Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, on Thursday, May 8, 2014, at 11:15 a.m., the Senate proceed to vote on cloture on Calendar No. 655, the Talwani nomination; Calendar No. 656, Peterson; Calendar No. 657, Rosenstengel, then proceed to consideration and vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 526, Hamamoto; further, that if cloture is invoked on Calendar Nos. 655, 656, or 657, all postcloture time be considered expired and at 1:45 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the nominations in the order listed; further, that following disposition of Calendar No. 657, Rosenstengel, the Senate proceed to vote on Calendar No. 690, Rosenbaum, and proceed to consideration and vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 615, Mitchell, and that if cloture is invoked on Calendar No. 690, all postcloture time be considered expired and on Monday, May 12, 2014, at 5:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 690, Rosenbaum; further, that upon disposition of Calendar No. 690, the Senate proceed to the consideration and vote on confirmation of Calendar No. 560, Croley; further, that there be 2 minutes for debate prior to each vote, equally divided in the usual form; that any rollcall votes, following the first in the series, be 10 minutes in length; further, that if confirmed, 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 to the nominations; that any statements related to the nominations 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, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 368, S. 2262, which is the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency legislation.

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the time until 11 a.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees.

At 11 o'clock this morning there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the energy efficiency bill.

The Senate will recess, as we do on virtually every Tuesday, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for our weekly caucus meetings. I would advise all Senators that at 2:15 p.m. today we will do our congressional photo that we do every 2 years. So I hope everyone will make sure they are here on time so we have everyone in the photo.

Additionally, there will be a Members-only briefing, a closed briefing, tonight at 5:30 regarding Ukraine. I hope everyone would come to that. There are some things going on in Ukraine we should all know about.

Slippery Progress

Mr. President, being from Nevada and having traveled the State, as I have, in rural Nevada, we have rodeos. I have been to a few rural rodeos in my life. They are always a lot of fun, and it is a unique form of entertainment. It is good for everybody, for families.

One of the things a number of these rodeos have around the country are greased-pig contests. For all those who do not know what a greased- pig contest is, here is what it is: The organizers get a little pig--a piglet--and they cover this little animal with tons of grease. It is a greasy little pig. Then they turn the kids loose. They invite these children to chase one of these pigs. Pigs are a little slippery to begin with, but if you cover them with grease, they are really slippery.

These kids run around the arena trying to grab this pig. They grab it and fall. They have a great time. The children run as fast as they can. Some of them get smart and do not run so fast. They wait until the pig turns around--and they do a lot of times. But they try to scoop up this scurrying pig. It is really quite a spectacle, and it is a lot of fun to watch. There is no pain to the pig. It is kind of a painless ordeal for the pig. But it is a lot of fun, as I said.

It is obvious what happens every time they grab the pig. They slip. The pig goes on about its business, running. They fall into the dirt. They come out covered with grease and dirt. But eventually-- eventually--one of these kids will wind up with the pig. Sometimes two kids grab the pig. They understand what happens, and they put the pig in one of their arms, and someone comes and takes the pig. But they have a good time.

The vast majority of the kids never touch the pig. They go away emptyhanded, for sure. And that is regardless of how hard they try.

The reason I mention this, ofttimes working with my Senate Republican colleagues, it reminds me of chasing one of these little pigs in a greased-pig contest. Regardless of all of our efforts, anytime we get close to making progress, it seems as though we watch it slip out of our hands and the Republicans scamper away.

Take, for example, the legislation that is currently before the Senate--the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill. This bill has bipartisan support. We tried to do the bill a year ago. Frankly, at that time the bill was good, but not nearly as good as it is now. It is a very substantive piece of legislation.

From the time last year to today, the committee--under the direction, then, of Senator Wyden, who was chair of the committee, working with all the members on that committee--put other things in the bill, and the bill that is now before the Senate is much stronger than it was a year ago.

This legislation will make our country more energy independent and protect our environment. It will spur the use of energy efficiency technologies in private homes and commercial buildings, at no cost to taxpayers. It is an energy efficiency bill, and it has bipartisan support.

This legislation will make our country more energy independent and protect our environment. It will also save consumers and taxpayers money, and lots of it. It will do it by lowering their energy bills, saving about $16 billion a year--that is what they tell us--and it will create up to 200,000 jobs that cannot be exported.

