mr. inouye: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii is recognized. mr. inouye: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the time from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the motion to proceed to h.r 2560 be equally divided between the majority leader and the republican leader. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. inouye: madam president? i rise today in opposition to the cut, cap and balance act of 2011. rather than taking a balanced approach that requires shared sacrifice, house republicans have passed legislation that would gut essential services for average americans, asking nothing of the wealthy and the privileged. such a misguided approach would cost countless american jobs while doing nothing to solve america's long-term deficit challenges. madam president, in my opinion, this bill, the cut, cap and balance act, fails to measure up as a serious proposal to address the structural deficit that our nation faces. it is misguided and assumes that our nation will pay no price if we fail to invest in our future. and the

mr. inouye: madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from illinois is recognized. mr. kirk: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call and move as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. kirk: madam president, i wanted to rise while we're waiting for authors of their amendments to come to the floor on the point of personal business to eulogize one of my mentors in politics. state representative betty lou reed died this week and she was somebody that many of us in northern illinois looked up to. betty lou reed served from her home community of deerfield, illinois. she knew senator everett dirksen well and helped out in his campaigns for re-election, and she was someone that practiced the art of politics from the fiscally conservative side but the ideological center. she was someone who was a role model for many of us at the township, at the state and especially at the federal level. i

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: as a side note, i'm happy to see the second ranking member of the united states senate presiding. the people of vermont have been so fortunate to have you and your wisdom and your -- mr. mcconnell: if the gentlemen would yield, i expect he hasn't done that for 30 years. mr. reid: i thought it would be nice to comment on the fact that's reserved for more junior members. it's nice that my friend from vermont would be here. following any leader remarks, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to concur in the house message to accompany s. 626, the legislative vehicle for the debt limit increase. time from 1:30 until 8:00 p.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. mr. president, republican leaders in the house of representatives have wasted this week pursuing a right-wing proposal they knew from the start couldn't pass the senate. from the very beginning, speaker boehner's band-aid approach was fatally flawed. it would have

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following any leader remarks the senate will resume consideration of the motion to concur in the house memg to accompany s. 627, which is the legislative vehicle for the debt limit increase, with the time until 1:00 f.p.l. equally divided. about 1:00 p.m. then, the senate will vote to invoke cloture on the house message to accompany the reid amendment. no matter the outcome of this vote, mr. president, the message will still be before this body. this is -- if there is an agreement that can be met, this is the vehicle to be used to send it back to the house. mr. president, as the clock ticks down to august 2, i remind everyone within the sound of my voice what really is at stake. at this very moment, millions of seniors across this great country worry that their next social security check might not come to them on wednesday. middle-class families wonder whether their retirement accounts will be wiped out by an economic collapse brought about by default on this nation's debt.

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will resume consideration the motion to proceed to the bill h.r. 2560. the time until 10:00 a.m. will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. at 10:00 a.m. i will be recognized to make a motion to table the motion to proceed. therefore, senators should expect a roll call vote at approximately 10:00 a.m. to accommodate senators on both sides on what will take a little longer than usual. this, i say to you, mr. president, and to everyone at the sound of my voice, this is an effort to move this piece of legislation off the floor. it's interfering with the negotiations between the white house and the house of representatives, and it is without merit, this legislation. this is a motion to table. it is a vote on this bill. and we on this side of the aisle are going to look at every vote cast. we feel comfortable where we are on this issue, and i would suggest to my republican friends they should look to whe

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island is recognized. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i'm delighted to be here with my senior colleague, senator jack reed, to welcome geralyn wolf, the bishop of the episcopal archdiocese of rhode island who shared with us the prayer this morning. i want to share with my colleagues what a wonderful addition she is to our rhode island community. she has served in kentucky and in pennsylvania, but she has been in rhode island for many years and has been devoted to our community and particularly to the needy in our community to the point where at one point she spent 30 days living as a homeless person in order to see firsthand what the resources were to support people when they faced the burden and the sorrow of homelessness and to inform her actions as the bishop of our diocese. she is keenly interested in the sudan and works with priests who are helping to bring christianity to those areas as the vehicle for peace amidst some of the worst a

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following any leader remarks, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s.j. res. 20. at 5:00 p.m. the senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the libya resolution. this vote will be longer than usual to accommodate senators returning after the holiday which occurred yesterday. but that doesn't mean it will be open forever. we'll be happy to be a little lenient but we'll do the best we can. i ask unanimous consent that john tka*euly from the -- john daly from the state department be granted privileges to the floor during debate on senate joint resolution 206789. the presiding officer: without objection. skwroeup in one of his poems -- mr. reid: in one of his poems t.s. elliot wrote hurry up please, it's time. yesterday this great nation celebrated its 235th birthday. in those years we've accomplished many admirable things and we've done it together. we've landed on the moon, invented ways to save lives, fought democ

