On rollcall No. 44, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.'' Personal Explanation

Mr. President, I want to talk for a few minutes at the beginning of my remarks about what the response to the flooding has been in our State of Missouri. I was in St. Louis County with Congresswoman Wagner on Saturday. I was in St. Charles…

Mr. President, I was also able to talk about some good news. I am not sure how much good news we are going to hear over the next few days, but certainly there is the good news of stepping up and looking at health care research and the…

I regrettably missed votes on January 6, 2016, January 7, 2016, and January 8, 2016. Had I been present I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall vote 2, ``no'' on vote 3, ``no'' on vote 4, ``no'' on vote 5, ``no'' on vote 6, ``yes'' on vote…

I thank Chairman Goodlatte for working with us on this piece of legislation. If there is one thing that I hear most often from my constituents, it is the onslaught of Federal regulations to keep up, let alone interpret. Our constituents…

I thank the gentleman for the additional time. Basically, we have got 518 rules in one day, 18 pages of rules in one day. I think it is important that our citizens have access to these rules in a way that they can understand and a form…

175,268. That is the number of pages of Federal regulations on the books that are breaking down the backs of small businesses, farmers, and families across our entire country. Some of the folks across the aisle may say that there aren't…

Madam President, I am here today to talk a little about the bill we saw posted late last night--a bill that I think has better results than the process itself would have suggested we might have. There is no question that we have to get…

Mr. President, I wish to talk for a few minutes today about mental health. It is a topic that gets a lot of attention every time somebody does something that we don't think makes sense, when people do harm to others in ways that we don't…

I thank the gentleman from North Carolina. Madam Chair, the EPA has decided that 12 million wood-burning stoves in 2.4 million households across America need to be regulated. Back in the Eighth District of Missouri, about 30,000 households…

Mr. President, I have listened carefully to the Presiding Officer's comments earlier and the comments of others who have talked about the importance of passing this bill and drawing focus again to the health care plan that is just not…

I urge adoption of the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Smith). The amendment was agreed to. Amendment No. 3 Offered by Ms…

The American people have been misled. They were incorrectly told that Dodd-Frank was meant to go after big banks and Wall Street. However, in my rural congressional district, the effects of this law and its close to 500 regulations have…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 4, line 12, strike the first period and insert ``, including consumers and small businesses in rural…

Mr. President, before I start my remarks, let me say how pleased I am to see Senator Reed and Senator Collins here with this important bill, the opportunity to amend the bill and do the business we should be doing. This Senator is also…

I think this is a problem, and there are lots of families in the United States who would love to have kids from wherever in the world kids are who need families. The two examples you have just given are some of the frustrations of…

I would say in this regard that there are several things we are trying to do that we are still working on with Senator Klobuchar and others together. Clearly, there are great stories to be told. One thing we don't want to forget with…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 315, submitted earlier today. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title. The bill clerk read as follows: A resolution…