yesterday the President made clear that he will veto any supplemental spending bill that exceeds the administration's request. I thank and applaud the administration and recognize their determination to stick to true emergency spending. I…

under an agreement reached this afternoon, we will have two votes tomorrow at 12 noon. The votes will be on the Gregg and Reid amendments regarding border security. These will be the first votes of the day. Additional votes are expected…

earlier today, this body voiced its support for a resolution commemorating the Holocaust--the Shoah--Nazi Germany's systematic effort to exterminate the Jewish people. For anybody who questions the existence of evil, the Nazi regime's…

today, we will start with a 1-hour period of morning business, and following that we will go into executive session to consider the nomination of Gray Miller to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Texas. We have 10…

I welcome my colleagues back from the Easter/Passover recess. It was a 2-week recess, where many had the opportunity to spend time with our families and with our constituents back at home. I hope everybody had a rejuvenating and productive…

the growing problem of meth has been particularly personal to me. As I have traveled across my home State of Tennessee, I have heard the heart-wrenching stories of how meth is tearing families apart and about the unique challenges that…

a lot of people are asking what happened between the optimism of yesterday morning that centered on real progress, as people did come around working together, both sides of the aisle, on a Hagel-Martinez amendment, and this morning where…

I want to, one more time, make it clear that we have tried to move to take up the Kyl amendment tonight, but the other side refused that opportunity, and the Dorgan amendment and the Isakson amendment, to proceed with debate. The…

this morning, the time until 10:30 will be equally divided for debate prior to the vote on invoking cloture on the Specter substitute to the border security bill. I now ask unanimous consent that the final 20 minutes before the vote be…

the problem with tomorrow is, we will be in the exact same situation. If cloture is not invoked, we will have one amendment up. We will be exactly where we are now, with your ability to do what you have done, what the Democratic side has…

I believe that following the cloture, if cloture is not invoked on the Martinez amendment tomorrow, we will follow that immediately with a cloture vote on the bill itself, the border security bill.

the leader is aware that one amendment could be pending during that entire 30 hours. The minority could deny Members the right for votes on their germane amendments. I guess I would ask, would the minority leader agree to allow amendments…

the intent is to start down the path of amendments and allow the debate and then to allow the votes. We have stopped short because I have said that our side, since 396 amendments have been offered, needs about 20 amendments--and this…

we are about to close in a few moments. We have some business to do. But I want to comment briefly on the events of today with respect to what I think is tragic in the sense that we are, in all likelihood, not going to be able to address a…

as in executive session with respect to the cloture motions filed yesterday on nominations, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered…

I said this earlier this morning: we find ourselves at an interesting moment. This morning we had a cloture vote which gave us the opportunity to start afresh. We started in a very positive way in that we had a strong bipartisan show of…

I don't believe that cloture will be invoked today on the chairman's substitute. Therefore, we have two additional cloture motions pending to the border security bill. There is a cloture motion to the Hagel-Martinez language that was…

following the 1 hour tomorrow for closing remarks, the Democratic leader and I will make statements prior to the cloture vote on the motion to commit. The vote will therefore occur at approximately 9:45 in the morning. If cloture is not…

just a moment of explanation because I think this bill is, in substance, broadly supported. I am disappointed to hear the objections tonight. Let me comment very briefly on the bill because it is an issue that I think this body does feel…

There may be some other cloture motions to consider on Friday, which I will come to here shortly. ____________________

through the Chair--and we had discussed the possibility of that a little earlier--I think it is best for us to make that decision tomorrow, only because the Hagel-Martinez amendment is a negotiated compromise amendment that none of our…

just a few minutes ago I filed two cloture motions on the border security bill and four cloture motions on Executive Calendar nominations. Under the provisions of rule XXII, we will have several votes on Friday unless an agreement can be…

that is correct. At this moment in time, you would not. If we were allowed to go ahead on the amendments, and once we start disposing of the amendments, this is something that would be in order.

I come to the floor, and I am broadly supported by our caucus, because we come to a moment in time where people are looking at the Senate, America is looking at the Senate, and asking: Why? Why are we at a point where we are addressed with…

this morning, we are returning to the border security bill which has been pending since last Wednesday. Last night, the minority leader filed a cloture motion on the chairman's substitute amendment. I was a little surprised when I heard…