Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further action on S. Res. 325.

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 ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 325, S. Res. 379.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the Senate, the President of the Senate, the President pro tempore, and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to commissions, committees, boards, conferences or interparliamentary conferences authorized by law, by concurrent action of the two Houses or by order of the Senate.

I ask unanimous consent that from Friday, February 17, through Monday, February 27, 2012, the majority leader be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions.

Mr. President, if we could return to Calendar No. 325, S. Res. 379, I ask unanimous consent the action just taken be vitiated.

We are still on that matter; is that correct?

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business for the day, it adjourn until Tuesday, February 21, at 12 p.m., and convene for a pro forma session only with no business conducted and that following the pro forma session the Senate adjourn until Friday, February 24, at 11 a.m. and convene for a pro forma session only with no business conducted, and that following the pro forma session, the Senate adjourn until 2 p.m., on Monday, February 27; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that Senator Shaheen be recognized to deliver Washington's Farewell Address; further, that upon the conclusion of the reading, the Senate be in morning business until 4:30 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Following that morning business, the Senate will proceed to executive session under the previous order.

The next rollcall vote, then, will be at 5:30 p.m., on Monday, February 27, on the Brodie nomination.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent the Senate adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes legislative session following the vote on confirmation of the Furman nomination, the Senate proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 3630; that there be up to 10 minutes of debate, equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to a vote on adoption of the conference report; that there be no motions or points of order in order to the conference report prior to the vote; and that following the vote on the conference report, the majority leader be recognized.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 11:00 a.m., with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half. We will not have the full half hour on each side. It will be until 11 a.m. today. My intent is to have the vote on the two pending matters; that is, the Furman nomination and the cloture vote on the surface transportation bill, beginning at 11 o'clock.

I ask unanimous consent that the second vote in order of that sequence be 10 minutes in duration and that--well, I don't need consent; the vote starts at 11 o'clock.

Following morning business, we will resume consideration of the matters that will be before the Senate. At a time to be determined, there will be at least two rollcall votes.

I am sorry, I will rephrase that. We will have other votes, or vote, to dispense with the conference report. We have to find out what the House does on that matter first.

Mr. President, S. 2118 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with respect to this legislation.

Mr. President, I have to give a few remarks. They are very short in nature. Then my friend can proceed, but I will maintain the floor for just a few minutes.

Mr. President, we were notified last night that Dr. Heath Morrison, Superintendent of the Washoe County School District--that is Reno and the metropolitan area there--is

being named the 2012 Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators.

He is just a good person. He hasn't been there that long, but he came as a superstar and has changed that school district dramatically. He has raised student achievement, and he has improved the graduation rate. He has great teachers, administrators, and the whole staff has done very well.

During the short time he has been there--some 2 years--the graduation rates have increased by almost 25 percent. That is unheard of around this country, and this is a metropolitan area. His success is a testament to the impact quality educators have on school achievement and on students' lives.

I was pleased to submit a letter in support of Dr. Morrison's candidacy for this honor. He certainly deserves this recognition. So I look forward to continuing my work with Dr. Morrison and the Washoe County School District to help improve education for Nevada students. The entire school district, including the school board, is to be commended.

Mr. President, thanks to bipartisan cooperation, the conference committee reached an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. This compromise effort also protects Medicare patients' right to choose the doctors who take care of them.

I commend the members of the conference committee for their diligence and dedication--for holding a lot more conference sessions. That is the way this place should be. They are hard and difficult, and they are representative of this body. It is hard to arrive at a result, but they did.

The Senate will vote on that conference report as soon as we can today. Of course, we will need Republican support to pass it. But the statements made by my friend, the Republican leader, make it pretty clear we will get Republican support because, among other things, Senator McConnell said Republicans strongly support extending this tax cut for the rest of the year, and that is good.

Americans are waiting and watching what happens here today. With our economy gaining steam--though still fragile--it is crucial we prevent a tax increase on 160 million Americans, and these are working Americans. It is also important to protect the safety net for millions of Americans who can't find work. We have 3\1/2\ million people who are in some stage of unemployment in this great country, and we must protect seniors' access to quality medical care by protecting a drastic pay cut--by preventing a drastic pay cut for the doctors who take care of them.

An agreement to solve these issues was possible because Republicans learned the meaning of the word ``compromise.'' Both sides gave a little to get something done for the American people. We don't have to have a fight on everything. I have said that so many times recently. We need to work together.

We have coming up soon this transportation legislation. I am not happy with the amendments the Republicans have offered. I don't like them. They are not relevant or germane, most of them. But they have a right to offer those amendments, so we will have to work our way through those. I hope my Republican colleagues will understand when we get back that they can't have them all. But I will make an effort to go through those. We will have some votes the Republicans will not want to take either, but we will work through this and get this very important bill done.

Whether it is the State of Iowa, the State of Delaware, or the State of Nevada, it doesn't matter what State we are looking at, this bill is important because it means jobs and it is helping our infrastructure.

Mr. President, we have had thousands of organizations supporting this legislation. Well, that is an exaggeration, but more than 1,000-- hundreds and hundreds: AAA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, all the construction groups, and labor unions wrote letters to us to get this passed. A number of them have written letters saying: Stop offering these irrelevant, ideological amendments to this bill. These groups believe, as I do, this measure is essential to job creation and economic growth. This legislation is too important for more delays.

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, their highway bill is so bad they had to take it down. The view of the Congressional Budget Office was that it would bankrupt the trust fund.

The highway bill has been paid for with a trust fund. People who buy some gasoline or diesel fuel pay a tax, and that goes into this big trust fund and allows us to do the infrastructure. But because of the economy and people's driving habits being different, the trust fund doesn't have enough money. That is why the Finance Committee, on a bipartisan basis, had to report enough out to fill up that trust fund. But it wasn't much money.

But what the Republicans have done is, in effect, place a tax on Federal employees to do that. That will never sell, Mr. President. That just will not work. We have to have bipartisan legislation.

So I hope the House, during its break period, will understand that we have to work together. We are going to send them a bill, and I hope they get one that is better than the one they can't now do and put one together they might be able to do. Then we will have a conference and work this out.

Mr. President, compromise worked for the payroll tax conference committee. It always works. So I look forward to that day and a significant accomplishment for this Congress.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

I have an amendment at the desk. I now ask that the clerk report the amendment.

I ask that further reading of the amendment be waived.