Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I ask unanimous consent that following the vote on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 1081, Walter, the Senate consider Calendars Nos. 1094 and 1095; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to each vote; that upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed; that any rollcall votes, following the first in the series, be 10 minutes in length; that if any nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

For the information of all Senators, these two nominations are Peter Michael McKinley to be Ambassador to the Republic of Afghanistan and Richard Rahul Verma to be Ambassador to India.

We expect that the nominations will be considered and confirmed by voice vote.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I don't like this bill. The White House doesn't like the bill. I object.

I yield back all time.

This vote we are about to have will be the last recorded vote of the day.

Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar

I now ask unanimous consent that following the vote on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 1095, the Senate consider Calendar Nos. 800 and 801; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to each vote; that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed; that any rollcall votes following the first in the series be 10 minutes in length; that if any nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

We expect the nominations to be considered by voice vote.

I yield back that time.

Mr. President, I yield back the time.

I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.R. 3979.

The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:

Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the

Senate to the bill (H.R. 3979) entitled ``An Act to amend the

Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that emergency

services volunteers are not taken into account as employees

under the shared responsibility requirements contained in the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,'' with an

amendment.

Motion to Concur

I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3979.

There is a cloture motion at the desk. I ask that the Chair order it reported.

I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3979, with a further amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays on that.

I have an amendment at the desk.

I have a motion to refer the House message with respect to H.R. 3979 with instructions.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have an amendment to the instructions which is at the desk.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived.

Following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30 this afternoon.

At 5:30 p.m., the Senate will proceed to three rollcall votes on the confirmation of Jeffery Baran to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Lauren McFerran to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board; and Ellen Williams to be Director of

the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Department of Energy.

Mr. President, I am very happy to be here today to talk about a couple of my friends--I should say the Senate's friends. I have received a lot of gifts while I have been here. My colleagues, over the years, have given me things here in the Senate, but one gift stands out really strongly in my mind. On my desk, not far from here, I have this big painting--it is a very famous painting from the National Portrait Gallery of Mark Twain.

Mark Twain, I tell people, was born in Nevada, which is really true. Samuel Clemens wasn't, but Mark Twain was. Orion Clemens was chosen as the Territorial Secretary of Nevada, and he told his younger brother Samuel: Come West and I will find you a job. Samuel had been fighting, which he didn't like, in the Civil War, so he came West to join his brother. But his brother couldn't find him a job, so Samuel Clemens bummed around for quite a while.

Without belaboring the story too long, the fact is, Mark Twain finally went up to Virginia City, which was booming at the time, and he went to the Territorial Enterprise newspaper and got a job as a reporter. This was a stunningly good and important start for his first writing that he had done. That is where he started his fame.

He would have stayed in Nevada longer, but someone challenged him to a duel for some of the things he wrote. So being the smart man he was, he didn't want to duel so he left town, went to California, where he wrote two best-selling books, ``The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'' and ``Roughing It,'' which was about his experience in bumming around Nevada until he found a job. These were best sellers. These were great books.

The point of the story, though, is he went to Virginia City as Samuel Clemens and took the name Mark Twain. That is where the name came from.

This means a lot. It is a story I tell many times to people who come to my office. So Carl Levin, the wonderful, kind, thoughtful man that he is, said: Can I come and see you? And I said: Sure. He brought to me I guess it is one of the rare double signatures of Samuel Clemens. There may be others, I just have never heard of one. This was done at a club in Hannibal, MO. The club's name was Labinnah--Hannibal spelled backwards--and Mark Twain, in 1902, because of how famous he was, signed Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, and wrote through the whole--he didn't want anybody else's name there. He wanted just his. So that is the gift he gave me.

That was so fitting. It fits my office perfectly, and it means a lot to me. Carl Levin brought with him this handwritten note: ``I got this at an auction 10 yrs. ago not knowing why. It just dawned on me! Best on the New Year, Carl.''

That was so nice of him to do that, and it is so hard to explain my appreciation, although I am trying to do that here by outlining what a wonderful human being Carl Levin is. What he did for me is an example of who Carl Levin is and how he thinks of people. He remembered the story I told him about Mark Twain, and he said, I am sure, to himself: I have this thing I got 10 years ago; I will give it to the Senator, my friend. So he gave me that plaque just because that is who he is.

He has always been attentive to the interests of the people of Michigan and our country. He is the longest serving Senator in the history of the State of Michigan--36 years. His legislative accomplishments are significant. I would say they are unmatched by almost anyone.

Carl Levin has stood his ground on controversial issues, and that is an understatement. He has fought to give average Americans a fair shot at what is going on in the world. He has always spoken with a clear voice, speaking for justice, equality, and fairness.

(Mr. MURPHY assumed the Chair.)

The Presiding Officer is a lawyer, I am a lawyer, but I am not sure I would be the best person, if you gave me a document, to look it over and make sure there was everything in that document you wanted in it, but Carl Levin is the person you want. I call him my nitpicker. He is so good at making sure everything is right; that every i is dotted, every t is crossed. Bring in Carl Levin if you have something and you really need someone to look at it and think it through.

