[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 190 (Monday, December 12, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8476-S8484]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, pursuant to rule 
XXII the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of 
     Norman L. Eisen, of the District of Columbia, to be 
     Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United 
     States of America to the Czech Republic.

[[Page S8484]]

         Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Patrick J. Leahy, Patty 
           Murray, Richard J. Durbin, Kent Conrad, John D. 
           Rockefeller IV, Jeff Bingaman, Tim Johnson, Daniel K. 
           Inouye, Debbie Stabenow, Robert P. Casey, Jr., Max 
           Baucus, Charles E. Schumer, John F. Kerry, Mark Udall, 
           Michael F. Bennet.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call 
has been waived. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that 
debate on the nomination of Norman L. Eisen, of the District of 
Columbia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 
United States of America to the Czech Republic shall be brought to a 
close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, before the clerk 
calls the roll, that before the Aponte vote there be 2 minutes of 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Montana (Mr. Baucus), 
the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Merkley), the Senator from Maryland (Ms. 
Mikulski), and the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Wyden) are necessarily 
absent.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the 
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Coburn), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from 
Nevada (Mr. Heller), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), the Senator 
from Utah (Mr. Lee), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the 
Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Thune).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn) 
would have voted: nay.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 70, nays 16, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 226 Ex.]

                                YEAS--70

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coons
     Corker
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Isakson
     Johnson (SD)
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lugar
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse

                                NAYS--16

     Barrasso
     Boozman
     Cochran
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Enzi
     Grassley
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     McConnell
     Paul
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--14

     Baucus
     Blunt
     Burr
     Coburn
     Cornyn
     Graham
     Heller
     Kirk
     Lee
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Thune
     Wyden
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 70, the nays are 
16. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S8484, December 12, 2011, the Record reads: The 
PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the years are 71, the nays are 
16.
  
  The online Record has been corrected to read: The PRESIDING 
OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 70, the nays are 16.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 

  Under the previous order, the question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the nomination of Norman L. Eisen, of the District of 
Columbia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 
United States of America to the Czech Republic?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be 2 minutes of debate prior to 
the next vote.
  The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, Mari Carmen Aponte is an excellently 
qualified Latina who is being politically discriminated against despite 
a record of accomplishment for the United States in El Salvador, which 
is universally recognized as extraordinary, from getting Salvadoran 
troops to fight alongside us--the only Latin American country to do 
so--to creating a new monitoring center to fight transnational crime. 
To suggest that the FBI and diplomatic security would give her not one 
but two top secret clearances that were not merited is the ultimate 
insult to those agencies. It is simply wrong to use alleged nameless, 
faceless accusers to falsely impugn her reputation.
  I urge my colleagues to allow an up-or-down vote on her nomination 
and to vote for cloture so we can get to that vote to let this 
qualified Latina continue to work on behalf of the United States and El 
Salvador as she has successfully done.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  The Senator from South Carolina.
  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, all of us regret when there is a situation 
where one of us has to oppose a nomination of a President, and 1,198 
nominations have gone through without being contested. But this is one 
that rises to the level of concern.
  Republicans have been asking questions about this nominee for 
months--in fact, much longer than that--going back to why she refused 
to take a lie detector test, why she withdrew her name when she was 
first nominated for ambassador under Clinton, and why the files have 
not been properly updated. We have asked the White House for private 
meetings with the FBI and CIA to give us updated knowledge of what 
happened in this circumstance so we can make a good decision. But there 
was never an offer to do that. We had offers of low-level folks to come 
talk only to me, not to Republicans on the committee. But there are 
enough questions here for honest answers, and we have not gotten them.
  I encourage my colleagues to vote against this nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. KERRY. Do we have any time remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. No time remains.