mr. bingaman: i thank the chair. mr. up amendment number 2111 and ask that the reading of that amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk will report the amendment by number. the clerk: the senator from new mexico mr. bingaman for himself and others proposes an amendment numbered 2111. mr. bingaman: i'd ask the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: mr. president, this is a bipartisan madam president. senator vitter is sponsoring this with me, also senators shaheen and klobuchar and merkley and sanders and the presiding officer, senator brown. this amendment addresses the very same issue that the senator from maine was talking about, and that is how do we bring down the price of prescription drugs? thousand do we get competition -- how do we get competition into the market for prescription drugs? we have a circumstance today which, an anticompetitive, anticonsumer practice is engaged in, and our amendment wi

mr. bingaman: mr. president, i understand we're in -- we're debating a motion to proceed to s. 2343, the stop the student loan interest rate hike act of 2012, is that correct? the presiding officer: that is correct. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i came to the floor to urge my colleagues to vote to proceed to this important legislation. i was disappointed to see that many of my republican colleagues voted against allowing debate and amendment on this legislation. i have heard senators from both sides of the aisle acknowledge the need to prevent the july 1 rate increase on the stafford loans, the subsidized loans, so it's difficult to understand their unwillingness to even consider the bill and have a thoughtful debate and an opportunity for amendment, which will allow us to keep these interest rates low for college students in all of our states. members may disagree about the best way to pay for keeping rates at 3.4%. but we need to go ahead and proceed to the legislation and pass legislation to accompli

mr. jenkins? >> thank you, chairman bingaman, ranking member murkowski and distinguished members of the committee. i'm jesse jenkins. i direct the energy and climate program at the breakthrough institute, an independent public policy think tank based in oakland, california. it's an honor to appear before you today to discuss the role of government and energy innovation, particularly on my birthday and senator murkowski's. advanced energy policy and markets in the united states are now at a key inflection point. in recent years, u.s. advanced energy sectors have grown rapidly, adding jobs even through the depth of the recession, while reducing costs for many technologies, including solar and wind power, batteries for electric vehicles and advanced biofuels. still, a recent cost declines mark important industry maturation and progress, nearly all advanced energy sectors currently rely on public policy support to gain an expanding foothold in today's well-established energy markets. that policy support is now poised to turn from boom to bust. total annual federal spending supporting advanced energy i

mr. bingaman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: madam president, i thank the majority leader for allowing me to speak. i wanted to speak about an amendment which i intend to offer once we do get on to this food and drug administration safety and innovation act. this is an important amendment, and i want to advise my colleagues and all who are listening about it so they can, hopefully look into it and wind up supporting the bill. this is an amendment that senator vitter as worked with me on, as well as senators franken, shaheen, cole, tom udall, tim johnson, senator klobuchar, senator merkley, senator sanders and senator sherrod brown. the amendment has the strong support of many organizations that are focused on the cost of prescription drugs. here is a list: aarp, afl-cio, wal-mart, families u.s.a., consumer federation of america, u.s. pirg, consumers union, center for medicare advocacy, afsme. national legislative association on prescription drug prices, the alliance for retired americans; various other companies and org

mr. zindler, you want to be first? >> sure. thank you. good morning, chairman bingaman, senators, ladies and gentlemen. of course, happy birthday to my co-panelist, senator murkowski. it's an honor and privilege to be here before the committee again. i join you in my role as analyst with bloomberg new energy finance, a division of bloomberg, focused on the clean energy sector. our group provides accurate and actionable data and insight on investment technology and policy trends in clean energy. my remarks today represent my views alone and not the corporate positions of either bloomberg lp or bloomberg new energy finance. in addition, they do not represent specific investment advice and should not be construed as such. that's what the lawyers told me to tell you. in june 2010, my firm produced a study in partnership with the nonprofit clean energy group entitled "crossing the valley of death, solutions to the next generation of clean energy -- to the next generation clean energy project financing gap." that report examined the various challenges facing energy technology companies looking to scale up wh

consent that tiffany griffin, from senator bingaman's office, be granted floor privileges for the duration of s. 3187. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, there are 12 million people in the united states who face a cancer diagnosis today. many have fought back against this terrible disease and won. others are still fighting. each one knows how difficult a cancer diagnosis can be. but imagine coming to terms with your diagnosis only to find out the life-saving drug you need to survive is in short supply or simply not available. i wish this were make believe but it's not. it's real america. that, madam president, is the situation faced by many americans battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. through 20 weeks of chemotherapy, my wife and i lived with the fear that the medicine she needed every monday morning wouldn't be there because there were shortages. but for for us, the drug was always accessible. many americans haven't been so fortunate. one nevadan fighting bladder cancer was near the end of treatment when the medicine he was taking suddenly ran short. madam president, only time will tell wheth

as follows: reid, leahy, bingaman, coons, levin, wyden, nelson of nebraska, shaheen, blumenthal, boxer, feinstein, whitehouse, merkley, rockefeller and johnson of south dakota. mr. reid: i now move to legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection the senate moves to legislative session. mr. reid: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 647, jerome powell of maryland, to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination federal reserve system, jerome h. powell of maryland to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. mr. reid: i send a cloture motion to the desk with respect to that nomination. mr. reid: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of jerome h. powell of maryland to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. signed by 18 senators as follows -- mr. reid: mr. president, i

mr. augustine and have each of you give five or six minutes of summarizing what you think we should know from your testimony. >> you want to be first? >> thank you. good morning, chairman bingamanenators, ladies and gentlemen, happy birthday to michael panelist senator murkowski it's an honor and a privilege to be here before the committee again. i join you in my role of the energy finance division at bloomberg focused on the clean energy sector. our group provides accurate actionable data in sight on investment technology policy trends and clean energy. my remarks today represent my views alone and not a corporate position be there bloomberg or energy finance the do not represent specific investment advice and shouldn't be construed as such. that's what the lawyers told me to tell you. in june of 2010 my firm produced a study in partnership with the nonprofit clean energy concluded crossing the valley of death solutions to the next generation of clean energy to the next generation clean energy project financing debt. the report examined various challenge facing energy technology companies looking to scale up while driving the cost down. interviews with more than five dozen tec

of nevada, bingaman, lieberman, klobuchar, murray, begich, blumenthal, nelson of nebraska, leahy, conrad, johnson of south dakota, brown of ohio, cardin, whitehouse, kerry, akaka, and harkin. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, this is the -- i have spoken before, madam president, abouts the importance of the f.d.a. bill, something we have to get done. literally, people's lives dpep depend on it. it addresses so many things with the f.d.a. to make it a better position. we have to get this done. as i've said before, if my republican colleagues don't like the bill, offer an amendment, offer an amendment to take that out, put something in, if you don't like it. but i would hope that we don't have to go through voting on cloture on monday night. we should be legislating this coming monday. so i am stunged that once again our motion to proceed when there's been an agreement that we would proceed to this with relevant amendments, which everybody says that that's what they want to do -- it's not germane amendments, which is very narrow;s it relevant amendments. it gi

mr. president. i'm sorry i got ahead of chair a little bit. i ask unanimous consent that the only first-degree amendments in order to the bill be the following: bingaman 2111, mccain 2107, sanders 2108 murkowski, cardin 2141, grassley 21221, 2129, manchin 2151, portman 2146 as modified. portman 2141 as modified. reed of rhode island 2126, coburn 2131, durbin 2137, paul 4143 and burr 2130, that there be no second-degree amendments in order prior to the votes or relation there to. that there be no points of order, motions or points of order to the amendments of the bill other than the budget points of order and applicable motions to waive or motions to table. that there be up to 30 minutes of debate on each of the amendments with the exception of the mccain amendment which will have two hours of debate, 60 minutes on the bill, with all time equally divided in the usual form. and at 2:00 p.m. on thursday, may 24 all debate paoeupl be considered is -- time be considered expired and the senate proceed to votes, that there be two minutes of debate equally divided in the you're form prior to each vote -- in the usual form prior to each vote, that all after t

presiding officer: there is now time equally divided on the bingaman vote for the -- on the bingaman amendment. mr. harkin: madam president, first i ask for the yeas and nays on the bingaman amendment. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. bingaman: madam president, first let me thank my colleague, senator vitter, for his comments and his strong support for this amendment and thank all the other cosponsors of the legislation. if you're interested in -- in promoting competition in the health care field so that we can keep prices down, then you need to support this amendment. that's exactly what this does. under -- under our law in this country, we provide exclusive rights to a company that develops a drug to sell that drug during the time that that patent is in effect. but what we're concerned with here is that after that patent is no longer valid, companies are still extending their exclusivity, extending their time when they don't have any competition by entering into these agreements. so we think that they can settle their --