in Vermont, you will find any number of successful family-run businesses. Today, I want to recognize the Cochran Family and their Cochran Ski Area. This family, which has spent 50 years on a hillside in the town of Richmond, VT, has seen…

will the distinguished chairman of the Armed Services Committee yield for a question?

I have listened to the recitation. Basically what the Senator is saying is that all the rules that were in place for nominees to the Department of Defense under Republican Presidents are being followed for Senator Hagel. But there are some…

I applaud what Senator Levin has said about Senator Hagel. If you made a list of the qualifications of the perfect Secretary of Defense, it would look like the resume of Chuck Hagel. If you look past the partisan posturing of some, I think…

All this is purely the collateral damage of political gridlock.

today I am reintroducing the Uniting American Families Act, UAFA, which grants same-sex bi-national couples the same immigration benefits heterosexual couples have long enjoyed. This is the sixth Congress in which I have introduced this…

it is easy from our perch on Capitol Hill to sometimes forget about the city that surrounds us. Like so many communities across the country, urban and rural, Washington, D.C. wrestles with a population in poverty. Soon, those people will…

one of the great privileges in serving in the U.S. Senate is the ability to make recommendations to the President with respect to important nominations for posts in our States. I was pleased 4 years ago to recommend to President Obama the…

I yield back all time on both sides. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Hearing no objection, it is so ordered. All time having been yielded back, the question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of William J. Kayatta, Jr., of…

I thank the senior Senator from Maine for her kind words, and I would note both for William Kayatta and for the people of Maine she has fought long and hard for this nomination. She did last year and she has this year. I am glad we are…

Sequestration would represent an uncompromising, rigid, tone-deaf Government at its worst.

Education is fundamentally an investment.

Global health programs... would be cut by $468 million from the current level.

I think it is a bad idea. I think it is bad policy. I think it is bad economic policy. I think it is bad governance policy.

Smart, Targeted Change Needed, Not Indiscriminate Cuts

Budgets, as all of you know, are not just numbers.

But make no mistake, the troops are going to feel this very directly in other ways.

Funding for disaster and refugee aid would be cut by $156 million from the current levels.

There are consequences for the budget of the Department of State and foreign operations, which is about the national security of the United States.

It is my goal, working with the leadership, to be able to find a way to vitiate the sequester.

I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll. The result was announced--yeas 88, nays 12, as…

I look forward to Marshal Demag's continued partnership with State and local law enforcement in Vermont. Exhibit 1 [WCAX--Vermont, January 28, 2013] U.S. Marshals making an impact in Vermont (By Jennifer Reading) Burlington, VT.--Five…

Cuts in diplomatic security... would be reduced by $181 million from the current level.

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record letters from human rights and civil rights organizations in support of S. 47, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. There being no objection, the material was ordered…

Let's pass this. Mr. President, I am going to suggest the absence of a quorum unless somebody else seeks recognition. I see the distinguished Senator from Florida on the floor, and I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from…