mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of h.r. 4120, which was received from the house and is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 4120, an act to amend the national law enforcement museum act to extend the termination date. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i ask una

merkley. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. and thank you to all of you. i want to ask just a limited question that has come from several of my transit districts, so given your experience on the ground i thought you might have some insight on this. this is essentially a situation where the discretionary grant has been changed to a funding formula in the bus and bus facility program under map-21. and the result of a couple of my transit districts is there having a great difficulty acquiring replacement buses in the fashion that they did before, which means they're buying fewer, therefore not getting group but discounts, and they're keeping inefficient buses that need high levels of maintenance on routes for longer to the detriment of the agency. have you all experienced in your own respective realms in the challenge like this? invite any of you to answer. >> i haven't. >> i haven't, no. >> i have not at the key but we have 15 regional transit authorities which are much smaller systems and other keep a good overview from the product commonwealth level i can