I am very pleased the Senator took to the floor to speak to the American people about what they are going through in his State. I am not as familiar with the condition of the nuclear powerplant, so I will not go there. I trust my friend's…

Madam President, I want to thank the Senator from Nevada, my friend, the majority leader, Senator Reid, for his remarks, And I want to thank him for filing cloture on the EDA bill. He said the Economic Development Administration was…

Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to a wonderful member of our Senate family. After 20 years of public service, Gerry Counihan is retiring from his post as Senate elevator operator. In 1991, shortly after earning a degree from…

It is a letter from an arm of the Chamber of Commerce. I will tell you, it is rare when you get the AFL-CIO and an arm of the Chamber of Commerce singing from the same book. They do not want to see filibusters. They want to see jobs. They…

I wish to yield time to Senator Brown. The PRESIDING OFFICER. It does not give Senator Brown the floor.

Thank you. So is there objection to my unanimous consent request that Senator Thune be recognized immediately after Senator Brown for as long as he wishes? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.

I am not yielding time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator can yield time but not the floor. The Senator from California.

I have said I would offer a unanimous consent agreement. We are dividing the time between the two of us. It is my decision to yield to Senator Brown because Senator Snowe has spoken for a very long time and I want him to have some time and…

Mr. President, I am happy to propound a unanimous consent request so that at the conclusion of my remarks Senator Brown will speak for, say, 10 minutes and then it would go to Senator Thune; is that all right?

Mr. President, I appreciate the passion with which my colleague spoke, and I could not disagree more with her when she says we are masquerading as if we are doing something. Were we masquerading when we brought the small business jobs bill…

Thank you very much. I will wrap up in a couple minutes and come back later. I think it is very important to reiterate what I said before. I don't think we are masquerading around here; I think we are trying to do our work. The bill before…

All right. So that is what we will do, unless my colleagues would rather do it the way I said before. If not, I will just yield for questions. Either way. It is up to my colleagues.