enzi: mr. president, i ask that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. mr. enzi: i ask further reading of the amendment being dispenses with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that there be one hour for debate on amendment 270 equally divided between the two managers or their designees and that following the use or yielding back of time, senator murray or her designee be recognized to make a point of order against the amendment and senator enzi or his designee then be recognized to make a motion to waive. further, that following the vote on the motion to waive, senator enzi or his designee be recognized to offer a second-degree amendment number 271, and that senator murray or her designee be recognized to offer a motion to commit. finally, that the time from 10:00 a.m. until noon be equally divided between the managers or their designees, that at noon tomorrow, senator murray or her designee be recognized to make points of order and that as

enzi: i will not yield. i would appreciate the same courtesy from that side that i gave to you when you were doing your expositions about the health care, which included the things that i've mentioned that aren't even in the bill. so our side has some time. i intend to use some of that time. as i've been through this process for a long time now, i've been on the health, education -- health, education, labor and pensions committee for the whole time that i've been here. that's 20 years. of course it wasn't health, education, labor and pensions when i first got here, but we thought that that was a clever acronym. we're from the federal government and we're here to help you. and there are a lot of people back home that don't think we really help out much. but at any rate, the small business health plans, after three of us that were in the gang of six got thrown off of the, under the train or under the bus or whatever it was, small business health plans were changed to co-ops and they were given a significant am

enzi: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that senator enzi be recognized to offer the heller amendment number 288 and the time until 6:10 be equally divided in the usual form on the casey motion to commit in the heller amendment. i further ask that at 6:10 p.m. the senate vote in relation to the casey motion followed by a vote in relation to the heller amendment with two minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form between the votes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. carper: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: thank you, mr. president. mr. enzi: mr. president. mr. carper: happy to yield. mr. enzi: if i could just have one more, i'd like to call up amendment number 288. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from wyoming, mr. enzi, for mr. heller, proposes an amendment numbered 288 to amendment number 26 --. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with. the pr

enzi: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:00 a.m., thursday, july 27. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour deemed expired, the journal of proceedings journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. further, following leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 1628 with the time until 2:15 p.m. equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. finally at 2:15 the senate vote in relation to the daines amendment number 340 as modified. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned unde

enzi: i will not yield. i would appreciate the same courtesy from that side that i gave to you when you were doing your expositions about the health care, which included the things that i've mentioned that aren't even in the bill. so our side has some time. i intend to use some of that time. as i've been through this process for a long time now, i've been on the health, education -- health, education, labor and pensions committee for the whole time that i've been here. that's 20 years. of course it wasn't health, education, labor and pensions when i first got here, but we thought that that was a clever acronym. we're from the federal government and we're here to help you. and there are a lot of people back home that don't think we really help out much. but at any rate, the small business health plans, after three of us that were in the gang of six got thrown off of the, under the train or under the bus or whatever it was, small business health plans were changed to co-ops and they were given a significant am

enzi: i will not yield. i would appreciate the same courtesy from that side that i gave to you when you were doing your expositions about the health care, which included the things that i've mentioned that aren't even in the bill. so our side has some time. i intend to use some of that time. as i've been through this process for a long time now, i've been on the health, education -- health, education, labor and pensions committee for the whole time that i've been here. that's 20 years. of course it wasn't health, education, labor and pensions when i first got here, but we thought that that was a clever acronym. we're from the federal government and we're here to help you. and there are a lot of people back home that don't think we really help out much. but at any rate, the small business health plans, after three of us that were in the gang of six got thrown off of the, under the train or under the bus or whatever it was, small business health plans were changed to co-ops and they were given a significant am

enzi: yes, and i have an hour whether i use it or not.e i say, for the past few days i have been yielding time to the other side. i haven't gotten much satisfaction out of that. i've listened to the last hour, and i didn't get any satisfaction out of that either. i did sit through all of it. i did listen to it. again, it's complaints about the process but not constructive suggestions on what could be done. taxes and mandates and regulations and lack of competition in the marketplace and increasing costs. when i travel across wyoming, i have people that come up to thehis continues live on senate floor, the senator refusing to yield his time as they work on a partial repeal of the health care law. votes expected in 30 minutes or so, around midnight eastern. you can continue watching live coverage of the senate debate on c-span2. >> c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. friday morning, we focus on the debate in the senate on efforts to repeal and replace the nation's health care law to rea

