ms. collins: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, i thought i would bring our colleagues up to date on what is going on since the evening is getting late. we are close, i believe, to working out an agreement for a vote on an amendment that was offered by senator paul earlier. it has to do with extending to executive branch officials these same kinds of reporting requirements and ban on insider trading that would apply to members of congress and their staff. it's an amendment that enjoys the support of both of the managers and the principal authors of this bill. what we're trying to do is to make sure, however, that we narrow the amendment so that it applies to top-level federal employees and not to low-level federal employees who have no policy responsibilities. so we were looking at limiting it to senate confirmed positions. the problem

ms. collins: thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, i would then ask unanimous consent that we proceed with amendments so that we do alternate from side to side since there are a number of amendments that have been filed, and i think that would be the fairest way to proceed to make them pending. the presiding officer: is there objection? hearing none, so ordered. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: i ask unanimous consent to call up amendment 1472, my amendment with senator mccaskill. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from pennsylvania, mr. toomey, for himself and others, proposes amendment numbered 1472. mr. toomey: i ask unanimous consent we dispense with the reading. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: mr. president, i'd like to make some comments about this amendment, but i will do it at a later time

ms. collins: mr., to me, this illustrates the confusion over this issue, so i'm pleased that the committee not only reported senator brown's bill, but unanimously adopted an amendment that i offered with chairman lieberman that states clearly that members and their staff are not exempt from insider trading laws. the need for this unambiguous statement can likely be traced back to the nature of the insider trading laws. as our committee has learned, our nation's insider it trading laws are not, generally speaking, based on statutes passed by congress, but rather on court precedents. as one of our witnesses, a law professor from indiana university, pointed out during our hearing, congress has never enacted a federal securities statute that explicitly prohibits anyone from insider trading. that explicit statutory ban on insider trading is entirely absent in u.s. securities law. rather, mr. president, the s.e.c. pursues insider trading cases under the general antifraud provisions of the federal securities

ms. collins: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, i know of no other speakers who plan to come to the floor before we are scheduled under the previous order to recess at 12:30, so i would suggest that we might want to move up the recess time by a couple of moments. the presiding officer: good suggestion. under the previous order, the senate will stand recessed until >> i have an alarming thought about all of this. in some ways the discussion about cyber mirrors a bit the discussion we used to have about terrorism back in the '80s and the '90s. there was a great deal of difficulty coming to a national consensus about what to do about it until we had 9/11 which then crystalized everything and we knew what to do and the nation moved forward. we haven't had that kind of event in cyber yet. we imagine it. we talk about it. the attack on zappos. the attack on stratforewhere i lost my credit card. the only good thing i think a few more of those there will

ms. collins:? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president.et me first begin my remarks by commending my friend and colleague from minnesota, senator klobuchar, for leading the way on this very important bill. there are so many issues that divide us in this chamber, mr. president. surely this is an issue that should unite us. it's not a democratic issue. it's not a republican issue. it's an issue of serious consequences to the american people and to our health care system. and i would hope -- and the reason that senator klobuchar and i have come to the floor today, i would hope that we can act immediately to pass our bill, get it through the house and send it to the president. mr. president, physicians, pharmacists and patients throughout the country are struggling to cope with a surge in shortages of needed drugs that is causing significant disruptions in health care and putting patients at risk. i share with my colleague from minnesota, her concern about this critically important problem. according to the u.s. food and drug administration, t

ms. collins: mr. president, to me, this illustrates the confusion over this issue, so i'm pleased that the committee not only reported senator brown's bill, but unanimously adopted an amendment that i offered with chairman lieberman that states clearly that members and their staff are not exempt from insider trading laws. the need for this unambiguous statement can likely be traced back to the nature of the insider trading laws. as our committee has learned, our nation's insider it trading laws are not, generally speaking, based on statutes passed by congress, but rather on court precedents. as one of our witnesses, a law professor from indiana university, pointed out during our hearing, congress has never enacted a federal securities statute that explicitly prohibits anyone from insider trading. that explicit statutory ban on insider trading is entirely absent in u.s. securities law. rather, mr. president, the s.e.c. pursues insider trading cases under the general antifraud provisions of the federal