Quorum call mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Reid i ask unanimous consent we terminate the call of the quorum. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid i ask unanimous consent that at 2 30 p. M. , the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 686, the senate proceed to vote with no intervening action or debate on the nomination, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and in a further motions be in order, any related statements be prescriptived in n be printed in the record and the president be notified of the senates action. There be two minutes equally divided prior to each vote. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Reid mr. President . Were not in a quorum call, are we . The presiding officer we are not. Mr. Reid i yield back all type and ask that the vote start immediately. And all senators should be advised that well drag the vote a little bit because were starting it early. The presiding officer under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider mr. Reid mr. President , i note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Reid i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be the presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid has the consent been approved . The presiding officer the consent has been approved. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider nomination 686, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, Central Intelligence Caroline Diane krass of the district of columbia to be general counsel of the Central Intelligence agency. The presiding officer all thienl yielded back. The question is on the nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There is. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any other senators wishing to vote, any senators wishing to change their vote . If not, the yeas are 95, the nays are four, and the nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, the president will be immediately notified of the senates action and the senate will resume legislative session. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from louisiana. Mr. Vitter i call up my amendment 2845 and ask that it be modified with the changes at the desk. The presiding officer without objection the pending Second Amendment set aside. The clerk will report the amendment as modified. The clerk the senator from louisiana, mr. Vitter, proposes amendment mr. Vitter i ask unanimous consent to waive reading of the whole. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Vitter ill briefly summarize this amendment and i first want to thank the chair and the Ranking Member of the committee for working through this amendment and agreeing to what i think will be quick consideration and adoption by voice vote. This amendment is very simple, straightforward, but important. Present law with regard to Child Care Development block grants, present federal law, says that states should and must prioritize for two categories of children. Lowincome kids and children with special needs. I think we all agree with that priortyization. The problem is as recent reports have indicated, about half of all the states, 23, to be exact, dont do that. They just basically ignore that federal law. And so this simple, straightforward amendment would bring accountability to the system and make sure that all states follow present federal law and give that appropriate priority treatment to children with special needs as well as lowincome kids. So it would do this by saying that theres going to be some accountability, that the department, the federal department involved in this program already, will annually make sure that states follow this aspect of present law. That if a state is not doing that, it gets six months to cure the problem, but if it doesnt cure that within six months, then that state would feel the pinch by having 5 of its block grant funds withheld until it corrects the situation. And the amendment also gives the secretary Waiver Authority for extraordinary circumstances like natural disasters and other emergencies. Again, i appreciate the chair and Ranking Member for working out this provision, and i do think its important that all states follow federal law and we give these children, special needs children, lowincome children, the priority treatment they deserve. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Harkin madam president , the amendment has the admirable goal of prioritizing funds to lowincome families with childrens with disabilities. I applaud senator vitters efforts, hopes this provides significant reinforcement to what has been the law since 1996 that states must prioritize children from lowincome families who have children with disabilities. This amendment basically reinforces that and says the department of health and Human Services must meet that promise and theres a provision in there that gives them adequate time to make sure that they do that. Again, i just want to thank the senator from louisiana for working with us on this. When this amendment first came up yes, as someone who has worked on disability issues most of my adult life, i agreed with exactly what he wanted to do, there was just some language problems and thats the way we get legislation done around here. We work things out and we find the middle ground on which everybody can agree. I want to thank the senator from louisiana for working with us to work this out. So we support the amendment. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the Ranking Member. Mr. Burr i also want to thank my colleague from louisiana and the chairman of the committee for working this amendment out. Madam president , i know of no further debate on this amendment and i would ask us to proceed to a vote on the amendment. The presiding officer is there further debate . If not, the question is on the amendment. All all those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes the ayes appear to have it. The amendment is agreed to. The senator from iowa. Mr. Harkin i move to reconsider that vote and to lay that reconsideration motion on the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Harkin madam president , for the information of senators, we are now down hopefully to three voice votes on three pending amendments that have been cleared and then well have a roll call vote on final passage. Im hopeful thats going to happen within a very short period of time, maybe five minutes or 10 minutes, i hope, that well be ready for a final vote on this bill. With that i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Harkin madam president . The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Harkin quicker than i thought. I ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Harkin madam president , we have no further debate on the pending amendments,port, sanders 2846 and vitter 2845 and the substitute. I know they havent been called up yet. Madam president , i was misinformed. I thought those amendments had been called up. Id like to call up in order the portman amendment number 2847, the sanders amendment number 2846, vitter