the clerk: nomination, department of energy, mark wesley menezes of virginia to be deputy secretary. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. schumer: madam president. i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, madam president, i just listened to my friend, the republican leader. the republican leader is so tied in a knot by his own caucus and his president that all he can do is give alice in wonderland partisan speeches. all he can do is threaten to force sham votes that will not pass and will not answer the anguished cries for help that are coming from so many of our fellow americans. on the other hand over the weekend and yesterday, speaker pelosi and i continued our negotiations with the white house on the next phase of covid relief legislation. after a week of stalled talks, because republicans could not articulate a position on hardly anything, i believe we're making progress. we came closer together on several issues. however, we remain far apart on a number of issues, but we're

the clerk: nomination, department of energy, mark wesley menezes of virginia to be deputy secretary. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i just heard the republican leader speak out on the floor. leader mcconnell is busy giving partisan speeches while for the last two and a half hours speaker pelosi, myself, secretary of treasury mnuchin and chief of staff meadows were sitting in a room, working hard, trying to narrow our differences and come to an agreement. we all want to come to an agreement. we know the gravity of the situation demands it. and we will continue to work and work at it. we had a productive meeting. we narrowed some differences. frankly, there are many that remain. but we must, we must not give up. we must not resort to start partisanship. we