Harry Reid

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID. I have an amendment to my instructions that is also at the desk.

Mr. REID. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. REID. I have a second-degree amendment to my instructions that are at the desk.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived with respect to the cloture motion that has just been filed.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, June 25, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Republican leader, but no later than 5:30 p.m., the motion to proceed to S. 1940 be agreed to.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 779, 780, 781, 782, 783, 784, 785, 786, 787, 788, 789, 790, 791, 792, 793, 794, 795, 796, 797, 798, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 808, 809, 810, 811, 812, 813, 814, 815, 816, 817, and all nominations placed on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Foreign Service, Marine Corps, and Navy; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, on Tuesday, June 26, 2012, at 11:30 a.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 652; that there be 30 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions to be in order; that any related statements be printed in the Record; and that President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I now ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate proceed to S. Res. 471.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 33.

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, there will be a rollcall vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House message to accompany S. 3187, the FDA bill. It has been a long hard week. We have accomplished quite a bit. We have a lot more to do, but it has been one of our better weeks.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Finally, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, June 25; 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 the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1940, the flood insurance bill, postcloture; and that at 5:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to a cloture vote on the motion to concur in the House message to accompany S. 3187, the FDA bill, under the previous order.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 250, S. 1940.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I have a cloture motion at the desk I wish to be reported.

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

Mr. REID. Madam President, following leader remarks today, the Republican leader will move to proceed to S.J. Res. 37. Following that motion; that is, the one Senator McConnell will make, the time until 11:30 a.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first 15 minutes and the majority controlling the next 15 minutes, and I have designated that Senator Rockefeller will take that 15 minutes. At 11:30 a.m. the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 37. If the motion to proceed is not agreed to, the Senate will then resume S. 3240, the farm bill, and the votes in relation to amendments that remain in order to the bill. So Senators should expect a long day of voting, starting at 11:30 a.m. Madam President, we did extremely well yesterday. We were able, as indicated last night, to even turn in votes earlier because everyone was here. There are lots of events going on in the Capitol today, but we are going to have to stick to our business at hand and make sure we get through this long list of amendments because we are going to have to finish this and the flood insurance legislation before we leave here this week. That is a large assignment. We have to do that. Unanimous-Consent Agreement--S. 3240 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that with respect to any amendments voted on during Tuesday's session, where motions to reconsider were not made, that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, if I could have the attention of the Senate, we did very well yesterday. We have a lot to do. We have to work on this. We have flood insurance. Both are important issues. This is going to be a 10-minute vote. The order that has been entered is that all the remaining votes are 10 minutes. We had a 15-minute vote on the first one. I know there are a lot of things going on today, but we are going to have to work around them. That is the most important part of our job--voting. So let's work. Let's try to get out of here. We are going to try to finish this bill tonight.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, right now we have 34 amendments left plus final passage. That is 11 hours. I was hoping we could dispose of quite a few of these on voice, but that has not worked out very well. We have had a number of people who offered to have their votes by voice, but those were objected to. We have to finish this bill. We have to do flood insurance this week. I know people have schedules. We have all kinds of things going on, but we have to show a little bit of understanding about the ordeal we have ahead of us. I am confident we are not going to stay here until 2 o'clock this morning, but we are going to stay here a while because until we have a way of finishing this bill that is set in stone, we are going to have to proceed forward. This is an important piece of legislation but also flood insurance is an extremely important piece of legislation. If we do not complete that by the end of this month, there will be thousands and thousands of people who cannot close their loans every day--not a month, every day. With the economy in the state it is in now, we need to close every loan, every home that is purchased, every commercial piece of property that is bought. We have to close those now. We cannot tell the American people we tried to get it done, but we could not because we were-- whatever. People have indicated they want to get out of here early tonight. There may be somebody who wants to get out of here earlier tonight than I, but I would be happy to debate that subject with them. But we need to show some cooperation. We have two of the finest Senators we could have managing this bill. Let's work together and get this done.

Mr. REID. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been in contact with Senator McConnell. We are making good progress here. The goal is to get down to 10 votes. Once we get down to 10 votes, we will stop for the night. We should be able to do that in the next hour or hour and half, give or take a few minutes. I think the goal is reachable. We will come in tomorrow. We have some important votes tomorrow. Don't forget that we have flood insurance. I hope we can move up the vote on cloture on flood insurance tomorrow. If not, we are going to have to vote on it on Friday. We have done that in the past. We should be able to do that. The goal is 10 votes left by the time we leave here this evening.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.