Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for up to 10 minutes. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. Nomination of Marco A. Hernandez

Mr. President, I thank the chairman of the Commerce Committee dealing with an exceptionally important bill. I appreciate his courtesy at this time. Mr. President, later in the evening the Senate will confirm Judge Marco Hernandez, who has…

Madam President, I want to take a quick minute or two to talk about an amendment that will be called up later in the afternoon on my behalf to expand and improve the unmanned aerial systems--known as UAS programs--that are part of the…

Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce two bills that will provide two important communities in rural Oregon with the means to promote their cultural history and their economic development opportunities. These are bills that I…

Mr. President, over the last week, I have watched the affairs in Tahrir Square in Cairo, as millions of Americans have, and I was deeply impressed by the peaceful demonstration of Egyptian citizens calling for change in their…

Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce the Empowering States to Innovate Act with my colleagues, Senators Scott Brown and Mary Landrieu. At a time when we are looking for ways to bring this country together to deal with the most…

I thank the Senator from Iowa, because with this colloquy he has laid it out very well. The fact is we have been at this so that it sometimes feels as though it has been the longest running battle since the Trojan War, given the fact we…

Mr. President, while we wait for Senator Grassley, who, as Senator Alexander has mentioned, has been relentlessly pursuing this with us for years--again and again, Senator Grassley would come to the floor and make the point that a Senator…

Mr. President, I thank our colleague, our invaluable ally in this fight. Senator Grassley, I believe, is on his way. But the Senator from Tennessee has had many discussions on this topic with me and other Senators, and I wish to thank him…

Mr. President, with the passage of this resolution, no longer will it be possible for a Senator to engage in the unconscionable practice of secretly blocking a piece of legislation that affects millions and millions of Americans. The fight…

(for himself, Mr. Grassley, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Inhofe, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Collins, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Tester, Mr. Johanns…

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce critical forest legislation for my home State of Oregon. This is legislation that I introduced in the last Congress. Unfortunately, despite making significant progress and gaining the support of the…

Madam President, there has been much discussion about the proposed rules reforms and how far they go. To those who say that this resolution doesn't go far enough, I ask, why have the friends of secrecy fought so hard for so long to allow…

I thank the Senator because I think that is an important point because the bipartisan resolution clearly establishes the responsibility of all Senators to go public with their holds and the understanding that the leaders will not honor…

Madam President, as Senator Grassley has said, Senator Grassley, Senator McCaskill, and I have always maintained that there is no legitimate reason for Senators to keep holds they have placed with their leaders secret for any period of…

Mr. President, I call up S. Res. 28, the Wyden-Grassley- McCaskill resolution to end secret holds. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The resolution is pending.

That seems like a commonsense approach to me. I thank my colleague for his help on secret holds. We are achieving a big victory for transparency at the beginning of this Congress.

Yes, the Senator from Iowa makes a good point. Our resolution turns the Notice of Intent to Object calendar into a one- stop shop for recording information about objections made to covered requests. At the same time, some have asked…