I thank Senator Conrad. Let me say the retirement of Senator Conrad from North Dakota is a great loss to the Senate and to the Nation. We have only six or seven months left to do something significant. It will be easier to do it when Kent…

before I say a word about the Export- Import Bank, I wish to speak as in morning business. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. Senate Procedure

the comments made by the Republican Senate leader about the procedures in the Senate are comments I wish to speak to directly. First, perhaps to his surprise, let me say I agree with him. The Senate is not what it should be. It is an…

today, I would like to recognize what Abraham Lincoln referred to as ``the people's department''--the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On this day 150 years ago, President Lincoln signed legislation to create the U.S. Department of…

pending before the Senate is the nomination of Jay Tharp to serve on the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Senator Kirk and I have agreed on a bipartisan approach to this. We each have appointed bipartisan committees…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. At the request of Mr. Durbin, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record. <bullet>…

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Casey), the Senator from North Carolina (Mrs. Hagan), and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Nelson) are necessarily absent.

I rise today to talk about a bill I introduced yesterday, the Army Arsenal Strategic Workload Enhancement Act of 2012. I am grateful to be working with seven of my colleagues on this issue: Senator Kirk, Senator Grassley, Senator Harkin…

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: S. 3081 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of…

first I thank my colleague and friend, Senator Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for coming to the Senate floor and speaking about our mutual friend and colleague, Senator Dick Lugar, who serves as the ranking…

I was in Tazewell County--which is in the area of Pekin, in East Peoria, IL--last week at the Veterans Administration Commission. I talked to a number of vets from the Vietnam war and other conflicts. We talked about obvious questions…

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: S. 3054 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of…

on behalf of Senator Cardin I ask unanimous consent the privilege of the floor be granted to Caroline Goodbody and Amanda Mendoze, two of Senator Cardin's staff members, during today's session of the Senate. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without…

I thank my colleague from Delaware for speaking to some critical issues. It is a shame we are not in a position where we can offer the Senator's amendments, but, as he knows and as he spoke to in his speech, the decision yesterday by the…

what is the pending order of business? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in divided time until 7 p.m.

it was 11 years ago that I introduced a bill called the DREAM Act. Just this last week, I was back in Chicago to attend a fundraising dinner for a group I really respect. It is called the Merit music program. About 20 years ago, when a…

I find it hard to believe that encryption is the threshold, and how in the world would the average person know that or be able to protect themselves.

We have tried to pass a DISCLOSE Act here in the Congress so that the Super PAC folks would have to say, actually say on the ad, I paid for this, or I'm not a foreign national.

So I would say that is somewhere short of a tap on the wrist.

Let's take a look at it because I think it's something that if it requires change in the law, I'd like to consider that.

After Citizens United, we virtually have no rules when it comes to money being spent on campaigns.

I wish a couple Supreme Court justices had stood for office at some point in their life, maybe they would understand this issue a little more.

I'd like to talk to you about cramming.

I'm worried that I may have signed off all of my rights to any royalties from music that I produce in the future. I'm not sure what I've done here.

So what about the argument that somehow you are forcing disclosure of sensitive pricing data that otherwise would not be disclosed?