I would ask the chairperson of the Budget Committee how many more traunches there might be.

Mr. President, my amendment would establish a point of order for any piece of legislation brought before this body that would undermine the sacred right protected by the second amendment to bear arms. It is important that we safeguard this…

Mr. President, I move to waive section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act for the consideration of the pending amendment No. 673 pursuant to section 904(c) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, and I ask for the yeas and nays…

Mr. President, the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Program was established to compensate local taxing authorities, such as counties, for the tax revenue lost due to the presence of Federal public land. Unfortunately, the funding for this program…

Let's do it. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The amendment (No. 521) was agreed to. Amendment No. 414 withdrawn The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is now 2 minutes equally divided prior to a vote on amendment…

Mr. President, this amendment is a bipartisan amendment. It puts the Senate on record in support of the Keystone Pipeline project, and that is just appropriate. As I said just a minute ago, every State has approved the project. The…

Mr. President, I call up the amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendment. The bill clerk read as follows: The Senator from North Dakota [Mr. Hoeven], for himself, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Roberts…

Mr. President, I ask this amendment be opposed. It is an effort to prevent construction of the most studied pipeline in the history of the United States. After four environmental impact statements, every one of the reports has shown no…

It is ironic; this reminds me of our church. Every now and then our minister is going full steam and preaching to our congregation. He says: I know I am preaching to the choir, but even choirs need to be preached to. In this case, the…

Mr. President, I believe we need a balanced approach. The notion that we can continue to take away revenue sources is not a responsible way to address this budget. I urge my colleagues to support amendment No. 693.

Mr. President, amendment No. 438 establishes a deficit- neutral reserve fund to protect women's access to basic health care, including family planning and birth control. It ensures that employers cannot deny coverage for contraceptives. We…

I know the answer to this because we have talked about this in the past. We do not have a complete list of all of the various programs.

I turn now to my good friend, the Senator from Delaware. This has been an extraordinary passion of his. I know as chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, along with the ranking member from Oklahoma, this will be…

Mr. President, let me thank the Chair for her good work and putting this budget together, which I believe is the first step as we try to resolve this issue. The Senator from Washington has mentioned this has become my passion in this body…

I ask unanimous consent for an additional 30 seconds, and I will finish. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I would simply say that I want to commend this debate we are having and commend Members on both sides of the aisle. As I said at the outset, no budget is going to be perfect for every Member, but this is a credible, important first step in…

Mr. President, there are strong feelings of opinion in this body about the estate tax. I personally believe the current estate tax--with a very generous $5 million-per-person exemption, and $10 million per family; an estate tax that only…

Mr. President, in the spirit of what our leader said about us trying to move along, I think while we may have a variety of views, we all know we are $16.5 trillion in debt--a debt that goes up by $3 billion every night. The last thing we…