enzi: thank you, mr. president. i'd suggest the absence of a quorum and ask that the time be equally divided. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mrs. murray: objection end i'd suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, i have 12 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they do not have the approval of the democratic leader. therefore, they will not be permitted to meet past 11:30 this morning. but i ask unanimous consent that a list of committees requesting authority to meet be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, i listened with a lot of interest to the democratic leader's comments this morning and his proposal that there would be cooperation if we went to a system of putting it back through committees and doing that. i've got to say we'd have a lot more confidence in getting a solution if there were a single positive suggestion from the other side for a change. until that happens, there isn't much confidence on our side that the promise of bipartisanship is going to happen. they keep saying it isn't perfect, but they don't put forwar

enzi, for mr. strange, proposes an amendment numbered 389. mr. enzi: mr. president, i ask that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. who yields time? no one yields time. time will be charged equally to both sides. mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: mr. president, this week we are about the business of keeping our promis promises. for seven years we have promised to help the millions of americans who've been let down, no the to mention deceived, by the promises of obamacare. and it's absolutely critical we fulfill our commitments. this is not just about moving past the failures of obamacare but also laying the groundwork for providing americans access to better care. we've said all along that we have four principles. one is to help stabilize the insurance markets so that people living in iowa, for example, would make sure they have a place they can actually buy health insurance. it's about getting premiums lower by eliminating the mandat

black: i meet with senator enzi on a weekly basis and we talk about a lot of things. this is one of the things we talk about as he is the budget chairman in the senate. of course, right now the senate is working on a lot of different issues. he certainly understands where we're going and has carried that message back to the senate. reporter: mrs. black, did you ask c.b.o. to do a macroeconomic analysis of this budget, and did they tell you they were unable to do it? mrs. black: the c.b.o., as you all know, uses a static and that is something that the c.b.o. has done for years. we also recognize that the c.b.o. scores on the current law and so there will be a difference in what we assume in our budget because we assume economic growth through things like regulatory reform and tax reform, giving power back to states. so it's not that we're in conflict with one another. we have different assumptions and as the chairman -- vice chairman said, the economic growth of 2.6% is really -- maybe it was jason lewis that said that. it was under what has been historical average ove

enzi: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the time until 5:00 p.m. be equally divided between the managers or their designees and that at 5:00 p.m. the senate vote in relation to the strange amendment number 389. further, that following disposition of the strange amendment, the senate proceed to the consideration of h.r. 3364, which was received from the house, that there be 20 minutes of debate equally divided between the leaders or their designees, that following the use or yielding back of that time the bill be read a third time and the senate vote on passage of h.r. 3364. finally, that following disposition of h.r. 3364, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 1628. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. who yields time? if no one yields time, time shall be charged equally to both sides. mr. enzi: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: i yield myself such time as i need up to the limit that we have. this week we've been debat

enzi: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, i call up amendment number 502, the heller amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from wyoming, mr. enzi, for mr. heller, proposes an amendment numbered 502 to amendment numbered 267. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent for my intern joshua friedline, to be granted privileges of the floor for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: mr. president, we're talking today, obviously, as we move into the final hours of this debate about the two mandates in the original affordable care act, the individual mandate, the employee mandate. certainly the individual mandate, both of these mandates, but i want to ta

enzi: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. enzi: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the actions scheduled to take place at 11:30 a.m. now occur at 3:30 p.m. and all other provisions of the u.c. remain in place. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the time until 3:30 p.m. is now equally divided. wietd r- mr. wyden: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, just to speak briefly on this matter of repealing the affordable care act. soon the senate is going to vote. the presiding officer: could we have order in the chamber. the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, soon the senate is going to vote on just whether or not to repeal the affordable care act, and i think it's important to note that this would walk back months and months of republican promises to directly link repealing the affordable care act with a replacement -- a replacement that would improve coverage,

