30 into accommodates republicans, we would say there is a republican seeking recognition, that we alternate between the two sides may be under the same time limitations is listed at the. c so senator alexander, you can 1, view peak for 15, then you would have a block of 15th, senator merkley.wyden and then it would go to 34 senator weighed in. >> merkley, they would be be another republican who would be in a position to speak for 15 p minutes. and at that point, under a unanimous consent request, wbles would you look to discuss this bipartisan effort to eliminate secret holes forob up to 30 minutes. >> is there objection? tor fr >> .objection. senator from iowa. a >> i was wondering if the senator would mind a slight modification. one of the things we weren getting in here today were

colloquies or we could ask a man question and have a response in a m reasonable manner. i would has to modify unanimousa consent of the questions that are propounded to the senator to the chair not be detracted through the time allotted for that t senator. >> that's an excellente b selection. senator udall, senator merkley. >> i very much agree with it not been sitting here following the debate and i think senator ver alexander among others hasther o propounded very good questions. i actually have another question that i was going to ask him what is the filibuster, so i'm harkiu looking forward to that.harkin >> i think senator harkin has or made an excellent selection. mof if anyone has a problem with that, let us modify that to you see that i made to incorporatern senator harker -- senator harkin

suggestion unless my colleagues have an objection to n that. >> is there objection? without objection, so ordered.mr new mexico. s en thank you, not a president. s by the president, i submit on di behalf of myself and senatorsn, harkin, merkley, durbin,umentha, klobuchar, brown, begich, blumenthal, gillibrand, shaheen, boxer, tester, cardin, mikulski, warner and mansion a resolution to amend rule eight and rule 22 of the standing rules of the ime senate. and if ask consent to proceed t the immediate consideration of the resolution. >> is there objection? tenne senator from alexander -- senator from tennessee. >> madam president, i've had a number of discussions with the senator from new mexico and thee senatorgo from oregon.ropo

i respect their proposals andted will have more to say about them. it thinks is diverted to ate chilling turn to make their presentations that are merely stated my intention now and hav. more to say later. gover >> the objection be heard, the . resolution will go over under >> and let me, madam president, just to inquire through the that parliamentarian, it is my b understanding that they object to introduce resolutions come immediate consideration, the result of that is the resolution will go over under the rule, allowing it to be available toht be brought up at a future time. if that understanding correct? >> is correct. >> great, thank you very much. t i rise today to introduce a've e resolution that i just mentioned. and it worked very hard with all of my colleagues, including my two colleagues from iowa and to

oregon, senators harkin and merkley to reform the rules of this unique and prestigious last body.ry, i do so after coming to the floor last january, january 25 in fact, now almost one year a ago, to issue a warning. a warning because partisans rancor in the senate's own incapacitating rules, this body was failing to represent the best interest of the american o people. the unprecedented abuse of thets filibuster, a secret holes and of other chicha type takes routinely prevent the senate from getting its work done.b it prevents us from doing the job the american people sent us here to do. a day in january, things haven'e gotten better. in fact, i would say they'vego

gotten worse, much worse. here in the senate, open and honest debate has been replaced with secret backroom deals, partisan gridlock, up or down votes on important issues have been unreasonably delayed and blocked entirely at the whim of a single senator. last year, for example, one committee had almost every piece of legislation held up by holes from one senator. the senate is broken in the congress that just ended because expression, not a single one appropriations bill is passedapv that there was a budget bill. only one authorization bill was proved and that was only done aa the very lastn minute. more than 400 bills on a variety of important issues% over from the house. not a single one was acted upon.

key judicial nominations and executive appointments continued to languish. it the american people are fed upty with a it. they are fed up with us and i don't blame them. the we need to bring the workings of the se the senate out of the shadows and restores accountability. that begins with addressing our own dysfunction, specifically the source of that, dysfunctio, the senate rules. last year the senate ruleses committee took a hard look at how our rules have become so abused and how this chamber no r longer function as our foundersm intended. i applaud chairman schumer and his excellent staff for devoting so much time to this important issue.or and i know that senator roberts, we have some very good republican colleagues on the

committee and we've had some good exchanges. they know we've w had experience and heard from some of the most respected experts in the field.g but these hearings demonstratedn for one party or for only theocs majority. today the democrats lament the use of the filibuster and the republicans complained that they are not allowed to offer amendments to legislation. five years ago, those roles werd reversed.es rather than continuing to distract his path, we should adopt rules that allow a majority to act, while protect e the minority's right to be heard. whichever party is in theess. majority, they must be able to do the peoples business. i think senator harkin, that is what you spoke so persuasively to in your comments on theo filibuster is the majority hashe to be able w to gather. and the way the filibuster is

being used, the minority sports the majority's ability toified govern. the commi at a hearing in september, i testified before the committee about my procedural plan for amending the senate rules, theao constitutionaln. option.senators unlike the specific changes to the rules proposed by other senators and experts, my proposal is to make the senate of each congress accountable fo. all of our rules. and i this is what the constitution provides for and it is what our founders intended. rule 22 is the most obvious example of the need for reform. last amended in 1975, rule 22 demonstrates what happens when the members of the current tenants have no ability to amend the rules adopted long ago, a, r rules that could abused. i've said this before, but it bears repeating. of the 100 members of the

senate, only two of us, only two of us had the opportunity to vote on the cloture requirement senators in no way and flaky. hn t' if 98 of us have it voted ona the rule, with the effect?ffectt well, the effect is that we aree not held accountable when thebu. rule gets abused. rule and with the requirement of 67 t votes for any rule change, that is a whole lot of power without restraint. we can change this. we can restore accountability to the senate.al schol constitutional scholars agree with me that a simple majority of the senate can and debate ond a rules change and adapt itsat rules at the beginning of theew new congress. rul critics said might position argued that the rules can only e be changed in accordance with the current rules and that rulef

22 requires two thirds of and senators present and voting to c agree to end debate on the change to the senate rules. 1 since this rule was first both aropted in 1917, members of both parties have rejected this argument on many occasions.y in fact, advisory ruling by vice presidents nixon, humphrey andse rockefeller, setting as the president said the senate, haves stated that he senate at the beginning of the congress is noe found by the cloture requirement imposed by previous senate. they went on to say that each new senate may end debate on a proposal to adapt or amend the y standing rules by a majority vote.y and that bears repeating. by a majority vote. cloture -- cloture and and amendments, majority vote. tay's

even in today's more partisannmi environment, i hope my colleagues will extend this same courtesy and their constitutional rights will be beginning of this congress. in 2005, senator hatch, someone oo understands constitutionalbr issues perhaps better than any other member of this chamber wrote the following. and i quote. a compelling conclusion is that before the senate readouts rule 22 by acquiescence, a simple majority can invoke cloture and adopt a rules change.loture a at this is the basis for vice the president nixon's advisory for opinion in 1957 as he outlined the senate's right to determine its noom the constitution itself ann therefore cannot be restricted

or limited by rules adopted a mj majority ofor the senate in the previous congress. so it is clear that the senate at the beginning of a new c congress can invoke cloture anda amend its rules by a simple majority, end quote. that entire quote there was and as senator alexander and senator corker no, many years ty the chairman of judiciary commia committee and very powerful quote you think. think introducing a resolution today.- justice reformers have done at e the beginning of congress in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and it is why i'm here on the floor ons the first day, to make clear toy that i am not acquiescing tocqui that senate tried to tie the

hands of all future senate bywof leaving the requirement in rulee 22 for two thirds of the senate to vote to end a filibuster on a rules change.ur but this is not what our founders intended. article i, section five of the constitution clearly states thae each house may determine the rules of its proceedings. adopt there is a requirement for a supermajority to adopt our rules.is and the constitution makes it very clear when a supermajority is required to act.ity therefore, any rule that prevents majority in future res senate for being able to change or amend rules adopted in the past is unconstitutional. the fact that we are bound by a supermajority requirement that was first established 93 yearso ago, also violate the common law

principle that one legislaturecd cannot bind its successors. this principle goes back hundreds of years and has been s appalled by the supreme court on cmerous occasions. this is not a radical concept. the constitutional option is a history dating back to making 1n and has been a catalyst for bipartisan rules reform several times since then. the constitutional option is our being abused, rules that have encouraged obstruction, like sen none other -- like none ever seen before in this chamber. and amending our rules will not, at some have contended me thee senate no different than the cos house. while many conservatives claim the democrats are trying to abolish the resolution maintains the rule,b. but addresses its abuse. more importantly, the filibuster

was never a part of the original senate. the founders made this body hou distinct from the house in many esys, but filibuster is now oner of them.ng a here we are today in the first day of the new congress, offering a resolution to reform the senate rules. force a we don't intend to force a vote today. the in fact, we hope we can return from the break and spend some time on the floor debating a resolution, considering amendments to make it better,arn debating other resolutions. they should not be a partisan at exercise. i think almost everyone of us that is hathe today have said sn that. this should not be a bipartisano exercise. we knowwid both sides have abusr the rules.ork now it's time for us to work together to fix them. choose from. there is the first path. just we do nothing and just hope thad

the spirit of bipartisanship ann celebration returns. the truth is we've been on this path for a while now and i think the results are pretty clear. or we could take a second path.o we could take a good hard look at our rules, how they incentivize obstructionists i'my owmehow they inhibit rather thah promote debate and how theybipas prevent bipartisanan cooperatior and then we should implement commonsense reforms to meet these r challenges. reforms that will restore the uniquely deliberative nature ofg this body, while also allowing o it to function more efficientlyt i contend that we not only cho choose the second path. we owed to the american people s into the future of this is to to e refor emould we author. att reform resolution we introduce p today is our attempt atat the fe

second path.t it contains five reforms that ba should garner road, bipartisange support.ou if wnte cannot for the good of o country and not the good of our party is.n the first two provisions in a t resolution address as the debate on motions to proceed in secrets holds. these are not new issues. make any motion to proceed non-debatable or limiting debate on such emotion has hadsuort bipartisan support for decades d and is often mentioned as a way to end the abusive holes. be i was privileged to be here forg senator byrd's final rules committee hearing, where he of stated, i have proposed a variety of improvements. this is a quote.mprovement a variety of improvementss to m senate rules to achieve a more sensible balance, allowing the f majority to function whileun sty protect a minority rights.ate on for example, i've supported eliminating debate on the motion to proceed to another. time onuh

or limiting debate to a reasonable time and such motions, end quote, robert byrd. in january 1979, senator byrd, senate floor and said that unlimited debate on a motion toe proceed quote makes the majority leader and the majority party the subject of the minority, wil subject to the control and will senator byrd. despite the moderate change that se senator byrd proposed, limiting debate on a motion to proceed te 30 minutes, it did not have thee necessary 67 votes to overcome a filibuster. at the timeli, senator byrd argn that a new senate should noott , bound by that rule, steaminge quote, the constitution in article i, section five says that he house shall determine the rules of its proceedings.

now we are at the beginning of congress. this congress isbl not obliged o be bound by the dead hand of ths past, end quote. >> senator's time has expired. >> thank you, none of chair.utes i would ask for another two minutes and also recognizing on up here. >> is there objection? >> without objection, have two-minute. since >> efforts to reform, the motion to proceed has continued since.d in 1984, a bipartisan citigroup center practices and procedures recommended placing a two-hourmo limit on debate of a motion toaj proceed. that recommendation was ignored. a joint committee or organization of the congress in 1993 made the samey recommendation and my predecessor, senator domenici wanted a longtime republican here, senator alexander kcanowns supported that.

the third provision in the resoluti the comments of the republicans the last year's rules committee. each time democrat complained about motions to proceed, republican seats on three was their only recourse because thee majority leader feels it preventsdm them from offering ps amendments. a seu our resolution provides a simpl. solution. it guarantees the minority the rights to offer amendments.s. and the fourth provision in the bill, which senator markley is th going to cover extensively as the talking filibuster. filibuster with a talkingolution filibuster. post-cloture time on nominations from 30 hours to one. meant post-cloture time is meant for debating and voting on-- amendments, something that isn not path up on nominations.natii

with that, madam chair, i would just sum up and say reformist hv badly needed. we have a responsibility to ther constitution, to the american people to come together and fixo the senate. tackle the nation's problems, but we find that the biggest problem to tackle itself -- the biggest problem to tackle is washington at south. and with that, would asko unanimous consent to put my full comment for the record, put several editorials on the the filibuster that has appeared in the "washington post," an op-edd piece in "the new york times" bm walter mondale. i know my colleague, amy klobuchar is here. is senator mondale, veryondale, distinguished former vice president, leader in the senate wrote a very passionate piece ie "the new york times" in the

mouth of those items be included in the record. >> is there objection? without objection, so ordered. >> senator from iowa. mr. colleagues as well as any of the public watching the debate today knows that there is a greatnator partisan divide this fire.referd senator wyden has already referred to the motion that heue and i are putting before theeing senate. my being and senator white and being aoid democrat in my being a republican, we are joined also by senator mccaskill, theg offig presiding officer right now as well as senator collins in thisy effort. it is the only i bipartisan isse before the senate this becse i particular day. public out and i emphasize that because i think the public ought to knowsa that not everything in the senate is partisan. senator wyden and i have been chipping away at the informal backroom process known as quote

unquote secret holds in thes senate. we've been working on this for well over 10 years.so so it shouldn't surprise anyonee they were back again at the start of another congress, joined as i said by senator mccaskill of missouri, who is pg very helpful in pushing this issue to the forefront at the lt end of the last congress.o and as i said, i'm also pleasedc that senator collins on boardol again.alk there's been a lot of talkhe lately about far-reaching reforms to have the senate does business that have been hastily conceived and should shift thene tradition balance -- the traditional balance between the rights of the majority in the rights of the minority parties.r now in contrast, our resolutionh by senator wyden and senator is neither of those two things. mi.

in other words, it does not shift the balance between the majority in the minority.-thougt this resolution is well thought out.ubject bipartisan of effort. heari had to subject us two committee. hearing and numerous carefully fissures over several years. in no way does that alter the balance of power between the minority and majority parties,y nor does it change any rights of any individual senator. this is simply about transparency and with account transparency at think you get the retail of accountability. i want to be very clear thatmenl they fully support theenator independent right of any h independent senators to withhold its consent when unanimous consent is requested. conduc in the old days, when senators conducted most of their daily senate floor and were on thehe y senate floor for most of the

day, it was quite a simple matter for any senator at that y time to stand up and say, i object when necessary if they really object to truly unanimous consent request and that was it, now since most senators spendecu mist of their time off these com senate floor because of thewith obligations for committee hearings, the obligations for meeting witht constituents and a lot of other applications that we have, we now came to rely rpon our majority leader in theo case of the democrats are to minority leader, in the case of theur republicans to protect het rights and privileges and prerogatives as individual senators by askingri p those lej or their substitutes to object on our behalf. the just as any senator has the on right to stand up on the senate floor and publicly say, i object, it is perfectlyator

legitimate to ask another senator to object on our behalf if he cannot make it to the floor when unanimous consent is requested.enators by the same token, senators have no inherent right to have otherr subject on their behalf, while at the same time keeping their shielding their legislative actions from the public because that's not transparent the end c it's obviously notou accountabl, being accountable. so, what i object to is not the use of the word holes for theine process of holding up something ine, the senate, but i object to what is secret holds for theet" object is secret is what we'reae fighting here. if a senator then has a o legitimate reason to object to eroceedings to a bill for a or h nominee, then he or she ought to have the gut to do so publicly.

a senator may object because hee does not agree to the substance of the bill and therefore cannot in good conscience grant consent or because they have not had at hand regardless. what should have no fear of being held accountable if by our interest is welhere the kids doe i had prior to his publicly yea, announcing eyeholes for many, many years. and it hasn't hurt one bit.scieo in fact, some of the senators that are most t conscientiouslel about preparing legislation for passage are also quite public. in short, there is no legitimaty reason for any senator to ever e play sold, to have that holds

the secret. so, how bizarre proposal achieve transparency and achievein accountability? and her proposed order for the a majority of minority leader to recognize a whole, the senator c place in the whole mess could bn seen in the record within one t session day and must give permission to their leader at te the time they pleased to hold to object in their name, not as the name of the leader. since the victor will automatically how prescient you namee the senator on the behalfe they're objecting, there will no longer be any expectation or pressure on the leader to keep the hold seeker.a unamous c if a senator objects to a not n unanimous consent request and does not mean another senator is having an objection, then the

objecting senator will be listed as having the hold.nd onis will end entirely once andi for all, the situation where ony senator objects, but is able to remain very committed very coy o about whether it is there an objection for some unnamed senator. objections have to be owned up to again.o our proposal protects the rights of individual senators to withhold their consent while ensuring transparency and public congress as well as any place in the federal government exceptpub maybe national security issues,i public business always have tott be public. people in salt ought to stand behind their actions. as i have repeatedly said, the t senate's business ought to be

done more in the public than it is. and most of it is public.mystert but the secret hold puts a i mystery about things going on it washington that hurts the credibility of the institution. this principle of accountability and transparency, this is a principle that i think the vast majority if not all senators can get behind.me for t and i think the time has come for a simple commonsense reformo i yield the floor. t i'll do that. thank you. i yield the floor. mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mering america i ask unanimous consent for katie fann to have privileges on the floor for the remain defort day. the presiding officer: officer without objection. mr. merkley: madam president, the united states senate is broken. during the course of my first two years in this body, there

has been only a couple serious debates in this chamber. debates in this chamber. the first one happened just a couple of weeks ago and that was an impeachment trial of a judge. now, the magic again because the cameras were turned off, and sos senators were not speaking to c the camera. they were speaking to each othe and second they were required tr be on the floor so they were actually here to listen to each other and after all the evidence had been presented senator started to engage back and forth about their interpretations about the evidence, that the standards that would constitute grounds forro conviction and he would not have been able to tell who was republican and who was the democrats. we had a real debate that it took two years to have that first debateav. h

and we had a debate over the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. that was a pretty good debate too. that t happened after another oe happened a couple of weeks ago. but for the balance of two years, virtually never a debate on this floor with senatorsr hearing each other out, listening to each other, considering the pros and cons,h dressing each other's amendments. that is a tremendously differen senate from the senate i firsthe witnessed when i came here is ag young man, is an intern for senator hatfield in 1976. i came and i was up here in the staff section and i would come down to meet senator hatfield on a particular tax reform bill that had a series of amendments and a i would brief them on the diamonds being debated. he would come in and talk it over and vote in an hour laterat they would be another boat and at hour later another vote. debating between back-and-forths enormous respect and currency between the t members to the principles of the u.s.to senate

being a body of deliberation, a body of debate but today madam president that respect is t gon. and the most visible sign of the decrease and the mutual accord has been the abuse of the filibuster. now, the filibuster is a common term we use for a decision to oppose the termination of debate and oppose voting with a straight majority has envisioned in the constitution. that starts from a principle of mutual respect. that is as long as any an individual has an opinion thatth bears on the issue at hand, that senator should be able to express thatex opinion and we aa body should be able to hear it and out of that will become a better policymaking process. well, unfortunately over time,

that mutual respect has been wield more and more as an instrument of obstruction because each time a senator objects to a simple majority vote under the rule they create a one-week delay and a supermajority hurdle. and so if you object 50 times a year you have wiped out every single week of the year.nd this chart gives some indication of how grossly the principle of mutual respect and debate has been corrupted and abuse. in 19031970, there was on average a single use of theh filibuster each year, an average of one per year. over that 70 year period. in the 1970s that climbs climbed to an average of 16 per year. in the 1980s to an average of

