quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vis yaitd. the presiding officer: without objection -- vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: mr. president, thank you very much. i have two matters to attend to

before my remarks. i have one unanimous consent request for a committee to meet during today's session of the senate. it has the approval of the majority and the minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that this request be agreed to and that this request be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: secondly, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 194, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 194, congratulating the pittsburgh penguins on winning the 2009 stanley cup championship. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. casey: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or

debate. and that any statements related to the resolution be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i want to say, first, how much i appreciate the action on that resolution. i could spend a lot of time talking about our penguins. but i will shorten it because i do have a statement in the record. we're so grateful they have successful in a very hard-fought series against the detroit red wings who have a strong organization and were difficult to defeat. and as a pennsylvanian i was especially proud that it now marks three champions in the last year, the philadelphia phillies in baseball, pittsburgh steelers in football, and now the pittsburgh penguins in hockey. we're very fortunate in our state to have three champions this year. we let the lake verse basketball

-- lakers for basketball this year. we'll try to get them next year. mr. president, i rise this morning at the end of a week where we spent and the presiding officer knows from his work representing the state of oregon and his work as a member of our "help"help" committee. he knows that we spend a lot on time on medicare. now we're at the point where in our committee we're voting o'voteing on amendments -- voting. voting on amendments. we know that this is a challenge that faced america for decades. the challenge of covering people in our country who don't have coverage and making sure that those who do have coverage have quality health care coverage that's affordable. so all of these challenges are presented to us now. and we have a situation in the country today, chairman dodd just mentioned this morning in a hearing about 14,000 people a day los