gillibrand: mr. president, i rise to talk about an amendment that i believe is an urgent -- the presiding officer: the senator will suspend for one second. the senate will be in order. the senator will suspend. the senator from new york is recognized. mrs. gillibrand: thank you, mr. president. i rise to speak to an issue that is incredibly urgent. today, the vast majority, almost all of our service members, serve this country so honorably, so bravely, but there is a very small number who do not who are engaging in sexual assault in the military. despite secretary panetta's effort to have a zero tolerance policy in this country, in 2011 alone, there were 3,000 military assaults reported, and the department of defense estimated that the real figure is much closer to 19,000 assaults. in the words of the d.o.d., the sexual assault to the military is an affront to our basic american values and it degrades our readiness, it subverts our strategic goodwill and it forever changes the lives of victims and the

so as kirsten gillibrand, senator gillibrand works with us, we will consult with all of you. because, you know, we don't have any earmarks anymore. you all know that. let me just say for the tenth time, i think that was ridiculous so-called reform. what it means is that we can't -- we, who know the best -- if anything i'm getting out of this listening to all of you, you know every corner and every nook and cranny of where the problem occurred. but unfortunately, because there's no more earmarks, we have to leave it up to the administration. however, something you said is important. a lot of the projects that haven't gone forward have engineers' reports. many are authorized. and our water bill will be able -- without naming the projects -- to move those forward, which is very important. and in terms of accelerating, we will have, we have a new, um, draft proposal to respond to these extreme weather events, senator schumer, which would enable us to have the corps move very, very quickly. because there's ten different laws that come into play, and in rebuilding and mitigating fu

watch kirsten gillibrand.at this you she won't stop until she gets to the presidency. >> she could be the second female president of the united states. that does it for "the cycle." keep it on msnbc prime time for the best election coverage in the world. martin bashir is straight ahead right here from democracy plaza. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? [ male announcer ] the way it moves. the way it cleans. everything about the oral-b power brush is simply revolutionary. oral-b power brushes oscillate, rotate and even pulsate to gently loosen and break up that sticky plaque with more brush movements than manual brushes and even up to 50% more than leading sonic technology brushes for a superior clean. oral

i cannot see them agreeing pension contributions, a mortgage, at gillibrand, a charity, earned incomeax credit, they will not give that up. >> they could put a cap robbie suggested that is appealing to the democrats and maybe republicans. john: 20% of the budget and fiscal spending cuts comes from the military. you are not day defense specialist let's bring in benjamin friedman from the cato ititute. it is terrible. the republicans are hysterical. >> so is the pentagon but it is 10 percent to bring us to where we were in 2006 which adjusted for inflation was not a crisis year. they have gotten spoiled with years of luxury then when they cut the budget they scream to the heavens. john: leon panetta says it would be irresponsible, senator mccain and gramm, the draconian cuts represent a threat to our national-security and must not occur. >> it is not the best way but it could be useful so it will force us to make choices. we try to be everything. deliver peace and prosperity to pretend every unstable country is the threat to an to bid the stable countries so we may have to reconsider an

kristen gillibrand. of course, pent up demand for new yorkers running for democratic nomination for president in 2016 already. i think the order of precedence is the secretary of state runs, then the government -- governor will not, and neither runs, then gillibrand will run. >> i do not know if i just yet see her as presidential material but she has been mentioned as someone who might be a pick for the democrats senatorial campaign committee for this cycle, which would allow her to build up a huge donor base obviously and raise our national profile. she is certainly a very talented politician. i think she was under estimated when she was first appointed. so, who knows. >> just to echo that, there is talk the senator with the golden resume, rob portman, who has done a just about every other job in washington may run for the republican senatorial committee job in two years, which would allow him to regroup. he did not become vice president. he still harbors presidential ambitions. he is only 57. and so, i

i cannot see them agreeing pension contributions, a mortgage, at gillibrand, a charity, earned income tax credit, they will not give that up. >> they could put a cap robbie suggested that is appealing to the democrats and maybe republicans. john: 20% of the budget and fiscal spending cuts comes from the military. you are not day defense specialist let's bring in benjamin friedman from the cato institute. it is terrible. the republicans are hysterical. >> so is the pentagon but it is 10 percent to bring us to where we were in 2006 which adjusted for inflation was not a crisis year. they have gotten spoiled with years of luxury then when they cut the budget they scream to the heavens. john: leon panetta says it would be irresponsible, senator mccain and gramm, the draconian cuts represent a threat to our national-security and must not occur. >> it is not the best way but it could be useful o it will force us to make choice we try to be everything. deliver peace and prosperity to pretend every unstable country is the threat to an to bid the stable countries so we may have to reconsider a

