and sharon bowen, all approved by the agriculture committee on a voice vote. right now i want to focus on ms. bowen who we'll be voting on in a little bit. within the dodd-frank wall street reforms, individual agencies were directed to establish an office of minority and women inclusion. this action was taken to address the lack of diversity of qualified men and women in federal agencies involved in financial regulation, but also subcontractors, contractors who receive billions of dollars from the government. the cftc itself should lead by example when it comes to diversity as well as expertise, so i'm especially pleased that president obama selected sharon bowen as a nominee for the commission. she will be the first african-american woman to serve on the cftc and will be the only woman serving at this point in time on the five-member commission. and she has the kper tease and the -- the expertise and the experience to be an excellent commissioner. during her testimony before the agriculture committee, ms. bowen told of her upbringing as the youngest of five ch

the question is: is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of sharon y. bowen of new york to be commissioner of the futures commodity trading commission shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the ayes are 50, the nays are 44 and the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: commodity futures trading commission, sharon y. bowen of new york to be a commissioner. the presiding officer: pursuant to the provisions of senate resolution 15 of the 113th congress, there will be up to eight hours of postcloture consideration of the nomination equally divided in the usual form. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent with respect to the harper nomination, the motion to consider be considered made and laid on the table and president obama be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without

i spoke earlier today about sharon bowen's qualifications, and i was very pleased to see the senate approve her nomination. now i'd like to talk about the other two cftc commissioners appointed -- nominated by the president, who were confirmed by the senate just a few minutes ago. for the role of cftc chairman, president obama has selected timothy massad. mr. massad has a sterling record of public service. three years ago he was confirmed unanimously by the senate to serve as the department of treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability. in that position, mr. massad oversaw the wind-down of the troubled asset relief program. he devoted himself to helping homeowners who were struggling to stay in their homes while helping communities where vacant houses were a blight to neighborhoods. it's a tribute to mr. massad's leadership that the banks that benefited from tarp have repaid nearly every dollar. at the treasury department, mr. massad not only made good on his responsibility to ensure a positive return to american taxpayers; he did so with complete transparency. during mr. massad

they also advanced the fornation of sharon bowen the commodity futures trading commission.senate gavels back in at 2:15 eastern, live on c-span2. live when we will be the burdens institution has a discussion on the results of the european union election spirits beakers will include british and irish ambassadors to the u.s. and representatives from the imf and from the media. that is expected to start at 2:15. we will have it live. another tuesday and another set of primaries. eight states across the country having primaries today. a look at some of them from this morning's "washington journal." host: a lot of focus on mississippi but seven other states with primaries. alabama, iowa, south dakota, montana, new mexico, and california. we have the politics editor for on thel.com joining us phone. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: let's talk about these other races, including in iowa and the republican senate primary. crowdedhere is a very field seeking iowa's first open senate seat in three decades. a handful of republicans. the real question t