ms. murkowski: mr. president, request proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask and ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to members of my staff, allison nichols, sterling againwitch, michael mc cambridge, and ceilia butlered and jonathan slithe for today and tomorrow. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i would like to take a few minutes while we have an interlude here with the farm bill to speak with my colleague, senator sullivan, about the nomination of an alaskan in my view an extraordinary alaska. she has been nominated to serve as the assistant secretary of indian affairs at the department of interior. it is my very strong hope that ms. sweeney can be confirmed to this position before we leave for the 4th of july recess. i see no reason why this body should delay the confirmation. i want to give just a little bit of background and

ms. collins and -- presti -- mr. perkowski mr. murkowskias well as potential defections by senators such as jeff flake of arizona and rand paul of kentucky. and the president yesterday met at the white house yesterday senators for filling this vacancy to discuss it. they were senator chuck grassley, who chairs the judiciary committee, susan collins of maine, lisa murkowski of alaska, who will be the pivotal vote for the republicans, senators joe manchin, donnelly, and high camp, all of -- heidi heitkamp, all up for reelection. delma in ohio, democrat. caller: hi, how are you? host: hi, how are you? caller: good morning, i am fine. my first disappointment with this whole thing was when mr. to the white house and sneaked back to wherever he wanted to go and with all of that i said ok, that is it. and now i hear the ohio representative being so nasty, i thought is this what we have come to? allowot believe that we our representatives to be there and speak in such a nasty way. i am not a trump fan, will never to have an ohio representative spea

ms. stabenow, having working on and the diligent staff. they are senator jones, senator smith, senator kennedy, number 3097, senator murkowski, 3110, senator hatch 3125, senator merkley 3147, senator tester 3148, senator gillibrand 3154, senator gardner 3157, senator moran 3159, senator collins 3160, senator peters 3164, senator shaheen 3172, senator feinstein 3177, senator cornyn 3186, senator cantwell and senator crapo 3209, senator gardner again 3218, and senator grassley. i would only note this represents 18 amendments, including the substitute. extremely bipartisan. i have read republican, democrat, democrat, republican, all through these 18 amendments. we have proceeded that way in committee. we are proceeding this way on the floor. i would urge members to bring their amendments to the floor for consideration, and hopefully the amendments will be in the nature that we can consider them without controversy. i know that people have strong concerns about whatever amendment they would introduce, but again the ultimate goal is to do this quickly and to provide farmers certainty and predictability during this difficult time that they're go