mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, i know a lot of negotiations have been going on in the bill that will soon be before us. and i appreciate the senators in both parties have done that. but sometimes we forget there are hundreds of other people who work on it. i know the members of the senate appropriations committee have been working extremely hard. i think of people like chuck keifer and others in our committee who've given up weekends, evenings, they were working many until last evening on the work that they were doing. because we can say what we want to do, but then you've got to write it down. the same thing happened with the bill that fortunately passed unanimously here to reimburse our national guard, to pay the back pay and other necessities of the capitol police, to try to repair the damage and improve the situation after what happened, the terrible things that happened on janu

mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 3684, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 100, h.r. 3684, an act to authorize funds for federal aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs and for other purposes. ms. cantwell madam president,. ms. cantwell : washington needs infrastructure investment. we've been blessed with a growing economy and big trade economy based on the pacific rim and the actions of the pacific rim. so we need to keep moving product, we need to keep moving services and need to improve infrastructure to do so. i want to thank the commerce committee and those who worked on the act, specifically, k

leahy angle would help swing it in their direction. guy: it will be finally balanced. deirdre hipwell with what is happening with u.k. retail. i want to turn to the subject of the fed. mrnues to speak at the events he is at virtually. this is the critical line. if delta persists, he may adjust his asset purchase view, i.e. the taper may need to be delayed. kaplan was one of the first to talk about a taper but he is now starting to review that based on the data he is seeing from the delta virus. alix: what is interesting is if he says he does not know if asset buys are helping the labor market. if we know the fed is ok to overshoot, the real concern is the labor market. if he does not see asset prices helping, what is the point? guy: this was a topic we were raising earlier this week. the services side of the economy , i wonder whether it is less dependent on the rates market? if you are in capital goods and you have to invest, the interest rate really matters. how you just doubt that is a huge factor. in the services side, it is less relevant. if you are looking for an industrial recovery, maybe those asset purchases have a meaningful impact. i am not sure you can forc

leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. the presiding officer: are we in a quorum? -- we are not in a quorum call. mr. schumer: the senate has voted to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill and bring debate on the substitute amendment to an end. i repeat that democrats are ready and willing to vote on additional amendments to the bill before moving to final passage. once again that will require the cooperation of our republican colleagues. i hope they will cooperate so we can move more quickly. otherwise we'll proceed by the book and finish the bill. i said yesterday we could do this the easy way or the hard way. yesterday it appeared that some republicans would like the senate to do this the hard way. in any case we'll keep proceeding until we get this bill done. now on another related matter, as the senate approaches final passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, i want to shine a spotlight on a part of the legislative process that doesn't see the light oft

leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is leadership time is reserved. mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: first, i ask unanimous consent that benjamin lockshin be granted floor privileges for the remainder of today's session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: secondly, madam president, before my remarks i ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the lee nomination occur today. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection,so ordered. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. now all we week, as we all know, senators have worked together to move forward on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. since the text of the bipartisan proposal was finalized on sunday, both sides have had extensive opportunities to offer amendments. senators have certainly taken advantage. so far the senate has considered 22 amendments on this bipartisan piece of legislation. we considered 14 amendments yesterday alone. of the 22 total amendments, more than half have been offered by our republic

mr. leahy: mr. president, i have a unanimous consent request, if i might -- the presiding officer: if the senator from alabama would withhold, the senator from vermont is recognized. mr. leahy: i would like to put in the record a statement in support of the rubio amendment. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the senator from alabama is recognized. mr. shelby: mr. president, i call up my amendment number 3293 and ask it be reported by number. this is an amendment by shelby, inhofe, wicker, and others dealing with defense infrastructure. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from alabama, mr. shelby, for himself and others proposals an amendment numbered 3293. mr. shelby: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: this amendment provides $50.2 billion to meet defense infrastructure needs across this nation. i believe we need to modernize our shipyards, our test ranges, our depots, ammunition plants, install 5g technolog

mr. leahy: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, parliamentary inquiry. how long did that last 15-minute take? the presiding officer: well, the vote was scheduled for 15 minutes. it took 37. mr. carper: would the senator yield? mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the following roll call votes be 10 minutes in length. mr. carper: i object. the presiding officer: objection is is heard. mr. carper: let me take a minute for senator capito to explain what's going on. we're lined up right out in -- listen up. we're lined up right now to do three voice votes. negotiations are going forward on an amendment from senator schumer related to commerce committee jurisdiction, and after that, i think the last vote will be that of senator fish shire and we'll be done. the reason that we've had this delay is in order to have time for schumer to negotiation with the commerce committee. i don't think it but it is what it is. i want t

mr. leahy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: okay, first i'm going to do the administrative stuff. mr. leader -- sorry, mr. president, i understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 2670, a bill to provide for redistricting reform and for other purposes. s. 23671 -- 2671 a bill to amend the campaign act of 1971 to provide for additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, super pacs and other entities and for other purposes. mr. schumer: madam president in order to place the bills on the calendar under rule 14 i object to further proceeding en bloc. mr.

leahy, president pro tempore. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine is recognized. ms. collins: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. schumer: good morning, mr. president. are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, mr. president, senators continue to work through the bipartisan infrastructure bill here on the floor. members from both sides want to be able to consider as many germane amendments as possible, but we must work efficiently to allow those votes. yesterday was a positive day in that respect. democrats and republicans agreed to vote on three amendments, two of which were led by republicans, two bipartisan amendments, one led by senators thune and tillis, another led by senators padilla and moran with adopted with over 90 votes. we have one, potentially two more amendment votes lined u

mr. grassley: so now, madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be called up to the substitute and reported by number -- grassley 2435 -- that's grassley-leahy, grassley 2500, grassley-klobuchar. so i want to emphasize both of these are bipartisan pieces of legislation. the presiding officer: is there objection? the senator from alabama is recognized. mr. shelby: reserving the right to object. i'd ask now that the senator modify his request to include my amendment numbered 2535, and i will speak to that briefly. the underlying bill includes billions of dollars for all manner of infrastructure investments in the u.s. however, it fails to address critical infrastructure needs to support our national defense. this amendment that i am bringing forth would rectify that. i believe that we cannot in america continue to spend hand over fist on domestic priorities. a lot of them are important -- without investing dime one in our national defense infrastructure. this would rectify that, and i would ask that it include my amendment in this. the presiding officer: is there an objection to the modification? the senator from iowa is recognized. ms. ernst: