mr. reed: mr. president, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 1797, which was submitted earlier today. that 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: is there objection? the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: mr. president, i want to reserve the right to object. i'm certainly willing to let the good senator make comments. but at this point i want to reserve the right to object. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. hoeven: object. yes, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. reed: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: first of all, i -- i think it's appropriate to make some comments and i appreciate certainly the senator from north dakota being here and making the point. but we are at a juncture that within two weeks, 1.3 millio

mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. i come again to the floor to remind my colleagues that in 11 days, 1.3 million americans will lose their unemployment insurance. with the goal of providing certainty to these families that they will continue to have access to this vital lifeline, i and my colleague from nevada, senator heller, are introducing a bill that would extend unemployment insurance compensation benefits for three months. i hope this sensible and bipartisan approach will provide a path forward to extending the program through 2014, which will give families and our economy more time to recover. and in many parts of the country, the recovery is just getting underway. my own state of rhode island has 9% unemployment. there are states throughout the country that have over 8% unemployment. there are some states that are doing well and we're awfully glad they are. but for the millions of people who are still looking for work, they need this help. this program is designed so that workers continuing to look for work wh

mr. reed: i do not modify my request. i insist on my request since it's the only practical means of getting the measure passed. the presiding officer: is there objection to the request? mr. cornyn: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. reed: madam president, i believe i have just a few minutes left, two minutes, before senator mccain takes the floor. let me make just a few more points that i think are critic critical. last month the economy did add jobs, 203,000 jobs. but what we're seeing is the average length of unemployment is increasing. people are still out of work now on average 36 weeks. that's more than 26 -- 20 weeks longer than in previous recessions and it's longer than the 26 weeks of state insurance. that's why we're here asking for benefits. people now are averaging a much longer time without insurance benefits. this is not a situation where they fall within the state program. they have to have these federal benefits because it's harder and harder to find work. i would also suggest, too, th

mr. reed: thank you, madam president. i would ask to dispense with the calling of the quorum. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 259, s. 1797, a bill to extend unemployment insurance benefits for one year, that the bill be read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: reserving the right to object, madam president, it is unfortunate the senate's schedule is completely full of pending cloture motions on controversial or completely nonurgent nominations. i would ask if the senator would consider amending his request to withdraw all of the pending cloture motions on executive nominations and that the senate would proceed immediately to consideratio

now mr. reed to go over the financial. >> very quickly the numbers are slightly higher. this was probably one of the other times in my history of cfo that was hoping the cost would be higher that would trigger the eligibility. that was higher for a couple of reasons. the bottom line is some additional hazard cost and mitigation cost for loads, slopes and bridges and slightly higher cost. bids coming in higher on the power distribution and so, that is still being balance withdraw our ability to temporarily borrow existing appropriation as mr. carlin mentioned we have all the information to fema and government's office and all the forms have been completed. that concludes my report. >> thank you. so, if there is no objection, we'll call for public comment. i would like to start with david, please. >> it was a short general managers report. obviously there is very little going won this agency. well done. i had some comments on the budget priorities power and the ssip. let me just go through throws on the budget priorities i look forward as always to our annual workshops. so

. >> okay, the second report, mr. reed, for this report do you want any materials for take notes? >> you swore at an officers coming to your cell. >> guilty. >> when being served with a report, james reed became abusive to me. this is officer stewart milton, tell me to get [ bleep ]. he then threatened to set fire to his cell. i placed him on report. >> i try to explain to him. lock him up if you want. if you do i'll burn my peter. >> you'll burn your peter? >> aye. >> all right. that's the reason you've been put on report. >> aye. >> all right. and you've been charged with disobeying a lawful order. this was continually hitting your buzzer throughout the control period. when asked what was wrong he was met with a response of [ bleep ] off. and how do you plead? >> guilty. >> i'll find you guilty on that one. two more to go. right. okay. the fourth charge then is disobeying again a rule by pressing your cell button again for no reason. >> guilty. >> the last report of the evening was where you've intentionally endangered the health and safety of others where you activated the smoke

