mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, many of us were stunned this week to see the administration blocking the world war ii memorial. it was a reminder to all of us how much we owe the greatest generation. last week the senate unanimously agreed to ensure our troops are paid during the shutdown and the president correctly signed it into law immediately. today the house will pass a bill to ensure that our veterans -- in fact they have done that -- continue to get the services and benefits they so richly deserve. if democrats are unwilling to fund other parts of the government, at the very at least they can agree to support our veterans. and so as the senator from texas and the majority leader were just discussing, i have the first of these unanimous consent requests to propound. i ask unanimous consent that when the senate receives h.j. res. 72 making continuing appropriations for veterans benefits for fiscal year 2014, that the measure be read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be made and

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: if i may, let me echo the remarks of the majority leader. we've had a good day. had a good day yesterday. had another good day today. i think it's safe to say we've made substantial progress and we look forward to making more progress in the near future. mr. reid: mr. president, i would just close by saying this. we're doing our best to make everybody happy but everyone knows we're not going to be able to do that. so everybody understand we're doing the very best we can with all the frailties that we have as people and legislators. so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10: a.m. tomorrow morning, october 15. that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, journal of proceedings be approved to date, time for the leaders be reserved. and that the senate recess from 12:30 to 2:15 to allow for weekly caucus meetings. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr.

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, our good friend, the senior senator from mississippi, is about to cast his 12,000th vote, a truly remarkable accomplishment by a remarkable man. he was the first republican to be elected to the united states senate from mississippi since reconstruction. a few years ago, he was named by "time" magazine as one of the 10 most effective members of the senate and they called him "the quiet persuader." and for those of you who recently arrived at the senate, if you haven't had any dealings with senator cochran yet, you will find that, indeed, he is the quiet persuader. in fact, it may be the secret to his success. though he's had an extraordinarily accomplished career here in the senate -- and i just wanted to take a few moments to congratulate him, not only on his service to his state and the nation but to our institution. [appl

mr. mcconnell come: mr. preside? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcconnell: i recently received a disturbing note from a constituent in burlington, kentucky. and unfortunately i suspect a lot of my colleagues have been receiving notes just like it. this gentleman said that after receiving several letters from his insurer, it became clear to him that the president was being misleading when he said "if you like the plan you have" -- "if you like the plan you have, you can keep it." that's because he found out that his policy, which came into effect just two months after the law's arbitrary cutoff date for grandfathered plans, will be discontinued next year. and he's not happy about this at all. especially given the fact that a plan on the obamacare exchanges will dramatically drive up his insurance costs from $400 a month to more than $700 a month with zero subsidies available. here's what he had to say.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: last saturday the house voted 400-1 to express the view that a government shutdown should not interfere with the ability of military chaplains to provide services for our service members. the house took that vote amid reports that chaplains were limited in their ability to minister to those who sought their services even if ministers were doing so on a volunteer basis. we've heard reports that those who scheduled baptisms might not be able to have them, obviously this is not a tolerable situation. we've got a very large military presence in kentucky, the folks at fort campbell and fort knox really don't need this. we need to remedy the situation immediately and care for the troops that have volunteered to defend us. the house has already taken a stand on an overwhelming, overwhelming bipartisan basis. only one vote against it. it's time for the senate t

mr. mcconnell is a whore.erson, do you think the republican party may be in danger of a major secession with severe conservatives like ted cruz leading a rump of true believers, and what will that cost the nation, given that ted cruz almost single handedly led the nation into default? >> well, my estimation is that we're not going to see ted cruz leave the republican party any time soon. he wants to run for president, and i think some of the things that he's been doing recently are clear indicators of that. i, to be honest with you, martin, i would love to see three or four political parties in our system, because i think one area where mr. klayman and i might agree is that in d.c., there's too much money in our political system, and so they're not very representative of the american people. but to me, ted cruz is a part of that system. he may -- he may seem to be more rebellious or revolutionary because he's affiliated himself with the tea party. but at the end of the day, mr. cruz is pretty -- pretty on the

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: let me just echo the remarks of my good friend, the majority leader. we have had an opportunity over the last couple of days to have some very constructive exchanges of views about how to move forward. those discussions continue, and i share his optimism that we're going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i think at this point senators from both parties can agree healthcare.gov is a rolling disaster. every day seems to bring more, newer, comic cament lit. we hear things like people being told their wife is almost really their daughter or they have multiple spouses or they're unable to apply due to current incarceration. insurpriseingly, just 12% of americans think the rollout has gone well. that's less than 14% of americans who believe in big foot. those who succeeded in actually enrolling in a plan are vastly outnumbered by those who have actually lost their plans. and the real tragedy here is that many who have succeeded are finding out the product is actually worse than the web site. i mean the only thing the web site seems to be good at right now is creating a punch line for late-night comedians. it's almost like americans are being forced to live through a real live "saturday night live" sketch, and if you caught last week's opener, it is harder to tell the obamacare hea

would have thirty minutes they only have twenty minutes the other ten minutes will be given to mr mcconnell in his capacity for the court and his argument is that he should that there should be no limits on contributions to political candidates he should be able to go out and solicit a check for as much as he needs and as much as he wants from one or two political donors from three or four political donors who clearly have a vested interest in more than you know a rubber chicken dinner and a photo with senator mcconnell they have an agenda and that's why they're going to open their checkbook so it's really an extraordinary argument is he is he at the very least going to offer to wear a nascar coat with the logos of the people cannot be bought him into you know i mean kentucky i mean you know with the koch koch industries logo on it i'm just i mean i was on mobile go in there and ask chief justice roberts i think he's really the swing justice in this case you know he is up held in case after case this distinction that we had buckley where you know campaigns. pending restrictions tend to fall

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, signe

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. ell: each of us was sent here to serve and protect our constituents. that's why republicans voted unanimously against obamacare in 2009. because we believed it was our job to stand up for middle-class families we were sent here to represent. because we and not just us but countless health care professionals, policy experts and citizens across the country saw this train wreck coming literally years ago. we knew the pain it would cause and warned against it. i wish the president and washington democrats had listened back then. i really do. i wish we'd been wrong about obamacare, too. but because of the failings of this law are about so much more than a web site, they're really about real people. yes, healthcare.gov fiasco can be seen as almost comical at times like a surreal parody of government bungling, but as the president says, this is about so much more than a web site. he's right about that. the pain this law is causing is not bijtal. it's real. -- digitsal. it's real. workers bega

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: shortly i'll join my senate republican colleagues at the white house. it will be a good opportunity to engage in a frank exchange of ideas with the president, if that's what he's looking for. but if all the president wants is to just drag us over there to say he won't negotiate, that won't be particularly productive. throughout this crisis the president has taken what you might call an unorthodox approach to governing. his basic position could be summed up in three words: he won't negotiate. and i think that's left many americans kind of scratching their heads. i know the president and democratic leaders in congress want to borrow more money without any strings attached but the rest of us actually want to enact some commonsense reforms to get our debt under control and we want to keep our commitments to the american people. and here's the key point. nobody wants a default. that's why in 50 years of negotiations over multiple debt ceiling increases, we haven't had a single tk

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. cconnell: i'd like to start this morning by quoting something my good friend, the majority leader, said back in 2007, back when congress was weighing whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. here's what the majority leader said back then -- "until we change the policies that led down this path, we'll be back year and year, digging the hole even deeper." nd arcs of course, that's essentially what so many americans are saying today. if we're going to address the debt ceiling, then let's also address the root causes of the debt. it just makes good sense. you would think our friend, the majority leader, would continue to agree with this logic as well, but that's not what he has been saying lately. he's basically saying it would be irresponsible for congress to address the most pressing problem we face as a country, that it would be reckless to raise the debt ceiling if that also meant doing something about the debt. in other words, he now seems to think the best thing to do about our crus

