I really appreciate the leadership of Senator Murphy and his effort to see that the Senate addresses commonsense gun legislation. It is probably around the hour when people are getting home, and they are wondering why we are here, why the…

Well, I want to get to a second question, but I want to say that is absolutely accurate. I can tell you I don't think it has ever taken me more than 15 minutes to go through that process. As a law-abiding gun owner, as somebody who has…

I just want to thank Senator Murphy for everything he has done on this issue and for not taking no for an answer.

SNAP I think is one of the most important policies and programs in this country

I have very deep concerns about the integrity of the SNAP program in my State in New Mexico.

I believe that these problems are clearly being caused by the way the State is administering the program...

the most egregious issue here is that I have vulnerable families that aren't getting the support that they deserve.

The House and the Senate passed bills. We didn't actually go through conference committee, but we worked hard on those differences from late December through just a few weeks ago. We faced challenges working out a final agreement with the…

I thank the Senator. He knows, because he has served so many years, how important it is to have good staff. I want to make sure we get them thanked here. I appreciate that. Implementation of this law is going to be extremely important. As…

Of course, Alex, thank you. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to use enough time here to just get through my thank-yous. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it so ordered.

I thank the chairman. I just want to say to Chairman Inhofe, the bipartisanship he showed is incredible, and it showed what a significant accomplishment we could have. I also want to thank so much Senator McCain for allowing us to fit a…

I yield time to--the agreement, as I understand it, is that Senator Markey will speak for 5 minutes and Senator Whitehouse for 5 minutes and then back to the Chair.

Thank you very much. Let me just say that I am going to stay over. I thank the two Senators. I am going to stay with Senator Inhofe and thank additional people because I think it is that important, but we have this time agreement, and we…

let me just initially, while Senator Vitter is still on the floor here, thank him so much. He was a great partner in terms of working on this piece of legislation thoroughly through the process over 3 years. We met, I think, about 3 years…

I will just also--has the Senator finished? I just wanted to say a few closing words and thank a few more people staying to the end, but of course the chairman needs to finish his remarks.

We sure will. Mr. President, I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

Bonnie Lautenberg is here with the Congress. We don't want to violate any of the rules. I think she is in the room with us here today. She came down today. As the Senator knows, we have a First Lady's Luncheon, and all the spouses attend…

I very much agree with that. When it comes to innovation, when it comes to moving in the direction of creating products that are going to be sustainable over time, I don't have any doubt that this bill is going to have a huge impact. I…