blumenthal: thank you mr. president. i'm honored to associate myself with the remarks made by my colleague from rhode island who has expressed very eloquently the reasons that i believe that richard cordray should be confirmed in his nomination as director of the consumer finance protection bureau. this country faces continuing financial crisis. we see it on the job lines, in the streets, in our communities. and that crisis can be traced to the same abuses that this new agency was approved by the congress to fight. the laws are good lust. they're designed to protect consumers from those abuses and problems that led to this financial crisis. but the laws are dead letter. they are meaningless unless they are enforced, unless they are enforced vigorously and rigorously. unless consumers are protected not just in word but in deed. and that is the reason that we should confirm richard cordray as the director of the cfpb. the people in this agency are doing good work. they have the authority now to supervise some of the biggest banks and credit unions but they need a director to oversee the work of nonbank financial institutions such as independent payday lenders, nonbank mortgage lend

of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable richard blumenthal, a senator from the state of connecticut, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. the presiding officer: the majority leader. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, as happens once in a while here, we don't have a final score on part of the payroll tax issue we have the legislation. joint tax, c.b.o. said they'll have the score by 10:00 today. therefore we're going to reverse the order of what we're doing. we're going to vote on the matters relating to the omnibus first. however i ask consent if the reid-mcconnell substitute is not agreed to, the payroll tax issue, the senate's action with respect to the conference report to accompany 2025 and h.r. 3672 be vitiated and the majo