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i'd like to say a few words of thanks to a member of the senate family who is leaving us today. after 44 years of government service including 32 here in the senate, carl fritter has decided it's time to go. carl's been a real friend of my office over the years through his work in the office of conservation and preservation, and we're sorry to see him leave us. but before he does, i just wanted to say you some grateful we are for his outstanding work over the years. carl learned the art of book binding in an apprentice program at the government printing office many years ago. he says he never saw himself as a bookbinder but after working outside one january during the construction of the kennedy center, he started thinking about getting a job indoors. and his supervisors over at g.p.o. gave him the opportunity. carl would learn his trade from book binders from all over the world, each of whom taught him different techniques. which he put to good use in the senate library for

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: this has been a long, challenging few weeks for congress and for the country. it's my hope that today we can put some of those most urgent issues behind us. after yesterday's events the majority leader and i began a series of conversations about a way to get the government reopened and to prevent default. i'm confident we'll be able to do both those things later today. crucially, i'm also confident that we'll be able to announce we're broking the government spending reductions that both parties agreed to under the budget control act. and that the president signed into law. that's been a top priority for me and for my colleagues on the republican side of the aisle throughout this debate. and it's been worth the effort. some have suggested that we break that promise as part of this agreement, some have wade washington needs to spend more, that we need to raise taxes, that we need to just tax our way to prosperity and balance. but what the b.c.a. showed is that washington actua

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: well, we're now in the second week of a government shutdown that nobody claims to want. democrats say it's unreasonable to ask for any changes or delays to obamacare, and republicans, well, we think the obamacare rollout has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt just how reasonable a delay is. i mean, if anybody had any doubts about the need to delay this thing, those doubts should have been allayed this weekend when the administration admitted its web site wasn't working and took it off-line for repairs. tkhraeup and basic -- delay and basic fairness are what republicans are asking for at this point, not exactly the sun and the moon. another thing republicans have been saying is that we can't agree on a bill to fund -- that if we can't agree on a bill to fund the entire government, let's at least past the most urgent pieces of it. let's at least pass the parts we can all agree on. and that's exactly what the house has begun to do. over the past several days the two parties in t

mr. mcconnell said they wanted regular order. that means you pass a budget in the house, you pass a budget in the senate, you go to conference. that happened a few weeks later in the house and the senate. then they said we don't want regular order any more and for six months we've been saying that's what you said you wanted. now we're saying okay, you have shut down government. which is totally reckless and irresponsible. we are now accepting your number of 986. for the next six weeks to go to the regular order of going to the budget table to discuss our budget priority. and that is the pass that is regular order. >> leader pelosi, what is the sense that a deal with be struck? the republicans said that they were only going to send certain people, and that was not well received by the white house-- >> quickly here. i wonder if i'm hearing this correctly and interpreting this correctly, let me go to mike viqueira on this. we just heard from leader pelosi and her little gaggle there. is there a number being discussed, this 986 numbe

mr. mcconnell to arrive. in fact, he is there. senate looks like it is about to begin its business of the day. imminently, does that bring a deal to end the shutdown and avert a default? we shall see. but that is exactly what's happening at the very moment. there is the senate majority leader, harry reid, who looks like he is speaking. we want to listenen in. >> that is a gross understatement. and while we've witnessed a great deal of political discourse, we will see congress reach an historic bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and avoid a default on the nation's bill. the compromise will provide the economy with the stability it desperately needs. it's never easy for two sides to reach consensus. it's really hard. stiles, harder than others. this time, it was really hard. but after weeks spent facing off across a partisan divide that often seemed too wide to cross, our country came to the brink of disaster. but in the end, political adversaries set aside their differences and disagreements to prevent that disaster. i t

mr. mcconnell said they were still working and were hopeful. and of course they meet with the president in about 45 minutes. that was when the market turned positive. right now though the stock market is off its highs for the day, they still are showing a pretty nice gains there, up about 50 points on the dow and half dozen points or so, 4.5 points on the s&p 500. of course, worth noting, craig, today is that the bond market is closed for the national columbus day holiday. that would give us another window and the bond market maybe even more central and critical to this whole debate because it's all about u.s. treasury borrowings this debate basic which is all about that. we have another window if bonds were open today but they are not. >> tyler mathisen, thank you. we're following developing news in arizona, protesters frustrated with the record number of deportations and threatening a repeat of friday, when activists chained themselves to buses to stop undocumented immigrants from being deported. as we await the meeting between the president

mr. mcconnell was interviewed, and he was slightly dismissive of the budget conference plan, unless the president gets involved. will the president he actively involved in those conversations? >> i think the president will be as involved as he and members of the conference believe is useful and is necessary to help bring about -- >> [indiscernible] >> you are citing one senator about the minority leader opinion about that. our view is the house passed a budget, the senate passed a budget, that is how the process is supposed to work. the senate is controlled by one party, the house, another. the two sides can't conference. the president has already demonstrated a level of seriousness here to the budget he put forward, the detailed budget he put forward, that includes tough choices for democrats as well as for republicans, and i think he will useful and is necessary, as well his team, to provide the kind of assistance that would be helpful to him as this process moves forward. no question it is hard, but we should not give up on it before it starts. >> can you take it behind her curtain. we saw the

mr. mcconnell, it's a close parallel. >> it is a close parallel. and that is why i have been pushing this idea. >> okay, let's go into this. okay? what's going to it. >> shirts that i understand that, your honor. i would say that after all these aggregate limits are of the same statute to which that legislative record pertains and it really does go through the same problem. therefore i think it bears upon it and is ample evidence that we are justifiable in upholding these aggregate limits and i would urge the court strongly to do so. >> thank you, general. ms. murphy, you have three minutes. >> thank you, mr. chief justice. a few quick points. we have not heard the solicitor general talk about circumvention. i think that is because the argument just doesn't really work. it is already addressed by all of the prophylactic measures that are contained to the extent that those are not sufficient, there are much tailored ways narrowly tailored ways as the chief justice pointed out. what we are hearing today is a corruption argument. as the questioning re

mr. mcconnell, said they wanted regular order. that means you pass a budget in the house, you pass a budget in the senate, you go to conference. that happened a few weeks later in the house and in the senate. then they said we won't want regular order anymore, and for six months we've been saying, well, that's what you said you wanted. now we're saying, ok, you've shut down government, which is totally wreckless and irresponsible. we're now accepting your number of 986 for the next six weeks to go to the regular order of going to the budget table to discuss our budget priorities, and that is the path that is regular order. >> even today, house republicans said, well, we're not going to send everybody over, we're just going to send certain people. that was want received well at the white house. you can't even agree on who goes to these meetings. >> how about you take this? >> that's a problem our entire caucus was here. >> everybody was here? >> everybody was here. well, everybody was invited as far as we know. there may have been

mr. mcconnell, senator mcconnell, we would leave our offices and go to the capitol every day. we would have a diet dr. pepper on the speaker's balcony and walk back. that's how you woke up basically in the middle of the day. that was the one day we did not go. we both had meetings at the same time, and so we were leaving our offices to go to the capitol and then we got put on lockdown. at that point a very different kind of lockdown than it is now. because a gunman, rusty westin, walked into the capitol, shot officers chestnut and gibson, killed one of them instantly and then he was detained and he's now incarcerated to this day. but it shook the capitol complex. the family of the capitol, both the house and the senate, and it changed the way we did business. it changed our badges. it changed where we could go. more police security and then, of course, after 9/11 things were very, very different. but this is -- i know what these people are going through, and it literally shakes you to your core. you're in your office and you get this thing that comes across and the person coul