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour, with republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half. i'm told there's a bill, s. 1420, due for its second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 1420, a bill to require that united states government prioritize all obligations on the debt held by the public, social security benefits, and military pay in the event that the debt limit is read and for other purposes. mr. reid: madam president, i would object to any further proceedings with respect to this legislation at this time. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. reid: madam president, today our republican colleagues in the house planned to vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling a few months before plunging this nation's economy back into a state of unsent. what i mean by that

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader recognized. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour. the majority will control the first half, the republicans will control the second half. following morning business, i will be recognized. mr. president, h.r. 1938 is due for a second reading i'm told. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1938, an act to direct the president to expedite the consideration and approval of the construction and operation of the keystone xl oil pipeline, and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president, i would object to any further proceedings at this time on this legislation. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. reid: i now ask unanimous consent on behalf of senator bingaman that his interns shannon simpson, brook jordi and tray dubrey be granted floor privileges during today's business. the presiding officer: without o

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will resume the motion to proceed to s. 1323, which is a bill to express the sense of the senate on shared sacrifice in the resulting budget deficit, with the time until 10:00 a.m. this morning equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. at 10:00 a.m. there will be a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to s. 1323. this could be the only vote of the day although there may be procedural matters that may arise. today the senate is calling on millionaires and billionaires to contribute to this country's effort to reduce our deficit. the poor, middle-class children and seniors have already been asked to make sacrifices to put our fiscal house in order. this legislation would reaffirm the senate's commitment to ensure the extremely wealthy are asked to make sacrifices. this principle that all americans should contribute their fair

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: following any leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 3:30 this afternoon. following that morning business, the senate will resume consideration of of the military construction-veterans affairs and related agencies appropriation bill. at 5: p.m., the senate will vote -- i'm sorry, will go to executive session to consider the nomination of j. paul oetken and at 5:30 there there be a roll call vote on confirmation of that nomination. h.r. 2018 is at the desk ask due for a second reading, i'm told. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: h.r. 2018, an act to amend the federal water pollution control act to preserve the authority of each state to make determinations relating to the state's water quality standards and for other purposes. mr. reid: in order to object to any further proceedings, mr. president, with this bill at this tim

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following any leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour. the majority will control the first half, the republicans will control the final half. following that morning business, the senate will resume consideration of s. 1323, which is a bill to express the sense of the senate on the shared sacrifice in resolving the budget deficit. the filing deadline for all first-degree amendments to s. 1323 is noon today. the senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 today for weekly caucus meetings. as a reminder, all senators last night i filed cloture on s. 1323, which is the matter i just spoke about, and i also filed cloture on the motion to proceed to h.r. 2055 which is the military construction, veterans affairs appropriations bill. as a result, there will be up to two roll call votes tomorrow morning. the republican leader can go forward. plp mcconnell: -- mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding

inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president. the senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:30 this afternoon. at 4:30, the senate will conduct a moment of silence in the memory of officer john j. chestnut and detective john m. gibson, united states capitol police who were killed 13 years ago defending this capitol against a crazed intruder. at 4:30 p.m., the senate will be in executive session considering the nomination of paul engelmayer to be united states district judge for the southern district of new york and ramona manglona of northern mariana islands. at approximately 5:30 p.m., there will be a vote. additional roll call votes are possible this evening. mr. president, every day people from across this great nation and around the globe come here to visit the capitol to see the seat of american democracy. every day, those of us who are fortunate to have been elected by our home states to serve in congress also come in to represent this nation and the american people in that democracy, and every day a brave and

inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following any leader remarks, the senate will resume consideration of s. 1323, which is a bill to express the sense of the senate on shared sacrifice in resolving the budget deficit with one hour of debate equally divided and controlled. the filing deadline for all segd amendments -- second-degree amendments to s. 1323 is 10:00 a.m. this morning. at approximately 10:40, there will be up to two roll call votes. the first will be on the motion to invoke cloture on s. 1323, the piece of legislation i just spoke about. the second roll call vote will be on the vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies appropriations bill. madam president, sometimes it is very hard to find common ground in washington. if there is one thing in which republicans and democrats agree, it's absolutely necessary that congress prevent a catastrophic default on the nation's debt that would put our economy at great risk. i have said it a

