ms. mikulski: thank you very much, leader reid, for your very kind words and your support and assistant -- oh, ahmadinejad? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i rise to speak on the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2015. madam president, i wish to thank the democratic leader, the majority leader, for his kind words. but it's not only about his kind words about me, it's been his advocacy to make sure that as we look at the need for funding for the entire government, that there would be no government shutdown and the no government on autopilot. just a few minutes ago, the house of representatives did their part. they passed the omnibus spending bill, passing it 219-206. it was well debated and the vote

speaks now for itself. it now comes to the senate. and i'm here tonight to kick off that debate. for hours after hours after hours and the last several days, i have heard what is wrong with this bill. i don't dispute my colleagues' analysis. i will debate it. but now we've got to start talking about what are the good aspects of this bill and why we did this bill in the first place. and tonight i want to remind people what we are doing. first of all, we are funding the entire united states government's discretionary spending. we have $550 billion in here for national defense to stand up for america, to make sure our troops have the best weapons and the best support and the best

medical treatment. $550 billion. more money for peacekeeping, to money to fight isil, to refuel an aircraft carrier. we did our job. you'll hear more about that. we wanted to also fight ebola, which had the american people near panic this summer, and we said, we have a plan, working with the administration and some of the best scientists and thinkers in our own country and brave and gallant people like doctors without borders over there. while they make the cover of "time" magazine, they're now going to make the federal checkbook here in the united states of america. we have $5.4 billion here to deal with ebola, a huge sum of money to fight it in africa. also make sure we're ready for

any pandemic here. and we also have a samaritan set of money here to deal -- i call it, that's my word -- the samaritan communities that were willing to take the ebola patients and care for them and treat for them and make sure there was security both for them and the surrounding communities. millions of dollars were spent, whether it was in nebraska, whether it was in georgia at emory, my own home state, the national institutes of health, where a patient flew into a small rural airport, they were ready to accept and provide the security down route 270 to get them to the beds at n.i.h. those communities need to be recognized. we do that. so we have money in there for national security. but we also have money in there for veterans.

oh, we love our veterans. we love to sing songs. we love to wear yellow ribbons. we love to go to concerts. we even love to vote for an authorizing bill. i did it. but without money in the federal checkbook, it is a hollow opportunity. so, guess what? your appropriations committee, bipartisan basis, said we're going to do something that was never done before. we're going to put in not only the money to meet what we said we would do to reform health care, no more waiting lists, no more backlogs, no more them being a victim of a dysfunctional congress if it's a shutdown or gridlock. we then did something, we, working with the veterans service organizations and the authorizing committee, like senator sanders, we have advanced appropriations here.

so there won't ever be -- even if there's a shutdown or delay, our veterans will be taken care of. and there is more money in there for research. there's more money in there for care. there's an extra $40 million to add to the close to $2 billion to deal with the backlog. these numbers are mind-numbing but the results, the results are not. so we have that money there. and we also increase the d.o.d. defense money for medical research for prosthetic devices, for stunning achievements, like at my own johns hopkins, where they did a limb transplant. working with the department. defense dollars, our gifted and -- working with the department of defense dollars, our gifted and talented surgeon was able to take a veteran and reinstitute limbs, muscle, nerve endings and

also come up with the techniques to prevent rejection that often comes up in transplants. it's stunning. that man will be able to have the use of his arms because of this type of work that we do here and what we help will -- when we help him, one day we'll be able to help hundreds and then thousands. that's what we do in appropriations. we take good intentions and make them big dreams as possible. we're really proud of that. the other thing that we're proud of is on a bipartisan basis, we passed the child care development block grant, working with senator richard burr of north carolina, i led that, with the superb help of senators alexander and harkin. so we passed that. but we also wanted to reform our quality standards, regulation without strangulation. we now know that we're going to have fire and safety inspections facilities, training -- better

training for providers and background checks to make sure our vulnerable populations are protected. but for everything that we ask, we put in $75 million to be able to deal with this. i think that's pretty impressi impressive. now, the other issue that we looked at was how we looked out for college affordability. and this program that we passed, we will increase the maximum pell grant by $100 for a total maximum of $5,830. $100 more. that means you'll be able to buy a book, you'll be able to pay that lab fee. if you want to be a nurse or inhalation therapist or a surgical tech and so on. but we also reform the pell grants so that any student who simultaneously is working on a g.e.d. and a college degree would be eligible for pell grants. as part of the listing tours, like senator cardin --