number 2845, and ask for their immediate consideration. Im sorry, we just adopted 2845. It would be 2847 and sanders 2846. The presiding officer without objection the clerk will report. The clerk the amendments en bloc. The clerk mr. Harkin proposes amendment number 2847 and for mr. Sanders amendment numbered 2846. Mr. Harkin as i said i know of no further debate on those amendments. Were ready to vote. Ms. Mikulski mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Ms. Mikulski as we close into the final minutes of this bill, i just want to say today will be a great victory for americas children because we will pass the child care and Development Block grant and i think its a great victory for the senate to show that weebd govern ourselves with an open amendment process, do it diligently, do it deliberative deliberatively and with courtesy and civility. This is the way the senate should be and within two days weve arrived at a great bill, cooperation and civility on both sides of the aisle. I hope that this becomes a model for the way the senate will conduct itself for the rest of this session. Ive been very proud to be part of this bill, id like to thank senator richard burr of North Carolina, my republican counterpart on the childrens committee, all the Due Diligence we did for a year and a half, we are a year and a half to senator Lamar Alexander for his steadfast leadership and input, and, of course, to tom harkin, our leader, who as he wraps up his Senate Career will never wrap up his advocacy for americas children and id like to thank all of our staff for the great work that they did in the 100 meetings with stakeholders and the 200 meetings with us. So, madam president , im ready for the vote and yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Burr a quick opportunity to thank my colleague, senator mikulski for those kind words and more importantly for her passion on this issue, to the chair and the Ranking Member for their help but more importantly to the Committee Staff and personal staffs that have been over here for the last several days and late lasttime night trying to work out amendments to the members who have been very, very accommodating to changes so that we can get this bill up and i might take a personal privilege to say that part of this bill was done by a former staff member of mine, celia symms, and she is one proud woman today because of that being included in this bill and its passage. I look forward to it. I yield back. The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mr. Alexander i wont extend this more than two minutes but i think its instructive to colleagues to note that what the senator from maryland and the senator from North Carolina and the senator from iowa have done is we started this bill 24 hours ago, right after lunch. More than 40 amendments were filed. More than half of them have been disposed of and considered. There was no objection to a motion to proceed. There was no cloture vote filed. There was no filibuster. And on both sides of the aisle anyone who showed up with a relevant amendment to the child care discussion had a chance to have it considered without anybody picking their amendment. And finally, on this side and that side of the aisle many members showed a lot of restraint and courtesy in adjusting their amendments so we could get here. We wont be able to do this every time but its a modest step in a very good direction toward the way the senate should work and i want to speaption speationly thank the senator from iowa, the senator from maryland and the senator from North Carolina for their leadership. The presiding officer the question is on the amendments en bloc. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The amendments are agreed to. The senator from iowa. Mr. Harkin madam president , i withdraw my pending amendment. The presiding officer the amendment is withdrawn. Mr. Harkin i know of no further amendments or debate. The presiding officer the question is on the adoption of the committee substitute. As amended. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The amendment as amended is agreed to. Mr. Harkin madam president , i would like to join with my colleagues and thank everyone for getting this bill done. This is a good bill, and first i would again say thanks to both senator burr and senator mikulski, this is really their bill, they spent the better part of two years working this out. Id like to say weve had a good day here to work this out as senator alexander said, but a lot of that is the preliminary work that goes into developing a bill like this over a long period of time. And so my respect, my Great Respect and my thanks to both senator burr and senator mikulski for getting this bill to where we are now. My thanks to my good friend, senator alexander, and for a Great Partnership that weve been working here on the committee, as he said i think the other day, probably no probably no committee has a wider divergence of ideological views, but if im not mistaken, this is the 19th or 20th bill weve gotten through this congress. Mr. Reid would my friend yield just for a brief comment . Mr. Harkin yes. Mr. Reid it would be improper if we didnt acknowledge the work that mike lee was involved in in this legislation. He should be complimented for helping to get this passed. Harass yes, the leader is right. Senator lee was very accommodating in letting us move afforforward on the bill and im appreciative of that. But we were aiblg to accomplish a lot in the floor process. As senator alexander said, i think weve even adopted legislation making an Even Stronger bill. I want to thank a lot of the staff. I hope i dont miss anyone, but david cleary, and peter opposen hymn, marti west and bill kenutz. Chris toppings, natasha hickings of senator burrs staff. Jessica mcniece, brett palmer of senator mikulski tion staff. Pam smith who is not here but who worked on this for a long time, derrick miller, michael mccormick, leeann hotec. As i said at the beginning of this bills consideration, this bill represents a strong, positive shift for working families in america who benefit from the Childcare Subsidy Program and i hope my colleagues will join all of us in voting to give this an overwhelming vote of yes on final passage. And i know of no further debate on the bill. The presiding officer the clerk will read the title of the bill for the third tievmen time. The clerk calendar number 309, s. 1086, a bill to reauthorize and improve the child care and Development Block grant act of 1909 and for other purposes. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Harkin i dishact just prior to the reading the third read thaig insert in the record with my comments the list of the Staff Members that worked on this bill. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Harkin i ask for the yeas and nays on the bill. The presiding officer sufficient you have . There appears to be. There is. The question is on the passage of the bill, as amended. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote vote
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