Harry Reid

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I would ask for its second reading and object to my own request.

Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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 I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. We have waited here now for hours trying to work out an agreement to move forward on the highway bill, but one of the Senators has not been found. So I am not going to wait any longer. I have waited quite a few hours--and all the staff--and it is not fair to anybody. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 23, 2014; that following the prayer and pledge the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 453, S. 2569, until 11 a.m., with the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; and, finally, that at 11 a.m. the Senate proceed to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2569.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, at 11 a.m. tomorrow there will be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the Bring Jobs Home Act, followed by three voice votes on confirmation of the Clark, Schapiro, and Creedon nominations.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. 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. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 453, the Bring Jobs Home Act.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled in the usual form. At 5:30 p.m. the Senate will proceed to executive session and vote on confirmation of the following nominations: Julie E. Carnes to be U.S. circuit judge for the Eleventh Circuit; Michael Lawson to be Ambassador on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization; and Eunice Reddick to be Ambassador to the Republic of Niger. We expect a rollcall vote on the Carnes nomination and voice votes on the Lawson and Reddick nominations. It is such a shame that we have had to go through this stalling on Michael Lawson for the International Civil Aviation Organization. A terrible tragedy has taken place in the world--the shooting down of the Malaysian airplane with 290 totally innocent people on board, killing every one of them. That is his job. We tried to get him confirmed last week. No, they could not do that. We have tried to get him confirmed for months. They have held him up every step of the way. It is untoward that this is happening. They are holding up these nominations out of spite. That is too bad. This is a perfect example. Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 2631 Mr. President, it is my understanding that S. 2631 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, we are facing a humanitarian crisis on our southern border. Thousands of migrants--the vast majority of them are children--fled to our border and other countries in the region to escape the growing violence in Central America. Most of these boys and girls come from three countries--Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala-- where crime and lawlessness have resulted in chaos and anarchy. Honduras is the murder capital of the world, with more murders per capita than any nation on the planet. El Salvador and Guatemala are right behind. These statistics are stunning. In fact, we know that virtually all the homicides in these countries take place in the same cities these kids are leaving. Migration has spiked in the neighboring countries, not just the United States, as people try to escape this untoward violence. Citizens of these three nations, though, are also imperiled by high rates of human trafficking, drug trafficking, sexual assaults, and widespread corruption. It is an understatement to say these are not safe places in which to live or to survive. Here is an article out of the New York Times, written by a woman by the name of Sonia Nazario, July 11--a new article. Here are just a few of the things she said: Cristian Reyes, an 11-year-old sixth grader in the neighborhood of Neuva Suyapa, on the outskirts of [the capital], tells me he has to get out of Honduras soon--``no matter what.'' He is an 11-year-old boy. In March, his father was robbed and murdered by gangs while working as a security guard protecting a pastry truck. His mother used the life insurance payout to hire smugglers to take her to Florida. She promised to send for him quickly, but she has not. Three people he knows were murdered this year. Four others were gunned down on a nearby corner in the span of two weeks at the beginning of this year. A girl his age resisted being robbed of $5. She was clubbed over the head and dragged off by two men who cut a hole in her throat, stuffed her panties in it, and left her body in a ravine across the street from Cristian's house. ``I'm going this year,'' he said. Think about what this woman wrote. Think about what this boy said. After hearing this, can anyone blame these boys and girls and their families for doing everything they can to stay alive? One of the easiest ways to stay alive, even though it is really hard, is to leave. One can imagine how bad things are in these squalid homes and neighborhoods if these children and their families are willing to trek across dangerous terrain with little food, little water, putting themselves at the mercy of bandits, thieves, coyotes, and cartels. These kids are so desperate that when they reach our border, they immediately surrender themselves to the first person they encounter. They are not sneaking over the border. They are getting there for safety. They are desperate. The truth is that we have taken steps to secure our border. So regardless of what the American