Floor Statements

Madam President, I would ask consent that the rollcall vote that is scheduled to start at 2:30 start immediately.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Madam President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Madam President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I rise in strong support of the nomination of former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to be the next Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

The Social Security Administration is confronting a consumer service crisis. Today, SSA is serving 50 percent more customers and beneficiaries with the same staffing it had in 1995. This has resulted in unacceptable service delays, including 37-minute average hold times on the 800 number and as much as a 2-year wait for disability determinations and appeals. The American people deserve better. Recall that about 66 million Americans--one in five--receive some benefit from Social Security each year.

Governor Martin O'Malley is the strong operational leader the Social Security Administration needs right now. He has demonstrated time and again that by focusing on performance management, smart government, and data-driven results, he can bring change and accountability to large organizations and significantly improve government service for the American people.

His leadership credentials include decades of public service, including two terms each as mayor of Baltimore and then Governor of Maryland.

I saw his hands-on approach firsthand as a longtime Baltimore resident. I was at city hall when Governor O'Malley set up CitiStat when he was mayor. This is a novel approach I had never seen really carried out by a chief executive of a city. He brought his agency heads in on a regular basis with specific objectives they needed to accomplish, and then on a regular basis he had the statistics to see whether they were performing as they should, as they indicated they needed to. That is called accountability. He held his

team accountable, and the results were incredible.

His signature CitiStat and StateStat initiatives are widely cited as a model for data-driven government efficiency and effectiveness and won Baltimore the Innovations in Government Award from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2004.

Former Maryland Senator Mikulski said at his confirmation hearing this fall:

The hard-working men and women of the Social Security

Administration need a strong, confirmed operational leader

and the American people need a Social Security Administrator

that works for them. . . . Martin O'Malley would provide the

leadership and the management skills to do that. . . . He has

a knack for organization, understanding the new technology

and how to use technology to be data driven. . . . Governor

O'Malley is not a big government guy. He's a smart government

guy. He believes you use modern management tools to organize

a workforce around a mission, measurable objectives, and also

stay within the budget.

For the nearly 60,000 employees of the Social Security Administration nationwide, including about 12,000 in Maryland at the Woodlawn headquarters in Baltimore, I am confident that Martin O'Malley will honor their service to the American people and that he will lead the SSA with respect and support for a strong union workforce.

The Governor said at his confirmation hearing:

As mayor, I learned there is no Democratic or Republican

way to fill a pothole. And as a governor, I learned that the

biggest and toughest challenges can only be tackled with some

degree of bipartisan consensus and cooperation. But as both a

mayor and a governor, I developed a discipline . . . for

harnessing data and information technologies in ways that got

the best out of large, siloed organizations of people that

many inside and outside of government thought were too

unwieldy, too slow, or too steeped in excuses to change.

Governor O'Malley continued:

There are two people that are going to be forefront in my

mind. . . . How is the customer being served? And directly

related to that, what is the experience of the front-line

worker? . . . We need to understand what's happening where,

whether we're on track or not, who's doing it well, and who's

not doing it well. When people are actually listened to, when

their word is respected, when their experiences [are]

respected, and we create a winnable game, it has been my

experience, as it was in Baltimore, that people rise to the

occasion. . . . Small things done well make bigger things

possible.

I strongly urge my colleagues to vote in favor of Martin O'Malley to be our next Social Security Administrator.