Floor Statements

Mr. President, we are going to have a confirmation vote on Cornelia Pillard. That will be the first vote. Then we are going to have--I don't believe there will be a need for a rollcall vote on the quorum. I think there will be enough Senators here that the Chair will be able to see clearly there are 51 Senators here. Then we will have a cloture on Executive Calendar No. 378, Chai Rachel Feldblum of the District of Columbia to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Then, Mr. President, the next vote will be tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. This morning, yes; I am sorry.

We are going to do everything we can to finish our schedule before Christmas, but it is going to be pushing it. We will do our best. But this session doesn't end until the end of the year, so we are going to continue working until we get our work done. I am not going to yield back all of our time on all of our nominations. We are going to do those piece by piece.

I hope the body has been able to understand what a waste of time this has been, but we are going to confirm these nominations, and that is a step in the right direction.

Madam President, it is my understanding that if I yield back 40 minutes, the vote will occur at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.

I yield back 40 minutes of the Democrats' time.

On behalf of the majority, I yield back 57 minutes.

On behalf of the majority, I yield back 57\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. President, it is my understanding there is 2 hours equally divided; is that right?

I yield back 59 minutes.

Mr. President, if I yield back 1 hour of the majority's time, what time would the next vote occur?

I yield back 1 hour.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent tht the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 12, 2013, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Assisting the P5+1 Interim Nuclear Agreement with Iran: Administration Perspectives.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 12, 2013, at 10:30 a.m. in room SD-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The Committee will conduct a hearing entitled, ``Forecasting Success: Achieving U.S. Weather Readiness for the Long Term.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 12, 2013, at 10 a.m. in room SD-215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 12, 2013, at 10 a.m. in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled ``Accreditation as Quality Assurance: Meeting the Needs of 21st Century Learning.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on December 12, 2013, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I have an announcement. I realize everyone is tired, anxious, and some are a little concerned about everything.

I have had, especially late last night and early this morning, conversations with Republicans and Democrats as to what we should do this weekend.

The next set of votes will come shortly before noon today. Then we will have another set of votes this afternoon. Absent consent, the Senate will vote late Saturday, about 10:30 or thereabouts, on confirmation of Jeh Johnson to be the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The Senate has already received a budget bill from the House. We expect momentarily to receive the Defense bill from the House. I wish to have the Senate process these important bills as quickly possible. I plan to move to proceed on these bills as soon as we can. That would be as soon as we handle the pending nominations that are now before this body.

Thereafter, there are certain things we need to do before Christmas break. We need to do those two important bills, the budget and defense. We have to do the Chair of the Federal Reserve system. There is an Under Secretary of State that is very urgent, according to John Kerry. We have a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Under Secretary of Department of Interior, the head of the Internal Revenue Service, and the remaining judge on the DC Circuit. There have been requests from everybody--I shouldn't say that--lots and lots of people to do other things, but we are limited as to what we can do before next weekend. There are some other nominations that we are happy to discuss with individual Senators.

So it would be my suggestion that we go ahead and do this vote; during this vote, and prior to the next series of votes, I will meet with the Republican leader to see if there is a way we can give some time, especially to the staff, over the weekend. These people have worked extremely hard, and I haven't heard a complaint from a single one of them, quite frankly.

I went up last evening and visited the court reporters. We have 18 court reporters, and up on the 4th floor they have been sharing--for a little respite--two beds and taking naps, or at least trying to lie down and rest for a bit. They are working in 15-minute shifts, and they have been doing that for days now. So if we can work that out, I would be happy to do that.

My goal is we would wind up at the same place on Monday in the evening as we would wind up if we did all this stuff over the weekend. So I am happy to be as cooperative as possible. Christmas is on its way, and there are certain things we need to have done. There are lots of other things we need to do, but we are probably not going to be able to do those.

So I have laid out for everyone a broad scope of the schedule. I will meet with my friend the Republican leader and see if there is some way we can do this; otherwise, we will just proceed on.

The good news is that following the vote this afternoon, we wouldn't have anything until tomorrow night under the schedule as now listed.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that if cloture is invoked on the Patterson nomination, that at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 16, all postcloture time be considered expired and the Senate then proceed to vote on confirmation of the Patterson nomination; that upon disposition of the Patterson nomination, the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Johnson nomination; that if cloture is invoked on the Johnson nomination, then all postcloture time be yielded back and the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the Johnson nomination.

Madam President, we are going to have two votes at noon today. After that, the next vote will be at 5:30 on Monday. There will be a series of votes on Monday.

As I indicated this morning, the Republican leader and I have spent some time together and I think we have had a productive discussion on the schedule. This schedule has been extremely difficult for everyone.