people may hear from the Republicans, this is not an issue about bigger walls or more barbed wire or more drones or more helicopters or more personnel on the ground or National Guardsmen. We have doubled the number of Border Patrol agents. We have drones patrolling the air--I think there are six of them. We are catching undocumented immigrants and drug traffickers in record numbers. After visiting the Rio Grande Valley, one FOX News reporter--FOX-- said: ``There is some evidence that border security, as it stands now, is actually working pretty good, pretty well.'' This is FOX, not a friend of President Obama's. They never give him the benefit of the doubt. But they said it is working pretty well, pretty good. But if you do not want to take FOX News's word for it, just this past weekend two Democratic Senators and a Republican Senator went down to look around, to see the crisis firsthand. One Senator asked a senior Border Patrol official, ``Is it true that border security is better than ever?'' That is a quote. He responded, ``It is true.'' How does this assessment compare to what we have heard from the Republican Congress? This morning the Republican leader disagreed with our border enforcement official, claiming that the current crisis further illustrates how insecure the border is. I repeat: These children are not sneaking over the border. They look to the border for safety. So whom would one believe--our Border Patrol officials out their on the frontlines, a FOX News reporter who was there on the frontlines, or the Republican leader? It is pretty clear where the weight of evidence is. Finally, our border security is working so much better, but our Border Patrol infrastructure is not equipped to care for tens of thousands of children. Barbed wire does not do that. High fences do not do that. Virtual fences do not do that. Drones do not do that. Helicopters do not do that. What we need now are resources to temporarily house and feed those children, administer deportation or asylum proceedings, and give border agents the necessary tools to keep our borders secure. They need to be temporarily taken care of until a decision is made on what should happen to them. It has to be done in a humane fashion. Our challenge is to treat these children as children should be treated, consistent with American values. The White House emergency supplemental request does just that. If the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services do not get these resources, they are going to run out of money in a few weeks--out of money. All we hear from the Republican Congress is blame. It is all the fault of Barack Obama. It is his fault. It is his fault these kids are coming. It is his fault the border, I guess, is secure. They are coming and turning themselves in. Congressional Republicans are suggesting that the thousands of young migrants have come to America as a result of President Obama's 2012 deferred action plan. They are saying that is the reason for all of this trouble. But that is nonsense. This article I held up--a long article--does not mention a word from anybody she interviewed that they are coming because of deferred action. They are coming because of fathers being robbed and murdered by gangs while they are working as security officers and the other vile things that are happening to human beings. We need the resources to temporarily house and feed these children, to legally administer whatever proceedings are necessary, and give border agents the necessary tools to keep our borders secure. I repeat: If they do not get the resources, they are going to be out of money. Then what are we going to do? I guess the Republicans will blame Obama. It is our job--our job. He cannot do it alone. We have 45 obstinate Republicans who are not letting us get anything done about anything, certainly not anything dealing with immigration. Cristian, the boy from this New York Times article, as I said, does not mention DACA at all. He does not mention DREAMers. He talks about the violence he sees as a boy--with his eyes. These kids are fleeing Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala and are heading anywhere they can to escape the violence. They are not just fleeing to the United States; they are going anyplace they can. They are heading to Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Belize. In those countries I have just mentioned, asylum claims have spiked 712 percent over the past several years. Think of all the children who don't make it. This crisis--the humanitarian crisis on our border--has nothing to do with DREAMers--children who have lived most of their lives as Americans even though they were brought here illegally. Yet Republicans would have us believe the two are inseparably connected. This is clearly not true. The junior Senator from Texas is trying so hard to link these two groups of children. In fact, the junior Senator from Texas is saying that before he will agree to the White House supplemental request, which would give our Border Patrol the resources it needs to care for these refugee children, President Obama must end the deferred action program. We just read some legislation on the floor a few moments ago. That is what it is--no money for these poor boys and girls until, I guess, you deport them--hundreds of thousands of people who are here because they deserve to be here. Republicans, in attacks such as this, are resorting to ransoming children to get their way, and that is shameful. The assistant Republican leader, the senior Senator from Texas, who has authored legislation to prevent any meaningful hearing process for migrant children, appears to support the junior Senator's plan. The bill put forward by the senior Senator from Texas implements a process that will send these children back to dangerous places without some minimal concern for their health and well-being. If people were treating animals the way these boys and girls are being treated, they wouldn't send an animal back to this, let alone a little boy or girl. Neither of the plans put forward by the junior or senior Senators from Texas address the underlying issues. And what is the real issue? The Presiding Officer has lived in South America. He is one of the few Senators who speaks fluent Spanish. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. So what is the real issue? The Presiding Officer could tell us what the real issue is if he were able to speak now. Why are these children arriving at our southern border. As Nobel laureate Oscar Arias, who was President of Costa Rica and did a good job in an overwhelmingly bad situation, said yesterday in the Washington Post: ``The root cause is the violence and poverty that make these children's lives at home intolerable.'' We hear that from the schoolboy's message to us. Deporting DREAMers already here or speeding up the process for sending children who need protection back to their crime-ravaged homes does not address the root cause. In fact, it will only break up families who are already here and ensure that we see these migrant children again in a few months if they survive, because they are not going to stay there. Many of them won't survive, but if they do, they will try to come back again until things become tolerable. Instead of playing a game of hot potato with thousands of innocent children, let's address the pressing needs we have now, which is to treat these kids humanely. I have had the good fortune of traveling in every country in South America except Belize and Uruguay. Cuba is sending huge numbers of physicians all over South and Central America; China has a lot of money and projects there. We--because of the stringency of what is happening with our appropriations bills--took months and months to get a Peace Corps Director. The Peace Corps helps, but without the Director it was kind of wobbly. The Agency for International Development has a good program, but it doesn't have much money at all. We do very little to help those countries. We have Venezuela. Chavez ships hundreds and hundreds of teachers and oil to those countries, and we do nothing. For a fraction of what we spend on our border, we could help those countries stabilize. We need to get resources to our Border Patrol agents and others who are caring for these children from Central America. We need judges to hear these kids' cases and decide whether they need protection or need to be sent back home. The world is watching how this great democracy of ours responds to this crisis. Congress must act now and give the administration the funding it needs to temporarily house and feed these boys and girls and reinforce the infrastructure to process thousands of asylum deportation claims. We had a big show not long ago where we provided $35 billion to help veterans. We have spent trillions of dollars in two wars--unpaid for, by the way. That is what President Bush wanted, and that is what he got. He squandered the surplus we had--a surplus of over 10 years when he took office that was trillions of dollars. But now we are being asked to spend a few dollars to take care of these people who have come back in need--as our veterans. Senator Sanders has been working for well more than 1 month to get them to try to agree to something, and it looks to me as if they are going to come back with nothing. The conference has not been completed. Why? Because they have to spend money on these people on whom they were glad to spend money to take them to war. But now they are back. They are missing limbs. They have many post-traumatic stress problems, a lot of medical issues, and no money is there. I am afraid that is where we are headed with this other situation. I am afraid we are headed to the place where either Republicans get to deport all these DREAMers--what the Texas Senators obviously want--or just give these kids no hearings at all and just shove them back. It is not fair. The American people want these kids to be treated fairly. If the kids don't belong here, let's have somebody decide they don't belong here and have somebody do what needs to be done. But to just ignore the issue and run out of money--what do we do? What we should do is legislate. We are not doing that. I have said on the floor a number of times--I repeat--for 5\1/2\ years Republicans have opposed everything that President Obama has wanted--everything. That is what they set out to do 3 days after he was elected, and they have stuck by that. Scores of ambassadors' positions are not filled, and legislation has gone wanting. They want to be able to show there is a Democrat in the White House and Democrats control the Senate, but the American people are not realizing a small minority can stop us from doing everything--and that is what they have done with the so-called filibuster, hundreds of them. I only hope this November people will respond, as I believe they will, and say: This is enough. Reservation of Leader Time Would the Chair announce the business of the day.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I yield back any time.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to S. 2569. Is that pending?

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion on that matter at the desk.

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that time be yielded back.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 453, S. 2569, the Bring Jobs Home Act.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of S. 2244--an extremely important piece of legislation. There will be 30 minutes for debate on the Coburn amendment, 20 minutes on the Vitter amendment, 10 minutes on the Flake amendment, and 30 minutes on the Tester amendment. Any remaining time until 12 noon will be for general debate on this legislation. At 12 noon the Senate will proceed to a series of up to five rollcall votes. Rollcall votes are expected in relation to the Coburn and Flake amendments; however, we expect voice votes on the Vitter and Tester amendments. Upon disposition of the amendments, the Senate will proceed to a rollcall vote on passage of S. 2244, as amended. We expect to reach an agreement to vote at 2 p.m. on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 849, the nomination of Julie Carnes, of Georgia, to be United States circuit judge for the Eleventh Circuit. Senators will be notified when an agreement is reached. (Mr. WALSH assumed the Chair.) Border Crisis Mr. President, the distinguished President pro tempore of the Senate, who just opened the Senate, has been for many, many years the chair of the foreign operations subcommittee on appropriations. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. I wanted to note that while he is on the floor. Over the past 2 weeks poker players have flocked to Las Vegas because there is an annual World Series of Poker there. It is on ESPN. I do not know how athletic it is, but it is on ESPN, and it draws a lot of attention. Poker is a very important and popular game now--a game of chance, and this tournament--the World Series of Poker--is the most prestigious high-stakes tournament in the world, and 2,400 or 2,500 miles away from Las Vegas, here in Washington, DC, some Senate Republicans are playing a high-stakes game of their own with a humanitarian crisis. But instead of poker chips, they are using kids, children. Last night the junior Senator from Texas upped the ante and announced that any legislation to address the humanitarian crisis in the Rio Grande Valley must also include a termination of President Obama's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In other words, before Republicans help our Border Patrol agents and all the other personnel who are trying to do something to handle this humanitarian crisis, they want President Obama to deport the DREAMers who are already here. They are legitimately here. These are children. But instead of considering a thoughtful, compassionate solution to a real-life crisis on our border, radical Republicans are trying to hold these kids ransom. I have heard Senator Durbin speak here on the floor. He visited one of these centers in Chicago on Monday. There are mothers with little babies there who have been brought, as the law requires, to Chicago to try to unite them with their families. We have, as we learned last night in a Senators briefing, more than 50,000 of these children who have arrived at the border, and we have to do something to address that. The people who are required by law to take care of these children--some of whom are babies--do not have the resources to do it. These are not children sneaking over the border. They come to the people in uniform and say: Here we are. We have an obligation by law to do something about it. But it takes a lot of money to take care of this. We cannot do it unless we get added resources, and what the junior Senator from Texas said is that we are not going to do this unless we deport all these children who came here before--the so-called DREAMers. Once again, we see there are no substantive solutions being offered by today's Republican Party. Instead of doing something about these children who are at the border, they want to deport hundreds of thousands of these people who are already here. President Obama's deferred action plan, which is widely popular in the country because it is the right thing to do--and, obviously, Republicans want to get rid of it--what this is all about, his deferred action plan, is about keeping families together in America. It grants immigration officials discretion in considering the cases of children who have lived most of their lives as Americans, even though they were brought here illegally. Let me give you an example of a young woman from Las Vegas. Her name is Astrid Silva. Astrid came to the United States as a little, tiny girl in a boat across the Rio Grande. Her mother was with her. She was in her--I want to get this right--she was in her dress, confirmation dress or whatever it was. She was just a tiny, little girl. She had her rosary beads and a little doll, and she floated across the river. She knows no other country than the United States of America. Now, because of what happened, because of the President's action, she can now fly in an airplane. She has done that. She is working on getting her education completed--a wonderful, wonderful, involved woman in what is going on in Nevada. And the junior Senator from Texas wants to send her back to a place she does not know--Mexico? Mr. President, Astrid Silva is an American. It is the only country she knows. It would be cruel and unusual to do what the junior Senator from Texas wants done. The deferred action plan is a positive step forward, and we should not go back, especially not as a ransom for helping our border personnel to care for desperate children. I would hope my friend, the Republican leader, can rein in these extreme elements of his caucus so we can achieve a real solution, one worthy of the ideals upon which this Nation was founded. These children are real--they are little