Mr. President, I too support the amendment offered by Senator Tester and Senator Levin. It simply makes clear that the Postal Regulatory Commission may review an appeal of a post office closure if it violates either the overnight delivery…

Madam President, very briefly, first I want to thank the chair of the committee and my colleague from Maine, Senator Collins, for working and assisting me in modifying this amendment. I thought this amendment was important from the…

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment, was modified, as follows: (Purpose: To require the Postal Rate…

Madam President, I call up Snowe amendment No. 2080 with a modification at the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modification? Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as…

Mr. President, I have the greatest respect for the Senator from Hawaii. I know he cares deeply about this issue. But it is simply time for us to reform the Federal workers' compensation program for postal workers and for other Federal…

Mr. President, it pains me greatly to disagree with my friend and colleague from Tennessee, with whom I have a great friendship and great respect, but what he is essentially offering comes pretty close to a complete substitute for the…

Mr. President, I rise today to speak in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 36, which would reject the National Labor Relations Board's, NLRB, rule on representation procedures, the so-called ``ambush election'' rule. I am pleased to be an…

Mr. President, I too wish to commend the Senator from Virginia for offering this amendment in conjunction with the Senator from Maryland. I wrote to OPM in July of last year about this very issue. I was very concerned about reports in my…

Mr. President, let me start by responding to the ranking member of the Budget Committee by saying that I could not agree with him more that it is absolutely unacceptable that we have not had a budget passed in the Senate for more than…

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, but I will be responding. The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

I thank the chairman. Mr. President, we are going to resume debate today on the postal reform legislation our committee, on which the Presiding Officer serves, has worked very hard to produce and to do so in a bipartisan way. As Chairman…

Mr. President, today, I rise to introduce the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, IPAWS, Modernization Act of 2012. I am pleased to be joined by Senators Lieberman, Scott Brown, Akaka, and Carper in introducing this bill. It will…

Mr. President, I want to echo the thanks to everyone who was involved in formulating this very extensive unanimous consent agreement. We have been working extremely hard the last couple of days to make sure we were being fair to all…

Mr. President, I, too, want to comment on this issue of the prefunding for the health care benefits of future retirees. I think it is important to note that when the 2006 law was written, the Postal Service supported this provision because…

Madam President, the Government Accountability Office has also looked at this issue and found that OPM's Actuary did assess that there was an overpayment--what GAO calls a surplus. There is one paragraph in the GAO letter that I…

Madam President, first of all, the inspector general verifies the amount of the overpayments. His letter to Senator Lieberman, Senator Carper, Senator Scott Brown, and myself, dated February 2, 2012, says: The postal surplus for the…

Madam President, I wish to discuss in more detail a key provision of the postal reform bill that is before us; that is, the provision that would refund to the Postal Service an $11 billion overpayment that the Postal Service has made to…

Madam President, before my friend and colleague from Maryland leaves the floor, I wish to thank her for her passionate advocacy on behalf of her constituents. I have a similar problem in my home State of Maine, where a processing center…