mr. quarles' nomination today and vote for his confirmation. i yield my time, mr. president. the presiding officer: under the previous order, all time has expired. the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: does any senator wish to vote or change his or her vote? if not, the yeas are 66. the nays are 33. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of andrew s. oldham of texas to be united states circuit judge for the fifth circuit signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the s

mr. quarles, when he was here representing the federal reserve he agrees as well. would you be willing to work with the federal reserve to create a common sense solution here that's fair to the brokerage community at large? >> yes. >> thank you. i appreciate that. also i've introduced a bill, hr 6021 which is of interest also to the brokerage community. this goes back to my days in the industry as an independent broker-dealer and a bank broker-dealer as well, as it relates to small, privately-held dealers that don't hold customer funds, purely introducing brokers under the rules. this relates, go all the way back to sarbanes-oxley where all brokerage firms were required to have a public accounting oversight board qualified auditor no matter their size or complexity. this bill, and senator cotton introduced a companion in the senate, would permanently waive that for small, private, noncustodial broker-dealers, something we got waivers for along the way between 2002 and recent years s that something you would think the commission would support knowing they fill campu

mr. quarles had called the five-headed hydra at one point, had put some proposed rule changes in there. my understanding the goal of the new rule is to simplify the regime and make it easier on the regulators as well as the regulated institutions to identify proprietary trading while allowing banks to continue providing important market-making activities. how do these reforms address the volcker rule so that compliance can be stream lined, rules clarified and markets made more efficient? >> i think for the smaller institutions we'll be streamlining quite a lot. let me say, this rule is out for comment and we're open to better ideas, how to do this better. we want to stay faithful to congress' intent, which is these institutions. the larger ones shouldn't be doing proprietary trading as a business line. >> i look forward to continuing exploring how the fed and fmoc will be properly tailoring the volcker rule. i have been hearing complaints for some companies that the proposed rule as introduced as a new concept of using accounting rules to identify proper trading, which were not included

mr. chairman, i brought the federal reserve supervision and examination of insurance savings up previously with federal reserve governor quarlesnd my staff brought this topic up with the fed staff on several occasions. since the economic crisis a number of insurance and saving and loan holding companies has dwindled from some 30 to just 11, according to the fed's 2017 annual report. i have two of these insurance companies in my district which employee thousands of people and one of them just announced they are closing their depository institution. while i understand there are several business reasons for an insurance savings and loan holding company to close their own depository institution, there is little doubt that one of the factors why they are closingclosing them down is duee burdensome and inefficient supervisory regime by the federal reserve. i have worked with my colleague on the other side of the aisle, to introduce legislation that will force the federal reserve eir bank centric regulations to insurance companies which are wholly different from banks. while i think there should be some cost of admission for an insur

confirmed randal quarles and now we will consider nominees for the fifth circuit and ninth circuit courts of appeals. first is andrew oldham of texas, the president's choice for the fifth circuit. mr. oldham has imposed the xiewnt in his -- community in his years of public service. mr. oldham has degrees from the university of virginia, cambridge, and harvard law. he clerked on the d.c. circuit court and on the supreme court. he carries the highest possible rating from the american bar association, unanimously well qualified. he comes highly recommended by colleagues and peers from across the spectrum. glef reasony supported -- constantly enthusiastically and without reservation. she and the nominee worked on a number of important subjects. she said that mr. oldham expressed the qualities of an ideal judge. lisa blat argues before the supreme court. her letter describes oldham as a great listener with a brilliant legal mind and wonderful sense of humor. her conclusion, he would make a superb judge. what about mr. oldham's own words if confirmed, he explained to our colleagues, he will uphold the rights of all litigants equally and apply the law to all fairly. he understands his re

mr. quarles' watch trying to solve? banks increase their profits by -- increased their profit by 13% last year. that's before you cot for the windfall in the tax cut. when you add in the tax benefits, it was 28% increase in their profits. the banking sector bought back $77 billion worth of stock last year, and the c.e.o.'s of the six largest banks got an average raise of 22%. so what exactly is mr. quarles trying to fix? what's not going all the bank's way day after day after day? the c.e.o. of wells fargo got a 36% raise even as scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal mounted at the bank under his watch. so i don't think these megabanks are really the people that need mr. quarles' help. maybe you ought to look elsewhere. maybe you ought to look at the tellers. the average teller in this country makes $12.50 an hour. wages for ordinary americans simply aren't moving up. mr. quarles was in a very similar position a decade ago in the bush administration. the financial sector was booming, but average americans we

the clerk: nomination, federal reserve system, randal quarles of colorado to be a member of the board of governors. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of randal quarles of colorado to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 892. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have

the clerk: federal reserve system, randal quarles of colorado to be a member of the board of governors. a senator: mr president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: i have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. daines: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the provisions of rule 22, all postcloture time on executive calendar 595 be considered expired at 2:25 p.m. and the senate immediately vote on the nomination. if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately tphoeufld of the senate's -- notified of the senate's action and following disposition of the nomination the senate vote on cloture on the oldham nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the senate stands in recess until senate stands in recess until >> up next here on c-span2, a co