Floor Statements

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will be in morning business until 11 o'clock this morning. The time until then will be equally divided and controlled between the majority leader and the Republican leader.

At 11 the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the Chen nomination to be a U.S. circuit judge for the Federal circuit. Also, at 11 there will be a filing deadline for all second-degree amendments to the Transportation bill.

At noon there will be two rollcall votes on confirmation of Chen and cloture on the THUD bill. Following those votes, the Senate will recess until 2 p.m. for a bipartisan caucus meeting.

This afternoon there will be a rollcall vote on the confirmation of the Power nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations.

I object.

(Laughter.)

I will withdraw my objection.

Mr. President, in addition to David leaving, Rohit Kumar is also leaving. I don't know what he did for Senator McConnell, but most of the time I didn't like it. But I learned in our conversations, most of them in the back room, what a fine man he is and how smart he is. He is incredibly intelligent, he is good at his job and, as I have just indicated, a little too good sometimes.

Even though we at times knew what was happening was happening because he was behind it, I am really sorry to see him leave the Senate. He is a good person. I admire him and have such great respect for him. I wish him success and happiness in his next endeavor.

He has a beautiful young daughter that he boasts about all the time, and rightly so. He and his wife Hillary, I am confident, will have a very pleasant life outside the Senate, even though we will all miss him.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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, we know what is ahead of us the next hour or so. I ask unanimous consent that we change that.

In between the vote on Chen, the judge, and the next vote, I ask that there be 10 minutes, and 2 minutes of that would be 1 minute on each side, and 8 minutes would be given to the comanager of that bill, Susan Collins. That would be for debate only.

Madam President, have Senators sit down and shut up. OK. It is unfair. Senator Murray has something to say. Senator Collins has something to say. It is just not polite.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 154, S. 1392.

I note the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Con. Res. 22.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, for this session, this work period, we have done a lot of work, and it has turned out quite well. None of us got what we wanted, but we all got something. I appreciate the cooperation of Democrats and Republicans this afternoon. It is always during the last few hours before a recess that problems come up, and this is an adjournment, so it is even more difficult. So I am grateful to everyone for their participation and their cooperation.

As for Senator Grassley, he has left the floor, but I wish to express my appreciation to him. He had an issue that took us a while to work through, and it all worked out for the better for not only he and Senator Leahy but, most importantly, for our staff.

Madam President, very briefly, reserving the right to object.

It comes as no surprise that the Republicans are once again trying to repeal the health care act. By one count, the House and Senate Republicans have tried to fight the same fight more than 70 times.

Albert Einstein was not insane. He was very smart. But he described insanity pretty clearly as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That is where we are here. This is insane. It is clear Republicans liked it better when insurance companies could deny coverage when you had a preexisting condition; when insurance companies could cut off your health insurance when you got sick; when insurance companies could raise insurance rates without any review. They would say--I guess when they say what they are saying now, that they want to prevent enforcement of the health care reform, what they are really saying is they want to repeal free mammograms and preventive care, repeal the law that lets kids stay on their parents' health care until they are 26.

Let's not fight the same fight over and over. It is time to stop fighting. It is time to work together.

I object.

I object.

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

Madam President, I appreciate the Presiding Officer's patience in waiting for us to wrap up things.

Let me say a word very quickly about the staff. I wish everyone a good August. It has been an extremely difficult first 7 months of this congressional period. We got a lot done, and I appreciate very much all the hard work of everyone.

I have said before, but not recently, that we get a lot of things done around here--not nearly as much as we should--but it is the result of all the work that is done by those here and the scores of other people we don't see that are back there doing all kinds of things to make this place work, all the committee staff, the police officers but especially the floor staff.

As we talked earlier today about some departures we have here, one of the good things we have is that in all the time I have been here, as far I am aware--there could have been instances, but I am unaware of any, where there was bitterness expressed publicly and, as far as I know, privately between each other. I haven't seen that. I appreciate very much the good work we do for the Senate. The staff is not partisan in the work for their bosses that they try to get done, and we can only do that through them.

I am so grateful for all they do for the Senate leadership, all the Senators, and the country. Words are not adequate for me to express that, but I truly do appreciate all they do.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September, 10, 2013, the motion to proceed to S. 1392 be agreed to and the Senate proceed to consideration of the legislation.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, September 9, 2013, at 5 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 184 and 185; that there be 30 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form; 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; the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Madam President, an example of the work done by others, I will read this material--I will read it and people see me making this consent request. But people have spent weeks arriving at this. That is what I talked about a few minutes ago. It is remarkable, the work done for us by others.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 199, 200, 202, 210 through 218, 222, 225 through 240, 243 through 247, 249 through 302, 304, 305, 306, 308 through 326, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Navy; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate consider the following nominations under the Privileged section of the Executive Calendar: Nominations PN 631, PN 632, and PN 667; that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the Record and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.