I wish to thank Senator Warner for leading this colloquy, and I am glad to join him and my friend Senator Kaine in talking about the effects of sequester and how we need to come up with an alternative to the sequester. Senator Warner used…

I thank the Senator and good morning, Mr. President. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Good morning. The Senator from Hawaii.

before I begin my remarks, I wish to thank Senator Mikulski for the tremendous work she did on the continuing resolution. I know she worked so hard, and yet she is on the floor today to talk about how important passing the Murray budget…

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the joint resolution be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the text of the joint resolution was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: S.J. Res. 12 Resolved by the Senate and…

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: S. 618 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives…

I am deeply concerned about the harmful impacts of sequestration on the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Drastic budget cuts will limit the resources National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) fisheries scientists need to conduct research for fishery stock assessments.

Sequestration will also have a devastating impact on jobs.

Lower catch limits will mean that both commercial and recreational fishermen will catch fewer fish.

Inadequate funding for the National Marine Fisheries Service will essentially mean that there will be less fish available to the public.

What does that actually mean when you are talking about numbers of troops on the ground?

So with regard to health care, then, if we do, let us hope, comprehensive immigration reform, then we can take care of the prohibition in the Affordable Care Act that disallows non-citizens from even being able to purchase health insurance.

I think that it would disproportionately affect women and their families.

Our country is a country of immigrants, and the success of the immigrants in this country is often the success of immigrants and their families.

So you would say that at the very least, for those people who are here undocumented, that at the very least they should not be having to wait longer than those who are here with green cards to access certain services?

one of the values we have in this country is family is important.

There are those kinds of circumstances that perhaps we should be aware of.

this is all about doing the kind of immigration reform that really supports the values that we have in this country.