This is one area that we have done really well in. For the last seven years i have hosted an Energy Summit in las vegas. Governments and president and all kinds of cabinet officers there that is a bipartisan event. One of the things that we do better is recognize some of the smartest and most creative inventors in the world to show their latest discoveries. We learned about an American Company that is developing hightech batteries that has great potential. We want to store solar powered. And it looks like the cost of about a small plane. At the california border just about 2 miles from las vegas, there is a myriad of things going on out there. They have hundreds of thousands of solar panels and three very tall towers that look like skyscrapers. And it is so terrific. Once the sun goes down, it is not producing anymore, but this will no longer be the case because of the system in place. During debate heats up and at night it still produces energy after the sun goes down. And that is 90 completed, so i am constantly amazed by the bright spot during these dark economic times. But americans cannot just rely on signs and banners and break our own reliance on fossil fuels. We need to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem including reducing Energy Consumption at home and work and that is what the shaheen legislation is all about. At home we can start with small choices and we can bring home a lightbulb that is more energy efficient. We are installing your thermostat and regulate it remotely. These choices are real. But we need technology in the communities that we live in and work in. No one is concerned about, at the time that it is constructed, they want it done quickly and the airconditioning in the appliances are not as good as they could be. Much of that electricity created in america is wasted. As a boy growing up, just less than a mile from home where these massive power plants and you could hear the electricity popping. You could hear it here boulder city and think of all the electricity lost. So much that we use is wasted it is one way that we waste so much electricity. This legislation will spur the technologies the Energy Savings act will spur Energy Technologies in private homes as well as the industrial sector. All at the cost of tax payers. So i commend them for bringing this bill to the floor. I think chairman wyden and breaking member murkowski for the management of this measure and this is one of the fastest and most effective ways in our economy and it will make our country more effective and we will save consumers money by lowering energy bills. It will save American Families today 14 billion per year. And approve more than 150,000 new jobs according to some of the studies surrounding the legislation. We hope to adopt official technology and by 2030, even as a young man, 2030 will get here. This year we are taking as many as 17 million cars off the road. Technology that can be used in every state in the nation and it will pay for itself through savings and energy. The federal government also has important savings agents that we havent dealt with much in the past. The single largestpast. The single largest user of this, no one is a Bigger Customer for America Today than the federal government. It will save taxpayers lots of money. Im aware of the amendments and i have been told by senator shaheen that theyre 18 bipartisan amendments to be offered. And so i look forward to working with them in with the managers to help american businesses and reducing our nations Energy Consumption. Because of so many will come from the inventors and research, other things must be in place at the we live and work. We must talk about a great piece of legislation that does it. Even though i have worked with senator shaking, they were diverted totally from what this bill is all about. Why . Because the anarchists have taken over here in the senate. A speaker could not pass a simple see are today. They asked me yesterday, what is next, a young reporter, and he said, if you have a couple of Ideas Committee will be shot down also. Theyre in position where people who dont believe in government, that is what the tea party is all about, it is such a shame. There has not been a single amendment allowed in this legislation that has any breath of energy. The fund obamacare, and i guess that that is as the fiscal year comes to an end, that is what it is all about. We are getting rid of obamacare we will not negotiate the president of the United States says that he is not going to negotiate. And if the republicans in the house cannot pass a funding resolution, then we have this unnecessary activity here. Senator shaking and senator portman have been talking about this. So here we are. We are where we have been and what have we accomplished . Not very much, mr. President. After senator reids remarks, Mitch Mcconnell spoke about health care and said that he plans to offer an amendment to the Energy Efficiency bill that would delay implementation of the employer and individual mandates for a year. This is five minutes. I did a lot of listening over the past several weeks at meetings and events all across kentucky. Last week i participated in my 51st hospital townhall since 2011. And i will tell you that one thing kept emerging over and over. Kentuckians are really worried about obamacare. They have read the same stories about businesses cutting hours and eliminating health care and people being laid off. They have read about how the rollout of the mass of lies becoming a massive mass. And how their personal information could be compromised by scam artists. There are still some of you that support the law who are thinking, well, they will learn to like it. But it is precisely the kind of, well, we know whats good for you attitude that is so upsetting to my constituents. That is what got us into this mess in the first place. So lets at least get this much straight. The doctors and nurses come in to health care professionals, the patients and everyday kentuckians have been speaking with me on this issue. They know what they are talking about. A lot of them know more about health care she is looking at premium increases of nearly 90 there in kentucky. Premium increases of 90 . Now come i think that she summed up the situation pretty well. She wrote that government is crippling the businesses that are keeping this country going. Another constituent said its a matter of conscience and he doesnt want to let his employees go uninsured, but realistically he may no longer have a choice. One of kentuckys biggest employers recently announced plans to stop providing health care to spouses. 15,000 of its employees, also due in part due to obamacare. These are just some of the human causes of this law and it has not even fully, online yet. It is small consolation for Business Owners and they have little time to retrieve this and this mess comes up a year later. We are calling for an outright repeal and news reports suggest that a lot of harsh words were said and i dont think i can even quote all of it on the floor three quarters of its membership could be lost in just the next few years. This is the biggest support that they have calling for outright repeal. So we know that big labor is waiting on the president. And we know that we want them to rewrite the same law that they helped to ram through and hopefully they are listening. But what about everyone else . What about the single mom in bowling green, who will be able to cover rent future for our center cut didnt the administration think that those folks deserve some relief as well . This legislation is the fair thing in the and the right thing to do and its just common sense. But today i will explain how this will provide the same reprieve for individuals that the administration has already offered to businesses. I hope my colleagues on the other side will join me in supporting it as a number of democrats did in the house. I know that they all got an earful from their home last month. Maybe they considered wisdom and fairness of their ear month. Maybe they considered wisdom and fairness of their earlier position and maybe now they will think that individuals and families should be treated no differently than businesses when it comes to protecting them and obamacare. As i indicated, votes from both republicans and democrats, and there is no reason for blocking it here in the senate. We need to pass a oneyear ledet. A oneyear delay of obamacare for everyone. That is what the amendment that i have filed would do. It would put kentuckians and americans in place with something they really need. This job killing mass of a lot. And just what i intend to keep fighting for i dont care what part you are in, youre hearing from us. We have stepbystep reforms that will actually lower costs and mr. President , i yield the floor. Senate majority leader harry reid met with House Speaker john boehner on thursday to talk about funding the government. After that meeting he said House Republicans are wasting time. This is 20 minutes. This is the first time in senator schumers entire career that gives them up for a late for a press conference. [laughter] oh, really . [laughter] leader pelosi and speaker, the meeting lasted for about 45 minutes and as we all know the speaker is trying to get the governmentfunded. We can see what is going on today. There are mounds that we have talked about Energy Efficiency their direction is a direction to shutting down the government. This is not the time for political stunts on the transportation bill, not obamacare or the energy bill. We want to fix these issues that need to be fixed. Changes are going to start in just a matter of a couple weeks for the vast majority. So we have house members and the staff there working on this. We are going to be a part of the exchanges and that is what the law says and we will be part of it. We will be treated like the rest of the federal employees. It is nothing unique employers help pay for medicare. Filled mortar company, sears, fr company. It doesnt matter. It doesnt matter who you work for and the employees involved. It is hard to tell them what we are doing because we are doing nothing. The anarchists are winning. It should and that passing this and understand that this is the right thing to do. Less than half of the republicans in the senate seem to live in an alternative universe and keep the meaning possible. And if the Republican Leaders keep getting into the tea party, meeting possible demands, they must be rooting for a shutdown. And its like, give me a couple of them and we will talk about it. Thank you, senator reid. In the we call this a News Conference and unfortunately, we dont have a lot of meetings. Because what i am about to tell you has been many times over. It is a story that tells about the house, when we come and visit in washington, we cannot do the basics. With the house of representatives wont take up a budget budget resolution and we try to work out our differences. It is a story that cannot pass a farm bill. We have an atbat for two years and we have passed it twice in the senate. Its not news, its an old story, but we believe that this congress and this government can help to make this a better country for the people who live here. I sometimes sympathize, but if he wants to leave, he has to step behind the tea party faction. And if he would talk with us about the u. S. House of representatives from i believe it would pass. And i think it would pass. And he would call of the Senate Budget resolution and it would pass. And he has stopped this and it has bowed to the willful minority at the expense of this government and of this nation. The American People will finally realize that congress and we are being identified for our failures. Ive never seen anything quite like this. Who represents maybe 5 of the elector rate. Unfortunately, close to a mirnlg majority of republican primaries when theres a low turnout dictate what is going on. Hold the country by the neck, and paralyze them. The good news is, we have elections. If they scweed succeed in their platform, theyll fail the way mitt romney failed. They know theyre not going win. They know we will not repeal obamacare. We have the high ground. If we say to them, we dare you to shut down the government, unless you repeal obamacare. We dare you rip the full faith and credit of the United States until we end obamacare. Theyll lose. Thats the data limb ma Mitch Mcconnell and john boehner know this. They have this rabid group. Were making an appeal today to our republican friends. The half of the house caucus, the twothirds of the senate caucus, republicans who know this is wrong stand up and make your voices heard. As many of you did on immigration and the farm bill. I believe those people will stand up. I believe by the time we get close to funding the government and to full faith and credit, renewing full faith and credit of the United States, the more reasonable voices will prevail. But were going have to go through a lot of con have speeches and patrol until it happens. Im not sure its what Speaker Boehner had in mind. But while republicans are busy fighting among themselves, again, democrats are united. We know that the American People are sick and tired of House Republicans pandering to the tea party and pushing us from one artificial crisis to the next. So it really is time for Speaker Boehner to get serious about this. I hope he realizes that tea party is simply interested in not governing, and its time for him to work with us on a bipartisanship budget deal that works for the middle class. Democrats have been working for months to get in a room, work with republicans, and tackle our fiscal and economic challenges responsibly. But not only have republicans refused to negotiate, not only have they blocked a budget conference every time we have tried to start one, but now they are pushing us toward a government shut down in a bizarre attempt to cut off health care for 25 million people, reopen the doughnut hole, make seniors pay more for their prescriptions, and end Preventive Care for seniors and so much more we can talk about. Obamacare is the law of the land. I know, the tea party is fixated on sabotaging it before it begins to help millions of americans. But democrats are going fight for our constituents and going to make sure obamacare is implemented and implemented well. Speaker boehner clearly understands were serious about this. Thats why the cr he un unveiled earlier this week uses gimmick that the government could stay open while funding obamacare. Thats not good for the tea party. They dont want a showvote. They apt shut down. They wont be satisfied until they get one. Im disappointed that republicans have pushed us to the point where we need a cr that now that were here, they need to stop playing games. I really hope that Speaker Boehner realizes the only path forward for him and for our country is a balanced and bipartisan budget deal. I hope he realizes democrats are not delaying obamacare. We certainly arent negotiating over the debt limit, and itself insane to play partisan games with our nations economy. I hope he releases it soon before we lunch in to another completely unnecessary crisis. The tea party wont like seeing democrats and republicans working together. I will tell you the vast majority of americans want us to Work Together and want the government to function once again. All right. This is for you and all of you, actually. Im worlding after wondering after valid my putins go you feel comfortable with russia as a negotiating. And what was your reaction . I believe that in the white house said this. And im going agree with them. He wrote this. I didnt agree with it. But i think he wrote it and i think its good hes appearing in an american newspaper. Hopefully that will allow him to do work that hasnt been done in a long time to tell us the agreement. To help syria do what they need do. He has everything to protect syria and the russia. Warm water port and we understand why hes been so involved in syria. Theres no reason that russia was suffered more with chemical weapons in world war i than any other country. The 1. 2 million casualties in world war i. 440,000 gassed were russians. Theyre a country that should help theyre it. And so its not a question of not trusting him. Reagan said it all. Trust but verify. [inaudible] i dont think hes doing that. Hes looking for an excuse to show off the super bowl ring. [laughter] [inaudible] lets find out what they do. Its hard to negotiate something that doesnt exist. Leader pelosi said on more than occasion. Let us vote. Let the house of representatives vote. As senator durbin said, thats the key to get all of this done. He is really being so unfair to america to have this majority of his majority of his control no more than than 5 or 7 of the American People doing everything. Im not going to get in to whether senator murrays budget number is an appropriate one. Well deal with whatever they send us. I made the message clear, my three colleagues made the message clear. Lets go to something else. Get away from obamacare. Send us something else. That is the correct question. Thats what we should be talking about right now. What number we are willing to keep the government open at. I wish that was the number that we were sitting down and negotiating over, and not over whether theyre going to repeal obamacare, shut down the government, or do whatever else theyre going to do to create a crisis. Reporter [inaudible] what specifically did you tell him you can and cannot do i told you what i told him. Thats basically it. I said to him, what can i do to help . Because i want we had a personal discussion. We didnt go any further than that. It was not a yelling at each other meeting. It was a very nice meeting, and we had and i he listened. I like john boehner, i like him. But i know how you said, dick, you feel sorry for him but not so much. But i do. [laughter] i feel sorry for him. He has to break a