Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I would like to acknowledge and honor Jackson William ``J.W.'' Stine on his 100th birthday. Mr. Stine is a longtime businessman and World War II veteran combat pilot who has served the State of Louisiana for many years.

Mr. Stine was born to Sulphur residents Andrew and Elma Stine on July 22, 1918. He attended Normal College--today Northwestern State University--and went on to marry his high school sweetheart, Doris ``Dee Dee'' Drost on January 14, 1944. They remained married for 67 years until Dee Dee passed away in 2011. Together they raised seven children, and today, they have 31 grandchildren and 71 great- grandchildren.

J.W. joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1944. Captain Stine flew over 40 combat missions as a pilot of a B-26 aircraft over Germany, Italy, and France. He flew the B-26 Marauder in the 17th Bombardment Group. J.W., with the 17th Bombardment Group, and conducted bombing missions against critical targets throughout the Mediterranean, Italy, France, and Germany. It received the Distinguished Unit Citation, DUC, for its support of the Anzio invasion and another for its outstanding performance over Schweinfurt. For operations in support the invasion of France, it received the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

J.W. and his best friend, J.C. Carlin, opened a construction company in Sulphur after World War II and then a

lumber company to supply the construction company which was called Starlin Lumber. He eventually bought out J.C.'s share and changed the name in 1973 to Stine Lumber.

J.W. instilled the core values of faith. family, and community in his seven children. He is a proud father of a nationally known artist, a colonel in the Air Force, a captain in the National Guard, two former Louisiana State legislators, a former Sulphur City councilman, a former Louisiana commissioner of administration, past president of Greater Beauregard Chamber of Commerce, past McNeese State University Foundation president, past chairman of the Boy Scouts of America Calcasieu Area Council, past chairman of the Council for A Better Louisiana, a current member of the Christus Health System Board, and current chairman of Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.

On July 22, 2018, J.W. Stine will celebrate his 100th birthday. I and my fellow Louisianans are proud of his accomplishments and the positive impact that he has had on our state. He fought for our Nation, raised an incredible family, and started a successful business. He has truly lived out the American Dream.

Mr. President, my motion to instruct conferees to the minibus appropriations bill, H.R. 5895, is a simple 6-month extension of the National Flood Insurance Program, currently set to expire July 31, 2018--in about 2 weeks. The same timeline in this motion was passed by the Senate a few weeks ago by unanimous consent during consideration of the farm bill.

The National Flood Insurance Program insures properties in every State, insuring over 5 million homes and businesses and $1.2 trillion in assets. If the NFIP is not extended, people will not be able to renew or purchase new flood insurance policies, and more people would be without flood insurance during peak hurricane season. This is so to the moment because, given the series of emergency supplemental appropriations bills the Senate has passed, an expiration of the NFIP puts the U.S. taxpayer in the very vulnerable position of funding more uninsured losses in emergency supplemental appropriations legislation.

I thank Senators Crapo and Brown for their work in providing a path forward to a bipartisan long-term reauthorization of the NFIP, which ideally includes commonsense reforms providing for greater investment in flood mitigation, updated flood mapping technology, greater accountability, and consumer choice. However, these discussions will not conclude in the next 2 weeks, prior to the upcoming NFIP expiration deadline.

It is imperative that Congress provide for a 6-month extension of NFIP now, so progress can continue on long-term reauthorization and reform of the NFIP through the Banking Committee.

I urge my colleagues to vote to protect the taxpayer, the homeowner, and to support this motion to instruct.

Mr. President, I have a motion to instruct conferees at the desk, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, very briefly, this is a 6-month reauthorization of current law, which will allow continued work for a longer term reauthorization. It protects American families and the U.S. taxpayers from the consequences of a lapsed program during peak hurricane season.

I urge its adoption.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, along with Senator Kennedy, I wish to talk about the Coushatta Tribe. The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is descended from a large, powerful sovereign nation of Coushatta-- Koasati--people who lived prosperously and peaceably for thousands of years in what is now the southeastern United States. The principal Coushatta--Koasati--villages were located on islands in the Tennessee River, in what is now south central Tennessee, which is where the Tribe was living when they first encountered the European explorer Hernando DeSoto in 1540.

Koasati oral tradition also holds that they were always the most northerly of the Muskogean-speaking peoples. Tribal elders say that their villages were ``abon, fallami-fa'' which literally means ``above, to the north.'' They believe that their tribal name comes from ``Kowi iisa-fa aati-ha,'' which is literally translated as ``the people from [the lands] where the big cats live.'' Some elders believe that the name Coosa given by the Spanish to the affiliated group of villages, what is now called the Coosa chiefdom, was actually pronounced ``Kohosa'' and thus the people were called ``Kohosa Aati,'' literally translated as the people--of Kohosa. Numerous period maps support these oral traditions, identifying these islands as ``Cosauda''--Koasati, Coushatta, or some other spelling of the Tribe's name. These include the Franquelin map of 1684, the 1711 Crisp et. al. map, and the 1720 Moll map.

When the Coushatta--Koasati--were moving southward from their villages on the Tennessee River in October 1686, they encountered the Spanish explorer Marcus Delgado. They explained to him that the two major reasons for their move were drought and aggression from the neighboring tribe of ``Chalaques''--Cherokees.

The Coushatta--Koasati--initially settled in villages in the Guntersville Basin area of what is now northern Alabama, then moved a little further south to be allied with the political organization that became known as the Creek Confederacy. The present-day town of Coosada, AL is named for the Coushatta who lived in nearby villages.

The Coushattas entered into several treaties with the United States, starting with the Treaty of New York in 1790, signed for the Koasati by Alexander McGillivray and Chiefs Hopoy, Muthtee, and Stimafutchkee, and the Creek Treaty of August 9, 1814, which was signed by Nomatlee Emautla--Captain Isaacs--of Cousoudee--Coushatta, Koasati.

When the Creek chiefs negotiated their boundary lines with the United States in 1814, they stated that their northernmost boundary should stretch to ``Cosauda Island in the Tennessee River.'' This is a clear indication that the Koasati people considered these lands in what is now Tennessee as their homelands, never renounced them, and that this claim was widely known and accepted by all of the Tribes. The transcribed text from the papers of the War Dept. is as follows:

We, the undersigned head men of the Creek nation, convened

[on behalf of] General John Coffee, and the Confederated

nations to adjust the line designated by the Treaty of Fort

Jackson, and all [-] connected treaties [-] etc.--that the

lines between the Cherokee nation and that part of the Creek

nation added to the United States by the aforesaid Treaty

ought, by right, to begin at the junction of the Eastern [-]

with the Hightower [Etowah] river and continue from thence to

the old Cosauda [Coushatta, Koasati] village on Cosauda

Island in the Tennessee river.

In 1797, the great Coushatta Chief Red Shoes is said to have had a devastating vision of the coming Creek Wars, causing him to encourage about half of the Coushatta people to begin migrating westward. Numerous additional groups followed over the next 30 years. By the time of the Creek removals, the Coushatta--Koasati--people had split into three major groups: the present-day Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, and Alabama-Quassarte Tribal town in Oklahoma.

As a result of Red Shoes' leadership, the Coushatta--Koasati-- relocated to Spanish territories in Louisiana and Texas. By careful diplomacy, they were able to remain culturally, linguistically, and politically autonomous.

In an 1805 report to Congress, Agent John Sibley, appointed in 1804 as an Indian Agent for the Territory of Orleans, reported that he had told Red Shoes and ``Pia Mingo''--Grass Chief-- ``the two Conchetta Chiefs,'' that ``their great Father the President considered all the Red people as his Children, and he would not suffer any wrong to be done them without giving them just & legal satisfaction.''

After living in villages along the Trinity River during the Civil War and Texas fight for statehood, the Coushattas returned to Louisiana to live in villages near the present-day town of Indian Village, near Kinder, LA. Existing laws allowed the tribe to get homestead lands along Bayou Blue, three miles north of Elton, LA.

On February 9, 1898, the United States issued an Indian trust patent for 160 acres to Sissy Robinson Alabama, a Coushatta woman. The land patent explicitly provides that the Robinson patent was granted under the Indian Homestead Act.

In 1933, the trust was divided under bureau supervision and the two parcels were held in trust for the heirs of Sissy Robinson Alabama until June 11, 1953, when fee patents were issued to the heirs. Thus, the Federal Government exercised jurisdiction over Coushatta trust lands from 1898 through 1953.

In addition, according to a report to the Division of Investigations, dated March 14, 1941, 38 homesteads were granted by the General Land Office to members of the ``Koasati Tribe living in the vicinity of Elton, Louisiana'' between 1862-1941. The report concludes that, of the 38 homesteads, only two were granted in accordance ``with applicable law,'' i.e., under the Indian Homestead Act. The two correctly issued patents were, apparently, the Robinson patent, issued under the Indian Homestead Act, and another patent issued under the same act for the benefit of another member of the Coushatta Tribe.

On September 2, 1919, an attorney from Alexandria, LA, wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on behalf of the Coushatta Tribe, asking for ``allotted Indian lands.'' The letter reached U.S. Representative James B. Aswell of Louisiana's Eighth District, who in 1920 asked Mr. Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to provide him with the information sought by the Tribe.

On December 20, 1919, Frank E. Brandon, Special Supervisor of the United States Indian Service, issued a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs describing the Indian groups in Louisiana. The report describes the Coushatta Tribe's land predicament as follows:

There is approximately 1050 acres of land owned by the

Indians divided among various families in tracts ranging from

ten to two hundred acres which was acquired by them under the

homestead laws. Originally they were induced to make such

entries by timber companies who later purchased the timber

from the Indians leaving the Indians a title to cut-over land

of little value for agricultural purposes on account of it

being low and flat with a clay soil which is best adapted to

the production of rice.

The report goes on to recommend that the Federal Government purchase 40 acres of land for a farm station, erect a cottage on the land, and provide a farmer to direct the Tribe's farming efforts. While Brandon's recommendations do not appear to have been implemented, the fact that he made them demonstrates the Federal Government's ongoing relationship with the Tribe.

Over the years, the U.S. Government further engaged with the Coushattas through agents, kept track of the Tribe's status, and provided the Tribe with limited financial assistance including funds for food, supplies, education, a physician, and farming. The government also conducted a census of the Tribe and explicitly acknowledged that the Tribe was under the jurisdiction of Federal Indian agencies. In this way, the government recognized and exercised its government-to- government relationship with the Coushatta Tribe for almost 200 years.

In 1954, Congress considered legislation that would terminate the government's recognition of the Coushatta Tribe, but this legislation was not passed, and the Tribe's recognition continued. However, for reasons unknown, the Tribe was not included in the well-known Haas Report of 1947 and was subsequently not included on the Federal Government's list of federally recognized tribes.

From 1954 to 1971, the Coushatta Tribe was therefore unofficially ``terminated'' through a series of clerical errors and technicalities. Despite no longer being unrecognized by the government and losing assistance, the Coushatta people survived through their hard work and determination.

However, in 1971, Ernest Stevens, Acting Commissioner at the BIA, wrote a detailed letter confirming Coushatta's longstanding relationship with the Federal Government. The Stevens letter confirmed that the Coushatta Tribe was a historical tribe that had never had its rights to Federal services terminated. ``In the absence of such legislation, and in consideration of the possibility of a treaty relationship, we think that the Louisiana Coushattas are eligible for some special federal services to Indian people,'' Stevens wrote.

On June 27, 1973, the U.S. Department of the Interior officially rerecognized their historical relationship with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and in 1975, the Secretary of the interior took land into trust for the Tribe's benefit.

In 1985, the Federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Lake Charles Division, confirmed that the Coushatta's lands were ``reservation lands'' and that the State of Louisiana had no criminal jurisdiction over activities on such lands.

Through the continued efforts of Tribal leaders and community members, the Coushatta Tribe has steadily grown stronger in the 45 years since receiving rerecognition. From its initial reservation base of 15 acres, the Tribe now owns more than 6,000 acres in trust and fee- simple lands.

The Coushatta Tribe now operates more than 20 departments to provide services to members, including a health department and clinic, an education department, and social services department. The Tribe owns and operates Coushatta Casino Resort, the largest land-based casino in the State of Louisiana, and employs more than 3,000 people, making it one of the largest employers in the State.

Throughout its proud history, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana has played an important role in communities across the South. The Tribe looks forward to its continued growth and positive impact for many generations to come.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am here to speak about honoring Steve Gleason with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Steve is well known in Louisiana and throughout the gulf coast and to football fans across the country. He is a Washington State native, as Senator Murray recently spoke, but he lives in New Orleans with his wife Michel and son Rivers.

Steve played in the NFL for 8 seasons, mostly with the New Orleans Saints. He is famous as a New Orleans Saint. On September 25, 2006, on ``Monday Night Football,'' the first game back in the Superdome when it reopened after Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were playing their archrival and division opponent, the hated Atlanta Falcons. The Presiding Officer probably likes the Falcons.

The Falcons were punting from deep in their own territory. Steve broke through the line and blocked the punt. Fellow Saint Curtis Deloatch recovered the ball for a touchdown.

The stadium erupted. There were 70,000 fans in the Superdome stadium. I was watching on TV. Al Michaels was blown away. It was an incredible moment, not just for the football team but because it was the first game in the Superdome, having just been reopened after Hurricane Katrina, which had almost destroyed the city and, indeed, the whole gulf coast, and it had much more meaning.

The emotion was for the play but also for what the play symbolized for the game. Steve Gleason's blocked punt symbolized, as Steve would say, ``no white flags.'' New Orleans and the gulf coast were back, and despite Katrina's devastation, we would not surrender.

Now Steve demonstrates that ``no white flags'' resolve in another arena. In 2011, Steve was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease. He cannot speak and, except for moving his eyes and blinking, he cannot move. But Steve can still think, and because he can think and because of what he has done with his thoughts is why he inspires and why we wish to honor him with a Congressional Gold Medal.

He has a difficult challenge, but his accomplishments addressing that challenge are what is noteworthy. After his diagnosis, Steve and his wife began a mission to show that patients with diseases such as ALS cannot only live, but they can thrive.

Steve declared that there would be ``no white flags,'' and that became the mantra of something he began: the Gleason Initiative Foundation. This foundation helps to provide individuals who have neuromuscular disease or other injuries with cutting-edge technology, equipment, and services. It raises global awareness about ALS to find solutions and an end to the disease. It has also helped hundreds of people with ALS experience life adventures they never thought possible.

Steve's story and mission have been chronicled by national and local media outlets as well as a 2016 documentary, ``Gleason,'' which shows what his life has been like since 2011.

When first meeting Steve, you would expect to feel pity. Yet, as you walk in and meet him and see what he has done, as he speaks to you through the machines he has helped to develop, you feel inspired. His perseverance and commitment to giving hope to others is amazing.

I will give a partial list of what he and his wife have done since his diagnosis. He founded the Gleason Initiative Foundation, of which I just spoke. Steve, in partnership with Microsoft,--and I have a poster here showing Steve and the Microsoft team--developed eye-tracking technology that allows him to communicate and to move.

So as Steve looks up--again, he can only move his eyes and blink his eyes--he can look at this keyboard and if it says, ``Turn my wheelchair to the right,'' he looks there and blinks his eyes and his wheelchair will turn to the right.

He has prerecorded statements. So if you walk in, he will blink at a prerecorded statement that says: ``Hello. My name is Steve Gleason. How are you?''

If he wishes to say something spontaneously, he can blink, blink, blink, and it will say: ``Well, let's discuss this further.''