national cable satellite corp. 2017] announcer: also on thursday, majority leader marcon all and mike enzi talked about the -- leader mcconnell and mike enzi talked about the effort to pass health-care legislation. >> senator mccain is an american hero. he is a hero to our conference. he is a hero to our country. he is athe senate, friend of almost all of us. our collective prayers are with him now. we think of cindy and the rest of his family as well as his staff and the people of arizona. mccain as we all know has never shied away from a fight, and i assure you he will not back down now. arizonahe senator of will confront this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterized his entire life. and he should know that we are all in his corner, every single one of us. we look forward to seeing our friend again soon, and we hope he will be back in the very near future. on one more matter, i want to thank the president for having a conference at the white house yesterday. president and his administration understand the american people are hurting under obamacare. they have

cassidy, cochran, corker, cornen, crapo, dans, enzi, ernst. fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, hoven, inhoff, isaacson, kennedy, langefort, lee, paul, purdue. portman, rich, roberts, rounds, rubio, scott, shelby, strange, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, young. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett, blumenthal, booker, brown, cant well, carden, carper, casey, collins, coons, cortez masto, donnelly, duckworth, durbin, feinstein, franken, jill brand, harris, haszen, hinrich, height camp, hirono, king, king -- leahy, manchin, marky, mccain, mccaskill, menendez, americaly, murcowski, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, reed, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, tester, udahl, van hollen, warner, warren, white house, widen. >> mr. moran? aye. >> mr. cotton. mr. cotton, aye. >> you will also note the vice president no longer visible. no longer needed to cast a deciding vote. senator heller from nevada walking up the aisle. >> mr. cruz. mr. cruz, aye. >> having gone through the heart of the order, the lineup as it were, thi

reporter: any conversations with your counterparts, senator enzi -- inaudible js mrs. black: he is the budget chairman in the senate and right now the senate is working on a lot of different issues and understands where we are going and carried that message back to the senate. reporter: did you ask the c.b.o. to do a macro analysis of this budget? mrs. black: the c.b.o. uses a static and something that the c.b.o. has done for years. we also recognize that the c.b.o. scores under current law. so there will be a difference in what we assume in our budget because we assume economic growth. getting power back to states. it's not that we are in conflict with one another. and as the vice chairman said, -- conomic growth of 2.6% and maybe jason lewis said it, it has been a historical average. our statistics are not out of line with historical averages. reporter: given the difficulties that have been been attend anti-for health care reform, you have a october 6 date for reconciliation, legislation to come back to your committee. how optimistic between what has happened in heal

cassidy, cochran, corker, cornen, crapo, dans, enzi, ernst. fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, hoven, inhoff, isaacs isaacson, kennedy, langefort, lee, paul, purdue. portman, rich, roberts, rounds, rubio, scott, shelby, strange, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, young. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett, blumenthal, booker, brown, cant well, carden, carper, casey, collins, coons, cortez masto, donnelly, duckworth, durbin, feinstein, franken, jill brand, harris, haszen, hinrich, height camp, hirono, king, king -- leahy, manchin, marky, mccain, mccaskill, menendez, americaly, murcowski, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, reed, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, tester, udahl, van hollen, warner, warren, white house, widen. >> mr. moran? aye. >> mr. cotton. mr. cotton, aye. >> you will also note the vice president no longer visible. no longer needed to cast a deciding vote. senator heller from nevada walking up the aisle. >> mr. cruz. mr. cruz, aye. >> having gone through the heart of the order, the lineup as it we

