dr. coburn and me to fill these vacancies at the department of homeland security in the coming days. i want to spend a few minutes of my time, though, tonight discussing the nomination of mickey barnett to -- who is already serving on the postal board of governors but he's been nominated again, he's a republican, nominated again by the president. and then i want to talk about a couple of lower profile nominees i think we urge lent he opponently need to confirm as quickly as we can. certainly this year during this lame-duck session. mickey barnett. mickey barnett is among a group of five bipartisan nominees to the postal board of governors submitted by a democratic president. two of the nominees republicans, mickey one of those, three of them are democrats. if we don't confirm mr. barnett and his colleagues by december 8, a little -- about on four weeks from now mr. barnett currently the board's chair will be forced to leave the board. if that happens the postal board of governors will not have enough members to achieve a quorum and will not be able to conduct business. at the time th