Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to S. Res. 197.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to S. Res. 198.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, June 22; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and there then be a period of morning business for 1 hour, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 71, S. 1023, the Travel Promotion Act of 2009. Further, I ask that the time between 4:30 and 5:30 be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, and that the cloture vote on the Dorgan amendment occur at 5:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the filing deadline for first-degree amendments be 3:30 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. President, because we were unable to reach agreement to begin the amendment process on the travel legislation, I filed cloture on the Dorgan amendment, as I have just announced, and the underlying bill in order to move along the process. We hope to be able to reach agreement on amendments prior to the cloture vote on Monday.

Mr. President, it is now approaching 4 o'clock. The Presiding Officer has been in that chair since noon. That is a long time. I have sat there for a while but never as long as the Senator has--3 hours 40 minutes.

I have commented in recent days about the brilliance of the Senator from Oregon and the speech he gave on health care. There have been a lot of good speeches, but no one has given a better, more informative speech than the Senator from Oregon. I say that without any qualification.

The people from Oregon are fortunate to have the Senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley. He is a wonderful human being, I say to everybody in Oregon--so well prepared, and he has extremely difficult committee assignments, which he handles with such confidence and grace. I appreciate very much the work he does for the State of Oregon and for our country.

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

Madam President, following Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for up to 1 hour. Senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The majority will control the first 30 minutes and the minority will control the final 30 minutes.

Following morning business, the Senate will proceed to consideration of the concurrent resolution relating to an apology for slavery. There will be up to an hour for debate, equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees prior to a vote. We do expect that vote to be a voice vote.

Upon disposition of the concurrent resolution, the Senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 2346, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. We hope to reach an agreement that will allow us to vote on motions to waive points of order and a time for a vote on adoption of the conference report. But if we are unable to reach an agreement, there will be a cloture vote on the conference report tomorrow morning.

We will resume consideration of the travel bill upon disposition of the supplemental conference report.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, if you will indulge me, it appears appropriate and necessary to briefly summarize the sorry state of health care in America today.

Nearly 50 million people in the greatest country and the largest economy the world has ever seen lack the fundamental ability to stay healthy or care for a loved one. Nine million of those people are children. Eight million fewer people who in 2003 had health insurance through their jobs can say the same today. Among those between 18 and 64, the State of Nevada has the second highest rate of uninsured citizens. Health care costs an average family more than twice what it did at the start of this decade. Half of all Americans who file for foreclosure do so because they can't afford both a house and their health care. More than half of all Americans who file for bankruptcy do so because health care is too expensive. More than half of all Americans skip doctor visits or treatments they need to stay healthy because it is too expensive.

Those fortunate enough to have health care pay a hidden tax just to cover those who don't. If your family has insurance, you pay at least $1,000 more for it than you would need to if other families had their insurance. If you are like about everybody I know and not in absolutely perfect health--if you have a history of anything from heart disease, to high cholesterol, to hay fever--your insurance company can force you to pay exorbitant rates or deny you coverage altogether. Insurance companies call these preexisting conditions. Everyone else calls them tragedies.

I know I am not telling the American people anything they do not already know. They know it better than any statistics can say. They struggle with these challenges every morning when they wake up and when they go to bed at night, second-guessing the agonizing decisions they made that day about what to sacrifice to stay healthy.

I said I thought it would be appropriate to go back to the basics for the benefit of our Republican colleagues. Their lack of interest in an open and candid debate, their lack of interest in coming to the negotiating table with productive proposals makes it painfully evident they need to be reminded of the reality of this crisis.

