Floor Statements

Mr. President, the symptoms of fungal meningitis can be very subtle at first: headaches, fever, even light can start bothering people, as well as neckaches and backaches. The disease can also cause strokes, seizures, and even coma.

Fungal meningitis led to the death of at least 64 unfortunate Americans when they were injected with a contaminated medicine. The medicine--a steroid injection used to heal back pain--was tainted by unsanitary conditions from a facility that was masquerading as a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. The true compounding pharmacies provide custom-made medications for patients with unique health needs that cannot be treated by off-the-shelf prescription medicines. This practice is essential and can be critical for children, cancer patients, and people with severe allergies.

The contaminated medicine mixed at the New England Compounding Center was sent to scores of medical facilities in 23 different States and given to 14,000 patients. As I have indicated, 64 of them died and hundreds of those patients were seriously ill.

Recently a heart medication mixed at the same pharmacy was linked to the death of two young Nevada boys, ages 4 and 6, according to a lawsuit filed by their parents.

The New England Compounding Center was skirting Federal regulations and manufacturing large batches of drugs for mass distribution in very unsanitary conditions. By avoiding the safety inspections required of large-scale drug manufacturers, companies such as this one can boost profits, but in the process they risk lives.

The legislation on the floor will end that dangerous practice and ensure that patients have access to high-quality custom medications. This is not a contentious issue. On the contrary, this legislation has wide bipartisan support--led by Harkin and Alexander--and would pass by a wide margin in mere moments if not for the stall tactics by a few Republican Senators. This bill has already been delayed for more than a month because of these tactics, and Republicans continue to insist on running out the clock on this matter.

As everyone knows, if all time is required on the procedural issues, we will not be able to finish the bill until this Sunday--that includes working Saturday--and the final 30 hours won't run out until sometime on Sunday. It is time to dispense with this noncontroversial measure--a measure that will safeguard the lives of vulnerable

Americans, people with back pain and other maladies--and move on to other important legislative priorities.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 236, H.R. 3204, the drug compounding legislation.

Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:30 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Cornelia Pillard to be U.S. circuit judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. At 5:30 p.m. there will be a cloture vote on the Pillard nomination. If cloture is not invoked, there will be a second cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the drug compounding bill.

Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 1661

Mr. President, I am told S. 1661 is due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I would object to any further proceedings with respect to this legislation.

Mr. President, I extend my condolences to Jim Inhofe, the senior Senator from Oklahoma, and his wife Kay on the loss of their son Perry. The entire Senate family was saddened to hear of Dr. Inhofe's death. He was a young man, 52 years of age, killed in a plane crash early Sunday.

Flying airplanes is in the blood of Jim Inhofe and his family. I truly care a lot about Jim Inhofe. He and I are unquestionably friends. We may not agree on all political issues, but we agree we are friends.

I have had the good fortune of working to get to know this good man. I have helped him when I could, and he has helped me when he could. We are able to put all the disagreements to one side and look at each other for what we are outside of our politics.

I have confidence that he is going to do well. He is a man of great faith, and I feel comfortable that he will be able to work his way through this loss.

(Ms. BALDWIN assumed the Chair.)

Filipino Typhoon

Madam President, my heart also goes out to the residents of the Philippines who were drastically affected by this terrible storm that hit one or two or three of their islands over the weekend. The Philippines has 7,000 islands.

The heavily populated area of Manila was not hit--at least not very badly. We know there are thousands of Filipinos dead and missing. Relief and construction efforts will be long and difficult. My thoughts are with the approximately 3\1/2\ million Filipino Americans who are living with us--including in Nevada about 100,000 Filipino Americans. They are involved in so many important endeavors, such as the health care field, business field, and hotel business.

They may not have lost family members, but they are a community that is concerned with what is going on in the Philippines. I was happy to hear the administration has already moved in with support and aid for this beleaguered nation.

DC Circuit Court

Madam President, later today we are going to again attempt to break a filibuster on the highly qualified person who has been asked by the President to serve on the DC Circuit. It is often said the DC Circuit is the second highest court in the land after the Supreme Court, and that is true. It is unfortunate the Republicans have chosen to filibuster a nomination of yet another talented female jurist and dedicated public servant to fill a vacant seat on this court.

The nominee, Georgetown law professor Nina Pillard, has argued nine

cases before the Supreme Court and briefed more than a score of cases. In one case she argued before the Supreme Court, it involved a male employee of the State of Nevada who was fired after taking unpaid leave to care for his wife who was sick. It was an important case, a landmark case. The Court ruled 6 to 3 in favor of her client, upholding an important protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Support for Professor Pillard's nomination is bipartisan--at least outside the Senate. Yet Senate Republicans seem poised to block confirmation of this eminently qualified woman for a blatantly political reason: deny President Obama his constitutional right to appoint judges.

The DC Circuit is currently operating with a very bad ratio. We have three vacancies on this very important court. For the Republicans to now claim we don't need 11 judges is a little strange because that is not what they said when President Bush was President. When he needed these vacancies filled, they were filled. They happily filled the 9th, 10th, and 11th seats on the DC Circuit--the same three seats President Obama seeks to fill--even though the court had a significantly smaller caseload at the time. The Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was one of the judges confirmed to the DC Circuit during George Bush's Presidency.

Since a Democrat was elected to the White House, Republicans have blocked two exceedingly qualified female nominees to the DC Circuit, Caitlin Halligan and Patricia Millett. In the last 19 years, five men have been confirmed to the DC Circuit and one woman.

Today the Senate has an opportunity to help shape a court that better reflects our country, so I hope they will not block another qualified female nominee for nakedly partisan reasons. The least Senate Republicans owe Professor Pillard is the same fair confirmation process Chief Justice Roberts enjoyed when he was nominated to the DC Circuit.

Drug Compounding

Madam President, should Republicans block her confirmation, as I fear they will, the Senate will then vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to a bill to enhance safeguards at compounding pharmacies which create custom-tailored medication for patients with unique health needs.

This bipartisan legislation will ensure drugs manufactured in factories and mixed in pharmacies across the country are safe for consumers. The measure will also implement tracking of medicines from the factory to the drug store itself.

Last year unsanitary conditions at a compounding pharmacy led to a fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and very badly sickened more than 750 others. Contaminated medicine mixed at that pharmacy was sent to 75 medical facilities in 23 States and given to 14,000 patients. The facility in question was actually skirting existing law and acting as a large-scale drug manufacturer rather than creating custom medications for individuals using products manufactured by other companies.

By avoiding stricter regulations on drug manufacturers, companies such as this one boost their profits by putting patients at risk. This legislation will end this dangerous practice and ensure that drugs manufactured and mixed in America are completely safe from the assembly line to the drug store.

This bill could pass the Senate right now, but it has been stalled by Republicans for more than 1 month. This legislation truly is a matter of life and death.

Defense Authorization

Madam President, we must finish this legislation quickly so we can wrap up consideration of the crucial Defense authorization bill before Thanksgiving.

I put Senators on notice last week and the week before that we are going to do whatever it takes to accomplish exactly that in order to finish this bill--even if it means working this coming weekend and hopefully not the next weekend but possibly that too.

Further, we must ensure that debate on the Defense authorization bill is about our Nation's defense and not extraneous issues. No Senators should be allowed to jump the line and get a vote on his or her own amendment by threatening delay action on the underlying bill, nor should the Senate waste time debating amendments that are not relevant to defense.

This measure ensures the safety of this Nation and is dedicated to servicemembers, and it is more important than any one Senator's or Senators' parochial or political pet issues.

I note the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the Pillard nomination.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 236.

Mr. President, following my remarks the Senate will resume consideration of S. 815, which is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. At 11:45 there will be two rollcall votes, first on the Toomey amendment and then a cloture vote on the bill. If cloture is invoked, there will be a third rollcall vote on passage of the Employment Non- Discrimination Act.

Tribute to Billy Graham

Mr. President, I am happy to join with my friend in happy birthday wishes for Billy Graham. I have not had the good fortune to meet this man, but I have read his book. I read a biography of him. He is such a personality I thought that was something I should do, and I did.

I remember a lot of things about the book. The one thing I do remember is this: He is so scrupulous in making sure there is never any question about his integrity, his moral integrity. We have had a lot of problems with people preaching who do not turn out to be so good. But Billy Graham, among other things, would never meet a female in his office without the door being wide open so people could see everything that was going on in that room. That is just an indication of the kind of person he is.

I join with my friend in congratulating Billy Graham in his 95th year.

Health Care

The remarks of my friend, the Republican leader, kind of remind me of a joke that is not very funny, but it is a joke and I think it makes the point. Prison setting--these people run out of material for jokes. They are there together all the time and hear the same joke day after day. So they decided what they would do is they would list the best jokes from 1 to 50, and rather than tell the joke over and over, they would just yell a number and people would laugh.

That is what we have here. Why don't our Republican colleagues just number from 1 through 50 their criticisms of ObamaCare, and rather than coming and giving these speeches, I think we would be much better off if they would just give us a number and we would all--because we have heard these speeches so many times--immediately laugh because basically they are jokes too.

