the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. the presiding officer: i would ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: madam president, i rise today to discuss h.r. 3801, the ultralight aircraft smuggling prevention act of 2012. and i urge the senate to pass this legislation today. passing this bill will not only help to secure our southwest border but it also affords us the opportunity to honor an incredible colleague. i had the privilege of serving with congresswoman gabby gifers in the house oygiffords in the f representatives. and she is the force behind this legislation. she originally introduced it in 2012 before the senseless act of violence that took place, and she won its passage. but the senate failed to ache it up -- failed to take it up. over this past year, we've been working with gabby's staff and i was honored to introduce this bill in the senate with senators heller and feinstein. it passed in the senate but was held up in the house because of a procedural issue. this

the senate said we were in session. the president recognized that fact by signing legislation passed during one of those sessions. article 1, section 5, also states -- quote -- "-- or partial quote -- "neither house shall during the session of congress without the consent of the other adjourn for more than three days." end of quote. the other body did not consent to our recess for more than three days. no concurrent resolution authorizing a adjournment was passed by both chambers. under the constitution we could not recess for more than three days. we did not do so. the president's erroneous belief that we can determine whether -- that he can determine whether the senate was in session would place us in the position of acting unconstitutionally. if the president is right, we recess for more than three days without the consent of the other body. and, of course, that would be a ridiculous position to take. by claiming that we were in recess, the president effectively dares us to say that we failed to comply with our oath t

quorum call: a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you. as you know, people are coming down requesting amendments be brought up, and since i don't see any democrats offering any, i'd obviously defer to senator paul. he has an amendment. the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up amendment number 1490. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. lieberman: reserving the right to object. mr. lieberman: i have no objection. to the filing of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky, mr. paul, proposes amendment numbered 1490 to amendment numbered 1470. mr. paul: i ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. paul: this amendment will a

the roll. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the state of the nation's economy. upon taking office, president obama encountered one of the worst recessions in this country's history. he faced tremendous challenges under any standard. to be sure, it would have been difficult for any president to make the kinds of reforms that would have had an immediate effect on an economy this bad, but at the end of the day, we see that although he was handed something that we can fairly characterize as an economic emergency, he, through his actions and through his policies, turned that emergency into a national tragedy. in his first two years, instead of focusing on creating jobs and creating a set of circumstances in which the private sector would bring jobs to fruition, president obama and his substantial majorities in both houses of congress used their tremendous advantage to push for gr

the clerk: the senator from oklahoma, mr. coburn for himself and others proposes amendment numbered 1473. mr. coburn: i ask unanimous consent the amendment be considered as read. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. coburn: this is a bipartisan amendment, senator mccain, plr mccaskill and senator paul and myself. multiple times we've asked for this but haven't gotten it. what this amendment says is every bill that comes before congress and to be considered by the senate, we should determine whether it's duplicating something that's already happening in the federal government. it's common sense. and all we're saying is an analysis by the c.r.s., congressional research service, to determine if the bill creates a new federal program, office, or initiative that would duplicate or overlap any existing federal program, any existing federal office or initiative with a similar mission, similar purpose, similar goal or activities along with a listing of all the overlapping or duplicative federal programs or offices

the senator from connecticut. mr. lieberman: i was going to reserve the right to object on senator brown's motion because the aforementioned mr. hoops, i'm proud to say, got his start on capitol hill in my office, and i was just looking for an opportunity to say that. mr. president, we have about 20 minutes until the vote on the motion occurs, and obviously we're all here together, senator collins, senator brown, senator gillibrand, senator tester and i to urge members to vote for cloture to take this measure up. it would be a ray of light, warm light if we pass this measure, this cloture vote overwhelmingly, and then we could go on to debate it. some people may have amendments. obviously, i presume they will that they want to offer. i hope that in considering amendments that our colleagues will -- will focus on the problem that stimulated this legislation, that led us to bring it to let -- led senator brown, senator gillibrand to introduce it, led our committee to pass it out on a bipartisan vote, which was concern th

the u.s. senate should come to the table, find a solution to these issues, and we will wholeheartedly join hands on our side of the aisle when we do it in a responsible way that will take care of this situation in a long-term fashion not a short-term band-aid like washington, d.c., for so long has thought is good policy at the expense of hardworking taxpayers of america. with that, i yield the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california. mrs. capps: thank you, mr. speaker. to my colleague from new york, being here in december as you mentioned a few times it was december 22nd that senator mcconnell actually, nefrl senators, said to -- several senators, said don't just be here but get to work. and again i acknowledge that today the conferees are meeting for the first time. . i yield myself the remainder of my time and i want to make a few quick points. first, to remind our colleagues what is in this motion. it simply say