kids--real human beings. They should not be used as pawns in the Republicans' high-stakes game of chicken with President Obama. Ambassadorial Nominations Mr. President, when I first came to the House of Representatives, I had the good fortune of serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee. It was wonderful. I served under Chairman Zablocki from Wisconsin, Chairman Fascell from Florida. It was a wonderful experience to get a view of what was going on in the world, and I enjoyed it very, very much. But I learned there--and I think we all know; maybe I should have learned it sooner--our national security depends on the qualified men and women who serve as our ambassadors throughout the world. When I travel overseas, I always make sure I get the staff at these embassies together and tell them how much I appreciate what they do for our country. They are not all ambassadors, of course. There is one per country--we hope. To apply to be a Foreign Service officer is hard. You have to have really, really good grades. You have to pass a written examination after having graduated from college and maybe with graduate work. Some of them are Ph.D.s. And then, after you pass a written test, you have to pass an oral test. It is very, very difficult. These are some of the best and brightest in the world, and their ultimate goal--as we had the All-Star Game on Tuesday--is to be an all- star, to be able to play--as they did on Tuesday in Major League Baseball--in the ``all-star game.'' Well, that is what ambassadors are; they are the all stars of the diplomatic corps of this country. Right now, these ambassadors are on the front lines. They are fighting to defend our interests abroad--our security interests, our national interests, and our economic interests. Right now there are gaping holes in our Nation's front lines. Let's look at who ambassadors really are. Here in the Senate, I had the good fortune to serve with one of the really distinguished ambassadors, Daniel Patrick Moynihan from New York. Prior to coming to the Senate, he was our Ambassador to India. He left his mark on that country. He did a remarkably good job as Ambassador from the United States to India. The Republican leader and I attended a funeral a week or so ago in Tennessee. The funeral was for Howard Baker, who had been the majority leader in the Senate--a fine man. He married another Senator from Kansas, Nancy Kassebaum. He became, after retiring from the Senate, our Ambassador to Japan. He distinguished himself there again with the remarkably good job he did. We can go back and look at the beginning of the history of this country. What do we always learn about Thomas Jefferson? We know how smart he was, how he wrote brilliantly. But we also learned in every history lesson about Thomas Jefferson, that he was our Ambassador to France. John Adams was our Ambassador to England. They have set the standard for how important ambassadors are. Here in the Senate Republicans are stalling ambassadors. Twenty-five percent of all the ambassadorships to the continent of Africa-- unfilled. There are gaping holes in our Nation's front lines. Approximately 30 ambassadors are waiting to be confirmed--and waiting and waiting and waiting. Senate Republicans, who have been so quick to accuse this administration of poor leadership on world issues, are obstructing the confirmation of ambassadors who are desperately needed at embassies all around the world. Republicans are abdicating the Senate's constitutional role to confirm ambassadors. In previous years ambassadors were just approved so quickly. Once in a while something controversial would come up, but it was once in a great while. As I said, a quarter of U.S. Embassies in Africa do not have an ambassador. We do not have an ambassador in Bosnia. We do not have an ambassador in Vietnam--on and on. Can't we all agree that it is important that American interests be represented in these places? The answer: We cannot agree. The Republicans do not want these ambassadorships filled. When can these people who want to play in the ``all-star game'' be able to play in the ``all-star game'' and represent the interests of this country? They work in careers that are very difficult. They do not start out as ambassadors. Rarely does that happen. Each day that goes by more ambassadorships are unfilled. All the ambassador nominees were passed out of committee unanimously. With rare exception they are noncontroversial. I am talking about career ambassadors. These are not political appointees. I am talking about career ambassadors. What does that mean when I say career ambassadors, career diplomats? These are good men and women who have worked for decades for the U.S. State Department. In most cases these diplomats started working at the lowest levels, processing visa applications, asylum requests, and then became an economic officer, a political officer. By working hard and requiring the necessary expertise, these career diplomats have readied themselves to be ambassadors. It is hard. Career diplomats do not represent political parties, they represent our country. These long-time professionals have worked for both Democrats and Republicans. They worked for several different administrations. It does not matter, if someone is a Foreign Service officer, whether the President is a Democrat or Republican, they do their job for the country. Now these professionals are needed to fill vital ambassadorial posts in some of the most volatile regions in the world. Republicans have slammed the brakes on these nominations. At the very least the Senate should confirm these noncontroversial career diplomats. If they want to play games with the political appointees, they can do that, but these career diplomats are not political appointees. They