ms. klobuchar: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: i'm here to talk on behalf of commerce secretary nominee john bryson. mr. bryson testified before our commerce committee. i was impressed by his background and by his ability to answer the questions, by his understanding of business. i think everyone knows we are facing difficult economic times in this country, and we need someone in that job that understands business. mr. bryson has strong and broad support within the business community and his nomination has been endorsed by such groups as the u.s. chamber of commerce, the business round table and the national association of manufacturers. six former commerce secretaries from george w. bush, bill clinton, george h.w. bush, nixon administrations, those commerce secretaries from those presidential administrations have also joined in strongly supporting his confirmation. mr. bryson, as you know, mr. president, was reported favorably to the entire senate by the commerce committee. you look at what some of the groups have said

ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota is recognized. ms. obuchar: mr. president, i rise today to speak in support of the american jobs act. rarely is our economy discussed these days without mention of the 14 million americans that are currently out of work and searching for a job, but as you know from your home state, this isn't just a statistic. it's real people, people who are struggling, people who have had their hours cut, people who may have worked at a job for a very long time and poof, it's gone away. that's what this is about. two years after the recession officially ended by the accounts, unemployment is still stubbornly high at 9.1%, 9.1%. when you factor those that are working full time because they can't find a full-time job, those numbers go much higher, up toward 16%. now, my home state, the state of minnesota, is much better. we have an unemployment rate of 7.2%, but there are still too many people out of work or who are struggling with reduced hours at their jobs. while no group of workers has been spared by the high rates o

ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. uchar: i rise today to talk about a serious public health crisis facing our nation and to highlight some of the important progress that we have made today. we are currently kopbl fronting unpress -- we are currently confronting shortages of critical medications. these drug shortages impacted people across our country forcing some patients to delay their lifesaving treatments or use unproven, less effective alternatives. in some cases drug shortages have resulted in patients not being able to get the kind of treatment that they've gotten in giving slow in getting their treatment and getting left behind. i've been working to address this problem for over a year since i first heard from hospitals, pharmacists and patients in minnesota that they were facing shortages of essential medications, particularly chemotherapy drugs. their urgency led me to send a letter to f.d.a. commission hamburg to take actions to address this public crisis. over the next few months i continued to receive calls