i do not >> i met with senator enzi on a weekly basis and we talk about a lot of things. this is one of the things we've talked about as he is the budget chairmen in the senate. of course right now the senate is working on a lot of different issues. he certainly understands where we are going and we'll carry that message back to the senate. >> mrs. black, did you ask cbo to do an economic analysis of the budget and did they tell you they were unable to do it? >> this cbo as you know uses a static and that is something the cbo has done for years. we also recognize the cbo scores on the wall. so there will be a difference in what we assume in our budget because we assume economic growth for things like regulatory of farm and tax reform in getting power back to the states. so it is not that we are in conflict with one another. we have different assumptions and as the chairman, vice chairman said, the economic growth, the 2.6% or maybe it was jason lewis who said it was under the historical average over the last 50 years. our assumption of the 2.6 are really not out of line w

enzi: mr. president, senator blumenthal -- the senator from connecticut -- i ask for three minutes from our time, and we'll allot that as long as we preserve the full time for the senator from wisconsin. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut is recognized for three minutes. mr. blumenthal: and i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. we've seen in the course of this debate some very high points and some points that i think in some ways we regretted. one of the high points for me was the return of senator mccain, and i want to join all of my colleagues in saying how heartfelt our gratitude is for his return and his eloquence here about the need for us to work together. and yet yesterday we also saw, in my view, a shameful and disgraceful mockery of our democracy when senators proceeded, in effect, to a slogan, a shell of a bill, not a really substantive measure. and yet that shell will itse

have you back when we are having tea in the room or just enjoying a stroll on campus we know we can enzi evidence of each and every one of you looming large during your time here so thank you for honoring us with your presence. the administration the high school thank you for giving us this opportunity to enjoy the afternoon everyone. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

enzi. mrs. ernst. mrs. feinstein. mrs. fisher? mr. blake? mr. franken? >> no. >> mr. gardner?> i hear them. >> mrs. gillibrand. >> no. >> mr. graham? mr. grassley? ms. harris? >> no. >> ms. has semsem. >> mr. heinrich. >> no. >> mhide camp. >> mr. hirono. >> no. >> mr. hoven? mr. inhofe? mr. isackson. >> aye. >> mr. johnson? >> aye. >> mr. cain? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? mr. king? ms. klobuchar? >> no. >> mr. lankford? >> aye. >> mr. leahy? >> no. >> mr. lee? >> aye. >> mr. manchin? >> no. >> mr. markey? >> no. >> mr. mccain? mrs. mccaskill? >> no. >> mr. mcconnell? mr. menendez? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> no. >> mr. moran? ms. murkowski? >> no. >> mr. murphy? >> no. >> mrs. murray? >> no. >> mr. nelson? >> no. >> mr. paul? >> aye. >> mr. purdue? >> no. -- sorry, yes. >> mr. peters? >> no. mr. portman? mr. reed? mr. reich? >> aye. >> mr. roberts? mr. rounds. >> aye. >> mr. rubio? mr. sanders? >> no. >> mr. sasse? mr. schatz? >> no. >> mr. schumer? >> no. >> mr. scott? mrs. shaheen? >> no. >> mr. shelby? >> aye. >> miss stabenow? >> no. >> mr. sullivan? >> aye. >> mr. tester? >> no

here is mike enzi republican senator from wyoming he's been speaking non stop during this senate vote ram a. this is on the healthcare freedom act which is release at 10:00 tonight. ate pages. at this point no vote as of yet. tune in to the morning show at four:25. that is it for the tonight and i'm sure we're the not going to have a shortage of anything to talk about. good p night. [ crickets chirping ] [ light music playing ] you've wished upon it all year, and now it's finally here. the mercedes-benz summer event is back, with incredible offers on the mercedes-benz you've always longed for. but hurry, these shooting stars fly by fast. lease the c300 for $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. announcer: today on "tmz" -- >> all right, so there i was just minding my business trying to go to sleep and then justin bieber runs over a photographer right outside church. >> it looked like a legit like hit. >> it looked like he had gu

senator mike enzi talking about several of the votes that are up including one by steve daines and we look forward to tomorrow's debate with eight more hours of debate left and what looks likely tomorrow as a late evening of what they call it vote-a-rama, a series of votes on amendments offered although democrats senator schumer as you heard they are saying they would not offer additional amendments. here is john bresnahan of "politico" tweeting about that saying that democrats say they won't offer any more amendments to republican health care bill. they want to see the republicans quote skinny repeal bill before they do anything else. fox catching up with susan collins on health care process. she says there are no decisions. only to find out when we find out the final bill at 3:00 a.m.? the capitol reporting on some of the votes you might have seen this afternoon the heller amendment on medicaid expansion, devote their 10-90 and the other one bob casey's measure that would deal with language and that failed to pass 48-51 so the senate is back tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. eastern live on c-sp

