[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 24, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2921-S2925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Deficit Reduction

  I will close with this: My colleague, the Presiding Officer, has 
heard me say this before. The President has heard me say this a few 
times as well, probably more than he wants to remember. But I think 
there are three things--if we are really serious about deficit 
reduction--three things we need to do.

  I would mention, the first one of those is--go back to the Clinton 
administration. Erskine Bowles, the Chief of Staff, whom Sylvia helped, 
and others, put together, with Republican help in the House and 
Senate--it was then a Republican House and Senate in those years--they 
put together a deficit reduction plan. It was 50 percent revenues; it 
was 50 percent spending. They put together a balanced budget plan that 
led--for the first time since 1968, we ended up not with one balanced 
budget, not two, not three, but four balanced budgets in the last 4 
years of the Clinton administration. It was 50 percent deficit 
reduction on the spending side and 50 percent on the revenue side.
  For those 4 years, if you look at Federal revenue as a percentage of 
GDP, it ranged anywhere from 19.5 percent to 20.5 percent. That was the 
range--19.5 percent to 20.5 percent Federal revenues as a percentage of 
GDP--but the average was about 20 percent.
  Look at last year. We had a big budget deficit. Federal revenues as a 
percentage of GDP were right around 16 percent. I think spending as a 
percentage of GDP last year was around 23 percent or so. But that gap 
between 16 percent in revenues as a percentage of GDP and spending at 
about 23 percent--and spending is coming down and the revenues are 
going to go up under the fiscal cliff deal, but we will still have a 
deficit--a substantial deficit, by historical standards--so we need to 
do something more.
  The something more we need to do is, No. 2--after we address 
revenues, get them up closer to the historic mark of about 20 percent, 
where we were in the Clinton administration, 20 percent of revenues as 
a percentage of GDP, the second thing we need to do is entitlement 
reform.
  I will use the President's words, and I think he has been courageous 
because not everybody in our party agrees with him on this. We need to 
reform the entitlement programs in ways that save money, do not savage 
old people or poor people, and preserve these programs for the long 
haul.
  I remember I spoke to--it was back at Ohio State, where I did my 
undergrad as a Navy ROTC midshipman a million years ago--it was back a 
month or so ago, and I had a chance to talk to 400 fraternity brothers 
from different States, including the Presiding Officer's State, who 
were there for a weekend conference, a leadership conference. I talked 
to them about leadership. I also talked to them about making tough 
decisions and how we use our values to make these tough decisions.
  I asked the 400 guys from across those eight States: How many of you 
think you will someday receive a Social Security check?
  Not one hand went up.
  I asked: How many of you think someday you might be eligible for 
Medicare when you are 65?
  Not one hand went up.
  My sons who are 23 and 24, they do not think they will. I want to 
make sure they do. I will predict that they will need it. I want to 
make sure that for our sons, our daughters, our grandsons, our 
granddaughters, our nieces, and our nephews, those programs are going 
to be there for them.
  The President gets that. And we understand we cannot just keep doing 
business as usual. We are going to run out of money in the Medicare 
trust fund by--when?--2024, and we will start to run out of money--our 
inability to pay Social Security checks fully--by about 2030 or so. So 
we need to do something differently, and we need to be smart to do it 
so we do not hurt the least of these--the least of these--in our 
society. I think we can be that smart.
  So first, we need some revenues. Second, we need entitlement reform 
that is true to Matthew 25: the least of these, looking out for the 
least of these. And the third thing--and this is where we have focused 
in our Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, as the 
Presiding Officers knows--we have put together more than a dozen 
Democrats and Republicans in this committee who are--``rabid'' is 
probably the wrong word, but I will use it--rabid about waste, rabid--
r-a-b-i-d--about waste. What we believe--as I do--is that everything we 
do as human beings, we can do better. I think that is true of all of 
us. It is true of Federal programs. Everything we do, we can do better.

