mr. cardin: i yield back to my colleague. mr. mccain: first, again, thank you, i say to my colleague from maryland, for a very eloquent and, i think, very strong statement which i can add very little to. but isn't it true, i would ask my friend, that this magnitsky case and khodorkovsky, which i'd like for us to talk a little bit more about, is not an isolated incident? in other words, this is the face of the problem in russia today. as you mentioned, in its annual index of perceptions of corruption, transparency international ranked russia 154th out of 178 countries. perceived as more corrupt than pakistan, yemen and zimbabwe. the world bank considers 122 countries to be better places to do business than russia. one of these countries is georgia, which the world bank ranks as the 12th best country to do business. in other words, what happened in the -- isn't it true that in the magnitsky case, it's what's been taking place all across russia, including this incredible story of khodorkovsky, who was one of the wealthiest men in ru

mr. cardin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. tkreupb i rise in support -- mr. cardin: i rise in support of goodwin liu and urge my colleagues to invoke cloture on this nomination. i am disappointed we had to file a cloture petition. i would hope my colleagues would want to vote up or down on this nomination and i hope they would vote for his confirmation. as we begin the debate on the nomination of mr. liu, let me start by telling my colleagues how thoroughly his nomination has been vetted by the judiciary committee under the leadership of chairman leahy. president obama first nominated goodwin liu for this position in february of last year. that's over one year ago. the judiciary committee has held two separate hearings on this nomination. mr. liu's latest set of questions and answers for the record spanned over 130 pages. the judiciary committee has favorably reported his nomination on three separate occasions: in may of 2010, september of 2010, and april of 2011. so i'm disappointed that my republican colleagues have refused

mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that morning business be extended until 7:00 p.m. for debate only with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i come to the floor to talk about a conversation i had in baltimore this afternoon dealing with the high price of

mr. cardin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. tkreupb i rise in support -- mr. cardin: i rise in support of goodwin liu and urge my colleagues to invoke cloture on this nomination. i am disappointed we had to file a cloture petition. i would hope my colleagues would want to vote up or down on this nomination and i hope they would vote for his confirmation. as we begin the debate on the nomination of mr. liu, let me start by telling my colleagues how thoroughly his nomination has been vetted by the judiciary committee under the leadership of chairman leahy. president obama first nominated goodwin liu for this position in february of last year. that's over one year ago. the judiciary committee has held two separate hearings on this nomination. mr. liu's latest set of questions and answers for the record spanned over 130 pages. the judiciary committee has favorably reported his nomination on three separate occasions: in may of 2010, september of 2010, and april of 2011. so i'm disappointed that my republican colleagues have refused

mr. cardin: mr. president, late on sunday evening, the world was told of news we had been waiting for for almost ten years. osama bin laden was a murderer who devoted his life to the destruction of freedom, democracy and our way of life. his death is an important milestone in the fight against global extremist violence and a relief to the millions of americans and others around the world who have felt his murderous destruction. i first and foremost want to thank the military and the intelligence professionals who carried out this daring mission which was executed flawlessly and will go down in our history books as a mission as to how we should do our work. i want to take a moment to complement all of our military and intelligence people who were involved in this -- in this effort. i take great pride in representing the state of maryland and our intelligence agencies that are located at fort meade. they do incredible work for our national security and for our nation, and they do a lot of things that k

mr. cardin: it was a tough decision to bring together six members of the house, three democrats, three republicans, and to do it in a way that would maintain the nonpartisan requirements of an ethics investigation. the atmosphere was very partisanly charged around the work that we were doing. i know this sounds familiar because people in maryland and connecticut and around the nation understand that we're working in a very partisan environment here and they expect the people that are charged with the department of justice to work in a nonpartisan manner. this is not a partisan position, the deputy attorney general. this is a person who is working with the attorney general as the nation's lawyer. and we want somebody who has the experience, someone who has th the -- the character and commitment to carry out this very important position. as i said, i've known jim cole. he has 13 years experience within the department of justice as a public interest attorney. that's been the largest part of his professional career has been the service of public interest. and he's always followed policy, not politics.

mr. cardin: mr. president, late on sunday evening, the world was told of news we had been waiting for for almost ten years. osama bin laden was a murderer who devoted his life to the destruction of freedom, democracy and our way of life. his death is an important milestone in the fight against global extremist violence and a relief to the millions of americans and others around the world who have felt his murderous destruction. i first and foremost want to thank the military and the intelligence professionals who carried out this daring msion which was executed flawlessly and will go down in our history books as a mission as to how we shld do our work. i want to take a moment to complement all of our military and intelligence people who we involved in this -- in this effort. i take great pride in representing the state of maryland and our intelligence agencies that are located at fort meade. they do incredible work for our national security and for our nation, and they do a lot of things that keep us

mr. cardin: it was a tough decision to bring together six members of the house, three democrats, three republicans, and to do it in a way that would maintain the nonpartisan requirements of an ethics investigation. the atmosphere was very partisanly charged around the work that we were doing. i know this sounds familiar because people in maryland and connecticut and around the nation understand that we're working in a very partisan environment here and they expect the people that are charged with the department of justice to work in a nonpartisan manner. this is not a partisan position, the deputy attorney general. this is a person who is working with the attorney general as the nation's lawyer. and we want somebody who has the experience, someone who has th the -- the character and commitment to carry out this very important position. as i said, i've known jim cole. he has 13 years experience within the department of justice as a public interest attorney. that's been the largest part of his professional career has been the service of public interest. and he's always followed policy, not politics.

mr. chairman? >> as i recognize senator cardin, i'm leslie. >> thank you, general, we appreciate your leadership in trying to calm things down. general jones, thank you for your service. i appreciated very much cricket after -- i appreciate it very much. after the then laden mission, how could pakistanis be so complicitous? then we heard a response come out of pakistan which was encouraging within the first 24 hours, but then there was a an about face in pakistan, very anti-american rhetoric. i think our initial concern was whether pakistan shared our commitment to fight extremists, and that was our main concern. so i think we are now going through an evaluation, whether pakistan is our ally and friend, and if so, why they are feeling so much anti-american rhetoric and causing some concern about our working to root out extremists in pakistan in that region. if they are not our ally and friend, should we not be looking for alternative ways to deal with extremist in the region, and is worth the type of political and financial investment that america is currently making in pakistan? that is the dilemm

cardin be added as a cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to s. res. 203, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 2 203, recognizing national foster care month and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. klobuchar: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the matter be placed in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to s. res. 204, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 2 204, designating june 7, 2011, as national hunger awareness day. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. klobuchar:

that social contract says that a cardinal role of government is to provide a ladder of opportunity so that every american can realistically aspire to the american dream. mr. president, in one fell swoop, this tea party republican budget rips up that social contract. it replaces it with a winner-take-all philosophy that, again, tells struggling aspiring people in communities across america, i've got mine,es you're on your own. mr. president, as i said at the outset, the republican budget is president obamaed on the idea that america's -- is premised on the idea that our best days are behind us, that we have no choice but to slash investment required to keep our middle-class strong. i totally disagree. america remains a tremendously wealthy and resourceful nation. we are an optimistic, forward-looking people, who are purposeful and can-do. and we expect our government to be on our side, the side of the middle class. we expect it to be an instrument of national greatness and purpose, allowing us to come together to achieve the big things that we cannot achieve as individuals, things like building an interstate highway system, mapping the human genome, and o

hereby appoint the honorablebenjamin cardin, a senator from the state of maryland, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mrl: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, normally in opening, the majority leader goes first, but he and i have never viewed this as a contentious process. so since he is not here yet, i will go ahead with my statement. the presiding officer: the republican leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: when it comes to the state of our economy, the american people have seen enough choreographed rallies on factory floors and speeches that sound good but lead to nothing. after two years of chronic joblessness, they want results. and that's why we've seen a growing consensus in washington over the past few weeks that something serious must be done about our nation's debt. even democrats now admit that failing to bring down the debt would be far more damaging to our nation's economy in the long run than failing to raise the debt ceiling. the situation has been described as the most predictable crisis in american history. people on both sides of t

mr. cardin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: madam president, this month people will all over the country grab their tackle boxes and head off in pursuit of the elusive trout in mountain streams. mothers and fathers will turn on their kitchen faucets and hand their children glasses of pure, clean drinking water that we have in this country. farmers will irrigate their spring plantings of vegetables and grains with clear water from nearby streams. all over the united states, americans will take advantage of the simple, priceless natural resource of america's water, and thanks to the actions taken by the obama administration last week, we can rest assured that these vital resources are being protected by the full strength of the clean ai clean water act. last week the obama administration release add guidance document on the jurisdictional waters of the united states. the document was a sensible response to the confusion left in the wake of recent supreme court rulings. the dra