danly because he is wul qualified and i will vote to confirm him. two wrongs don't make a right here, but this has got to stop and both sides have to stand up and say, mr. president, this is a tradition. this is what we do. this is customary of what's been done and it gives us a five-member ferc which is extremely important for our energy, our country, and the reliability that we depend on. as i told my colleagues on the energy committee, when we voted on mr. danly's nomination that i will not support another nominee unless we get both. it has to stop. i'm asking my colleagues on the republican side to please help us put some kind of structure and some kind of procedure back into the operation. we need to start acting as a senate and not be guided by the politics and the toxic politics and this tribal men talt. -- mentality. i want the president to send us the nominations so we can have a fully functioning committee. so, with that, i ask all of my colleagues to -- to, please, let's vote for the qualifications of the person, not the politics of the p

danly of tennessee to be a member. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion: 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 the nomination of james p. daily of tennessee to be a member of the federal energy regulatory commission, signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the reading of the names be waved. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask the mandatory quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. the ayes have it. all of those opposed, say nay. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate stand in recess until 5:00 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection.

danly's nomination with a democratic nominee so both would pass the senate. that's what we have always done until leader mcconnell started his ways, until president trump became president. by law, ferc has seats reserved for both democrats and republicans. democrats sent our recommendation for ferc to the white house over a year ago, long before the administration selected danly. but while the white house sent danly's name to the senate for confirmation, they have held the democratic nominee and given no reason or explanation why. rather than work with my office and the white house to fix this problem, as every other republican leader has done, and maintain the process of pairing nominees which has always been the tradition whether democrats or republicans were in the majority, leader mcconnell, in his very partisan, pro-energy industry way, is moving forward with only the republican nominee. now, leader mcconnell has been in the minority before. he knows that the only way bipartisan boards and commissions across the federal government are filled fairly with

further, that notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture vote on the danly nomination occur at 11:45 a.m. and that all postcloture time expire at 1:45. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the the presiding officer: the gentlemen. >> today to block an education department changing its policy on student loan debt forgiveness. fifty-three - 42 . the white house as the president trump will be told to measure when it comes to his desk. the mean time off the negotiations continue on federal coronavirus response an economic stimulus package as well as an energy environment built combines more than 50 proposals. we will have life coverage when the senator's gavel back in. here on "c-span2". tonight on c-span at 9:00 p.m. eastern, watch president trump addressed the nation on the federal response to the spread of the coronavirus. live coverage tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> follow the federal response to the coronavirus a cspan.org/