ms. cantwell: mr. president, i come first and foremost tonight to thank the staff who worked so hard on this package. i mean not just in the last few weeks but for literally years work to try to get to an agreement on something we could vote on. ms. cantwell: it's not a surprise to the united states senate that it's december and people are voting on a lands package. my colleague from colorado outlined it very well, that when you have these bills that deal with water, that deal with public lands, that deal with giving federal land back to communities so they can improve their communities and, yes, designating some special places so they can preserve for the public, that, yes, not all your colleagues care about the details of that, and you are never going to get the leader who's in control of the united states senate to give you floor time on that bill. so every december, we're here with a lands package to be considered. and it's a package that has a lot of input from a lot of people, negotiated in this

ms. cantwell: mr. president, i come first and foremost tonight to thank the staff who worked so hard on this package. i mean not just in the last few weeks but for literally years work to try to get to an agreement on something we could vote on. ms. cantwell: it's not a surprise to the united states senate that it's december and people are voting on a lands package. my colleague from colorado outlined it very well, that when you have these bills that deal with water, that deal with public lands, that deal with giving federal land back to communities so they can improve their communities and, yes, designating some special places so they can preserve for the public, that, yes, not all your colleagues care about the details of that, and you are never going to get the leader who's in control of the united states senate to give you floor time on that bill. so every december, we're here with a lands package to be considered. and it's a package that has a lot of input from a lot of people, negotiated in this

ms. cantwell: i urge my colleagues toe vote on nominee bernard mcnamee and i thank my colleague from oregon being out here talking about why it matters and why colleagues both sides of the aisle should turn it down. i'm -- my constituents probably do know who the ferc is, when it -- they had to count on them to make sure that energy markets were properly policed. and in the end, they did do that basically protecting consumers for what are unjust and unreasonable rates. but the fact is that a lot of americans don't understand who the federal energy regulatory commission is. that's because of the job of the commission can range from a broad overseeing and reliability of the electricity grid to ensuring that wholesale electricity and natural gas rates are just unreasonable. that's what we argued in the enron case, they were going to make utilities pay nine years for fraudulent contracts. we emphasized how could fraudulent contracts be just an reasonable if they admitted to -- admitted to them. they also see licensing of dams, construction of natural gas pipelines and rely on ferc to protect th

ms. cantwell: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that lauren vernon and tom schanpp be granted floor privileges for the duration of the 115th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. boozman: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on finance be discharged from further consideration of s. 3611 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report.