the nominations are confirmed en bloc. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of the following nomination executive calendar 553. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: commerce of the united states j. blanton of virginia to be director of the capitol. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the senate vote on the nomination with no intervening action or debate, that if confirmed the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and no further motions be in order and that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the record. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the question is on the nomination. all in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the foreign relations committee be discharged and the senate proceed to the consideration of p.n. 1318, 1319, 132

so i urge rejection of the en bloc. i reserve. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from hawaii is recognized. mr. case: thank you, madam speaker. i submit a statement for this amendment from representative rouda of california. the chair: the request will be covered by general leave. mr. case: thank you. the chair: the gentleman may proceed. mr. case: madam chair, i yield one minute to my colleague, representative lipinski. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lipinski: i thank the gentleman from hawaii for yielding. and for his work on this bill. i rise in support of my amendment, to ensure that great lakes states have access to the resources in this bill so they can address climate change threats specific to our region. increased rain has already led to more agricultural runoff into the great lakes, resulting in higher bacterial counts and larger algal blooms. this has put our drinking water supplies at risk. lake michigan alone provides drinking water for 10 million people. climate cha

lankford: i now ask for the second reading and object to my own request all en bloc. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bills will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. mr. lankford: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., thursday, december 19, further, following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, morning business be closed, and following leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of the house message to accompany h.r. 1865 with the time until 11:00 a.m. equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. finally, notwithstanding the provisions of rule 22, the cloture motions filed during tuesday's session of the senate ripen at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate s

amendments en bloc are adopted. the unfinished business is the equest for a recorded vote on amendment number 4 printed in house report 116-330 by the entleman from maryland, mr. brown, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes from veiled by vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 4 rinted in house report 116-330 offered by mr. brown of maryland. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: on this vote the yeas are 235 and th

amendments en bloc offered pursuant to this section shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for 20 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on natural resources or their designees, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the house or in the committee of the whole. section 4. at the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the committee shall rise and report the bill to the house with such further amendments as may have been adopted. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or ithout instructions. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for one hour. >> i yield the customary 30 minutes to the the gentlewoman from arizona pending i yield myself such time as i may consume. during consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for purposes of debate only and i ask unanimous consent that all memb

president, i understand there are three bills at the desk due a second reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the titles of the bill for the second time en bloc. the clerk: h.r. 397, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 and so forth and for other purposes. h.r. 1759, an act to amend title 3 of the social security act and so forth and for other purposes. h.r. 4018, an act to provide that the amount of time that an elderly offender must serve before being eligible for placement in home detention is to be reduced by the amount of good time credits earned by the prisoner and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell: in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceedings en bloc. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bills will be placed on the calendar en bloc. a senator: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quo

there's been bans en bloc booking, circuit dealing and block booking is can you have one movie and saythat if you're going to take star wars you must also take hurt locker or something like that. and bans on recent price magnets. a number of the bands have found to be not per se violation but also the markets have changed so we begin looking at that peer we reached a determination maybe two or three weeks ago we filed with the southern district of new york a motion to sunset those decrees other than a transition for two of the practices, block booking and circuit dealing. it was our determination that there's a lot of innovation that could've been prevented by these rules and congress has not given us the authority, the statutory authority to be regulating these in perpetuity. >> so that's one of the reasons we've done that. we are waiting for the judge to take a look and see if they would, and we are excited about the overall project. it's really part of the deregulatory mission where antitrust enforcement is actually standing in the way of competition and innovation that could be occ

the nominations are confirmed en bloc. ms. collins: mr. president, i send a list of nominations to the desk and ask that they be kept in status quo despite the sine die adjourn of the first session of the 116th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: i ask unanimous consent, mr. president, that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 286, senate bill 1608. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 286, s. 1608, a bill to provide for the publication by the secretary of health and human services of physical activity recommendations for americans. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. ms. collins: i ask unanimous consent that the comm

the question occurs on the nominations en bloc.