ms. aponte's past. shortly after ms. aponte was first nominated by president obama, i along with four other members of the senate foreign relations committee wrote a letter to secretary of state hillary clinton to ask for her snns? obtaining this information. that same month, all eight republican members of the committee wrote to senate foreign reels committee chairman john kerry stating that committee members had not received requested information needed to fully vet the nominee. let me remind everyone, we never received that information. ms. aponte was recess appointed by the obama administration later this summer. we have continued our efforts to work with the administration to get access to this information. chairman kerry was able to convince the white house to allow me to see a summary of the diplomatic security background investigation. however, that summary did not address the fundamental questions that have arisen, and that summary left me with more questions than answers. so committee republicans wrote another l

ms. aponte have jumped through enough hoops already. ms. aponte's record speaks for itself and experts in the region support her confirmation. the same enthusiasm is there for ambassador eisen. if republicans block the confirmation of these excellent, qualified candidates, it will only be for nakedly partisan reasons. also is a democratic proposal to to to end a $1,000 tax increase on working families. every hour they delay and every day they filibuster is one more the senate by necessity will have to stay in washington to get its work done. republicans have opposed our plan to pay for this legislation with a tiny surtax on a tiny fraction of america's highest earners. the tax would only apply to the second or third or fourth million the wealthiest americans make. but republicans say the richest of the rich in our country even those who make millions every year shouldn't contribute more than to get our economy back on track. they call our plan time after time a tax on job creators. and i say so-called job creators. because i say that, mr. pr