. >> mr. reedes to concur. >> reporter: the measure requires 60 votes in order to bring the budget bill to the senate floor for a final vote. it will wrap up a year where nominations and bills on farming and immigration remain unresolved and busy 2014 for another likely show down in the spring, this time over the debt ceiling which the budget bill's author say it's a fight for another time. >> we agreed the debt ceiling would not be part of this. i don't think that our country wants to see another crisis a to send our country into a tail spin so we will take that road when we get there. >> the reason we did this agreement is we didn't want to bring the controversies into these talks. >> reporter: adding to the senate's busy schedule this week passage of a defense bill and possible vote on president obama's janet yellen and there will be a confirmation with a simple majority. americans are concerned bt a rising insurance costs in the new year and blaming the affordable care act and a poll found half

mr. mayorvsky, is he still here? is blithe heims here? is scott wickey here? is reed bell here? >> good afternoon. >> hello. i am blithe heims. i am not a transport expert, but i am a financial expert and i will talk about commonsense and calculating risks. i am here to talk about eliminating the liberty stop on the j line. so commonsense dictates that a train comes around a blind corner at a slow rate of speed. i think i heard 3 miles per hour is the law. we calculated the risk that it doesn't come around the corner at that speed and the operator comes around the corner and there is a child or a cat -- i'm a cat lover -- if you are not familiar with the liberty stop it's a right-of-way stop, that means that the right-of-way is the train coming and it's definitely not something smaller in front of that. calculate the risk of that train coming around the corner and hitting that object? also commonsense dictates that the shortest sense from point a to b, a being liberty stop and b being 21st on one side and dolores park on the other is the right-of-way. the right-of-way in

mr. graham: this applies to disabled retirees as well, right? ms. ayotte: it does. we've all gone to walter reed and met our wounded warriors, they're heroes, they've sacrificed more than we can ever ask anyone to sacrifice for our nation. some of them don't have arms, legs, and they receive a medical retirement because of their service and their disability, the service that they have rendered for our country so bravely and they get cut under this, too. i don't think any cut to them is teensy-weensy or minuscule. i don't understand perhaps the editorial board writers in washington. only in washington would this be minimized in terms of how people are viewed as minuscule or teensy-weensy in light of the service that they've given to our country. i thought this description of it was wrong and offensive, and really demoralizing in terms of the message it sends to our men and women in uniform. i think the encouraging part of where we are right now is that so many in this body have come forward and said we need to fix this, and recognize that this does have an unfair impact on our military retirees a

mr. cornyn: further parliamentary inquiry, madam president. if a motion to table the reed amendment to -- reid amendment to concur with the further amendment is successful, would there be an opportunity to offer my amendment number 2602, this is the fort hood purple heart bill? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. cornyn: madam president, in order to offer that amendment and others that i believe would be in order and should be allowed to be offered, i move to table the pending reid motion to concur with the further amendment, and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 45, the nays are 55. the motion to table is not agreed to. the presidin the senator from michigan -- without objection. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr.

mr. president, i come to the floor today to express my thanks to my colleagues, especially majority leader reid, senator max baucus, and senator jack reed, for working with me to ensure that north carolina's needs will be addressed as we work to extend unemployment insurance benefits into 2014. i would also urge my colleagues not to leave their constituents to the same fate as the citizens of my state and to swiftly pass the emergency unemployment compensation extension act. this bipartisan legislation introduced by senators reed and heller would extend federal uninsurance benefits and it would restore north carls eligibility to participate in the program. we must continue to work on bipartisan policies that will boost job creation and get americans back into our workforce. we need educational institutions, local employers, and job-training centers to join forces to ensure that unemployed workers are being trained for the job opportunities that are available right now. i have a bill called the america works act that would do just that. it would close the skills gap that has been plaguing our country, and it would take the guessing game

mr. lamalfa: i appreciate the opportunity to memorialize a friend who passed away recently. her name is hazel reed. everyone referred to her as hayes and that's part of the fun of who she was. she enjoyed her ranch and active in her community with political-type issues and standing up for the freedom and values that this country is founded on. i appreciated her greatly for her spirit, her feistyness and take that time out of her life to be involved in the political process and standing up for the community and its values. i'm happy at least memorialize her. we will miss her, hazel reed, known as hayes, in paradise, california. god bless her. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: is there anyone else seeking recognition for one minute? under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from illinois, mr. roskham, is recognized as the designee of the majority leader. mr. roskam: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to include extraneous materials in the subject of this special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. roskam: mr. speak

mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, in 12 days unemployment insurance will expire for 1.3 million americans. this will impact virtually every state. and over the course of the next year it will setback millions of hardworking families, slow down job growth and retard our economic recovery. today i filed three amendments to the bipartisan budget agreement act. the amendments would extend u.i. for one month, three months or a year respectively. and while i believe the best policies extend unemployment insurance for one year in order to keep our economic recovery moving forward, i'm willing to work with my colleagues who objected to extending it for the full year to find a path forward. but we must, i think, we must provide at least a message to those people that they will not see their benefits eliminated on december 28. that we will in fact be working to make sure that this protection is in place for families all across this country. over the next several days i'll be coming to the floor seeking consent and ur