[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9556-9557]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  BANK ON STUDENTS EMERGENCY LOAN REFINANCING ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--
                               Continued


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have a cloture motion that is at the desk. 
I ask that it be reported.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to report the 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 motion to 
     proceed to calendar No. 409, S. 2432, a bill to amend the 
     Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for the refinancing 
     of certain Federal student loans.
         Harry Reid, Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Richard 
           Blumenthal, Benjamin L. Cardin, Jack Reed, Tom Harkin, 
           Barbara Boxer, Jeanne Shaheen, Patty Murray, Richard J. 
           Durbin, Tom Udall, Sheldon Whitehouse, Christopher 
           Murphy, Bill Nelson, Robert Menendez, Tammy Baldwin.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory 
quorum under rule XXII be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have filed, I am sorry to say, another 
cloture motion to get on a bill. We have more student loan debt in 
America today than we have credit card debt. I just had a conference 
call with some students from the State of Nevada. What is going on is 
really very unfortunate. Some of these students lamented the fact: You 
know, I am not sure I should be in school. I am borrowing money. Maybe 
I should do something else.
  I do not know how many times we have had to file cloture for the 
opportunity to get on a bill, but that is where we are. So we will have 
a cloture vote to see if they will let us on the bill on Wednesday.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. Yes.
  Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator, through the Chair, it is 
my understanding that he just filed a procedural motion which will 
allow us to take up a bill and debate a bill which would give an 
opportunity to some of the 44 million Americans currently paying 
college student loans. This bill, authored by Senator Elizabeth Warren 
of Massachusetts, would allow students to refinance their college debt 
down to today's interest levels--3.8 percent, if I am not mistaken, for 
undergraduate loans--which would make paying back their loans easier 
and sooner, and we have to go through a procedure of waiting 2 days in 
the Senate to even start talking and debating on the bill. Is that what 
the Senator is telling us?
  Mr. REID. Through the Chair to my dear friend, that is what I am 
saying.
  What has happened around the country is not only in Nevada, it is all 
across the country, with rare exception. State legislatures don't 
support higher education.
  If you take an organization such as the Board of Regents of the State 
of Nevada, and they have a lump sum of money the legislature gives 
them, they have to figure out a way to keep kids in school. So in 
Nevada last Thursday they raised the tuition of our universities by 17 
percent. What will happen? They will borrow more money.
  I told those young people when I started the conversation today, I 
worked hard but with a little scholarship here or there, I could work 
hard and put myself through school. I put myself through college and 
law school, and they can't do it now. There aren't enough hours in the 
day to pay for this tuition.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for another question through the 
Chair?
  Mr. REID. I yield.
  Mr. DURBIN. Procedurally, what the Senator had to do was file a 
motion so the Senate could actually start debate on this issue. There 
was a time in the Senate when you didn't have to have 60 votes to even 
start debating an issue. But is it my understanding, now that we are 
building up to a vote on Wednesday to see if five Republicans will 
cross the aisle and join us so we can have a debate on the floor of the 
Senate on whether we can refinance college student loans, we have to 
wait 2 days?
  Mr. REID. We, the Senate, and the American people have waited for 
months, because we have done this time and time again. We have had to 
file cloture on just getting on a bill.
  The sad part about it, on many occasions on nominations--they also do 
the same on nominations; we have approximately 140 nominations held 
up--they vote for them. Bills they have supported, nominations they 
have supported, they still make us file cloture and waste the time of 
the American people. And I say months.
  Mr. DURBIN. If I could ask one last question through the Chair.
  So we need five Republican Senators to join Democratic Senators if we 
are even going to debate the bill about refinancing college student 
loans; is that my understanding?
  Mr. REID. The Senator is right.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KAINE. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                            Lauck Nomination

  Mr. KAINE. I rise in support of one of the judicial nominees whom we 
will consider first by cloture vote in a few minutes and then a vote 
scheduled on confirmation tomorrow. It is the nomination of U.S. 
Magistrate Judge M. Hannah Lauck to the Federal bench in the Eastern 
District of Virginia. Judge Lauck is somebody whom I know quite well, 
because she serves as a magistrate in the Richmond division of the 
Eastern District where I live, and that is a court where I spent 
probably the majority of my 17-year legal practice.
  She has come full circle. She is a native Virginian, went to college 
outside of Virginia but came back to the Commonwealth after graduating 
from Yale Law School. She began her legal career as a law clerk for 
Judge James Spencer, whose retirement has opened this position on the 
Federal bench. It is fitting as she was one of his first law clerks, 
and now she has the opportunity with this nomination to fill his shoes 
on the court.
  Judge Lauck is very well prepared. She began, as I explained, as a 
judicial law clerk, which is a prestigious position, for a wonderful 
Federal judge, Judge James Spencer. She has included in her public 
career over the past 20-plus years both public service and private 
practice.
  Before she joined the bench as a magistrate, Judge Lauck served as a 
corporate counsel for Genworth Financial, a Fortune 500 company, in 
Richmond. For 10 years before that she was assistant U.S. attorney in 
the Eastern District of Virginia, where she started in civil 
litigation, handling the entire spectrum of civil cases involving the 
United States as a party, and finished as a criminal prosecutor. 
Coupled with her service as a magistrate, this extensive experience in 
both private practice and work in the U.S. Attorney's Office makes her 
very familiar with the docket of this court.
  She became a U.S. magistrate judge in 2005. I know the Presiding 
Officer practiced law and understands the important work Federal 
magistrates do. Her work has involved all Federal misdemeanors.
  Magistrates in the Richmond division try Federal misdemeanors, and 
they also try complex civil matters fully with the consent of the 
parties. It is the practice in eastern Virginia for parties to often 
consent to magistrate judges trying their cases. She has since 2005, 9 
years, acted as a judge in virtually the entire range of matters that 
this court handles, this Federal court.
  Along the way, Hannah has distinguished herself as an excellent 
attorney and earned awards for her work, including various 
commendations from the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Marshals Service, 
the Virginia State Police, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Genworth, 
her previous private sector employer. She was also named as a Virginia 
Leader in the Law for her work and service to the bench.

[[Page 9557]]

  I am excited to be here on behalf of Judge Lauck. This is a vacancy 
on which both Senator Warner and I have worked very hard. We first 
asked our local bar association, especially the Virginia State Bar, to 
conduct interviews and then make recommendations to us. We did that 
first, and then all the candidates were interviewed by us. We are proud 
to recommend her to the President and thankful that the President 
nominated her for the position.
  In closing, I will say this is a court that I am very close to. My 
wife clerked for a Federal judge on this court when she started her 
legal career, just as Judge Lauck started her legal career in the same 
way. I served as a civil litigator for 17 years with a Richmond firm 
directly across the street from the courthouse and spent a lot of time 
there.
  I know--the Presiding Officer reminded me; thank you for doing it--
that the Presiding Officer's father was the first Federal magistrate in 
Virginia in this same court, the Eastern District of Virginia, 
Alexandria division.
  So the Presiding Officer knows well the work magistrates do. I have 
stayed very close to this court since I tried my last case in 2001. I 
know the judges, I know the court personnel, I know the lawyers, and I 
know many of the parties, and they speak with uniform plaudits in 
regard to the work Judge Lauck has done as a magistrate.
  There is no better person for this seat being vacated than Judge 
Lauck to have the full article III power that will come if she is 
confirmed. I am very happy to recommend her to all my colleagues. She 
will be an excellent judge to serve on that court.

                          ____________________