A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senior senator from connecticutmenconnecticut. Mr. Bd and proud to the presiding officer the senator is in a quorum call. Mr. Blumenthal i apologize, mr. President. I ask the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Blumenthal mr. President , im very proud to follow my colleague from New Hampshire and thank her for her leadership in offering the military retirement restoration act, which i am very pleased to support, as an amendment to the Unemployment Insurance extension bill. For all the reasons that ive stated and others have expressed even more powerfully than i, this bill makes sense. We must extend Unemployment Benefits for the longterm jobless. And the merits of this bill are absolutely indisputable and undeniable. This bill offers us a really critically important opportunity and we ought to seize it to correct and fix a deeffect in the budget a fix a defect in the budget agreement that was reached