It is too bad that the Republican leader and many of his Republican colleagues want to keep fighting an old

fight. Four years ago we passed the health care reform bill. The President signed it, the Supreme Court upheld it, and it is the law of the land. Of course, we want to make it better, and certainly with what has happened with the rollout of the Web site, we need to do that. But I wish our Republican colleagues would stop trying to scare people out of participating in this program. If they would stop fighting last year's fights and move on and try to do the business of the American people, we would all be better off.

We can look back at the big changes we have made in legislation and we have made some big changes over the years in this body and some of those matters dealt with health care.

I was not here when Medicare passed, but I remember how important it was, because at the time it passed, I was the chairman of the board of trustees--an elected official in Nevada--with the biggest hospital district in Nevada. They had lots of beds and lots of patients. So I remember the impact of Medicare. We also know Medicare did not become popular overnight. There were a lot of criticisms about it.

Although not nearly as big as ObamaCare or Medicare, I was here when we passed--under the leadership of President Bush No. 2--the Medicare drug benefit bill. A number of us didn't like that. We thought it didn't go far enough and that it should have been done differently, but it passed in this body and became the law of the land. It was difficult to get that up and running, but we did not come to the floor and say: Get rid of this bill. We believed, as imperfect as it was, it was the beginning of building support and doing something about health care in America.

I wish my Republican colleagues would do something constructive regarding health care. We have not heard one positive remark about what they would do to change what we have already done. I think we would all be better off if that were, in fact, the case. This legislation is working, and it will work even better when we get the issues regarding the Web site worked out.

There are people in Nevada, there are people in New Jersey, there are people in Indiana, and there are people all over America today who are benefiting as a result of what happened 4 years ago in the Senate and the House of Representatives when the President signed the bill.

I am sure the Presiding Officer, and other people who are listening to this speech, can identify with someone who has or had a preexisting disability. Under the old law, if you were a woman, it was a preexisting disability. You could be charged differently because you were a woman. A child born with diabetes, an adult with diabetes, someone who had been in an automobile accident, someone who was--my friend Tony Coelho, who was one of the leaders when I served in the House with him, was an epileptic. He had a preexisting disability, and that is an understatement.

We could go on and on. If you are under age 18, it doesn't matter if you have a preexisting disability. At the first of the year, you can be an adult and have a preexisting disability and you can get insurance. In many States we extended the preexisting disability exemption to adults. It is already in effect in a number of States because under the law the States had the authority to do that, and the Federal Government will help them.

The Bush drug benefit was flawed. What did we do with it? We didn't try get rid of it, we improved it. The so-called doughnut hole is being filled and millions of senior citizens, and Americans over the last 4 years, have received millions and millions of dollars in benefits because our drugs are cheaper.

I have talked on this floor before, and I will say it again--in my hometown of Searchlight, NV, there was a young man who was in college and on his parents' insurance. In Nevada you could stay on your parents' insurance until you were 23 years old. Within a matter of weeks of turning 23, he started getting very sick. He had testicular cancer. His parents had no money. One of my friends who is a neurologist did the surgery for free, but he had two other surgeries that were not free.

His parents had no money; one was a retired operating engineer and one worked part-time in a post office there in Searchlight. They struggled, and their son Jeff has been taken care of. Many people don't have the benefit of his parents who sacrificed a great deal for their boy. That is no longer a problem. Children can stay on their parents' insurance for 3 more years, and that would have allowed Jeff, and other men and women just like him, to get out of school.

ObamaCare is a wonderful piece of legislation for America. Let's make it better. Stop carping about this. Get over it. It is the law. It is the legacy of Barack Obama and always will be. Let's make it better and stop the mischievous, unfortunate speeches out here every day about how bad it is. Talk about the good things in this bill and help us work to make it better.

Employment Non-discrimination Act

This afternoon the Senate will vote to advance the Employment Non- Discrimination Act. It is legislation that will protect all Americans from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The vote on cloture on the bill will take place before lunch and vote on final passage will take place before the caucus adjourns. We will start voting at 1:45 this afternoon.

I do hope and expect a bipartisan vote, a good one, to extend safeguards against workplace harassment and discrimination to every American. The time has come for Congress to pass a Federal law that ensures all citizens, regardless of where they live, can go to work unafraid of being who they are.

More than 80 percent of the American people think that is already the law. It is not already the law, but that is what they think, so let's just do what the American people think already exists.

I appreciate Chairman Harkin. He is a devoted person for people who need help. If you ever wondered how C-SPAN has closed captioning, it is because Tom Harkin led the fight here for many years in the Senate to provide closed captioning. He has a brother who is hearing impaired, and because of that, he was focused on providing closed captioning. We have all kinds of good things for the disabled thanks to Tom Harkin. The disabilities act, which is so important for our country, is now the law. So I appreciate Chairman Harkin's work on this legislation. It is a shame for Iowa and the country that he has decided not to run for reelection. What a good man.

Jeff Merkley, from Oregon, also worked on this legislation. He has devoted huge amounts of time to this legislation, and I admire and respect him so very much. I respect and appreciate the leadership of these two fine Senators.

I hope Speaker Boehner will reconsider his decision not to bring this up for a vote in the House of Representatives. This legislation would pass by a nice margin in the House if the Speaker would allow a vote on it.

I can't understand what is going on in the House of Representatives. Legislation the American people want is held up over there. The farm bill would save this country $23 billion, and they will not bring it up. The American people want this. There are reforms in the legislation that Senator Stabenow and others have worked so hard to put in place for decades. They are in this bill. The House is holding this up.

Immigration reform. America wants immigration reform. They are going to get it, but it is just too bad that it is being fought every step of the way by my friend, the Speaker. Comprehensive immigration reform is something that is needed in this body; it is needed in the House. We have already passed it. It should be the law of the land. They seem to be so focused on debt reduction. Well, immigration reform saves $1 trillion of debt.

Marketplace fairness would allow little strip mall operators and small businesses to have the same benefits others have. It is unfair that brick-and-mortar businesses that pay rent cannot be competitive with the businesses on the Internet that pay no sales tax. The House is holding that up, and now they are holding this up. That is just another piece of legislation that people around America support and the House is holding up. I hope the Speaker will reconsider his position.

DC Circuit Court of Appeals

I will also file cloture today on the nomination of a highly qualified jurist to serve on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The DC Circuit is often called

the second highest court in the land. No one has debated that in any other way. It is so important. It is no wonder why. Here is what former DC Circuit Chief Judge Patricia Wald said of the court's caseload: ``The DC Circuit hears the most complex, time-consuming, labyrinthine disputes over regulations with the greatest impact on ordinary Americans' lives.''

It is unfortunate that Republicans are filibustering another talented and dedicated public servant nominated to service on this crucial court.

Georgetown law professor Nina Pillard is the next victim of what the Republicans are doing. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale and attended Harvard Law School. For 5 years she litigated individual and class action racial discrimination cases as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

She served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Solicitor General. Support for her confirmation is bipartisan. Two top Justice Department officials from the Bush era, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh and former FBI Director William Sessions, have supported her nomination.

Professor Pillard is also faculty codirector of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown, which helps attorneys to argue cases before the High Court. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the job. She has argued nine cases before the Supreme Court and has written briefs for another 25. Her arguments helped open the Virginia Military Institute to women in 1997 and beat back a constitutional challenge of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

She is qualified and dedicated. It is truly a shame that Republicans would filibuster this nomination for unrelated political reasons. The DC Circuit is currently operating with only 8 of its 11 seats. While Senate Republicans are blocking President Obama's nominees to this vital court, they were happy to confirm judges to the DC Circuit when President Reagan and both President Bushes were in office.

Republicans have already blocked two exceedingly qualified nominees to the DC Circuit, Caitlin Halligan and Patricia Millett. I hope my Republican colleagues will not block another qualified nominee when we vote on cloture on this matter next week. This nominee deserves a fair confirmation process and a simple up-or-down vote.

Reservation of Leader Time

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, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 346.

Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk.

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

I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Is the motion to proceed to H.R. 3204 now pending?

I have a cloture motion at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 280.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I am told that there is a bill at the desk due for its first reading.

Mr. President, I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that from Thursday, November 7, through Tuesday, November 12, the majority leader be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11:45 a.m. on Friday, November 8, 2013, for a pro forma session; that will be all we will do, with no business conducted; and that following the pro forma session, the Senate adjourn until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, November 12, 2013; that following the prayer and the pledge, 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 that following any leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business until 4:30 with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; that at 4:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 346, the nomination of Cornelia Pillard to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia, with the time until 5:30 p.m. equally divided and controlled in the usual form prior to a cloture vote on the nomination; further, that if cloture is invoked on the Pillard nomination, upon disposition of the nomination, the Senate resume legislative session and the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3204, the Pharmaceutical Drug Compounding bill; and finally, that if cloture is not invoked on the Pillard nomination, the Senate immediately resume legislative session and the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3204, the pharmaceutical bill.

There will be up to two rollcall votes on Tuesday, November 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m.