Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Alexander amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and…

Mr. President, before we go to the amendments, I want to give a general overview of what it took to get to the point at which we are now. The first thing we had to do was show the leader we could produce 60 or more votes for this bill…

Mr. President, before I speak, I think we need to give the Senator from Arkansas another 2 minutes because he was speaking on the wrong amendment that is before the Senate.

Madam President, because it has been announced that we have gone to the bill, it makes it necessary for me to ask to speak for a few minutes, as in morning business, on a subject that is unrelated to the bill before us. The PRESIDING…

As we talked about the earlier amendment, we talked a great deal on the previous amendment about victim's notification. There is also a victim's notification in this amendment as well. So I don't want to go into--the arguments are the…

Mr. President, if I had 2 minutes the last time, I should have had more than 2 seconds left over.

Will you vote against the amendment, please? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to division III.

Mr. President, I rise in opposition to this amendment. This amendment is unnecessary. This amendment is duplicative of requirements already enacted into law under the Crime Victims' Rights Act. Current law requires notification to crime…

The Senator from Louisiana is ready to object to what I am doing. I am going to ask unanimous consent, but before anybody objects, I would like to make, maybe, a 1-minute statement on the reason for my unanimous consent request. I ask…

Reserving the right to object, I would like to explain my--make a point before I object. This amendment is inconsistent with current Federal law and would allow States the right to break existing law. If there is an attempt to legalize…

No, I can't do that. Let's see if we can keep our bipartisan coalition together to pass a bill that the President said he is ready to sign. That is what he said at the end of his news conference. It is pretty important to understand, this…

OK. Vote against the amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to division No. II of amendment No. 4109.

Mr. President, I have asked to be notified before any unanimous consent agreement to process this bill because I oppose S. 281, the Fairness in High-Skilled Immigrants Act. High-skilled immigrants are a benefit to the United States. We…

Mr. President, before I start my remarks, in case they go beyond the time for a vote, I ask unanimous consent to finish my remarks. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

We are here today to begin debate on a piece of legislation called the FIRST STEP Act of 2018. This happens to be the most significant criminal justice reform bill in a generation. Our country is based upon the rule of law. If someone…

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to speak out on behalf of the Fourth Congressional District of Iowa, which I claim is the number one agriculture-producing congressional district in all of America…

Mr. President, as the 115th Congress winds down, I would like to reflect on the enactment of the historic tax legislation, which passed last year, and what is ahead for us in the new year. In December of 2017, Congress passed, and the…

Mr. President, I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the…