the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, on this vote, the yeas

are 76, the nays are 16. the nomination is confidence. -- is confirmed. under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the grigsby nomination. who yields time? mr. leahy: madam president? madam president? the presiding officer: the senator vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, on the griggsby nomination, i have a statement which i will include in the record as though read, and i yield back all time. the presiding officer: without objection. the question is on the nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed.

under the previous order, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately be notified of the senate's action. under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the baran nomination. mrs. boxer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, if i could have order to speak on this nominee for a minute? sorry to interrupt, senators. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: thanks. i would like to ask my colleagues for order, please. thank you. could i ask my colleagues for order? thank you. i know we have a lot to talk about. this will be really quick. i just want to point out this is an opening at the nuclear regulatory commission which is such an important agency because they work on safety at our

nuclear power power plants, many of which are aging. we voted for mr. baran for a short-term seat. he had extensive hearings, 88 questions asked in writing. i feel very strongly he is very, very suited for this. he worked for the energy and commerce committee in the house and worked very, in a very bipartisan fashion. and in any case, i think this is a very important position and a very qualified individual, and i urge an "aye" vote. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of jeffery martin

baran of virginia to be a member of the nuclear regulatory commission signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of jeffery martin baran of virginia to be a member of the nuclear regulatory commission shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: testing

testing testing testing vote: vote: vote:

the presiding officer: does any senator wish to vote or change his or her vote? if not, on this vote the yeas are 53, the nays are 40, and the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the

nomination. the clerk: nuclear regulatory commission, jeffrey martin baran of virginia to be a member of the nuclear regulatory commission. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the mcferran nomination. without objection, all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of lauren mcgarity mcferran to be a member of the national labor relations board, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense

of the senate that the debate on the nomination of lauren mcgarity mcferran of the district of columbia to be a member of the national labor relations board be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: does any senator wish to vote or change his or her vote? if not, the yeas are 51, the nays are 42, the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: national labor relations board, lauren mcgarity mcferran of the district of columbia to be a member. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be two minutes of debate prior to the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the williams nomination. without objection time is yielded. the clerk will report the the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of ellen dudley williams of maryland to be director of the advance research projects agency-energy, department of energy. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is: is it the

sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of ellen dudley williams of maryland to be the director of the advanceed research projects agency-energy, department of energy, shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change a vote? if not, the yeas are 57, the nays are 34. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: department of energy,

ellen dudley williams of maryland to be director of the advanced research projects agency. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to give my remarks while seated at my desk. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rockefeller: and i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rockefeller: for hours and hours. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rockefeller: i come to the floor today with a spirit of reflection and optimism about our future. i'm also compelled towards an honest assessment of where we are as a body, of the promise of what we can achieve when we don't shy away from compromise and what we can't achieve when

we refuse to compromise. i also have very much on my mind that the job of public service is very hard work, and it's an extremely noble and honorable calling. here in the united states senate, we have a unique ability and responsibility to do very big things. ignite innovation in our schools and industry, protect a healthy country foster global change borne from policies that lead the world. at the same time, we have the opportunity to touch individual lives, case management, one on one with casework than often reaches people in their darkest hour. i love the senate. i love the senate. i love the intensity of the work, the gravity of the issues. i love fighting for west virginia here. i learned to love this fight, as many of you know, as a

27-year-old vista worker in the tiny coal community of emmons, west virginia. it was a place that set my moral compass and gave me direction. where everything in my real life actually began. where i learned how little i knew about the problems that people face, there and in other places in the country, how little i knew, and what a humbling experience that was for me. my time there was transformative. it explains every policy i purr sued and every vote i have cast. it was where my beliefs were bolted down and where my passions met my principles. emmons was where i came to understand that out of our everyday struggles, we can enlarge ourselves.

we can grow greater, truly making a difference couldn't be an afterthought. it never could. rather, it requires a singular focus and relentless effort. it would be hard but the work mattered. that's the deal here. important undertakings can't be halfhearted. you have to commit your whole self, almost like pushing a heavy rock uphill. with both of your hands you push because if you let up for a split second with either land you and the rock go tumbling backwards into the abyss. there is always so much at stake. even today in west virginia, too many are struggling. they're fighting to survive. i call them hardworking when i really should say hard

surviving, but they are hardworking and trying to survive. they're wary of the future. they're scared of their possibilities. sometimes they're afraid of themselves and of their inadequacies which have been bred in, partly through a scotch-irish transition, partly a transition that says strangers are bad, i was bad for quite a long time but that's the way people are, they don't really want to change, so change comes slowly. so we just simply fight twice as hard. and nothing stops us. there is vast dignity madam chairman and vast honor in helping people. you cannot let go of it.

i believe genuinely in the ability of government to do good, to serve, and to right injustices. this is why the senate must be a place in which we embrace a commitment to be deliberative, passionate and ryan lenting but it must be a place in which we are driven only by the duty and trust bestowed upon us by the people who put us here. this is where everything else should be put aside, boxed out, as it were. yes, politics led us here, but this is where we shed the campaigning, or should. and embrace our opportunity to lead, to listen, to dig in, to bridge differences, to govern, and to truly make a difference. at our core, we must be drawn to the hard, all-consuming

policy work that lives in briefings, hearing rooms and round tables back in our states. yet our north star must always be the real needs of the people we serve. and so policy to me starts with listening. it is seeing the faces of our constituents, not just thinking of a policy in terms of a policy, but policy in terms of people who it would affect. faces. you see your constituents, you hear them out, you understand their needs and their problems. you get to know them very well. and especially in a small state like west virginia. listening to constituents and colleagues here alike is absolutely necessary. good policy is born out of compromise. compromise is not easy, but it can happen and when we truly listen to each other, it very

well could. we separate our campaign selves from our public service selves. the cruelty of perpetual campaigns destroys our ability to fulfill our oath of office, madam chair. it is hard to build a working relationship in this institution without an honest and open approach with our colleagues. republican or democratic. but we must build that relationship because together we can do so much, and without that we can do, as we have seen, nothing. listening and compromise were key to the work of the national commission on children in the 1990's. i was the chair of that commission which included the bipartisan group of government officials and an elected -- or appointed experts in various fields from all backgrounds. there were many of us, 32, and

we went all over the country for two years. i can tell you that reaching consensus was tough, but we listened and we debated and we came to trust. even the most liberal and conservatives among us knew and each of us that -- that each of husband the best interest of children at our heart. that was not in dispute. while meeting in williamsburg, virginia, which is is where we happened to be meeting at the time, i had to leave for an important senate vote on iraq. i handed over the gavel to our most conservative republican member. someone in whom i had trust. that shocked people, but it helped on the consensus. in the end, we were proud,

madam president, to vote 32-0 in support of the legislation that we put forward, and our policy statement as a whole. and included bold policies, it included the creation of a new refundable child tax credit for the first time, and a major expansion of the earned income tax credit, which has lifted millions of american families out of poverty. it worked because we listened to one another, respected one another, and we wanted to come to an agreement. it was clear, it was obvious, and there it was, 32-0, unbelievable. but it happened. is that possible these days? my answer is yes. and i believe that we can see that the spirit again as we

addressed the future of the bipartisan children's health insurance program, chip, the way it's known, it currently provides health care to 8.3 million children and pregnant women nationwide, and 40,000 of those are in west virginia. chip is so important to me because it offers health care which is tailored to children. to wit, it has both mental and dental health care tailored to children. it is in fact better coverage than the affordable care act provides children. from those early days at vista i have seen the devastating toll that a lack of medical care can extract from a child's well-being and their health, their self-esteem, particularly their self-esteem and even their will to succeed. many of you also know the names

and faces of children who have gone without access to proper health care and those are who we fight for. that is why chip has always been a bipartisan effort, driven by the needs of real kids and their families. senators grassley and hatch were instrumental in its creation over a period of a couple of years, long arguments, and they continue to be strong advocates. the bipartisan chip program has opened doors for millions who desperately needed to get into a doctor's office and had never been able to do so and now are able to do so. but a warning -- every door that chip opened will be closed if -- unless we can agree to carry chip funding past mid-2015 and i don't know what the protects for that are, all i know is if they aren't done

properly, those doors close, those kids had access to doctors but they don't anymore. and that's unconscionable to me. you have to look at the faces of those children in your own states and think about that. it is those individual faces that i remember. remembering for whom we work is paramount. when any corporate c.e.o. comes to my office, i show them apprized birthday gift from my four children, our four children -- my wife is here. a picture of a hardworking coalminer whose face is honest but hurting, and very proud. that picture means so much to me because it embodies the spirit

of those i am here to serve. and silently reminds us of why we must work towards a common ground, why this is not about democrats and republicans, but it's about the people that we're here to serve, bringing different viewpoints to what that means. senator mike enzi and i are not on the same side of every vote, to put it mildly, but we're very, very good friends. a friendship that was made years ago when i was serving on the president's coal commission and he was the mayor of gillette, wyoming. going slightly crazy trying to build houses fast enough for all the people moving in there to to -- through coal. he also had sideburns. i say that off record. on a gray day in january, 2006, west virginia was frozen

in disbelief when we learned that 12 trapped miners were killed in sago mine, a mine in the north central part of the state. in the days that followed as we struggled to make sense of what had happened, senators enzi and senator isakson joined senator kennedy, senator manchin and myself in west virginia. they, the first two, did not merely visit. they came to understand. they came to learn. they came to share in the grief and to offer their support to the community. and you could tell that in their faces. together out of tragedy and because they were members of the health and education committee, labor, we forged a compromise on mine safety legislation that brought about, frankly, the

prongest safety improvements in a generation -- strongest safety improvements in a generation. huge for us. only 16 states mine coal but we're one of them. to this day, senator isakson carries a picture of one of the sago miners. it is not in the wallet that he's carrying today, it's in the other wallet that's back in atlanta, i don't care where it is, that picture is in his wallet every single day. we knew that as public officials, compromising and really leading meant governing, which is why we were there. answering the needs of our country is our responsibility, and we do that best when we work shoulder to shoulder. it was working shoulder to shoulder when we set our country on a path to future innovation. a few years ago america's domination in our innovation, our inventions and creative problem solving was eroding,

and we all knew it. we needed to act. we needed to reinvigorate our leadership in those areas and keep our jobs and our future more secure. we answered that call with the bipartisan compromise that delivered the america competes reauthorization act. i will never forget that. this legislation made historic investments in science, basic research, and science, technology, engineering and math education. senator kay bailey hutchison, who preceded john thune on the commerce committee, senator alexander, and i sought unanimous consent to get the bill passed because we thought we'd worked out the details pretty well. and do it prior to the recess. therefore we had to do it by unanimous consent. but there were five objections

holding the bill still. instead of retreating to party corners, and pointing fingers, we compromised right on that center aisle right there next to senator collins, and we wandered up and down, we added a little money, took a little money off, mostly took a billion dollars off, we removed a couple of programs that weren't absolutely necessary to satisfy kay bailey or lamar alexander, and we had ourselves a $44 billion bill over five years on which we agreed. we didn't have to have a vote. senator hutchinson, senator alexandertain arabously worked to clear the holes. it was -- tenaciously worked to clear the holes. it was just beautiful. a $44 billion program to reinvigorate our nation

cerbrally and productively. together together we passed a bill to catapult us to success. reaching moments like those requires persistence. it demands collaboration, it demands trust and compromise, and it is so worth it. i'm driven by the process of creating policy. i love doing that. it's grind being, it's intense, it can be frustrating and sometimes heartbreaking -- often heartbreaking. but when we accomplish something that is maintainingful to the people who have trusted us to represent them, there is no greater reward. we have to know who and what we must fight for in our work and in our own personal views. we have to know and understand those who will benefit, those who will lose, and we have to be ready for it to take a long

