Madam President, I appreciate the opportunity to express my feelings this evening. Quite frankly, I was one of the optimists in this body. Many of my colleagues have been saying the determination to run our economy over a cliff is so…

Absolutely. I appreciate the point the Senator is accentuating. When the Senator says this has not gotten enough attention, he is absolutely right. The House has refused to have a budget resolution pursued--a continuing resolution that…

Mr. President, I yield 10 minutes of proponent time to Senator Sanders. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional minute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I will wrap up. Anywhere you look in America, you see problems for public safety, for public education, for college education, for living-wage jobs. These are the pillars of success of the middle class. Let's focus on those problems and do…

Madam President, I rise today to address some of the challenges we face here on September 26. The significance of that date is it is only 4 days before September 30, the close of the financial year, and October 1, the following day, starts…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my intern, Donnie Turner, have privileges of the floor for the balance of the day. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, I thank my senior colleague from Oregon. I appreciate very much his calling up this amendment and for his leadership on energy, and specifically energy efficiency. I would also like to compliment my colleagues from Ohio and…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Allan Van Vliet be given floor privileges for the balance of the day. He is an intern in my office. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, on behalf of so many of my colleagues, I want to thank the security forces at the Capitol for the incredible job they do in protecting these rooms where debates and democracy take place. The debate that we are engaged in…

Mr. President, in approximately 8 minutes from now we are going to have a moment of silence for Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson in recognition of the sacrifice they made in defending the Capitol against an armed intruder…

Mr. President, I thought I would make a couple of comments regarding the activities of this Chamber a few minutes ago. We had 71 votes in favor of closing debate on the nomination of Richard Cordray to be Director of the Consumer Financial…