mr. barrasso: could i respond? e presiding officer: the senator from wyoming actually -- the senator from georgia has the floor. if you -- mrs. loeffler: i yield the floor to my colleague. mr. barrasso: thank you. i want to associate myself with every remark by the senator from georgia. she sasse shown a strong voice and leadership. she knows that 29 times, as she was trying to explain before being interrupted, that there have been vacancies in an election year of the supreme court. it happens. what we know historically, we talk about historical precedence, is if the president as asked by the constitution and told by the constitution to nominate, and if the senate is the same party of the president, generally that person gets confirmed. but on the other hand if the president who nominates is of a different party than the senate, which is what happened in 2016 when merrick garland after the republicans had won the senate, that nominee historically is not confirmed. that's the history going through the united states s

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator for wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. reserve the right to object, i'm here today to object to this unanimous consent on behalf of the junior senator from texas, senator cruz. as the senator from massachusetts knows, senator cruz is also deeply interested in this issue. both senators have complementary pieces of language. they have had the language in their legislation agreed to unanimously by both the majority and the minority of the commerce committee. so i'd ask the senator from massachusetts to reach out to the senator from texas. and i understand he's fully willing to work with the senator from massachusetts on amending the house bill to ensure that it passes the senate with a cruz amendment that would not be objectionable to supporters of this bill. as a result, mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. markey: mr. president, i just think that we're missing an enormous opportunity here. it's a shame the senate is not acting with the urgency which it ne

mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. first, i would like to commend my colleague, the senator from maine, for her absolute unquestioned leadership in this issue of paycheck protection. she knows in maine as i do in wyoming the importance of small businesses to our communities, to our main streets, to the vitality of our economies, and she has led the fight from the beginning of coronavirus to make sure our businesses would remain viable, that they would have opportunities to keep people on the payroll, that they could continue to contribute to their communities. she was the one that brought up this idea at the first place, shepherded it all the way through the congress as part of the cares act, and continues in that leadership role today, madam president. so i come here today on the floor to first commend my colleague from maine and also to talk about the ongoing fight against coronavirus, and the plan forward guided by data and doctors to put the disease behind us and let all of these small businesses that the senator f