to address this water infrastructure bill to help flint and other communities but also to move forward on the energy bill. so we need to have -- we need to be doing both, and we're at a point where that needs to get done. we have ten cosponsors of the bill, and i want to thank senator portman, senator brown, senator kirk, senator reed of rhode island, senator burr, senator capito, moore and senator baldwin. people from both parties who have come together to do something that will make things better for the families and the communities that we represent. and there are a number of other members and staffs who have been working behind the scenes. we are so grateful for the kind words and encouragement and people who have offered their support for what we're doing.

i particularly want to thank our appropriations leaders, senator cochran and senator mikulski for going the extra mile. we've been trying to figure out some strategy that would satisfy the senator from utah to be able to get beyond this hold and be able to come together. but p unfortunately, despite strong bipartisan support and our best efforts, we find ourselves still in a spot, even though we've had conversations today, and i appreciate that, and folks say they still want to work together, but it seems like we go round and round and round and round. we need to stop and have a vote at this point in time. so we thought at one point we had an agreement. as i said, we met again today. it would make sense in moving forward to offer the senator the opportunity to have a

second-degree amendment to our proposal. he has a different idea on structuring that. we're willing to make the case, let him make the case and decide. that's what the senate's about. have a vote, decide. but the children of flint need our help. somehow this, you know, procedural stuff and talking to folks about holds is not going to turn the water on in flint. it's not going to help the children who have already been exposed and their families. we need a sense of urgency that they have. you know, when you look around the country -- and believe me, our focus is on flint. even though there are certainly other communities in michigan with water issues, we are laser

focused on the place where the water has been destroyed and the people have been poisoned because of a whole range of things that happened and people have not been able to take a bath or cook with water out of the tap or be able to care for the children or themselves now for almost two years. but it is also true that when we talk to colleagues in putting together this bill that there are drinking water infrastructure needs around the country that we address. utah will require $3.7 billion in drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years to meet minimum human health and safety requirements. in jackson, mississippi, last month after random samples showed lead levels above federal action levels, the mayor issued a warning to pregnant women and children five years of age and younger to stay away from tap water. they also said, the mayor also

said this is not flint because we're telling people about it and we're taking action, which unfortunately did not happen to protect the health and safety of the people in flint. last month in crystal city, texas, there was black sludge water started coming out of the faucet and residents were warned to boil tap water before drinking it in texas. according to a recent survey about e.p.a., texas will require nearly $34 billion in upgrades to its drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years to comply with minimum safety standards. last month in ohio, 13 water systems were under lead advisories. in intring, ohio -- in sebring, ohio, lab tests found unsafe levels of lead in drinking water and it took five months to tell

pregnant women and children not to drink the water. just today the "usa today" network published a report that identified nearly 2,000 water systems where excessive lead levels have been detected in the last four years. and they serve six million people. virginia tech professor marc edwards recently sounded the alarm about lead pipes in washington. in cleveland, children have high lead levels due to exposure to lead in household paint. we could go on and on. pennsylvania, high lead levels. so the reason i'm saying this is because while the catastrophe has happened in flint for many reasons beyond the control of anybody in flint, there are other communities now that need help as well, which is why the

proposal we have is one that has broad bipartisan support to be able to activate a water infrastructure financing mechanism that allows communities around the country to be able to solve problems before they get to what happened in flint on the early end, solve the problem so people don't get lead poisoning. that's in this bill. and we step up because these are americans in flint, michigan, and say we hear you, we see you, we care about you, and we will provide because you have a federal emergency declaration, the opportunity to get some help in addition to accountability

and responsibility of the state that the federal government, because of the e.p.a.'s role in this, will be a part of the solution in fixing these pipes. we also address public health issues. the centers for disease control, childhood lead poisoning prevention fund, h.u.d.'s healthy homes program for lead both in water and in paint. and we address the opportunity to reach out and deal with the public health issues for children. so needless to say, we are extremely disappointed. in fact, that's putting it mildly -- as to how we feel about coming to a point today, despite the best efforts on many people's parts, despite, frankly, our patience of working

with people, accepting sthem at their word, working, trying to get things done, looking at various alternatives to get beyond the road roadblocks, despite a lot of effort -- and again, we are grateful for those who have stood with us and worked so hard on our behalf. it is incredibly disappointing and frustrating and, frankly, maddening that we are here as the senate is leaving for the next two weeks and we do not have action on flint and on other water systems across this country. and i can tell you again that for the people of flint who have not gotten help for so long, for the people of flint who were told the water was okay and it wasn't and have been watching cover ups and slow walking now

for going on two years, this is just one more time when they're watching inaction, when we could be stepping up and doing something to help. so that's what we're asking for, that when we come back, that the children of flint be a priority for action, that we work together as we have done across the aisle to put forward something that will address water infrastructures to help the people of flint, to help people around the country so they don't find themselves in a situation like the people of flint, and that we do that together, that we pass that bill, that we pass an energy bill and that we move forward after weeks and weeks and weeks of good-faith efforts to get something done. all we're asking for is a vote.

