dr. aaron has spent most of his time and efforts focusing on health care issues and advocacy. indeed, the vast majority of writings that he offered in support of his nomination dealt with health care, not social security. when the finance committee considered his nomination, i specifically asked dr. aaron if he had performed any social security analysis over the past decade. he could not produce anything substantive along these lines. now, there is nothing wrong with focusing one's energies on health care instead of analyzing social security policy. however, given the specific focus of the social security advisory board, i am concerned about the extent to which dr. aaron has considered social security issues and analytical advances in the field over the past decade or more. it appears to me that dr. aaron's interest and skill set make him better suited for a position in the health care arena rather than advising on the current state of social security. dr. aaron has written about social securit

so the first thing that i want to do is to take just a moment to express my gratitude to dr. aaron goldner who has been instrumental in helping me research and prepare these time to wake up speeches and whose fellowship in my office dame to an end yesterday. aaron earned his ph.d. in earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at purdue university. he came to my office as an american geophysical union congressional science fellow whose research specialty was the development of sophisticated models to help build greater understanding of the past and present and future effects of carbon pollution on our climate. he lent his considerable scientific expertise and analysis to these floor speeches, he also did research for ladies and gentlemen and -- legislation and prepared for works in the public works committee. since we somehow weren't keeping him busy enough, he managed to find the time to publish a peer-reviewed article this summer in the prestigious journal "nature" on the climb attic conditions surrounding the origination of the antarctic ice cap. aaron said this week he gained a s

but aaron burr took care of that. [laughter] >> dr. ellis, you started with a comment about the reinterpretation of founding principles, and i wonder whether it's a better understanding of the way principles work. sometimes they mean more than the people who articulate them originally understand. and it is a filling out of the principles over time that is what's really going on better captured than reinterpretation. but that kind of gets to one of the questions, the question i wanted to ask you, and that's about jefferson. i tried for decades now to be as certain as you sounded about jefferson's racism. but what keeps gnawing at me is that paragraph that he drafted in the declaration on the slavery complaint. could you address that and what you think jefferson was thinking? >> right. it's a after that attempts to pin the slave trade on george iii. it's less about slavery than it is the slave trade. you can imply that slavery would follow, but he doesn't talk about that. what you need to know is that in virginia all the planners are in

dr. burgess, ladies, thank you for coming in today. >> thank you, aaron. i just wanted to share these beautiful women with the whole world, basically. >> yeah. >> and we're going to play a little game. i want you to try to guess how old they are. >> my mama didn't raise no fool. >> we have first here deborah. and how old do you think miss deborah is? >> you have four lovely women with you, who -- >> okay. well, deborah is retired. she's 65 years old. and she maintains her skin. she's outdoors all the time with her grandchildren. they're equestrian champions and she has a condition called melasma. she has to take care of her skin. tons of sunscreen. >> especially out in the elements, with the sun. how difficult is it with that condition to be able to maintain? >> it's very difficult. and she can tell you. she has done an excellent job. it's all about sunscreen and just because you're black doesn't mean you don't wear sunscreen. >> okay. and our next person here? >> this is joan. joan is 77. and joan has a condition in where she is allergic to the sun. so sh

dr. henry aaron. i had a chance to work over my legislative career with dr. aaron, and i don't know of a person who is more qualified to serve on this board. he has been involved with the social security his entire professional life dating back to 1979 when he chaired the advisory council on social security, which is a bipartisan group that works on social security. he's an individual who will work across party line in order to deal with the short-term and long-term needs of social security. he's currently a senior fellow in economic studies at brookings, a fellow and faculty member at the university of maryland and stanford university. very, very-well qualified. i know personally of his commitment to work with all members of the senate and i urge my colleagues to support all three of these nominees. mr. wyden: mr. president, i yield the floor and urge their confirmation. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vot