standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general, signed by 17 senators as follows: reid of nevada, leahy, cole, feinstein, franken, coons, blumenthal, klobuchar, whitehouse, brown of ohio, udall of colorado, durbin, carper, sanders, rockefeller, shaheen, schumer. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate resume legislative session and then proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader, the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 61, there be three hours of debate equally divided in the usual form, that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the senate proceed to vote without intervening action or

the clerk: nomination, department of justice, james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general. the presiding officer: under the previous order there will be one hour of debate equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. mr. grassley: mr. president, i would yield 10 minutes to the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: i thank the senator. mr. president, in less than an hour this body will be asked to vote on cloture to proceed to the nomination of james cole as deputy attorney general. i rise in opposition to that cloture vote on the nomination of james cole and i urge my colleagues to strongly oppose that. as a member of the senate intelligence committee, i share the views of the vice chairman, senate chambliss, and the ranking member of the judiciary committee, senator grassley. as expressed in their letter to republican colleagues dade may 6 -- dated may 6, 2011, opposing cloture on this nomination. i would ask at this time to enter this letter into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. burr: mr. cole's nom

the question is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: vote vote: vote: the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 40. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. the majority leader. mr. reid: [inaudible] the presiding officer: the motion is invoked. mr. reid[inaudible] the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the foreign relations committee be discharged and we now proceed to s. res. 153. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 153, recognizing the 25th anniversary of the chernable nuclear disaster. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate proceeds. mr. reid: ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the resolution as amend be agre