I have commended a number of times--and I will do it again--Senators Shaheen and Portman for their persistence in bringing this bill to the floor. This is a fine piece of legislation. But it seems, for the second time within a year, passage of this bipartisan legislation is in question because Senate Republicans keep changing their requests. This time around the minority party seems intent on a repeat performance of last year.

Remember last year. The same thing. We want this; we want this. But the clincher we were told was that--last year--they would not vote on the bill unless we brought a bill sponsored by the Senator from Louisiana--the name was not Landrieu; it would be the junior Senator from Louisiana--saying: I demand a vote, before we do this legislation, on doing away with the health insurance Senate staff have. Can you imagine that. But that was his demand, and it is his demand again. He called to tell me that.

In order to allow us to vote on this bill, I was told before the break that the Republicans wanted a vote on Keystone--a sense-of-the- Senate resolution. I thought about it, and I came back to them before the recess and said: OK, we will do that. We come back after the break, and they come to me and say: Well, we have changed our mind. What we want now is a straight up-or-down vote on the legislation. That is not the agreement we had. But, anyway, I said: OK, we will do that.

Well, now we are told that there are up to five amendments they want. And yesterday--last evening--I was told there is another one I never heard of. This is something about geothermal, but the extent of it I do not understand. But it is always something else.

We have these new provisions that have been added to the bill to make this legislation even stronger than last year.

To add further to the absurdity of what we are doing here, again the junior Senator from Louisiana wants a vote on taking away health care for our staffs. I said to him: But why would you do that? He said: Well, the higher paid employees, they can probably afford to get it themselves. I am paraphrasing because I remember the telephone conversation. He said--no, I am sorry; here it is--the lower waged salaried employees in the Senate, they will get subsidies--a lot of them. I said: What about those who do not? He said: They could buy their own insurance.

These men and women who work in the Senate work very hard. They should be treated as other employees around the country. Their employer should help them with their insurance. But it appears as if it is a virtual reenactment of last September. It seems as though this is nothing but a game of diversion and obstruction to many Senate Republicans.

But it is not a game. Every time a group of Republicans feigns interest in bipartisanship, only to scramble away at the last moment, it is part of a calculated political scheme.

We know on the very night of President Obama's first inauguration, a group of Republican political consultants--there is some dispute as to who called the meeting, whether it was Frank Lutz or Karl Rove, but a meeting was held--gathered, the Republicans gathered, to discuss their plans for regaining power after President Obama won the election.

They devised a plan to oppose all legislation and all nominees in order to make President Obama and Democrats look ineffective--to make our country, I assume, look more ineffective. But their No. 1 goal was to make sure President Obama was not reelected.

They failed with that, but they have not failed at obstructing, filibustering, and stopping the legislative process. Instead of working with us to pass meaningful legislation that helps American families, Republican leadership has shown more interest in agreeing to nothing. So as Senate Republicans continue to play hard to get with Democrats who are working in good faith, the American people's frustration grows.

This bill presents a unique opportunity for all my Republican colleagues--a chance to work with us in crafting and passing bipartisan legislation that will help the country.

I and my 54 Democratic colleagues have been flexible throughout this process, and we hope to reach an agreement that gives both sides most of what they want. But time is running out on this good piece of legislation--running out again.

So I invite all of my Republican colleagues to work with us in good faith. Help us pass a bill which creates jobs, saves money, and puts our country on the track to energy independence.

Recognition Of The Minority Leader

Mr. President, I have the floor.

Please go ahead.

Energy Amendments

Responding to my friend, the reason we haven't had debates in the Senate on legislation is because Republicans won't let us get on bills.

Let's take the bill that we are talking about today. Could we step back just a minute and try to do something that is good for the country? Shaheen-Portman is a good bill for America from last year to this year.

My friend can say all he wants about the junior Senator from Louisiana. Everyone knows what he has done on legislation in the past. He called me and told me that we weren't going to move forward on this bill unless he got a vote--what I just talked about. But from the last time we did this bill, these are the amendments that are incorporated in this bill: Collins-Mark Udall on energy efficient schools; Bennet- Ayotte, Better Buildings; Franken amendment to require Federally leased buildings to benchmark energy use data; Mark Udall-Risch, amendment to promote energy efficiency in data centers; Whitehouse-Collins--every one of these bipartisan--on low-income housing retrofits; Landrieu- Wicker amendment on Energy STAR third-party testing; Landrieu-Wicker- Pryor amendment on Federal green buildings; Hoeven-Pryor amendment on water heaters; Hoeven-Manchin and Isakson-Bennet amendments on energy efficiency in Federal and residential buildings; and the Sessions-Pryor amendment on third-party testing.

Last month Shaheen and Portman introduced a new version of their bill

incorporating all of these changes. The bill has 14 cosponsors, seven on each side. It is sponsored on the Republican side by Senators Portman, Ayotte, Collins, Hoeven, Isakson, Murkowski, and Wicker; and on the Democratic side by Senators Shaheen, Bennet, Coons, Franken, Landrieu, Manchin, and Warner.

It will be hard to find a more bipartisan, consensus piece of legislation. All of all of this is a bipartisan piece of legislation, but always it is a shell game. OK, we have got it here. I am trying to figure out where I put that shell. Is it here? Where is that dollar? Is it here?

I will yield in just 1 second.

This is what I talked about earlier. We have been going 5 years with this--5 years--trying to stop anything Obama wants to do. Obama would like to see this passed and so would a bipartisan group of Senators. But for 5 years we have put up with this. It doesn't matter what it is. If Obama wants it, they are against it.

We can have all this sweet talk about how the Senate shall operate. The Senate shall operate by allowing legislation to go forward. This is a perfect example but, no, no--I have told them, if they want a vote on Keystone, they have a vote on Keystone. That is not good enough for them. They add four or five other amendments.

It is never quite enough. So we can see what is going to happen. They are going to let us on the bill today, and they are going to say: Because we don't get our amendments, we are not going to vote to get off the bill.

It has happened time and time again. We waste hours on this.

With all this happy talk about how the Senate should operate-- remember, we changed the rules. Why did we do that? Because we had scores of judges that we had to wait for them to give us permission to move to.

We changed the rules. We don't in any way apologize to anybody for having changed the rules.

This is where we are. Legislation is at a standstill, and we have on the books now 140 nominations that are held up. They have held everybody up. We get a few here and a few there.

But the one thing I can't hold up any more are judges. We are moving on the judges. We are going to get the judges done.

If they want to continue blocking ambassadors--we have the Secretary of State, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who is going to Angola. We don't have an ambassador there. We don't have an ambassador to Peru. In scores of countries we don't have an American representative there.

There are some political appointments. We can talk about those separately. Every President has political appointments, but I am not pushing this. What I am pushing is the fact that we have these career Foreign Service officers who have waited an entire lifetime. They have worked in these countries in very difficult situations. They have been political officers, they have been economic officers, and now they get a chance to be an ambassador. It is like going to the Super Bowl in the diplomacy world, and they are not going to get that.

I think that the American people understand what is going on. That is why, as a result of polls we have seen, people understand the game the Republicans have played for 5 years. The people are going to have to decide this November as to whether they want another 2 years of obstruction as we have seen it.

This is good legislative policy. The Shaheen-Portman bill would be good for the country, but as usual we have a lot that is good for the country--and we have had it. We don't get much done in the Senate.

Give us some amendments. This is what they say every time because no matter what we do, it is not good enough.

Shaheen-Portman is a good bill. We have 10 new provisions in it. That is not good enough.

We can give them a vote on Keystone--that is not good enough, and that is the way it always is. So there are no surprises to me in what they have done today and what they will probably do on Wednesday or Thursday.

To belittle the President of the United States for wanting to talk about climate change is pretty obviously wrong. One can mischaracterize all they want the fact that President Obama recognizes climate is changing worldwide, but it is truly a mischaracterization if anyone thinks this is not something that is serious.

It always appears when we get into a serious debate about a subject, whether it is energy efficiency or climate change, the Republicans want to change the subject, to divert or to obstruct. So what is the Republican answer to this climate change, which is real: more oil production--that is one of their solutions--block regulations to protect health and the environment, deny climate change is happening at all.

The senior Senator from Oklahoma says it is a hoax. It is not a hoax. It is real, and I am very happy the President is saying something about this.

I ask the cloture motion be reported.

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

I move to proceed to legislative session.

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

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

I now move to proceed to legislative session.

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

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

I now move to proceed to legislative session.

If the cloture motion is at the desk, I ask that it be reported.

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

I now move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, because of the conversation with Senator McConnell and me, the time ran much longer than it normally does, so I ask unanimous consent that the vote occur at 11:15 rather than 11. Senator Durbin is here, as well as Senator Warren, with Senators Cornyn and Moran, so we will divide the time equally until then.