[[Page S2922]]

  The challenge for us is to leverage from one committee, working with 
our colleagues here in the Senate and the House; working with GAO, the 
Government Accountability Office; working with OMB, the Office of 
Management and Budget; working with the inspectors general across the 
Federal Government; working with outside groups, such as Citizens 
Against Government Waste, and with other groups; with David Walker, a 
former Comptroller General; and just a bunch of folks, to say this is 
like an all-hands-on-deck deal and a shared responsibility as well. To 
the extent we have the ability to work with all those partners I just 
mentioned, we will get more done and we will leverage the effectiveness 
of our committee, but most importantly, we will actually continue to 
reduce the budget deficit.
  The three things, in closing: We need some additional revenues. We 
need to do it in a smart way. We need to reform the entitlement 
programs in ways that do not savage old people and poor people and 
would save these programs for the future. And we need to look in every 
nook and cranny of the Federal Government to say: How do we get a 
better result for less money? Find out what works and do more of that. 
Find out what does not work and do less of that. Look wherever we are 
duplicating responsibilities and activities and see how we can maybe do 
less of that.
  So there you have it, Madam President. I do not usually get to talk 
this long, but I am wound up today, very excited about this nomination, 
as the Presiding Officer can tell. Sylvia Mathews Burwell has the 
potential of being a terrific OMB Director. One of the keys to doing 
that is we have to get her confirmed today, and I think we will. Then 
we have to move promptly.
  The President has to give us a good name. I think he has given us one 
good name to be part of her team, if she is confirmed. But the 
President needs to send us somebody not just for Deputy OMB Director, 
not just to be deputy at OMB for management, not just to be the 
person--the new Cass Sunstein, whose job it will be to work the 
regulation side, but all of the above. When we get good names, we have 
an obligation to vet them quickly and promptly and, if they are good 
people with the best credentials, get them confirmed and in place so 
they can go do their job because with an $800-some-billion deficit, we 
have work to do and need a good leadership team to do that.
  Madam President, I do not see anybody standing around to chew up the 
rest of this time, which is probably a good thing. I think it signals 
that maybe we will get a good vote on this nomination.
  I am pleased to put in a good word for Sylvia and say to her husband 
and family, thanks for sharing her, and to her parents, thanks for 
raising her.
  With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I rise to urge the Senate to confirm 
the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell to be Director of the Office 
of Management and Budget. I do so with great pride because Sylvia 
Burwell is from my home State of West Virginia. I have been dear 
friends with her family for a long time.
  Her parents have been community leaders in Hinton, WV, for over half 
a century. Her father Dr. William Mathews is a longtime optometrist, 
and her mother the Honorable Cleo Mathews previously served as the 
mayor of Hinton, as well as in a number of other public service 
positions. I worked with Sylvia for many years as mayor when I was 
Governor of the State--she was quite competent--including 8 years on 
the State Board of Education when she served as president of the board 
of education.
  If you want to know Sylvia, you should look at her small hometown of 
Hinton, WV, and the surrounding Summers County that she grew up in 
because that is her grounding. It is pure Americana, a one-time 
railroad boom town, woven into the mountains of Appalachia. The 
downtown historic district, 200 buildings, including churches, 
storefronts, and private residences, is an architectural gem of 
American Gothic, Classical, Victorian and Greek Revival styles. It is a 