mr. mcconnell and mr. reed will announce the details of that agreement which are as peter outlined it. the third thing is the speaker will then go to his caucus and explain what the senate bill does. he knows he will not have all of his members voting for it but he has been pledged, it has been pledged to him by minority leader nancy pelosi and sidney lawyer, the minority whip the that they will provide enough democrats to make up for lost republicans and bill will pass, and this is important, if it passes in the house first, it does reduce the filibuster possibilities in the senate by about half. dagen: if a deal isn't signed, sealed and delivered and it arrives, has been given to us by the treasury department, as i said maybe we can pay all of our bills tomorrow but what is the concern about this day if any? >> the concern is they hope to have a deal before the seventeenth because they have options this weekend wanted those treasury auctions to go well. the seventeenth is when jack lew says he has $30 billion on hand. the estimate is some place between the twenty-third and the first

mr. mcconnel, said they wanted regular order. that means you pass a budget in the house, pass a budget in the senate, go to conference. that happened a few weeks later in the house and senate. then they said we don't want regular order anymore. and for six months we've been saying, that's what you said you wanted. now we're saying, ok, you've shut down government, which is totally reckless and irresponsible. we're accepting your number of 986. for the next six weeks. to go to the regular order of going to the budget table to discuss our budget priorities. and that is the path that is regular order. >> leader pelosi, what was your assessment of the president's mood as to whether or not a deal could be struck. even today republicans said we're not going to send everybody over, we're only going to send over a few. >> that's a problem. our entire caucus was here. everybody was here. everybody was invited as far as we know, everybody was here. there may have been one or two people who didn't get in out of the rain. but everybody was i

mr. mcconnell: madam president president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: well, if it wasn't clear earlier this week why republicans were asking to delay obamacare, it should be pretty clear this morning. it made a trip to the d.m.v. look like a good time. the word of the day was "glitch" and you could probably explain one or two of these glitches away -- maybe three -- but not glitches in nebraska and maryland and florida and wisconsin and illinois and kentucky, not glitches all across the country. kentuckians who tried to log in yesterday got a message that read, "server error." let me translate that. it didn't work. i mean, if the plural of anecdote is data, it seems to me, the plural of glitch is "government data." they were willing to shut down the government over it. instead of agreeing to a couple of commonsense proposals related to this law, the they stuck to r absolutist position: 100% of obamacare when and how they want it, no matter what. this, of course, unless the president thinks you're one of the chosen few, who deserves a special b

mr. mcconnell and tea party members of the house and senate have all said the fight continues on obamacaretimetable is not conducive. the idea that the supercommittee is going to come up with a fix in december and pass something in january on another deadline for another goth shutdown is wishful thinking. jenna: wow. some good context there. carl, thank you. >> reporter: you bet. jon: so the shutdown standoff and fears of a default overshadowing another big political story really, the rollout of obamacare and massive problems with the insurances exchange web site. millions of folks have visited the site or tried to, but a fraction of them able to start enrollment, and an even smaller number able to finish the process. all of this has been sparking calls for the resignation of kathleen sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. some are saying she needs to take the responsibility for all of this trouble and simply step down. the white house stands behind her at this point. and "the new york times" reports her family says she is not going anywhere. let's talk about it with joe tri

mr. mcconnell said today on the floor that his main income bushmen in these negotiations was securing the cuts under sequester and the budget control act. >> you are going to hear, i'm sure over the next few days, everybody taking credit for what they won and lost. i have to tell you something -- as has been said and needs to be repeated, there are no winners and losers in this process. the american people have lost. now they need to roll up their sleeves and do what is right for this country. >> my question is this for the congressman or secretary -- whatever comes out of the budget conference, obviously there are going to be fairly major changes in government, priorities and programs. one group that seems to have attacked is the federal employees themselves. in simpson-bowles, there were talks about further cuts in terms of pension changes. i guess what i'm wondering is, do you think at this point some kind of continued reductions or continued changes in federal worker benefits are going to be necessary as part of an agreement, or do you think that, given what has happened, maybe that c