21 per year. in the 1900's, an average of -- excuse me and they 1930s an average of 36 per year. 0 between 2,002,010 this last decade, 48 are year and in the last two years i have served in the u.s. senate, 68 per year. an average of 68 are year or roughly 135, 136 in that two-year period. if each one of these absorption one week of the senate's time canne see how this has been used to essentially run out the cloct and obstruct the very dialogue that the senate would like to v pride itself on. t there is a statement about the senate. w the world's greatest deliberative body but today in the modern senate, thatbu incredible tribute to thisam

chamber has been turned into an exclamation of despair. d where did that deliberative body go? not only not the most deliberative body but devoid because of its abuse. so we went from mutual respect to essentially mutual, destruction using legislative destruction using this filibuster. so in 2010 this last year passeb not a single appropriation billa pass. we have huge backlog of nominations. our role of advise and consent has been turned into obstruct and delay in terms of nominations for the executive branch and the judiciary. now we have a constitutional responsibility to express our opinion that this body by using the filibuster has prevented this body from advising and consenting, either approving or disapproving these nominations. it certainly is a terrible thing

to have a responsibility of the legislature be damaged, but not only have we done that but we have proceeded to damage the executive branch and the legislative ranch. quite an intrusion on the balance of powers envisioned in our constitution. than we have the hundreds of house bills that lie collecting dust on theg store is they can't get to this chamber because of this abuse.st all of this needs to change. i first came here in the 1970s where there was a challenge in the 1975, there was a huge debate that resulted in changing the level required to overcome a filibuster from 67 senators to 60 senators and yet in 73 and 74 the two years that preceded that there were all made an average of 22 filibusters a year, notibs 68. we are more than triple the dysfunctional lead to the last

great role debate. that is why we are here today. to find a path forward.e there are so many who have been sohi instrumental in this debat, so many members of o the class f 2006 and 2008 and now members of 2010 who are engaged in this. my hat goes off to senator schumer and leahy -- leaving these hearings and trying to find that balance between every senators right to be heard and our collective responsibilityo for majority to legislate.ho senator udall who has done this enormous investigation of the constitutional process for amending the rules and so many others. the first key part of a package of reforms that a number of us, 16 i believe now have cosponsored this resolution, the first key piece is the talking t filibuster. now, the talking filibuster

reform is essentially to make the filibuster what all americans believe it is. that is, if you believe so strongly that this chamber is in a direction that is misguided you are willing to come and taka this for and make your case to the american people, let's take a look at our image of that, and that is here we are. jimmy a stewart thing the role f jefferson smith who comes to thisom chamber where i now stand and says, i will take this floor to oppose the abuses that otherwise might go forward.t he held that floor until he collapsed.at's that is what the american people believe the filibuster is all about. you want to make your case before the american people but today we don't have a talkingni filibuster. we have a silent filibuster. let's take a look at what that looks like. this is the way it works. the senator takes their vote --,

phone. they call a the cloak room and say i object to a majority vote and they go out to dinner. they don't take the floor with principle and conviction to say to the americanca people, here s why i am delaying the senate. here's why i'm going to hold thisth floor. this is not a situation we can allow to go forward and i'm going to stand here and make my case and american citizens please help me commence the other senators in this room. h that is the talking filibuster. now we have a silent filibuster. my good colleague from tennessee spoke earlier and he said i would like to have the talk your head off proposal.m g i'm glad to hear him back the talking filibuster, the jimmy stewart filibuster and that isom what this reform does. it says when folks object tose concluding debate it is because they have something to say and so we are going to require they come to the floor and say it.

it is that simple. and when nobody has anything t left to say, then we will proceed with the majority vote.g we don't change the number of senators required one bit. it is still 60. it completely honors at principle that if established in 1975. well, the second may proposal is the right to amend.he a number of our colleagues on both sides i'll have been veryo concerned about the fact that issues come to this floor and you can only imagine, if you take unanimous consent to put amendments forward andnt largelr that only works if there is aen deal that has been worked out between the majority leader andt minority leader.r. some of my colleagues across thl aisle, they have said they are offended by her inability to a amend. i can assure my colleagues across the aisle i am equally offended. i wanted desperatelyof t. be abn to offer amendments but i thinkd we could have improved and ith would like to see an amendment

on the other side. this is an issue of concern to both sides. soth this addresses back and sas it will be a guaranteed set of amendments that the minority leader can pick from among the more he -- majority of msn to get the process of amendments going. if they want to have denounced consent and increase that number to a higher level and get more from the minority and more frome my the majority side that would be terrific but at least they can't say no amendments. the third is nominations. right now, we have a hugeba backlog. this resolution make's modest changes in nominations.it it says this. not following cloture will reduce from 30'v hours to two hours. we a party have the debate of that individual. let's have a vote. that is what that says. thatl, means that you can be les less -- senators will be less u tempted to use the filibuster oa nominations is an intimate to

delay and obstruct the senate. not complete cure but a step or what in right direction. our fourth is a ban on secret holds. senator grassley has spoken to that. senator wyden is going to speakt to to a dance center mccaskill has joined with them and others and i believe at one point there were as many as 70 senators expressing in a letter their support to get rid of the secret holds. anyone should stand on the floor and present their ejection tohe this chamber, to their colleagues into the american people. when folksn have to take a position on the floor whether iu be through talking filibuster or three being public announce holt, then the american publicor can weigh in. then you are taking a business out of the backroom onto the floor of the chamber. than the citizens can say you are a hero for you fr action or you are a bum for what you are

doing. our floors a clear path tolear debate. excuse me, this is a clear pathe to debate. right now a lot of the filibusters we have suffered through our on getting to debatt that is getting onto a bill to begin with, proceeding to a's bill.o so there is probably no better o example of the abuse of the filibuster which was supposed to be mutual respect for debate being used to debate. and so under this proposal there would be two hours of debate over whether or not to get a new bill and then we would vote and either go to the pillar wedon' don't. if folks want to filibuster they can do that but it will be a a talking filibuster where we are. not in the backrooms. we are out here making our m ca. these five concepts are not radical concepts. they are modests. steps towardsa

staying in this incredibly partisan environment we now operate in, where so many press outlets are attacking on each side all the time and so on and so forth. have to set ourselves on the path to take ourselves out of that hyperpartisan atmosphere and start to restore the senate as a place of dialogue and debate. perhaps these are modest steps but modest steps in the right direction, and that is anemel extremely important way to go. so i call to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, my be colleagues who have said there should be amendments. i colleagues who have spoken in favor of both sides of the aisle in favor of the jimmy stewart model of holding this floor and having talking filibuster's. let's do it. let's use the start of this two-year period not to say that something is deeply wrong when

we w have in a two-year period 5 for 138 filibusters eating up all the floor time, preventing modest amendments, preventing modestve hills and putting us on this path to gridlock. the senate is broken. let's fikex it. thank you madam speaker. >> the senator from tennessee. e >> madam president?oppo i have enjoyed this extensive opportunity to hear my colleagues on a very important subject, what the nature of the senate will be. i'm going to have about 10 minutes of remarks to comment on senator merkley and senator udall's comments and that i'm going to yield to senator, then senator from oregon, the other senator from oregon, senator wyden, for his colloquy. madam president if i could say

anything from deep down within me to my colleagues who are so exercised about this, it would be this.es before we change the rules, use the rules. before we change the rules, use the rules.e've now we have talked about senator byrd a lot a because he understd the rules so well. s i bolten told the story of one senator baker became theea republican leader, the majority leader.d, in 1981 he went to see senator byrd the democratic leader and said senator byrd i'm suddenlytl be a geordie leader and i will never know the rules as well as you do so i will make a deal with'l you. i if you won't surprise me, i won't surprise you and senator byrd said, let me think about it the next morning he told senatos baker he would do that.

before we get too mired down in our differences let's think foro a moment about what the goald ought to be in the goal to me for the senate is the senate thy way it operated during those eight years when senator byrd and senator baker were the leaders of their party.ears four years bird was majority leader, for years baker must majority leader. and talking to staff members some of them who are stillo around, senator merkley goes back to senator hatfield in 1976. i first came here in 1967 as senator baker's legislative assistant when there was only gt one legislative assistant for senator but by the time he gotre 277 i came up and spent three years here with senator baker when he became the republican le leader. i followed him pretty closely during the next eight years.he here is the way it worked. i the majority leader weather was byrd corp. baker, would bring a bill to the floor.

he would get the bill to the s floor because the senators knew they were going to get to debate and amend the bill. the senator from oregon is talking about no debate. of course there is no debate. all those closures mean offering an amendment and debate. they are calling a filibuster they cut off.us it wouldn't be a filibuster. if the majority leader weren't cutting off my right to debate n which he has done six times which he has done more than a lasix majority leaders putle together but let's go back to what the goal is to be.nd senator byrd or senator baker would say w okay the education bill is up, energy bill iss up.i everybody get their amendments and. they might get 300 amendments. then at some point the majority leader would say i ask for unanimous consent that the amendments be cut off. get

of course they get that after a while because everybody had all the amendments they could thinkt of. so, they might have 300 amendments. that was not unusual, 300 amendments. you didn't go to the majority leader and take it down on yourm knees and say mr. majority i please offer an amendment? they have for this amendment and after that a minute.you you just put your amendment and there and then they started the voting. and then they did something else that we don't do today, which is why i'm talking about using the rules before we change the rules. they voted. they debated. d they voted.they they debated, they voted, they e debated and of course 300 amendments is a lot of amendments of the leaders of the staff would say to the senator from north carolina or the senator from oregon are you sura you wants 25 amendments? it is wednesday night. get know, 10 will be enough. the indicated thursday night, you sure you want these fiveda amendments. we are going to be here friday.

we are going to finish this bill. we will be here saturday for we have to be. you are going to get your we' amendment. and we are going to vote on it but we are going to finish the d build. that is what they did. that is what they did. it wasn't always that case. sometimes there would be ae legislation that would come up so they would try to kill it. just like we do b today. the democrats would bring up ael secret ballot election and we do everything we could do to kill it.law, to repeal the health care while the democrats going to do everything they can to kill it or code that is separate but most of the time the bill came to the floor. there was bipartisan cooperation. ame there were amendments. now, why was there bipartisan cooperation? because theyio knew that unless they had that they wouldn't move an inch.ir being good senators they wanted to do their jobs.

in fact senator baker would tell his republican chairman don't even bring the bill to the floor must be ranking member of the democrat is with you. so the picture would be most of the time.epubli you would have a democrat in the republican there and they wouldd be fighting amendments often get to a conclusion. that was not usually work.il and there weren't so many filibusters because the majority leader wasn't cutting off theat right to debate and calling it d filibuster. this is a word trick is what this is. i that is my concern. i've talked to a lot of my friends on the democratic side and a lot of republicans. i think we basically want the same thing. tha i think we won the senate that works better. i think it is a mere shadow of r itself.t i agree with senator merkley about that but not because of filibusters.eb is because the majority leader isa cutting off debate and calling it a filibuster. so the majority leader and a republican leader i commend

today because they have been talking about how we can do better. and we alle know that changing the behavior will be more lasting than changing the rules. i'm glad senator reid and senator mcconnell are working on this. they have as senator schumer ank need to work on it some more and we are going to do that. we have been. o we have had several meetings ano we have another one this afternoon.r we will keep working and we will consider carefully these proposals or any other sick, ane we will see if we can come ton some agreement about how to move ahead that my heartfelt plea haa before we change the rules,es. let's use the rules. going down to the suggestion for example the motion to proceed, that is a difficult one for many of us because if you are in the minority to motion to proceed is your weapon to require the majority to give you an amendment. secret ballot, senator wyden gra tells me he and senator grassley have been working on that for feet teen years, secret holds i, mean. well, they have republican

supporting democratic support.aw maybe this is the time to deal with that. i make my holds public when i was nominated to the united states education secretary by president bush the first, the sn senator from ohio held me up for three months never sanguine i went around to see the signaturt from new hampshire, senator rudman. the senator from new hampshire and held themmm up. and finally rudman ran againstan the center and beat him. there are various cures for this problem but secret holds and het will be talking more about thatt is an area that has had a lot of pork and has bipartisanas suppo. the right to offer amendments, the problem i have with that is that is what we do.i i went out to see johnny cash sometime in the 1980s and i said estimate dumb question. johnny how many nights are you on the road? he said oh, 200.

