The presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the ayes are 55, the nays are 37. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The Clerk Department of the treasury, John Andrew Koskinen of the District Of Columbia to be the commissioner of the Internal Revenue service. Mr. Reid i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of John Andrew Koskinen of the District Of Columbia to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Signed by 19 senators as follows mr. Reid i ask that the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All in favor say aye.
The these are not random arrests. These are not misdemeanors. These are serious, hard core professional terrorists that have already committed these acts. Thats whats so disappointing about it. And, again, id just say to my friend from South Carolina, weve been there often, often and at times when its been probably the best part of our entire lives of being around these brave Young Americans who are serving and sacrificing. Some of them three, four, five, six tours of duty in afghanistan and iraq. And it seems to me that we owe them at least the security of not releasing these trained killers. These are not amateurs. These trained killers, into the fight again. And we know that already the ones that we released voluntarily id ask my friend, i think its around 30 he or 27 of them, of those reentered the fight. I say to my friend in response, isnt it almost totally predictable that these individuals, hard core individuals will quickly reenter the fight . Theyre talented, theyre trained,
was hot as fire be, as you might imagine, with americans across the nation standing up and demanding punishment. and with democrats jumping ship and joining republicans across the political aisle in expressing outrage that shinseki still had a job, and now he doesn t. at least not the job leading the va. watch. this morning i think some of you also heard rick take a truly remarkable action. in public remarks, he took personal responsibility and apologized to his fellow veterans and to the american people. and a few minutes ago, secretary shinseki offered me his own resignation. with considerable regret, i accepted it. all right, and with that, the questions began to come from reporters as well. the president said he d only take one or two, he actually took more than that, but the very first question came from the military times. tucker carlson, what changed? first of all, does anybody think that the firing of one of the decent people in the obama administration is going