mr. blumenthal: i ask also, mr. president, i have eight unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. blumenthal: on my way here, mr. president, i had the great pleasure of running into the redway family just a few minutes ago visiting from the state of connecticut. jack redway is a former public servant in the state and he's here with his family, his wife sue and other members of the family. and when i told him i was on my way here to talk on the floor of the united states senate, they asked me what was subject was. when i told them that the senate is debating the debt and the deficit and the budget, one of them said, same old, same old. we are here on the same

mr. blumenthal: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i withdraw my request for a quorum and i yield to the senator from california. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, central intelligence agency, david h. petraeus of new hampshire to be director of the central intelligence agency. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be two hours for debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form. the senior senator from california is recognized. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much, mr. president. i come to the floor as the chairman of the collect committee on intelligence to speak about the nomination of general david petraeus to become the director of the c.i.a. i want to thank the majority leader for bringing this nomination to the floor in such a quick fashion because the committee earlier this week, tuesday, unanimously approved the

mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i'm honored to follow that very articulate colloquy between my colleagues from arizona and south carolina, and certainly draw inspiration from the consequences abroad that they have outlined in that colloquy, the consequences internationally and at home in this very, very important week. i rise to call attention to developments in an area that are among those consequences. the price of gasoline, the supply of fuel internationally and at home. i rise to commend the president of the united states for release ing today some 30 million barrels of oil over the next 30 days, which already have brought down the price of oil by about $5 per barrel on the new york mercantile exchange. this consequence certainly cannot be the end of the campaign that we must continue to weigh, and i commend the president for heeding the calls from myself and my colleagues to address the pain felt across connecticut and the country as prices remain too high at close to $4 a gallon. the drop that we ha

blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questions, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and i appreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tough assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta would probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engine for the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> an

blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questions, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and ippreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tough assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta wld probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engineor the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> and that

blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questions, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and i appreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tough assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta would probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engine for the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> an

blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questis, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and i appreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tgh assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta would probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engine for the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> and th

blumenthal. >> thank you: mr. chairman. i want to join in expressing my thanks for not aeration for your great service to the country, the extraordinary sacrifice and services that the men and women who serve under you and your family and look forward to your confirmation encoding. i want to pursue the line of questioning that senator hagan began on the assumption that the packet danny's are not cooperative because they have not proven cooperatives in the past. what additional measures can we take to destroy the source says of ammonium nitrate that has proved so absolutely and horrifically distract kids to the men and women is there our armed forces in afghanistan? general alan, i'd like respectfully to ask you to begin a month at merrill mcraven, if you can follow through with what you expect to happen. >> senator, that an important question. the posturing of our intelligence gathering apparatus, capabilities, isr capabilities, posturing potentially a special operators on the western side of the border to detect infiltrati

blumenthal. >> thank you: mr. chairman. i want to join in expressing my thanks for not aeration for your great service to the country, the extraordinary sacrifice and services that the men and women who serve under you and your family and look forward to your confirmation encoding. i want to pursue the line of questioning that senator hagan began on the assumption that the packet danny's are not cooperative because they have not proven cooperatives in the past. what additional measures can we take to destroy the source says of ammonium nitrate that has proved so absolutely and horrifically distract kids to the men and women is there our armed forces in afghanistan? general alan, i'd like respectfully to ask you to begin a month at merrill mcraven, if you can follow through with what you expect to happen. >> senator, that an important question. the posturing of our intelligence gathering apparatus, capabilities, isr capabilities, posturing potentially a special operators on the western side of the border to detect infiltrati

appoint the honorable richard blumenthal, a senator from the state of connecticut, to perform the duties of the chair. signinged daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: following morning business, the senate will be in morning business. senator sanders will be recognize the in morning business for up to 90 minutes at 4:00 p.m. there will be no roll call votes today. the first vote will they ca tom. we hope to confirm petraeus tray to be director of the c.i.a. this week. mr. president, we have an idea of what we need to get done this week but it is up to members as to when we get it done. it is not magic that we don't finish thursday night. we should be able to finish thursday. if we don't, we're going to have to have this bill over until friday. if not, we'll finish the presidential appointment efficiency act. we need to do that. we have a number of nominee neighs we have to -- we have a number of nominations we have to vote on. we have to do petraeus tray. we'll need the cooperation of senators to get it done. mr. president, last thursday democrats sat down with the chief executives of successful corporations. the companies that are responsib