senatee than the one patty murray was elected to, much different than the one i was elected to head mike enzi, much different than the one he saw. they see my colleague senator schatz and wyden. how long have you been here brian? four and a half years. he's a newbie and he has not seen the senate that i'm describing. in the senate where we would bring important measures on many different issues and membersak would come to the floor i'm not making this up and actually handed them to the clerk and sad like to offer an amendment to this bill and that we would debated in both and sometimes you want and sometimes you losto in the moved onto the next next amendment. that actually happened on the senate floor and for people new to the senate they don't believe it but it did over and over and over. we had a healthy respect for one another. amendments went back-and-forth and we ended up seeing bills passed debated difference in america. what we are doing now is a disgrace to this institution and it doesn't honor the senate, its members or our constitution. a what is at stake is so important. looking a

. >> bret: i don't think senator mike enzi has received this much tv time in a long time.we are getting word the motion to commit is expected sometime around midnight. that means getting to the skinny bill, the vote in the boat itself will happen and what happens is the vote-a-rama on these amendments. fast votes. it's late here and you may hear the janitorial staff rolling through with garbage cans. disregard that. if they get to conference, whether republicans can somehow pull this out to a win. >> by that point, we are going to be talking about legislative mentorship. they would've gone from point a to point d. the theory they hopes is true that they will be so close they will come up with something. more data in terms of what members are willing to vote for. if they can get something better than the skinny bill. on that point in terms of policy, i would point out yes this would repeal the individual mandate, the other so-called repeals in this bill are temporary. eight years, three years, they are patches. not long-standing, permanent legislation. not crafted that way.

because enzi has the floor, he can say he's not interested.that a number of times tonight. he has not been passion not on his speech here. laying out what he believes the benefits of this bill and moving the process forward. eventually, he'll wrap things up. that's when we get to the voting. as i said before, we'll have two different votes here. don't get too focused on the first vote. that will be a vote that the democrats will offer up to send the bill back to a committee. that will certainly be voted down. then, we'll have the actual vote on what we're calling the skinny repeal. that's when we finally find out whether or not the republicans have enough votes. and we know the vice president is in the building. that means the vote will be close, no matter what. >> thank you, ryan nobles. i want to tell everyone. you're watching "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. i want to bring in dana bash, jonathan tasini, margaret hoover, and jason candor. here we are, the moment of reckening. how is this going to go

even my friend, mike enzi from wyoming. even the one that he saw. i see my colleague senator schatz from hawaii here. how long have you been here now? four and a half years. he's a newbie. he has not seen the senate i was describing. can you believe there was a time in the senate when there was an important measure and members would come to the floor -- i'm not making this up -- and actually hand it to the clerk and say i'd like to make an amendment on this bill. we would handle it and sometimes we voted it and sometimes you won and sometimes you vote. that actually happened on the senate floor. for people new to the senate, i'm sure they don't believe me. but it did over and over and over. and we had a healthy respect for one another. the amendments went back and forth, and we ended up seeing bills passed that made a difference in america. what we're doing now is a disgrace to this institution, and it doesn't honor the senate, its members, or our constitution. and what's at stake is so important. looking at some of the provisions that have been bro

enzi: i request the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: any members wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 48, the nays are 51. the motion is not agreed to. there are now two minutes equally divided before the vote on the heller amendment. the senate will come to order. the senator from nevada. mr. heller: mr. president, i have got an amendment at the desk that would express the importance of medicaid in our individual states, and i'd like to just read from it two provisions that i think are important to this whole body, and that is that the senate prioritize medicaid services for individuals who have the greatest medical need, including individuals with disabilities, and also that we should not consider legislation that reduces or eliminates benefits or coverage for individuals who are currently eligible for medicaid. mr. president, that's the amendment i want everybody to express for their own states, how important the medicaid

