mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: reserving the right to object. i want to commend my colleague from indiana for noting the important role that the federal government plays when it comes to natural disasters. there's not a senator on this floor who hasn't seen this federal response in his own home state because of a natural disasterser. and the senator from indiana is proposing that we respond to these natural disassers with the government agencies -- disasters with the government agencies that have been authorized and appropriated -- usually appropriated -- the funds to do so. he has picked one of them -- fema -- and he's picked it because of the possibility of a hurricane. that's a legitimate observation. unfortunately, the senator from indiana is not telling the whole story. fema plays an important role. wouldn't you like to have the weather service fully funded so we could see the hurricane coming in advance? sadly, it is a casualty of th

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the saysent majority leader. mr. durbin: mr. president, i'm glad to have that exchange with my colleague, because you see he comes to the floor repeatedly and says things which aren't altogether accurate. that why i wanted to speak to him today and he yielded for a question and i thank him. i'm sorry he's left because i'd like to further engage in dialogue. there's a reason why he left. there are questions he can't answer. and if he tries to answer them, his whole case explodes in front of him. we created these insurance exchange for 40 million or 50 million americans who have no health insurance or had rotten health insurance. they were paying a fortune for bad health insurance policies. when he says -- he says 8 million people were forced in the exchanges, here's what he's really saying. 8 million people had health insurance policies that were so bad that those policies, frankly, had to be rewritten. here's what we said is the law now under the obamacare. you offer a health insurance policy to my family or the senator from con

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: madam president, there were two headlines in most of the major newspapers across the united states this morning. i saw it in "the financial times" as well as "wall street journal." the headlines noted americans flock to insurance exchanges. "americans flock to insurance exchanges." it was the first day when we had the rollout of the web site where uninsured americans has an opportunity to shop. real competition. a variety of plans. in illinois, 54 different choices in my home state for uninsured people. this is a dream come true. most of these people have lived their entire lives either without health insurance or with no choices. a "take it or leave it policy" that may be worthless when they need it. a situation where many of them were never once in their lives able to be insured when it comes to health insurance. there are a lot of reasons for it. some of them had jobs that paid so little it offered no benefits and they couldn't afford to buy health insurance. some of them ha

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: let me thank the majority leader for the statement that he's just made. it's hard to believe we're a little over three hours away from shutting down the government of the united states of america. shutting down the government of the united states of america. when you hear about this happening in foreign countries, you think, you know, it's a shame they just aren't as stable and strong as our great democracy. and yet, here we are facing that possibility just a few hours from now, and it's through our own fault. it's the failure of leadership. i'll tell you what we have done in the senate. i think it's the right thing. we passed a clean c.r., a clean budget bill. no political strings attached, none. we could have attached the immigration bill, the farm bill. a lot of possibilities there. none. a clean budget bill for america's government for the next six weeks. and we sent it over to the house and said just vote for this and we don't have to shut down the government, and they hav

mr. durbin: would the senator yield for a question? mr. reid: i would be happy to. mr. durbin: i would like to ask the senator, the majority leader, through the chair, one of the key elements in this new proposal from speaker boehner is to diminish this president's authority to deal with a default on our national debt. this authority, so-called extraordinary measures or emergency measures, gives to presidents going back to president kennedy the wherewithal through the treasury department to try to avoid an economic disaster which would impact families, businesses, jobs and the reputation of the united states in the world, i ask through the chair of the majority leader, now that we have seen the republican party bring us so close to the precipice on a default, it is unimaginable to me that any president, including president obama, would surrender this authority to keep america safe in light of this type of threat. is this one of the key elements in terms of the problems associated with the boehner proposal? mr. reid: mr. president, to my friend from illinois, the senior s

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader is recognized. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: mr. president, there's been a lot of debate on the floor of the senate about obamacare. it's the affordable care act. it passed about three and a half years. why did we do this? why did we enact this law? it wasn't easy and it took months to achieve it. the goal was quite simple. we wanted to make sure that about 40 million to 50 million uninsured americans would have a chance to have health insurance, and i can tell you that's a worthy goal. because even uninsured people get sick. and if you don't have health insurance and you get sick and show up at the hospital, they will take care of you. but then when you can't pay the bill, they transfer that obligation to everyone else. it's estimated we spend about $1,000 a year in health insurance premiums to cover the care of uninsured people. so not only do these people without insurance live without the peace

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: let me first thank the senior senator from vermont and the president pro tempore of the united states senate. i just want to say that, as chairman of the senate judiciary committee, it's been my great honor for 15 or 16 years to work with the senator from vermont. he's an extraordinary person, an extraordinary leader, and on one of the most important committees in the united states congress. i see senator barrasso is on the floor here. i have about a ten-minute statement, but if his schedule allows ... i'll proceed. thank you. mr. president, in just a short time, a little over an hour, the senate will come to consider two judicial nominees. i'll speak to one of these nominees from the state of illinois. the other i'm sure will be addressed by other members of the senate. but i rise today to speak in support of the nomination of andrea wood to serve on the u.s. district court for the northern district of illinois. ms. wood has the qualifications, integrity, and judgment to be an

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent an official letter of resignation as mayor of newark, new jersey, from senator-elect cory booker of new jersey be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i listened carefully to the statement just made by the republican leader. it's a shame what's about to occur on the senate floor if he has his way. the president has submitted the name of a nominee to serve on the drkt court -- d.c. circuit court. this is not just another court. some view it as the second most important court in the land. some of the most technical and challenging legal cases come before this court. the judges who serve there are called on not to just do routine things but to do extraordinary things on a regular basis. that's why the appointments to this court are so critically needy when it comes to maintaining the integrity of our federal judiciary. what i heard from the senate republican leader was a statem

mr. durbin: would the senator yield for a question? mr.cornyn cornyn: i would be go yield for the floor. or yield for a question. mr. durbin: i say through the chair, what i think we did here was the right thing to do. and i'm sorry, i'm dreadfully sorry, that -- pained, painfully sorry, that this government shutdown is hurting so many innocent people. it could come to an end with one decision by the speaker to call one bill on the floor of the house. he refuses to do it. and so we are trying to put out these little fires, spare the american people of the pain and injustice that's coming about as a result of this shutdown. but i -- i'd say to the senator from texas, even the veterans administration bill passed by the house fails to fund some critical areas for veterans. it does not fund the appeals process for veterans' disability claims. those have stopped. secondly, it doesn't fund the cemetery rights of veterans who are seeking to be buried in national cemeteries. so while we pay for funerals, the people who prepare the gravesites and

mr. durbin: mr. president, i yield the floor. mrs. shaheen: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: i rise to join my colleague from illinois, senator durbin, to support patricia millett in her appointment to the d.c. court of appeals. as he said so eloquently, ms. millett has brought bipartisan support, extensive litigation experience and she would make an outstanding addition to the d.c. circuit court of appeals. after graduating with honors from the university much illinois and -- university of illinois and harvard law schools, miss millett clerked at the united states court of appeals. she then spent 15 years at the department of justice, including 11 years as assistant to the solicitor general in both the republican and democratic administrations. again, i think it's important to point out she has support on both sides of the aisle. miss millett has argued 32 cases before the supreme court as well as dozens of others at the circuit court level, and she currently manages her law firm's supreme court and nationa

mr. durbin: mr. president, reserving the right to object, i'm going it offer to the senator from south dakota an even better deal, not only will we help the reservists, not only will we open the veterans administration, but out of the 800,000 furloughed employees, over half a million of them are veterans, and a fourth of those veteran federal employees are disabled. now i'm going to give the gentleman from south dakota an opportunity to put them all back to work immediately, every one of them, including paying the reservists and everything he suggested. i ask consent that the request of the gentleman -- the senator from south dakota be modified as follows: that an amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, that the bill as amend then be read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. this amendment is the text that passed the senate. it is a clean continuing resolution for the entire government and will put over a half a millio

mr. durbin: will the senator yield for a question? mr. cruz: i would be happy to yield for a question. mr. durbin: would the senator be willing to take care of the 565,000 veterans who are federal employees, many of whom have now been furloughed? mr. cruz: i thank my friend from illinois for that question, and indeed i enthusiastically support the proposal that the house unanimously passed to give back pay to federal workers, and indeed i would ask a question of the minority -- assistant minority leader whether the senate will even vote on that proposal, because there are eight bills funding the federal government that are sitting on the majority leader's desk, and we have not been allowed to vote on any of them. mr. durbin: if the senator from texas is asking me a question, i would respond through the chair that we have given the senator from texas ample opportunity to completely fund the government, including all of the veterans who work for the federal government and all of the functions of the federal government so we don't run into the embarrassment of these poor families in their

mr. reid: okay, so following senator mcconnell, i'll call upon senator durbin. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: madam president, i appreciate the comments of my good friend be, the majority leader. i might say, however, that as much as i appreciate his comments to all of us, the real challenge is his relationship with the house and whether or not we can begin the discussion process to get to an outcome. nobody is happy with the government shutdown, certainly not anybody on this side and not anybody on the other side. but i would remind everybody on both sides of the aisle that democratic senators have said repeatedly, become i obamacare s the law of the land. and basically we should get used to it. we have suggested various modifications, some of which enjoy bipartisan support, but obviously so far that's not something our friends on the other side are willing to do. but let me also point out to all of you that the budget control act is also the law of the land. it was negotiated on a bipartisan basis, sign