Carl was a prominent lawyer, as was his dad, in Michigan. His dad served as a member of the Michigan Corrections Commission. After graduating from high school, his father worked as an assembly line worker. Carl Levin also knew how to work with his hands, but he followed in his father's footsteps by being an extremely hard worker. He attended college at Swarthmore and received a bachelor of arts degree there. Then he attended Harvard Law School and received his juris doctorate from Harvard.

He practiced in the private sector for a while. He began his public career as the first general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. He was elected in 1968 to the Detroit City Council, and he served there until 1977. He was elected to the Senate in 1978. Carl has functioned in this body as a levelheaded mediator who is guided by the protection of people in Michigan and our country.

In the past 36 years, Carl has cast over 12,000 votes. Some of those votes were hard, and not always popular, but they were Carl Levin votes. He did what he thought was right. When General Motors and Chrysler, in the last few years, faced a potential collapse, he recognized their bankruptcy would devastate the people of Michigan and have a detrimental--effect and that is a gross understatement--on this country. He pressed the incoming Obama administration to support the companies with loans. There was a hue and cry from people who opposed that, saying that is the wrong thing to do, Levin is wrong, Obama is wrong. But they were right. Look what it has done to energize, revitalize the State of Michigan, the whole Detroit metropolitan area and our country, with tens of thousands of new jobs as a result of his advocacy. As I said, it wasn't a popular position at the time, but Carl knew what was good for Michigan and good for our country and he has been vindicated a hundred times over.

Carl has been chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for 10 years. During that period of time, he has done some unusually important things for our country through this committee. Corporate money laundering--1999. He delved into that very deeply.

Carl Levin is not a headline hunter. Carl Levin is a substantive legislator. He could have held a lot more hearings, but he held them about every 6 months because he wanted his hearings to be Carl Levin hearings where, I repeat, every i was dotted, every t was crossed, and they were very powerful hearings.

Gasoline price manipulation, the Enron scandal--he delved into that very deeply.

Misconduct in the United Nations oil-for-food program, tax haven banks and offshore corporate tax evasion--he has talked about that and talked about that. Very notable legislation as a result of the work he has done: Wall Street reform, the Consumer Protection Act, the Credit Card Act, the PATRIOT Act.

Carl Levin is a very fine legislator. He fought for Wall Street reform when others were afraid to do so, and he helped restore the broken financial system that held powerful institutions accountable for their actions. Carl's persistence earned him a slot in Time magazine's list of America's 10 best U.S. Senators. They called him the ``Bird- Dogger.''

Well, that is what he is. Put him on an issue and he will come back with the prey. He is very good. He never stops. He is a sharp-eyed overseer of U.S. defense policy. He has spent his entire career promoting defense policy that protects America's interests at home and abroad while safeguarding the men and women who serve.

Carl is the Chair of the Senate Defense Committee. During the Nation's most trying of diplomatic times he has done a remarkable job to make sure the military is protected.

Even though he was Chair of this big powerful committee--the Defense Committee--he felt so strongly and he foresaw what a lot of us didn't see. He saw the disaster that would accompany an

invasion of Iraq. Accordingly, he talked about how bad it would be and voted against it. Carl Levin was right and a lot of us were wrong. I have said before on the Senate floor, of all the votes I have cast during the time I have been in government, the worst was voting for the Iraq war. But I did. Carl Levin did not.

But for all of his accomplishments in Congress, his greatest achievements reside in his home. Carl and his wife of over 50 years, Barbara, have three beautiful daughters: Kate, Laura, and Erica. Landra and Barbara are good friends. They are part of a book club. They have had a wonderful relationship over these many years. So as Carl retires from the Senate, I know he is going to cherish the time he is going to spend with his family.

But also Carl and I have had a long, long ongoing conversation. He and his brother Sander own about 100 acres. They have had it for a long time. Carl Levin is not a man of wealth, but he and his brother bought this 100 acres that has nothing on it but trees. He calls it his tree farm. He has shown me pictures of it. I have not seen it lately, but I have had for 15 or 20 years a hat he gave me--a green baseball-type cap--that says ``tree farm'' on it. I used to tell him I still have that cap. And I still have that cap, Carl.

He will be missed here in Washington. He will be missed in the Senate by all of us. But he will be missed more by his older brother Sandy, who is the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee in the House. They have served together in Congress for 32 years.

I have said this on the floor before, and I will say it again. I will remember Carl Levin for a lot of things, but when I was in the House, I came over to visit with him. I was thinking about running for the Senate. I said: Carl, I came to the House with your brother Sandy. He looked up at me and said: Sandy is not only my brother, he is my best friend. That speaks well of the person who Carl Levin is.

It has really been a privilege and an honor to serve with Carl. I will miss him so very, very much. I will miss having somebody to take the difficult issues to, to get his view as to what we should do, how we should handle it.

His voice will be missed here in the Senate. I congratulate him on his incomparable career in the Senate, and I wish him the very best.

