quorum call:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? seeing none, on this vote, the yeas are 46, the nays are 50. one senator responded "present." three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the

motion is not agreed to. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: the senate's not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the presiding officer: please take your conversations out of the well. the senate will be in order. mr. mcconnell: i enter a motion to reconsider the vote. the presiding officer: the motion is entered. the clerk will report 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, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on calendar number 218, s. 2012, an original bill to provide for the modernization of the energy policy of the united states and for other purposes. 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 s. 2012, a bill to provide for the modernization of the energy policy of the united states, and for other purposes, 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 change their vote? seeing none, on this vote, the yeas are 43, the nays are 54. three-fifths of the senate duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i enter a motion to reconsider the vote. the presiding officer: the motion is entered. mr. mcconnell: pleat just say for all of -- let me just say for all of our colleagues that senator murkowski and senator cantwell are going to continue to work over the weekend on a path forward. hopefully we'll be able to salvage this important bipartisan legislation in the next few days. in the meantime, the next vote will be at 5:30 on monday. i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period for morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for

up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. the majority whip. mr. cornyn: madam president, i want to just take a few minutes -- i know there are others waiting to speak and i'll be brief. i just want to take a couple minutes to reflect on what happened here on the senate floor. we had a bipartisan bill that was shepherded through the energy committee by the chair, senator murkowski, and the ranking member, senator cantwell, and because our colleagues from michigan refused to take "yes" for an answer, objected to a vote on their very amendment, the democratic caucus has come together and brought down this bipartisan bill, killing it -- at least for the time-being, and i share the majority leader's hope that discussions can continue and that cooler, more reasonable minds will prevail, rather than just the gamesmanship that,

frankly, frustrates all of us and gives congress a bad name. because we know the vote that just went down was not about the energy bill. this is about trying to embarrass republicans and to try to make us look bad and act -- and portray us as having no compassion for the poor people in flint, which is exactly the opposite of true. i stood here on the floor -- i'd ask for regular order. the presiding officer: order in the chamber, please. mr. cornyn: the fact of the matter is, senator murkowski, the bill manager, the chairman of the energy committee, made an offer for a vote on a $550 million package -- $550 million package. the senator from michigan has asked for a check for $600 million, but senator murkowski, in good faith, trying to be responsible, offered them an

alternative of $550 million package, and they refused it. instead, choosing to bring down this legislation. but i think it's important note that the state of michigan has already appropriated somewhere close to $37 million, including funds specifically set aside for outside experts to conduct an infrastructure integrity study. the fact of the matter is, the state of michigan and the city of flint don't yet know what they need to do to fix the problem or how much it will co cost. and the senators from michigan come in here and say, well, we don't need a plan; we just want cash up front, $600 million. we want this added to the national debt, which is already $19 trillion. when i think the senator from alaska, the bill manager, made a

very reasonable suggestion that let the state and the city get started with the money that's been appropriated by the state, together with tens of millions of dollars that the obama administration is making available to the state of michigan that can be then available to the city of flint to get started, to do the infrastructure integrity study, to come up with a plan, and then the senators can come back to congress hopefully during the regular appropriations process and come up with a responsible, shared plan for this local government, for the state government, and for the federal government to help the poor people of flint out of this terrible crisis. but instead what we seem to have found happen is in the immortal words of ram emanagua rahm emane

said "never let a crisis go to waste," and that's what is happening here. it's not responsible. it's not reasonable. and i think what senator murkowski's counteroffer to the demands of the senators from michigan demonstrate is that it's not even a good-faith effort to try to solve a problem. it's just trying to put on a show vote and embarrass people. we also need to understand that the environmental protection agency bears significant responsibility here. the obama administration's environmental protection agency, they failed the people of flint when they didn't act sooner. we heard that one agency director has already resigned. but let me be clear. there's no disagreement that we all want to work together to help the people of flint find a solution. once we have more information

about the needs of the city and the state of michigan -- and they know exactly what kind of help they need and in what amount. what we disagree about is that this bipartisan energy bill should be held hostage until we know the solution. so that's just -- it frankly is beyond frustrating. it's disappointing. it's not serving our constituents and the american people the way we should in a responsible, commonsense, bipartisan way. this is all about gamesmanship. this is all about gotcha. this is -- in other words, this is all about the things that the american people have come to loathe and hate about the political process in washington, d.c. we can do better. we must do better. and i share the majority leader's wish that negotiations will continue and that cooler, more sensible minds will come

together on a solution that we could perhaps agree to. madam president, i yield the floor. ms. klobuchar: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, this is the fourth time i've come to the floor urging senator cruz to remove his hold on two very important nominees for two of of our best allies. that would be the countries of sweden and norway. norway has been without a confirmed ambassador for 860 days. the ms. klobuchar: there is no issue with these nominees, madam president. in the words of senator cotton