mr. president, shortly we will be voting on final passage of the milcon v.a. appropriations bill. i would like to thank leaders reid and mcconnell and chairman inouye and vice chairman cochran for leadership and support in getting us to this point. i especially would like to thank my ranking member, senator kirk, for his cooperation and support in crafting this bill through the senate. i'm confident that we would not be where we are today without his help and hard work on this bill. i also thank my colleagues for helping us to move this bill forward, for rejecting dilatory amendments and showing restraint in offering amendments to this bill. a number of senators have filed amendments that are very important to them but also controversial or not relevant to the bill. i appreciate their willingness to postpone debate on some of those issues so as not to bog down this bill. for example, i know that senators wyden and warner feel -- mrs. boxer: the senate is not in order. johns johns i know -- mr. johnson: i know senators wyden and warner feel strong about their amendments regarding a navy carrier on the east coast. i know other senators have equally s

inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour. the majority will hold the first half, the republicans the final half. following that morning business the senate will resume consideration of the military construction appropriations bill. there will be a roll call vote at noon on that matter in relation to the vitter amendment. before the amendments pending we hope to complete action on this bill today. we'll notify senators when the votes will occur. madam president, there is a fundamental principle we have to focus on here in the senate, and i think we have focused on it, and that is we cannot default on our debt. we have 11 or 12 days until that crucial time comes. we have a number of plans that are being talked about here. we have a path forward here in the senate, we believe. there's the gang of six which reported some encouraging news yesterday. we have president obama's grand plan that has been talked about a lot. so now we return

inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be termed. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: following any leader remarks #-rbg the senate will recess until 11:00 p.m. today at tha--to allow for a democratic caucus. at 10:00 a.m. we will have that caucus. at 11:00 a.m., the senate will be in business until 12:00 noon. at noon, i will be recognized. that's the order before the senate now, is that right? the presiding officer: the majority is correct. mr. reid: mr. president, although the house of representatives has not yet voted on speaker boehner's plan, that plan is flawed. that's why they've struggled for days to pass this inadequate legislation without a single democrat even being involved in the process. they have plowed forward looking only to republicans. but as this battle to pass a continuing resolution went forward, to keep our governm

inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to two hours with the two sides alternating 30-minute blocks with the republicans controlling the first block. following that morning business the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 205, the military construction bill. the senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 today for caucus luncheons. we continue to work on amendments to the military construction appropriations bill. we hope to complete that bill within the next day. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. # quorum call: mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, today members of the house of representatives will h

inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i suggest the absence of a quorum.he presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, following leader remarks, the senate will resume the motion to proceed to s. 1323, which is a bill to express the sense of the senate on shared sacrifice in resolving the budget deficit. the time until 12:30 today will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. the senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 for our weekly party caucuses. the time from 2:15 until 6:00 p.m. is also equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. yesterday i filed a cloture motion on the motion to proceed to s. 1323. this vote will occur tomorrow. s. 1326 is at the desk and is due for second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 1326 a bill to complement the president's request -- to implement the president's request to in

inouye, president pro tempore. reid madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr.reid: following any leader remarks the senate will be in morning business until 12:15. the majority will control the first 30 minutes, the republicans will control the second 30 minutes. at about 12:15, the senate will be in executive session -- i shouldn't say "about" -- at 12:15, the senate will be executive session to consider the nominations of paul engelmayer to be a united states district judge for the southern district of new york, and ramona villagomez manglona, to be a district judge for the northern mariana islands. there will be two minutes of debate prior to a roll call vote on confirmation of the engelmayer nomination and the manglona nomination is expected to be confidence by a voice vote. -- to be confirmed by a voice vote. i would ask my friends on the judiciary committee, i'm not sure we need the debate today. it was already debated yesterday. i would hope we could go directly thew vot to that vote . the senate will recess from 12:30 to 3:30 for the weakly party caucus

follows: reid of nevada durbin, murray inouye, coons whitehouse boxer casey sanders lautenberg brown of ohio, reed of rhode island, feinstein merkley cardin, levin, schumer. mr. reid: mr. president i now move to proceed to calendar number 91, h.r. 2055. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to proceed. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 91, h.r. 2055 an act making appropriations for military construction, the department of veterans affairs and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: i have a cloture motion at the desk, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the under undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 91, h.r. 2055 an act making appropriations for military construction the department of veterans affairs and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2012, and for other purposes. signed by 18 senators as follows. mr. reid: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the reading of

inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. we are. the republican leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: i kwurt that further proceed -- i request that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: the senate will begin debate today on cut, cap, and balance, the plan approved earlier this week in the house. this means that senators will now have the opportunity to go on record either in support of balancing our books or against it. this is an opportunity for everyone to take a stand. it's an opportunity to say that a government which borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends is not sustainable and very much needs to change its ways. it's an opportunity to stand with those who believe that washington needs to heal its addiction to spending now. not make more false promises of spending restraint some time later. the president's veto threat of this legislation is telling. many of us learned a long time ago t