mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: madam president, i want to take the floor today because i am very disturbed by the apparent shift in attitude by many elected leaders, including some in this body and in the house, the attitude towards people who do the work that i call -- that make the country run, that makes this country run. they don't sit behind desks. they don't wear coats and ties every day or wonderful clothes. they don't sit in air-conditioned offices. they don't clip coupons. they just do hard work. it's people you run into every day when you go to the local coffee shop and order your latte or you maybe go out to lunch and you have lufnlg a lunch at a ret or you hail a taxi or maybe you get on the bus or the subway. or maybe now since it's near christmastime, you go to the department store, you do your christmas shopping and it is the person behind the counter. you think that pe

heinrich, carper, schumer, feinstein, murray, sanders, king, franken, harkin, murray, warren, whitehouse, blumenthal and brown. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 1882, a bill to extend the exclusion from income for employer-provided mass transit and parking benefits, that the bill be read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: mr. president, i understand and appreciate my colleague's commitment to this particular issue. however, this is just one of many tax provisions that will expire at the end of the year. in the past the senior s