i said why do you do that? he said that is what i do. you if you are on the grand ole opry grand ole opry using. if you are in the senate you offer amendments. you debate. we that is what we do.t that is what we are supposed to do yet we haven't been allowed to do it. talking filibusters.rs, if we talk about thet post-cloture. not the problem with that is the majority has not used the rules. with my holds up, if i object to going forward with a bill thema majority if they think i'mt, abusing that they can say okay senator alexander, get down there on theet floor because we are going to be here all night and you can only get seven houro and then you have to line up 23 other senators to take one hour each and if you stop talking we are going to put the question and if you do a number of things we ares, going to make a dilatoy motion. in other words the majority can make it really hard forea a senator who objects.ne

someone said one, two, three orn four senators can hold this place up. they cannot hold it up.us they cannot because if you have 60 votes he can pass anything.pa if you have 60 votes he can pass anything and senator byrd said in his last testimony before the rules committee that you cany confront a filibuster by using the rules. the last two things we can do is one, we can stop complaining about voting. it happens on the republican side and the democratic side.nd somebody offers an amendment that is controversial and everybody runs up to the leader and says oh we don't want to vote on that. wealthy are here to vote. that's why we are here. thi the third we can do and senator byrd suggested this in his last thoughts money is let's get rid week. three-day work there is not enough time for all the senators to offer their amendments and there is not enough time for the majority to confront the minority if they think the filibuster is being f abused if we have a three-day work week.

we didn't vote on friday one time this year so let's use the. rules. if you think we are holding something up improperly, confront that senator. run over him.yo you can do it. you have got the power to do it if you have 60 votes.an and in this new congress, theret will be plenty of opportunity. finally, i'm going to take these five suggestionsse and, and work with senator schumer and work with my friends on the other side. senator udall spend a lot of time on this and senator udallkl spend 15 years. senator merkley's to be a speaker and we have talked a number of times. i greatly respect his work in as a statement of fact that he has seen the senate for a long period of time. i am taking very seriously everything that is said here.t i am just worried about turning this senate into the house. we have the majority organization over there.

they can repeal the health care law c or get rid of the secret ballot union election. i if you turn this place into tha, then you just go bam, bam and it is done. at the senate is for us to say whoa, whoa. let's see if we can get a consensus before we do anything. wendy k. consensus we not only get a better bill g usually. the country accepts a better.e they like to see us co-operate.i a financial regulation bill where we have all got something in it. they feel better about it. a is does the checks and balances which is the genius of ourroun system.er i am committed to trying and i think of my friends for thef amount of time and effort they. have given. i'm going to take everything they have said very seriously and in the spirit they have offered it but i hope a part of ou or solution is that we use tl

rules before we change the rules, because this is the forug to protect minority rights. f this is the form to force the consensus and we dare not lose that. we dare not lose that. i i think of the president and i yield the floor. >> the senator from oregon.ed t >> and present i ask unanimous consent of the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the bipartisan wyden grassley mccaskill collins resolution to and secret holds, which is at the does.al >> is there objection? >> madam president, reserving the right tot object. as i said earlier senator wydend and senator grassley and senator mccaskill and others have worked on this, some of them for as long as 15 years. they have made y significantn progress in gaining bipartisan support.y i'm going to object but only for the reason that this is one of

the items that will bee discussing and working on over the next few weeks with the hopes that perhaps we can get agreement over here andeen agreement over there. has been mentioned by all of the serious proposal, but because we don't want to resolve it today i object. >> objection having been heard. >> madam president. >> the resolution will go over under the rule. the senator from oregon.ea >> madam president before he leaves the floor, let me thanks senator alexander for the discussions that he has had with me on this issue, also senator mcconnell has spoken with me about this. i wish wehi were getting this de today largely because this would give us the chance on the firsty day of the united states senates new session to send a message that once and for all, we are

deep six thing secrecy, that weo are saying public business ought to be done in public. i wish it was being done today but i understand completely the sentiments of the senator from tennessee and the fact that he is willing to work with me as something i t appreciate. madam president as i've indicated they're obviously significant differences between the parties about how to reform the rules of the united states senate. rth o what i hope will be done certainly the very first day that the senate comes back and is in a position to formerly at which appears to be january 24,e is once and for all we could bring democrats and republicans together around an extraordinarily important change in the senatemp rule that senatl grassley and i have been trying to t end for literally 15 years

and now particularly with the energy and the enthusiasm that senator mccaskill has wrought to the cause, i think we are now on the cusp of being able to finally get this done. madam president, it has been clear that if you walk up and down the mainow streets of this country, people don't know what a secret hold this and probably a lot of people think it is athr hairspray. the fact of the matter there are more versions of secret holds them theree are moves in pro-wrestling. but what a secret hold really is all about, it is one of the most extraordinary powers that an individual senator has here in the united states senate and it can be exercised madam president without any transparency and without any accountability

whatsoever. what a secret hold is all about is one united states senator camp lock the american people, the entire country, from learningry about a piece of legislation that can involve aliens ofil dollars, scores and scores of people or a nomination with the ability to influence the lives of all americans. one united states senator can block that consideration without owning up to the fact that they are the ones that are defining the public right to know about how senate's business is. madam president that is just wrong. it is not about how republicans see it or democrats see it. it is just common sense. most people when you tell them,

the united states senator can block an enormously important piece of legislation or ano nomination that affects millions of people, they can do it in secret, they say i can't believe that you all have those kinds of rules. of well the fact is that is the way the senate operates madam i president and suffice it to say it is getting worse.go, just a few days ago for example, justice roberts, chief justice roberts, said that the number of vacancies on our courts is creating a judicial emergency. those are the words justice roberts. at least 19 federal judges have an approved by the senate judiciary committee unanimously lord mayor unanimously and never got a vote on the floor of the united states senate. madam s president, not one unitd

states senator has publicly taken responsibility for worsening the judicial crisis that justice roberts has been decrying oprah last few days.the just think about that. the chief justice of the united states united states during the christmas holiday said there was one thing he was concerned about and that was the emergency images shall system. justice roberts and my view is correct. i think we do have an emergencyt we have been trying to getvera several judges in the state of oregon approved. senator merkley and i, but no t member of the united states senate will publicly take responsibility for worsening this crisis that justice robert is appropriately so concernede about. now we have tried in the past madam president with

legislation. we actually got a law passed at oneot time to get rid of secret holds. we have tried with pledges from the leadership of both political parties and in every instance of the defenders of secrecy have found their way around theemen requirements and in my view the public interest. i would just make two points anh then i want to allow senator mccaskill to have a chance to address this issue. but there are two points with respect to why this effort badham president to end secret holds would be different. the first is that every old hert in the united stateser senate after the passage of this bipartisan resolution would have a public owner.

and second there would be p consequences. in the past there have not been consequences for the individual who would object. and that individual who would object would usually send someone elsee out to do their objecting for them and they would be complete anonymity for essentially all concerned, because the person who would bew objecting would be in effectff saying i am just doing it for somebody else.t so the heart of this bipartisan compromise is to make sure that every hold has a public owner cn and there would be consequences. there may be madam president, there may be a senator ranchers becomes known as senator obstruction.r senator obstruction is the one who is trying to block publicam business. let them explain it to the american people. i will have more to say about ia in a little bit and the possibility of other colleagues coming but senator mccaskill han

really brought an energy and passion to this that is made it possible foror us to as i say be the cusp of finally forcing here in the senate public business to be done in public and i want to thank herc. for all her help, allow her to take this time. she said she thought she mightut speak for 10 minutes. senator klobuchar who has also been a great and passionate advocate of open government will alsote speak and her colleagues who have an interest, we have 30 minutes of time and senator f mccaskill with appreciation for all you have y done, the time is yours. >> madam president? >> the senator from missouri. >> madam president when i rise in this chamber four years ago at this time i had no idea what the ways of the senate were. i had an idea that this is a

toce where people came to debate and to have a collegial relationship with your fellow senators across the there have been a lot of problems with ethical issues in the capital.so one of the first things that happens in a class of 2006 was senate bill 1. senate bill 1 was a far-reaching ethics bill that included things like nomar free flights on corporate jets. included new requirements in terms of gifts from lobbyists and it also included a provision that i didn't know at the time had been worked on by senator wyden and senator grassley for many years. thatea provision said that we ay weren't going to have secretow holds any more. so imagine how great i felt on january 18, 2007, that we have

done this comprehensive ethics bill that was going to clean up our act and that we weren't going to have secret holds. well i find it ironic that senator alexander said just use the rules. we will just use them. well so when i started figuring out that the game aroundig heren the last 18 months had developed into a game of secret holds, i asked my staff i said hey, s didn't we have something in senate bill 1 about secret holds?no not knowing the relationship this language had to senator wyden and senator grassley. my staff look at it and i go they can't do it. i began coming down to the floor and using the -- i did exactly what senator alexander recommended. i came down here and began making motion after motion which under the language of that statute would seem to indicate that all the senators support except for -- at much you makeeo

these motions that people would have tocome up the shadows and claim their hold. that is when i discovered that the people, there were a bunch .idthem that didn't need it they didn't mean it. it was window dressing. they weren't sincere aboutrt secret holds because we discovered when we started of trying to use that language system of the folks who voted for it were doing good old switcheroo. when they were called upon undeo the law to reveal their hold, they would just hand their hold off to someone else. and that is when i began getting frustrated with the games that were being played and i want to thank senator wyden and senator grassley and others that i've worked on this but i will tell you the most depressing thing i've heard heress today. this is something that has been worked on for 15 years.at seriously, think about that.ed we have allowed people to secretly hold nominations and

the people's business and there have been members trying to5 clean it up for 15 years.ou and we wonder why we are having trouble with our approval rating. nothing is more hypocritical than all the sanctimonious stuft i'm hearing down the hall aboute the new aero. aero. no more business as usual.e're we are going to have accountability and transparency thaten yet we seem to be embroid down at the center of the hall was not even being able to get a beyond a secret hold. fish abc. some of the other provisions debated today day, i understand there' ps concerned. i think those concerns have been addressed in the resolutions by

senator merkley and senator udall and senator harkin from iowa. butbu really if we can't get 67 votes to end secret holds and amend the rules, how seriously can we take anybody that claims they want accountability and transparency in government? i mean this is the hall of fame hall of fame of hypocrisy. this isn't just hypocrisy. is the hall of fame. that is why i think we have got to get busy and get the secret hold revision done.ms i would like to see us get all of these reforms done. i've really wanted to spend asp second on what senator alexander's suggestion was. the suggestion was to use the rules. well, honestly, does he think the way to solve this problem is to force the majority to stay here all night with staff spending the taxpayers money to

force someone over and over again to say i object? we can't make the minority talk so that means the majority whetted as democrats or republicans have to stay all night and call to question. they don't have to have -- i li mean that you do live quorum calls but really that is what we need to do to make this place where? that is hisak suggestion, to foe the people who are objecting in the staff and the people around here to stay here all night every night until someone breakg that is a good idea? i think that means somebody has probably been around here too long. it doesn't sound like a good idea. doesn't sell like a commonsense idea that we would be promoting in missouri. i think it makes more sense ifd you are the minority and you want to block legislation that you own it. just own it. block it.nori that is what the senate is whe about.he

minority can continue to block legislation with academic rats are in the minority or republicans are in the minorityo they have just got to own a. they have just got to be willing to say we are blocking this for the following reasons because we think it is important and let the people decide. the same thing withhold. if want to hold something, hold it and let the people decide whether or not you are being reasonable.w what i was disgusted to learn was how many people were usingng secret holds an effect they were bragging about a.hi they were using secret holds to get something else. i'm going to hold this nominee in this department because i want money for a community center. if you don't give me money for r community center in my town you can't get the deputy secretary of the interior through. i am making up this example but that is actually what is going on. is like a secretly hold something until you can get them to give you something else.me that is the essence of the backroom dealing that people are disgusted with.e

on it, be proud of it. defend defended, debated. but don't hide it. that is what this is all about. i want to thank my colleagues who have worked on this and i just want to close with this comment. con bad habits have consequences and if we don't take this opportunity to fix what is going on in the senate -- mathis is not the way the senate has operated for hundreds of years. if we don't change thiss pathfo then we are going to be on this path forever. if the minority now doesn't think that the time comes when they may not be in the minority, they don't think we haven't learned from them? seriously? this place is going to be dysfunctional as far as the eye can see because they will fillll the tree and we will just block, everything and they will block everything and we will fill thee tree. this is going to go on forever a until there are enough people

around here that are willing toi set aside the political maneuvering and do what's right. for the future of deliberationst in a body that we all want to be proud of but right now we can't be so proud of the way we operate around here. i want to thank the senator from oregon and all the senators who have worked on this and i i hope that we can pull back from the, brink because that is where we are. we are about ready to institutionalize a way of operating around here that isn't something any of us should be proud of and i yield the floor.c >> madam president?we >> the senator from oregon. >> how much time do we have lefu >> 13 minutes.in >> thank you madam president. i yield five minutes to the gentleman from minnesota. >> thank you very much. thank you for your leadership. >> the senator from minnesota.na >> as we begin the 112 congress i want to first congratulate myt colleagues colleague somehow we

ended the 111th congress. we had an incredibly productive lame-duck section -- session insuring taxes were raised on the middle-class ratifying the s.t.a.r.t. treaty among othersig things. we worked together to solve problems. this was not always the case during the last congress that we ended on a high note. as their work begins today and knew, we all know there isno stl a great deal of work to be done madam president. we have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure that american workers can findma jobs, to get her back on track and find long-term solutions to ourun mounting deficit.of because of the urgent business that is in front of us i am f hopeful that my fellow senatorst and my colleagues across the aisle will agree that it is time for some change, that it is not time for business as usual. we have heard from so many of my colleagues that have been working on this issue, senator udall, senator merkley, senatorn

harkin, senator wyden, senatoror mccaskill and also senator grassley with this important work on the secret hold.a mes the elections on november 2 send a message to every member of congress the american people aren't as in partisan bickering org procedural backlog for the game and shipping gridlock to prevent elected officials fromen doing their jobs. we weren't hired by our constituents madam president to hide behind outdated senateus rules as an excuse for not accomplishing things or not taking tough votes. that is just what the current senate rules are allowing us to do. fro i heard a lot from my friend from tennessee about how we want to use -- we should use theto current rules. the problem i have is that too c many people have been abusing the current rules.ca for senator wyden, senator h mccaskill and senator grassley so eloquently stated we have to permanently end the practice known as secret holds which basic the allows one or two

members of the senate to s prevt nominations or legislation from reaching the senate floor without identifyingng themselves we thought we had this done andl senator mccaskill pointed outstc with the ethics bill would pass when they first came into this chamber but unfortunately once again those rules were abused. there are some senators who are playing games with the rules.ut they are following the letters t but not the spirit of the reform that we adopt it. look at the kind of secret holds we have seen. secret holds, preventing the the president from assembling the team he needs to run the executive branch. this summer for example secret holds were placed on two members of the marine mammal commission. while the deep water oil horizons spilled was continuing to play out in the gulf region. a second example of what we have to get done here is filibuster reform. it is a long-standing traditione

in the senate that one senatores can if she chooses hold the floor to explain her objections to a bill. we think of jimmy stewart's character jefferson smith and mr. smith goes to washington as a e signing -- shining example f how individual conch chance can matter to the point of exhaustion in order to stymie a corrupt piece of legislation. today an individual senator virtually has the power to prevent legislation from being considered by nearly threatening a filibuster. at that point the majorityo leader must file a cloture petition in order to move to that piece of legislation. this sets a great deal of time to an already crowded senate calendar. this is not governing. this is not how we do the peoples business. this is not how we come together to find practical solutions to problems. c our current system is a far cry

stewart.y that is why a group of us have been working to get some the legislation passed, change the rules going forward. when you think about the history of the senate and i've listened with great respect as my colleagues talk about the of tradition of the importance of the rules of the senate, for protecting the rights of the minority none of these proposals, none of theses proposals will interfere with the rights of the minority to filibuster any piece ofwh legislation. but when you look at that history of the senate is about tradition but as time goes forward, there have been changes to the senate rules. every few decades there are changes to the senate rules. you look at my former colleague vice president p mondale, a greh leader who made significant changes to the senate rules.ency this is all about transparency and accountability and i urge my colleagues to support thisor. resolution. thank you mr. president i yield the floor.idin

>> mr. president?n. >> the senator from oregon. >> mr. president i don't see any other colleagues who want to speak on the bipartisan effortso to and secret holds that let me just make a couple of comments here in wrapping up.fi the first is senator grassley and i and others who have been active for so long have been willing in the past should just put a statement in the congressional record when and a handful of instances we thought it was important to lock aion particular piece of legislation or nomination. we felt it was important to be publicly accountable. all we are asking mr. president is that sensible of openness, transparency and government in a the sunshine apply to all members of the united states senate. the fact is mr. president,

secrecy has real consequences. i mentioned the fact that chief justice roberts has been so concerned about the judicial emergency that he has seen develop in our court system. i will tell colleagues that iurn saw during the lame-duck session on a bipartisan bill thatse senator cornyn and i spent many many months on to combat sex trafficking. we saw the consequences of a secret hold when the bill passed the united stateass senate, went over to the house of representatives, was passed in the house and then came backer here to the united states senate and it was blocked secretly.a a bipartisan bill mr. presidento to allow us to strengthen the

tools and law enforcement wouldr have in order to fight sexra trafficking, to provide urgently needed shelters to sex trafficking victims, a bipartisan bill that senator m cornyn and i spent many many monthsan on did not become law during the lame-duck session because of a secret hold. so i think a lot of senators have seen exactly these kinds of problems, judges, u.s. attorneyt we had votes from my home states to judges that couldn't be considered because of a hold with our being in a position to not identify who is objecting,h saying with the u.s. attorney. these are the real consequences mr. president of secret holds and i want tooli close with one last point. that is the big winners it seems

to me in the secret holds are the lobbyists. the lobbyists benefit tremendously from secret hold. practically every senator has got a request from a lobbyistng asking if the senator would put a secret hold on a bill or nomination in order to kill it o without any public debate andho without the lobbyists fingerprints appearing anywherea if you can guess a u.s. senator to go out and put an anonymous hold on a bill, you have been hit the lobbyist jackpot. now lobbyist can win more significantly than by getting a senator to secretly object because the senator is protected as a cloak of anonymity but so is the lobbyists and with a secret hold lobbyist can then go play both sides of the street. they can give lobbyists a victory for their clients without alienating potential or

future clients. given the number of instances where i have heard of lobbyist asking for secret holds, i want to say that those who oppose our efforts to and secret holds are basically saying that we ought to give lobbyists an extra tool, an extension of the tools they are to have, in order to advocate for their clients and the five public accountability. we passed stricter ethics requirements with respect toqu lobbyists. it just looks to me to be theoo height of the hypocrisy at the senate. a variety of exchanges toon curtail lobbyist has been done in the past at the same time about lobbyist to continue toso benefit as so many of the special interests have from secret holds. so this is the opportunityfter mr. president after a decade and a half for the public to get a

fair shake and for the public interest to come first. we have tried this in the pastwe but laws. we have tried this in the past with pledges, but i think that the public has caught on.asse suffice it to say there are going to differences between democrats andet republicans with respect o how to reform the rules of the united states senate.ted what i think has come to light if it doesn't pass the smell test to keep arguing that senate business ought to be done in secret.can the american people don't buy that anymore. they think this ought to be an open institution, a place where every senator is heldth accountable. this time is going to be different. there are going to be owners, public owners of any foe.o they are going to be consequences for any senator who

tries to block a bill or a nomination in secret.'s is going to be an important vote when we vote when we come back mr. president, a very important vote and finally one that will require that public business u here in the united states senate be done in s public.en mr. president with that i yield the floor. >> mr. president?r. p >> the senator from washington. >> thank you mr. president. s yes unanimous consent to speak in morning business for seven minutes.y: >> without objection. >> mr. president i rise this t afternoon to recognize and goo congratulate my good friend from maryland, senator barbara mikulski on onto day becoming theec longest-serving female senator in the history of the senate. this is an achievement that takes courage and passion and commitment. thi three things that all of us who know her so well know that she has in abundance.

mr. president even more eve important, in honoring my friend on the length of her service today i think it is important to read night sweats she has done with that service.enio the senior senator from maryland over her 24 years in the senate has established herself as a trailblazer, it a legislator, a leader and above all a fighter for her people in her state. but to me and to all the other women senators who have followed in her footsteps, she is simply a mentor. she is the senator who has offered guidance, taught us to be fearless and who has set a standard for all women senators who follow. .. she ran to be one of many. i first came to the senate in 1992 in the so-called year of the woman. and i can remember a lot of the press that year being about how

our incoming class of four women senators would open the door to changes in the culture of the senate. but when i golt here, i quickly -- but when i got here, i quickly realized that door had not already been broken, it had been broken down by senator mikulski. she was the first female democrat to serve on the senate appropriations committee, and she was also the very first one she was also the very first one >> she was also the first one to take all of the new women senators under her wing. she realized back then there was no rule book for women in the senate, and took it upon herself to help us guide the way. she drew on her own experiences to make the transition for all of us easier. she organized seminars, thought us about working together, taught us about the legislative process and rules on the off and subtle rules off of the floor. in short, she showed up the rope. she has been doing it ever

since. her work doesn't end with helping women senators get their foot in the door. i don't know if it's because she was a social worker before she came to washington. one thing senator mikulski knows, relationships matter. that's why she has worked to make sure that once women senators get here, we are working together. on both sides of the aisle. it's why she brings republican and democratic women together for dinners to find common ground and help solve problems. while senator mikulski knows it's important and courageous to be the first, she also understands the first ones have to be successful so that others can and will follow. it's because she has done her job so well that other women have been able to follow in her foot steps. she has done her job well.

she is here because she earned it. because the people of her state know she is indispensable champion for your causes. because she works across party lines, because she delivers results. and because she has said to us so many times she's always ready to square her shoulders, put on her lipstick, and suit up for the people who need it most. whether it's leading the fight for the very first bill president obama signed into law that guarantees women cannot be paid less than men for doing the same job, or fighting for seniors that rely on social security, or delivering investments for firefighters or police officers and first responders. or standing up for all of those in maryland who depend on her states environmental resources for their livelihood. there are few others that i want. there are few others that work

as hard as she does to give a voice. she has helped divide the way for 22 more senators. today there's 17. she will also be the first one to tell you we are not yet where we need to be. that more women need to serve in the body. that's why she has built a team of women senators behind her that continues to grow. today she makes history by serving longer than any other women. i know that many years from now when women have achiever a larger body, senator mikulski will be at the top of the list of people to thank. the person that not only cut the path, but who went back and guided so many of us down it. thanks to her, one day, the remarkable accomplishment we are

celebrating today may no longer be such a remarkable thing for a woman to achieve. it will be common place, and that will be her true and lasting legacy. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. >> mr. president. >> senator from north carolina. >> i am honored to join my colleagues on the senate floor today in honoring my mentor and dear friend senator barbara mikulski on becoming the longest serving woman in history. for more than 24 trail blazing years, senator mikulski has been one the senate's fearest advocates for women, families, and for the people of maryland who have now elected her to the senate for five consecutive times. before she arrived in washington in 1977 as the representative for the third district of maryland, senator mikulski already had it's distinguished career in public service working in baltimore as a social worker,

community activist, and city council member. when she was first sworn in as the women of the -- as a member of the house, she was one of just 18 female members. when she entered the senate ten years later as the first democratic woman senator elected in her own right. she was one of just two women in this upper chamber. they only motivated and emboldened senator mikulski. she continues, as she does today, work her ethics, human, and constituents. she has broken many barriers in her career. she was the first women elected statewide in maryland, and the first on the subcommittee and first to serve in the democratic leadership. if we are no longer surprised today when we see women in power

in washington, it is only because we had pioneers like barbara mikulski. as she recently told cnn, i might be the first, but i don't want to be the last. there are now 17 women serving in the u.s. senate. and senator mikulski, the dean of the women, is our leadership and our champion. i was both humbled and honored to have her escort me when i was sworn in as the united states senator two years ago. that was just the beginning of her ongoing mentorship. all of the senator can often be bogged down by partnership, i appreciate that senator mikulski encourages and creates an environment of teamwork, respect, and friendship. but while we today mark her place in history as a women senator, she is widely regarded as one the most respected, accomplished, and effective public servants in all of congress. to use senator mikulski's own words, she showed it's not about

gender. it's about agenda. she is one the senate's strongest advocates for science and technology and the importance of investing in innovation to spur our economy. in fact, earlier this year, i was watching a 3, -- 3d movie about the hubble with my daughter, a scientist, there was senator mikulski featured for preserving the telescope's budget. a feat she called one of her proudest accomplishments. she also wrote the anti- impoverishment act which protects seniors from going bankrupt while paying home came. she shepherded through the lily ledbetter act, no matter your origin, page, or disability, you will receive equal pay for equal work. she thought for her important

amendment to health care reform legislation ensuring that a comprehensive list of women's preventive services such as screening for breast and cervical cancer would be covered with no out-of-pocket expenses. i thank her for her mentorship and leadership for her fierce empowerment in the communities and public office. i congratulate her on the tremendous accomplishment and i join my colleagues in looking forward to many more years of her distinguished service. thank you, mr. president. and i yield the floor. >> vice president biden performed the ceremonial swearing in of senators today. that's next on c-span2. then we'll hear from senator historian don ritchie and the

opening of the 112th congress. >> on tomorrow's "washington journal" we continue our look at the new 112th congress. >> and house republicans have scheduled a vote for next week to try to repeal the health care enacted last march by president obama. tomorrow the house rules committee will hold a hearing on guidelines for florida on the repeal legislation. watch live coverage here on c-span2 at 10 a.m. eastern. >> following their official

swearing in on the senate floor, senators held a ceremonial swearing in with vice president joe biden. that took place in the old senate chamber at the u.s. capitol. it's an hour and 40 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> how are you doing? happy new year. come on, chuck, you can't change your mind now. you cannot change your mind now. we got your family. you win a primary. >> in the middle and the senator right here. >> where do you want this? right there? where am i? right here. i got to know where i am, you know what i mean? all right. chuck we'll have you stand in that one. >> does the family get around us? >> well, yeah, you can have the family. the second click. we're going to do the formal

thing, informal/formal thing ago. okay. [laughter] >> okay. please raise your right hand. can we have order in the old senate chamber, do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that you take this oath and obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help me god. >> i do. >> congratulations. i know why you did it. bring in the curtain. in a hurry. >> no myrrh re. -- hurry. >> this is our legacy right here. >> got a beautiful legacy. no dating until you are 30. that's all you got to remember. [laughter] >> look at all of these beautiful girls.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> come all the way around. >> yeah, come on. >> all right. here we go. >> wait a minute. all right. i can't see that. big guys up there. you didn't know you were the 6'7" grandson, did you? >> 6'7". [laughter] >> see up top there? [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> okay.

way up there. okay. over here guys. over to the press. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> are you smiling? are you smiling, babe? [laughter] >> all of you women under the age of 30, no dates until you are 30. [laughter] >> you have to wait six more years; right? congratulations. congratulations. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> what's your name? you are a good looking guy. how old are you? is this your sister? my sister takes care of me too. she still takes care of me.

>> you got to send the thank yous. thank you. congratulations, everybody. i went to school where your wife teaches. >> do you? good for you. good for you, man. keep it up. i'm not sure i'm going to do this one. i'm not sure i'm going to do this one. patrick, haven't you learned how to take an oath and a picture at the same time. >> no. trust me. if we ever could figure it out. >> hold back there. we are going to take a picture. >> you are going to stand on this mark. >> there you go. i'm standing here. [laughter] >> okay. ready? please raise your right hand senator. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies,

foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that you take the obligation freely out any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and you will discharge the duties of the office which you are about to enter so help you god. >> i do so help me god. >> congratulations. thank you. >> come on. come on. get his beautiful family in here. >> this is patrick. >> hey, patrick. how are you? how are you? it's great to see you again. hey, how are you? how old are you? 17? what is your name? >> fiona. >> fiona. how old are you? >> three. i'm three. >> you are three years old. >> good to see you, mark. how are you? how are you doing? >> come on. come on all the way over here.

help me out. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> if i could have you just one thing -- >> uh-oh. >> would you please exit this way? [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> maureen, how are you? welcome. great to see you. we are going to have you stand there. right on that spot right there. no, i'm sorry. on that one right there. and the real boss stands in the middle. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> do you swear to protect and defend, that you take the obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you were well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you were about to enter so help

you god. best united states senator i've ever known. that's you, buddy. how about the family come on up? look at that. >> this is jenny and jessica. >> good to see you. >> she's very relaxed. >> my family would say this gal has good blood. stand over here. stand next to however you want to do it. stand next to dad maybe. all right? okay. we're looking up. looking down. okay. got it? okay. thank you, everybody. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> well, i want to tell you something, i never doubted that. >> come on, this is my sister, chris. >> hey, chris, how are you? good to see you, chris. >> everybody come on up. come on up. this is my niece kim. >> hi, kim. how are you? >> this is valerie. >> hey, valerie. >> this is francesca. >> how you are? how you are big guy? >> i'm five. >> i thought you were five. and you are 17. >> no. 7. >> i knew there was a 7 in there. good to see you. how are you? hey, baby. how are you? >> this is nicki. >> how are you? just remember no dates until you are 30. [laughter] >> this is drew.

>> drew, how are you, man? what a nice looking man. great handshake. welcome. all right. you know, do one of your sisters want to hold the bible? we're going to do an reenactment. we're going to swear you in again. is that okay? >> can you hold this up. >> all right. senator would you raise your right hand please. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge duties of the office on which you are about to enter so help you god. >> i will. >> i don't doubt it for a second. [laughter] >> hey, let me tell you something. i told this to danny, y'all have

good blood. you, i tell you what. >> my sisters. >> i know. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> tell her i'm okay. will you? [laughter] >> are we doing gutters or -- come on, let's come up, what are we doing? would you come up? i don't know what we are doing. >> you were going to have the mike right here, ma'am. go back. go back. >> what are we doing now? okay. hang on. okay. am i blocking here? >> what are we doing, shannon? >> you stand with me. >> you take this one right now. okay. >> okay. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> a little bit more.

there you go. >> can you see everybody? am i blocking anybody? >> okay. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hang on one second. sis, come on over here. you get out here. >> hand out, sir. [laughter] >> cheese. >> host: okay. >> hands by your pocket. stand back. >> okay. okay. that's it. >> i served in the senate for 36 years. i take your sis and your grandma and -- i mean your aunt, i take her before about any ten people that i could name. >> okay. everybody. >> go get them. congratulations, everybody. >> thank you. >> good to see you. thank you, matt. >> thank you, sir. >> thanks, old buddy. patty, patty, patty, how are you? man, congratulations.

you guys got them. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> you are in the middle. there you are. i got to get my mark here. you know what i mean. hang on. she's going to raise her right hand and put your left hand on the bible. senator raise your right hand please. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance, and take the obligation freely without mental reservation, and purpose of evasion, and you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office that you are about to enter so help you god. >> i do. >> congratulations. >> thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hey, how are you? good to see you guys. what are you doing? big place, huh? good to see you, man. how are you?