[laughter] and kirsten gillibrand.of course, there's pent-up demand for new yorkers running for the democratic nomination for president in 2016 already. [laughter] so as i understand, i think the order of precedence is if the secretary of state the -- state runs, then the governor won't, and if neither of them run, then gillibrand runs. >> i don't know if i just yet see her as presidential material, but she has been someone who has been mentioned who could be picked for this cycle. which would raise her national profile. and she certainly is a talented politician. i think she was underestimated when she was first appointed. and so who knows? >> along those line just to echo that, there is talk that the senator with the golden resumÉ, rob portman, who's done most every other job in washington may also think about running for the republican senator tore y'all committee job in two years which would allow him to regroup. he, obviously, is not going to become treasury secretary, he didn't become vice president. um, he still

i cannot see them agreeing pension contributions, a mortgage, at gillibrand, a charity, earned income tax credit, they will not give that up. >> they could put a cap robbie suggested that is appealing to the democrats and maybe republicans. john: 20% of the budget and fiscal spending cuts comes from the military. you are not day defense specialist let's bring in benjamin friedman from the cato institute. it is terrible. the republicans are hysterical. >> so is the pentagon but it is 10 percent to bring us to where we were in 2006 which adjusted for inflation was not a crisis year. they have gotten spoiled with years of luxury then when they cut the budget they scream to the heavens. john: leon panetta says it would be irresponsible, senator mccain and gramm, the draconian cuts represent a threat to our national-security and must not occur. >> it is not the best way but it could be useful so it will force us to make choices. we try to be everything. deliver peace and prosperity to pretend every unstable country is the threat to an to bid the stable countries so we may have to reconside

kristen gillibrand. of course, pent up demand for new yorkers running for democratic nomination for president in 2016 already. i think the order of precedence is the secretary of state runs, then the government -- governor will not, and neither runs, then gillibrand will run. >> i do not know if i just yet see her as presidential material but she has been mentioned as someone who might be a pick for the democrats senatorial campaign committee for this cycle, which would allow her to build up a huge donor base obviously and raise our national profile. she is certainly a very talented politician. i think she was under estimated when she was first appointed. so, who knows. >> just to echo that, there is talk the senator with the golden resume, rob portman, who has done a just about every other job in washington may run for the republican senatorial committee job in two years, which would allow him to regroup. he did not become vice president. he still harbors presidential ambitions. he is only 57. and so, i

on staten island until, quite frankly, on thursday when we had a visit from senators schumer and gillibranddent made a plea to folks to come and help when there are 0 20 or so cameras that showed up on our island. since that day, since thursday, we've been inundated with fema, the red cross is here in full force. we have the national guard. and i'm driving around now to one of the command centers at miller field. i'm seeing volunteers from all over the city and state just wanting to help. so in the last 24 hours, 48 hours, things have turned. and we're moving in the right direction. >> i understand that many of those volunteers that have kind of descended upon staten island were runners who were going to be part of the new york city marathon but since so many traveled from far and wide, they're there and they said, you know what? we want to pitch in in any way, shape or form. what do you suppose a lot of the volunteers are going to be able to do? what are they going to be equipped to do? >> we're asking volunteers to go right now to miller field. it is in the new york section of staten isla

