Floor Statements

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 83, which is the omnibus spending bill.

Rollcall votes are expected throughout the day. If no time agreement is reached, the cloture vote on the motion to concur in relation to the omnibus will be at approximately 1 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Mr. President, I won't use a lot of time here this morning because we have a lot to do.

We worked for a long time yesterday, into the late hours of the night, trying to secure an agreement to vote on a long-term government funding bill. I was last talking to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee at 11 o'clock last night.

Regrettably, a small group of Senate Republicans has determined it is in their political interests to hold this legislation hostage. They objected to an agreement that would allow us to vote on Monday night. We are now relegated to watching time tick away on our clocks just so we can keep the government open and funded. I remind everyone that at 12 o'clock midnight--12 a.m.--the U.S. Government, tonight, runs out of money.

We even tried to get an agreement last night to extend government funding for a few extra days while we worked to pass the long-term funding bill, but the Republicans wouldn't let us do that.

So now we wait. But while we wait, we shouldn't waste time. Republicans and their leader have known for weeks, if not months, that we intend to vote on the President's nominations. So it is clear that this impasse we are having here today is not about nominees, it is about preventing us from funding the government. So now, on the eve of our government running out of funding, Senate Republicans are forcing completely unnecessary procedural votes just to waste time and slow us down from funding the government.

It doesn't have to be this way. We can still come to an agreement to take care of funding for our great country right now.

I will yield for a question.

Absolutely true.

Yes, we had yesterday evening a piece of legislation from the House doing just that--extending the time for a few days.

We were told it wouldn't be necessary to do that because we couldn't get agreement to do it. So the answer is yes.

Well, it appears so. At 10 o'clock or so last night he gave a relatively extended speech. If someone looks at that speech, he wasn't critical of me. Most of his criticism was for the Speaker and the Republican leader here. He was challenging whether they were people of their word as to what they were going to do.

The very same man. Now he is hung up on not only the Affordable Care Act but the President's action to give 5 million people relief in this country so they can come out of the shadows and make our country a more productive place.

I now move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 1084.

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

I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 1058.

I send a cloture motion to the desk and ask that it be reported.

Madam President, a number of Senators have come to me indicating that they have read the rules and the time for a vote is 15 minutes. I ask, through the Chair, is it true that the extra 5 minutes is not in the rule?

We have been calling votes at the end of 20 minutes. It is my understanding that the rule calls for votes to be 15 minutes in length.

Is the 5-minute grace period in the rule?

In the meantime, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I am sorry, I can't understand the Senator and I believe I have the floor.

Regular order, Madam President.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that any remaining votes with these nominations be 10 minutes in duration.

Mr. President, under the standing order rollcall votes are 15 minutes. What we usually do is have a grace period, just by practice. In the future the Chair will call the votes after 15 minutes.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 681.

There is a cloture motion at the desk, and I ask that it be reported.

I move to proceed to legislative session.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 1150, Antony Blinken.

Mr. President, I ask that the cloture motion at the desk be reported.

I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 635.

Mr. President, there is a cloture motion at the desk, and I ask that it be reported.

I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, if I could have everyone's attention.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.J. Res. 131, which is a short-term continuing resolution that will go until Wednesday, December 17, 2014, which the Senate received from the House and is at the desk; further, that the joint resolution be read three times and the Senate now proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution with no intervening action or debate.

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

I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 1144.

Madam President, there is a cloture motion at the desk that I ask to be reported.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 979, Daniel J.

Santos, to be a Member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.