that's all we're asking for after all this effort, is the opportunity to vote. and if someone believes it's not the right thing to do, they have the opportunity that we all have to vote "no". but the children of flint be deserve a vote. the children in jackson, mississippi, the people around the country are worried that they might become the crisis, the catastrophe in flint, are asking us simply to vote. lead poisoning is a frightening thing. it gets in your body and never leaves. it goes from your blood to your bones. as a woman, when you get pregnant, it goes into your -- into the fetus. it is a frightening form of poisoning.

if that's not a national emergency worthy of action by the senate and the house, the congress of this country, i don't know what is. and there are a whole lot of people that have lost faith, frankly, in government right now in flint who are asking us to see them, to care about them, and to help. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. perdue: thank you, madam president. regarding the vacancy on the supreme court, many of our colleagues in the minority party

have said the same things that we're saying today. let's stop kidding each other. this kind of political show man showmanship and yes indeed hypocrisy is exactly what makes everyone in my home state absolutely apoplectic with washington. the last time i addressed the supreme court vacancy on the senate floor, i urged my colleagues on the other side of the aisle not to let the nominations process get bogged down in partisan politics. that's not what this should be about. not to let this process turn into political theater, because that's exactly what's happened far too often in this body ever since the bork nomination way back in 1987. the organized campaign of vilification and character attacks surrounding judge bork's nomination was so unprecedented and so extreme that it took the creation of a new word, the verb to bork to describe what had happened. the process for nominating justices to the supreme court

has been thoroughly politicized ever since. that politicization has done great damage not only to the court, but to this body, the united states senate. and it has expanded beyond just supreme court nominees. it now affects so many much our nominees for circuit judgeships as well. that's what's happened in 2013 when then-majority leader reid broke a tradition almost as old as the senate itself by invoking the nuclear option and breaking the senate's filibuster rule to stack various circuit courts. i don't think i need to remind any of my colleagues that when the democrats were in the minority, there was no shortage of protests heard in this room about how sacred an institution the filibuster was. keep in mind that the nuclear option was invoked after the senate had confirmed the president's first nominee to the d.c. circuit by a unanimous 97-0 vote. it was an act much raw political

power, the nuclear option. we heard yesterday that the president has named his nominee to the supreme court, but let's be clear. any previous conversation or confirmation or record as a judge or professional qualifications are not the issue here for any nominee. what's at stake here is the integrity of the process, not the person. it's the principle, not the individual. because or judicial nominees to the supreme court, the circuit and the district courts deserve better than to be used as pawns in any political fight, and that's exactly what would happen in the senate if the senate were to consider any nominee in the middle of this political season. mapt, i'm like you -- madam president, i'm like you, a new member to this institution but this has been the view of my colleagues in both parties who have served in the senate for far longer than we have. this was thai view -- their view no matter who the nominee was,

their view even when there wasn't a vacancy to fill. the former chairman of the judiciary committee, vice president biden, recognized this in 1992. when he said that -- quote -- "once the political season is underway, and it is, action on a supreme court nomination must b" must be put off until after the election campaign is over. that is what is fair to the nominee and is central to the process. other otherwise it seems to me we will be in deep trouble as an institution." unquote. madam president, i agree. the vice president correctly saw that when we inject the nomination into a contentious election year atmosphere, we do a disservice, not only to the nominee but to the institution of the united states senate itself. it's my view that enough institutional damage has already been done to the senate through these politicizeed nominations. now, i'd like to say a little