It is not all just ``let's talk business.'' He has his iTunes on there. He can blink and get his favorite song. There is a multiplicity of functions that allow the man to live--and not just him, because among other accomplishments Steve Gleason and his wife Michel have achieved, he led efforts to enact legislation, the Steve Gleason Enduring Voices Act, to make these devices available to those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. It was a bill that I was privileged to introduce and that has passed into law.

Steve continues to challenge the heads of industry and medicine to improve the technology and the science to find a cure for ALS. He opened the Team Gleason House for Innovative Living, where up to 18 people can live as productively and as independently as possible.

A few years ago, Steve hosted a global summit, bringing together researchers, patients, caregivers, and others in the ALS community. The summit resulted in the single largest coordinated and collaborative ALS research project in the world, called Answer ALS. It has nearly 2 dozen research institutions, 1,000 patients, and 20 trillion data points that will help to find unknown pathways to lead to new treatments or to cures.

In recognition of Steve's work, in April I introduced legislation with Senators Murray, Kennedy, and Cantwell to honor Steve Gleason with the Congressional Gold Medal. Steve's story is so compelling that in less than 2 months, over 70 of our colleagues joined to affirm Steve's inspiring story and impact upon his fellow Americans to make him worthy of the highest honor Congress can bestow.

Steve should be awarded this medal. He is an example of what makes our country great. He has given hope to many. He gives hope to all those who have ever received a devastating diagnosis, and his message is simple: Your life still has meaning. Your best years can still be ahead of you.

Steve is a role model, not just for those in the disability community but for all Americans. I suspect that what

he may appreciate most about this honor is the attention it brings to find solutions and cures for those with diseases such as ALS.

I would like to thank my colleagues, their staff, and everyone else who has helped build support for this legislation including Microsoft, the ALS Association, the NFL, and the New Orleans Saints.

I wish to encourage my colleagues in the House to cosponsor this legislation and to pass it as soon as possible.

I would like to thank Steve for continuing to be an example of commitment, perseverance, and inspiration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 2652 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Andrew Hampton, an intern in Senator Sullivan's office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the day.

Mr. President, I rise to address two separate topics. Let me begin with National Seersucker Day.

Senator Wicker started and I spoke a little bit earlier about celebrating National Seersucker Day. It is a bipartisan tradition to celebrate an American tradition that started in New Orleans. Anyone who has been in New Orleans in July and August can understand why you would like a lightweight summer suit.

I was asked today by a reporter: Why would you continue the seersucker tradition?

I was thinking, wait a second. Why wouldn't you wear a lightweight suit on a summer's day as opposed to a wool suit? It just makes such sense. But sometimes such sense is in short supply here in Washington,

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, today I rise in recognition of seersucker manufacturers and enthusiasts across the United States. I wish everyone a Happy National Seersucker Day. This uniquely American fashion has a storied history dating back to 1909. The first seersucker suit was designed by Joseph Haspel at his Broad Street facility in New Orleans, LA. Louisiana is proud to have played an important part in introducing the country to seersucker apparel.

This lightweight cotton fabric, known for its signature pucker, has been worn and enjoyed by Americans across the country during the hot summer months. Mr. Haspel said it best: ``Hot is hot, no matter what you do for a living.''

In the 1990s, Seersucker Day was established by Members of this Chamber to honor this unique American fashion. I proudly resumed this tradition in 2014 in the U.S. House of Representatives and continued this tradition in the U.S. Senate. This year, I wish to designate Thursday, June 7, as the fifth annual National Seersucker Day. I encourage everyone to wear seersucker on this day to commemorate this traditionally American clothing.

(At the request of Mr. SCHUMER, tie following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. President, I have a request for one committee to meet during today's session of the Senate. It has the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committee is authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Monday, May 7, 2018, at 5:30 p.m. to hold a hearing on the following nominations: Christopher Krebs, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Homeland Security for National Protection and Programs, and David Williams, of Illinois, and Robert M. Duncan, of Kentucky, both to be a Governor of the United States Postal Service.

Mr. President, the nomination before us is for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, specifically for Judge Kurt Engelhardt, and I rise today to voice my strong support.

Judge Engelhardt is a Louisiana native, earning both his bachelor's degree and law degree from Louisiana State University. I should note that Judge Engelhardt was a member of the Golden Band from Tigerland as a law student, one of the great college marching bands. He may have missed all of that marching because he took up marathon running a few years ago and has now completed 13 full marathons, including the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon. All of this is to say that the man has a personal life that is active and vigorous, but he also has a legal life.

After law school, Judge Engelhardt clerked for Judge Charles Grisbaum of the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He then practiced law at Little & Metzger in Metairie before becoming an associate and then partner at Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale in Metairie.

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Judge Engelhardt for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The Senate confirmed him by a voice vote in December 2001, demonstrating that this body gave him bipartisan support as the quality candidate he was. He has been the chief judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana since 2015.

Judge Engelhardt has been an active member of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, serving on the board of directors for 10 years and as chapter president in 2011. He has active memberships in the Federal District Judges Association, the Louisiana State Bar Association, the New Orleans Bar Association, the Jefferson Bar Association, and the Fifth Circuit District Judges Association.

In 2004, Judge Engelhardt was appointed by the Supreme Court to serve on the Judicial Conference Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction for two terms, and he has also served on the Louisiana Supreme Court's Judiciary Commission.

Judge Engelhardt was also very active in serving the New Orleans community, having served on the board of directors of the Cancer Association of Greater New Orleans for more than 20 years.

Judge Engelhardt was confirmed out of the Judiciary Committee on February 8, 2018, on a bipartisan basis. The committee recognizes that confirming good, qualified judges who uphold the Constitution is one of the Senate's top priorities.

Judge Engelhardt is the kind of fair-minded and experienced person we need to serve on the bench. He has served the people of Louisiana well as an article III judge for the past 17 years, and I have no doubt he will continue to serve with the same high standards on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

I support the nomination of Judge Kurt Engelhardt and urge all of my colleagues to do so as well.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I rise to speak to the nomination of and the vote we are about to have on Kyle Duncan. Kyle Duncan is from Louisiana. He has been nominated to be on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Let me speak a little bit about his qualifications and why I think we should support his nomination and vote yes.

First, I have a little bit of pride in this; he is a graduate of LSU, my alma mater, and graduated from LSU's law school, the Paul M. Hebert Law School. He graduated in the Order of the Coif and subsequently got a master of law degree from Columbia University. He has the training, experience, and institutional knowledge to be a successful judge.

I have discussed his academics; let's speak about his experience. His breadth of experience makes him a great choice. He was certified as ``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association. He has extensive courtroom experience on the Tenth and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas and Louisiana Supreme Courts, and he has twice argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. He has experience working in the public and private sectors and in academia. He pulls from diverse legal backgrounds, including criminal law, American Disabilities Act regulations, section 1983 claims, healthcare law, adoptions, and contract law. He understands the Fifth Circuit.

After law school, Mr. Duncan clerked on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals under the Honorable John M. Duhe, Jr. He was the assistant solicitor general at the Texas attorney general's office and a professor at the University of Mississippi Law School. He is the appellate chief of the Louisiana Department of Justice. All of these are States included in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Again, this is the experience and background we should look for when selecting a judicial nominee.

I will also add that he is of high character. Even those who are going to vote no have been impressed once they have met him. They consider him a genuinely nice man whose body of work is reflective of someone who is decent. His body of work also demonstrates his high respect for legal precedent. He understands that a judge is not an advocate for a particular case but, instead, an adjudicator upholding the law, applying the law to the facts. He is a man of high integrity, high character--something sorely needed in this world but especially to be demonstrable in the Federal judiciary.

Clearly, Mr. Duncan is a qualified nominee, having that which it takes to be a successful judge. I recommend Mr. Duncan without reservation, and I urge my colleagues to join in supporting his nomination.

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

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