On rollcall No. 265, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' Stated against:

Mr. President, I am proud to join my colleague Senator Landrieu in introducing today this RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act of 2011. I want to also thank her and compliment her on her leadership on this issue. Senator Landrieu has been developing…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized for the next 15 minutes so Senator Vitter and I can introduce a very important piece of legislation. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sanders). Without objection, it is so ordered. (The…

Mr. President, I rise today to explain why I am voting no on the budget deal later this afternoon. First and foremost, I am voting no because I do not think this is a meaningful, substantial start to getting our hands around what is the…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown of Ohio). Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________

Mr. President, I see other colleagues on the floor waiting to speak so I will try to wrap up these remarks in about 5 minutes. But I do want to add a few things and thank my colleague again. He is on the committee that will take this bill…

Mr. President, I am going to speak for 2 or 3 minutes in a brief introduction, and then turn it over to my colleague from Louisiana. We are both very excited and enthusiastic to present to the Senate and to Congress work that has been…

Madam President, I want to highlight an important provision that is included in the Homeland Security division of this bill. It is related to the firefighter hiring program known as SAFER. In 2009 and 2010, Congress approved waivers for…

Mr. President, I understand there are other colleagues on the Senate floor. I want to speak for a few minutes as chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee and express my views about the vote we are going to cast in a few…

I see other colleagues on the floor, and I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

Mr. President, I watched with great interest President Obama's speech about our spending and debt crisis. That is what I would call it. He did not use as stark terms, unfortunately, but it is a spending and debt crisis. First of all, I am…

I thank the gentleman from Oregon for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.J. Res. 37, which prevents the Federal Government from coming in and regulating the Internet. If you look at what's happening in Washington right…

There have been a lot of quotes on this floor, so this one goes out to our young people and our seniors and our servicemembers and Federal workers who stand to be affected by a government shutdown. It's a lesson for my Republican…

Well, it depends. And what we see in this climate right now, you see the anger out there of a generation of people and a large population of people who are upset at the way government is working. Now, there is one particular thing they can…

Thank you, Congressman Jackson, for yielding to me and allowing me to participate in this conversation. And thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing us this opportunity to talk. Congressman Jackson, you well know that it starts back in the…

Well, Congressman Jackson, my question to you was going to be: Have you seen a State react yet? Have you seen a State step up with their own jobs plan? Or have you seen a State address the inequality and the treatment of the unemployed so…

Well, they can't do it. Part of it becomes when you take health care as a whole, when you start talking about the United States of America and health care for all, the United States of America and education for all, the United States of…

Absolutely not. Not only would my State take it, but there's a new report out by a conservative group that shows that Louisiana receives more aid than every other State except one and for the first time our State budget has more Federal…