about the texas of -- text of te constitution. we hear both sides talk about this, but let's see it in detail. i have heard so many of my democratic colleagues claim that the senate has an obligation to schedule hearings and hold a vote on this nominee. we've all read article 2, section 2 of the constitution. every member of this body knows that the constitution says nothing about hearings or votes on judicial nominees. it's simply not there. senators of both parties have always understood this and have said so for years, regardless of who was in the majority. in 2005, minority leader reid said -- quote -- "nowhere in the constitution does it say that the senate has a duty to give presidential appointees a quote." unquote. before that, in 2002, the former chief judge of the d.c. circuit, abner mikva, who was an appointee, said the supreme

court shall not act on any supreme court nominees until after the next election. the senior senator from nevada and judge mick have a were right then and chairman grassley and my republican colleagues are right now. despite many of them previously making the exact same points we are today, my democratic colleagues are continuing this diatribe of telling us to do our job. i would respectfully say to my democratic colleagues today we are doing our job. our job as senators is to decide how to responsibly exercise the powers of advice and consent delegated to us under our constitution. the responsible course of action here, the course of action endorsed by both democrats and republicans for decades, is to refrain from initiating the nomination process in the midst of an election year political fight. the responsible course of action is to avoid the political theater that this nomination would become.

mr. president, i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mrs. fischer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: i would ask that the quorum call be lifted, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. fischer: madam president, i rise today to continue my contribute to nebraska's heroes

and the current generation of men and women who lost their lives defending our freedom in iraq and afghanistan. episcopal of these nebraskans -- each of these nebraskans has a special story to tell. throughout this year and beyond, i will continue to honor their memory here on the senate floor. today i wish to highlight the life of lieutenant jacob fritz. jake, as he was known to his friends and loved ones, grew up on his family's farm near vernon, nebraska. while attending dawson vernon high school, jake thrived and stood out as a model student sms he was an all-around athlete and played the baritone in the honor banged. he was also passionate about helping others in need and he regularly devoted his time to organizations that combat substance abuse inne in verdin d

around the state. his former principal described him as a great kid, student, and athlete. the principal recalls, if i had a school full of jacob fritzes, i wouldn't have had anything to do. when jake entered his senior year in high school, his focus remained on his commitment to helping others, and he began pursuing a career in the u.s. military. his mother, nola, recalls his dream of serving his country, which inspired -- was inspired by his grandfather, a retired air force officer. karen metzger, a family friend, recalls that jake wanted to have a career in the army and more than anything come back to verdin and live the life of a gentleman farmer. so with the support of his family and a nomination from then-senator chuck hagel, jake left nebraska in june of 2000 to begin his first year at the u.s.

military academy at west point. as soon as he arrived, jake earned the reputation as a warm and supportive person. his friend, first lieutenant travis reinfold recalls jake's midwestern values. "i called him jolly jake," lieutenant reinfolders, "because no matter who you were, he always gave you a wor warm couny smile." he also noted jake's yo superb voice as a member of the west point glee club. his voice was always filled with conviction and beauty, particularly when singing the hymn "mansions of the lord." after four years, jake graduated from west point with a bachelor's degree in systems engineering. he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army on may 28, 2005. following specialty training,

jake was assigned to the second battalion, 377th parachute field artillery regimen at fort richardson, alaska. not long after jake's arrival at for the richardson, the second battalion was deployed to iraq. it was 2006 and the war was escalating. the insurgency was in full force and threatening to erase the progress made by american troops. by the end of that year, president bush announced a counterassault known as "the surge," and deployed an additional 30,000 troops to the region. lieutenant fritz joined this effort and routinely volunteered at forward operating base karbala to assist iraqi soldiers. jake had a natural instinct to step up and take charge. he felt an obligation and a commitment to the mission, which

often required volunteering for these types of assignments. but shortly after jake arrived at karbala, all hell broke loose. on january 20, 2007, enemy militants disguised as friendly soldiers entered the base and attacked. in a matter of minutes, lieutenant fritz and three other american soldiers were captured. the militants rushed jake and the other hostages east towards mahewu. american troops quickly located their trail and followed in hot pursuit. shortly after crossing the euphrates river and with american forces gaining, the militants attempted to hasten their escape by executing the four captains. american soldiers -- american

soldiers were stripped of their identification and shot as the militants fled the scene. and jake was mortally wounded. as his heartless murderers fled into the abyss, jake realized his body might not be identified and so in a final act of bravery he managed to scroll a few letters in the dust of an abandoned vehicle. so when the american troops arrived at the scene, they saw his body and the word "fritz." back in verdon, nebraska, it was a snowy day in late january of 2007. jake's mother, nola, arrived home to find two strange cars in the driveway. men dressed in uniform approached her. she walked to the back door. she instinctively knew why they were there and she refused to listen to the words no mother

should ever hear. it was clear that her son would not be coming home. first lieutenant jacob fritz was laid to rest on january 31, 2007. he received full military honors and he was buried in the church ceremony just four miles from his home. family and friends, they paid their final respects in a moving service that honored the courage, commitment, and sacrifice of this local hero. jake was posthumously awarded the bronze star, purple heart, prisoner of war medal and the combat action badge. his two younger brothers later followed in his footprints and they earned commissioned in the army. they serve to this day with the same distinction and the honor that they learned from their big brother.

