right back in her face, and every day it became a torture in the workplace. But she pressed on.

That happens to women all over America. We cannot allow that. When you stand up for your rights in America, you should not be harassed.

There is much said about the First Amendment. Yes. There is much said about the Second Amendment--the right to carry a gun. Women would like to be able to carry a law to be able to fight for themselves.

No longer will employers also be able to use just any reason to justify paying a woman less. Oh, he is the breadwinner. Oh, they do a harder job. Well, when you talk to Kerri, the mechanical engineer, they were doing the same job. In fact, in some instances she was the actual supervisor. For Latoya, working in the hotel, they were doing exactly the same job, and the EEOC verified that. So this is why it is important.

The other thing is, no longer will women be limited just to backpay. They will be able to get punitive damages. Because in many businesses, when they are caught, the current law catches up with them, they just pay a fine and see it as a cost of doing business. Well, that is not fine with us. We want to make sure if you feel you have suffered these injustices, you will be able to seek redress through punitive damages. And no longer will women be on their own.

The consequences of the pay gap are significant. Let's take a college graduate--a woman who has had the benefit of an education. For women between ages 25 and 29, the annual pay gap now is about $1,700 a year. For women closer to retirement age, it is more like $14,000 a year. Over a lifetime, for many women, it is $400,000.

This has enormous consequences. When you are paid less--when you are paid less--it affects not only your paycheck that you take home, but it will affect your retirement because Social Security is pegged to earnings. So when you pay women less, they are going to get less in retirement. This is not fair.

Now, I will tell you what I am tired of hearing--that somehow or another we are too emotional when we talk. When we raise an issue, we are too emotional. Well, I am emotional. I am so emotional about this. I am telling you, if we do not pass this bill, I am so emotional I am going to press on. It brings tears to my eyes to know how women, every single day, are working so hard and are getting paid less. It makes me emotional to hear that.

Then, when I hear all of these phony reasons--some are mean and some are meaningless--I do get emotional; I get angry; I get outraged; I get volcanic. And the way I want to channel my emotions is by doing everything we can do to be able to pass this bill.

There are those who say: This is a lawyer's dream. It is not a lawyer's dream; it is a family's dream. If they are afraid of lawsuits, they ought to follow the law. The best way not to have a lawsuit is to follow the law. So do not retaliate against a worker, because if you do, you are going to have to pay up. If you have loopholes that are mean or meaningless, yes, that employee might sue. But guess what. The way to avoid the lawsuit is do not be mean, do not be cruel, do not be unfair, do not be unjust. And if you think we are emotional, wait until you see what happens if this bill fails. We are pretty emotional about this.

Madam President, you and I have talked about this. Whether it is in North Dakota or north Baltimore, we feel the same, that when you work hard, play by the rules, do the same job, you want the same pay. American women need a fair shot at equal pay for equal work--the same pay for the same job. We need to pass this legislation today.

Let us adopt the motion to proceed so we can get actually on the bill to discuss it, offer amendments. There are those, I know, who have other ideas and suggestions. We look forward to that. And then, at the end of the day and the end of the week, let's pass it.

I think today is a day of reckoning: Do you want equal pay for equal work? And I want men and women all across America to be emotional about it.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, we just lost the vote today on a cloture vote to proceed to the Paycheck Fairness Act, but I want everyone to know--everyone in the Senate and everyone in the United States of America--although we lost the vote, we refuse to lose the battle. We are going to continue the fight. We are going to continue the fight to get equal pay for equal work, to lift the veil of secrecy on pay in the workplace, to end the retaliation if you fight for your rights, and to close loopholes that are mean or meaningless.

We have been here before. I remember when we had the first vote on the Lilly Ledbetter bill. We lost that vote, but we pressed on. Women all over America expressed their frustration and their outrage. In 2009 we were able to right that wrong and pass the Lilly Ledbetter bill and open the courthouse doors.

So here we are again. We are ready to continue that fight. We are ready to turn our biggest noes into our biggest yeses. We will continue the war against the wage gap and wage discrimination against women.

Women of America, I say to you, join us in this fight. Make your voices heard if you want to change the Federal lawbooks so we can make a change in your family checkbook.

We are going to finish what we started with Lilly Ledbetter and bring the Paycheck Fairness Act back to the

floor. When Senator Reid voted no, it was so that he could bring up another vote on the motion to proceed. But this is not about parliamentary procedure; this is about how we will press the fight.

When we lost Lilly Ledbetter, I came to the floor then, and I come to the floor now, to say that when we continue this fight, I will remind my colleagues about what Abigail Adams once said to her husband: As you are making those laws down there, she said, ``do not forget the ladies. For we will foment a revolution of our own.''

So women of America--and the good men who support us--keep the revolution going. I said then, as I say now, let's suit up, let's square our shoulders. For the women, put on your lipstick and let's fight on. We will be back another day for another vote.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to speak on paycheck fairness, the bill we will be voting on tomorrow in the Senate. During the next hour 11 Democratic women will be coming to the floor to speak. I am not going to introduce each one. We want to get right to the issue. Rather than talking flowery talk about each other, we want to talk about the need for paycheck fairness.

I ask unanimous consent that each Senator be permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes.

I am the leadoff speaker. I want to be very clear on why we are on the Senate floor. We believe women need a fair shot to get equal pay for equal work. We want the same pay for the same job. We want it in our lawbooks, and we want it in our checkbooks. We want to finish the job we began with Lilly Ledbetter 5 years ago.

Five years ago, one of the first bills that we passed in the Obama administration was the Lilly Ledbetter bill. We reopened the courthouse doors to women who wanted to seek redress for the way they were treated unequally in the workplace. But we need to finish the job. That is what paycheck fairness does.

What does ``finish the job'' mean? Well, right now in the United States of America, there is a veil of secrecy--a veil of secrecy. Where is it? In the workplace. Right now, in companies and businesses, employees are forbidden to talk about the pay they receive with another employee. In many places, when an employee seeks redress, she is retaliated against. Last but not at all least, there are loopholes

that many employers use to justify women being paid less. They invent excuses, and they call them business necessity explanations. Well, we are on the floor today to say we want to end the soft bigotry of low wages for women. Equal pay for equal work. No secrecy. No retaliation. No loopholes. No way. Today is the day for equal pay.

We are on the floor today because it is Equal Pay Day. What does that mean? It means the women of the United States of America have to work in many instances 15 months to earn what a man doing the same job, with the same experience and the same seniority, earns in 1 year.

Now, we are not against the guys. There are many men who do jobs they hate so their daughters can have the jobs they love. After working to ensure that they have a good home and a good education, they see their daughters are paid less.

We all know there is a generalized wage suppression going on in the middle class--another topic and another debate. But right now we are on the job and we want to be paid for what we do. It is hard to believe that women are almost half of the workforce and yet during that time, as we make up 50 percent of the workforce, we still make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes; African-American women earn 62 cents; Latino women 54 cents--almost half. This is a disgrace.

We need to change the law. That is what we seek to do by bringing up the Paycheck Fairness Act. Our President has tried to do his part. He supported the Lilly Ledbetter bill. Today we were at the White House, where he took an Executive order step to ban retaliation against employees who work for Federal contractors. So we are going to start being a model employer by banning retaliation not only within the Federal Government but with our Federal contractors. He also then called upon the contractors to submit data, information, so that we would know what are the gender differences that are going on on the very contracts we have.

When we signed the Equal Pay Act--it was in 1963 under Lyndon Johnson--women made only 59 cents. You know what. That was 50 years ago. In 50 years we have gained 18 cents. Well, that is not the way to go. The way to go is to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. What we want to do is make sure that, as I said, there is no retaliation, no excuses.

We hear this all the time: Oh, the guys do harder jobs; they are the breadwinners. But so are many women now who are heading households or who are single breadwinners.

The other important thing is that no longer will women be limited in pay to just backpay when they have been discriminated against.

My time is up. I am so into this bill. I have been at this legislation for a long time. But what I have now is hope. Help is on the way. Reinforcements are here.

Now I turn to Senator Elizabeth Warren and then Senator Claire McCaskill and Senator Cantwell, in that order.

Madam President, this isn't only a women's fight, though we reserved this time. There are many good men in the Senate who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us, and I know the Senator from West Virginia would like to have 2 minutes before he presides. I yield him 2 minutes. Actually, I should yield him 77 percent of what we got, but he is for equal pay and so gets equal time as well.

Senator Heitkamp.

I thank the Senator for those comments.

Mr. President, I rise in support of increasing the minimum wage. Congress needs to do away with wages that don't reward hard work and workplace policies that belong in an episode of ``Mad Men.'' This Congress needs to do two things to make sure we give a fair shot to everyone and build a stronger middle class: raise the minimum wage and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The minimum wage is at an historic all-time low. It has lost 30 percent of its buying power compared to its peak buying power in 1968. The minimum wage only pays $15,000 a year. That is $4,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would pay $20,200 a year--lifting that family of three out of poverty.

What does increasing the minimum wage mean for Maryland? Increasing the minimum wage will give 450,000 workers in Maryland a raise. Increasing the minimum wage will improve the lives of 210,000 Maryland children because their parent just got a raise. When we raise the minimum wage, we all move a rung up on the opportunity ladder.

I am on the side of economic fairness and building a stronger middle class to bring opportunities to families across the Nation. That is why I am an enthusiastic cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act. This bill raises the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 an hour over 3 years and indexes the minimum wage to inflation in the future.

Everyone who works hard and plays by the rules deserves a fair shot at the American dream. That means raising the minimum wage so that hard work is worth it--because a full-time job shouldn't mean full time poverty.

The minimum wage for employees who earn tips is barely over $2 per hour. The Fair Minimum Wage Act will slowly increase that base wage by less than $1 a year until it reaches 70 percent of the regular minimum wage. Women are nearly three-quarters of workers earning tips at their jobs. For a hotel housekeeper in the western Maryland mountains, a hairdresser on the Eastern Shore, or a restaurant server in Baltimore or Bethesda, this raise is economic security so that a slow week in an off-peak season doesn't mean below-poverty wages.

The minimum wage is a women's issue. Women make up two-thirds of minimum-wage workers nationwide. Congress needs to raise their wages and make sure they are not being redlined or sidelined by outdated policies or harassed and intimidated when seeking justice for pay discrimination.

Being a woman costs more, and women pay more for everything. Women pay more in medical costs than men--an estimated $10,000 over a lifetime. Women are often responsible for child care. Women even get charged more for dry cleaning. We are charged more for our blouses than men's shirts, and we are tired of being taken to the cleaners. When we earn less, we are asked to pay more.

Women are almost half of the workforce and 40 percent of them are the sole breadwinners in their families. They are tired of being paid crumbs.

Women continue to make less. Women are still making only 77 cents for every $1 a man makes. Women of color suffer even greater injustice. If you are African American, you earn 62 cents for every $1 a man makes. If you are Hispanic, you earn 54 cents for every $1 a man makes.

Everybody likes to say to us: Oh, you have come a long way. But I don't think we have come a long way. We have only gained 18 cents in 50 years.

By the time she retires, the average woman will lose more than $431,000 over her lifetime because of the wage gap. That affects your Social Security and pension. It weakens your retirement security.

This is not about men versus women. It is about building a middle class. Wages have been flat for everyone. Men need a pay raise too. When they get it, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them--because we all need a raise to raise our families.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act is about putting change in the lawbooks and change in family checkbooks. Women of America, it is time to suit up, square our shoulders, put on our lipstick, increase the minimum wage for everyone, and fight the fair pay revolution.

Amendments Nos. 2878, 2877, and 2875 Withdrawn

Mr. President, before my colleague leaves the floor, I want to express my appreciation for his statement today and in particular when he spoke about the Judy Center, which has meant so much in Maryland to show the way childcare should be addressed. The Judy Center is a family-oriented organization that is focused on children. Their so-called wraparound services help the child not only with all that is necessary in a well-run childcare facility, but they also work with the family, strengthen the family, and help the family by giving them information about other opportunities to improve their life, such as educational benefits. I think it is a national model. If I had my way, I would like to adopt the Judy Center model throughout America.

Again, I thank the Senator for speaking about the Judy Center.

I also thank my friend for his steadfast advocacy for children, the way he has worked for the children's health program, particularly focusing on the dental services for that little boy Deamonte, the child who died. He is a real fighter.

Senator Cardin is also well known for getting rid of lead paint poisoning in Maryland. So now he wants the lead out of bureaucracy and the lead out of the Senate. Again, I thank him for his comments.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the bill.