mr. bennet: sure. mr. cruz: i like and agree with your analogy of cutting up the credit card, and indeed if my friend from colorado indeed supports anything resembling congress cutting up the credit card, that would truly be a dramatic position and a position on which he and i could find common cause. and so i would ask -- if i could ask the question and then -- you know, i would ask the natural result of what my friend from colorado just said is that i assume then that he would readily support pat toomey's default prevention act, and what pat toomey's default prevention act does is it ensures the scenario you said, money that we have borrowed, we will keep paying, pat toomey's default prevention act says in the event the credit limit is not raised, the united states will always, always, always pay its debt. we will never, ever, ever default on the debt, and we'll take that completely off the table. and so then the debt limit fight would only be about, as my friend from colorado put it, cutting up the cred

mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i'd ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i first want to say to you how wonderful it's been to serve with you in the united states senate and as you take your leave to go back to the real world in massachusetts, we all wish you well and we thank you for everything that you've done when you've been here, especially the good cheer that you brought to our caucus. so thank you very much. and in the vein of thank yous i wanted to come down after this historic day passing this historic bill to say some thank yous. i already thanked my colleagues in the gang of eight, and other senators that worked so hard on this bill, so there will be time to do that on another occasion. but sometimes people ask -- have asked me during the course of my checkered career how did you get to do this and why did they let you do this and how did somebody with no apparent skill or aptitude for public education, for example, get to run the

mr. bennet: i'll yield. mr. leahy: i believe the senator is aware of this but i'll ask, we passed the farm bill last year by a huge bipartisan mange in, that -- margin, and on the committee are several former chairs of that committee in boaft parties as well as a former secretary agriculture and we came together as republicans and democrats to pass a bill that saved $23 billion to $28 billion, i believe the senator is aware of that. mr. bennet: through the chair, i am aware of that. i appreciate the senator from vermont, former chair of the committee and now the chair of the judiciary committee reminding the chamber of that. the senator from vermont has been here longer than i have been here, that's just being honest about it. but i wonder sometimes what it would have been like to serve in this body when it didn't have a 10% approval rating. the chairman was here when the united states congress didn't have a 10% approval rating. i don't know why anybody in the world would want to work in a place that had that le

mr. bennet: thank you, madam president. i want to first thank the senator from south dakota for his indulgence for five minutes or so to do this, and the senator from indiana for yielding his time to me. we got a little bit out of order on the floor. but i really want to come before the night was out to speak about an incredible chance we have with respect to fixing our broken immigration system. over the next few weeks the senate has a golden opportunity to do something great, to do something important, to do something that shows that washington can actually work, that we're aligned to the priorities of the american people, that we can take on hard challenges and solve them. that's the opportunity before us, and i have to say thank you to all of my colleagues that served in this so-called gang of eight and worked, i would say not even in a bipartisan way. i would say in a nonpartisan way to fix problems that afflict our economy and our democracy throughout the country in different ways. and i particularly want to thank sen

mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i'd ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i wanted to come to the floor tonight tonight just to talk briefly about where we are on immigration reform. we're moving along this week. we've come out of several weeks of committee work on this where there were a number of republican amendments that were adopted as part of the process, a number of democratic amendments adopted as part of the process. as somebody that was in the negotiating group that led to the bill reaching the judiciary committee, i -- i actual think it wa -- i actuallythink it wash republicans and democrats and it's been an unusual bipartisan effort around here and it's the kind of effort that the american people, certainly the people of colorado, think is long, long overdue. they don't understand why we seem to be engaged in these fights that don't have anything to do with them instead of working together constructively to actually meet the chall

mr. bennet: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you, mr.esident. i'd like to thank the senator from minnesota for her remarks and say how much i appreciate her work on this legislation on the judiciary committee and beyond. and i wanted -- and the chairman is here today. i'd like to say thank you to him for his leadership both on the committee and on the floor. one way or another, something important is going to happen here this week, which is -- it should happen more regularly than it does, but it has not in the four years that i have been here, and that is a bill that actually is the result of thoughtful bipartisan -- i think in some cases i'd described it as nonpartisan work that's been done first by the so-called gang of eight that i was pleased to be part of, then the judiciary committee itself, and now on the floor of the senate. and, mr. chairman, before i talk about immigration, i want to mention that we are still struggling out in colorado this summer with this terrible wil wildfires. and we've appreciated the federal cooperation t

mr. bennet: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: i'd like to say through the chair thank you to the senator from missouri for her advocacy on behalf of our servicemen and women, and i think she should have made no assumption about yielding the floor to me but i'm happy to take it, if the senator is done. madam president, i wanted to come down today, as i did yesterday, to talk about this incredible opportunity that we have before us with this bipartisan immigration bill that we are considering now in the united states senate in -- in regular order in the united states senate. and i hope that we have a process on the floor now that we're here that mirrors the one that the judiciary committee had, an open process where people could offer amendments that they care about, one that has a spirited debate on a variety of important issues so the american people can have the benefit of a fully transparent and deliberative process over these important issues. in the judiciary committee process alone, over 300 amendments were filed and

mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i want to start by thanking the able senator from arizona for his statement and for his leadership, for his incredible work on this bill. and i -- and i want to start by thanking all my colleagues that have been in this so-called gang of eight, both democrats and republicans. chuck schumer and dick durbin and bob menendez on the democratic side. but today i especially want to thank the republican members of this group, led by john mccai mccain, lindsey graham, and jeff flake, marco rubio. for their extraordinary leadership. for reasons that everybody in this chamber understands, their willingness to be at the table and to stay at the table was an act of leadership unlike any other that i've seen in this chamber in the four years that i've served here. we would never be here today voting to fix our broken immigration system were it not for them. and so on behalf of the people i represent in colorado, thank y you. for me, this all started in colorado because everywhere i went, mr. presi

mr. bennet: i wanted to come to the floor today to talk about the floor that's been before us for the last week and a half or so to fix our broken immigration system. as you know, madam president, this bill has been the product of bipartisan work, both in the so-called gang of eight that i've been privileged to be part of, but also in the judiciary committee, where it ran a process that set a standard, i think, for the way this place ought to operate. we considered over 300 amendments, the judiciary committee did, they accepted 141 amendments, many of them from republicans and democrats alike. and now we're on the floor. and those that want to delay immigration, that want to defeat immigration, are using every tactic they can find to try to stop this bill. but fortunately there are others, people of goodwill on both sides of the aisle that are trying to come to an agreement. we focused a lot in the last week, as we should, talking about the border. i spoke about the progress we've already made in securing our southern border where there is more to do and there's progress that's reflected i

senators as follows -- reid, leahy bennet, schumer, durbin, menendez, feinstein, whitehouse, murray, stabenow casey warner, carper, blumenthal king, coons and murphy. mr. reid: madam president, what are we on now? the presiding officer: we are currently in leader remarks. mr. reid: i would therefore ask -- the presiding officer: no bill is currently pending. mr. reid: i would therefore ask the chair to close the morning business and move to whatever the business of the day is. the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of s. 744 which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 80, s. 744 a bill to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes. the presiding officer: under the previous order the time until 5:30 p.m. will be equally divided between the two managers or their designees. mr. reid: madam president i do have a cloture motion at the desk and i ask that it be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 o

mr. president, i want to take a moment to congratulate the members of the gang of eight -- senators schumer, mccain, durbin, graham, men deny nez, rubio, bennet and frank. this speaks not just to the ability of the senators in the gang but throes their cutting edge. i'd also like to recognize chairman leahy for managing this markup and this debate so expertly. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: just a few minutes -- i spoke at length earlier this weefnlg i want to thank my colleague, senator franken, for his kind words and the work he has done this bill. and also senator leahy and all those involved in this bill. managing this bill this morning -- it is again just awe-inspiring to see all the work that's been done on both sits of the aisle. i expect we're going to have a strong, bipartisan vote for this bill. the vifthe civil debate we've hn this, we finally -- for someone who was involved back in 1986 -- to see everyone come together from business, to migrant workers, to immigrant workers, to religious groups to get this incredibly impor

nelson, cardin, whitehouse, franken, blumenthal, wyden, reed of rhode island, murray, bennet, harkin, schumer, durbin. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i now withdraw the motion to proceed. the presiding officer: the motion is withdrawn. mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks, the senate will resume consideration of the farm bill. the filing deadline for second-degree amendments to the bill is 9:45 today. at 10:00 there will be three roll call votes, first a motion to invoke cloture on the farm bill and then a cloture vote to proceed to the republican student loan bill and then to proceed to the democratic student loan bill. senate lawyeringberg will -- senator lautenberg will lie in repose in the chamber at 2:15 p.m.. mr. president, i want to just briefly say that i really appreciate, as we all do, the work of the sergeant at arms. terry gainer and his whole staff are making this so very, very pleasant yesterday, at least as pleasant as a funeral