Mr. President, today Senator Blunt and I have introduced the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act of 2011. The purpose of this legislation is to establish within the State Department a special envoy to promote freedom of…

Madam President, first, let me thank the Senator from South Carolina for his analysis on Afghanistan as well as his great support for Leon Panetta and his comments about Bob Gates, which I very much share and commented about this afternoon…

I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. The result was announced--yeas 100, nays 0, as follows…

We are prepared to yield back the remainder of our time and do so. The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired. The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Leon E. Panetta, of California, to be Secretary of…

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I think we know our Presiding Officer, Senator Shaheen, is very much into the issue of putting some real pressure on Pakistan to end the Haqqani network's intrusions and excursions into Afghanistan. And I think we are all together on that…

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield myself 10 minutes. Mr. President, the nomination of Leon Panetta to be Secretary of Defense is a wise and a solid nomination. Director Panetta has given decades of dedicated public service to this…

I want to first of all thank my good friend from South Carolina for those comments. He has been very perceptive of the importance of turning this responsibility over to the Afghans as soon as possible, and we are clearly on track to do…

Mr. President, I understand there is a time agreement on this nomination; is that correct? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct--2 hours of debate, equally divided.

Mr. President, I will vote to oppose both the amendments offered today. I share many of the concerns of Senator Feinstein and others in this body about the impact of the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit. I am particularly concerned…

Mr. President I have supported regulatory reform since before my election to the Senate in 1978, to make regulations more sensible and efficient while protecting the public's health and well- being. The Snowe regulatory reform amendment…

I will finish. So instead of a bipartisan effort to save it, by this rule you are essentially deeming the budget that you passed that ended Medicare, period. So don't come and say you're saviors when you're eliminating a program. Stand up…