Mr. President, I wish to thank Senator Cardin for his cooperation. He has been so patient. It is an important amendment. It is an amendment that both Senator Snowe and I support and many other colleagues support it. We hope to get to a…

What concerns me is right now in this Congress, there are efforts to significantly reduce funding for the Department of Homeland Security to cover an existing shortfall in FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund (DRF).

I wish to join Senator Snowe in supporting this amendment. We have received actually many complaints from small businesses at any number of the roundtables we have held in our committee about the old bait and switch that is going on, where…

Let me use the 45 seconds to ask unanimous consent to be listed as a cosponsor of the Casey amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, how much time remains before the vote? The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are 45 seconds remaining.

Mr. President, as we are waiting for Senator Casey, I don't think there is any opposition to this amendment. I see the ranking member on the floor and I am wondering if she has anything she wishes to add at this point. I said earlier…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we resume consideration of the Casey amendment No. 216; that there be 2 minutes equally divided before we proceed to a vote in relation to the amendment; that there be no amendments in order to…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Amendment No. 216

Thank you, Mr. President. That is what our records show. I appreciate all these Members being very patient. We have their amendments pending. We are going to try to line up votes for them, hopefully, sometime either later tonight or…

There is no objection. But before we do that, I ask the Senator a question. I actually like this amendment, No. 184. The Senator spoke with me about this previously. It has some merit. I thank the Senator for being cooperative. If he could…

Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator from Pennsylvania being so supportive and so helpful. I think this is an amendment we can support. I am hoping to get clarification to actually go to a vote on this amendment sometime in the next 20…

Mr. President, we are waiting 10 or 15 minutes for Senators to come to the floor to speak about the bill. Senator Snowe, myself, and others have fairly described it for hours today and yesterday. I thought I would take a minute to pay…

Would the Senator mind explaining that amendment, and I will make sure it is cleared on our side and we will see what we can do.

Mr. President, I appreciate the cooperation of the Senator from Oklahoma. We have been able to get his amendment No. 184 pending in the list of seven others, which gives us eight pending but not yet set for a vote. If he would allow me to…

I may not have an objection. We are trying to get it cleared on our side. If the Senator will explain it, we can get back to him in short order.

The reason I ask the Senator that is because it is striking to me that some Members from the other side of the aisle will come and argue that programs like this should be slated for cuts and reductions, and yet failed to vote favorably to…

Would the Senator explain--I think he knows because he is quite an expert on this program. I agree 100 percent with the views he just expressed. What is the basic average Social Security income that a person might receive? I understand it…

Mr. President, this has been a very interesting debate. It really gets to the heart of the larger amendment on Capitol Hill and in the minds of all Americans. How are we going to close this budget deficit, annual deficit, and how are we…