-- this is tom cotton of arkansas, my republican colleague -- he said, "i believe botboth are qualified and we hae significant interests in and i asand asknative yavment high hoh receive a vote sooner rather than later. we know we have the support of senator koarks the head of the foreign relations committee. we thank senator cardin for his support, we thank the majority leader mccon. we thank senator reid. this vote is not a controversial vote. senator cruz is not here to object. we understand senator lee is here on his behalf. but i would like to know why senator cruz isn't here to object. i think i know why he isn't leer to object, because he is in the state of my colleague, senator shaheen. we cannot hold up the business of the senate like this. we have two nominees for two countries, the 1 1-g9 and 12th biggest investors in the united states of america, sweden and norway. the purchaser, the country of

norway, of 52 lockheed fighter planes at $200 million a piece all made in the home state of senator cruz. these are allies that are taking in refugees by the thousands. these are allies that are at our side in the fight against russia to stand up against their aggression in the ukraine. they have stood with us in the fight against islamic extremism. they have stood with us in the fight against isis. and what do we say to them? oh, well, you can have ambassadors from russia or from china, you can have ambassadors from every country but not from the united states of america. and i ask senator cruz and i ask his colleagues or perhaps his staff to ask him why every other european nation of any major size has an ambassador and why not these two scandinavian countries? so it is my hope the reasons for this hold are completely unrelated. they are varied. they are many. they change every day and i'm hopeful that we will be able to negotiate something because

senator shaheen and i have pledged to come to the floor nearly every single day when the senate's in session to continue asking and his colleagues are going to have to come and object on his behalf. so i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations, this would be the nomination of samuel heins to the country of norway, calendar number 263, that the senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination, that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. lee: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: on behalf of the junior senator from texas, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. klobuchar: i now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, the nomination of azita raji to be ambassador to the country of sweden. it's calendar number 148. that the senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination, that

if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. lee: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: on behalf of the junior senator from texas, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. klobuchar: madam president, i see the senator from new hampshire who's here's who is a leader on the foreign relations committee. i know she has a few things to say. but again, we are simply asking for a vote. senator cruz can choose to be here or not, he can choose to vote or not, he can choose to vote no if he wants. we know these two nominees would pass because they are not controversial and i am tired of hearing from people in america and people who represent and live in these countries, what is wrong with america, why are you dissing us when we stand by your side every day? this has to stop. mrs. shaheen: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: madam president, i'm joining my colleague, senator klobuchar, to talk not just about these two positions as ambassadors to sweden and norway but also some of the other 27 nominees who deal with

national security issues. and, you know, as senator klobuchar said yesterday when we were on the floor, we said we were going to come down here every day, well, the senate's not going to be in session every day so we won't be here every day but we will be back as often as possible to point out that we need to confirm these nominees. it's in the country's national security interest. and i know the presiding officer serves with me on the senate armed services committee so she understands just how critical it is that we have a team in place that can provide -- be part of the team to protect this nation. azita raji, as senator klobuchar said, has been waiting over a year since she was nominated. she went through the foreign relations committee unanimously. nobody objected. for sam heins, he's been nominated almost a year and he's

nominated to be u.s. ambassador to norway. and, again, this is not just about these two individuals. this is also about the message that we are sending to two of our best partners and allies, sweden and norway. sweden has -- both of these countries have been part of the anti-isil coalition, finding with us against the terrorists. sweden has been on the front lines of the refugee crisis, taking in thousands of refugees in europe. and as we think about the strains that the european union is under right now, for us to have failed to put ambassadors in two of our most important allies is just unforgivable. and norway, yesterday i said it was in 1914 that norway had to scramble their f-16 fighters. well, we know they didn't have f-16 fighters in 1914. so it was 2014, so a little over

a year ago, that norway, a nato ally, scrambled its f-16 fighters 74 times to intercept russian war planes. as we think about the threats from russian aggression, again, sweden and norway are right there, they're on the front lines. norway has committed to participating in nato's missile defense system. so, again, very important as we're looking at our efforts to stop russian aggression. now, yesterday in the senate foreign relations committee we were talking about the strains on europe. we had witnesses for both the majority and the minority who confirmed that our failure to move these nominees on the senate floor is -- and i quote -- "an enormous issue, a disastrous policy. it sends the message that

washington does not -- quote -- "care about european security." even arguing -- this is both minority and majority witnesses -- even arguing that the united states does not hav have -- quote -- "players on the field." and not only are there those national security implications but, as the senator from minnesota pointed out, vacancies in sweden and norway mean that some $11.3 billion -- with a b -- in exports lack a strong champion in-country. so i would hope that the senator from texas, who is out running for president, would come back or would lift his hold so that we can send the message that we should be sending to our european allies about how important they are and how strongly we want to support what's happening in those countries. now, i'm going to ask unanimous consent to move two other national security nominees.

the first is ambassador tom shannon. he's been nominated to be under secretary of state for political affairs. again, he's been waiting 136 days since being nominated. and he also went through the foreign relations committee without any opposition. he would be responsible for working with europeans on the implementation of the iran agreement, on coordinating the g-7 to combat russian aggression, as well as providing daily oversight and direction to all the department's regional bureaus. he's a career foreign service officer who has served in five administrations, two democratic and three republican. madam president, at this time, i ask unanimous consent that the

senate proceed to executive session to consider the following, the nomination of ambassador tom shannon to be under secretary of state for political affairs. it's listed on calendar number 375. that the senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination and that, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. lee: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: on behalf of the junior senator from texas, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mrs. shaheen: well, again, i'm hopeful that the junior senator from texas is going to do what he should have done all along, which is lift his hold and allow both the ambassadors to sweden and norway and ambassador shannon to move forward. now finally i want to ask unanimous consent to move adam

szubin, who has been nominated to be under secretary of treasury for financial crimes. he has also been waiting for almost a year. he is someone who chairman shelby, chairman of the banking committee, has said is eminently qualified, but the banking committee still has not voted to move his nomination to the senate floor. now, this position is very critical because he would -- he leads the policy enforcement regulatory and intelligence functions of the treasury department aimed at identifying and disrupting the lines of financial support to international terrorist organizations, t to a whole rane of other bad actors. next week we're supposed to take up sanctions on north korea. how can we in good faith tell the american people we're going to enforce sanctions on north korea when we haven't been willing to fill the position who

is responsible for do that enforcement? it belies understanding that we are not going to move forward. and, again, this is a position who i know is supported by the foreign relations committee. azzam szubin, the -- adam szubin, the republican chair of the foreign relations committee, has been very supportive of moving his nomination, just as he's been supportive of moving the two ambassadors, of moving ambassador shashahshannon.this t we're doing to ensure the national security of this country. and it is unfortunate that we have rules in the senate that allow one person to hold things up for an indefinite period of time when the national security of the country is at stake. so, madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session and the banking

committee be discharged from further consideration of p.n. 371, the nomination of adam szubin to be under secretary for terrorism and financial crimes. the senate proceed to his consideration and vote without intervening action or debate. that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order to the nomination, that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. lee: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: on behalf of the senior senator from alabama, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. champs elyseemrs. shaheen: wellt is disappointing that the senior senator from bam isn' alabama ie to speak about his concerns

about azza adam szubin. and that we haven't heard from the majority leader about the importance of moving not only adam szubin's nomination but these other nominations that are critical, as we make sure we do what is knows protect this country. so, mr. president, i am disappointed, but as senator klobuchar said, we will be back. i yield the floor.

champs elysees madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. champs elysees i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: -- mrs. shaheen: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: thank you. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, i just wanted to chronicle for the senate and to make a part of the "congressional record" that nearly 5,000 people gathered this morning for the annual national prayer breakfast with the president, members of the cabinet, members of the joint chiefs, most of the diplomatic corps, and of course a lot of the members of congress. the national breakfast is sponsored by the senate prayer group that meets on wednesday

morning and the house prayer group that meets on thursday morning. this year it was the house's turn to be the cochairs, and we do have cochairs in the house and the senate prayer group, one from each party. in the case of the senate prayer group, we were ably represented as they spoke from the podium by senator boozman of arkansas and senator kaine of virginia. they will be the chairman of the breakfast, the cochairman of the breakfast next year. madam president, it was the eighth time that president obama has spoken.