By any measure, these are serious problems, and serious problems deserve serious efforts by serious legislators to develop serious solutions. Our Republican colleagues think things are just fine the way they are. Why shouldn't they? They like the status quo. They are the ones who created the status quo. In fact, this is hard to comprehend. Just yesterday, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives said the following: ``I think we all understand that we've got the best health care system in the world.'' When we have 50 million people with no health insurance, is that the best health care system in the world? When we have 9 million children with no health insurance, is that the best health care system in the world? Is it the best health care system in the world when today there are 8 million people fewer than in 2003 who have health insurance through their jobs? Is it the best health care system in the world when people between 18 and 64 in the State of Nevada have the second highest rate of uninsured citizens? I don't think so. Is it the best health care system in the world when the health care cost for the average family is more than twice what it was at the beginning of this decade? Is it the best health care in the world when more than half of all Americans skip the doctor visits they need or the treatments they need because they cannot afford them?

The Republican leader in the House of Representatives is saying, ``I think we all understand that we've got the best health care system in the world.'' I think he better go back and check that out. He said that to a room of reporters. I doubt he would say the same with a straight face to the millions of Americans who have to skip routine medical checkups or live just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy or wonder if they will live long enough to fight through the redtape. We have heard President Obama talk about the death of his mother and how she fought as strongly as she could to get the health care she needed. She lost that battle.

What about the Republicans in the Senate? We talked about the Republican leader in the House. How have they approached the crisis? I am sorry to say they have only subscribed to more of the same stalling strategy that the American people are tired of. Republicans have introduced 400 amendments to the health care bill that is in

the HELP Committee, 400 amendments, and they say they have more to come. Here is a sample of some of their serious amendments: two amendments would force doctors to spy on each other, multiple amendments just to change the names of sections in the bill, and many amendments that simply would give greedy insurance companies the ability to deny coverage whenever they feel like it. Each of the 400 amendments says something different, but in truth they all say the same thing--no. They are designed to slow the process to a halt.

I am not making this up. Look at this newspaper today, Rollcall: ``Senate GOP Still Saying `No.' '' Listen to what the story says. This is more than just a headline.

Though Senate Democrats have handed them defeat after

legislative defeat this year, Republicans say they plan to

continue trying to slow down the Democratic agenda on the

Senate floor as much as possible. ``Democrats need to know

when they bring [bills] up, we're going to extend the debate

as long as we can--even if we can't win it--so that their

people back home know that they're voting for this junk,

[said one Republican Senator]. And we're going to see it on

everything.''

The stalling on everything. How is that for moving this country out of the problems we have? ``They plan to continue trying to slow down the Democratic agenda on the Senate floor as much as possible.''

Republicans waste the time of the American people in the morning and in the afternoon complain that government is inefficient. What do I mean? We have wasted the whole week with 60 hours of wasted time on two postcloture time blocks. It is just as they said, they are just stalling for time. During that period of time, we could have moved to appropriations bills, we could have moved to many things.

I have Senators come to me. There is a bipartisan bill--Senator Kerry has worked with Senator Kyl--dealing with Pakistan. It is essential that we do that. But because of what is going on here on the Senate floor with Republicans stalling, we can't get to that. I have been asked by Democrats and Republicans to do something about drug importation. We don't have time to go to it because of the stalling. The Senate GOP is still just saying no. They complain about the government being inefficient? The only inefficiency I see in Washington today is the Republican caucus in the House and the Senate.

Again, our health care system is in serious distress, and serious problems deserve serious efforts by serious legislators to develop serious solutions. That is why we are committed to lowering the high cost of health care, ensuring every American has access to quality, affordable care, and letting people choose their own doctors, hospitals, and health plans. We are committed to protecting existing coverage when it is good, improving it when it is not, and guaranteeing health care for the millions who have none. I don't think doing nothing is an option because the cost of doing nothing is far too great. We must pass health care reform this year.

As we said at the start of this Congress, the start of the work period, and the start of this debate, we will continue doing the best work with Republicans--we will work with them. They have a place at the negotiating table, and they should take it. We will work hard to do a bipartisan bill. But in order for this bipartisan process to work, Republicans must demonstrate an interest in legislating, not this:

Though Senate Democrats have handed them defeat after

legislative defeat this year, Republicans say they plan to

continue trying to slow down the Democratic agenda on the

Senate floor as much as possible. ``Democrats need to know

when they bring [bills] up, we're going to extend the debate

as long as we can--even if we can't win

it . . .''