>> you are in the middle. i make sure they can see that beautiful child. okay? okay. we're going to look over there. then we are going to look up top. ready? >> do you need us? future president. >> totally. without a doubt. >> you better take his picture now before you could say you knew him. >> before he could say. thank you very much. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> senator please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the u.s. against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and do you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation and purpose of evasion, and you that will faithfully discharge the duties of the office you are about to enter so help you god. congratulations. >> thank you. thank you. >> not at all. >> we could -- you got it? hey, dad. come on in here. how are you? >> i'm well. i hope you are. it's an honor to meet. >> it's an honor to meet you. hey, william, how are you? tyler, how are you? handshake. dad, get right in the middle here. you get right in the middle.

>> thanks. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [laughter] >> i know that's how i won. anyway. great to see you guys. >> want to come back to north carolina? >> i'd love to come back. i love north carolina. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> how are you? hey, johnny. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> do you solemnly swear to support and defend constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic then bear true faith and allegiance to the same and take the obligation without any mental reservation or purpose of

evasion and you are faithfully oblige the duties you are about to enter into so help me god. >> i do. >> congratulations. thank you. thank you. [laughter] [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> chuck. how are you, buddy? i didn't know he took you hiking and camping. >> i did. >> senator would you please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about

to enter so help me god. >> i do. >> congratulations, chuck. [laughter] >> this is my daughter. >> how are you? [inaudible conversations] >> hi, emma, how are you? >> my nephew. >> you are turning 11. just remember, no dates until you are 30. [laughter] >> hey, matt. good to see you, buddy. it could have been big, it could have been big. yes, good to see you again. hi, pam, how are you? come on, we're going to do a picture. emma, you get right in here. and mac, why don't you get over here? okay? does that work, everybody? >> that works great. >> we are looking at that camera first. :

>> we did this first, and then we bring the whole family. >> jane, you can stand in the middle. >> okay. excellent. >> you hold the bible. >> i'm the bible holder. >> raise your right hand. >> senator, please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to defend

and support the united states constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and you take this obligation freely without any reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and fatefully discharge the duty upon the honors which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. [inaudible conversations] >> can we bring the crew up? >> yes, let's bring the whole crew up. >> hi, bud buddy, how rough you doing? [inaudible conversations] >> how are you? >> why don't you get in there. [inaudible conversations] >> my dad used to say, look, you got one job --

[inaudible] it's the only job you have, and that's it. i prompts after that, she'll take care of you. >> there you go. [inaudible conversations] >> it's great to see you guys. >> look forward to working with you. >> such a privilege. [inaudible conversations] >> congratulations. >> good to meet you. >> good to meet you. [inaudible conversations] >> i'm sally. >> you got a great dad and mom. [inaudible]

>> stand you right in the middle, and have you hold the bible. johnny put liz left hand -- right -- left hand on it. >> do you solemnly swear you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, bear truth faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any reservation and that you are well and faithfully discharged of duty which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i will. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> how are you? >> this is riley. >> how old are you?

14? oh, four. >> this is jack. >> jack, how old are you? >> 6. >> katharine. >> hi, katharine. >> william, come on up. >> hey, william, hay, big guy. are you 3? oh, great. hey, man, good to see you. you have a beautiful family. good to see you, how are you? good to see you, man. >> nice to meet you. >> okay, why don't we all gather around. the little guys can stand in the front. >> girls, there's only one thing i have to tell you, you can't date until your 30 years old. >> and then you have to take your grandfather with you. >> that's right. [laughter]

okay. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [laughter] [inaudible conversations] >> that's a good idea, man. >> he's in charge, he can do that. >> i'll see if we can get that done. >> okay. >> seriously, that's a good idea. >> we need job, jacks, that kid is thinking. he wants a lego shop here.

>> as a matter of fact, we'll put that in the state of the union. [laughter] >> grandma, what were you doing when you were -- >> i was holding the bible so pop got sworn in. you put your hand on the bible. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> it's good to see you. >> how are you? >> good to see you. >> you have a smile that lights up the room. >> congratulations. [inaudible conversations] >> you're going to hold that. you raise your right hand. here we go. >> do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic that you will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation

or purpose of evasion, and that you well and faithfully dharnlg your duties upon the office which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> [inaudible conversations] >> you seem like a very happy person. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you, congratulations. >> here we do, you stand right there, doc. >> in the middle? >> middle. >> there you go, okay. put your left hand on the bible and raise your hand. you look wherefore -- wherever you want. senator, please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to defend and support the constitution

against all enemies foreign and domestic and bear truth faith and alliance to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you are discharged of the duties upon the office on which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i will. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> thank you. happy new year. >> happy new year. [inaudible conversations] >> how are you doing? oh, it's nice to see you. put your left hand on the bible, okay. do you swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic

bear truth faith and allegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you will well discharge the duties in the office upon which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] yes, let's get the family in here. >> i'm josh. >> hi, josh, how are you doing, buddy? hi, mia, how old are you? hey, lynn, how are you? good to see you. hi, made, how are you? i love nyu. do you like it? what is great place.

can we get us all? >> yep, got them all. all right. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> we go through the whole thing again. like once before. [inaudible conversations] how long have you been married? >> 13 years ago, i think. >> do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office that you're about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> i can't tell you how happy i am. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hi, what's your name?

how old are you? how old are you? 11. >> i can tell you're the oldest. >> hey, guys, how are you? >> those are cousins. >> hi, guys, how are you? good to see you, man. hi, sarah. >> this is mom. . >> hi, mom. mom, you get over here, right next to me, okay? >> okay. come on girls. >> remember what i told you last time i saw you? remember what i told you? >> smile? >> no, no dates until you are 30. >> until what? [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> you should be proud of him. >> i am. i have been waiting for this.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> all right, congratulations. >> thank you. >> okay, we're here. [inaudible conversations] >> all right, you stand in the middle, big guy. you stand on that mark over there. you hold the bible. we're going to redo the whole thing, okay if -- >> all right, raise your right hand, senator. do you solemnly swear that you

will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation without purpose of evasion and well and fifthfully discharge the office you're about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> this is a good one. this is a good one. >> good to see you, man. you're a good looking guy. what's your name? >> luke. >> your name? >> shaun. >> what's this child's name? >> that's my god daughter. >> how are you? >> that's my niece, my cousin. >> this is a great friend. >> hi, emily.

>> hi, anny, how are you? great to see you. >> this is my mother. >> how are you? >> i'm doing great. >> hi, karen, how are you? >> that's jenni. >> jenni, good to see you. mike, good to see you. >> i'm from the north pole. >> i know you are, man. [laughter] all right, come on, dad, get by mom, mom and dad, you get over here. all right. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> it's not bad, you get used to it. >> everybody can see? >> stand up straight. >> now you guys know why she's in the senate, don't you?

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> i love that. >> all right, got it? okay. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> look at y'all, and he'd say,

y'all got good blood. [laughter] >> best to your family too. >> he was sworn in last night. >> very good. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we take our children's successes more than we take our own. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> what size is it? >> i don't know, it's probably not big enough. >> we have a large. do we have a large? >> yeah. >> give it up.

>> all right, thank you. >> you're welcome. [inaudible conversations] >> there we go. >> oh, that's right, that's right. yes, hold them up. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> here, we have to go this way. >> i know how to spell the name to begin with. >> we do it in pictures here.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> are you willing to come up here? how are you? what's your name? [inaudible conversations] >> how old are you? you're 3? i like the bow tie, man. how are you? >> yeah, okay, guys. come on. my daughter lily. >> good to see you. there we go. >> you can make any speech you want in here. >> william has a lot to say. >> william, are you ready? >> senator, would you raise your right hand do you solemnly swear

you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against foreign and domestic, that you will bear truth and allegiance to the same and take this obligation -- [inaudible] [inaudible] that you will well and faithfully discharge upon which you're about to enter so help you god and follow his speech? [laughter] >> i do. >> the little tykes are the best. >> you're getting towards the end of the alphabet. >> i'm saying the alphabet. >> we're going to do a picture. >> william, william -- >> william says he doesn't want to. >> hey, william, will you hold this for me? william, will you hold this? william, will you hold that? come on in. make it quick. make it quick.

>> a, b, c, d -- alphabet. >> can you read the letters? >> here we go. >> i tell you what, you're okay, big guy. >> a, b, c -- >> you did it, man. all right. [laughter] >> e, f, g, -- >> i think lily wanted a picture and maybe with us, we'll take one more. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> thank you for your patience.

>> i think he wants to speak. >> no, no, no. >> okay, call it a day. >> see you, baby girl. >> i need to borrow that back, william. william, want to give that back to me? hey, i'll trade you, here you go. i'll trade you. here's the deal, william, if you can tell me which hand it's in, you can have it, okay. which hand? he got it! look at that. >> what do you say? >> thank you. i said the alphabet. >> sorry to keep you waiting, kimberly.

>> you're okay, man. you old that. >> okay. >> put your left hand on it, raise your right. raise your right hand, senator. do you solemnly swear to defend and support the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and bear truth and alliance the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and charge the duties upon which you're about to enter so help you god? >> i do. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> all right, who are these beautiful children? >> hi, britney. how old are you? >> 23. >> no dating until you're 30. [laughter] >> okay, here we go. [inaudible conversations] >> yes, i'm a junior. >> where? >> mips. >> i spoke there. >> really? when? >> back in the early 80s. that's a great school. >> yeah. that's neat. >> where are you going? >> st. thomas in minneapolis. >> good for you, good for you. i tell you what -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> sir, how are you? good to see you, how are you? >> again, congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> stand in the middle there. please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and dmes i think and bear same truth and allegiance and take this obligation freely without any purpose of evasion and well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of public that you're about to enter so help you god? >> i do. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> these are our daughters, kelsi and alex. >> you girls are beautiful. how old are you?