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: madam president, i want to thank the senator from washington for the 21st time coming to the floor of the united states senate and asking the republicans to join us in a conference committee to resolve our budget differences between the house and the senate. 21 times senator murray has come to this floor simply asking to negotiate, and the republicans, who have been arguing that we don't negotiate, turned her down 21 times. the latest by the senior senator from texas. the junior senator from texas shut down the government over the notion of defunding obamacare. now the senior senator from texas has said he objects to going to a conference committee to resolve our differences, republicans and democrats, between the house and senate. if we are going to restore this senate to the orderly process, what the senator from washington has asked for is very basic: open the government. this morning the chaplain of the senate started by acknowledging the five families who were notified aft

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: mr.president, i received an email this morning from an old friend. he's the father of a disabled veteran. this veteran is a quadriplegic, a victim of a roadside bomb in iraq. he's gone through multiple surgeries. at some point, most people would have given up on him. in fact, they even talked about his -- at the age of 24, being sent to a nursing home for the rest of his life. his father said no, we're not going to let that happen to our son. he brought him to chicago where he received extraordinary treatment at the rehab institute, and he started his slow, steady climb back in life. he's home now. he's a father, married, two small children. mom and dad live with him to help out. people in the community that he lives in, it's not in illinois, it's in north carolina, but the people in that community have just been so generous, building the perfect home for him and his wheelchair and giving him as many opportunities as he could possibly enjoy in his life. it's a great story of a great famil

mr. durbin: mr. president, let me start off by acknowledging an article which appeared in today's "new york times," a tribute to the senate chaplain, dr. barry black, who led us in prayer to open this senate session. it's entitled "give us this day our daily senate scolding," and it goes on to talk about the prayers which dr. black, our senate chaplain, has offered during the course of the last week in the government shutdown. as they say in the article, the morning invocation has turned into a daily conscience check for the 100 men and women of the united states senate. he said at one point in the course of one of his prayers, dr. black said "remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism. forgive them the blunders they have committed." i can't match his baritone voice and delivery when it comes to these prayers, but i ask unanimous consent to enter this article into the "congressional record" as a tribute to our senate chaplain who is being given awesome

mr. durbin: mr. president, i rise to speak in support of two individuals who will come up for a vote at 5:00. , no we haven't set any records here in the senate in the last five weeks for productivity. we passed one major piece of legislation which the senator from oregon brought before us relative to the issue of our helium preserve. great work. one of the few bipartisan things we've accomplished in five weeks. maybe the only bipartisan thing. well, here's a chance to improve our record at 5:00. there are two nominees for federal district court judge in illinois that i commend to the members of united states senate and let me say at the outset, it isn't just this side of the aisle and this senator making the recommendation. senator mark kirk and i worked together on a bipartisan basis to come up with these nominees and to get them approved by our nomination committees, then approved by us, by the white house, by the judiciary committee, brought to the floor. since senator kirk's been elected, we hav

mr. durbin: i would say to the senator from nevada that we have 50,000 federal employees in illinois and we expect the majority of them to be sent home tomorrow. they're working in places like the rock island ars knell. these -- arsenal. these are men and women who make the armaments america needs to be safe. the same thing will happen at the great lakes naval training station. that's the relet. i was briefed this afternoon because of my responsibilities on the appropriations committee about the impact of the government shutdown on the intelligence agencies of the united states. i'm not at liberty to give a number, but it is an amazingly large percentage of those working in intelligence agencies tomorrow who will be told to go home. these men and women are watching out for our safety and security. to guard against terrorism every single day. because the government shuts down, they believe be -- they will be sent home. not all of them, the military personnel involved will continue but the nonmilitary personnel, many of them, thousands of them, will be sent home from work tomorrow. for wha

mr. durbin: madam president -- madam president, i want to thank the majority leader for his statement, and we're hoping that there'll be a positive development -- there'll be positive developments today and very quickly relative to the impasse which we have reached much it is tame to reopen this government. it's time to make certain that we pay our bills and then let us engage in honest debate on the issues that are before us -- and there are many. the forum toker tha toker that s the -- the forum for that debate is the conference committee. papatty murray passed a budget n the floor of the senate six months ago. senator murray and others on our side have tried on 21 separate occasions to ask for unanimous consent to go to this budget conference committee to start debating the issues we which we now see in the press every day. 21 separate times, a the republicans have a objected to even meeting. that's unfortunate and is one of the reasons we're here today. it is hard to believe if you're in the midst of this maelstrom that not even two weeks have passed since we started this debate on the

mr. durbin: madam president, each morning the senate opens with the customary prayer by our chaplain and the pledge of allegiance. this is an opportunity for members of the senate to reflect on two important things. first, our mission on earth not just as elected officials but as human beings, and second, our devotion and loyalty to this great country. i've listened to most of the prayers that have been offered over the last nine days of the government shutdown by dr. barry black, a retired admiral from the united states navy and came again before us this morning to offer a prayer. this prayer had a very important message to it. it was short and direct. he talked about this government shutdown, he reflected on the fact that we literally have families, families, who in the last few days had that awful knock on the door when they were told that their son had died in service to this country in the united states military. five of them over the weekend, i understand 17 during the course of this government shutdown. and sadly, the support which we always give to these families is not there. it

mr. durbin: mr.president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: mr. president, the junior senator from texas launched this government shutdown with a 21-hour presentation here on the floor of the united states senate, and it is clear from the actions of the house and his actions today that he is starting to try to reconcile in his mind all the damage which this government shutdown, which he inspired, is causing across the united states. this particular unanimous consent request relates to the national guard reservists, a group which we hold in high esteem, but if the gentleman from texas is really focused on veterans and those who have served our country, take into consideration the 560,000 federal employees who are currently facing furlough or on furlough who are veterans, a fourth of whom are disabled veterans. so what the junior senator from texas is doing is picking and choosing those he will allow in the lifeboat. at this moment, it's na

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: thank you, madam president. madam president, at 12:00 noon we'll vote on s. 1659. it is barely one page but it is of more significance than anyone can imagine because it basically is an opportunity for us to start the debate. not to end the debate. to start the debate on whether or not the united states of america will default on its debt for the first time in the history of this nation. other nations have defaulted. argentina, venezuela, cameroon. we have never defaulted. as a result of that, the united states dollar is the soundest currency in the world. think about it for a second. where else would you turn? the united states dollar is the soundest currency, and buying the debt of the united states is considered to be the single-safest investment any person, business or country can make. you know, we didn't just inherit this. we earned this. because every year the united states has been a nation, we have paid our bills. now that is being brought into question. and today at n

mr. durbin: mr. president, the i ask unanimous consent request made by the senator from the state of washington is emmentally sensible. it says why hold 800,000 federal employees hostage while we go about the negotiation of our future budget. the majority leader has made this offer. he has said that we are going to go forward, offered to speaker boehner the opportunity, the opportunity for us to open the government and then get into meaningful negotiations on all of the major issues. so what did we hear from tofl pennsylvania, senator toomey? his objection. he wants to continue to keep the government shut down while we are supposed to initiate negotiations. who pays the price for that? well, it wouldn't be any senator. the people who pay a price for it are those 800,000 furloughed employees and all of the people in america who count on their services every single day. i've said it before, it bears repeating. 200 people were turned away from the national institutes of health this week who wanted to en

mr. durbin: i want to thank the president pro tempore as well as the majority leader for their comments thisorning. i'm wearing a button as many of my colleagues are that says thank you to the capitol police. the one i'm wearing is not the one that's been issued today but the one i asked to be commissioned back on 9/11 because i thought about the extraordinary courage these men and women showed on that day when an imminent attack on this building was well known, and yet they did everything in their power to protect all of us who work here and those who were visiting. a special thank you to them. yesterday was a tragic day. a young woman, it is still unclear what motivated her, got involved in an incident at the white house, backing into a police vehicle and then trying to escape, followed by a secret service officer. she drove up toward the capitol building and, sadly, her life was taken. but it's understandable. we live in an era where this campus, this u.s. capitol grounds, is carefully guarded for obvious reasons. it is a clear, visible target to those who hate the united states. and some

