mr. cochran: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. cochran: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and to -- first of all suggest that the quorum be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cochran: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up my amendment number 932. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from mississippi, mr. cochran for himself and ms. mikulski proposes an amendment numbered 932. at the appropriate place -- mr. cochran: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. cochran: mr. president, i urge the senate to support this amendment. the amendment i'm offering along with the senator from maryland, the vice chair of the appropriations committee senator mikulski, this amendment proposes the creation of a biennial budget resolution process. having a two-year budget could enable the annual appropriations process to run more smoothly and it might also benefit

mr. cochran: mr. president my intention is to speak for two or three short minutes. i encourage the senate to vote to send the homeland security appropriations bill to conference with the house. that should be the order of business. we've been wrangling over this bill for three months now. the legislative maneuvering has crowded out all of the real issues before the senate on this legislation. we should have debated and voted on the president's actions the executive orders which provoked this entire situation. on multiple occasions members on the other side of the aisle have voted unanimously to avoid having that debate. first, four times they voted over the course of three weeks to refuse to even consider house-passed funding bill legislation. their bill was passed by the other body in plenty of time to avoid the shutdown that currently consumes the senate. so mr. president this won't be the last time during this congress that the house and senate disagree on an appropriations bills but it should not