the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change a vote? if not, on this vote, the ayes are 32, the nays are 60. the amendment is not agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: we're going to have one more vote tonight on -- the presiding officer: the senate would be in order for the majority leader. mr. reid: we're going to have one more vote tonight on the circuit judge. it's my understanding the district judge would go by voice. tomorrow we're going to -- first of all, tonight anyone that wants to work on the start

treaty, the two managers of the bill, senator kerry and senator lugar, have said they're here as long as people want to work on this. we're going to come in at 10:00 in the morning. we'll work from 10:00 until 2:00 here on the start treaty and then the -- a number of senators want to have a closed session. we'll do that in the old senate chamber. that place has already been cleared by the security folks. so we'll start that at 2:00 and go as long as necessary there and come back tomorrow evening and continue working on the start treaty. we have very few things left to do. the republican leader and i and our staffs have worked throughout the morning trying to come up with something on the c.r. we're very close to being able to get that done. but we're -- it's not done. so we have the c.r. to do the short term runs out on tuesday, so we have to have things done

by then. we have this start treaty and then, of course, we have the 9/11 health thing that is a motion to reconsider. also senator levin has been working on some other things, mainly the defense, which will take a consent agreement to get it done. the presiding officer: under the previous order the senate will proceed to the consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, raymond joseph lohier jr. of new york to be united states circuit judge for the second circuit. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: under the previous order there will be two mention of debate prior to the vote with the time equally divided and controlled between the senator from vermont, mr. leahy, and the senator from alabama, mr. sessions or their designees. mr. leahy: i yield my time to the senior senator from new york, senator schumer. the presiding officer: the senator from new york is recognized. the senate will suspend. the senate will be in order.

the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. over the last few days the senate's finally to vote on judicial nomination that have been waiting on the executive calendar for months. there are currently three judicial emergency vacancies on the u.s. court of appeals for the second circuit and the judiciary committee has reported qualified nominees to fill each one with the consideration of ray lohier's nomination, the senate will finally fill one of those for the people of vermont, connecconnecticut and new york. he has served as a federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york and special counsel to the u.s. attorney. he previous served as the chief and deputy chief of both the securities and commodities task

force which investigates and prosecutes offenses on wall street and the narcotics unit he has the strong support of senator gillibrand and myself. the judiciary committee unanimously reported his nomination on may 13th, and i move the nomination. the presiding officer: who yields time? the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: any other senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 92 and the nays are zero. the nomination is confirmed. a senator: may we have order? the presiding officer: will the clerk report the next nomination? mr. kerry: the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, carlton w. reeves of mississippi to be united states district judge for the southern district of mississippi. the presiding officer: is there any debate?

if not, the question is on the nomination. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes have it. the nomination is confirmed. a motion to reconsider the votes on the nomination is considered made and laid on the table. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action, and the senate shall resume legislative session. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. kerry: i just want to clarify for a couple of colleagues of mine that are waiting on the executive session. there are just a couple of items that are going to be done

quickly in legislative session by unanimous consent, and then we'll come right back to the procedure that we had talked about previously. so, mr. president, for the purposes of that consent and legislative session, i yield to the senator from colorado. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: mr. president, as -- mr. udall: i ask unanimous consent that the banking committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 2919, the business lending enhancement act, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that a udall of colorado substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there an objection? mr. sessions: i object. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama objects. mr. shelby: i object. the presiding officer: the

senator from alabama objects. the senator from colorado. mr. udall: i would like to talk briefly about the legislation that i asked for unanimous consent. this is a bipartisan bill. i filed it, and it's -- mr. shelby: i object. the presiding officer: objection has already been heard. mr. inhofe: there are two motions, but go ahead. i am objecting to a discussion of the amendment at this time until i find out how long he is going to be. mr. kerry: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the senator from colorado have three minutes to make his comments. mr. inhofe: fine. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: i thank the senators for his courtesy. the reason i have offered this consent agreement today is this would help literally hundreds of small businesses create hundreds of thousands of jobs at no cost to the american taxpayer. i did want to in the spirit of bipartisanship mention the cosponsors of the bill. the cosponsors start with the