Jay Rockefeller

Mr. President, it is said that you do not choose your family, and that is true. We are born into our families. We have no way to determine the family we are born into. Yet as a 27-year-old Jay Rockefeller chose to make the people of West Virginia his family. How did that happen? How did Jay Rockefeller, born in New York to one of the most famous American families, one of the great dynasties in the history of this country, end up in West Virginia?

He was an undergraduate student at Harvard. He decided he did not like some of the things Harvard was doing, and so he left. He dropped out of school and went to Japan. He spent 3 years in Japan. He became an interpreter. He knows the Japanese language extremely well. He loves the Japanese people. He started out at Harvard. As I indicated, after his junior year, he left for Japan. He was there for 3 years. He came home, returned to Harvard, and finished his degree.

Jay Rockefeller, as a 27-year-old, could have done anything, gone anyplace, gotten any education, started any business, or he could have sat around at a home on one of the beaches around the world and just done nothing. But that is not Jay Rockefeller. He wanted to do something. He did not know what he wanted to do. This Rockefeller wanted to do something that was different.

A friend of his published here for many years a magazine called the Washington Monthly, a guy by the name of Pete Peters. He was a man- about-town. Everybody liked him very much, but he was very close to Jay Rockefeller. So Jay talked to him one day trying to find what he should do in life. Here he was, one of the wealthiest men in America. He had a Harvard degree.

``What should I do?''

Pete Peters told him: ``What you should do is go someplace and work with poor people.''

``Where should I go?''

``Why not West Virginia?''

``West Virginia?''

``West Virginia.''

So he joined AmeriCorps. As a VISTA volunteer, he moved to the small mining community of Emmons, WV. That was in 1964. This man of means, this man of stature, this man of notoriety went to this small little town in West Virginia.

It was not easy for Jay Rockefeller to suddenly find himself in a setting he had never imagined. In the first 6 months he was there, he could hardly get anyone to talk to him. He is kind of an intimidating man. His name is Rockefeller. He is 6-foot-7. But eventually his goodness came through. The people of Emmons, WV, started talking to him, and they really liked the man. From 1964 when he moved there, he knew he wanted to identify with poor people, and that is what he has done since 1964.

In 1966 he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates assembly.

In 1968 he was chosen to serve as the secretary of state in the State of West Virginia.

He then became the president of West Virginia Wesleyan College and served there for 3 years.

He then was twice elected Governor of the State of West Virginia. He served from 1976 to 1984.

Governor Rockefeller became Senator Rockefeller in 1985. From the time he first stepped onto the Senate floor, he made it clear he was here for one reason: to fight for the people of West Virginia. Senator Rockefeller fought to provide his constituents with health care. He was an architect of CHIP, a children's health program. It is an insurance program. The Children's Health Insurance Program is one of the most important health initiatives in America's history for kids. He fought to protect Medicaid for half a million West Virginians but for millions and millions of Americans.

He has been a senior member of the Committee on Finance, the chairman of the Commerce Committee, and chairman of the Intelligence Committee. What a remarkable career he has had. He fought very hard to protect the American people from President Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security. He has protected retirement disability benefits by doing that for millions and millions of Americans.

His efforts to help West Virginia have not been confined to this building. As the senior Senator from West Virginia, this big man--I repeat, 6-foot-7--with a very, very long reach, has used that reach to bring jobs to his home State as Governor and as Senator. Because of his recruiting, there are thousands and thousands of West Virginians employed at the Toyota factory in Buffalo; Hino Motors in Williamstown; and at the Kureha plant in a town called Belle. Thousands and thousands of jobs. Diamond Electric, Nippon Thermostat, and NGK Spark Plugs are all companies Senator and Governor Rockefeller helped bring to West Virginia.

The people of West Virginia have been blessed to have Senator Jay Rockefeller as a family member for the last 50 years. They have been blessed to have a person of his integrity and tenacity looking out for them in the Senate.

My respect for Jay Rockefeller is unlimited. He has been my colleague for the entire time I have been in the Congress--32 years. Now, as his time in the Senate comes to an end, he will be sorely missed.

I am sure Jay is looking forward to spending more time with Sharon, this wonderful, wonderful woman--and by the way, whose father was a U.S. Senator--and their children John, Valerie, Charles, and Justin, and their six grandchildren.

I so admire this good man. I congratulate him on a very distinguished career, including five terms in the U.S. Senate, two terms as Governor. I wish him the very best in life.

Would the Chair announce the business of the day.

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

Mr. President, are we in morning business now?

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 564, S. 2521.

I ask unanimous consent that the Carper-Coburn substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time; and the Senate proceed to vote on passage.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 1281.

I ask unanimous consent that the Paul amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of the following measures, which are post office-naming bills, and the Senate proceed to their consideration en bloc: H.R. 4939, H.R. 1707, H.R. 78, H.R. 2112, H.R. 2223, H.R. 2678, H.R. 3534, and H.R. 5030.

I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc with no intervening action or debate.