new yorkers would take it out on any incumbent running, including senator gillibrand. that was not to be the case. i don't have the exact link numbers, but she survived. there is no net pick up going on here for republicans who hope to retake the senate. the night is still young. but so are they. what other whining about? we're being very nice. we have to go said rich edson. a gauge right now at how all this is going on in going down at obama headquarters. >> very slowly. they just allowing the crowd in here. these are all obama supporters, people who have made calls for the president, volunteered. president obama of site spending time with his family, slowly getting updates on how the election is going. what we are hearing is basically what we're seeing right now. incredibly tight race that we are looking to florida, virginia, ohio, all of the state's right now they're too close to call for any indication of which way this is going to break. there has been an awful lot of confidence among the obama folks of the last few days, especially predicting a wind that only in

senator gillibrand, what do you see her doing in her second term, do you see her as a possible chair of the dscc or patty murray staying or michael bennett or someone else chairing the dfcc. and number two on flood insurance, what's the situation in missouri? the a lot of people did lose their flood insurance on the south shore of long island in the past, and the program is underwater, so to speak, in the red. do you see people in new york losing out on getting money to rebuild their homes? do you see the program being overhauled as a result of what happened because of sandy? >> okay. in reference to your first question, i don't think, you know, it's a day after the election. i don't, you know, what is going to happen with the dscc. first you'd have to ask people, including senator gillibrand, whether she'd want it, and i haven'ted talked to her about it yet. we talked about elections and congratulations, and she did a great job in the senate in the first six years, first two years and will do a great job in the next six years. she's a great partner to have, and i'm glad she won an o

and along, of course, sherrod brown and bob casey and bill nelson, amy klobuchar, kirsten gillibrand, manchin, debbie stabenow, bob menendez, sheldon whitehouse, bernie sanders, maria cantwell, diane finestein, we have delivered to you a great caucus, mr. leader. >> not only did every democratic incumbent in the senate win their race last night, every single one, but democrats actually picked up two seats. elizabeth warren defeated republican incumbent scott brown in massachusetts. joe donnelly defeated tea party favorite, richard mourdock, in indiana. it should have been impossible. joining us now is steve kornacki, co-host of "the cycle," 3:00 weekdays here on msnbc. happy aftermath, steve. >> i was just checking unskewedelectionreturns.com and they said republicans have 67 senate seats now, so i'm not sure what you're talking about here. >> also, mitt romney won with a anonymous vote. >> yes, in d.c., that's right. >> that's right. what happened yesterday in the senate specifically? obviously, the expectations were leaning much more toward the democrats by the time we actually vote

senator kirsten gillibrand from new york is all for hillary clinton in 2016, but if hillary clinton doesn'those aspirations. on the republican side, nick kid smoking haley from south carolina, 40 years old. the republicans need a new face, and this would be a change of direction. she literally is respected by the right. >> i wrote down a list of 13 republican names -- by the way, when senator thune was walking out, i said would you like me to add your name to this list? he said no. >> cross one out. >> i pick scott walker actually, scott walker, governor of wisconsin, is the guy who actually did what a lot of republicans want to do, which is he took on the entrenched interests behind the spending that's killing a lot of states, is hurting our own federal deficit. so i think scott walker is someone who can say, look, i've done this, it was not easy, and i succeeded. as far as democrats are concerned, it's really a far less wide-open race, i think, than with republicans, simply because you have this hillary clinton decision out there, whether she does or doesn't. if she doesn't, i think you m

i'd also like to thank or federal officials, senator schumer, senator gillibrand, congressman grim withfor all the help in securing the necessary funds so that we can rebuild. 17 days ago on october 29th, everything changed for new york. 60 new yorkers lost their lives, tens of thousands saw their homes damaged or destroyed. communities from staten island to lindenpurs were decimated. 17 days ago we felt a new vulnerability for the first time. we have much to do. there is no doubt. we must provide shelter and support in the short term. we must repair thousands of homes and small businesses. we must reknit the fabric of tattered communities. we must rethink and redesign for the long term, because extreme weather as we have learned is the new normal. but we are new yorkers, mr. president. we are tough and resilient, and we will overcome and we will be the better for it. also, mr. president, we take comfort in knowingha