. >> reporter: a frustrated mike enzi, republican of wyoming, said democrats offered only complaints.and i started hearing, "it's not perfect. it's not perfect." well, where are the suggestions for making it as near perfect as possible? >> reporter: and so shortly after midnight, a first vote began, with democrats somber and in their seats. on the opposite side, slowly- arriving republicans were more social. but something notable-- alaska senator lisa murkowski walks over to arizona's john mccain, and he signals a thumbs down. murkowski, along with susan collins of maine, were two expected no votes. soon, vice president mike pence stepped over, shook hands and then spent a long 20 minutes apparently trying to win mccain's vote. minutes later, another signal. mccain walked over to democrats. a large group surrounded him. nearby, g.o.p. leader mitch mcconnell walked the other way, just as mccain was embraced by california's dianne feinstein. the final vote resembled a great sporting event-- democrats on their feet, as mccain walked up to vote. some, like massachusetts' elizabeth warren,

enzi: i ask the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of william francis haggarty to be ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is there a sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of william francis hagerty, iv, of tennessee, to be ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the united states to japan shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the ayes are 89. the nays are 11. the nomination is confirmed. the motion

there are senators mike enzy leaving the senate chamber, tell mu me how it went down from your perspective, you said people didn't know where john mccain was going on this. >> i think six hours ago this result would have surprised a lot of people, after that press conference this evening where john mccain, lindsey graham, ron johnson and others said they would vote for the bill if they got assurances from paul ryan it would go into a conference committee. there were phone calls and outreach and a lot of work done behind scenes to convince those gentlemen to get to yes and all but one did ultimately get to yes. the signs early in the evening all seemed to point to confidence from republican leaders that they would have these votes. the vote was moved up a little bit in the calendar, it was scheduled to have it a little earlier in the night than expected. mike pence came a little bit earlier than people expected. and then there was a development where people just stopped talking about how they would vote. it was an hour before the vote, and john mccain said he just was not going to talk bit.

even my friend, mike enzi from wyoming. even the one that he saw. i see my colleague senator schatz from hawaii here. how long have you been here now? four and a half years. he's a newbie. he has not seen the senate i was describing. can you believe there was a time in the senate when there was an important measure and members would come to the floor -- i'm not making this up -- and actually hand it to the clerk and say i'd like to make an amendment on this bill. we would handle it and sometimes we voted it and sometimes you won and sometimes you vote. that actually happened on the senate floor. for people new to the senate, i'm sure they don't believe me. but it did over and over and over. and we had a healthy respect for one another. the amendments went back and forth, and we ended up seeing bills passed that made a difference in america. what we're doing now is a disgrace to this institution, and it doesn't honor the senate, its members, or our constitution. and what's at stake is so important. looking at some of the provisions that have been bro

senator enzi. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you mr. kauttier for being willing to serve in this position. i enjoyed meeting with you and visiting and learning and i appreciate your experience and are pleased that we have a nominee that understands the challenges that businesses face in this complex tax code. in fact, to even understand the tax code. you'll probably have already noted that anybody with expertise coming through these committees has a lot of problems. there's a lot of background that can be looked at and picked apart. i would like to mention that president obama's assistant secretary of tax policy, michael mcdockca had these words to say about our nominee. beyond deep technology knowledge that is essential, dave would bring great leadership abilities, he would bring a calm, measured thoughtful approach. i can't think of higher praise than that coming into this position. now, i also noted that you talked about businesses with no financial expertise, the ones with 50 to $60 million a year don't have cfo and i would mention