time, much longer than we thought; sometimes five years, sometimes ten years. that makes no difference. you keep at it. you don't let go of it. because if you keep at it, somewhere along the way, some combination of senators is going to say, yeah, that's okay and then we get ourselves a bill. and also we keep in our souls the faces again of the people that we try to help. the people who, in my case, are all too often left behind. the senate must face serious social and policy issues, from health care to cybersecurity, caring for veterans coming home, building up our infrastructure, making our economy work for everyone. these are our core responsibilities. i'm proud that we've made some measure of progress. and while we seem right knew to be at an impasse, i know that the senate will rise to the mission of addressing our biggest issues at some point and

in some way, and it will happen. as a governing boated, we must not allow recent failures to take root, to mean too much to us. we must not be focused on episodic "gotcha" issues rather than working to address broader, more systemic problem-solving. no one else is going to step in to do this if we doovment the trut--if we don't. the truth was on full display a few weeks ago when the senate refused to move forward on another issue. i have taken very seriously my 14 years on the intelligence committee as a member and as chairman. because the global threats we face increase daily as the world becomes more connected, we depend on the highly trained professionals at n.s.a. to zero in on those threats.

there's really only 22 of them that make sort of final decisions. they're highly trained. they've taken the oath of office to protect our nation. now, i don't think that we have any excuse to outsource our intelligence work to telecommunication firms. i work on the commerce committee. i've seen what the telecommunication companies do when they can get away with it. you know, everything from cramming to -- just all kinds of not very nice things. it's the job of government to address this issue. the private sector and free market alone cannot solve those kinds of problems -- and should not. that is a government

responsibility. being carried out, i might say, with great success. a lot of people say, oh, well what if? but the fact of the matter is, nobody has ever been able to show me somebody whose privacy has been, you know, influenced or broken into by the n.s.a. you know, good, hardworking people can be destroyed by circumstances beyond their control. it is our job not to let that happen. it is our job to help, to give everyone a fair shot. to say that, of course, is much easier to say than to do. but that is our charge. too many children come into a world where circumstances preclude the opportunities that they should have. we cannot discount the many challenges our society still faces. it's unconscionable, madam president, in it a country like

ours that people go -- in a country like ours that people go without health care or go hungry or have no place to call "home." when shareholders in the free market cannot or will not solve our problems, it's government's responsibility to step in every time. people can decry government all they want, but we're here for a reason. when private companies decide there isn't enough profit to provide internet to rural areas, then we step in and we expand broadband, allowing the e-rate to go fathe farther and farther. it now covers, i think, 97% of all schools in the country. or maybe the private sector decides they can't make enough by insuring the sickest of our children. we must act. that is our core mission. it's who we are as an institution.

it's who we must always be. we have worked to give children a fair shot through the e-rate program, which introduces even the most rural classrooms and smallest libraries to the internet, access to research, but it gives every child the key to unlock their potential. it doesn't mean they will, but it means they can. we know health care is fundamental to a fair shot as well. we can't learn or keep a job if we are sick. but providing that care hasn't always been as profitable as some companies would like. so we make sure millions of americans could have the dignity of access to health care under the affordable care act. my friend sam is one of the faces i will never forget. when he was battling childhood leukemia and hit his lifetime

insurance cap -- a technical term with a savage consequence -- his parents' insurance company walked away from this courageous little fighter. his parents, both schoolteachers, were left with heartwrenching decisions, like getting divorced, which they considered, so sam could qualify for medicaid. well, in the end, it didn't matter. sam lost his battle with cancer. but today, under the affordable care act, we have made sure that no insurance companies could abandon someone like sam when they need help the most. health care reform won't ever take away the crushing agony of parents with sick kids, but heartbreaking situations like sam drove us to say "no more," and we changed the law.

