[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 175 (Wednesday, December 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8783-S8784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion.
  The assistant bill 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 
     Heather Anne Higginbottom, of the District of Columbia, to be 
     Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
         Harry Reid, Sherrod Brown, Richard J. Durbin, Christopher 
           Murphy, Robert Menendez, Christopher A. Coons, Angus S. 
           King, Jr., Martin Heinrich, Amy Klobuchar, Dianne 
           Feinstein, Tom Udall, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Bernard 
           Sanders, Barbara Boxer, Brian Schatz, Robert P. Casey, 
           Jr., Thomas R. Carper, Benjamin L. Cardin, Michael F. 
           Bennet.


                              Quorum Call

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair now directs 
the

[[Page S8784]]

clerk to call the roll to ascertain the presence of a quorum.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll and the following 
Senators entered the Chamber and answered to their names:

                            [Quorum No. 12]

     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. A quorum is present.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have an announcement. I realize everyone 
is tired, anxious, and some are a little concerned about everything.
  I have had, especially late last night and early this morning, 
conversations with Republicans and Democrats as to what we should do 
this weekend.
  The next set of votes will come shortly before noon today. Then we 
will have another set of votes this afternoon. Absent consent, the 
Senate will vote late Saturday, about 10:30 or thereabouts, on 
confirmation of Jeh Johnson to be the Secretary of Homeland Security.
  The Senate has already received a budget bill from the House. We 
expect momentarily to receive the Defense bill from the House. I wish 
to have the Senate process these important bills as quickly possible. I 
plan to move to proceed on these bills as soon as we can. That would be 
as soon as we handle the pending nominations that are now before this 
body.
  Thereafter, there are certain things we need to do before Christmas 
break. We need to do those two important bills, the budget and defense. 
We have to do the Chair of the Federal Reserve system. There is an 
Under Secretary of State that is very urgent, according to John Kerry. 
We have a Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Under Secretary of 
Department of Interior, the head of the Internal Revenue Service, and 
the remaining judge on the DC Circuit. There have been requests from 
everybody--I shouldn't say that--lots and lots of people to do other 
things, but we are limited as to what we can do before next weekend. 
There are some other nominations that we are happy to discuss with 
individual Senators.

  So it would be my suggestion that we go ahead and do this vote; 
during this vote, and prior to the next series of votes, I will meet 
with the Republican leader to see if there is a way we can give some 
time, especially to the staff, over the weekend. These people have 
worked extremely hard, and I haven't heard a complaint from a single 
one of them, quite frankly.
  I went up last evening and visited the court reporters. We have 18 
court reporters, and up on the 4th floor they have been sharing--for a 
little respite--two beds and taking naps, or at least trying to lie 
down and rest for a bit. They are working in 15-minute shifts, and they 
have been doing that for days now. So if we can work that out, I would 
be happy to do that.
  My goal is we would wind up at the same place on Monday in the 
evening as we would wind up if we did all this stuff over the weekend. 
So I am happy to be as cooperative as possible. Christmas is on its 
way, and there are certain things we need to have done. There are lots 
of other things we need to do, but we are probably not going to be able 
to do those.
  So I have laid out for everyone a broad scope of the schedule. I will 
meet with my friend the Republican leader and see if there is some way 
we can do this; otherwise, we will just proceed on.
  The good news is that following the vote this afternoon, we wouldn't 
have anything until tomorrow night under the schedule as now listed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate 
that debate be brought to a close on the nomination of Heather Anne 
Higginbottom, of the District of Columbia, to be Deputy Secretary of 
State for Management and Resources.
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. 
Johnson), the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Merkley), the Senator from 
Florida (Mr. Nelson), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller), 
the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Schatz), and the Senator from Maryland 
(Ms. Mikulski) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. 
Blunt), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the Senator from 
Tennessee (Mr. Corker), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo), the Senator 
from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Hatch), 
the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), and the Senator from Illinois 
(Mr. Kirk).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Alexander) would have voted ``nay.''
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 51, nays 34, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 271 Ex.]

                                YEAS--51

     Baldwin
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boxer
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--34

     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Boozman
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cornyn
     Cruz
     Enzi
     Fischer
     Flake
     Grassley
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Lee
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Thune
     Toomey
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--15

     Alexander
     Blunt
     Coburn
     Corker
     Crapo
     Graham
     Hatch
     Inhofe
     Johnson (SD)
     Kirk
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Nelson
     Rockefeller
     Schatz
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________