The blue slip issue is, quite frankly, a great conversation piece.

It is clear that this is being used to slow down the other work of the Senate and for no other purpose.

we can either do nominations or legislation, but the Senate cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.

My state does expect me to vote.

we are gaining muscle memory that every nominee... we are going to still go through the cloture.

cloture still should not be used--and his term was--except in extraordinary circumstances.

Republicans stepped across the aisle in 2013, met with Democrats, and voted with 78 votes at the beginning of President Obama's term to say we are going to change this and to not do extended debate for all of this.

We have to determine how we are going to do this.

Let us make it permanent and say this is how we are going to continue to function.

The hardest hit right now would be State Department and DOD.

It took about 50 days during the Obama administration, and it took about 30 or 40 days during the Bush administration time and during the Clinton administration.

Losing that time period is a great loss to the American people.

Something has to be done.

We have learned as a body that we are now either going to do nominees or we are going to do legislation, but we cannot do both.

The American people are frustrated with Washington gridlock. They believe that we cannot get even the simplest of things done.

We are not engaging on the issues.

We need to fix this. We need to restore the process to what it once was, and I believe this is an opportunity to do this.

Dual tracking is something that has been done by the Senate by unanimous consent before.