the question is, is it the sense of the senate that the debate on the nomination of dale cabaniss of virginia to be director of the office of personnel management shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any members in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 53, the nays are 41. the motion is agreed to. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination. a senator: mr. president. the clerk: nomination, office of personnel management, to be director. mr. isakson: thank you, madam president. madam president, you have a second to certify our growth and v.a. by nominating james byrne and approving his appointment. we have all worked hard to see the v.a. is responsive. we get good news in the papers, not bad news. we're helping our veterans get back to work. the v.a. is working. we've got some problems. we have a lot less than we used to have. a lot of that is because of james byrne. he has been working already, we need to make h

the clerk: nomination, office of personnel management, dale cabaniss of virginia to be director. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? on this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays are 38. the the clerk will report the next nomination. the clerk: department of veteran affairs, james byrne of virginia tor deputy secretary. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: have all senators vote ?d any senator wish to change their vote? the yeas are 81. the nays are 116789 the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the senate will resume consideration of the bowman nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: federal reserve system, michelle bowman of ka

simply put, dale cabaniss is not that leader. while ms. cabaniss has some experience leading a small agency, i am not confident that her background has prepared her to provide the stability and the autonomy that o.p.m. deserves. unfortunately, after a rahall review of miss cabaniss' record, i do not believe that she is the right choice to lead o.p.m. at this critical time. i will be voting no, and i urge my colleagues to do the same. i yield the floor. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, for nearly 15 years, the debbie smith act to be the driving force behind our progress to eliminate the nation's rape kit backlog. though exact numbers are difficult to estimate, experts believe that there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape k