The fix to this, and the way to remove veterans, and we anticipated 3 years ago when we did advance appropriations, remove veterans from this fight.

I think you are wrong on some of the policies. This is the place to debate that; not a Martial Law rule that goes to the floor with no amendments.

We may have differences on policy and ideology. We certainly don't have differences on love of this country.

Madam President, we are now in day 8 of the government shutdown, and the pain has been felt by all across the country--by the cancer patients being denied access to new clinical trials at NIH, by the mom whose son has muscular dystrophy…

Mr. President, today marks the fifth day of the shutdown. I come to the Senate floor once again to call on the House of Representatives to take up the Senate bill. It is a simple bill. It has no bells and whistles. It simply says, Let's…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my staffer Ed Shelleby be allowed floor privileges. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about reopening the government. We are now 5 days into a government shutdown that should never have happened. Minnesotans do not want a government shutdown. They want us to do our jobs, not refight the…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 20 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to call for an end to the senseless government shutdown and urge Members of the House to set aside political games for the betterment of the country. The American people are tired of our country…

This issue of being able to communicate, this issue of preparedness, this issue of interoperability...

FEMA is not there, and they are not there because they are furloughed.

We fix the shutdown, FEMA can show up.

Mr. Speaker, the one thing I hear from my constituents when I talk to them out in southern Minnesota: Is it so much to ask you folks just to do your job? As the drama swirls and the brinkmanship goes and it's deja vu all over again…

Madam President, I wish to talk a little bit about health reform. Soon over 1 million Minnesotans will have the opportunity to buy their health insurance on MNsure, Minnesota's health insurance marketplace. Minnesotans who buy their own…

Mr. President, I would first like to acknowledge Senator Coons of Delaware for his leadership, and Senator Mikulski, the powerful head of the Appropriations Committee, who has put together a group this hour to talk about public safety and…

I imagine that experience will make for a relatively smooth transition to the Tenth Circuit.

I hope that we can act quickly and in a bipartisan manner to give them up-or-down votes.

Thank you, Judge McHugh. You are a great nominee, and you have, I think, the support of everyone here in this hearing.