mr. ning quote from the senator dick durbin, quote, i cannot stand to look at you, he claims a republicanaid that directly to the president in the president's face during negotiations over the government's shutdown. now it seems senator durbin may have misspoken. looking into this, it's a very weird story. what's going on. >> well, dick durbin claims that it did happen but he was not in the meeting where it happened. it was related to him, apparently by some democratic senator but was came from a white house official. so this game of he said/she said. now the republican leader in the house, speaker john boehner, is defending whoever this republican lawmaker is, and i want to read you a comment from boehner's spokesman brendan buck. he basically is saying it appears to have been invented out of thin air, the senator should disclose who told him this account of events, retract his reckless allegation immediately and apologize. >> what is the white house saying about all of this. >> jay carney just was giving his briefing and said it was a miscommunication. we'll look at a comment from him r

mr. lott, please proceed. >> thank you very much, chairman durbin and ranking member cruz, and other distinguished members. stand your ground law's -- i apologize. thank you very much for being here. stand your ground laws help people be able to defend themselves. it's the people who are most likely to be victims of violent crime primarily poor black to benefit the most from having the option to be up to protect themselves. but lost an part of this discussion so far is the reason why states have adopted these laws. requiring people to retreat as far as possible, creates confusion, creates doubt in can make a more difficult for people to be able to go and defend themselves. in florida, blacks made about 16% of the population but they account for 31% of the states defend its invoking stand your ground law. black defendant invoke the statute justify their action are actually acquitted almost eight percentage points more often than whites. the campaign to pay tribute is put together very detailed data on stand your ground cases, up through july 24 of this year, beginning 2006, the newspaper collected

mr. lott please proceed. >> thank you very much chairman durbin and ranking member cruise another distinguished members. "stand your ground" law's -- i apologize. thank you very much for being here. the "stand your ground" law's help people feel to defend themselves. the people who are most likely to be victims of violent crime are merely poor blacks who benefit the most mapping the option to build to protect themselves. what is an awesome part of this discussion so far is the reason why states have adopted these laws requiring people to retreat as far as possible creates confusion creates doubting can make it more difficult for people to defend themselves. in florida blocks make up 16% of the population but they account for 31% of the states invoking "stand your ground" law. black defendants justify their actions to justify their actions are acquitted almost a percentage point more often than whites. the tampa bay tribune has put together detailed data on standard ground cases. after july 24 of this year from the beginning of 2006 the newspaper collected 112 cases. the information they had that constit

i want to thank senator durbin for his leadership and his service to illinois and for the opportunity. last mr. chairman i would ask stand your ground editorial in the dash be added to the record. without objection it will be an emptier testimony. thank you congressman gutierrez. our next is louise gohmert. he is in his fifth term in the house and a member of the house judiciary committee where he serves as vice chair on the subcommittee on crime terrorism and homeland security duties also member of the committee on natural resources. congressman gohmert please proceed. >> thank you chairman durbin ranking member cruz. i am before you have someone who has a heavy heart for every victim of crime especially violent crime. i come before you today as someone who has been involved in success for prosecuting murder. i have defended a man who happen to be african-american a murder in which he was acquitted using self-defense having killed a man. i've successfully appealed appropriately and have gotten a capital murder conviction reversed in which the defendant happened to be african-american. i presi

of nevada, baucus, murray, schumer, durbin, mikulski, whitehouse, udall of colorado, nelson, boxer, tester, schatz, cardin, gillibrand, cantwell, kaine and warren. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to pay period of morning business, senators allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to calendar number 199. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 199, s. 1276, a bill to increase oversight of the revolving fund of the office of personnel management and so forth the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent -- the presiding officer: without objection. viemed a.m. sorry to interrupt. the i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be agreed to, the carper title amendment at the desk be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action o

mr. lath. sheafed the ph.d. in economic from ucla. please proceed. >> thank you very much, chairman durbin and ranking member cruz and other members.e] i apologize. thank you very much for being here. "stand your ground" laws help people be able to defend themselves. t the poem who most likely to be victim of violent crime primarily poor black who benefit the most from having the option to protect themselves. part of the discussion so far is the reason why states have adopted these laws. requiring people retreat as far as possible creating confusion and doubt. in florida blacks made about 16% of the population. they account 31% of the states invoking "stand your ground" law. they justify their aca to justify their action are actually acquitted almost 8 percentage point more often than whites. up through july 24th of this year from the beginning of 2006, the newspaper and collected 112 cases. information they had that substitutes their shocking find ings -- compared to 59% of those who killed a white person 80% of those his hispanics were not convicted. one needs to remember the vast majority of these crimes are within race. so for

