I appreciate my good friend from Illinois allowing me to go ahead and talk about the Defense bill at this time, but doing it in the context of where we are on the floor right now. Mr. President, defending the country is the Congress's most…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate for 10 minutes in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. The result was announced--yeas 70, nays 30, as…

Mr. President, I yield back the Republican time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back. The question is on agreeing to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2112.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Kohl in supporting the conference report, and I particularly want to talk about the agricultural programs in the report. This is my first year as the ranking member of the agriculture…

Mr. President, we are going to move this bill this evening. I think we have other people who wish to speak and there is no reason they should not come and speak. I encourage them to come over here and say what needs to be said so we can…

Mr. President, I want to talk about the four amendments I filed on this bill. I will say right upfront, all four are supported by my Missouri colleague, Senator McCaskill, so they are bipartisan amendments. Two of them would deal with a…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken). Without objection, it is so ordered. Amendments Nos. 973 through 976

Mr. President, we don't use the Congressional Review Act often. In fact, I think we have only used it once successfully. But the regulators are working at a breakneck pace, and I think the overreach we see in this rule and some others that…

Mr. President, I join with my friend from New York to discuss the needs of our National Guard. We are introducing two important pieces of legislation today that I believe will help address those needs. I have always been a strong supporter…

Mr. President, over the past year, Missouri and the entire country have faced numerous natural disasters that devastated the livelihoods of people in our communities. As we work to rebuild, the scope of these events has placed unusual…

Mr. President, I rise today to speak on this infrastructure jobs bill, and actually I think my good friend from Minnesota has done a great job of explaining why we need to be focused on infrastructure. I think if I was going to summarize…

Mr. President, I wish to take a moment to thank Senator Kohl. The comments the majority leader made about him were certainly proven right in all of our relationships. I thank him for his guidance and encouragement throughout this process…

I move to lay the motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 763 The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There will now be 2 minutes, evenly divided, on amendment No. 763. The Senator from South Carolina…

Mr. President, the bill I hope we get to tonight is part of the President's jobs package. It would repeal an action taken by the Congress a few years ago that I think has proven to be a harmful decision on the part of the Federal…

Madam President, yesterday, around 5:30 or so, we had all kinds of Members who suddenly wanted to come over and talk about their amendments. Now is an opportunity to talk about these three appropriations bills. The floor is open. There are…

Madam President, I note the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

I thank my colleagues for bringing amendments to the floor on the Agriculture bill and also on the other two bills we are dealing with, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce- Justice-State. We have had a vigorous…