As a member of the Commerce Committee, again, I am very concerned that we still do not have a Deputy Administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration in place. As we know, there have been many recent incidents. We are trying to get…

Mr. President, the next one is Jill Long Thompson, to be a member of the Farm Credit Administration. Coming from an agricultural State, I understand how important it is to have people in place for the Farm Credit Administration, especially…

Mr. President, the next of the 107 nominations being put on hold is P. David Lopez, Calendar No. 618, to be general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive…

Next, John Laub, to be Director of the National Institute of Justice. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 581, John Laub; that the nomination be confirmed…

Mr. President, I see the Presiding Officer has a smile on his face as he realizes I have reached the end of the nominees I am reporting on today. But I will tell you this: Having managed an office of 400 people--a government office, a…

Next we go to Winslow Lorenzo Sargeant, to be Chief Counsel for Advocacy in the Small Business Administration. Mr. President, 64 percent of the jobs in this country are created by small businesses. Wall Street has been making record…

Mr. President, the next one that is being held of these 107 nominations is Benjamin Tucker, to be Deputy Director for State, Local, and Tribal Affairs in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. As a former prosecutor--and I know you…

This month we have added 290,000 jobs, which is the largest gain since March of 2006.

As we are looking at policies and what we can do to work with businesses--we've talked about small businesses.

I always was struck by that as a statistic that people do not always look at.

When President Obama took office from President Bush, we were in a major financial crisis.

I am a strong supporter of the Bipartisan Debt Commission led by Erskin Bowles and former Senator, Republican Senator Simpson.

Alright. And one last thing, because I am going to have to do a floor speech.

She just told me, I have no dreams anymore.

Because to me that just seems outrageous that those that have been serving our country have a higher unemployment rate.

Even though our unemployment rate in Minnesota is 7.4 percent, which is significantly below the national average, I get letters all the time that say, well, it might be 7.4 percent but in our household it is 100 percent.

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Madam President, I rise to speak about the need to further address the problems of the credit rating agency industry. Senator Dodd has presented us with a very good bill that takes major strides in addressing many of the problems that…