We put far too many people inside solitary confinement, people who should be categorically excluded.

I would like to call the second panel. I want to ask consent that Senator Leahy's statement be placed in the record.

So we kind of look at the prison overcrowding and putting two people in that kind of space is making the situation much worse.

Do you believe that isolation, 23-hour isolation, has a negative impact on the mental health of an individual?

Some States are--we are going to hear from Commissioner Epps of Mississippi. Some States, like Mississippi, Ohio, and Maine, are undergoing significant reforms in their prison systems and reducing or eliminating the use of supermax…

We can no longer slam the cell door and turn our backs on the impact our policies have on those incarcerated and the safety of our nation.

I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mrs. McCaskill), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent.

On June 15, 1982, 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision, Plyler v. Doe. In 1975, the State of Texas had passed a law that allowed public schools to refuse admission to children who were undocumented. The law…

I come to the floor now with my friend and colleague from the State of Oklahoma, Senator Coburn, to discuss an amendment we hope to offer to the farm bill, which I believe is the pending matter before the Senate. I will make a brief…

for the record, I want to be recorded as an affirmative on the previous nomination. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's vote will so be noted.

And the fact is that we're going to be cutting half of $1 trillion from the defense budget over the next 10 years.

How is the Department ensuring that critical, Government-owned and -operated facilities in the Nation's organic industrial base, like Rock Island Arsenal, are properly and strategically modernized so that these facilities have the…

I know we need every dollar it takes to be safe. But if we are going to cut back in healthcare and education to provide more money on the military side, isn't that going to have an impact on the men and women who volunteer to serve in our…

For many of us, this outsourcing just became a passion, and people stopped asking the most basic question: Is this serving the Nation well?

If you're serious about taking this on, you got to put everything on the table.

I do take exception to your statement about this administration compromising national security more than any administration. I really think that was over the line.

I am troubled by it, because these U.S. Attorneys have all been approved by this panel.

I think he did an excellent job, a worthy job for a man of his character.

Elections. Make sure you make it clear to them that if they are going to be a true democracy, they literally have to have clean and fair elections, giving the opposition an opportunity, making certain that people who are eligible can vote.

What was the evidence of voter fraud in Florida and Ohio that led the State legislature to limit the early voting period, to restrict voter registration, to put other requirements in the law to restrict the opportunity to vote? And without…

If we are going to preach to the world the requirements of democracy and then not practice them at home, we are going to flunk our own human rights scorecard at the Department of State.

I ask consent to speaking as in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Health Care Reform

I wish to thank the majority leader for that statement. He comes to the floor with the other members of the leadership team to call to the attention of the Nation a statement made yesterday by the majority leader of the House Republicans…

I listened carefully to the speech given on health care reform, and I would like to put in perspective what the challenge is that faces America. Absent health care reform, absent a change in the growing increase in the cost of medical…

are we in morning business? The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the agriculture bill.