Did you have any discussion about this issue with any providers that are offering these plans prior to their decision to join?

The cries for increased judicial discretion are actually cover language for leniency.

Anyone who is concerned about reducing prison costs should make lowering that number a priority.

Was this exemption requested by any providers, and, if so, who requested it?

would you make the lawyers who review this decision available to my staff so that we can ask follow-up questions to better understand why the decision was made to greatly weaken the ability to use available statutes to protect taxpayers'…

I always welcome the opportunity to have oversight of the Justice Department.

Twenty-five percent of the Federal prisoners are gang Members.

I am concerned that we are hearing many of the same kind of voices that headed us toward greater crime starting back in the 1960s.

We should be very careful about any action we take in changing sentencing laws, whether based on cost or other concerns.

Reducing prison sentences will bring prisoners out in the streets sooner.

You should not be able to just exempt Obamacare from these protections with a stroke of the pen.

the Department, quote, "does not consider qualified health benefits, other programs related to Federally Facilitated Marketplaces, and other programs under Obamacare, to be Federal health care programs."

I rise in support of the nominations of Debra M. Brown to be U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Mississippi and Gregory Howard Woods to be U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York. Before we vote on these…

would I be in order to speak about judges who are going to be voted on? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator would be in order.

I want to illustrate why this seat doesn't need to be filled. These are the other circuits. The average of those other circuits is 383 caseloads. The DC Circuit has 149, so workload doesn't demand it. Secondly, we are in a situation where…

I rise in opposition to any motion to invoke cloture on nominees to the DC Circuit. I am somewhat disappointed that the Senate majority wants to turn to a very controversial nomination next rather than to continue on a path of cooperative…

What that doesn't take into consideration is that there are six senior status judges on this court. Chief Judge Garland told us that their workload is the equivalent of 3\1/4\ judges. So presently there are enough judges to go around and…

the Centers for Disease Control has declared the misuse and abuse of some prescription and over-the-counter medicines in the United States to be an epidemic. According to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, NSDUH, there…

I wish to bring to my colleagues' attention the work of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, EBRI, in acknowledgment of the institute's 35th anniversary. EBRI is a nonpartisan, objective, and reliable source of information and analysis…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The Senator from Iowa is recognized.

I heard the previous speaker plead for a solution. I think we are all pleading for that. We are now in our 10th day of a government shutdown--quite frankly, one that did not have to happen. To some extent, it seems that this…

For the benefit of those on the other side of the aisle, I am not going to end my remarks with the issue of a unanimous consent, but I still have things I wish to say. No one supports a government shutdown, not my side of the aisle or the…

Since 1978, Congress has voted to raise the debt ceiling 53 times. In 27 of those, or 51 percent, the debt limit increase was tied to other reforms.

If you look at long-term projections, spending on our health care entitlements demands our attention.

Both you and President Obama have repeated the talking point that negotiating deficit reduction policies on the debt ceiling increase is unprecedented.