listening tours like senator cardin and i had, we found out there are many people who at a certain point in their life dropped out of school. they made a particular choice that they now are trying to compensate for. so they're working on their g.e.d., making great progress. they've got to show that. but simultaneously they're eligible for that pell grant so they don't lose time. we've been able to do that. so there are other aspects related to college affordability. but we also wanted to focus on safety issues. we have money in here now for the 149 air traffic control facilities and rural communities. those 149 air traffic controllers, we've got the maryland five, like salisbury, easton, frederick, hagerstown. that's -- but i know you have them in wisconsin. that's taken care of. but we also wanted to look at other issues of safety like food

safety. and thanks to what we've done in this bill, we've funded the f.d.a. so they can meet the new food safety standards that we're concerned about. i'm also particularly happy and proud of what we did for women. i wouldn't go into all the discussions on obamacare, the usual provocative topic like funding for abortion and very special circumstances. yes, we'll talk about that tomorrow. but you know what i'm happy about? what we did for victims of violence. this legislation has $430 million here for the violence against women act. it is the all-time high. again, taking what the authorizers wanted. they all do conference calls back at the home state. we actually put money in the federal checkbook. but we paid also special attention to the situation of

what happens to rape victims. very often -- and i know you talk with the rape victims in your own state or those who are their advocates -- that they feel doubly victimized. they often feel there was the violent attack on them, so repugnant i don't even want to talk about it on the senate floor, which is horrible enough. but when they turn to the system, they often find that the very forensics that are needed to go after the perpetrator are either stuck in a crime lab somewhere with a backlog or, even worse, sitting in a police locker instead of being tested. so they wait days, weeks, months and even years. but we've gotten into this. thanks to our vice president, joe biden, who really is -- was the originator of the violence against women. he has the justice department --

he asked the justice department to go to police department says ans andsay, where is this evided why isn't it being processed? well, they found that there were over 400,000 sexual assault kits sitting in police lockers instead of getting tested. can you imagine? 400,000! well, we've got, thanks again to the advocates -- you know, the best ideas come from the people. and i think somebody's calling me now about it. 400,000. we can't -- what we have here now is we've added a $40 million grant program. again, a bipartisan effort to go after -- to work with local police departments to bring down this. where we order know that they've gotten underway with existing funds, they're finding that some

of these predators have been serial rapists. some of their cases go back 5, 10 and 15 years because of the d.n.a. things that we can do. we can deal with this. i mean, we're going to change this. there are other issues that i can talk about -- droughts, forest fires, all of these kinds of things. i will talk about them more tomorrow. but i just wanted to show the american people and tonight, as we kick off this debate, while we've focused on three items -- and i don't minimize their importance, i don't minimize the value to debate them -- i wanted people to know what is in this bill. and we had to deal with the omnibus, we had to deal with a trillion dollars because we were stiff-armed and also that we couldn't bring up the bills one at a time so the we have to bring all -- all but the homeland security up now.an.

and we face 98 riders, some of which were highly controversial. we did the best we could with them and i will have more to say about those tomorrow. but while everybody talks about one item or this item, i wanted to talk about some of these items. you know, when we pass -- i really hope we pass this omnibus bill, because when we do, our country will be safer because of threats over there. it will be safer because of threats right here. but i believe the biggest threat that we face is gridlock, deadlock and the way that we paralyze ourselves by making the perfect the enemy of the good. no piece of legislation is perfect. i would be the first to say that in this bill. and, by the way, people might say, "boy, this is a big bill, senator mikulski." it really is. i mean, it is the discretionary

funding for our entire federal government. but it's also up on the web si site. you can go to our individual subcommittees and defense, labor-h.h.s., interior, transportation and housing and you can read about what we did. i have the summaries here. i'm prepared tonight to read them all night but i know that we're anxious to bring this evening to a close. but i wanted to open you tell debate today -- open the debate today to talk about how we tried to govern on a bipartisan basis. we reached across the aisle and we reached across the capitol dome. the house has done their job. now i hope we do our job and that within the next 24 hours, that we pass the omnibus spending bill and show that we can govern, that we will not have a government shutdown, we will not have government on autopilot and we will be able to fund our responsibilities and

protect america and really prepare america for both today and the rest of the 21st century. madam president, i look forward to working with you and my colleagues. i now yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorl be term made it. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to consideration of h.j. res. 130, the short-term two-day continuing resolution, which was

received from the house and is now at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: house joint resolution 130, making continuing appropriations for fiscal 2013 and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the joint resolution be read three times and the senate proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution. the presiding officer: without objection. is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the joint resolution is passed. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, i now ask unanimous consent that at 12:00 noon on friday, december 12, tomorrow, all postcloture

time on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 3979 be considered expired, that it be in order notwithstanding cloture having been invoked for senator coburn to offer a motion to refer the house message, that there be three hours of debate, one hour each for senators coburn and reid of nevada or their designees and that 30 minutes for senators murkowski and inhofe. 30 minutes each. or their designees prior to a vote in relation to the motion to refer. that the coburn motion to refer be subject to a 60-vote affirmative threshold. that if the coburn motion to refer is not agreed to, senator coburn be recognized for a purpose of making a motion. that following disposition of the coburn motion, the pending motion to concur with the further amendment be withdrawn, that the senate proceed to vote on the motion to concur, that no motions other than the coburn motions to waive or motion to table be in order. that the vote on the motion to concur be subject to a 60-vote

affirmative vote threshold. finally, that if the motion to concur is agreed to, the senate proceed to the consideration of the following concurrent resolutions en bloc -- h. con. res. 121 to correct the enrollment of p.r.3979 providing a new title to the bill. h. con. res. 123 to correct the enrollment of h.r. 3979. that the concurrent resolutions be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent th that following disposition of the house message of 3979, the senate consider calendar number 397, 632, 1055, 542, 637, 1051, 1057, 791, 1102. there be two minutes for debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees prior to each vote. that upon the use or yielding back of time, the senate proceed

to vote with no intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed. that any roll call votes following the first in the series be 10 minutes in length. that if any nominations is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. that no further motion be in order to the nomination, that any statements related to the nomination appear in the record and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. pryor: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator arkansas. mr. pryor: i understand that we're in a quorum call, and i

would ask that it be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: calendar number 1112 through and including 1137 and all nominations placed on the secretary's desk in the air force, army, marine corps and navy, that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, and that the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the

e.p.w. committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 3096 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 3096, an act to designate the building occupied by the federal bureau of investigation located at 801 fallen lane, vienna, virginia, as the michael d. resnick terrorist screening center. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged. and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. pryor: i further ask the bill be read three times and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on judiciary be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4771 and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 4771, an act to amend the controlled substances act to more effectively regulate anabolic steroids. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the energy committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 5057 and the senate proceed to its consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 5057, an act to amend the energy policy and conservation act and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to frog the measure? -- to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed to the measure.

mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of s. 3008, which is -- which was introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 3008, a bill to extend temporarily the extended period of protection for members of uniformed services relating to mortgages and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. pryor: i further ask the bill be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to immediate consideration of

calendar number 608, s. 2338. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 608, s. 2338, a bill to reauthorize the united states anti-doping agency and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. pryor: i ask consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: ask unanimous consent that the committee on commerce be discharged from further consideration of s. 2983 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 2983, a bill to allow for a contract for operation of melvil hall of the united states merchant marine academy and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection.

the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. pryor: ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 599, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 599, recognizing the 1 00-year anniversary of bringin big brokg sisters, southeastern pennsylvania. the presiding officer: is there objection to frog the measure? without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that from thursday december 11 through friday december 12, senator pryor be authorized to sign newly enrolled bills or joint resolutions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. on friday, december 12, 2014, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that following any leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of the motion to

concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to accompany h.r. 3979 postcloture. the presiding officer: without the presiding officer: without he is senators, if all debate time is used, there will be up to four roll call votes in relation to the defense authorization bill and the saperstein nomination at 3:00 p.m. we hope to yield back some of the debate time. if there is to further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until

senator tom coburn of oklahoma is retiring after three terms in the house house and 11 years in the senate. he's leaving one year before the natural end of his second term. tuesday the senator gave his farewell remarks on the senate floor and members paid tribute to him. from the senate floor come of this that this is one hour and 15 minutes.

>> i come to speak about my experiences in the senate. unfortunately this will be the last time i speak too much of your chagrin as i have opposition to many things we are doing but none of the less i will trade to put into context some of my feelings and thoughts about the great privilege. we have a lot of speeches in this place and as members that are elected, it gets reflected on us but nothing could be further from the truth because

what really makes this place operate is the people that work with us, the people that support us, the people that help guide us. >> would you please take your conversations outside backs the senate will come to order. >> the people behind the scenes are brilliant, committed and dedicated to the founding principles of the country. whether the accomplishments are big or small, those accomplishments come through the work efforts and labors of those that join with us as we come here to try to make a difference.

so there are a lot of people that i need to say thank you to. from a parliamentarian to all of the staff that work in the senate >> that gal, wonderful people. the council have written thousands, literally thousands of amendments and have some real

mixed feelings about my departure and that i have personal staff one of which i found to be a fount -- phenomenal person. there isn't anything that is forgotten. you can ask him anything.

so from my former chief of staff who passed away from lou gehrig's disease to those in my office and staff what a difference they make, and they did. we have him on our side. we are moving to function because of all of the people that enable us to do that.

so with those those think you things use i actually wanted to move to a different topic, and the topic is believing in our country. we do not have one problem we can solve. there is nothing too big for us and to prove that it is the chairman in the online security.

he is not in my party, we don't agree on everything but the one thing we agreed on is that we were going to work together to solve problems and we have. we didn't solve the them all but if you look at what is coming through this dysfunctional place there is more coming out of his leadership than any other pieces of legislation. it's because the focus wasn't about him. it was about solving the problems of the country.

for those of you that i have offended, i truly apologize. and i think none of that was intended because i actually see things. i believe our founders were absolutely brilliant and smarter than us.

i believe the enumerated powers meant something. they were meant to protect us against what history says always happens to the republic. so the problem is what will happen with us? can we change history or do something better and i honestly believe we can but i don't believe we can if we continue to ignore the wisdom of our founding documents.

so when i have offended ivp leave -- i believe that it's been in article one, section eight i think that we can stuff the genie back into the bottle. out of many, one but you don't have one unless you guarantee that the liberty of the many. and when we ignore what the constitution gave as a guideline to protect the individual

liberties, to limit the size and scope of the federal government so that they are the benefit of freedom and liberty can be expressed all across this land that's when we get back to solving our problems. i think about my father. he had a fifth grade education. a great leader in our country. he wouldn't recognize it today the loss of freedom that we have

imposed by the government ignoring of ignoring the wisdom into the writings of the founders that said above all we must protect that the liberty of the individual and to recognize that liberty is given as a god-given right. so my criticism isn't directed at him personally. it's because i truly belief that freedom games more than anything that we can plan up here. and i know that not everybody agrees with me that the one thing i know is our founders agreed and studied this process

before. they know what happens when you dominate from the central government. but that doesn't mean intentions are bad. the motivations of people in this body are wonderful. but the perspective on how we do it and that the long-term consequences of how we do it really do matter. so we see ourselves with a president that we need to be supporting, with an economy that isn't doing what it could be doing and we need to be asking the questions by. we are too much involved in the decision-making in the economy that inhibits the flow of capital to the best return which

inhibits the growth of wealth and leaves us at a standard of living the same as we had in 1998. that's where we are and get it doesn't have to be that way. i'm going to read some things you've all heard before. we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. all of us but among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. i look at legislation and say how does that have an impact on those two things and too often it has a negative impact. the security rights are

instituted from the consent of the governed that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends is right of the people to alter or abolish. i don't know where we are on that continuum, that i know we are not where we were intended to be, and we are suffering no matter where you are in this country as a consequence. we put in the limitation and the

government shall not infringe. yet it comes out and it guarantees those rights. every member of the senate takes the same oath and here is where i differ with a lot of my colleagues. i think that this is part of our problem. i do solemnly swear and affirm that i will support the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic intelligence to do the same. i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that i will discharge so help me god.