movie just waiting to happen.
  Hinton is the ideal example of smalltown West Virginia and probably 
smalltown America. It only has 2,600 residents. That is a pretty large 
town for West Virginia and probably North Dakota. It is nestled into a 
lush green valley on the banks of the New River, surrounded by the 
towering, majestic mountains and forests of Summers County, one of the 
most beautiful counties in West Virginia.
  New River is one of the oldest rivers in the world. It flows south to 
north, which may be due to the fact that it was formed long before the 
Appalachian Mountains.
  This is the special place Sylvia Mathews Burwell calls home, a 
showcase for the best of West Virginia and America, the beauty, the 
outdoors, and the people are warm and welcoming. Sylvia is humble, 
hardworking, has spent most of her life helping hard-working families 
everywhere achieve the American dream her Greek immigrant grandparents 
found in this country.
  She went off to Harvard, was a Rhodes Scholar, and has traveled the 
world over. But she has never lost touch with her West Virginia roots 
and the ties that bind us together. No matter where she is, 1 day each 
week like clockwork, Sylvia is on the phone with the two best friends 
she made in the first grade in Hinton. Think about it. That is who we 
are. That is the heart and soul of West Virginia, friends and family.
  But make no mistake, I am supporting Sylvia's nomination not because 
she is from West Virginia, which makes it all that much sweeter, but 
because she embodies the best of our State and our country. In West 
Virginia, we judge people by their deeds as much as their words, and 
Sylvia has already accomplished so much in her life, the public service 
and philanthropy she has been involved with.
  Sylvia Mathews Burwell is an exceptional choice to lead the Office of 
Management and Budget, especially in the aftermath of sequestration, 
which is what we are going through now, and which so many of our 
colleagues detailed on the Senate floor this past week. We are still 
discussing it.
  I say that because Sylvia served as the Deputy Director of the Office 
of Management and Budget, which now she will become Director of, from 
1998 to 2001, which was our last era--think about the last time of 
fiscal responsibility, when balanced deficit reduction gave us balanced 
Federal budgets.
  The fiscal plan she and Erskine Bowles, whom she worked with, put 
together, had we followed it to this day and not changed, would have 
erased our national debt completely by now. Can you believe that. We 
would have been totally out of debt as a nation if we had followed the 
plan that was put forward back in 1996, 1997, 1998, and followed 
through after 2001.
  Sylvia was a key part of the Clinton White House team which reached 
across the aisle, negotiated those balanced budgets with a Republican 
Congress. If we look closely at the numbers, we can see what an 
accomplishment it was to fix our finances in the 1990s. Prior to 1993, 
when Sylvia joined the Clinton administration, the United States had 
failed to balance its budget for 23 years--23 years.
  By 1992, spending had risen to historic highs--I think we all know 
that story--and revenues had reached near historic lows. We know that 
one too. That is exactly the dilemma we are in right now, compared to 
the size of the economy. In 1992, the Federal budget deficit topped out 
at $290 billion. I think we are close to $17 trillion in debt right 
now.
  By the time Sylvia left the Clinton White House and went to the 
Office of Management and Budget in 1998 as a Deputy, the wheels were in 
motion of sustainable balanced budgets for years to come. She put these 
wheels on. Spending had shrunk drastically and revenues were soaring to 
historic highs, thanks to a thriving U.S. economy and reasonable tax 
policy that ensured both corporations and wealthy individuals paid 
their fair share.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time for the majority has expired.
  Mr. MANCHIN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes. At

[[Page S2923]]

that time, I wish to be able to turn it over to the Senator from Iowa.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MANCHIN. In 1998, Sylvia's last year in the White House and the 
first year at OMB, the Federal budget had a $69.3 billion surplus, the 
first surplus in a generation. Sylvia has been out of government for 
the last 12 years. But I am confident she will bring a fresh 
perspective to the fiscal debate we will be having over the next few 
years.
  After serving in high-profile leadership positions, she has been well 
balanced, and she has been with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 
She has been their top person. I would hope all my colleagues on the 
Republican side and my colleagues on the Democratic side will look at 
Sylvia as part of America, part of this great country, a product of who 
we are. She will do a great job because she has a track record of 
already doing it. With that, I would encourage all my colleagues to 
please vote in support of Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I was honored to recommend to the 
President that he nominate Jane Kelly to serve as a judge on the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Today I encourage my 
colleagues to vote for her confirmation, which will be the first vote 
at noon.
  Let me begin by thanking Senator Leahy and his staff for their hard 
work in advancing Ms. Kelly's nomination in such a timely manner. I 
also thank my senior colleague from Iowa, Senator Grassley, for his 
invaluable support and assistance. For all the years we have served 
together, Senator Grassley and I have cooperated in a spirit of good 
will on judicial nominations in our State. I am grateful that tradition 
has continued.
  Jane Kelly possesses all the qualifications necessary to assume the 
responsibilities of a Federal appellate judge. Before recommending Ms. 
Kelly to the President, I reviewed a very strong field of candidates 
for this position. She stood out as a person of truly outstanding 
intellect and character, with a reputation as an extremely talented 
lawyer with a deep sense of compassion and fairness. Not surprisingly, 
she enjoys wide bipartisan support from the Iowa legal community.
  Judge Michael Melloy, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, 
and whose seat on the Eighth Circuit Ms. Kelly is nominated to fill, 
said Ms. Kelly ``is very intelligent and thoughtful.''
  Judge David Hansen, who was President George H.W. Bush's nominee to 
serve on the Eighth Circuit and for whom Ms. Kelly clerked, said: ``She 
is a forthright woman of high integrity and of honest character'' who 
``will be a welcome addition to the court.''
  I might also point out for the record that both of those nominees 
under Republican Presidents I was proud to support, under the 
leadership of Senator Grassley.
  Federal District Court Judge Stephanie Rose remembered Ms. Kelly 
``has a great blend of personality, skills and common sense to make a 
great lawyer and judge.''
  The American Bar Association gave her a unanimous ``qualified'' 
rating. Ms. Kelly is a credit to all of us who have chosen to be in 
public service. She earned her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from 
Duke, served as a Fulbright Scholar, and received her J.D. cum laude 
from Harvard Law School. After law school she was a law clerk to Judge 
Donald Porter of the District Court of South Dakota and to Judge David 
Hansen on the Iowa Eighth Circuit. She could easily have commanded a 
big salary with a top law firm, but instead for over 20 years she has 
opted for public service and long hours as a Federal public defender. 
We are fortunate she seeks to continue her public service to Iowa and 
our Nation by serving as a Federal judge.
  Let me conclude with two additional notes about Ms. Kelly's 
nomination. First, if confirmed, Ms. Kelly will only be the second 
female judge in the history of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, a 
court established in 1891. While 56 men have sat on that court, to date 
there has only been one woman, Diana Murphy of Minnesota. President 
Obama has nominated approximately 100 former prosecutors to the Federal 
bench, including one I recommended, former U.S. attorney Stephanie 
Rose, to the Southern District of Iowa. Among recent Presidents that is 
the highest percentage of former prosecutors to be nominated to the 
Federal bench. These are all outstanding attorneys and dedicated public 
servants.
  As Judge Melloy recently noted with respect to Ms. Kelly: ``It will 
be good to have someone from the public defender realm on the bench.''
  Ms. Kelly has served for more than 20 years in the Federal defender's 
office, where she has argued hundreds of cases on behalf of indigent 
clients. She has fought tirelessly to ensure that the rights of all are 
protected, and she has worked to give meaning to the phrase above the 
Supreme Court, ``Equal Justice Under Law.'' This is a critically 
important perspective that she will bring to the court.
  As an aside, it strikes me as especially fitting that Ms. Kelly, a 
career public defender, has been nominated for the Federal bench this 
year as we observe the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright. As we 
all know, that landmark decision recognized that every person accused 
of a crime, no matter how poor, is guaranteed the right to counsel. At 
its core, Gideon is the promise of justice for all, including our most 
vulnerable citizens. This is an ideal to which Ms. Kelly has dedicated 
her entire legal career.
  Jane Kelly is superbly qualified to serve as the U.S. Court of 
Appeals judge for the Eighth Circuit. I urge all of my colleagues to 
support her nomination and confirmation.
  Madam President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I want to share a few remarks on the 
nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell to be the Director of the Office 
of Management and Budget. I suspect she will be confirmed momentarily. 
She was raised in a small town in West Virginia and seems to have some 
good West Virginia values. She is smart, able, and has a winning 
personality for sure.
  This is, perhaps, properly utilized, the toughest, most important job 
in the U.S. Government. The primary responsibility of OMB is to assist 
the President in overseeing the preparation of the budget, but also to 
help formulate spending plans to deal with agency programs, policies, 
and positions in setting funding priorities to make tough choices that 
are necessary to keep our financial house in order. It is a tough 
position.
  We could have elected a President such as Governor Romney, who was a 
manager, a tough, proven executive. That was his strength. President 
Obama's strength is in message, traveling the country and advocating 
his positions, leaving it even more critically important than normal, 
it would seem to me, to have a very strong Office of Management and 
Budget leader. Ms. Burwell certainly seems to have the integrity to do 
the job.
  I am worried about her lack of experience. She served as the 
president of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates 
Foundation. She served as the head of the Walmart Charitable 
Foundation, she served in the Office of Management and Budget for a 
time--Chief of Staff, I believe, to the Secretary of Treasury--and at 
the National Economic Council. Her most recent experience has not been 
in directly trying to rein in a government that is out of control.
  The Web site of OMB says as part of its mission:

       It reports directly to the President and helps a wide range 
     of executive departments and agencies across the Federal 
     Government to implement the commitments and priorities of the 
     President.

  It is a big job.
  I would say that in failing to nominate someone like a proven 
executive, a proven Governor, or a former Cabinet member who can look 
these Cabinet members in the eye and say: No, Secretary, this is not 
going to be within our budget; this isn't within our plans--you are 
going to have to see if you can do this. We have a nominee

[[Page S2924]]

who will really have to rise to the occasion to be able to defend 
common sense and spending because our Cabinet people get ideas and 
visions. They want to do all kinds of things, particularly in this 
administration. Sometimes you have to say: We don't have the money. We 
would like to do that, but we do not have the money.
  The President's budget that OMB is required to produce and that he 
has submitted so far has not been impressive. That is an 
understatement. They have not exemplified the leadership and management 
that we would expect in a President.
  For instance, the 2013 budget, the one that was introduced last year, 
increased spending by $1.5 trillion above the Budget Control Act 
spending levels to which we all agreed. That is not good.
  The President signed the Budget Control Act. It limited spending from 
increasing from $37 trillion at current law baseline. He was going to 
$47 trillion. The Budget Control Act reduced the increase to just $45 
trillion instead of going up to $47 trillion. It imposed the 2012 
budget limits. Yet the President's budget proposed a deficit of $2.7 
trillion above the agreed-upon baseline, so we had a good number of 
problems with that budget. Of course, the budget, those two budgets, 
failed in the Senate 99 to 0 and 97 to 0. It got not a single vote, and 
it didn't get a single vote in the House because it's an irresponsible 
budget. Ms. Burwell will be replacing the OMB Director who put together 
those budgets.
  I see my colleague and able chair of the Budget Committee here. I 
thought I would have 10 minutes. What is the agreement at this point?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time expires in 30 seconds, all time 
remaining under Republican control.
  Mr. SESSIONS. The Republican time has expired.
  I will say I intend to support Ms. Burwell's nomination. We will give 
her a chance. I hope she will rise to the occasion. I think she has the 
ability. She certainly is a delightful person with whom to meet.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I would ask unanimous consent to speak 
for 5 minutes on the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank Senator Sessions, and I rise 
today to speak in support of Sylvia Mathews Burwell, whose nomination 
to be the next Director of the Office of Management and Budget was 
approved last week with strong bipartisan support by our Senate Budget 
Committee.
  As we all know, our country does face serious fiscal and economic 
challenges we have to work together to address. The American people are 
looking to us to end this constant artificial crisis and political 
brinkmanship that is threatening our fragile economic recovery. They 
want us to come together around fair solutions that work for our middle 
class, help the economy grow, and tackle our deficit and debt fairly 
and responsibly. It is time we stop governing from crisis to crisis and 
return stability and regular order to our budget process.
  That is why I am so pleased we have such an exceptional and qualified 
nominee in Sylvia Burwell to lead OMB. I know she is the right person 
to come into this leadership role at this important time for our 
country. She is no stranger to OMB or to tackling important fiscal 
issues.
  In the 1990s, she was a critical part of President Clinton's economic 
team. She served as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and 
Budget, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, and Chief of Staff to 
the Secretary of the Treasury. In those roles, she worked very closely 
with Jack Lew, Erskine Bowles, Robert Rubin, and the rest of President 
Clinton's economic team to help produce three out of four budget 
surpluses in a row. During her tenure, our government took a fair, 
credible, and sustainable approach to our Federal budget. That gave 
businesses the confidence to hire new workers and invest in their 
growth.
  Her leadership and hard work in the 1990s helped to create broad-
based economic growth that worked for the middle class and turned our 
debt and deficit problems around. Sylvia's firsthand experience 
creating a balanced and responsible approach to deficit reduction makes 
her uniquely qualified to lead OMB at this important time for our 
country.
  Since the 1990s, Sylvia has dedicated her life to helping people all 
over the world. As the president of the Global Development Program and 
the chief operating officer at the Gates Foundation, she worked to 
improve the lives of millions across the globe. Under her leadership, 
the foundation invested in important programs to help combat poverty 
and produce clean water and improve literacy, and provides emergency 
relief to those who need it the most.
  Most recently, as president of the Wal-Mart Foundation, she led the 
Foundation's charitable giving and focused on critical issues such as 
hunger relief and women's economic empowerment.
  Not only do Sylvia's achievements in the foundation of philanthropy 