jake's mother retired from teaching and spends much of her time helping gold star families throughout nebraska. meanwhile, jake's memory lives on in the hearts and minds of the state he served. nebraskans are forever indebted to his sacrifice. first lieutenant jacob fritz is a hero, and i am honored to tell his story. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: good to see you on st. patrick's day. i'm pleased to have the chance to rise and to urge my colleagues, some of whom have scattered across the country to go home for a two-week recess,

but i'm glad that you're here and hopefully the words that i'm saying here today will find their way to our colleagues wherever they are, wherever they're headed. but i want to urge them to move quickly to confirm two very important nominees. one is a woman named beth cobert who has been nominated to be director of office of personnel management and the other is michael missel, nominated to be inspector general of the department of veterans' affairs. like many of my colleagues, i have grown frustrated over the years, as too often senior positions in the federal government have been left vacant or filled by someone serving in an active capacity for far too long. the lack of critical leadership at agencies can and oftentimes does undermine the effectiveness of federal programs. i know all of us want federal agencies to work more efficiently to provide the greatest value to the american taxpayers. having strong leadership in

place is key to this effort. i hope that we can move to quickly confirm both of these nominees when the senate returns after the recess. mr. president, let me start with a few words about beth cobert. i don't know if my presiding officer has had a chance to meet with her. she is one of the most impressive leaders of this administration or any administration i have had the privilege to know. she is, i believe, an excellent nominee to head o.p.m. right from the start, i have been very impressed with her work, with her leadership, with her work ethic, with her ability to get people to work together at o.m.b. and now during her time at o.p.m. in this acting capacity. before that, she was the deputy director for management within the office of management and budget. i just think we're really lucky in this country that she is willing to serve -- to continue to serve in this capacity as well as serve in her previous capacity. she comes out of the private

sector, kensington company, ran the california operation, had a number of senior positions within that company, a great career. the office of personnel management performs critical functions affecting the entire federal work force. they do -- what they do every day has a direct impact on the quality of work at all executive branch departments and agencies. as my colleagues know, ms. ms. cobert's time at o.p.m. began in the aftermath of one of the worst cyber attacks committed against our government last year. one result of that incident has been a major effort to overhaul the agencies information technology infrastructure which requires great levels of management attention and expertise. even before she came to o.p.m., ms. cobert was deeply involved in the o.p.m. response to the breach from her whole at o.m.b. if you look at her management in technology and experience in the private sector, her experience at o.m.b. and the time she has already spent leading the office

of personnel management, she is, i think, the ideal candidate to lead o.p.m. at such a critical time. i am only one of many who have been impressed by miss cobert. in addition to receiving a unanimous vote from the homeland security and governmental affairs committee at o.p.m., she also has the support of chairman chaffetz in the house and ranking member eli why cummings. in fact on march 3, representative chaffetz and chumtion sent a letter to majority leader mcconnell and minority leader reid supporting miss cobert's nomination. here is a taste of what they had to say about her -- miss cobert is a qualified and competent choice to manage o.p.m. which is in need of strong leadership. we urge the senate to approve her nomination swiftly. i would like to commit mr. -- -- mr. president, their full

letter, if i could, for the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: miss cobert is a highly qualified nominee. we are fortunate indeed that she is willing to take on this capacity and face the many challenges facing o.p.m. i urge my colleagues to confirm her so she can continue the good work she is doing at o.p.m. let me say one other thing, mr. president. you and i have known people that are show horses and folks that are workhorses. this woman is a workhorse. i like to think people look at us as workhorses as well, but she is focused on getting the job done. she is especially good at surrounding herself with terrific people, and she did that at o.m.b., she did that at o.p.m., she has done that at o.p.m., she did that before when she was in very senior positions at mckenzie and company. let me just turn the page for now, mr. president, and talk about michael missal. i want to talk about him and i