We are going to have, as indicated, a briefing on Ukraine at 5:30 this evening. I alert all Senators we will do our utmost to start at 5:30, and we must end at 6:30. We need everybody on time. If I am there on time, I am going to start it on time, and I will do my utmost to be there on time. People can be called upon for questions in the order they show up at the meeting.

Order of Procedure

I ask unanimous consent that at 5:30 p.m., the Senate recess until 6:30 p.m. tonight for the purpose of an all-Senators briefing.

I have had a number of titles, as all we Senators have over the years, but the title that means the most to me has always been ``Dad,'' ``Father.'' It is so important that my five children recognize me as their dad.

My oldest child is a daughter, Lana, but I also have 12 granddaughters. As a father and grandfather, I can't imagine the horror of having one of these girls abducted, kidnapped, and stolen--even though Nigeria is thousands of miles away from where we sit today.

My nightmare, our nightmare--we are always worrying about our girls-- is a reality in Nigeria.

On the night of April 14, more than 250 girls--I don't know the exact number--were stolen from a school by a terrorist group called Boko Haram. These kidnappers, a cowardly group of men--thugs and terrorists--have announced their attention to sell the girls in the marketplace.

It was only yesterday the leader of this organization was on television saying we have them and we are going to sell them. How would that make a mother or dad, family member feel? It is sickening to think these girls are at the mercy of these slavers. These are terrible reports. Some say--some of the reports we get--some of the girls have already been sold into Chad and Cameroon. I hope that is wrong.

So I, with my colleagues, join with the rest of the world in renouncing these heinous acts.

We must remember that this crime is only one of the many acts of terrorism of this awful group Boko Haram. They have done it before against children, against civilians.

Today the United States offered its assistance to rescue these girls. Great Britain has done the same, and other countries have as well. Nigeria, in my opinion, has been reticent to receive help. That is not my opinion, but that is what the public reports say. We want to help rescue these girls. We have some assets the Nigerians don't have, as do the Brits and others who want to help.

I am concerned the Nigerian Government's response to this crime and to dealing with Boko Haram is very tepid. Nigeria has missed opportunities to collaborate with international partners to fight terrorism in this instance and other instances. Instead of carrying out its own operation--which has been very clumsy, and there has been a disregard for human rights--they should let us help. Let the world community help.

The Nigerian Government has been disastrously slow in responding to these incidents--not on this one but on others. I urge the Nigerian Government to use all of its resources and accept international assistance to bring the abductors to justice. The world is watching. Return these daughters to their families.

Today we adopted S. Res. 433, which condemned this abduction, to add our voices to those calling for their release. I especially thank Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and all other cosponsors for their hard work on this legislation. The Senate, along with the rest of the world, will continue to do all we can to help our Nigerian friends. We continue to hope and pray for the safe return of these girls to their moms and dads.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time in recess count postcloture on the legislation that is now being considered.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor and recognize the career of Ken Dugan, center director of the Sierra Nevada Job Corps. Ken is retiring this month after spending 39 years in the Job Corps program, 36 of which as a center director. Throughout this time, Ken has worked tirelessly to help improve the lives of at-risk teenagers and young adults through vocational and academic training.

When Ken started his first assignment with the San Jose Job Corps in 1975, he never envisioned that almost 4 decades later he would be retiring with the organization. However, Job Corps and its mission soon became a way of life for him. After stints as center director at the San Jose and Hawaii Job Corps centers, we in Nevada were extremely fortunate to have Ken take over as center director for the Sierra Nevada Job Corps, the only Job Corps center in the State. During his 19 years

with Sierra Nevada, Ken oversaw the relocation and new construction of the center, the third time he had done so with a center. The new center, with Ken at its head, has greatly enhanced the living and learning environment for thousands of students over the years.

During his unprecedented 36-year tenure as a center director, the Job Corps centers Ken has run have been honored with numerous performance awards from the U.S. Department of Labor, not to mention Recognition of Performance and Community Value awards by the legislatures and Congressional delegations of California, Hawaii, and Nevada. On behalf of the U.S. Senate, I commend Ken Dugan on a lifetime of public service, and wish him the best in all his future endeavors.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 368, S. 2262, the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency legislation.

Following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will be in morning business until 5:30 p.m. this evening. At that time there will be up to two rollcall votes, the first on confirmation of the Moritz nomination to be United States Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit, and the next on confirmation of the nomination of Peter A. Selfridge to be Chief of Protocol with the Department of State.

Election of Andrew B. Willison

Mr. President, I now send a resolution to the desk and ask unanimous consent that it be considered.

This resolution, sponsored by Senators Reid of Nevada and McConnell, is important.

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

I send two resolutions to the desk and ask unanimous consent for their immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to en bloc, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, just moments ago we passed a resolution appointing Drew Willison as the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate. The importance of this appointment cannot be overstated. While Senators and their staffs come and go, the office of the Sergeant at Arms provides much needed stability to support this great institution.

To put things in perspective, Drew Willison is only the 39th Sergeant at Arms in the entire history of the Senate. That is 230 plus years. By contrast, there have been 1,950 Senators who have served in this body since its inception.

As the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Drew's duties include the security and safety of the 6,500 Senate employees, as well as the millions of visitors who come to the Capitol each year. Drew's predecessor, Terry Gainer, did a phenomenal job as Sergeant at Arms, and Drew is left with his big shoes to fill. Terry Gainer was not a partisan, nor is Drew Willison. That is how this office should function. I know he is up to the task.

As Booker T. Washington said, ``Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.''

Even though Drew did not seek this position, it has come to him because of his hard work. He will thrive in the Sergeant at Arms office because of his work ethic. I know because I have witnessed his work over the years. He first came to my office a long time ago, in 1997. He was a fellow for the Environmental Protection Agency. His talents were seen very quickly by me and my staff. So then, rather than going back to the EPA, he became a member of my personal staff. Again, his talents were recognized immediately. I decided it would be important that he move to the Appropriations Committee. He became the chief clerk on our Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and did a remarkably good job.

I mention his nonpartisan approach to what he did. During those years of his working for me--I can't speak for when he was there after I became inactive on that Appropriations Committee--but while I was there those many years--I was either the chairman or the ranking member of that committee for years. The person opposite me was Pete Domenici from New Mexico. It didn't matter who the chairman was, quite frankly. We worked so well together in those days when we worked together. We would finish the energy and water bill on the floor in one day. We would bring it out of committee and finish it in one day. We worked together. Drew Willison was the chief clerk, and when he wasn't the chief clerk, he was the second in command--whatever that is. We just breezed through that subcommittee--billions and billions of dollars, the safety and security of the nuclear arsenal we have, and so many different issues in that subcommittee that were important to the country, as they are today. But now we can't even--we have such difficulty at getting a bill passed. We did it then in one day--in just a few hours many times.

So Drew is really a talented man. He is a very quick learner. Everyone who has worked with him over the years came to the realization very quickly: Tell him what you want him to do; he did it with a smile, he did it well, and he did it right.

During my tenure with this good man, now the Sergeant at Arms, his talents were invaluable to the success of my office. For 5 years he has been the Deputy Sergeant at Arms. He has been Chief Gainer's right-hand man, and that is an understatement. He has done such a remarkably good job because of his hard work and his diligence. In the process, he has helped make this Capitol a better and safer place to work and to visit.

Now, as the mantel of leading the Sergeant at Arms office falls to him, I have no doubt that he will, once again, prove himself.

The Senate and the many people who visit and work in the Capitol are in good hands with Drew Willison at the helm. I wish him the very best. All I say to Drew Willison is to continue to be the person he has been and he will be a success as the Sergeant at Arms.

National Travel and Tourism Week

Mr. President, this week is National Travel and Tourism Week. As a Senator from Nevada, I know how important the travel and tourism industry is to this Nation. Las Vegas alone attracts more than 40 million visitors each year, and 8 million come from across the globe. All told, travel and tourism generates $45 billion in revenue for the Las Vegas economy while employing 400,000 Nevadans.

This industry's impact is not unique in Nevada. People go to the Presiding Officer's State of Maine year-round. It slows down a little in the wintertime, but people go there year-round because of the beauty of the State of Maine. I have only been to Maine on one occasion, but I went as a tourist. I wanted to see that beautiful State, and I was able to do that. It is the same in virtually every State in America. Tourism is the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 driving economic influence of every State.

So recognizing Travel and Tourism Week is more than just simple talk; it is important to do that. Annually, travel and tourism contribute more than $2 trillion to the national economy. It supplies 15 million jobs to Americans, and these are jobs that don't ship overseas. In fact, tourism is the Nation's No. 1 export.

While it is important to recognize National Travel and Tourism Week, just mentioning the industry's strength is not enough. As with any profitable business, investment helps. It will do the same in tourism, and we have proven that over the last few years.

A small investment in travel and business does great things for America. As I recall, there were about five filibusters we had to overcome on this legislation, but we did overcome them, and we finally passed it in 2010. President Obama signed this into law. It is called the Travel Promotion Act.

After we passed the law, this entity was led by a man named Stephen Cloobeck. Stephen Cloobeck is a businessman, and he has been a successful businessman. He is now extremely successful in the time- sharing business and in other areas. But he was really a good leader of that entity when it was first created, and that wasn't easy. There were a lot of bumps in the road. But being the exceptionally good businessman that he was and is, it worked out well. His leadership was phenomenal.

In countries all over the world, Brand USA--that is what it is called, Brand USA--advertisements come at no cost to the American taxpayers, and these entice foreign travelers to visit America.

By any measure, the Travel Promotion Act has been an incredible success. But don't take my word for it. An independent analysis found that Brand USA helped to generate more than 1 million new visitors to the United States, and it is only going to get better. Those international visitors spent $3.4 billion last year. Increasing international tourism and visitation to the United States creates jobs. On average, our international visitors stay longer in our Nation's hotels and they spend more money in our stores and restaurants than domestic travelers. One out of every four visitors who come to Las Vegas comes from outside the United States. Nearly 20 percent of all visitors, which is obvious from those numbers I just gave, come to Las Vegas from abroad.

So it is clear that Brand USA is helping our Nation's tourism industry, and it is helping our Nation capitalize on this growing market of tourism. That is why the Senate passed an immigration bill that is currently stuck in the House of Representatives. This legislation includes a permanent reauthorization for the Travel Promotion Act and Brand USA.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives has so far refused to take up an immigration reform bill. We did our work, and it was led by four Democrats and four Republicans. The four Democrats: Senators Schumer, Durbin, Menendez, and Bennet; the four Republicans: Senators Rubio, Flake, McCain, and Graham. They did good work. It could not have been done without them.

Our Nation's travel industry, though, needs us to do more. Recognizing the importance of tourism, it is so important we proceed and help the tourism industry by passing the immigration reform bill.

I mentioned the good work done by these eight Senators. The current

president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and former chairman of the U.S. Association--his name is Rossi Ralenkotter--has stressed the need for investment in our Nation's infrastructure.

As we invest in airports, rail, and roads--we certainly do not do enough, but when we do, we are effectively opening this Nation's doors to our visitors. By providing safe, efficient travel for tourists, we can also ensure that the American travel industry has a reliable flow of business.

Our commitment to bolstering tourism must amount to more than just concrete and metal. We must ensure that not only do we invite people here--and they come from across the world--but that we are also facilitating their arrival and their departure.

In the Senate immigration bill we make it easier for tourists to come to America by increasing the number of Customs and Border Patrol agents who process international visitors. We hope as tourists from foreign nations become more comfortable with traveling to the United States they will do so more frequently.

We are fast approaching the anniversary of the immigration bill's passage in the Senate. Yet this bipartisan bill sits idling in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and the Republicans seem to be content to continue to ``idle,'' a code word for doing nothing.

There are many urgent reasons we must pass the immigration bill and travel promotion is one of them. We cannot be content to do nothing in promoting the United States to the world because ultimately travel promotion is job promotion. It is about creating jobs. It is about growing our economy. It is about keeping the United States competitive in the world travel business.

So this week as we consider the incredible impact of travel and tourism on our Nation's economy, I invite my colleagues in Congress to continue to invest in this vital industry. If we are successful, we will make sure America remains the ultimate tourist destination for decades to come.

I see on the floor the distinguished senior Senator from Minnesota. Her work on getting this Travel Promotion Act passed was superb. Her efforts continue to make sure it is working well in the immigration bill. No one has helped more than the senior Senator from Minnesota. She is a good legislator, and she has proven that to me many times. Her work on this legislation reminds me how tenacious she is.

Mr. President, today I wish everyone, especially Mexican Americans across the country and in Nevada, a happy Cinco de Mayo. All Americans, regardless of background, join with the Mexican-American community in commemorating the causes of freedom, liberty, and Hispanic heritage represented by this holiday.

There are celebrations all over America today. Driving to work this morning, I saw a couple of people with great big sombreros wanting to come to one of the celebrations in and around

Washington. So this is a wonderful holiday we all celebrate.