worked with the outstanding congressional delegation led by your senators, chuck schumer and kristen gillibrand, and working with governor christie and the jersey delegation to try to come up with a game plan for how we're going to be able to resource the rebuilding process. i'm confident, as governor cuomo said, that we're going to be able to do it. it will require everybody focus on getting the job done. we're going to have to put some of the turf battles aside and make sure everyone is focused on doing the job as opposed to who is getting the credit or contracts or all that stuff that goes into the rebuilding process. on the federal level, because this is going to be such a big job, i wanted to assign one particular person who would be in charge from our perspective, who would be our point person. fema basically runs the recovery process. it doesn't focus on the rebuilding. for that we've got to have all government agencies involved. janet napolitano has done a great job with respect to dhs, but we thought it would be good to have a new yorker who is going to be the point person. so our outs

here's the new york senator kirsten gillibrand on a mother and her children trapped in the rising waterhildren out of the car. she tried to get them to higher land and they were taken from her arms these children were 2 years old and 4 years old. the mother could do nothing about it because this storm was so strong. >> shepard: rescue crews later found those children's bodies. the senator's testimony brought california senator barbara boxer to tears. in case you missed it, two states have legalized marijuana for use in any way you want. but the question now is should employers still be able to fire you if you get high? plus a new york city cop, a simple act of kindness and the tourist who captured the moment on camera. that's still ahead. share "not even close." share "you owe me..." share "just right." the share everything plan. shareable data across 10 devices with uimited talk and text. by htc for $49.99. >> shepard: a big step in washington making it harder for law enforcement to snoop around in our email. as it stands right now, federal authorities need only a -- don't even need a

senators schumer and gillibrand, really appreciate the support.hose of you should know that these are regular correspondents with me and have been on the phone with me several times since landfall of this hurricane. representative nadler, speaker silver, also everybody's really involved. so what does that mean. well, it means a couple of things. number one, the president has declared a number of counties in new york, new jersey and connecticut disaster areas, and that means that individuals can begin applying for assistance for things like temporary housing, for things -- and communities can apply for emergency protective measures they have had to take. go to disasterassistance.gov. go to fema.gov. there's also a 1-800 number that i can't read because it's reflecting off of my ipad. but there is a 1-800 number. in addition -- >> 613362. >> thank you, senator. >> since we turned on the assistance clock, more than 36,000 individuals have already signed up. we want to make it as easy and as convenient for people to do this as possible. we know some p

but i will tell you that the president and senator schumer and senator gillibrand all support nuclearpower. >> moderator: senator schriebman coming up 45 seconds. schriebman: that is the record, it is not something i can make up, it's not a matter of characterizing anything. it's a record that anyone can go and it wouldn't have taken me two years to figure out that the citizens don't want this choice for their future. the congressman didn't answer that question. he rejected that is the future and decided that he thinks he wants to focus on something else first. the fact is that this is not for the future of upstate new york. we have nowhere to put those fuel rods at this point. we have much better alternatives here than the nuclear plant that he championed. >> moderator: we are going to head back to the panel and this question is for mr. schriebman from transport. >> moderator: the farm bill -- the congress and the president were able to agree and it could mean real economic hardship for newark's dairy farmers. what is it going to take to get this farm bill passed? >> you know, this i

gillibrand, a senator from the state of new york, to perform the duties of the chair.igned: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader smed. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to the d.o.d. authorization bill. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the moas motion to proceed. the clerk: a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2013 for filth activities of the department of defense and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: madam president, the first hour will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, the majority will control the first half, the republicans the final half. we expect to begin consideration of the d.o.d. authorization bill today. madam president, on april 14, 1945, a very young robert dole lay gravely wounded in the mud of war-torn italian hillside. i'd been hit with shrapnel, whicher twhich tore through hisr and spine. 20 years later after rebuilding his body and political career, the senator gave his maiden speech on the senate floor

work with the outstanding congressional delegation led by your senators, chuck schumer and kristin gillibrand with governor christie and the jersey delegation to try to come up with a gameplan for how we're going to resource the rebuilding process. and i'm confident, as governor cuomo said, that we're going to be able to do it but it is going to require everybody focused on getting the job done. we're going to have to put some of the turf battles aside. we'll have to make sure everybody is focused on doing the job as opposed to who is getting the credit or getting the contracts that sometimes goes into the rebuilding process. on the federal level because this is going to be such a big job i wanted to assign one particular person who would be in charge from our perspective, who would be our point person because fema basically runs the recovery process. it doesn't focus on the rebuilding. for that we've got to have all government agencies involved. janet napolitano has done a great job with respect to dhs but we thought it would be good to have a new yorker who is going to be the point person a

