Bridging the Skills Gap, How Stem Education Pipeline Can Develop a Higher Skilled American Workforce for Small Businesses.

There is a lot of focus in my view on what large businesses may need, GE, IBM, et cetera, but not enough in this discussion on immigration reform.

I really appreciate the hard work of the Senators from Michigan and Mississippi, moving a farm bill through the Senate. It is one of the most important bills we will take up this year. Action on this bill is long overdue. I am very hopeful…

Now, you would catch that in an ACT test or you would catch it at an SAT.

I know but the problem is what you have correctly identified as the long-term pipeline.

the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will meet on May 22, 2013, at 10 a.m. in room 428A Russell Senate Office building to hold a roundtable entitled ``Bridging the Skills Gap: How the STEM Education Pipeline Can Develop a…

I am really going to focus, as I said five times this morning, on this immigration bill as it moves through and its impact to small business.

It is easy to fix and that is a very excellent suggestion, not that we can amend the bill in this Committee but Senator Rubio has a little bit of an inside track.

Currently, what is the percentage of noncompliance and are you getting more accurate as the system is being developed?

We do not want them evaluating themselves.

Can I assume that you all are learning more and more and more since we have had a little bit of this voluntary experience underneath our belts how to get that quickly back?

Out of 21 million queries last year, you only kicked back about 1.3 percent?

While I am a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, I am not going to support a bill that is overly burdensome to small business.

If anybody tries to put a small business owner in jail like in the next year, this Senator will probably lose it.

Absolutely. So, at 98.3 percent of the time in the fiscal year 2012, the employer got back an employment authorized response.

I wish to clarify through the Chair that the Senator from Pennsylvania is not objecting to the long list of amendments as described by the chairman of the committee, he is only objecting to amendment No. 888 and objecting to a vote on…

A year ago, our Nation adopted a National Plan that set as goal one treating and effectively preventing Alzheimer's disease by 2025.

I am just trying to get clarification through the Chair from the Senator from Pennsylvania. I understand he objects to my amendment. That is not what I am asking him. I would just like a yes or no answer; is he objecting to a vote on the…

Evidently, the Senator from Pennsylvania doesn't understand this. That is fine. We have disagreements and I respect him. He should vote no. But to stop a vote? The third and final argument I am going to make in my 30 seconds left, we…

Second, I have a letter from the National Association of Home Builders--not a liberal-leaning organization and most certainly not a group that just works in Louisiana. People build homes all over America including in Pennsylvania. They…

He did not answer the question clearly, but since he will not answer the question, which is unfortunate, I wish to make it clear for the record that the Senator from Pennsylvania is objecting to a vote on the Landrieu-Vitter amendment. He…

So it is my understanding, Madam President, through the Chair, that the Senator is objecting to a vote on the amendment. He is certainly entitled, in my view, to vote against the amendment. That is what debate on the floor is all about…

While we have some down time on the floor to wait for the 2:30 hour--I believe we are going to have some action on the WRDA bill, which is very important--I thought I would take this time to talk about an amendment I have pending on the…

I believe the topline given to the Coast Guard in the President's budget request is wholly inadequate.

I am very disappointed in the President's 2014 budget request for the Coast Guard.