ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: request that proceedings under the quorum call being disnsed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 79 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the the clerk: senate resolution 799 desnating december 2020 as national impaired driving prevention month. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the meare. ms. murkowski: i further ask that at resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and motions to ronsider. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on banking, housing, understand urban affairs be discharged from further consideration of s. 633 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. thelerk: s. 633, a bill to award a congressional g

ms. murkowski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: request the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, all postcloture time has expired. the question is on the harwell nomination. the clerk will call the roll. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: he vote: vote: the presiding officer: have all senators voted? does any senator wish to change their vote? the nays are 59, the nays are 25. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the previous order is considered made, laid upon the table. the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. mr. gardner: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: i ask unanimous consent that with respect to the dietz nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's actions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: i ask unanimou

ms. murkowski: mr. president, this is a -- this is a time of year when we all look forward to wrapping things up, as they say. many around the country when they think about wrapping things up, think about presents they are going to put around the tree for their family, we think about it closing up business for the balance of the year. and that's really we are and hopefully in a couple of hours here, the house will take up the omnibus bill and the covid relief package along with a number of other matters that the congress has been working to address in the past year. i would like to speak this evening for a few moments on the significance of where we are. but i want to start with just a story that i just now received from one of my staff people back in alaska and she -- she got a -- a video from the medical staff at the subregional clinic there at st. mary's. st. mary's a small community up on the yukon river, and probably i would say 500 people, maybe more, in st. mary's. but it's just a reminder to me

ms. murkowski: mr. president, i had an opportunity to listen to my friend and colleague from the state of ohio outline with great detail the efforts that a bipartisan group has been working on for just a month now. it was just a month, i was reminded, november 17 apparently, that i had an opportunity to invite some colleagues history of to my house for dinner and -- some colleagues over to my house for dinner and conversation. while it wasn't pizza -- didn't make any difference what we were eating, it was all about what we could do to be responsive to the urgency of the need. as my friend from ohio has said, people in ohio are suffering, people in alaska are suffering, people around the country are suffering. and they're looking to us for answers and for hope. and i felt on monday that there was -- there was that sense of hope that we could offer. it's not the end-all and be-all in terms of a legislative proposal, but it was -- it was a dozen members, bipartisan -- republicans and democrats from this bo