mr. mcconnell. but i have had discussions with the speaker, john boehner, and i have with the majority leader, eric can'ter. >> and i would assume -- >> i cannot answer the other side. >> clearly when we were here on -- i said that i -- i felt that the majority or my friends in the republican party had lost their collected minds. i no longer feel that way, i know it that you all have just lost it. it is impossible for a conference to take place before 2:00 a.m. in the morning which is the legislative drop dead date in time with the reference to the same day rule that we passed. and i'm curious about what's wrong with regular order. we've called for it repeatedly over the course of time. and it simply has not happened. since you spoke with the speaker and the majority leader, i would assume again we're watching television, i don't normally watch the shows because it's the same people saying the same damn thing all the time. i don't learn anything. the fact of the matter is, i did watch it this sunday

mr. secretary, senator mcconnell was trying behind-the-scenes to get a provision in the deal that the merged in the senate that would give federal agencies more flexibility in dealing with sequestration cuts. as no one needs to tell you, across-the-board nature of cuts makes it very difficult. hal important with that provision had been, and how difficult is that for an agency to have to deal with that? >> it was a crazy, crazy formula. they designed it to be crazy, to basically do they cut across the board was going to be so that it would force them to do the right thing. that was the whole logic, if you call it logic, of why they developed sequestration. they obviously did not have the courage to deal with sequestration, so sequestration went into effect and has created havoc, you know, across the board, particularly at the apartment that i headed. you know, i would rather instead of playing with ideas as to how you create flexibility so that you can move money around within the bounds of sequestration, i would rather than deal with the bigger issues in the budget and be able to death be tr

mr. secretary, senator mcconnell was trying behind the scenes to get a provision in the deal that emerged in the senate that would give federal agencies more flexability the in dealing the sequestration cuts. as no one needs to tell you, the arbitrary nature of the cuts for agencies. how important with that provision has been, and how difficult is that for an agency to have to deal with that, and arbitrary, across-the-board cut? >> it was a crazy formula. they designed it to be crazy, to basically do a meat ax cut across the board that would be so bad it would force them to do the right thing. that was the whole logic, if you call it logic, of why they developed sequestration. they obviously didn't have the courage to do with sequestration. sequestration went into effect. it has created havoc across the board, particularly at the department that i headed. i would rather, instead of playing with ideas as to how you create flexibility so you can move money around within the bounds of sequestration, i would rather than deal with the bigger issues in the budget and be able to de-trigger seque

mr. speaker, senator mcconnell was trying behind the scenes to get a provision in the deal that emerged in the senate that would give federal agencies more flexibility in dealing with sequestration cuts. as no one needs to tell you, the arbitrary, across the board nature of the cuts makes it very difficult for agencies. how important would that provision have been and how difficult is it for an agency to deal with that? >> it was a crazy, crazy formula. they designed it to be crazy, to basically do a meat ax cut across the board that was going to be so bad it would force them to do the right thing. that was the whole lodge ex, if you call it logic, of why they developed sequestration. they obviously didn't have the courage to deal with sequestration so sequestration went into effect. and it's created havoc across the board. particularly in the department headed. i would rather have the idea to move money around within the bounds of sequestration, i would rather them deal with the bigger issues in the budget and be able to detrigger sequestration. that would be the more responsible approach

mr. president, i'm going to wait till senator mcconnell gets to the floor. so i'm not going to give any long remarks here. in can the fa, i'm i'm not going to give long remarks anytime. while we're waiting for senator mcconnell, i haven't had the opportunity to say this. admiral black has for me, during this long period of crisis we've had in the country, been a voice of stability, a voice of inspiration to me and i'm being very selfish in saying me. but it's been for the entire senate and for the country. his heartfelt prayers are so timely and so sensitive to the needs of our country and the need that we all have to call upon our spirituality to get us through periods of difficulty. i speak for -- i can't speak for the entire senate by saying how much we admire and respect this good man, who is a counselor and a leader in the senate as much as anyone that serves in this body. . >> the clerk will call the role. >> mr. alexander. >>> floor of the u.s. senate. you heard harry reid the majority leader saying he wanted to wait for mitch mcconnell to come up. th

one of the most important things that we have been able to do is get senator mcconnell and i together. i'm grateful that mr. alexander, being the peace maker he is, suggested they start to do what they could to engage senator mcconnell and i. and as a result of that, i think we were able to talk and hopefully develop a strong relationship. senator mcconnell and i have worked together for many years. the last little bit is no surprise it has not been too good. so anyway, i appreciate the work that senator alexander and senator schumer did, i'm grateful for senator pryor and that gang of senators that did some things that helped us. so i would hope that in the future, the work that was done by senator pryor and collins, they will be able to get together to create some separation here from all this shrill -- these shrill voices that we hear, i agree that are not helpful. this crisis is historic, let's be honest. this was pain inflicted on our nation for no good reason, and we cannot, cannot make the same mistake again. so as we move into the next round of negotiations, i'm depending on stable hard-working, al

yes, right as senator mcconnell took the podium on the senate floor, mr.z engaged in delivering a right royal middle finger to the minority leader, staging his own impromptu presser for a hoard of baying reporters. >> i have no objections to the timing of this vote. and the reason is simple. there's nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days. the outcome will be the same. >> translation, his majesty has issued the decree that he shall in no ways intervene on this day to further injury the united states and the global economy. the citizens are most grateful and wish him god speed. oh, by the way, cruz still thinks this is a win, sort of. >> and that was a remarkable victory, to see the house engage in a profile in courage. unfortunately, the senate chose not to follow the house. >> a profile in courage? really? is he actually referring to the beleaguered house speaker there, the one who has admitted he'll be forced to rely on democratic votes to pass the deal? a human aleating defeat and a total collapse of gop efforts to punish the pr

the national association of home builders wrote a letter to leader reid and mcconnell, unequivocally stating, "during mr. watt's term to the house financing committee, he was a great leader." and senator burr and senator hagan recently shared a "dear colleague" in which both north carolina senators stated clearly that, in their words, "congressman watt has shown himself to be an honest, kind and capable individual with deep understanding of the housing market. we urge you to support his nomination." he is, indeed, qualified to serve as the fhfa director. he is an incredibly decent and honest serviceshonestandhonest l work diligently and make decisions based on the facts, not on ideology or momentary trends. democrats know this and republicans who have worked and served with him know this. and despite this, there's some question whether congressman watt has the technical experience to run fhfa, so let's look at congressman's watt's record to see if we can peel that back and look closely. he is a graduate of yale law school who for 22 years practiced business, economic development and real estate law. he

mr. cantor, miss pelosi, myself, senator mcconnell, senator reid, for months, frankly, trying to get to anboehner brought that back to his republicans and they said no just as they said no to the agreements, not the agreement but the plan that he himself had, speaker boehner had. so very tough to negotiate with people who won't negotiate. >> real quick, do you think you're going to be heading over to the white house to sit down with john boehner, the president and the rest of the leadership this week? >> i don't know the answer to that, kate. john boehner i think frankly is willing to negotiate. i think what he doesn't have is the support of his caucus and that's unfortunate. >> congressman steny hoyer, the number two democrat in the house of representatives, always great to have you on "new day." thank you so much. >> thanks, kate. >> of course, chris? >> all right, kate we're going to take a turn now, a story breaking overnight. hours of chaos for passengers just trying to get to their destination from jacksonville's airport. evacuations after two suspicious packages were found, tied up

mr. chief justice, may it please the court -- senator mcconnell agrees that this aggregate limit does not pass exacting scrutiny. senator mcconnell believes that all restrictions of this nature should be reviewed under strict scrutiny. to begin with, this is a severe restriction on political speech. >> mr. burchfield, i'd like you to address this question about the restriction on speech. it has been argued that these limits promote expression, promote democratic participation, because what they require the candidate to do is, instead of concentrating fundraising on the super- affluent, the candidate would then have to try to raise money more 18 alderson reporting company official subject to final review broadly in the electorate. so that by having these limits you are promoting democratic participation, then the little people will count some, and you won't have the super-affluent as the speakers that will control the elections. >> your honor, i disagree with that, for this reason. first of all, this limit, the aggregate limit on political parties, places like-minded political parties in t