the problem will be in the senate controlled by the democrats. so it's going to be kind of going to be messy as we get down to the crunch time. what is something the senate will do and then when they do pass something because the walls are different in the senate you can have the minority block legislation would with the conference look like, so i think it is going to be some time and as we get closer for the year even though this is an election eurith you will we get closer and people want to get out of time so it's going to get a little messy. gautham nagesh is there a lot of money being thrown at these piracy bills? >> absolutely. i think that the bill protect i.t. and then in the house it is called the stop online privacy act is the result of many years of lobbying on behalf of as juliana said, hollywood, the content industries, the retail industry, u.s. chamber of commerce has an office dedicated to this legislation. we are talking about probably one of the largest lobbying efforts in the recent years in washington, and the tech industry, ev

and once the senate f they do pass something because the rules are different in the senate, what would a conference look like? so i think it's going to be some time, and as we get closer through the year even though this is an election issue, if you will, we get closer to the election, people want to get out of town, so it's going to get messy. >> host: gautham nagesh s there a lot of money being thrown at these pirate bills. >> guest: absolutely. in the house it's called stop online piracy act, it's the result of many years of lobbying on behalf of hollywood, the retail industry, the u.s. chamber of commerce has a whole office dedicated essentially to this legislation. we're talking about probably one of the largest lobbying efforts in recent years in washington, and the tech industry even though it's very large constitutes a larger share of our economy is having to catch up very quickly, and they're far behind in terms of spending right now. >> host: when you see the ads being put out by the companies for and against these bills, they're almost apocalyptic about what could actually h

before the senate. ry. i asked my wife is my knees look as good as john and she didn't even laugh. the whole idea was to get us to laugh at each other a little bit and enjoyed each other a little bit to loosen up a little bit. but the most important aim was human relationships and contacts. to be respect of your colleagues. i found out very quickly i could keep that attitude and get nothing done or find a way to go across the aisle and work together and get them things done here that is the journey to being a leader. you go through the process and one day you wake up they look i am here to try to make a difference and therefore i am going to find a way to work with the democrats secretary of agriculture. i am going to be fair and honest as i can with everybody. i'm going to find a way to get bipartisan things. and of course a lot of it depends on personalities. the time we were there it was tom and me. it was a challenge and was an opportunity, too. the way we cut tax reform and budget and welfare reform

the act is expected to pass the senate. the securities and exchange commission prohibits inside trading already. lawmakers cannot and will not be able to trade on any insider information or face penalty. joining us for some perspective on all of this is rachel, bain. >> how did this all come about. a direct result of that 60 minutes piece that got so much attention? >> that's a fair question. that broadcast basically led to members of congress were using nonpublic insider information to get rich. on savvy investments ma they were making. the practice known as insider trading is prohibited for all americans including for members of congress. but after that program aired, everybody was thinking, are members of congress actually above the law? so, in order to cover themselves, lawmakers have stepped up their sponsorship of the s.t.o.c.k. act and have pushed it to the floor immediately, it's on the senate floor this week and it could be coming up on the house floor in the next few weeks. >> let me ask you, there's going to be a

in the u.s. senatelared or said they are going to run. the record to beat in any cycle is 36 in primaries. we are not there yet, but we do have a record the number of incumbent women running for reelection, so there is a little record in there. i want to take you back two cycles ago and four cycles ago so you can see where this fits in perspective. in 2008, at about this time in the progress -- in the process, we had 11 women running. in 2010, we had 29. so we are ahead. in the house right now, we of two hundred two women who are either considering running or out there pretty publicly that they are going to run. the record to be is 2010, when at the end of the day we had two hundred 22. -- 222. at this time in the cycle, we had 183 in 2010. so, we are up both in the house and in the senate. the number right now is 202 who have either said they are going to run or declared. these are early, early numbers. but i want to drill down just a little bit, because one of the real reasons we saw the kind of chang

the three-term senator from texas is retiring this year. spoke to her recently about her political career, her retirement and what's next. >> what are you most proud of? >> well, certainly the homemaker ira, so that a woman who works inside the home has the same opportunity to save for retirement with tax free money as those who work outside the home. and, i started that from my experience of being a working woman, getting married, and then not being able to contribute to my ira. i certainly lessened the marriage penalty tax. it used to be that if you were two single people working and you got married you went into a higher bracket and you didn't have double the standard deduction, which we do now. >> any business undone that you wish you had been able to do more of? >> oh sure. you know, there's so many things that you wish you could do. um, i wish we had been able to reform social security. and i introduced a bill to do that that would have made it last for 75 years and been on a good sound, financial plan, but we aren't going to get that

before the senate. e honored sean connery. i asked my wife is my knees look as good as john and she didn't even laugh. the whole idea was to get us to laugh at each other a little bit and enjoyed each other a little bit to loosen up a little bit. but the most important aim was human relationships and contacts. to be respect of your colleagues. i found out very quickly i could keep that attitude and get nothing done or find a way to go across the aisle and work together and get them things done here that is the journey to being a leader. you go through the process and one day you wake up they look, i am here to try to make a difference and therefore i am going to find a way to work with the democrats secretary of agriculture. i am going to be fair and honest as i can with everybody. i'm going to find a way to get bipartisan things. and of course a lot of it depends on personalities. the time we were there it was tom and me. it was a challenge and was an opportunity, too. the way we cut tax reform and budg

this was happening on the floor of the senate. and it was worse in the house where there were so many of them. there was fists fights and the sergeant of arms said if there had been an explosion it couldn't have been any worse. it ended in a melee. but now, you see, a compromised had passed and everybody recognized that the south would not secede. the men who attended the nashville convention argued in favor of secession but decided to allow congress to decide the issue. and so they got the thing passed the south didn't secede the north prepared itself so that when it came to the end and henry clay is dead, and who did they have? james buchanan and millard fillmore and franklin pierce -- all of those biggies. l[laughter] who as buchanan said, there is nothing i can do. they have a perfect right to secede. he should have done with what andrew jackson did, threaten them. i'll make a frog pond of your state and help dispatch them to the soldiers there and then and then all of a sudden they found abraham lincoln. it's incredible. he ha

we had huge numbers blocked by the senate. but what it also shows at its core and this is the biggest issue, is barack obama is not a reformer. he didn't come to change washington. he came to preserve his own brand. you go back to his original campaign. he said he'd take public financing. realized he'd make more without it. he let lobbyists into the white house. he said no signing statements because he said the -- he issues signing statements. now this. the president's words are wind. they don't have any value. his actions are very expensive and they're putting us into debt, but the president's words are meaningless. >> for starters, ari, the president never said he would have no presidential signing sayings. secondly, public financing, i mean the public finance system is broken, but thirdly, the notion that the president shouldn't be able to do -- the notion that the president shouldn't be able to do his job because mitch mcconnell doesn't think he ought to be re-elected isn't how the government should work. the president says

appointment if the senate is in recess. in recess. in fact, his own justice department argued last year before the supreme court that the senate has to be out of session for three days. it has not been. that appeal was based on a ruling of the clinton justice department three days. you can appoint anybody you want in a recess appointment. you can appoint anybody who is already rejected by the senate. you can appoint anybody you want as a way to make a purely sicynical point in election year in ohio, as obama is doing. but you can't do it as a recess appointment if the senate is not in recess. >> bret: senate majority leader harry reid, jonah not surprising, supporting the president today putting out a state in the support of this move. but back when then president bush was making such recess appointments, the democratic leader reid used these pro forma sessions to block other bush appointments. you know, hypocrisy on one hand. >> huge hypocrisy. the whole thing is a pinata. if you bash it from any angle you will get reward f

us on "the communicators." senator wyden, first off, what are your issues with the protect and the sopa anti-piracy legislative pieces? >> guest: both of them are, essentially, using a bunker-buster bomb when what you need is a laser beam. look, there is no question that there are some bad actors out there. there are people who sell tainted viagra or fake roll lexes or movies they don't own, and as far as i'm concerned, you ought to handcuff them. but these bills go way, way beyond that and particularly they do a tremendous amount of damage to the architecture of the internet. i mean, basically, what they do is they turn web sites into web cops. i mean, basically, you'd have web sites trying to monitor enormous, you know, amounts of data. youtube alone gets, like, 24 hours of content, you know, every second. it would be impossible to monitor. nobody really even tries except for the chinese and the iranians. >> host: so saying that, that they go too far for you, what is your alternative proposal that you and representat

of the senate. officer: the republican leader -- mr. mcconnell: -- we do enjoy our sports discussions. the -- of course, i always have the ultimate trump, which is the university of kentucky's won seven ncaa championships. university of louisville, two. and so my friend is always trying to catch up. and i would say that -- mr. reid: only eight more to go. mr. mcconnell: unlv has a good team this year. probably not as good as kentuc kentucky. maybe as good as louisville. but it does give us an opportunity to catch up on each other's teams every day as we -- as we head to the floor. mr. president, let me just start on a sort of sober note by saying we're all thinking of our colleague, mark kirk. it's at moments like these that we're all reminded of how fragile life is and that there are far more important things in life than politics. so we send mark and his family our prayers and our wishes for a speedy recovery. now i'd like to begin my remarks today by simply stating the obvious -- the jobs crisis

the senate is in session. hat president obama break this egg, it will not get put back together. you created the precedent. >> in fairness, george bush cut a deal with members of the senate to allow some appointments to go through. the president had an opportunity to do something different. there was a moment on january 3rd when he between gavels he could have done what other presidents do. when the gavel out one session and in another, he could have just recessed appointed then. it swront caused this same attention. >> why did he do it? >> this is politics. the timing of it is about politics. and the timing was to get as much notice and attention as possible to send essentially i'd say three messages. one, a message to republicans basically i'm not going to take any from the white house's perspective or any more flack from -- about this gridlock on these consumer issues. two is a message to voters, you know, their campaign theme is about working americans. he's going to fight for working americans. it's a perf

, the pro forma senate session. ell played game of [bleep] poker. for more on this appointment, we go now live to senior political analyst john oliver stand on the hallowed floor of the united states house of representatives. john oliver, nice to see you. (cheers and applause) >> jon: john oliver, what is this? >> jon t couldn't be simpler. in 2010 in the throes of one of the worst economic recessions in u.s. history congress came together and passed a law creating a badly needed consumer protection bureau. a watchdog against the kinds of predatory financial practices that have so destroyed the economic foundation of this great country. and since then, congress has worked diligently to prevent this unaccountable, unelected and down right dangerous bureau from ever fully coming to existence. that's the answer, jon, you are welcome. any other questions or can i get out of here. >> jon: yes, no, yes, i have question. if congress now fears the bureau that they themselves created, why not then just pass a law uncreating i

in the u.s. senateht now we have 32 women who were either declared or have said they are going to run. the women to be turning for the senate in any cycle is 36 and the primary. we are not there yet but we have a record number of income and women running for reelection so there is a little record in there. i want to just take you back to cycles ago so you can see the board this fits into perspective. in 2008 of about this time in the process we had 11 women running for the united states senate and in 2010, we had 29 women. so we are ahead of where we were. at the u.s. house right now we have 202 women who are currently saying the reader interested in running or considering they are out there pretty publicly that they are going to run. the record to beat is about 2010 at the end of the day we have 222. at this time in 2010 early in the cycle we had 183 women, so we are up from 2010 and back in 2008 we had 158 women running, so we are up in the house and in the senate. the number right now is 202 who are

the roll. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss mr. isakson: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. isakson: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: i ask to be recognized in morning business. the presiding officer: the senator is so recognized. mr. isakson: well, we're back, mr. president. and tonight i understand that the presiding officer and i will be sitting together at the state of the union event which i'm pleased to do and it is always an historic moment in our process when the president of the united states talks about and lays out his plans for the future. i know from watching this morning on television and from reading some of the accounts of what is thought to be said tonight, one of the overriding themes is the theism fairness. that's an important thing to focus on particularly with regard to our spending and debt and deficit. i did a telephone town hall meeting back to juror last evening. we had thousands of people listenin

before the senate. connery. i asked my wife is my knees look as good as john and she didn't even laugh. the whole idea was to get us to laugh at each other a little bit and enjoyed each other a little bit to loosen up a little bit. but the most important aim was human relationships and contacts. to be respect of your colleagues. i found out very quickly i could keep that attitude and get nothing done or find a way to go across the aisle and work together and get them things done here that is the journey to being a leader. you go through the process and one day you wake up they look, i am here to try to make a difference and therefore i am going to find a way to work with the democrats secretary of agriculture. i am going to be fair and honest as i can with everybody. i'm going to find a way to get bipartisan things. and of course a lot of it depends on personalities. the time we were there it was tom and me. it was a challenge and was an opportunity, too. the way we cut tax reform and budget and welfare

from the earliest days of her senate confirmation back in the day when the senate co-confirmed obama tees, she threw open her door for mettings not just with aging leaders, but leaders from the african-american, latino, api, indian country, and other diverse elder communities who have been effectively frozen out of meaningful conversations with the administration on aging for years. i have to say it was incredibly refreshing to finally have a federal leader on aging who talked the talk, but we soon found out that assistant secretary greenley was also prepared to walk the walk. in october 2009, less than a year after assistant secretary greenley took charge, the administration on aging awarded a historic, first of its kind community innovation for aging grant to a los angeles gay and lesbian center allowing the l.a. center to dramatically expand services to lgbt older people. soon after that, kathy played a leading role in funding the creation of the country's first and only national resource center on lgtb aging. led by sage in collaboration with ten partners around the country, the n

taking questions from the senate committee. as the hearing got under way, james clapper signaled that the u.s. is seeking to avoid a violent confrontation with iran. it's monitoring the possibility of a preemptive strike by israel. this is available online at washingtonpost.com. >>> allen furman is described as one of the least popular person on hill. he's retiring after nearly 20 years as the senate apartmepar tarren inspect 1989 we sat down with him about the jobs and the responsibilities. part of our video library. check it out at c-span dot organize. here's part of that conversation. >> mr. president, for a few weeks -- >> the presiding officer of the senate varies sometimes from hour to hour. does that mean you're the primary source of parliamentarian. >> the responsibilities of senators generally are, it's so -- so varied, they really are not expect to be experts in parliamentarian services. we're there to provide expertise as presiding officers change hour by hour. >> back to your job, i forgot to ask, who apoints you to

i was in the vermont senate for a while and i know the rules.owever, this is a brilliant political move because mitch mcconnell is going to get up there and do nothing because they've been used to thwart any kind of reasonable progress on the economy and any kind of reasonable thing this president is trying to do for middle class americans. so you're right. i think you're right. i agree for that inside the beltway there's going to be a lot of clubbing. outside the beltway this is a great move for the president rich cordray was a very highly popular official. it was brilliant. scott brown did what he did because he's running scared. he's running against elizabeth warren who's an icon for consumer protection and he's got to distance himself from the republican party before she beats him. >> governor, you and i agree respectively because and jonathan it creates for us this situation. i'm go to read, republican senator scott brown's outraged reaction to what the president did today except there's no outrage. here is what republican senator scott bro

the time. mr. durbin: senator coburn who just spoke, we see so many things differently but yet we see so many things the same. he and i come to the senate with different backgrounds, perhaps different values in many areas and a much different voting record. they would put us on opposite sides of the political spectrum if they decide those voting records, and yet i have found over the last several years senator coburn and i have been able to agree and come together on some of the important issues he just raised on the republican side of the aisle which are chaired on the democratic side of the aisle ft senator coburn and i served on the bowles-simpson commission, a commission appointed by president obama to reduce our nation's debt and deficit. i voted for the commission report, with some misgiving over proposals, but believe that it moved us in the right, proper and necessary direction. the fact and simple fact of the matter is the united states borrows 40 cents for every dollar our government spends, borrows 40

it is time that the senate works with the house. we have 27 bills sitting over there that deals with job creation. all aspects, whether it's the credit and financial markets or making sure that we're cutting regulations to end some of the challenges that we're facing in the central valley. but we have to get both houses to work together and we would call on the president, visit california's central valley, prepare a budget that can be passed by both houses. this country's hurting right now, and we need real leadership that will bridge that gap. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana, mr. cassidy, for five minutes. mr. cassidy: thank you, mr. speaker. in the challenges we have of creating jobs, every now and then we have a light-hearted moment. congresswoman sewell, and i made a challenge over the b.c.s. championship game. i am here to pay off my end of the challenge. first, let me congratulate l.s.u. they had a tremendous season. they played nine ranked teams, four of th

amy klobuchar is one of the toughest senators in the united states senate. michele bachmann has gone around the country and embarrassed the state of minnesota. >> she barely won her seat last nig time. >> if she can stay disciplined, joy-ann, i mean, she gets the camera time. she has the camera moxy where she could get out there and really beat somebody up on camera and start the narrative that, you know, mitt's not the guy. >> yeah. i mean, you know what, she was actually pretty good in the last few debates. she actually stepped up her performance, but the problem is, there's so much youtube history on michele bachmann that she does sort of come across as a bit of a joke. i think had she just done the really good debate performances she might be viable. maybe they'd think of her as a vp candidate. right now she's going to fade away. >> running you can't get kicked out of your health care plan as a result of -- >> republicans never seem to mention those things. >> there's something interesting santorum said on this. he actually believes you should be able to

to appoint without the senate during recess. now what is called pro forma sessions, because the constitution also says that no body of congress, the house or the senate, neither the house nor the senate can adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other body. we have seen that in state legislatures and people take their toys and home and don't like the way things are going and they just leave. the founding fathers 200 years ago sensed that challenge and wrote it into the fabric of our founding document, nobody of congress, neither the house or the senate shall adjourn more than three days without the consent of the other. what that leaves you with is these bodies in what they call pro form aveha -- forma sessions. we are open for 72 hours. the speaker comes up to the microphone and gavels us in. is it a full day? no, it's not. and this is a process that has been going on for dozens of decades and in november of, 2007, when senator harry reid was trying to prevent president bush from making recess appointments,

the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president, today i rise with a heavy heart to mourn the loss offin ogden polie officer jared frankem. mr. lee: earlier this month, on the evening of january 4, 2012, agent frankem, whm was senselesy gunned down defending his fellow officers as they attempted to serve a search warrant in ago den, utah. five other officers -- shawn crogen, casey perrell, michael ronkels, nate hutchison, and jason vanderwarf -- were wounded in the gun battle. a week later, a crowd of roughly 4,000 family members, friends and supporters, including more than a thousand uniformed officers, gathered at a public memorial for jared, to say goodbye to one america's fallen heroes. the sentiment from all who knew him was the same -- jared was a devoted family man, a dedicated father to his two young daughters, a fun-loving brother and son to his family. at the funeral, which i attended, i heard jared's brother ben say that he -- quote -- "taught people to care for each other and taught others to change the world l

that the senate passed, senate 1236, that the senate agreed to senate concurrent resolution 34. with best wishes i am, signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to take off the speaker's table h.r. 658 with the senate amendment thereto, disagree with the senate amendment, and agree to the conference requested by the senate. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: h.r. 658, an act to amend title 49 united states code to authorize appropriations for the federal aviation administration for fiscal years 2011 through 2014, to streamline programs, create efficiencies, reduce waste, and improve aviation safety and capacity, to provide stable funding for the national aviation system, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. without, the chair appoints the following conferees for h.r. 658. the clerk: from the committee on transportation and infrastructure, for consideration of the house bill and s

the senate was a 54/46 split in terms of democrats and republicans. even though george bush won 53% of the popular vote and 79% of the electoral vote that was the situation we faced as we began service in 1989. we probably were the victims of our own success. i served for a couple of years on the senate legislative team for president reagan. during a period of time when we had control of the united states senate. from 1980 to 1986. at that point in time, i say we were products of our own success. it was sort of the beginning of a number of southern democrats, in particular, who decided being a southern democrat was getting more and more into the situation of an endangered species. they decided to become republicans. as this change started to take place, particularly in the south, it made the environment where we had to get the legislation accomplished a little bit more difficult. it set the stage, if you will, for the beginning of the president's term. this is something i think hasn't been mentioned for the past two days. trying to figure out something

on the floor today, you saw a senators who came and spoke the case for deficit reduction but in a balanced way. you saw senator dick durbin who is involved in the very defunct -- although everyone tries to -- three democrats and three republicans who tried to structure a deficit reduction package that included both spending cuts and revenues. you're seeing -- taxes are always a big deal. they're a bigger deal in election years. you're seeing a really interesting debate right now both inside the capital because every agreement they've come to today as been cuts only. on the campaign trail, you look to see what he importance people are putting on mitt romney's personal taxes, interesting to see how that interplays with what people think about the policies. all of these things are coming into focus and today was just one of many examples i think you'll see in the next few months where people will talk not only the necessity for reduction but how we achieve it. >> let me ask you from your colleague humberto sanchez with the lead at this hour, roll call.com, senate republicans not really united

did a vacancy hapg happen during the recess of the senate? at's another thing the courts will have to work out. is this only to use, like in the first 100 years or so of the country when the congress was only in session about half the year, is it only if a vacancy happens when the congress is out of town, unable to act, the president can can quickly act to keep the business going, or can it be used -- i think both sides are sort of pushing the words of the constitution here, and the courts are going to have to decide who is right. as to who can bring a challenge, it will have to be something that mr. cordray does in his new job, somebody that doesn't like that ruling or whatever rule he likes up can come to court and say he has no right to do that job. >> anybody technically could have standing here to bring -- to bring a case? >> anybody who is aggrieved. i think the best argument is anybody who declares themselves aggrieved by something that this new consumer protection agency does. >> and luke, how many senate re republicans want to see a l