ms. murkowski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska is recognized. ms. murkowski: mr. president, request that proceedings under the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, robert j. luck, of florida, to be united states circuit judge for the 11th circuit. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska is recognized. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. it was just several weeks ago now. it was actually october 23, that here in the senate we had the opportunity to recognize a friend so many of us, a mentor certainly to me, a leader in alaska, and this was the life and contributions of senator ted stevens. the alaska congressional delegation was able to join with members of the stevens' family, many, many of his friends, his congressional colleagues, a

ms. murkowski: mr. chairman? the presiding officer: the senator for alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i am pleased that any moment now we will move to invoke cloture on the nomination of dan brouillette to be our next secretary of energy. as folks know, he is currently serving as our deputy secretary of energy. he has, in my view, excelled in that role since being confirmed by this body with strong bipartisan support back in august of 2017. he has run the department on a daily basis. he's been helping secretary perry set an agenda that's been focused on energy security, technological innovation. he has been a good partner at the energy committee. honest, open, responsive. i have certainly appreciated all of his leadership and would commend him to this body. he did very, very well in his nomination hearing before the energy and natural resources committee. i believe he will do very well in his new role. i would encourage all members to work with us to confirm him as soon as possible today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: