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the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their votes? there being none, the votes on the motion are 67 in favor, 31 against, three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, 2 the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, all postcloture time is yielded back and the question occurs on the motion to concur.

is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

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the presiding officer: any other senators wishing to vote or change their vote? on this vote the ayes are 55. the nays are 43. the motion to concur on the house amendment is agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: the next vote will be the last recorded vote in this series. the next vote after this vote other than things we'll try to do by consent will be monday at 5:30, a week from monday. i wish you all well on your

plane rides today. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the chair lays before the senate a message from the house with respect to s. 25. the clerk: resolved that the bill from the senate, s. 25, entitled an act to direct the secretary of state of interior to delay certain features the electric system and for other purposes do pass with an amendment. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to concur on the house amendment to s. 25 and ask for the yeas and nays on that motion. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. under the previous order, there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to the vote on the motion to concur. mr. reid: i yield back on this side. the presiding officer: all time is yielded back. the yeas and nays were requested. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

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vote: the presiding officer: are there

members in the chamber wishing to vote or to change their vote? on this vote the ayes are 95, the nays are 3. the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations which the clerk will report. the clerk: department of justice, kevin w.takaw of iowa to be united states attorney for the northern district. andrew mark luger of minnesota to be united states attorney. robert l.hobbs of texas to be united states marshal for the eastern district. gary blankinship of texas for

united states marshal for the southern district. amos rojas jr. of florida to be united states marshal for the southern district. peter c.tobin of ohio to be united states marshal for the southern district. anthony gardner of new york to be representative of the united states of america to the european union. robert a. sherman of massachusetts to be ambassador. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: at the conclusion of the vote, may i ask unanimous consent that the senator from minnesota be recognized for up to a minute, senator from georgia for up to seven minutes, the senior senator from rhode island for up to two minutes, and that i be recognized thereafter, subject to the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, i yield back all the time on these nominations. the presiding officer: without objection. the majority leader.

mr. reid: i yield back all the time. the presiding officer: the question is now on the techau nomination. all in favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the senator from minnesota is now recognized for one minute. ms. klobuchar: thank you very much, mr. president. i rise today in support of andrew luger. i thank my colleagues for the work that they have done to make sure that minnesota has a u.s. attorney in place. i want to particularly thank leader reid and senator mcconnell, the two leaders, for their work on this as well as senator franken. the two of us put together a nonpartisan recommendation coming from a committee, and we're very glad the president took that recommendation and recommended andy luger with his vast criminal prosecution experience as well as civil experience. i also want to thank senator grassley for his work on this as

well as senator corker. minnesota has gone really two and a half years without a full-time u.s. attorney as our u.s. attorney was doing the job as a.t.f. director at the same time, and the over 100 people that work at the u.s. attorney's office in minnesota truly deserve a leader, and i thank my colleagues for their support. the presiding officer: the question occurs now on the luger nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the question occurs on the hobbs nomination. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the question occurs on the blankinship nomination. all those in saver say -- favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed.

the question occurs now on the rojas nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the question now occurs on the tobin nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the president will now be notified of the senate's action. the motions to reconsider are considered made and laid on the table, and the senate will resume legislative session. mr. reid: i ask consent that s. 1963 be returned to the calendar.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, two nominations remain to be disposed of. mr. reid: are we in executive session? the presiding officer: the senate will resume executive session. under the previous order, the question now occurs on the gardner nomination. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the question is now on the sherman nomination. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed.

as with the previous nominations, the motion to reconsider are considered made and laid on the table, and the president will be immediately notified. the senate now resumes legislative session. the majority leader. mr. reid: thank you. i ask consent that s. 1963 be returned to the calendar. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar number 301, s. 1982. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to proceed. the clerk: calendar number 301, s. 1982, a bill to improve the provisions of medical services to veterans and for other purposes. mr. reid: i yield the floor, mr. president. mr. isakson: i rise for two specific points which i would ask be divided in the record and

i would note that place. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: first, as we leave washington for about ten days, i want to leave some suggestions in president obama's suggestion box. there has been a lot of commentary about income inequality, needing to raise the minimum wage, needing to create more jobs and the president talking about doing these with the stroke of a pen from his office because of the uncooperative legislative branch. i would like to make suggestions on four things the president himself can do to immediately create job creation and a more robust economy to the united states of america. first trade promotion authority. the president said in his remarks at the state of the union that he was for trade promotion authority. we need to get -- him to get with the democratic majority to bring this to the senate. in the history of the 1980's, the republican congress gave president bill clinton trade promotion authority or fast track. america's exports and imports grew exponentially, jobs were created, america became a robust trading partner with partners all over the world. that is expired.

