frumin. -- to alan s. frumin. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask consent, madam president, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table. i would ask members of the senate to join in sponsoring this amendment. -- this resolution, i'm sorry. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. ms. collins: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, i just want to join in saluting alan for his many years of work. he is someone that all of us know to be an honest broker, who calls them as he sees them, who withstands at times tremendous pressures, and who has just extraordinary knowledge that all of us have come to rely upon. so, on behalf of the republican side of the aisle, i'm sure that i'm speaking for our members as well in saluting alan and wishing him well and thanking him for his many years of dedicated public service. we wish you wel

appreciation for the role of the parliamentarian, and particularly for the contribution of people like alan frumin. in some respects, it's a thankless job because you're bound to make some people upset. as the majority leader mentioned earlier, we respected alan's impartiality as senate parliamentarian, but many times would go back to our offices and be very critical of it at the same time. we had hoped he would rule in our favor instead of the other way. but i can tell you this, he has been faithful to precedent, he has been faithful to the rules of the united states senate, and that is all we can ask of a person who serves in his position. he has had to tolerate the titanic egos that occupy this chamber. i used to say that the majority leader is the captain of a very small boat full of titanic egos, and that is the nature of this institution. and alan, i'm sure, has been called on more often than most to deal with the peculiarties of my colleagues and even myself. i wish him the best after more than 35 years of service to the congress, both the house and the senate, and his service here in the u

. >> alan frumin will be stepping down after 20 years in that job, the parliamentarian. check out all of our programming at c-span.org. >>> on february 28th the u.s. supreme court hears the oral argument about a case whether the torture victim protection act allows suits by torture victims against individuals. you'll hear it on saturday on cnn-span historic oral argument. from 200 he the consolidate case. >> if i use my way of example of the arrest of the individual who's the convicted in the cia shooting, this is an individual who's arrested by fbi agents in pakistan, in 1997. under the ninth circuit approach, obviously, this individual could not be arrested by fbi agents as a category call matter. but under the approach of respondent, the federal courts would have to inquire under the circumstances surrounding the arrest and inquire speckly into the whether the government of pakistan consented to the arrest by fbi agents in pakistan in 1997. >> what the government and petitioners sosa want the court to believe, having gone through the trouble expressing to the world an