Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 475, H.R. 4028.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 30, 2014; 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; that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of S. 2569; that there be 1 hour for debate equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on S. 2569.

Mr. President, at approximately 10:45 a.m. tomorrow morning, there will be a cloture vote on the Bring Jobs Home Act. If cloture is not invoked, there will be an immediate cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 2648, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Grassley for up to 1 hour.

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Pamela Harris to be U.S. circuit judge for the Fourth Circuit, postcloture. The time until 5:30 p.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. At 5:30 p.m. the Senate will proceed to a rollcall vote on confirmation of the nomination. Immediately upon disposition of the Harris nomination, there will be four voice votes on the following nominations: Elliot F. Kaye to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; Elliot F. Kaye to be Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; Joseph P. Mohorovic to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; and Brian P. McKeon to be a Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense.

Order of Procedure

I ask unanimous consent that upon disposition of the McKeon nomination, the Senate resume legislative session and consideration of S. 2569, the Bring Jobs Home Act.

Mr. President, S. 2666 is due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with respect to this matter at this time.

Mr. President, our great country has many friends in the world. We are proud of all the alliances we have, but certainly our deepest attachment is that which we have with Israel. The United States and Israel have stood by each other in good times, in bad times, in times of peace, and in times of war.

Right now our friends in the State of Israel are under attack. Hamas continues to indiscriminately fire thousands of rockets into Israel with the sole objective of inflicting casualties on somebody--anybody.

I was watching ``NewsHour.'' Every Friday they have a commentary, usually by Shields and Brooks. Shields is supposedly the Democrat and Brooks the Republican. David Brooks said so descriptively that he had never seen a conflict or read about a conflict in the past where one of the participants said: Kill some more of my people.

That is what Hamas is saying. When Hamas fires these rockets, Hamas has no idea whether they will land at a military installation--they hope; a daycare center; they don't care or an empty parking lot; they don't care. They are firing these rockets indiscriminately.

Israel doesn't have the luxury of not worrying about where these rockets land. It must respond swiftly in shooting down all rockets or else risk serious harm to its people. In thwarting these rocket attacks, Israel depends on what is termed and named the ``Iron Dome.'' It is a missile defense system. But as the number of rockets being launched from Gaza continues to surge, Israel's Iron Dome resources are necessarily being depleted.

Last week U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel requested that Congress allocate $225 million of emergency funding to help Israel reinforce its defense system. After 3 weeks of fighting Israel needs these funds to replace the weaponry it has used to destroy Hamas's incoming rockets. But there is no guarantee that Israel won't need our help again if this conflict continues for weeks or months. What this funding does do for the time being is it provides Israel with the resources to continue defending its people against these terrorist attacks.

Last Thursday the Republican leader urged the Senate to act quickly in approving the Defense Secretary's request. I agree with my friend the Republican leader. We must pass legislation providing Israel with this critical aid, but in my opinion the $225 million being requested is only temporary. If Hamas continues to escalate this conflict, Israel's resources--including the funding requested by the Secretary of Defense--will quickly be depleted.

With its current number of batteries, Israel has to prioritize populated areas and strategically important locations. The Iron Dome is a mobile system. They have to move it around. That means, unfortunately, there are some Israelis still susceptible to Hamas's rocket attacks.

We should not give the Israeli people the minimum amount of aid and then cross our fingers and hope it all works out in the future. Each missile battery costs Israel about $50 million. Each missile Israel shoots to knock down one of those rockets from the Gaza Strip costs about $62,000. Hamas has already fired 2,500 of those rockets in just 3 weeks. As we speak, they are going out and continuing to fire them. As we know, they are located in schools, in neighborhoods. They are hidden all over--in mosques.

Taking into account what Israel actually needs to adequately protect its people, the United States and other allies should consider providing more aid to do more for the Iron Dome. Our Israeli friends shouldn't be in the position of picking and choosing which parts of the country to defend.

The United States of America should live up to its commitments, particularly with our friend Israel, which happens to be the only true democracy in the Middle East. We can do better and we need to go further in protecting Israel.

That being said, it is critical that we approve the money requested by Secretary Hagel now. Coming to the defense of Israel is not a partisan issue; it is an American principle. Both Democrats and Republicans should agree on this measure.

Another issue we can all agree on is the emergency funding requested by the White House for what is going on in the western part of the United States. We should pass this immediately.

Over the past month or 6 weeks the State of Oregon has been on fire. Hundreds of thousands of acres have burned. In one of the sparsely populated parts of the State of Washington, more than 500 homes have been destroyed. Wildfires are all over. They are in Nevada. They are in California. The base of the Sierras has a big fire going in California, and about 1,500 acres have burned already. There is a fire now going on in Idaho. Oregon is on fire. There are numerous fires in Oregon. Every day there are reports of more and more wildfires--lightning, negligence of somebody who threw out a cigarette. These fires are very oppressive. In the State of Nevada wide areas have been burned. The sad part is that once these fires are over, we will have many native species that will have been wiped out, and what will come back are invasive species, which is really not what nature intended.

We should work in the Senate on quickly putting together this funding. We have the request. It is certainly a good request, and we should get this emergency funding to the States so they can be protected. When I say ``to the States,'' right now we have more than 4,000 firefighters out there. There is an army out there fighting fires. It is very dangerous, as we know. Every year people are killed. We know what happened in Arizona just 1\1/2\ years ago where 21 people who were fighting fires were burned in a devastating fire. They were dead in a matter of a few minutes.

Americans living in these areas are in dire need of the Federal Government's help. There is no reason to delay getting aid to our own people.

So as we begin this week, I am hopeful the Senate will also move quickly to pass legislation to aid Israel, emergency funding for wildfires, and the border supplemental.

The truth is, if the House of Representatives would vote on the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill, it would give Border Patrol the resources it needs to address this humanitarian crisis that is now on the border. That is true. But my Republican friends are slow-walking this, to say the least. The senior Senator from Texas proposed a solution to this crisis. Once again, the legislation is a short-term fix and does nothing to address the crisis at the border, while putting vulnerable children in harm's way.

We should approve funding for these three very important measures, and we should do it immediately. We should do them--separately, together, we have to get this done. Leaving here with Israel being naked, as they are, with these wildfires raging, and the crisis at the border--it would be a shame if we did nothing.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I yield back whatever time is available.

Mr. President, did we vote on the Kaye nomination twice?

Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment.

Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

Mr. President, I have a motion to commit S. 2569, with instructions, which is at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on that motion.

Mr. President, I have an amendment to the instructions at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

Mr. President, I have a cloture motion which has been filed and ask that the Chair have it reported.

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

Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 488.

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

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

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

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, the President pro tempore of the Senate has asked that Joshua Goldberg, an intern in his office, be granted floor privileges for tomorrow, July 29, 2014.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that tomorrow, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, the Senate execute the order with respect to Executive Calendar No. 952, McDonald, with the only debate time occurring from 12 noon to 12:30 p.m., and from 2:15 p.m. until 2:45 p.m., equally divided in the usual form, and that at 2:45 p.m. the Senate proceed to vote on the nomination, with all other provisions of the previous order remaining in effect.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following Senate consideration of Executive Calendar No. 952, McDonald, on Tuesday, July 29, the Senate remain in executive session and consider Calendar Nos. 530 Andre, 543, Hoza, and 899, Polaschik; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to each vote; that upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed to vote, without intervening action or debate, on the nominations in the order listed; that any rollcall votes following the first in the series be 10 minutes in length; that if any nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, we would hope we can do those by voice vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration S. Res. 525, submitted earlier today.

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, with no intervening action or debate.