we need to give it to president obama. we have three pending opportunities -- the trans-pacific partnership, the transatlantic trade and investment act and the african growth and opportunity act, all of which are pending negotiation between now and 2015, all of which will generate jobs in trades and opportunity for the united states of america. please, mr. president, demand from the senate that you get t.p.a. and you get it now. secondly is keystone. we have all heard a lot about keystone. i want to reiterate the state department has for the fifth time signed off on the keystone pipeline. why aren't we allowing america to have the oil and petroleum it needs and instead acceding ourselves to the nation of china? america has the opportunity to become the most independent energy country in the world. it is critical that the keystone pipeline be built to create jobs and to see that we continue to control the generation of petroleum and energy in our country and become a net seller of that rather than a gross importer of that which we have been for many years in the past. the keystone pipeline makes sense to the unions, makes sense to business, makes sense to

america, and, mr. president, i think america does a better job environmentally of treating petroleum and refining it than any country in the world, particularly china. it ought to come to america, and the president could do that with the stroke of a pen. third, t.s.e. reform. our government-sponsored entities of freddie mac and fannie mae continue to do business but they languish from lack of attention. we need to reform those two entities so they have a robust housing market for america. if you have cash to pay for a home you can do that. if you want a f.h.a. loan, you can do that. but if you're in the middle of america, if you're one of the americans we all talk about wanting to help, there is not much mortgage money available because there is no government-sponsored entity to guarantee the paper to create the capital to flow into mortgages in america. if you want to get the unemployment rate down from 6.4% to 5%, which all of us want, there is one way to do it, and that is bring back a robust housing market which still does not exist in the united states today. and fourth, talk to patty murray

and tom harkin, tom harkin the chairman of our committee on health, education, labor and pensions, patty murray, the chairman of the subcommittee i serve on in terms of labor, and let's get the work force investment act which for six years has languished in terms of continuation and renewal, and let's get it renewed, let's get it reauthorized and get it done. the work is done. we are this close. we just need an impetus from the white house to tell the congress to go ahead and get it done and send it. i appreciate what the president has said he will do with joe bidden. -- joe biden. we don't need to re-create the wheel. congress has done the work on the wheel. it's time for us to pass it out and it's time for the president to sign it. i would like at this point to divide my remarks and let them appear separately in the record if i can because i want to pay tribute to a great georgian, a personal friend of mine and a great baseball player in the history of our country, bobby cox, number six. manager of toronto's blue jays

when they won a world series. for 14 consecutive seasons, he took the atlanta braves to a play-off. five of those seasons he took them to the national league championship. one of those seasons he took them to win the world series against the cleveland indians. bobby cox was voted into the baseball hall of fame and will be sworn in in cooperstown, new york, on june 27 of this year. bobby cox is an icon in baseball and a great human being. he set many, many records, like the following -- 2,085 victories with the atlanta braves, best in history. overall record of 24,013 wins, 1,930 losses. the braves won more games with cox, 1,735 in a 19-season span than they do in any other team in baseball won. 15 divisional crowns, five pennants, and he holds the record for the most ejections of any manager in the history of baseball. the reason that's a positive story is this -- bobby cox fought for his players. he knew how to motivate a crowd. he knew how to get on an

umpire's back. his 132nd ejection took place in november of twefn in one of the play-off games when he went out and argued a third called strike against his star player chipper jones. two innings later the braves came back and rallied and won. in large measure, it was bobby's fighting for his players that made the difference. but he also fights for georgians. his work for dreams in recovery foundation that he founded for those that are paraplegics and quadriplegics in georgia is remarkable. bobby gives his time to help those less fortunate. he continues to help the atlanta braves who will soon be moving from downtown atlanta. i want to pay tribute and thanks to bobby cox for all he has given in our state, recognize him for the achievement of being sworn into the baseball hall of fame in cooperstown. best of luck, bobby, and many more good years to come. and i yield back the balance of my time. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, -- mr. reed: first i want to thank my colleague for yielding two minutes. mr. reed: i also ask unanimous consent that my statement be made part of the record.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: mr. president, we are leaving here with major unfinished business. we have not extended unemployment benefits for 1.8 million americans. they are getting to be increasingly desperate. they need this assistance as they continue to look for work in a very difficult economy. i think it's very interesting if not ironic that the pay-for mechanism that was used today to pay for the appropriate adjustment of the military retirees' cola was the same pay-for mechanism that we had proposed to use to extend these benefits for up to 18 -- to up to several months, almost a year, and yet many of my colleagues on this side rejected that, saying it was inappropriate. we have to come back, we will come back. we have to deal with unemployment insurance. we have to find a way, both sides, to come together and find a way to provide modest assistance to these americans who are struggling to find work in a market where there are three applicants for every job. and with that, mr. president, i

would thank the senator from rhode island and yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that senator boozman precede me in recognition on the floor for such time as he may consume. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. thank you, senator, for allowing me this courtesy very, very much. i appreciate it. mr. president, in last year's agreement, our retired -- in last year's budget agreement, our retired service members were unjustly targeted to bear the burden of irresponsible spending. balancing the budget on the backs of our service members is a reckless move that violates our responsibility we made to those who wear our nation's uniform. which is why i voted against the budget agreement. new mexico numerous arkansans have reached out to get me to correct these misguided cuts. i've been reached out t