just want to thank him for his willingness to step up and serve as the inspector general for the department of veterans' affairs. he served five years of active duty as a naval flight officer in southeast asia. another 18 years as a p-3 aircraft commander in the navy, right up to the end of the cold war. he was governor for eight years of delaware, commander in chief of the delaware national guard. right now we have people in afghanistan. we sent people over the years to any number of places where they are in harm's way. i care a lot about veterans. my dad was a veteran. a bunch of my uncles were veterans. one of them got killed in world war ii, the victim of a kamikaze attack on his aircraft carrier in the western pacific. so veterans' concerns run deep in my family. as we all know, the inspector general has played an extremely important role in our

government. their work helps us save money while also revealing and prosecuting wrongdoing. promoting the integrity and efficiency of our government and hopefully increasing confidence and faith that the american people have in their government. i believe that the work of inspectors general along with that of g.a.o. is invaluable with respect to the work of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee on which i am privileged to serve, and the whole city as we look for ways to get better results for less money and to further reduce our federal deficit, which is down by from $1.4 trillion about a half dozen years ago to about close to a quarter of that, still too much. we're making progress. we need to make more. and the i.g. is a big part of helping us to meet that -- reach that goal. but i just think it's -- it's quite critical that we have qualified, experienced people in

place to serve in these important roles. it's just tough work. we're blessed by many of the i.g.'s that we have. unfortunately, we have seen far too many i.g. positions, however, including the one that mr. missal has been nominated to fill sit vacant or be filled on an interim basis by someone in an acting capacity for far too long. in fact, the v.a., of all agencies, given the concern that we've heard and seen across the country in recent years, the i.g. vacancy at v.a. has been without a permanent senate-confirmed inspector general for more than two years. more than two years. in the past several years, i have joined all the members of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee in sending letters to the president urging him to nominate people to fill all the i.g. vacancies, including one letter that specifically pointed out the importance of what i'm talking about today, filling the inspector general's position at the v.a.

in addition, our committee held a hearing last year on i.g. vacancies which pointed out the importance of having permanent i.g.'s in place to ensure the independence of this office. i want to thank the president for responding -- responding to our committee letters. he sent a number of well qualified nominees including mr. missal for our consideration. you've heard these words in the last couple of weeks. he's done his job and now it's time for us to do our job with respect to this nomination. i was pleased both the veterans affairs committee and our committee, homeland security and governmental affairs committee were able to move quickly to consider mr. missal's nomination. i want to thank my colleagues on our committee for making it a priority. however, since earlier this year, there has been no action by the senate on mr. missal's nomination, no action. this is an i.g. vacancy, inspector general vacancy in v.a., veterans affairs where we know there's been hospitals and

facilities across the country that are troubled and we need the best leadership we can find at the v.a. in this position. and again i think the president has given us a good person, a very good person. he's willing to do the job. we need to get him confirmed. but the v.a. as we know has been facing significant challenges over the last couple of years and i believe the confirming a permanent i.g. at the v.a. will help provided much needed oversight, help to point out and resolve some of the problems at the v.a. that are negatively impacting the lives of our veterans every day. leaving this position vacant impedes much needed progress on identifying -- addressing serious issues at the v.a. that impact our veterans. if we want to do more to fix the v.a., we need a strong and independent inspector general to be our partner in that effort. the latest nomination also delays improvements to the services that our veterans

receive. permanent leadership of the department of veterans affairs office of inspector general is long overdue and will go a long way toward providing stable leadership and oversight of the agency. i urge my colleagues to quickly confirm mr. missal so he can go to work on behalf of our veterans and the american people, not in a couple of months, later this year. they can do it now, as soon as we come back from the recess which begins tomorrow. mr. president, i want to -- if i could for a minute or two and take this opportunity to talk about an issue that is both concerning and tragic and that is the rapid spread of zika virus in central and south america in recent months. this is a virus we've known about for i guess ever since i was born and that's been i think about 69 years. and i think the first time it was -- somebody detected this was maybe on an island out in

the pacific, south pacific. and it has -- it ebbed and flowed over the years and now it's flowing big time. but every day researchers are discovering more about this virus and its potential impact, particularly on pregnant women and their unborn children. the findings are not good. in fact, they're troubling, deeply troubling. they're -- there are strong indications the virus is connected to a developmental birth defect that could lead to underdeveloped brains. we've seen the photographs, smaller heads in too many children. additional studies are also examining a possible connection between zika virus and other health concerns. with the world health organization estimating as many as four million, that's four million could be infected in the region this year, it's clear that we must act swiftly to combat this threat. that's why i was glad to see president obama and his administration taking an early and proactive role in addressing sceek came -- zeke came virus. a coordinated federal response

led by the centers for disease control and prevention is working with state, local and international public health partners to step up mosquito control efforts and to ensure that health officials have the equipment that they need to test people for this disease. further, the efforts, mr. president, president obama has roontsly submitted a supplemental funding request to congress. these funds would go toward developing vaccines, mosquito control efforts and diagnostic testing among other things. the united states senate should take a long, hard look at the president's request in the coming days and weeks and consider what americas we need to take to ensure that we're ready for zika and for other future outbreaks. mr. president, in closing, i want to do something that i think the presiding officer heard me do before. i try to come to the floor once a month and talk about the -- some of the employees that work

at the department of homeland security. for us across this country and really around the world. this is really the youngest department, if you will, that we have in the federal government. it's about 12 years old, sort of formed on the heels of 9/11. 22 agencies glommed together. but the morale in the department has not been good. there's been a great effort, sustained effort and we're trying to support it in our committee to turn a corner and let people know that not only is the work that they do important but we appreciate their efforts. i want to say a few word das about some of the men and women who work tirelessly to keep us safe and secure, often without a lot of recognition or thanks. i'm talking about the good people at the transportation

security administration. now led by retired coast guard admiral neffinger, a very able and impressive leader. many americans will be traveling to spend time with their families around the country and even around the world. if you head to an airport like many of my colleagues will be doing very soon and their families and our constituents, chances are we will interact with some of the hard-working men and women at tsa who keep our skies safe. nearly 59,000 people work at t.s.a. many are focused on securing our aviation system while others work to protect our service transportation networks, such as the train i took to work here this morning and will be jumping on later today to go home. but t.s.a.'s work is not only carried out by frontline employees that we see at the airports as we check in and go through security, have our bags checked, our bodies checked. they're also -- there are also

many dedicated people hard at work behind the scenes. we never actually see them. but they're there keeping us safe, too. these men and women perform the critical work of gathering and analyzing intelligence in order to identify potential threats to our transportation system and to mitigate them in real time, in real time. so i'd like to use the remainder of my time today, mr. president, to highlight the outstanding efforts of some of these individuals. i learned about them yesterday while meeting with admiral neffinger who happened to be in a meeting that we had in my office and was with him again today for a secure briefing down in the sciff. but he shared with me something i'm happy to learn about. he told me of six members of the current intelligence team within t.s.a.'s office of intelligence analysis and how they recently received the 2015 intelligence community counterterrorism award for education and training from the director of the national

counterterrorism center. that's a mouthful, isn't it? but it's quite an award and quite a recognition. the six individuals, three men, three women, developed a counterterrorism and threat briefing for all frontline employees who man our check points and transit systems so that they can better understand the connection between intelligence and t.s.a.'s security operations. mr. president, these individuals are helping t.s.a. frontline officers understand the why, the why, if you will, behind their work. and according to the director of the national counterterrorism center, they -- these are his words, talked about these six men and women. "they exemplify the central attributes to the counterterrorism community, expertise, integration, collaboration, and information sharing" so while i cannot state their names here, maybe for obvious reasons, i do want to say to all of you out there who know who i'm talking about,

thank you for the work that you do every day to ensure that your fellow americans, people who work here and the people we represent can travel safely and our transit systems are secure. thank you. and thank you for the work you've done to ensure that your fellow trchlts s.a. employee -- t.s.a. employees have the tools they need to carry out the critical work that they do. thank you. your dedication and your invaluable service are appreciated by me, by all of our colleagues here in the u.s. senate, our staffs, and by millions of americans who travel throughout our country every single day. and with that, mr. president, i think i probably said enough. and i would say to you, the staff here, and anybody who might be tuned in, happy st. patrick's day. we hope good fortunes shines on all of us and on our country, not just over this holiday upcoming recess and a special

day today but for a long time after that. some of the people i've been talking about here today, their job is to help make sure that we're not just lucky, we're not just lucky but that we are safe and secure and successful going forward. there's the saying the harder i work the luckier i get. i'm talking about some people who work very hard so we can be fortunate and blessed in this country. with that i note the absence of a quorum and bid you a happy st. patrick's day, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: