mr. owens who currently works as a lawyer in california has been nominated to fill the seat that has been held for the last 25 years by judge steven trott of idaho. judge trott took senior status way back on december 31, 2004, making the trott the longest current vacancy of any seat on the federal circuit courts. that doesn't mean that there haven't been previous attempts to fill this seat. in a letter to the idaho senate delegation in 2003, then-white house counsel alberto gonzalez stated -- "i also want to make sure the president's commitment to nominate an idaho indiana for the ninth circuit seat if judge trott retires or assumes senior status while president bush is still in office." idaho has had two ninth circuit seats for more than a decade, and that allotment is appropriate. as such, when judge trott did take senior status the following year, president bush nominated judge randy smith of idaho to the trott seat. at the same time, another nominee was pending in the senate to fill a vacan

aare talking about drones town mr. owens which means a human does not have to be at the controls.ed an individual. the whole point of this future of business. >> the ceo of skycatch is here. how are your drones different? >> they are autonomous. not have to send the data out to the cloud. all this happens at it and a ton a miss ground station -- an at n utonomous ground station. you have to upload the data but not with our system. >> you have one. >> it will take off autonomously. -- here it goes up. pre-or ground. >> what are the applications? quick some our -- they use it for managing ground force. for surveilling stockpiles. safety, security. >> why is a drone better? what do they use currently? >> right now the use life people. -- they use life people. -- live people. >> imagine yourself you are on the deck and do our stock i'll surveilling. it -- you push a button and it goes off. >> can your kind of drones find a missing plane? >> it does but not that one. >> why not? to get thed coordinates. you need to send it to a location. exit is not good for surveilling mass amounts of

mr. owen, i just want to clarify this thing about missing people.tion there because maybe one or two or three friends of the same person could call up, not knowing that they were all reporting the same person, and that could pump up the number. isn't that why we're unsure of exactly what the number is? >> exactly. it's highly expected that there's many duplicates in that number. we're optimistic that the number's going to go down as we were able to put this all together and figure out who's talking about who and as people are calling in and hopefully letting us now that they're safe, which is another issue that we're encouraging people to do if they're from the area. but we expect that number to go down considerably. >> now, you've been in charge of this effort with the governor out of state for a bit. the governor's back. but what is the biggest challenge facing the recovery effort now? >> well, right now if you talk to the people that are there, there's incredible search and rescue folks. if you ever heard of stuck in the mud, that's exactly what

mrs. feinstein: thank you very much. to talk about john owens, who is the first vote, for a judgeship, particularly one to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit. no one questions his qualifications, i spoke on the floor about him before. was proud to nominate him to the president. he has a sterling background and would be an excellent circuit court judge. the question that arose was because the previous judge, a man by the name of steven trott, he spent his entire legal career in california before joining the reagan administration, he was licensed to practice law in california, he was supported by the two republican senators from california, and blue slips for his nomination were sent to california. now, what am i trying to do? i'm trying to say this was a california judge for the ninth circuit. now, what has happened, since then, is because he moved his home to idaho once he was a judge, idaho or some of the representatives from idaho tend to believe that voila, this is now an idaho seat. it is not an idaho seat. i explained

owens. then if a budget point of order is raised on the s.g.r. bill, then passage of the s.g.r. bill, finally h.r. 3979, the legislative vehicle for the unemployment insurance bill. mr. president, i wish a happy opening baseball day to everyone. actually it started last night, not today. but it sounds better to do it right in the daytime. this is opening day for major league baseball but happens to be the last day for americans to sign up for obamacare, the affordable care act. to date over ten million newly insured americans benefiting from the law are now in effect, now have the benefit of that. and there's millions of more who have changed their insurance because of this legislation. so it's clear that americans are signing up for this quality health care in record numbers, and that's an understatement. mr. president, i'm also very happy that we've been able to come to an agreement on the medicare physicians payment system. it's a 12-month fix. we need to take action on this to ensure that medicare patients will be able to see their doctors. the fact remains that this legislation is not perfect. it's not ideal. i wish we could have followed the chairman of the fi

owens, the congressman from utah, and liz holtzman. >> guest: right. uh-huh. c-span: anybody else on there besides... >> guest: well, you have... c-span: ...mr. rodino in the middle? >> guest: ...yeah, rodino in the background, and you have--what's the name... c-span: (unintelligible). >> guest: ...from maryland on the fa--on the last--the last one there, senator--he's senator now from--no, he's the--the dark-haired fellow. he's got his hand up to his face so you can't... c-span: senator sarbanes. >> guest: that's right. that's who it is. c-span: we're going to go to some other photographs. where were you allowed to be in the--you know, were you allowed to get closer in the hearing room, compared to the... >> guest: the--the hear... c-span: ...others? >> guest: ...the--the--in the--in the house judiciary room there, you did not have the f--the freedom that you had in the senate caucus room when we were doing the watergate hearings. you had to pick your spot and stay there, and you were not allowed to stay in there continually. you rotated with other photographers, and you waited your turn, and you had 15 minutes or a half hour, and then you h

session to consider the owens nomination with the time until 5:30 equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. king: there will be at least two roll call votes on monday at 5:30 p.m. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order following the remarks of senator murkowski of alaska. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, first, i thank my friend from maine and appreciate our conversations that we have had in this past week. he has taken a journey to the north that most of us only dream about, but he is engaged on issues that i care deeply about as they relate to the arctic. i know that wasn't in the discussion that you were speaking to earlier, but i just wanted to note while my friend from maine was still here on the floor that i look forward to working on these issues of great importance not only to my state but truly to our entire nation and arctic nation. mr. president, i've come to this floor this evening to speak very b

owens to be a circuit judge. it will be on that motion to proceed to a legislative vehicle for unemployment insurance. under the rule, the first cloture vote would be tomorrow morning. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i'd like to say a word about our longtime colleague, peter robinson, who is retiring this week. peter joined the office of the senate parliamentarian in 2002 and quickly distinguished himself as a standout talent. he brought a remarkable breadth of knowledge to a job that really requires it. and a legendary facility for reading and digesting complex legislation in record time. his colleagues describe him as a kind of genius actually, somebody who can remember not only where he read something but the exact page he read it on. according to senate legend, one staffer actually showed up one day asking for the software program that he just assured peter had been usi

mr. chairman, i yield the balance of my time to my co-sponsor of this legislation, that an that will -- owen will. how much time remains? the chair: a minute and a half remaining. ms. schakowsky: i reserve. the chair: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? mr. whitfield: oppose the gentlelady's amendment. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. whitfield: i have a great deal of admiration and respect for the gentlelady, but i might say this legislation might not have been necessary if e.p.a. had adopted a standard that had been adequately demonstrated and was not in violation of the energy policy act of 2005. i would also say in wanting to add this language to the bill, e.p.a. itself in discussing its proposed regulation projected that its you rule would result co2 emission changes. even e.p.a. does not think that their regulation is going to significantly reduce co2 emissions because 96% of them are naturally occurring. less than 4% are manmade. and i might also point out once again that no one is a denier of climate change but more and more

owens of california to be united states circuit judge for the ninth circuit. mr. reid: i have a cloture that is at the desk, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture. the clerk: cloture we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of john b. owens of california to be united states circuit judge for the ninth circuit. signed by 17 senators as follows --. mr. reid: mr. president, i would ask consent the names not be read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move to to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to proceed. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the ayes have it. the ayes appear to have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president, is the motion to proceed to h.r. 3979 now pending? the presiding officer: the mo