mr. president? >> senator from georgia. >> i want to thank him for bringing up chaplain barry black's name in the article that appeared in "the new york times." i know, that senator durbin and i do a lot of things together. one is every wednesday morning, or just about every wednesday morning we attend the senate prayer breakfast. and through barry's prayers is always one word. it's humility. i think the message in the article in the "new york times" and the message in the prayers in the senate and the message to us we need grasp a little humanity and find common ground and move the country forward. i want to make suggestion for what it's worth and make mine with an inspiration and senator colins last week made her proposal if we can't find common groundlet put proper new proposal that give us a chance to solve or problem. she made a great -- and get back to sequestration. only by cutting by the defense agencies not by cutting across the board. that made a lot of sents. it may a way to orb issue the cut. i come to the floor today at the robert frost moment. the poem -- that made all the difference. we have been traveling down the wrong road for too long. we're here issu

durbin again. >> ted cruz. >> yes. >> ted cruz. though it is a little misleading because we wanted to put a recognizable photo up there. this is more about mrsle as her husband, but heidi nelson cruz, the wife of ted cruz, gave an interview to the new york times this week, it was interesting interview for a number of reasons, but one of the little anecdotes in here that got some attention, ted cruz, my husband is on my health care plan, through goldman sachs, one of these gold-plated health care plans, and so he's -- he's on her health plan and she's sort of stepped out this week and it is a week that ted cruz, talked about this in the show yesterday, he immediately -- he went up to iowa on friday night, don't know if he's still there today, but speaking in iowa on friday night and in that mode where it is like -- was there any damage to ted cruz in republican world from this whole shutdown? >> there wasn't, but there probably should have been. and in this case, what was most stunning is the statement from cruz's office. yes, he's on her health care plan, but doesn't cost taxpayers anything. give me a break. the 20 plus thousand dollars a ye

durbin, senator kohl, senator biden. so when president bush nominated peter cas keisler to the d.c. circuit, the democrats wrote the chairman a strong letter. let me read from the letter. >> we believe that mr. keisler should under no circumstances be considered," the democratic senators said, "much less confirmed by this committee before we first address the very need for that judgeship and deal with the genuine judicial emergencies by the judicial conference." the democratic senators argued, "first, the committee should, before turning to the nomination itself, hold a hearing on the necessity of filling the 11th seat on the d.c. circuit to which mr. keisler has been nominated." they cited a number of objections by senators to the need for more judges on that circuit. then they argued -- this was six years ago -- that since these emphatic objections were raised in 1997 by every relevant benchmark, the caseload for that circuit has dropped further. only after we reassess the need to fill this seat and tend to judicial emergencies should we hold a hearing on mr. keisler's nomination." that was the democratic senators' position in 2007. now, these distinguished democratic senators were not on

murray, dick durbin, and charles schumer, all trying to amend the language that would fund the entire amendment. you'll also hear from the majority leader, harry reid. this is an hour. >> mr. president, i had intented to give remarks and promulgate a series of unanimous consent requests, however the majority leader requested for purposes of scheduling i begin with the request which i'm happy to do so to accommodate his schedule. but i would ask that at the conclusion of these unanimous consent requests i would ask unanimous consent that i be given 20 minutes to speak at the conclusion of this to lay out the reasons why i believe the majority should aseed to the unanimous requests. >> objection? without objection, so ordered. >> so the first unanimous consent request i would promulgate, i asked unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.j.res 72 making continuing appropriations for the veterans benefit s fiscal year 2014. i ask that the measure be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. >> is there objection? >> mr. president. >> senator from washington. >> reserving the right t

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that the president be -- the presiding officer: may we have order, please. the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that cloture on calendar number 63 be withdrawn and that the senate proceed to vote on confirmation of the nomination, the motion to reconsider be made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate and that no further motions be in order, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: madam president, the statement made earlier by the majority leader is worthy of note. in less than an hour, the government of the united states of america will close. what it means is that agencies all across the united states will start notifying federal employees go back home, don't come to work. you may not be paid for today. and people who are reaching out to those agencies for services, s.b.a. loans, student loans, advice on social security, veterans' benefits, they're going to find recordings instead of government workers there to help them, and that's not good. it doesn't speak well for this great nation that we've reached this point. what we hear now from the house of representatives is they want to talk some more. now they want to sit down with the senate to talk this over. but only after the government shuts down. that's the difference. they will only talk after the government shuts down. what the majority leader has said is that reasonable compromise. what he said is