>> thank you. >> no guys until you're 30. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> pleasure to meet you. >> nice to meet you. >> congratulations.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much. >> they'll have you go out there way. >> thanks again, look forward to working with you. >> thank you. >> hey, chad. how are you? >> now i know how he did it. >> congratulations. >> put your left hand on the bible and right -- any way, raise your right hand, senator. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and dmes, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same

and take this obligation freely without any reservation or purpose of evasion and well and faith dpli discharge your duties of the office upon which you're about to enter so help you god. >> i do. >> congratlation. i hope you enjoy the senate, no, i'm serious. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hi, i'm lauren. >> i'm katelynn. >> i'm kristin. >> how did you do that? you volunteered, didn't you. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. that's a great honor. [inaudible conversations] >> okay, girls, jump in.

>> no, actually, you get on that side, and i'll claim two of you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> is there more family? >> well, their four friends. >> okay, come on. i want to check these guys out. >> okay. >> hi, man, how are you? >> that's right. >> it's a permanent rule. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> do you notice folks in the south don't ask may i have my picture taken, but may i have my picture made? [laughter] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> nice to meet you.

>> congratulations. >> best wishes. >> thank you, nice to meet you. >> okay. >> how are you? >> hey, man. this is my oldest son, theo. >> good to see you, man. come on, we're going to do this again. we're going to do this again. put your left hand on the bible and raise your right, senator. do you solemnly swear to defend the constitution against all menmies foreign and domestic and bear truth and aleeps to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you are well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> congratlation. >> thank you so much. >> congratulations. >> come on up. this is my mother and father-in-law.

>> good to see you, welcome. nice to see you, man. >> how are you? >> good to see you. >> this is my dad and my step mom. >> dad, get in the middle. mom, you get over here. you get in here. look pretty beside me. there you go, great. okay. >> that work? >> that works. >> i think we'll have you the other way. we're looking in the middle. >> like this? >> yeah, that's it. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> okay, great, thank you so much, everyone. thank you. thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> happy, day. happy day.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> there you go, thank you. >> hi, jane, how are you? great to see you, welcome. >> we're going to do this again, okay. >> one more time. >> put your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you are well and faithfully discharge of the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter so help you god. >> i do. >> congratulations. is that your family? >> yep. >> so many beautiful children. that's my daughter teri and jenna. >> good to meet you. >> hay, dad, how are you? >> get in the middle, dad. get over here on this side of

me, okay? let's do it, come on. one of you girls come over here. >> okay. all right. here we go. >> one more. [inaudible conversations] >> congratulations. congratulations. >> thank you. >> hope you enjoy this thing as much as i do. >> thank you so much. >> sit dad, sit. >> oh. >> who is that good looking guy? hi, man, i'm joe biden, good to see you. hi, andy, good to see you.

>> i tell you what, you're going to stand there on that spot. >> all right. you stand in the middle, and i'll stand here, and once again put your left hand on the bible and redo the oath, okay. >> i'll be glad to do that. >> do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to introso help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. >> i work forward to working with you. >> thank you. >> hey, handsome man, you love putting that tie on, don't you? yeah. come over by me. >> this is my daughter, stacy, my mom and dad. let mom and dad get in here. you stand wherever you want.

in my house, moms rule. dads are okay, but rank behind moms in my house. [laughter] congratulations, guys, appreciate it. >> thank you, thank you. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hi, how are you buddy? good to see you. welcome to the senate. whenever you want, just holler. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] hey, are you sure you want to do this again? >> oh, sort of. >> stand in the middle, anne,

you stand there. we're going to have you reenact the whole thing. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states again all enemies foreign and domestic and bear true faith and allegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you are well and faithfully -- [inaudible] >> i do. >> congratulations, man, welcome back, welcome back. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> this is our daughter laura. >> hi, laura, how are you? >> this is our son anderson. >> i'm sorry. >> oh don't be silly, don't be

sorry. a lot of senators have cried in this room. [laughter] >> all right, all ready? [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the camera comes out, and he stops crying. i like it. >> take the pass fier out. >> it's not goij to hurt. >> nice to meet you. >> nice to meet you, thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> hey, man. good to see you. >> this is my wife jeanette. >> good to meet you. jeanette in the middle. you hold the bible, and we'll reenact the oath to the senators here. ready? >> yeah. >> okay, do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation and that you are well and faithfully discharge of the office upon which you are about to enter so help you go. >> i do. >> thank you, man, thank you. i tell you what -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> who are these beautiful

children? >> my daughters. >> hello, how old are you? 7 or 17? >> 8. >> 8. >> this is amanda. >> anthony, say hello to the vice president. >> he says, i'm getting bored. >> my mother-in-law and mom. >> mom, you get in the middle. i want to stand next to you. >> you did something really right. yeah, you did. you raised this son. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> girls, remember, no dates until you are 30 years old. [laughter] >> great to see you. working forward to working with you. thank you, thank you. >> guys, we're going this way. >> thank you.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> you're going to hold the bible again, and we're -- so you can get in the picture here. raise your right hand. ready? okay. do you solemnly swear to support and defend of the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purr of e vase and dischawrnlg the duties of the office upon which you are about

to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations, congratulations. >> thank you. , thank you. >> this is my father. >> hey, dad, how are you? great to see you, man. >> i'm jack. >> hey, jack. >> this is my girlfriend, liz. >> hey, liz. >> hi. >> hi, tersa. how are you? >> i'm ben. >> hi, ben. >> hey, steve, hi, susan. >> hi, judy, how are you? >> what's your name? >> make. >> mike. >> that's a different mike. >> yeah. you're the mike. mike, you're acting like you liked me on the phone. [laughter] i'm the mike. [laughter] >> mike and i are old buddies.

[laughter] >> that's marissa. >> hi, marissa, how are you? what's your name? hey, brandon. hey, presston, -- preston, good to see you. >> that's about it. >> hey, don't go door. we have to squeeze. >> look up here. >> one, two, three. >> want a couple more? one, two, three. >> can i have everybody here for a second? tell me when you're done. >> congratulations. >> you must be really proud. >> really proud. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> i'm an air force brat, so we lived all over. thank you so much. >> nice to meet you. >> thank you. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> get out of here, sir, it's a great day. >> thank you. >> no dates until you're 30. [laughter] >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> you got a great smile. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hi, cynthia, how are you? you stand in the middle there, and you stand on the other side,

general, and we're going to do the oath again if you will hold the bible, and you're going to raise your right hand. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic and bear true faith and allegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reslation or purpose of evasion and well and faithfully discharge the duties of office upon which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. thank you so much. >> i tell you what i was -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> this is claire. >> how old are you? 17. >> this is matthew. >> hey, lieutenant. >> who is this? >> davis. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> you have a handsome family. >> well, thank you. >> are you going to school? >> yeah. >> good. >> a freshman at yale. >> my son went to yale.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thanks so much. >> thank you. >> you know the deal; right? >> yes, sir. >> all right. how are you? good to see you. we're going to have you stand here and reenact this. can you hold the bible? sure. >> raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the yiets against all enemies

foreign and domestic and bear true faith and allegiance and take this freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and discharge the duties upon the office of which you're about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> hey, guys. what's your name? what's your name? hey, patrick. hi, how are you, mom? good to see you, man. >> hi, how are you? good to see you. congratlation. dad and mom, come on this side. you guys get right in here, and we'll split -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we'll get a good picture, mom, i don't want to -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> you have a beautiful family. >> thank you. >> it's great to see you guys. you should be very proud, very proud. >> congratulations. [inaudible conversations] >> thanks again. it's a pleasure to meet you. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] hey, mark. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> matt, you're going to be

right there in the middle. madam chairman, stand on that mark right there, and you're going to hold the bible. you're going to raise your right hand. >> i should be raising my hand. >> do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you will well and faith dpli discharge the duties upon the office of which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [laughter] >> that's great. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> whatever one you want, maybe vice president. [laughter] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] all right, good. the way they got them staggered we're five minutes ahead of time. i don't believe that. i think that's like -- we're getting out of here early. >> would you mind if i took a picture? >> no, i'd love to do that. >> raise your right hand. [laughter] thank you, thank you. i didn't mean to bother you -- >> no, no. >> jess is taking about 4,000 pictures for me. god love you, great to see you.

thanks, jess. who is next? want to swear me in too? [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> how are you? >> good. >> this is my younger son, james. >> this is duncan. >> hi, how are you? >> this is my wife kelly. >> hi, kelly, how are you? >> i have a story to tell you. i was 29 years old and legislated for senate, and it was a tough race, and my sister was smatter and better looking and we went to a senate reception which you'll see pretty soon, and there's famous people and i was at having my

picture taken with senators who walked off the floor to endorse me, and my sister was there and i was standing against the wall shaking hands. there was a great man, and all the sudden my sister says and says, joe, joe, henry clay. he said, the next time people make fun of you, say it's true. not since henry clay has anyone been elected at 29. you have to be 30 to swear in, but you can be elected at any age. >> how long did you have to wait? >> i didn't. november 2 was my birthday, and november 20th is my birthday i mean, november 7th was the

election. >> henry clay was the only -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> wow. >> so, welcome to the senate. congratulations. >> i know every senator's family knows dad alone doesn't get elected. here's what we're going to do. mom, you stand in the middle. you stand there, and you guys stand on either side of us. you stand here, big guy, and i'll have you take the oath again to reenact it and put your left hand on the bible do you solemnly swear to support and defend the unite constitution against all menmies foreign and domestic and bear truth and allegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and you will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon the office of which you're about to enter so

help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. >> this is not the campaign. 24 is the real deal. i admire you. i real do. >> i never get along with any interest groups in the united states senate, and the only one i respect most of the time is -- because they never, never bury their principles. >> right, right. >> i admire you. >> thank you. >> you mean what you say. >> thank you. >> i admire you. >> appreciate it. >> okay, we got the whole deal. big guy. >> thank you, senator. >> a group photo. >> oh, okay. >> here we go. >> thank you. >> hope you enjoy the senate as much as i do. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thanks.

>> thanks, big guy. [inaudible conversations] hey, sharon, how are you? >> great. >> hay, buddy. >> why don't you stand there, hold the bible. step back so the press can see you. raise your right hand if you would, please. do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic and bear true faith aallegiance to the same and take this obligation freely without mental reservation and discharge the duties upon the office of which you are about to enter so help you god? >> i do. >> hey, guys, come on up. who are these