outstanding congressional delegation led by your senators chuck schumer and christin gil brand a gillibrand and trying to come up with a game plan for how we're going to be able to resource the rebuilding process. and i'm confident as governor cuomo said that we can do it. but it requires everybody focus on getting the job done. we're going to have to put some of the turf battles aside. we have to make sure that everybody's focused on doing the job. as opposed to worrying about who's getting the credit or who's getting the contracts or all that stuff that sometimes goes in to the rebuilding process. on the federal level, because this is such a big job, i want to assign one particular person who would be in charge from our perspective. who would be our point person because fema basically runs the recovery process. it doesn't focus on the rebuilding. for that, we've got to have all government agencies involved. janet napolitano has done a great job but we thought we would have a new yorker to be the point person and so our outstanding hud secretary sean donovan who used to be the head of the

i've also worked with senator gillibrand. that was authorization and appropriation to compete for it. it's good for our country from a distance, area. work with peter watched to ensure we had funding for the storm relief. that was a bipartisan effort with peter welch. so i can tell you i absolutely believe even though you hear negative news, folks can come together, we've come together and we did and transportation of free-trade agreements and for advanced training lot and i will continue to will continue to do that when you send it back because that's my responsibility. >> moderator: mr. schriebman, do have a rebuttal for that? schriebman: absolutely. we need real broadband in upstate new york he made a commitment to public or the partnership. the on his website that funding for broadband is lower now than it was four years ago. unfortunately the congressman's record when it comes to bipartisanship just isn't there. for example, look at violence against women act, something i is a prosecutor recognized so important. this has

the distinguished senator who just spoke, senator lee, senator coons, collins, paul, lautenberg, gillibrand, kirk, tester, johnson, sanders, whitehouse, heller, baucus, demint, webb, klobuchar, bingaman, rockefeller, begich, boxer, and a -- an amendment somewhat similar to this, all but one small part of it was similar, received 45 votes in the last session. i want to just spend a moment on the genesis of this amendment because for me it goes back to april of 1942, the day a western defense command and fourth army wartime civil control order went out in san francisco with instructions to all persons of japanese ancestry that all japanese persons, both alien and nonalien, will be evacuated from the above designated areas by 12:00 on tuesday, april 2, 1942. no japanese person will be permitted to enter or leave the above described area after 8:00 a.m. thursday. that was the city of san francisco. and what was created was an internment camp which became a staging area for the placement of japanese americans in detention camps without charge or trial for the remainder of world war ii. this was

veterans like sherrod brown and tom carper and dianne feinstein and ben cardin, bob casey kristin gillibrandked up four outstanding new senate democrats, elizabeth warren, tammy baldwin heidi heifkamp and joe donnelly. strong enough to push the obama agenda through the senate and to block the tea party agenda coming over from house republicans. another reason to keep that big smile on our face! s here on this election week. great to see you today folks. go out and have a great thursday and come on back. join the conversation again tomorrow morning.

i agree with senator gillibrand. more women in the senate would probably make the place and easier place to compromise. >> i spoke with the democratic congressman and expressed admiration for for simpson- bowles. i am wondering if you would share those sentiments or have another grand bargain framework that you think would be better? how far are you willing to go on entitlements in any grand bargain? >> first, i think simpson-bowles did the country a real service in three basic ways. one, coming up with a balanced package that has revenues. around the edges, you can dispute whether it was a little too loose in revenues or whether the $9 billion in cuts we have done already changed the balance. the basic approach was the right way to go. second, i thought the $4 trillion number was the right number tissue for. they chose it because it turns the fiscal cliff around. in other words, deficits go down rather than up once you do $4 trillion of deficit reduction. most importantly, they put democrats and republicans together

res. 599, submitted earlier today by senators gillibrand and kirk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 599 expressing vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security and survival to the state of israel and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. ms. landrieu: i further ask, mr. president, the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the measure be printed at the appropriate place in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. landrieu: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. con. resolution 60 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate concurrent resolution 60 providing for conditional adjournment or recess of the senate pending adjournment of the house of representativ