We have worked out a schedule that allows for the next set of votes which will occur at noon today to be the last votes of this week. We agreed on Monday evening the Senate will vote on the matters that we would have voted on the rest of today and this weekend.

So on Monday at 5:30 in the afternoon, the Senate will vote on Patterson, Johnson, one would be on the cloture on Johnson, and then it will be confirmation. We are doing our utmost to finish our business here a week from today so we can go home for Christmas.

So we will be in session Sunday afternoon. There will be no votes on Sunday. The next rollcall, I repeat for the third time, will be 5:30 p.m. Monday. On Tuesday, we will begin consideration of the budget and Wednesday the Defense bill. After that, we will address further nominations of which the most important one is Janet Yellen to be on the Federal Reserve. The others, I will work with Senator McConnell filing a number and see how many we can get done.

I personally thank Senators for their cooperation this week and next week as we work through these important matters. I know there is a lot of work we have to do to get back to regular order. We will see what happens with the Defense bill we are going to vote on and the budget bill. But I am satisfied we have made progress.

Orders for Monday, December 15, 2013

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes it business today, it adjourn until 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 15, 2013; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; and the Senate convene for legislative business only.

I want to make sure everyone understands that we have votes today.

The distinguished Senator from Nebraska was speaking and I interrupted him. I relinquish the floor. If he has more to say, he may certainly do so. I have no right to suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, it seems hard to believe that tomorrow will be the anniversary of the deaths of 20 little boys and girls in Newtown, CT. Not only those little boys and girls, but six educators, whose lives were taken by an unspeakable tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Their names are Allison, Avielle, Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeleine, Catherine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Noah, Jack, Emilie, Caroline, Jessica, and Benjamin.

These little boys and girls were 6 and 7 years old. They were murdered. Although their years were few, their lives have touched and will continue to touch us all.

As it did a year ago, my heart goes out to the families of these little angels, and to all those affected by this tragedy. I honor the ultimate sacrifice of Victoria Soto, Dawn Hochsprung, Mary Sherlach, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel Davino, and Anne Marie Murphy--teachers and educators who died trying to safeguard the children in their care.

These six educators devoted their lives to teaching Newtown's children how to read and write, how to add and subtract, how to be good boys and girls, and how to grow into good men and women. They gave their lives to keep those children safe. They are a source of hope in a world that sometimes seems hopeless.

It is hard to comprehend the type of tragedy that occurred at Sandy Hook, let alone to recover from it. But I am inspired by the families in this community who have found purpose in the face of despair.

There is a Tibetan saying that says, ``Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.''

The Dalai Lama says that whatever trouble you have experienced, and however deep your heartbreak, ``If we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.''

The families of Newtown have channeled their pain into activism, raising awareness about gun violence and mental health issues in this country.

I have met with them on a number of occasions, and their bravery in the face of such pain is truly an inspiration not only to me but to all of us.

I am proud of how hard my caucus fought this year to pass safeguards that would keep guns out of the hands of felons and people with severe mental illness. That is why 85 percent of the American people agree with us. Why should someone who has a severe mental illness or someone who is a criminal be able to purchase a gun? They shouldn't. Those who are trying to stop that legislation from going forward should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves.

I personally am happy with my vote to keep military-style weapons off the streets and to improve our mental safety. But at a time when more than 30,000 Americans are killed by guns each year, it is shameful that the Senate can't pass gun safety legislation that would protect our most vulnerable citizens--our kids, our children, our babies.

So I told the families of the 26 innocents killed a year ago in Newton, and the 173 children killed by guns since December 14, 2012, that Senate Democrats will not give up on them, and that is still the fact. We will not give up on the victims of 26 school shootings that occurred since the Newtown massacre, including one in Sparks, NV, where a young man came with a gun. Who stepped forward to save the children? A teacher. He was killed. Two

others were injured in that assault. I will not give up on the families and friends of those gunned down at a movie theater in Colorado, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, a shopping mall in Oregon, and every day on the streets of America's cities.

Last December I promised the families a meaningful conversation about how to change America's culture of violence. I want everyone within the sound of my voice to know that the conversation is not over.

The American people will prevail on this issue. When 85 percent of the American people believe in an issue--when 85 percent of the American people believe in not only an issue but in a quest, in fairness, it is going to happen. It is only a question of when it happens.

I urge the families and friends of those killed in Newtown to never lose hope. Never lose hope.

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

I now yield back all time on the Patterson nomination.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

I ask unanimous consent the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 299, and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 263 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the Whitehouse amendment to the preamble, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

I ask unanimous consent we now proceed to S. Res. 320.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to S. Res. 321.

Madam President, I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.