bingaman: i would ask an additional minute. john mcdonough in "the boston globe" in his commentary on the response to don berwick's nomination wrote -- "one of health care's most distinguished leaders and voices got mugged by partisan republicans who know better and who got away with it." end quote. i'm truly disappointed that certain senators have pledged to block his nomination and that he has chosen to withdraw his -- or to resign his position effective tomorrow. our task now is to assess the new nominee the president has sent us. i hope members can come together to do what is right in this circumstance, and that is to quickly confirm an administrator for this very important position. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: it's my understanding that i have 20 minutes of time allotted under morning business. the presiding officer: under the previous order, each senator has ten minutes to speak. mr. coats: all right, mr. president. i don't think i

before nelson you had kohl of wisconsin, akaka from hawaii, bingaman, webb, conrad, joe lieberman allthem bowed out. how many of those six democrats -- how many of these seats are vulnerable. >> quite a few. it tells you why republicans have a good chance of taking back the senate. perhaps the most vulnerable are nebraska and north dakota mainly because of their red state nature. they're very republican-leaning states. >> i guess in nebraska unless they can convince former senator bob kerrey to run, there doesn't seem to be a nebraska democrat who can really make that seat competitive. >> that's right. and democrats say he is considering a run -- >> oh, he is? >> but we'll believe it when we actually see it. it's not a sure thing that he would actually end up running after his absence from politics for quite a while now. >> six dropouts, twice the number of republican dropouts. already those numbers are putting the democrats at a disadvantage. is there any good news out there for democrats? >> well, chris, probably the best news for democrats is that this ben nelson news really doesn'

republicans are taking a close look at the seats of two democrat senators who are retiring, jeff bingaman of new mexico and herb kohl of wisconsin. they hope to turn those seats republican. on the other side democrats hope they can challenge scott brown in massachusetts. they're also looking at an opening in arizona as jon kyl retires there. democrats also hope to hang onto the seat in north dakota now that kent conrad is not seeking re-election. so let's talk about all of this with larry sabato. the director of the center for politics at the university of virginia. he has got the crystal ball out. for a long time you thought it didn't look so good for democrats to hold onto the senate, their practices specs. now you say that may be changing. why? >> i still don't think it looks all that good for the democrats to retain the senate. remember, jon, these are 33 tops spinning simultaneously, these 33 senate races and we have a year to go. naturally they wobble about. some of them wobble to the democrats. some of them wobble to the republicans over time. let's take two examples. up in massach

there are a lot of supporters for the energy tax incentives, starting with senator jeff bingaman, thef the senate energy committee, and also on the finance committee. he and senator snow had introduced a package and made changes to the ones that are there. there is some strong support. it is really a question of is a bigger tax patient rich package going to go with it? -- tax package going to go with it? host: our conversation continues with our line for independents , from wilmington, delaware. caller: i have a 2007 hybrid. does that come under the umbrella? guest: there were tax incentives in place for hybrid, and electric vehicles, that expired in 2010. they were covered, there were different levels of incentives, depending on how much -- or, the vehicle type, and its performance. there were tax incentives available through 2010. they were available to manufacturers only up to a certain threshold of vehicles. i am not sure who manufactured your vehicle, but in 2007 there probably were tax incentives available. host: bob, in west virginia, and our line for democrats. caller: i have

nomination of richard cordray of ohio, signed by 18 senators as follows, reid of nevada, lieberman, bingamanrray, leahy, conrad, whitehouse, are reed of rhode island, franken, baucus, menendez, tester, brown of ohio, harken, and johnson of south dakota. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum rule under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move we retsunami legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: could you notify me what stage we are in the proceedings? the presiding officer: there are 28 1/2 minutes left to the majority in morning business followed by 30 minutes for the minority in morning business. mr. durbin: thank you, madam president. i'd like to speak in morning business and respond to several things said by the republican leader of the sen

of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable jeff bingaman, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, today following leader remarks, if any, the senate will be in morning business until 4:30 today. following that morning business, the senate will be in executive session to consider four united states district judges. at 5:30 today, there will be a roll call vote on confirmation of the ramos nomination. we hope the rest of the nominations can be confirmed by voice vote. mr. president, last week, my friend, the republican leader, tried to convince us, republicans realized it would be disastrous to raise taxes on the middle class. here on the senate floor, h

working on national-security issues as a foreign service officer then as an aide to senator jeff bingaman. i did not know that i was a demon, but it did not take the long based upon my technical judgement that we were not to the liking of the anti-nuclear zealots, became a demon." he went on to say -- incidentally this is the same year i became chairman of this subcommittee, and this is still his same speech to the employees. "honor often involve telling people what they do not want to hear. make your enemies, but stories i could tell you from my own career would persuade year that you can afford such enemies but you cannot afford to compromise yourself." i think it is appropriate to read his statement. what we saw this weekend was an immediate concern and a very public attempt to demonize four public servants whose only crime was to conduct themselves with honor optimistic assistance as a last resort from the white house to address problems and had not been able to resolve on their own in risking their professional reputations and came forward. on behalf of the employees that now work in

senator bingaman. >> thank you all for your testimony. i guess each of us approaches this problem based on our own where we're from and based on our own experience. the state i represent is new mexico. and in our state, i believe i'm right, that the largest use of water is agriculture. and accordingly, the largest opportunity for reducing water use is agriculture. and it strikes me that all of the things you're talking about are useful, but we do not do enough to assist and incentivize and require that agriculture be more sensitive to water use and waste in this country. i don't know if any of you have views on that, but i don't know that the extent to which the department of agriculture has focused on this as a priority in their work with farmers who are dependent upon large amounts of water for the crops they grow. this is an issue in my state because the water being used by agriculture in many cases is ground water. it's being depleted. and we are not going to have it 20 years from now to use. so if any of you have comments on that, ms