[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 THE PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENT EFFICIENCY AND STREAMLINING ACT OF 2011--
                      MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 75, S. 
679. I send a cloture motion to the desk and ask the clerk to report.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The cloture motion having been presented under rule XXII, the Chair 
directs the clerk to read the motion.
  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, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 75, S. 679, the Presidential 
     Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011:
         Harry Reid, Joseph I. Lieberman, Thomas R. Carper, Frank 
           R. Lautenberg, Sherrod Brown, Barbara Boxer, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Patty Murray, Robert P. Casey, Jr., 
           Christopher A. Coons, Joe Manchin III, Debbie Stabenow, 
           Jon Tester, Benjamin L. Cardin, Jeanne Shaheen, Kent 
           Conrad, Richard J. Durbin.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am disappointed that we had to file 
cloture again. I would hope, though, that in the ensuing days, the 
Republicans on the other side will let us get on this bill.
  This is a bill Senator McConnell and I started working on when we 
were both whips many years ago. The purpose of the bill is to eliminate 
the need to have all of these nominations to these relatively minor 
posts confirmed by the Senate. And the work done by the chairman and 
ranking member of the Budget Committee, Senators Schumer and Alexander, 
has been exemplary.
  We now will have--when this legislation passes, and I really think it 
will pass, even if we have to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed 
and on the bill itself--hopefully that will not be necessary, but if we 
do, that is what we will have to do. This bill would take away the 
necessity of our having to do some 200 nominations for some of these 
minor posts I talked about.
  I hope we can get on this bill when we come back next week. It will 
be the right thing to do. There is so much to do. This would set the 
tone of this work period that has not been so good to this point.

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