enzi: thank you. i just -- in our job we get a lot of books, probably two or three a week at least. and for the last year, most of those have been on health care and health care reform. and a book that i received lately was one called "demystifying obamacare" by david g. brown, who is a doctor. it was helpful enough to me that i thought i'd share part of it with anybody listening. it always fascinates me when we're here talking, and maybe somebody's listening. on page 70, it starts out by talking about how does obamacare look after seven years? incidentally, this one is all well documented and footnoted, which is one of the unusual things about this book. it's not just speculation on his part. it's a lot of research that he's done and shared. he says, obamacare actually reduces insurance market competition by strict rules, regulations, and mandates. obamacare significantly increases the health care cost by the way it attempts to assist those who cannot afford coverage. obamacare does not tackle the underlying causes of increased costs. instead it worsens the factors that drive up th

letter from the congressional budget office, from the director keith hall, a letter to senator mike enzi, the chairman of the committee on budget. the congressional budget office says in this letter i'm quoting from page four, according to the congressional budget office, joint committee on taxations estimates, in 23018, 15 million more people would be uninsured under thisly, meaning the most current version than under current law. the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would reach 19 million in 2020 and 22 million in 2026. end quote. that's what the c.b.o. tells us. so once again that same number, that stubborn number -- 22 million people uninsured. and 15 million of the 22 million be becoming uninsured in 2018, in next year. an immediate impact, the likes of which and the gravity of which we can't even begin to imagine. just imagine in the course of one year, or maybe a year and a half, 18 million people in the country losing their health care, just when -- just when we made the advancement of having 20 million people covered between the

enzi: mr. president. i think i have been requested for senator schumer to have two minutes and to have if i have more minutes by u.c., perhaps, for others, but i would ask that at the end that senator cornyn be allowed two minutes before the vote. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i would ask unanimous consent that mr. cornyn can conclude but i be given five minutes and the senator from oregon be given five minutes. mr. enzi: and i need to have five minutes for senator cornyn. mr. schumer: and then five minutes for senator cornyn after us. the presiding officer: is there objection to five minutes for both sides. mr. schumer: five for the senator from new york, five for the senator from oregon, and for however much time the senator from texas wants. mr. cornyn: reserving the right to object. i think it's only fair that the -- each side get five minutes to speak. everybody's ready to vote. and we have had two hours of debate. and so i would -- i would ask

enzi: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that we waive the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the bush nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, john kenneth bush of kentucky to be united states circuit judge for the sixth circuit. mr. enzi: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent to speak for a few minutes as though in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, my colleagues and i have been on this floor for the last seven years, talking about the problems with obamacare and the need to address them. in the early days, when obamacare was still being cobbled together, we talked about individuals losing their coverage. promises were made that if you like the plan you have, you could

enzi: madam president, if i might just for a quick -- the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate resume consideration of the burnhart nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: department of the interior, david burnhart of virginia to be deputy secretary. mr. nelson: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i want to discuss this nomination. imhere to add my voice to my colleague whose oppose the nomination of david barnhart to be secretary of interior. there are host of reasons from his history of censoring scientists to his denial of climate change. but i am going to limit my remarks to his allegiance to the oil industry specifically -- specifically his disregard for the importance of the moratorium on any drilling in the eastern gulf of mexico. gurg his confirm

enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: i heard somebody said say that nobody was listening. well, i was listening. and i've read a little bit from this book before on the floor about health care. it's called demystifying obamacare by david g. brown, who is a doctor. and he does a marvelous job of going through the history of how we got to where we are. and he says, maybe we need to answer the question, what does obamacare do? what does obamacare purport to do? what does obamacare not do? he says, those answers are relatively simple. obamacare is not a system of health care, nor is it a health care reform. it's a system of health care control. obamacare was supposed to significantly reduce health care costs, but instead it has dramatically increased costs for even those who are not directly within the obamacare program. he also says, obamacare was supposed to increase access to care, but instead it can actually reduce access, availability of care. he says, obamacare reduces the effectiveness of the safety net program,

enzi: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming is recognized. without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of kevin christopher newsom of alabama to be united states circuit judge for the 11th circuit, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of kevin christopher newsom of alabama to be united states circuit judge for the 11th circuit shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: quorum call: the presiding officer: does any senator wish to change their vote? on this motion, the yeas are 68, the nays are 26, the motion is agreed to. mr. mccon