parents deserve to focus every bit of their energy fighting for their kids in every way, not fighting profit-obsessed insurance companies. so we did the right thing, madam president. we did the right thing. government also did the right thing when i fought for what i thought my life depended on it, because it did, to pass the coal act of 1992, long-forgotten. we had to step in and stop some coal companies from walking away from benefits which they had promised, by contract, to retired coal miners and their widows, folks who are mostly in their 70's and 80's. passing the coal act was enormously important to our country. it not only prevented in absolute terms a national coal strike in 1993, but it delivered on the promise of lifetime health benefits earned by 200,000 retired coal miners and

their widows. they would not have been taken care of if those companies had had their way. nor can we rely on the private sector alone to take care of our veterans. it's government's duty to provide the health care they earn. we do this thri through community-based clinics and improved services for ptsd, brain injuries and family support. it is expensive. bob portman and i sort of wanted to pass a bill which would cause the military, the department of defense, give all people entering the military mental health screening, not when they came back from iraq or afghanistan or somewhere else but before they went in, and then on an annual basis do that again to build a database, to make sure we knew that we could take care of them better when they came home. we rightly asked the government

to take on some of society's most fundamental needs. l when i founded -- when i founded emmons, it was a community of hardworking people on their own trying to survive. the free market had not made madessured thasurethat communitd good roads or school buses or any clean drinking water or safe jobs, but from my point of view they deserved all of those. they deserved to have their shot. working together to deliver on the needs of places like emmonds speaks to our core human connection and to an aspiration for the greater good. that is what drove me into public service. it's not something i could help.

i just had to -- i had to do it, to help people with everything that i have. every individual in every community like emmonds deserves to have public officials who will fight the big fights and the personal ones, the case work, extending a hand on those personal challenges is incredibly meaningful work. our constituents face these heights with herculean courage but not always the resources to solve the problems in front of them. people like the 8-year-old who needed a bone marrow transplant, a procedure that in 1990 was considered experimental. our office intervened. we helped that boy get that transplant, and he's still with us today. as a senator, you take on those fights with the same vigor as any policy or ideological deba

debate, and you are equally proud when you win and you equally hurt when you lose. when i came to west virginia 50 years ago, i was searching for a clear purpose for my life's work. i wanted the work to be really hard, and what i got was an opportunity to work really hard, along with a real and utterly spiritual sense of mission. this work demands and deserves nothing less than everything that we have to give. i will miss the senate. some days i don't want to leave, but it's time. which brings me to some profoundly important notes of gratitude. to my colleagues, i say "thank you."

i have mentioned some -- i could mention so many. you're dedicated, you're brilliant, and you're public servants. i love you for putting up, which have to, particularly with the way elections are these days. i respect you for it so much. thank you for fighting alongside me. thank you for challenging me. to my staff, a senator is really nothing without his staff -- or her staff. and there is not a more committed, talented, and deeply passionate staff in the united states senate. to my starvetion you liv staff,r breathe your work every day. you inspire me with your endless capacity for addressing injustice and for fighting for

people who need you and come to you in need. you never turned a single west virginian away. i glory in my gratitude to you. to my family who has sacrificed so much, i thank you. i have been selfish in my devotion to my work, and i have been vastly inept in balancing family and work. public service is not encouraging of balance. sharon, you are everything, an extraordinary mother, a remarkable businesswoman, and you are a public servant. you have been a visionary in public broadcasting. our entire nation to indebted to your efforts to educate and inform us. the impact that you continue to make on public life is truly remarkable.

any achievement i am proud of i share with you eternally. our children, john, valerie, charles and justin, have all been very thoughtful and endlessly supportive in my absences, and my grandchildren bring me so much joy and i hope to see a whole lot more of them. and to west virginia, thank you for placing your faith in me. i know it was hard at first. and giving me the greatest reward: the chance to fight for meaningful and lasting opportunity for those who are too often forgotten but absolutelily -- absolutely deserve the best.

my fellow west virginians, i am forever inspired by you and i am forever transformed by you. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: mr. leader. mr. reid: there will be many remarks at the end of year from

senators regarding jay rockefeller. at this time i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: