the presiding officer: are there any senators present wishing to cast or change their vote? if not, on this vote the ayes are 75, the nays are 24. the amendment is agreed to. mrs. murray: move to reconsider. move to lay it on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mr. baucus: the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the chamber will be in order. the senate will be in order. senators please take your conversations out of the well. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: it's my understanding senator ayotte and senator baucus, who are next, are not going to call up an amendment. the question is on the durbin amendment. are you good with a -- as amended. the presiding officer: the senator is correct. if there is no further debate on the amendment, all in favor say aye. all those opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. mrs. murray: move to reconsider. the presiding officer: amendment 578 as amended is agreed to. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, move to reconsider. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president, the next amendment that is in order is my amendment, and i would like to yield to the senator from collins to speak on the amendment following my amendment number 144. ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. the senate will be in order. ms. collins: mr. president, my amendment number 144, i would ask be called up at this time. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from maine, ms. collins, proposes an amendment numbered 144. ms. collins: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: mr. president, could i have order, mr. president. the presiding officer: order, please. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, -- mr. baucus: mr. president, the senate is not in order. the senate --. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. please take your conversations outside the chamber. thank you. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. baucus: with all respect, mr. president, the senate is still not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. please take your conversations outside the chamber. thank you. the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, my amendment would allow for legislation setting a more sensible definition of full time employee under the affordable care act. under the affordable care act, also known as obamacare, the definition of a full-time employee averages just 30 hours a week. that definition is not found in other areas of the law, and it's creating this perverse incentive where employers are actually reducing the number of hours that their employees work in order to keep under that 30-hour threshold and thus avoid penalties. all this amendment does, however, is call for a more sensible definition of what a full-time employee should entail. i would ask consent that we voice vote the amendment. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i was going to offer amendment number 653 but i'm not going to call that amendment up and i would agree with senator collins on her amendment and ask for a voice vote. the presiding officer: the question is on amendment number 144. if there's no further debate, all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. mrs. murray: movement reconsider. the presiding officer: the amendment is agreed to. ms. collins: move to lay it on the table. mrs. murray: for the information of all senators we have gone through all the amendments --. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. please take your conversations outside the chamber. mrs. murray: mr. president? mr. president, for the information of all senators we have now gone through all of the amendments from the unanimous consent agreement. we are within just a couple minutes of having a unanimous consent for the next set of amendments. i would ask that all senators stay in the chamber because it will just be a matter of several minutes and we will have the next cuke iewk for the next group of -- unanimous consent for the next group of amendments. please say stai in the chamber and i suggest the absence of a quorum for a few short minutes. the presiding officer: the the -- the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the next amendments in order be called up to be the following, begich number 341, alexander number 515, merkley number 398, rubio number 292, hagan number 278 and isakson number 138. that there be no second-degree amendments in order prior to the votes in relation to any of these amendments, that notwithstanding all time having expired on the resolution there will be two minutes equally divided prior to each vote, upon disposition of the isakson number 138 the majority have the next amendment in order and all these votes will be minutes. mr. sessions: mr. president, reserving the right to object, i think this is a good list, look forward to moving forward on it. i will try to work with senator murray and others. maybe we can avoid the gaps we've been having. we have a lot of senators here, a lot of things to do. there is an anxiousness we shouldn't be having so much down time and we'll be working toward that. i thank the chair and would not object. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i would agree with the senator. we're trying to work through, members have a lot of priorities amendments, we're trying to make sure our lists match up. our staffs are working very hard to go back and forth so everybody has equal time and the amendments that are a priority to their side. i apologize for taking time to do it but we're trying to come to an agreement and sometimes it takes a few minutes. mr. president, i yield the floor to the senator from alaska. mr. begich: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: i'd like to call up amendment 341. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from alaska, mr. begich, for himself and others proposes an amendment numbered 341. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment number 341 offered by the senator from alaska, mr. begich. the senator from alaska. mr. begich: this deals with labeling genetically engineered fish, the fires hybrid proposed for human consumption. this f.d.a. is reviewing this action not as a food but as a drug and i can see why because of all the chemicals added to this fake fish. at a minimum, this fish smb labeled, consumer rorpts reports 95% of the population want, a million people people wrote the f.d.a. asking this product be lainld. six weeks ago, whole foods, trader joas, make sure they're not going to sell this fake comish, i yield time to senator murkowski. ms. murkowski: join my colleague in urging members to support this amendment which all it does is require labeling of this genetically engineered fish, this fake fish. if you're going to be serving your family a good quality product, i want to know it's good and it's quality. allow us to label it. with that i ask my colleagues to support this amendment. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i believe we can do this on a voice vote unless there is an objection. seeing none, i suggest bee wee do this by voice. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate on this amendment, all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. mrs. murray: movement reconsider. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president, i believe -- i believe that senator alexander's amendment is up. mr. president -- the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: senator alexander is off the floor. senator merkley is here. unanimous consent to -- i ask unanimous consent to reverse the order and go to senator merkley and then back to senator alexander. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, this amendment number 398 increases the advanced research projects agency department of energy by $50 million. the presiding officer: would the senator like to call up his amendment? mr. merkley: i call up amendment number 398. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from oregon, mr. merkley, proposes an amendment numbered 398. the presiding officer: two minutes of debate, equally divided. mr. merkley: mr. president, mr. president, --. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: this increases the advanced research projects of the department of energy by $50 million. this is essentially what we know of as arpae. this is the most basic research to create breakthroughs in areas that range from renewable energy to energy conservation to so on and so forth, energy is the lifeblood of our economy, it's the lifeblood of putting ourselves into position to be one of the nations that sells technology to the world rather than buying it from the world. this is a huge leverage issue and i encourage my colleagues to support it. mr. sessions: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: i request the senators who desire to speak against it speak at this moment. mr. president, i do believe and indicated last night, quoting mr. lunborg of europe who has done research on these issues, that energy research is preferable to mandating requirements that would utilize inefficient sources and subsidizing -- over subsidizing, and breakthroughs might happen. this is a paid-for amendment. i would, without objection, i would suggest we take it by voice vote. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: if there is no objection, we're happy to take this by a voice vote. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. mrs. murray: move to reconsider. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: move to moft lay it on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: senator alexander is on the floor and i yield to him. mr. alexander: did she say one minute? the presiding officer: would the senator call up his amendment, please. the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i call up amendment -- amendment number 515. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from tennessee, mr. alexander, for himself and others approaches an amendment numbered 515. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: two minutes of debate divided equally. mr. alexander: i offer this amendment on behalf of senator paul and myself with senator toomey and mcconnell cosponsoring. it's designed to help 11 million low-income children in this country. we appropriate $14.5 billion every year through our title 1 federal funding. it's supposed to go to them but it doesn't get there. that's agreed upon by both the left and the right. for example, marguerite rosa writing for the center for american progress says that the difference between school expenditures is often substantial and she pointed out that the money goes to schools where teachers are paid more but the children aren't necessarily the poor children. and so the poorer children, the ones we intend to help, are left in schools with less money. sometimes the money can add up to quite a bit. the same analysis is then found by the forwardham foundation, i would say that's a center-right organization because of the federal formula we use. so --. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. alexander: let the money follow the child to the school, whether it's public or private and i thank the president and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: yield our time to the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: the way this amendment is drafted the money from title 1 could then go to private schools. that's the first thing. secondly, we've tried this. the district of columbia had a voucher program, we passed it in 2003, and guess what they found since 2003 -- it made no impact whatsoever on student achievement, and now the point it's being phased out. again, at this point in time when we're worried about uncertainty in our schools, teacher salaries, we've gotathe. this is the last time -- this isn't the time to take more money out of our public school system. mrs. murray: mr. president, i'd ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the question is on amendment number 515. the clerk will call the roll. the presiding officer: if not, the ayes are 39, the nays are 60. the amendment is not agreed to. without objection. mrs. murray: lay it on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment number 22292, offered by the senator fm florida, mr. rub rubio. mr. rube low rubio: thank you, mr. president. i call up amendment 292. the presiding officer: it will be order. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from flort florida, mr. rubio, proposes amendment numbered 292. mr. rubio: mr. president and members. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. will senators please take your conversations outside the chamberment mrs. murray: mr. president, the senator has a right to be heard. if the senators could take their remarks off the floor, he has a right to be heard on the amendment. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. please take your conversations off the floor. thank you. mr. rubio: thank you, mr. president. abortion is a divisive issue in this country. i deeply respect everyone's opinions with regards to this issue. but they're one thing not dwietiond us and that is -- dividing us and that is the idea that parents should know what their children are being involved in, especially when it comes to a medical procedure of this magnitude. that's why so many states have passed parental notification laws that require parents to be notified before their child, a minor, undergoes an abortion. unfortunately in this country, there are people that are transporting these people across state lines in order to avoid these notification laws. what this sense of the senate does is it's based on a bill that i have filed and others have supported in the past that makes that illegal, that does not allow that to happen. you will hear arguments against this in terms of maybe the child is living in a very unstable environment, a dangerous environment or maybe the one of the parents that is, god forbid, involved in this pregnancy. that's where there are courts involved in this so they can overright this. that's why this has exceptions for rape or incest or medical emergencies or a hostile home. and so this is an important point and i hope we can garner the support of as many members as possible. mrs. murray: mr. president, i yield my time to the senator from california. mrs. boxer: mr. president, the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the senate will come to order. mrs. boxer: mr. president, the rubio amendment hurts families. it is opposed by respected doctors' organizations and many womens' groups. colleagues, urn th under the ruo amendment, a doctor and a grandmother would go to jail if the grandmother brought her grandchild across state lines, say, after she was raped. senator rubio insists that only a parent be there. but what if the mom's ill or the dad's in afghanistan or she's scared to death to tell her mom or her dad? colleagues, there are cases of daughters dying due to their desperation and fear of telling their parents. let's not endanger our children and place government against our grandmothers. please vote "no." and, mr. president, i raise a point of order that the pending amendment is not germane to the underlying resolution. it, therefore, violates section 305-b-2 of the congressional budget act of 1974. mr. rubio: mr. chairman? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: i move to waive the rules with regard to the applicable portions of the act and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: