Heidi Alexander: “I thank Senator Schumer for his leadership, as well as Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman. I will make my full…”

“I thank Senator Schumer for his leadership, as well as Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman. I will make my full remarks following the vote, but I do want to say this bill helps the Senate do its job under the Constitution. Article 2, section 2 tells us to designate those persons where we do not give advice and consent. We are reducing that total by 169, we are expediting about 272 more, and we are removing about 2,600 from the officer corps. This is a good example of bipartisan work here, and I want to thank my colleagues for improving the bill, amending it, and pointing out things to us that needed to be changed. One of those individuals has been Senator DeMint, and I yield the remainder of our time before the vote to Senator DeMint to speak on his amendment. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from South Carolina. Amendment No. 501 Mr. DeMINT. I thank the Senator from Tennessee, Senator Alexander, and Senator Collins, for their leadership on this issue. It is good to see Democrats and Republicans working together on something. Unfortunately, like many of the things we work on, we are dealing with symptoms of a much deeper problem that we fail to recognize.…”