quorum call: quorum call: mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. boxer: mr. president, we yield back the remaining time on the nomination. the presiding officer: without objection, all debate time has expired. the question is on the nomination. mrs. boxer: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: is there anyone wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, on this vote, the yeas are 93, the nays are zero. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action, and the senate will resume legislative session. mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: m

mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. hat the senator from arkansas, senator pryor, be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: before chairman murkowski levels the floor, i wanted to thank her for her very hard work with several colleagues in putting together a plan that is a real commonsense plan that avoid this sequester. these automatic, senseless spending cuts. and it wasn't easy to do, but i thinker they fissioned out a way -- they figured out a way to pay for it, as she described, called the buffett rule, which basically says to a mult imillionaire, we think it only fair that you pay the same effective tax rate as your secretary. if you were to ask anyone in the street, any party -- republican, democratic -- do you think that's the right way to go? i'm convinced 90% of the people who say, of course. -- would say of course. i want to thank you. and i know that senator ink owe way is looking down and smiling because his successor, senator mikulski, is doing sufficient a great job already. -- i

mrs. boxer: thank you. thank you very much, mr. president. i'm glad we're voting today on the president's choice for secretary of defense, chuck hagel, our former colleague. and i stand here as a senator who had a number of questions about some of the things he said in the past and some of the votes that he cast and some of his philosophy. and what i did as soon as i learned that he was the president's pick -- remember, the president's the commander in chief. this is a critical appointment. it's got to be someone he has his faith in, he puts his trust in. and he picked someone, a brave hero who served in vietnam. so i wrote all my questions down and, believe me, they covered some tough ground -- tough ground -- on women's rights, on gay rights, on iran, on israel, a number of questions, and i asked if it would be all right if when the answers came, we could put it on-line and people could see the answers. and absolutely the answer came back, "yes." and the answers to my questions were very clear and very strong. senator hagel has evolved on c

mrs. boxer: at 4:00? the presiding officer: at 4:00. mrs. boxer: i would say due to what's happening here i would just say if he doesn't make his presentation in five minutes that weekend vote -- that we could vote. mr. mccain: on behalf of senator grassley and probably to his dismay, i call up the grassley amendment. the presiding officer: cloark cloark -- the clerk will report the amendment. stroik. the clerk: strike all after the enacting cause and insert, mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i ask the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 34, the nays are 65. the amendment is not agreed to. the majority leader. mr. reid: a few minutes ago, senator carl levin cast his 12,000th vote. so it's my honor to say a few words about carl levin. he's serve

rhode island, brown, leahy, casey, durbin, shaheen, blumenthal, cardin, schumer, stabenow, boxer, whitehouse, begich. mr. reid: madam president, we do this so -- to make sure that people are on their toes. sometimes these signatures aren't the easiest to read. i ask consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. reid: i now ask unanimous consent that we proceed to a period of morning business with senators allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask consent that we proceed to -- the senate proceed to s. res. 56. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 56, a resolution recognizing the significance of the 100th anniversary of the death of hair hair -- harriet ross tubman. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceed to the measure? without objection. mr. reid: madam president, i am going to ask unanimous consent that we pass this, but i read a year and a half or two years ago two books about this woman, harriet tubman. stunning. all the movies being m

mr. chairman. thank you for the testimony. you mentioned the housing market and that being important, one of the drivers of our economic recovery. in that respect, senator boxer and i introduced the responsible homeowner refinancing act which would remove barriers to refinancing for bars with gse mortgages and have a history of paying their mortgage on time. in the state of the union of the the president said those who want to refinance are told no. can you discuss the benefit to individuals and the gnarl economy to enable families to refinance mortgages at today's historically low interest rates? >> well, if the borrowers can refinance, they will have lower payments, lower debt burden, and more income and ability to spend. the offset, the question on the other side is whether there are needed subsidies or other costs and how large those would be. that would be the tradeoff i look at. it's true from the borrowers point of view to refinance at a lower rate is going to increase the chance you can stay in your house and increase your income. >> wouldn't we, in essence, solidify an entire universe of responsible, so far responsible borrowers to be able to ensure

mr. chairman. thank you for your testimony. you mentioned the housing market. that being important, it's always been one of the drivers of our economic recovery. in that respect, senator boxer and i have reintroduced the responsible homeowner refinancing act, which would remove barriers to refinancing for borrowers with gse mortgages and have a history of paying their mortgage on time. in the state of the union, president obama said too many families who never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no and urge the congress to act. in that respect, could you discuss the benefit to both individuals and the national economy of enabling more families to refinance mortgages in today's historically low interest rates? >> well, on the side of the borrowers, if they are able to refinance, they will have obviously lower payments, lower debt burdens, and to some extent more income ability to spend. i guess the offset, the question on the other side is whether there are needed subsidies or other costs and how large those would be. that would be the trade-off i would look at. it's true from the borrower's point of view, being able to refinance at a lower rate is going to

mr. chairman. chairman bernanke, thank you for your testimony. you mentioned the housing market and that being important. it's always been one of the drivers of our economic recovery. and in that respect senator boxer responsible homeowner refinancing act which would remove barriers to refinancing to borrowers with gse mortgages and have a history of paying their mortgage on time. in the state of the union president obama said too many families who have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being told no and urged the congress to act. in that respect, could you discuss the benefit to both individuals and the national economy of enabling more families to refinance mortgages at today's historically low interest rates? >> well, on the side of the borrowers, if they are able to refinance, then they will have obviously lower payments, lower debt burdens, and to some extent more income and ability to spend. i guess the offset, the question on the other side, is whether there are needed subsidies or other costs and how large those would be. that would be the trade-off i would look at. but it's true from the borrower's point of view being able to refinance at a lower rate is going to increase th

mr. chairman, that you'll also put in that universe something the president mentioned in his speech last night which is mortgage refinancings -- >> absolutely. >> senator boxer and i have legislation on that. i can't understand for the life of me why we wouldn't let, you know, thousands of american families refinance, lower their rates and unlock not only a universe of solidified homeowners, but also unlock economic potential -- >> senator, i couldn't agree more. the work that you've done is very important. >> senator cardin. >> thank you, mr. lew, and thank you very much for your willingness to continue in public service. we congratulate you on the nomination. i thank, also, your family because this truly is a family sacrifice, and we very much appreciate that. you come to this hearing with an incredible welcomed of public service -- background of public service. i just want to underscore one, and that's your work in the house under tip o'neill where you were part of the efforts to reform our social security system and our tax code, both of which required bipartisan cooperation where the white house and congress were under different parties. we need that de

mr. chairman. thank you for your testimony. you mentioned the housing market. that being important has always been one of the drivers of the economic recovery. in that respect, senator boxerhave reintroduced the homeowner, which would remove barriers for people who have a history of paying their mortgage on time. too many families who have never missed a payment are being told no. can you discuss the benefit to individuals and the national economy of enabling more families to refinance mortgages in today's historically low interest rates. >> well, on the side of the borrower's if they are able to refinance they will have lower payments, lower debt burdens, and more income to spend. i guess the offset, the other side is whether there are needed subsidies and other costs and how large those would be. that would be the tradeoff i would look at. but it is true from the borrowers point of view, being able to refinance at a lower rate increases the chance that you can stay in your house and increase your income. >> wouldn't we be solidifying a universe of so far responsible borrowers to ensure they will continue to be a responsible bower. and create an economic stimulus. if i'v