I hope the American people who are watching talk to their Republican Representatives in the House and their Senators and say this isn't right.

Despite what we have seen in recent days, such cooperation is not out of the realm of possibility. Here is an example of what it looks like when Republicans and Democrats work together with each other instead of against each other and against the interests of the American people. Yesterday, Wednesday, a group called the Bipartisan Policy Center proposed a thoughtful and thorough plan for stemming this country's health care crisis. The group is led by three former Senate majority leaders--I have worked with all of them--Bob Dole from Kansas, Howard Baker from Tennessee, and Tom Daschle from South Dakota. I would mention about Tom Daschle, I think most people recognize he is a man who knows more about health care than just about anybody in America today. He has written a book, among other things. Together, Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Senators Dole and Baker, Republicans, served a combined 80 years in the Congress. They know a thing or two about working across the aisle and getting things done. They know our job is public service, not lipservice. I may not agree with every part of their plan, but that is not the point. The point is, they have a good- faith effort. They have avoided the temptation to distract each other with misrepresentations and misinformation about the real problem. They have put people ahead of partisanship and were able to find common ground.

I encourage Republicans in Congress to read the Bipartisan Policy Center's report. Even if they do not support its conclusions, I hope they take to heart its authors' motivations. Baker, Dole, and Daschle-- serious problems deserve serious efforts by serious legislators to develop serious solutions. The time for partisan games is long over. It is time to get serious about fixing our health care.

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

Mr. President, we will soon vote on a motion to waive a point of order. In the last Congress, we heard our colleagues say things such as:

I cannot understand how we can claim to support our troops

and yet put them in increased jeopardy as a result of our

failure to act.

Here is another:

It is so irresponsible to tell these young men and women

who are serving in uniform with the orders of their Commander

in Chief that you're not going to give them the necessary

ability to defend themselves. In my view it's terribly

misplaced priorities.

And another:

It is time to put politics behind us and support our troops

with the funds they need.

Each of these quotes were spoken by Republicans when a Republican was in the White House. Today, with a Democrat in the White House, some Republicans threaten to stand in the way of our efforts to support our troops. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines have done everything we have asked of them and more. As always, our troops and commanders have gone above and beyond. The least we can do is give them the basics they need to fight this war against terrorists. This bill does that. It gives our brave troops, including more than 1,000 men and women from the State of Nevada, the resources they need to do their jobs and to return home safely. It provides $80 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In this important piece of legislation, we are also dedicating billions of dollars to make sure we are prepared for and to respond to a potential flu pandemic. We must be ready. There is no other opportunity than this legislation to be ready by this fall. We are also dedicating billions of dollars in this legislation to strengthen the security

along our borders, and we are also dedicating billions of dollars to support counterterrorism programs both at home and abroad. This is very important.

But in this bill are not merely numbers. This legislation also contains our commitment to strengthen our military, rebuilding our relationships with key allies around the world and reducing key security threats.

Rather than restoring our standing in the world, some Republicans are standing in the way, period. I repeat, rather than restoring our standing in the world, some Republicans are standing in the way. They are threatening to block this entire bill and the good it does because of one small but significant part of it. That small but significant part is actually a tremendously important and good program. It is called cash for clunkers.

This is a program that has been tested in other places. In Germany, it has been tremendous for their economy. It helps our economy and our environment. Here is how it works. If you trade in your car over the next 4 months, we will give you up to $4,500 toward a new car that is more fuel efficient. That sounds pretty good. Everybody benefits, the environment and the economy. Those who oppose this may not think it is a worthy goal, but they should not hold hostage the equipment and training our troops need because of this small provision in the bill. They should not let less than 1 percent of this entire important bill sink the whole thing, but that is exactly what some of our colleagues are planning to do.

Are they doing it to embarrass the President? Are they doing it because they don't think the troops need the resources to fight those two wars? Why are they doing this?

Because everyone should understand, if this point of order is not waived, this bill is finished. The House had a difficult time passing this legislation because the House got no support from Republicans. The question is whether these Senators still agree we must never walk away from our troops or if they only believe it when their party is in the White House. I sincerely hope Senate Republicans do not follow the lead of the House Republicans. Out of 435 Members of the House of Representatives, 5 Republicans voted to support our troops. They had a different excuse in the House. What they said was: We are not going to do this because there is a small amount of money in there for the International Monetary Fund. There hasn't been a word raised in this body over that because it is so important. It is supported by Democrats and Republicans over here, that particular provision in the supplemental.

In the Senate, they have raised another issue, cash for clunkers. Some are saying: Well, cash for clunkers isn't bad, but I don't like this version of it. I think we could do a version that would be more environmentally friendly and so, as a result, I am voting against it.

Everyone should understand, especially those who care about our armed services--and I know the American people support them 100 percent--all the American people should understand, if there is not a waiver of this point of order, the troops will not get their money. Secretary Gates has been very good. He has not sent out any blue slips telling them they are going to lose their jobs, to civilian employees first, and then the pink slips to others that they will lose their jobs permanently. But that time is fast approaching. We cannot simply revitalize this bill in a matter of a few minutes. We have to do it today. There are provisions in this bill that are important to our standing in the world. We have to support our troops.

I, personally, with 5 children and 16 grandchildren, am a little concerned about the flu pandemic that all scientists, with rare exception, are telling us is going to hit in the fall. We are spending this money at this time so we can be ready for that and have shots that people can get to stop them from getting sick or not getting as sick.

Our troops, each and every one of whom volunteered for duty, are the last people who should be caught in the crossfire of political gamesmanship.

I hope the point of order will be waived and that the money for the troops will be on its way in a matter of hours.

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

Mr. President, we have had a long conversation with the Republican leader. Senator McCain is going to speak for a while. After that, it is my understanding we will have a vote on passage of the supplemental conference report. The matter to follow that is the tourism bill, which is so important to every State. The managers of this bill are Senators Dorgan and Martinez. What we will do is start with five amendments--Republicans can have three, and we will have two--see if we can work through this bill before we have to do anything procedurally.

This is a heavily bipartisan bill. I don't know if there has been a bill this whole Congress that is more bipartisan. The reason it is bipartisan is tourism is so important.

The Presiding Officer's State ia a beautiful State to go to--Aspen, to Vail, all the many things they have in the national parks. Nevada, people think it is the bright lights of Las Vegas and Reno, and it is, but it is a lot more. People don't realize Nevada is the most mountainous State in the Union, 314 mountain ranges. We have 32 mountains over 11,000 feet high, one 14,000 feet high. Every Senator here could boast about why people should visit their State. I have been to virtually every State in the Union. They are all beautiful. All work promoting tourism.

In our country, we do not promote tourism. We are the only industrialized Nation that does not. Some nonindustrialized nations promote their countries; we don't. We need to have people come here. Since 9/11, the number of people coming to the United States has dropped significantly because of 9/11. They haven't been told it is the safest place in the world to come. People should come here. So this public-private partnership that is in this legislation will have programs set up.

Frankly, it is comparable to what happens in Las Vegas with the Las Vegas business authority. They have done such a remarkable job of bringing people to Las Vegas. This should be done nationwide. I didn't draft the bill, but they did copy a lot that has made Nevada successful.

I hope we can work our way through the amendments and, in the process, do something good for the country. I don't believe there is anyone who wants to deep-six this bill. But I hope people who are offering amendments will offer amendments that are relative and germane. If they don't, they have a right to do that, and we will be happy to take a look at them. I have no concern whether the legal jargon of germaneness may not apply. I would rather not have to file cloture on this bill. Because of the supplemental, I guess there has been a lot of concern by the Republicans, but that should be gone now. I think we have satisfied all their demands on the supplemental. Hopefully, we can move forward with this and a number of nominations.

There will be more votes tonight. Maybe it will only be one more vote, but we will have one vote on passage of the supplemental. Then we will see what we set up for tomorrow and next week.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, we will be in a period for the transaction of morning business for an hour. Senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Republicans will control the first half and the majority will control the second 30 minutes. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the Travel Promotion Act postcloture. Following adoption of the motion to proceed to the travel bill later this afternoon, we will turn to the emergency supplemental appropriations conference report.

I am disappointed that we are again wasting time on a heavily bipartisan bill, the Travel Promotion Act, which has wide support by both the Democrats and Republicans. But the Republicans forced us to have a vote on cloture to allow us to get on the bill. All the Republicans voted for it. They are filibustering things they even agree with just to stall for time. This is 30 hours we could use to do a lot of good. I don't know what would be the rationale for wasting this time. Maybe they don't want President Obama to complete more legislation through us. It is beyond my ability to comprehend why we would waste this time.

It has been written and talked about that this is the most accomplished Congress since the first year of the Roosevelt administration. I don't have before me all the legislation we have done, but I am going to try to recall some of the things we have done.

We passed the lands bill, the most significant environmental legislation in more than a quarter of a century, creating more than 2 million acres of wilderness, 1,000 miles of scenic rivers, hundreds of miles of trails, and many other good things in this very important legislation.

We passed the Lilly Ledbetter legislation equalizing pay between men and women.

We passed the Children's Health Insurance Program which had been vetoed by President Bush on several occasions. Now more than 14 million children can go to the doctor when they are sick or hurt.

We passed the economic recovery package. Twenty-five percent of that money is out. The rest is coming.

We passed the omnibus spending bill--very important legislation which had been held up by the Bush administration. We spent $1.2 trillion of the people's money within a period of 3 weeks. Why did we do that? We did it because Mark Zandi, among others, Senator McCain's chief economic adviser, Republican economists, and Democratic economists told us we had to do this to stop a worldwide depression, and we have done that. As Chairman Bernanke said, the crops have been planted and the shoots are now appearing out of the ground.

We went on to pass a procurement bill--extremely important--to rein in the excessive expenses of what has taken place in years past with the Pentagon, overspending money we give them; that is, something is supposed to cost this much and winds up costing twice as much.

We were able to pass national service legislation, allowing 750,000 people in America to be involved in public service, dealing with the environment, health care, the poor. During the 7,000 hours they volunteer, they get a small stipend. When they finish, they get an amount of money to help with their college education.

Credit card legislation--so important--we finally were able to do it. After years of talking about doing it, we did it to stop the ripoffs of these credit card companies and what they were doing to hurt Americans--all Americans.

We passed tobacco legislation. I can remember, when I was working in the Capitol of the United States going to law school, the Surgeon General came out with the first report that smoking was bad for you. Some people thought that was the case, but the Surgeon General of the United States said it will kill you. We have been trying ever since then to get control of tobacco. After all these years, we did it.

We have been able to work on other important pieces of legislation-- financial fraud, reported out of the Judiciary Committee, which stops scams taking place on people who are about to begin foreclosure, taking advantage of people who are in a time of distress. We passed a lot of housing legislation that is important to allow people to stay in their homes. Have we stopped it all? Of course not. But we have done a pretty good job at that.

We are now arriving at a point where we are going to pass the supplemental appropriations bill, which is very important, to fund our troops. This is the last time we will have to do this because President Obama is honest with his budgeting. The cost of the war is in his budget. It was never in President Bush's budget. For the 8 years he was President, he never put it in his budget. We had to come back and do supplemental emergency appropriations bills to fund our troops.

It is interesting to note, all but five Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against funding the troops yesterday. It will be interesting to see what happens here. Are my Republican colleagues going to join with us to fund the troops? I think so. I certainly hope so.

We have accomplished a lot more than what I have just outlined, but we have done it by reaching out to the Republicans. We have not gotten a lot of help from the Republicans, but we have gotten enough to pass bills. For example, on the economic recovery package, we needed 2, and neither one of the 2 would be the 60th vote, so we had to get 3, and we got 3. I appreciate very much the courage of Senators Specter, Snowe, and Collins in doing that. It was good for their States and good for our country. We have reached out to the Republicans time and time again.

Mr. President, we began this year dedicated to delivering the change the American people demanded in November. We began this Congress committed to making life better for the middle class, for hard-working families who play by the rules. But the American people also demanded something more. They said that we, their leaders, should not be unwilling to work together. The challenges we face have left no one unscathed. We are all in this hole together, and the only way we climb out of this hole is by doing so together.

When the American people spoke last year, they gave us, above all, a mandate for bipartisanship. It was in that spirit that I wrote my Republican colleagues this spring. In that letter, I said one of the best ways to lift our economy is to keep down health care costs. Almost 50 million Americans have no health care, and the problem grows worse every day.

Every day, more Americans go bankrupt or lose their homes just trying to stay healthy. Even those fortunate enough to have insurance pay a hidden tax for those who do not. What does that mean? It means 50 million people, when they get sick or hurt, go to the nearest emergency room. That emergency room may be across the street or 50 miles from where they are, but that is where they go. That increases the cost of every one of our health insurance policies, it increases the cost of the doctor bills we get, the hospital bills we get, and indigent taxes. If your family has health care, you pay at least $1,000 more than you would if all other families had health care.

In that letter, I expressed my sincere hope that Republicans would work with us to respond to this emergency. I extended my hand. I asked for their help. Although I knew we would disagree at times, I told them I looked forward to an open and honest dialog about how to help struggling Americans.

In this letter, I especially asked Republican colleagues to focus on the concrete and critical crisis that affects children, families, and small businesses every day--a parent cannot take a child to a doctor because insurance does not exist or is prohibitively expensive; a family lives one accident or illness away from financial ruin; small businesses lay off employees because they cannot afford skyrocketing health care premiums. We hear those stories every time we go home.

I asked in that letter that we use the short and valuable time we have to work together in our common interest rather than against each other and against the interests of the American people. I wish I could say Republicans answered those words with deeds of equal good faith. But how have they responded regarding health care? Have they taken the hand we have extended across the aisle? No. Have they taken the seat we offered at the negotiating table? No. Have they engaged in a productive debate about real people and real problems that relate to health care? No. Have they shown they are just as interested as we are in working with each other rather than against each other? No. Have they told us a single thing they are for rather than what they are against? No; it is always what they are against. In fact, ``no'' is all we hear from the Republicans these days. Instead of debating facts, Republicans have committed themselves to a strategy of misinformation and misrepresentation.

We have different priorities. We are committed to lowering the high cost of health care, ensuring every American has access to that quality, affordable care and letting people choose their own doctors, hospitals, and health plans. We are committed to protecting existing coverage when it is good and improving it when it is not and guaranteeing health care for millions, including 9 million children who have none.

I don't believe doing nothing is an option because the costs of doing nothing are too great. We must pass health care reform this year. As we said at the start of this year, at the start of this work period, at the start of this debate, we will continue doing our best to work with Republicans and pass a bipartisan bill.

In spite of the past, I remain optimistic that both Republicans and Democrats recognize how urgent this health care debate is. The health of our citizens and our economy is at stake, and neither will be able to recover if we wait. But as important as bipartisanship is--and it is important--it is not as critical as helping the nearly 50 million Americans who have nowhere to turn, the other 20 million who have bad insurance, and the rest of America, which is paying at least $1,000 more for their insurance policy as a result of people having no insurance.

As I said in my letter this April, in order for this bipartisan process to take root, Republicans must demonstrate a sincere interest in legislating. I hope they do so because one way or another, we are going to get health care reform done.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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

Mr. President, it is my understanding there is a bill to be reported, Mr. President.

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate the conference report to accompany H.R. 2346, the supplemental appropriations bill.

Mr. President, I send to the desk a cloture motion.

Mr. 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.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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