i'd also like to thank our federal officials, senator schumer, senator gillibrand, congressman grimm who is with us today for all their help in securing the necessary funds so we can rebuild. 17 days ago on october 29 everything changed for new york. 60 new yorkers lost their lives, tens of thousands saw their homes damaged or destroyed, communities from staten island to long beach to lindenhurst were decimated. 17 days ago we felt a new vulnerability for the first time . we have much to do, there is no doubt. we must provide shelter and support in the short term. we must repair thousands of homes and small businesses. we must reknit the fabric of tattered communities. we must rethink and redesign for the long term because extreme weather as we have learned is the new normal. but we are new yorkers, mr. president, we are tough, and we are resilient, and we will overcome and we will be the better for it. also, mr. president, we take comfort in knowing that we are not alone. while we may not have had heat in our homes, our hearts have been warmed by the outpouring of support, generosit

happened to be there with senator gillibrand and all these other officials.lly zoned in. but i will say there is no water, there is no electricity, there is no fema. flood insurance has not shown up and there is really no answers. nobody has a clue of should i throw it out? clear live i can never use this furniture again. my floors smell horrible. can i get rid of it? no one has any definitive answers. >> steve: so important people are hearing it from somebody like you. they watch you every morning. you are having a lot of problems. the president came to new jersey, i don't know if you knew this or not, came to new jersey on halloween and said fema would help everybody out. you fast forward and some people have not been impacted by fema. meanwhile, the candidate and we're going to talk more about brian's situation in a little bit. but we have got to talk about the big election that comes up in three days. the candidates are making final arguments. the president of the united states yesterday was in springfield, ohio. and it's interesting. he was talking about

ouralso like to thank federal officials, senator schumer, senator gillibrand, congressman grimm who is with us today for all their help in securing the necessary funds so we can rebuild. 17 days ago on october 29 everything changed for new york. 60 new yorkers lost their lives, tens of thousands saw their homes damaged or destroyed, communities from staten island to long beach to lindenhurst were decimated. 17 days ago we felt a new vulnerability for the first time. we have much to do, there is no doubt. we must provide shelter and support in the short term. we must repair thousands we must redesign for the long term. we are new yorkers. we are tough. we will overcome, and we will be the better for it. we take comfort in knowing we are not alone. our hearts have been warmed by the outpouring of support, generosity, and love from across the nation. people from across the country have donated, sent food, and we want to send a hard sell -- a heartfelt thank you to each of you. we want to say thank you to you. you have exemplified the spirit of community. you were there for us, you were th

diversity and people who are really outstanding senators and have special -- i agree with senator gillibrand that more women in the senate would probably make the place more willing to compromise. >> back to our fiscal issues here. a couple things. i spoke with a democratic congressman yesterday who for the first time expressed some admiration for simpson-bowles, and i'm wondering if you would share those sentiments or if you have another, you know, grand bargain framework that you think would be better overall. and secondly, how far are you willing to go on entitlements? >> first, simpson-bowles. i think simpson-bowles did the country a real service in three basic ways. one, in coming up with a balanced package that had revenues. we can, you know, around the edges you can dispute whether it was too little in revenues or whether the $900 billion in cuts we've done already changed the balance but the basic balanced approach was the right way to go. second, i thought the $4 trillion number is just about the right number for us to shoot for. i think they chose it because it turns the fiscal cli

gillibrand: i request a voice vote. mr. coburn: madam president, i think we ought to have a recorded vote on this, since we're really not paying for it. and we are taking $1.9 billion out of the budget of the defense department. so i would ask that we have a recorded vote. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there senator wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, on this vote, the yeas are 66, the nays are 29. the amendment is agreed to. [inaudible] mr. levin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: mr. president, i believe senator portman may be ready with an amendment and that has been cleared and i believe can be voice voted. i'm wondering if my friend from ohio could confirm my understanding that he is ready to proceed and that he is willing to take a voice vote on this? mr. portman: yeah, that would be great. i'm willing to take a voice vote and i believe it's going