are qualified diplomats who have performed admirably for the State Department for a long time. We need their experience, we need their expertise at embassies all over the world. Some Senate observers say Republicans are stalling these nominations as a payback for rules changes instituted by the Senate. Let's see if I can try to figure this one out. Republicans are stalling Executive nominees vital to our national interests to get back at Democrats, to get back at me. How is that? Stalling these nominees is jeopardizing America's interests abroad. It is damaging our Nation's role in global affairs. It is damaging our national security. Is this conjured-up political retribution worth harming the United States? Of course not. There was a New York Times article within the last 48 hours where Secretary of State John Kerry said: I have 52 important State Department officials who are waiting to be confirmed in the Senate--52. I was stunned to read in that same article a quote from the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee over here, the junior Senator from Tennessee. Here is what he said: ``Rather than filling vacant embassies to alleviate the national security concerns raised by Secretary Kerry and others, the majority leader-- Listen to this one. --who controls the Senate floor--has chosen to spend this week on a sportsman's bill and previous weeks confirming judges. Why criticize me for bringing up the sportsmen's bill? This bill was sponsored by a majority of the Republicans. Twenty-six Republicans cosponsored that legislation. The junior Senator from Tennessee is complaining that I brought that up. I guess he is also complaining that I brought up raising the minimum wage, which the Republicans filibustered. Maybe he is also complaining that we have student debt in this country--about $1.3 trillion--and we brought that up to alleviate the pain to families in America with student debt. Maybe he is complaining because we brought up on the Senate floor something extremely important; that is, that if a woman does the same work as a man, she should get paid the same amount of money--not different work, the same work. She should get the same money. I guess he is complaining because we brought up something that addresses the needs that Americans have; that is, the Hobby Lobby decision from the Supreme Court. We think that is wrong. Women in America, families in America, with some exception, believe that is wrong. So I agree with the junior Senator from Tennessee. There is an urgent need to fill these diplomatic posts as soon as possible, but for heaven's sake, how could he complain about the substantive legislation which is so important to America that I have just run through? Then he complains about judges, we are confirming judges. I have been here a while in the Senate. Until Obama became President, with some exception, these nominations went through on unanimous consent. We were not holding up ambassadors. There would be a spat on a judge here and there but not holding up all of the judges. The reason it is taking so long is we have, under the rules of the Senate, what we call postcloture time. That time was originally set up so after we got on a piece of legislation or on a nomination, we could think about it for a little bit. They think about it a lot and do nothing. Thirty hours on a lot of nominations postcloture, 8 hours on others, judges only 2 hours. We have been able to go through a lot of judges because of that rule change that we made. I thought it was an urgent need 4 months ago when I came to the Senate floor to talk about the growing logjam of our ambassadorial corps around the country. But Senator Corker's reasoning that these ambassadorial confirmations were delayed unnecessarily by legislation and judicial confirmations is a little weird, a little strange. It is strange and weird for a number of reasons. I take issue with the notion that the Senate somehow wasted time by legislating and confirming judicial nominees. These are our constitutional duties. We are going to confirm, in the next few days, a post in Georgia. We have two to be filled there. One of them has been waiting for more than 1,000 days. So I think it is important we do this. Why? Because it is our constitutional duty. We only have so much time to confirm judges, because as I indicated, filibustering nominees, they do it to everybody. We are working through the judges quickly because we changed the rules. Thank goodness we did. The Senate did consider Senator Hagan's sportsmen's legislation last week. I repeat. That important bill affects--the one that the junior Senator from Tennessee said we should not have brought up--affects 40 million Americans who hunt and fish. Somebody I used to practice law with has a place in Montana. He took his grandson there and had a wonderful time fishing--no hunting but fishing. This place he has, a little stream goes by there. He said it was the best time he ever had with his grandchild. That is what 40 million people do. That is what we brought up. That is what the junior Senator from Tennessee said was such a bad idea. Twenty-six Republicans cosponsored that legislation. It contributes $200 billion annually to our Nation's economy. My friend from Tennessee thinks it is a waste of time; we should not have done that. The junior Senator from Tennessee was a cosponsor of the legislation. He is going to go back and tell the people in Tennessee that he made a mistake, he should not have been a cosponsor. Earlier, he voted to proceed so we could work on the legislation. Then he voted to filibuster it. This is the same tactic we have seen so much over the past 6 years. Republicans obstruct. When asked why they are not accomplishing anything, they blame Democrats. They blame me. The truth is