majority leader from nevada, and it's followed by senators snowe, collins, schumer, boxer, brown, gillibrand, inouye, nelson of florida, bennet of colorado, sanders and wyden. mr. president, the bill addresses a problem that everybody in the chamber agrees needs to be addressed, and that's the trouble that small businesses are having accessing capital so they can grow and create jobs. we just saw our unemployment rate inch up to 9.8% in november. that's indicative of the fact that our economy is having trouble gaining traction. but we all know that if small businesses expand and grow, our economy will be getting back on track. so if i might, let me just tell you how this bill would help small businesses. under current law, credit unions are doing what they can to help business interests and meet the demands of particularly family businesses, but they are constrained by an arbitrary cap on the size of the amount of

loans they can actually issue. in every state, their credit unions would like to lend more. responsibly, i should add, but they would like to lend more, but the federal government gets in the way. what this legislation would do is get the federal government out of the way and allow credit unions to help jump-start the economy. under current statute, credit unions are constrained to 12.25% of their total assets can be lent, and many credit unions have run up against that cap. so what this legislation would do would take the most experienced and well-run credit unions and allow them to meet the rising demand for small business loans. the national credit union administration, which is the federal regulator, would have the authority to allow the small business lending cap to slowly increase from the current 12.25% limit to a maximum of 27.5% of total assets. now, lest you think this has just been pulled out of thin

air, the proposal has the backing of the banking committee, the treasury department, and the national credit union association. it also has the national small business association, the national association of realtors, and even the conservative americans for tropical storm -- tax reform think this is a good idea. the credit union national association projects that these reforms, they are sensible reforms, would increase small business lending by $10 billion within the first year, with an increase of nearly $200 million in my home state. i'm sure it would be similar to my good friend from oklahoma's state and all of the senators who serve in the senate. it's also expected to increase 100,000 jobs nationwide. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. udall: mr. president, this is disappointing. it's a shame we can't move this important legislation forward. we should be helping our economy. we're embroiled here in obstruction. i will continue to fight for this. i hope other senators who are here today will join me in helping me unleash the power of our credit unions to get

americans back to work. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i believe the regular order now is my amendment number 4833. at this time i would like to yield just for a moment for an announcement from the senator from colorado -- i'm sorry, from montana, senator tester. mr. tester: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: i want to thank the senator from oklahoma very much, very much appreciate kicking it over to me. i ask unanimous consent to be as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tester: i rise to honor the football team, the group from helena, montana, that won the niai national championship yesterday. it was one of those saturday games that fans live for. before i say more about the saints, i want to extend my congratulations to the university of sioux falls cougar senator thune is in the chamber. he knows what a quality program this is. they put up a heck of a fight against the saints and had an incredible season finishing up

with an incredible game. with last night's win, carroll held the perfect season. they were undefeated every step of the way, and every step of the way, montanans watch with pride as they showed what it takes to work as a team and to win. carroll college fighting saints are no stranger to making football history. this isn't the first year that they returned to montana with the national championship trophy. what does it take? it takes hard work, strong leadership like that under coach mike van deest and old-fashioned montana grit. most importantly, it takes teamwork and trust. place kicker tom uremka missed two field goals, but coach van deest trusted uremka to make it happen again, and he made the winning field goal. mr. president, i want to take a moment to honor those fighting saints this afternoon. i ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating that team, to

the coaches and a whole lot of dedicated fans. their hard work and their victory is a warm reminder that hard work does pay off. we're already looking forward to next year. with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. kerry: mr. president, my colleagues were so impressed and moved by that, they have asked for an immediate vote on the start treaty. mr. president, if i could ask unanimous consent that we go from legislative session to executive session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kerry: and for the purposes of considering of the start treaty and the senator from oklahoma has the floor. mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i would at this time yield to the senator from south dakota, senator thune. mr. thune: mr. president, i would ask that the pending inhofe amendment be set aside in order to call up amendment number 4841. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from south dakota, mr. thune,

proposes an amendment numbered 4841. in section -- mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the reading be set aside. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i would further ask unanimous consent that we resume consideration of the inhofe amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i would like to yield at this moment to -- mr. kerry: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. kerry: i am just trying to get a procedure in place if we can. i wanted to ask my colleague from north dakota if we could enter into a time agreement on this. we won't ask colleagues to come back to vote tonight, obviously, but if we could get a time agreement and then set them aside for a vote at such time as the leadership decides is appropriate, i think that would help us expedite issues. mr. inhofe: i would object to a time agreement at this time, although that shouldn't delay it. i know there are several people, including the senator from arizona who wants to speak on this amendment, and that might create a p