it was mentioned one time. your goal is to protect the united states of america, its constitution and its liberties. it's not to provide benefits for your state. that's where we differ. that is where the conflict with my colleagues have come. it's nice to be old to do things for your state but that isn't our charge. our charges to protect the future of the country by upholding the constitution and ensuring that liberty is protected and preserved. the magic number is and 16. the number of senators needed today and it's not 51.

the most important number in the senate is one. that's how our founders designed but with that comes tremendous amount of responsibility because the senate has a set of tools that gives each individual member of the power needed to advance, change or stop legislation. and that is a tool that has to be made toward and we find in its application. most of the bills never received a vote. we all know that. they are approved by unanimous consent. it just takes a single senator

to withhold consent to stop most legislation. there are many other rules and procedures and they are often referred to as arcane but that is only because they are rarely used. they were designed to protect liberty, to make sure that we don't follow history and failed. every senator has the power to introduce legislation, and until recently no single senator should be allowed to decide what the rights of the senator should be. that steer any. it has nothing to do with the

history and the classics of the senate. to exercise the rights we have been interested with we must respect the rights of others. that's the true power of our constitution and also with senate. it's what combines the nation together and what is needed to make the senate work properly again. the senate was designed to force compromise, not to force gridlock, to force compromise. one senator had the power to stop everything for the first 100 years the dividend because compromise was the goal. our founders understood that

there were many differences between the state both in size, geography and opinions. they united states as one country based upon the premise that many were more powerful than one. as senators we have to follow this example. i have not always done it and i should do it to you. we must follow the examples that work to find those areas of agreement where compromise can be found to unite and move the country forward. my colleague senator carper has my admiration because he has worked here leslie the past two years to try to accomplish that.

not all of the powers are exercised on the senate floor. each has a goal to participate and practice oversight to hold them accountable and that is part of our duty except most often it's the part that is ignored. to know how to reach a destination you must first know where you are and with that effective vigorous oversight you will never sold anything. you cannot write a bill to fix an agency unless you have an understanding of the problem and you can only notice only know this by conducting oversight, asking the questions, hoping the bureaucrats accountable finding

out what works and what doesn't and know what has already been done. effective oversight is a tool to expose government overreach and wasteful spending but it also exposes where we lose our liberty and freedoms. i've taken some criticism and everybody has a great defense but the real question is where we will become deficient and spend the money on the american people. this is a big enterprise.

it's not manageable unless we all agree and have the knowledge i think there ought to be 535 waste books every year and then we ought to have the debate about where we are not spending the money wisely and have the information at our fingertips so we make great decisions are. it's because we don't have the knowledge and what knowledge we do have a transfer to make decisions when we should have been guiding those things. a few decades would come about if we did if it does oversight. it is once held as the greatest body where the differences should be argued.

so they are not settled in the street. just as the constitution provides for majority rule in the democracy while protecting the rights the senate must return to the principles and it can. our founders believe that protecting the minority views into the rights in the senate was essential to having a bicameral legislature that would give balance against the principles which this country was based and not out of guessing that the knowledge of what happened in the past and we need to be very careful to guard both minority rights and the rule of law.

there is no one that works in the senate but is insignificant for there it is people that served us when we have lunch to the highest of the high. we would encourage you to use it in the future. it's the power of convening. because of your position to convene the opposite opinions to

convene and see how we work and that power causes us to compromise a. of my encouragement to you is to rethink the utilization of the power of convening a. people will come to you if you ask them to. i would end by saying thank you to my family for their sacrifice, a great thank you to the wonderful staff that i've had and thank you to each of you

for the privilege of having been able to work for a better country for us all. i yield the floor. [applause] [applause]

mr. president, we all heard a very moving, inspirational and motivational speech from our friend tom coburn. in 1994 there were a bunch of folks that got elected to the u.s. house of representatives and republicans took majority for the first time in 42 years and ran on