ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: again, i rise to compliment a subcommittee chairman. the senator from arkansas took over this committee the first time this year, so he is a new chairman although he is not new to the issues. i'd like to thank you for the work that you did and the bipartisan tone that you set. again, you have done an excellent job, i believe, working with the senator from missouri, senator blunt. and what was impressive was how you took really -- when we say agriculture, mr. president, that's one word, but agriculture in this country is very diverse. so am i right that you handle everything from artichokes to catfish? what do you handle in your bill? mr. pryor: we handle everything from artichokes to catfish and everything in between. in our bill, we take the entire department of agriculture, with the exception of forestry, forestry goes to another subcommittee, and we also do f.d.a. really, if you look at -- for example, i men

ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i come to the floor today as the chairperson of the appropriations committee, a committee i'm honored to chair to support the consolidated appropriations act for fiscal year 2014. this bill passed the house on wednesday with a stunning, an amazing vote of 359-67. the purpose of this agreement is to fund the operation of the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2014. the vote in the house which i hope will be parallel here in the senate shows what working together based on civility, listening to each other, being willing to compromise but not capitulate on principle but negotiating on what are the appropriate fiscal levels, show we can get the skwr-b -- job done. in today's era of shutdowns, slowdown, slam-down politics where negotiating occurs on cable tv rather than in committee rooms, we work together, setting aside partisan differences, working across the aisle and across the dome, we looked to find how we could put together a bill that both sides of the a

ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: we're coming to the end of a long day and a really long journey. this journey began last year when this committee was dealing with a crisis situation. on december -- in december of 2012, our beloved and esteemed chairman, senator inouye, passed away and simultaneously we were dealing with the emergency legislation to fund hurricane sandy. at that time, with -- i was asked by my colleagues in the house, based on our seniority system, to become the chair of this committee. it was my goal in taking over the committee that i wanted to continue a great tradition of senator byrd, of senator ted stevens, of senator danny inou inouye, of senator thad cochran, that we would work on a bipartisan basis in the interest of the united states of america. though we come from different places, different states and have even different priorities, we are one country. and it requires us to make sure we do our job. an appropriations committee is one of two committees that are constitutionally ref

ms. mikulski: well, i thank the gentleman from florida. it's just wonderful for both my colleague, senator shelby, and i to -- you're an astronaut senator. and to come from an astronaut senator to say, we think you're doing the job right, means a lot to us. ththe senate has been blessed by having three astronaut senators. senator jake garn, republican from utah, senator john glenn of ohio, and senator bill nelson. now, some of us have been in orbit a long time but you actually knew what you were doing. so thank you very much and we're trying to add gravity to this bill. mr. shelby: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: i just want to pick up on what senator mikulski was talking about. senator nelson has been not only an advocate for the space program for nasa, he, as most everybody knows, has been up there. and i was traveling with him one time and i believe we were over asia and he was showing me from the plane -- we couldn't see as well as he could from rotating the -- but i was very impressed. but

ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i rise today to speak on the consolidated appropriations act of 2014, but before i make those comments, i want to associate myself with remarks of the gentlelady from california, ms. boxer, and also the gentleman from rhode island, senator jack reed; and also all of those who voted to move forward where we continue to provide an economic social safety net for those people who have lost their job and are actively looking for work and to continue this economic and social contract that's been part of the way americans respond to help other americans at a time when they're down but they shouldn't feel like they're out. and i would hope that we could put party rancor aside, that we would adopt -- look at commonsense ways to move this bill forward. in terms of the so-called pay-fors, i've been here a long time. i've never seen this pay-before before -- this pay-for before on unemployment compensation particularly on a 90-day bill. we're talking about 90 days and we

ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i rise today to speak on actually two topics. one on extending the unemployment benefit program that is so essential to the people of maryland and to other fellow americans, and also to comment on the national security agency's surveillance programs, the need for reform of the program but the need to reject the mission of the agency and to cast a disparaging light on the men and women who work there. let me start first, though, talking about unemployment benefits. i come here today with great sense of urgency and passion over the fact that we need to extend these unemployment benefits that expired january 1. this is one of the coldest spells that we've had in decades in the northeast-midwest area. and i cannot -- i find it unfathomable when it is so cold that the big chill in washington is that we're not going to extend the unemployment benefi benefits, that extending a warm, helping hand to americans who have lost their job through no fault of their own an

ms. mikulski: i move to reconsider. i move to lay on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the clerk will report h. con. res. 74. under the previous order, the concurrent -- the clerk: h. con. res. 74, concurrent resolution providing for a correction in the enrollment of h.r. 3547. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the concurrent resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider considered made and laid upon the table. mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: if i'm not bothering anybody else, i'd like to start. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. all senators please take conversations off the floor. the senator is entitled to be heard. mr. grassley: today i would like to continue the discussion about the destruction of the senate as a deliberative body and continue to echo the call of the distinguished minority leader for a return to a functional senate. i've spoken on this issue before, and i think it's best

ms. mikulski, and senator shelby of alabama. we had wonderful times at christmas and new year's. listen, next time, as much as i love these people, i'd rather be with my family. lastly, i want to thank the members and staffs of the committee. they gave up countless hours of family time at christmas, during the holidays, new year's, in order to complete this bill. they really are an a-team and i'm lucky to have all of them working for this committee. without their hard work, their expertise on the issues, and their commitment to this legislation, we would not be here today. and we should all be grateful for their service, and i hope that you will say something to them as you pass. i'd particularly like to recognize the clerk of the agriculture subcommittee, martin delgado. after 16 years, this is his last bill with the committee. and how fortunate we have about to have had him until the end. no one knows the ins and outs of agriculture appropriations like he he does. he's a true expert in every sense of the word. we'll miss him dearly and wish him godspeed. let me also mention the

ms. mikulski, and senator shelby of alabama. we had wonderful times at christmas and new year's. listen, next time, as much as i love these people, i'd rather be with my family. lastly, i want to thank the members and staffs of the committee. they gave up countless hours of family time at christmas, during the holidays, new year's, in order to complete this bill. they really are an a-team and i'm lucky to have all of them working for this committee. without their hard work, their expertise on the issues, and their commitment to this legislation, we would not be here today. and we should all be grateful for their service, and i hope that you will say something to them as you pass. i'd particularly like to recognize the clerk of the agriculture subcommittee, martin delgado. after 16 years, this is his last bill with the committee. and how fortunate we have about to have had him until the end. no one knows the ins and outs of agriculture appropriations like he he does. he's a true expert in every sense of the word. we'll miss him dearly and wish him godspeed. let me also mention the

ms. mikulski: which is? the presiding officer: the short-term c.r. ms. mikulski: thank you very much, madam president. and i wish to rise in support of this. what this is is a simple short-term extension of the continuing funding resolution we passed some weeks ago. this is washington speak and budget speak for saying this. as of today, the money that keeps the federal government in operation expires. however, we have being debated in the house this afternoon a consolidated appropriations bill that will fund the government through fiscal year 2014 and will come to the senate either late this evening or will be on the floor tomorrow morning. madam president, i ask the senate to pass this short-term extension because it is a technical situation. this isn't the usual delay, drama, fiscal cliff situation. we did not finish -- when the budget committee acted and we passed the bill on a bipartisan, bicameral basis, we the appropriations committee were given a very stringent deadline for january 15 to produce an appropriations bill for fiscal 2014. we have worke