Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I am really honored to introduce one of the most dedicated and talented public servants the State of New York has to offer: Denise O'Donnell.

She is a nonpartisan, on-the-merits person, the kind of person Senator Grassley mentioned.

The job of managing the Bureau of Justice Assistance is like taking a thousand points of light and making sure they all stay lit.

So can you commit to consider Newburgh closely as the location for the FBI resident agency location?

In short, there could be no one better suited to this job than Denise O'Donnell.

I am pleased that your Committee has reviewed this bill and I fully support its passage.

This is not about who should own a gun. This is once there is a consensus that say a felon or somebody who is adjudicated mentally ill not get a gun, that they be on the list so they will not be sold a gun.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank you, Director, for your service.

I know Denise well. She is just a superlative public servant, a superlative human being.

As you know, 2 years ago Newburgh saw gang activity and a violent crime spike.

OK. And if you are having any space problems, we will find it for you.

As you know, I have been working on legislation on this for a long time.

Sometimes my colleagues and I--hopefully not me--will put a hold on someone's name in order to get some kind of leverage for an entirely unrelated item.

As I said, I have not seen a chairman--now he is the Presiding Officer of the Senate for the moment--I have not seen a chairman try to be fairer and with more patience and more honor as chair of the Judiciary Committee than Senator Leahy…

I think we are going to try to take about 400 or 450 out of that so that we reduce by about 30, 35 percent the number of positions that require confirmation.

I thank the chairman, and thank you, Mr. President. First, I express my gratitude and thanks to the chairman of our Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy. Senator Leahy has conducted his chairmanship, as head of the Judiciary Committee, with…

I rise to speak about the current debate over the current Federal budget. On Tuesday, a very telling and very troubling vote was held in the House of Representatives. In order to pass the 3-week continuing resolution needed to avert a…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The Senator from New York is recognized.

I ask unanimous consent that at 2 o'clock I be given 5 minutes to speak, and the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, speak immediately after me. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I rise today to speak about the current debate over the Federal budget. Yesterday, we had a very telling and troubling vote in the House of Representatives. On the 3-week continuing resolution needed to avoid a government shutdown on March…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Federal Budget Debate

I rise to speak about the current debate over the Federal debt. Last week, H.R. 1, the House Republican scorched-earth spending proposal that counts among its casualties such priorities as border security, cancer research, disaster…

Yes, that is why I want to get involved. It is not rocket science, so I can probably deal with it.

This idea that they are at the center of the crisis, as I say, I believe is ideologically driven as opposed to fact-based driven.

I think it is ideological as opposed to looking at the facts.