worlds demonstrate her vast experience managing large global budgets, 
but they also speak volumes of her values and demonstrate her deep 
lifelong commitment to serving others.
  Sylvia grew up understanding the value of hard work and public 
service. Her parents have been community leaders in West Virginia for 
over half a century. Her father is a long-time optometrist and her 
mother, the Honorable Cleo Mathews, served as the mayor of her hometown 
of Hinton, and later served on the West Virginia State Board of 
Education for a decade. As my colleague Senator Manchin said when he 
introduced her to our Budget Committee, it is easy to see public 
service is a part of Sylvia's DNA.
  As the Director of OMB, Sylvia will help set our Nation's priorities 
and make tough decisions about our Federal spending. So I am glad 
Sylvia knows budgets are about more than abstract numbers and partisan 
back and forth. As a second generation Greek American, Sylvia 
understands the importance of the promise of American opportunity. She 
knows budgets are a reflection of our values and our priorities, and 
they are about families across the country whose lives and futures are 
impacted by the decisions we make.
  Not only is Sylvia an expert on domestic economic policy and a 
dedicated public servant, she has a demonstrated track record of 
working across the aisle to get things done. During her time in 
Washington in the 1990s, she reached across the aisle and negotiated 
the balanced and fair budgets with Republicans in Congress. She knows 
working to find common ground is the key to solving our fiscal 
challenge--a point made clear by her during her confirmation hearing in 
front of our Senate Budget Committee this month.
  So I am pleased her nomination passed our committee on a voice vote 
with strong bipartisan approval. Republicans, including Senator 
Sessions, who here on the floor praised Sylvia as someone who is, by 
all accounts, well-liked and an able leader committed to public 
service.
  Madam President, I support this nomination, I urge my colleagues to 
vote yes, and I yield back the remainder of my time.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, today I come to the floor to speak in 
support of the nomination of Mrs. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, to be 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. Her previous 
experience as Deputy Director of OMB during the Clinton administration, 
as well as her work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and her 
current position as president of the Walmart Foundation in my opinion, 
make her well qualified to be the Director of OMB.
  With our country now facing a $16.8 trillion dollar debt, which is 
more than $53,000 per person, the Director of OMB is perhaps the 
toughest job in Washington, and I am confident that Mrs. Burwell is up 
for the challenge. In addition to the unsustainable debt, $85 billion 
in draconian, across-the-board sequestration cuts to defense and 
nondefense programs in fiscal year 2013 have now started to hollow out 
our military. I hope to work with Mrs. Burwell to remedy these cuts 
that are devastating to our national security.
  Although Mrs. Burwell and I will not always agree on how we tackle 
our

[[Page S2925]]

country's urgent fiscal challenges, I am confident that she will commit 
to finding bipartisan solutions to these real problems. Solutions that 
will provide greater program efficiency and transparency and will put 
our country back on a path of fiscal stability so that future 
generations will not be forced to pay for the irresponsible spending 
decisions we continue to make here in Congress. Again, I am pleased 
that the President put forth such a qualified nominee, and I look 
forward to working with her.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Jane Kelly, of Iowa, to be United States Circuit Judge for the 
Eighth Circuit?
  Mr. SESSIONS. 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.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Cowan), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator 
from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 108 Ex.]

                                YEAS--96

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Cowan
     Hoeven
     Lautenberg
     Warren
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there is now 2 
minutes, equally divided, prior to a vote on the Burwell nomination.
  Who yields time?
  Mr. REID. I yield back all time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Sylvia Matthews Burwell, of West Virginia, to be Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget?
  Mr. REID. Madam President, 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 legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Cowan), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator 
from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Idaho (Mr. Crapo).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 109 Ex.]

                                YEAS--96

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Cowan
     Crapo
     Lautenberg
     Warren
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motions to 
reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________