Senate Democrats have continued to press for more and more ambassadorial confirmations while also introducing legislation that helps working families. As I came to the floor in March to highlight the backlog of ambassadorial confirmations, the Senate has considered an increase in the minimum wage, equal pay for women, student loan refinancing, extension of tax cuts, cost-cutting energy legislation, and a number of other items. These are all important bills to give working Americans a fair shot at a measure of prosperity. Republican filibusters blocked every one of them. Another issue I have with the Senator from Tennessee is that undoubtedly he knows the Senate traditionally does much of its business through unanimous consent--in fact most of our business. If Republicans agree there is an urgent need to get these nominations done and give their consent, we could confirm all of these ambassadors in a single afternoon. It would only take a few hours in the afternoon. We could do it today. But it is clearly not a priority for Republicans; otherwise, they would expedite these confirmations. Their behavior on these ambassadorial nominations reminds me of a quote by Gandhi: ``Action expresses priorities.'' Republicans' lack of action on this matter illustrates that they have no priorities in this regard. So enough with the stalling and enough with retribution. The Senate standoff is not good for this body, and it is hurting American interests abroad. Let's get these ambassador posts filled. Our national security depends on it.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, at 2 p.m. today the Senate vote on cloture on Executive Calendar No. 849, Carnes; further, that if cloture is invoked, at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, July 21, 2014, the Senate resume executive session and all postcloture time be expired and the Senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the nomination; further, that following the 2 p.m. cloture vote, the Senate proceed to the consideration and vote on Executive Calendar Nos. 709, Shear, and 834, Mader; 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. REID. Mr. President, with this agreement, we expect one rollcall vote beginning at 2 p.m. and two additional voice votes as I have mentioned. I apologize to the Republican leader for taking so much time. Recognition of the Minority Leader

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote with respect to the Carnes nomination now occur at 1:45 p.m. today, with all other provisions of the previous order remaining in effect.

Mr. REID

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

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, today I wish to honor Charlie Seemann. Mr. Seemann is a talented folklorist who is dedicated to sharing western arts and culture with communities throughout Nevada. At the end of the month, he will be retiring from his position as executive director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, NV. After serving as the deputy director of the Country Music Foundation in Nashville, TN, for 12 years, and later working as the program director at the Fund for Folk Culture in Santa Fe, NM, Nevada was fortunate to have Mr. Seemann dedicate his efforts to sharing the cultural heritage of the American West with communities throughout our great State. In 1998, Mr. Seemann brought his masters of folklife studies, decades of experience, and his accomplished musical knowledge to the Western Folklife Center in Nevada. During his 16-year tenure, he has strengthened the arts throughout his community by investing in literary and scholarship programs that have helped foster artistic development and brought new artists to Western Folklife's most notable event, the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Since 1986, Mr. Seemann participated in the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, formerly the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. This event was renamed in 2000, after Mr. Seemann worked with Members of Congress to pass a United States Senate Resolution designating the poetry gathering in Elko as a nationally recognized event. Mr. Seeman is not only a strong advocate for western arts and culture, but he is a nationally renowned folklorist. Prior to coming to the Western Folklife Center, he received the Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, as well as a Grammy nomination for the New World Records anthology Back in the Saddle Again: American Cowboy Songs. Mr. Seemann also received a Wrangler Award in 2003, for his production work on a joint project between the Western Folklife Center and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Buck Ramsey: Hittin' the Trail. In 2006, Mr. Seeman was appointed by Congress to the Board of Trustees for the American Folklife Center. This Center is housed at the Library of Congress and works to archive and preserve American's unique culture. It was a tribute to Mr. Seeman's reputation that he was selected for this Federal board, and he represented Nevada well in this role. Mr. Seemann will be missed by the many individuals he works with at the Western Folklife Center, but his contributions to western folklore will continue. I wish him well in his retirement and all the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. REID

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that following the vote on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 849, Carnes, on Monday, July 21, the Senate remain in executive session to consider Calendar No. 789, Lawson, and Calendar No. 537, Reddick; 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; 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 President Obama be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.