ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, today marks the fifth day of the shutdown. and i come to the senate floor once again to call on the house of representatives to take up the senate bill. it is a simple bill. it has no bells and whistles. it simply says let's open the government again. let's open all those monuments. let's open up the research that's going on that's so important to save lives at the national institutes of health. let's put our intelligence employees that every day, putting themselves at risk trying to gather that data, let's put them back to work. and then let's take those six weeks to do what the senator from south dakota was talking about, to negotiate a bigger deal, a budget deal. one of the things that i've been concerned about is that the senate has in fact passed a budget. the house has in fact passed a budget. but our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will not let those two budgets go to conference committee like they're supposed to do so we can work out the difference and hav

ms. klobuchar: madam president? officer the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, we are now on day eight of the government shutdown and the pain has been felt by all across the country, by the cancer patients being denied access to new clinical trials at n.i.h., to the mom whose son has muscular dystrophy. his name's jackson and she told me that every day when those researchers aren't working on a cure for her son's disease is a day lost. she said, every day counts. to the small businesses that can't get affordable loans through the s.b.a., through farmers who write me about not being able to get their conservation loans. got a letter here that i road saturday on the floor, "please do whatever you can to stop the government shutdown. we have 14 acres of land enrolled in the conservation reserve program. our rental payment is made to us the first week of october. we depend on this money. it's not a small amount, for our family." kathy from minnesota. "i'm an employee of the social security office. i'm furloughed as part of the government

ms. klobuchar: i thank the senator from arizona. he brought a very experienced voice to our group, and i especially want to thank senator collins for bringing this group together. i think it shows what courage is going to be in the next year in this chamber and in the congress. it's not going to just be standing here by yourself making a speech with no one there. courage is going to be whether or not you're willing to stand next to someone you don't always agree with more the betterment of this country. this was very close to another default, to seeing what we saw in 2011 with the dowr down 2,000 points, household wealth down over $2 trillion, that just can't happen again. thanks to our leader, senator reid, thanks to his work with senator mcconnell, we averted this this time and i think you will find a strong bipartisan vote in the senate for this compromise, for this idea of paying our bills, opening the government again, making sure that we have a reasonable time period to work out a solution long term, and that is our challenge.

ms. klobuchar: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: madam president, this afternoon, the 2013 farm bill conference committee will finally convene for the first time, bringing us one step closer to finishing the farm bill. i know you, i know that madam president being the senator from wisconsin understands how important this is to our country's future, and certainly the farmers and businesses and the families in minnesota understand how important this bill is. we have waited a long time to go to this conference committee. the senate, as you know, has passed two farm bills now that really continue the strong policies of the last farm bill, but in fact save $24 billion, reduce the debt by $24 billion over the farm bill that is currently in place. i am part of the group that negotiated the details of the bill to help finish the process that started over two years ago. before i go on about the details of this senate bill, i would like to thank chairman stabenow for her incredible lead