this senator feels that it was the best speech at the prayer breakfast that i have heard president obama give and one of the best speeches in over three decades of this senator attending the prayer breakfast, that i've ever heard. because he quoted a scripture from the writings of paul in which our faith can keep us from fear. and the president illustrated that throughout so much of his remarks. but in his closing remarks, i will tell you one story that he relayed that he had just heard a week or so ago.

it was a u.s. army sergeant in world war ii, the entire unit had been captured by the nazis. and in the p.o.w. camp, the colonel, nazi colonel told the sergeant who was the senior official, i want the names, and i want you to have them report, of the jewish soldiers in this unit. the sergeant refused. and instead, when demanded again, he assembled all of 200 of his troops in the p.o.w. examp -- camp in formation, with

him at the head of the formation. and as the colonel approached him again, obviously trying to single out and take and probably try to annihilate the jewish american soldiers, he again demanded as always troops are standing there in formation, sergeant, i want to know who are the jews. and the sergeant replied, "sir, we are all jews." the colonel then took out his pistol out of the holster, cocked it, and put it to the head of the sergeant, and he demanded again. the faith of that christian

sergeant overcame his fear, for he was looking out for his troops and he repeated again, "sir, we are all jews," and the nazis backed down in that p.o.w. camp, and the jewish soldiers were not revealed and, therefore, protected. and that was just one of the many stories that was recounted as the president gave what was an extraordinary conclusion for his last national prayer breakfast as president. madam president, it's an occasion that we, so many of us join in, but that we, so many of us join in every wednesday here as we come together, put aside

our partisan differences, our regional differences and any differences that we have and come together and are unified and joined in prayer. and so i thought it fitting, the national prayer breakfast having just concluded, that i share this with the senate. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i

ask consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, we have had quite a running story about the maker of inflatable air bags that are usually in the steering wheel of an automobile and also over on the passenger side. these air bags have saved countless lives, and yet what we have found is a manufacturer named takata from japan has consistently had different air bags under recall. well, we just found out yesterday that there is now one of their automobile manufacturers that uses the

takata air bags has now had a further recall just yesterday of 2.2 million vehicles. why? because of defective air bags. now, these bags are supposed to save lives, not harm and kill lives. and yet i remember the lady in orlando, that it was a minor fender bender collision in an intersection. the air bag deployed, and when the police got there, they thought it had been a homicide. her neck was lacerated, and she bled to death. so too a fireman near orlando. that fireman will never be a fireman again because he lost his right eye because in the

explosion of the air bag, it is defectively manufactured, so it is exploding with such force that it is shredding the metal, and the air bag becomes a hand grenade sitting right in front of your face with pieces of shrapnel coming into you. in the case of the lady into her jugular and killed her. in the case of the fireman. and we've seen a score of these deaths around the country. another one most recently from a defective takata air bag in south carolina. there are now well over 20 million vehicles recalled, and so i will be talking to the head

of the national highway transportation safety administration, asking them with all of these questions about the safety, why are we having the drip, drip, drip of recall here and recall there? why isn't this agency taking an aggressive approach and going after all of these inflaters? it is expected that it is the explosive compound, ammonium nitrate that when is especially exposed to humanity that it becomes extremely explosive and is causing the metal to shred and, therefore, come right into

the very driver and passenger that it was intended to save. madam president, this is a matter of grave concern, and now the latest news, honda, over two million more vehicles recalled. nationwide, worldwide, it's well over 20 million vehicles that have been recalled. we've got to get to the bottom of this and get those defective air bags out of those cars, out of the steering wheels and replace them with safe air bags. madam president, i yield the floor. ms. murkowski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: madam president, i have five unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have got the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and the requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without

objection. ms. murkowski: i would also ask, mr. president, for unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to karen dillday effective day through march 1 of 2016. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, madam president. and i would just note for members, we have just concluded the first cloture votes on the energy policy modernization act. there was some interesting discussion about where we are in the process and how we might find a path forward towards completion of this very important bipartisan measure, a measure that has, i think, reflected good, strong work throughout the committee process, good, strong work throughout the floor process, but we have yet more work to do. know that this senator, along with the ranking member on the energy committee, is committed to doing just that, along with i

know the senators from michigan and as well as many on this side. so i think the message to those who are wondering what is happening after that noon vote, the word is that work is continuing, and i am optimistic about the outlook for the final passage for the energy policy modernization act. and with that, madam president, i would yield the floor and would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: is

quorum call:

quorum call: