. mr. leahy: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, what is the parliamentary situation? the presiding officer: the senate is in morning business until 2:00 p.m. mr. leahy: i thank the distinguished presiding officer. madam president, as we know, tonight president obama is going to speak to the american people about reforming our broken immigration system, and i had dinner with him last night. we talked about this, but i think it's generally expected that he will announce what he can do to address some of the problems that are tearing families apart, dragging the u.s. economy down and risking our national security. for two years the speaker, republican speaker of the house of representatives, refused to even allow a vote on the senate's bipartisan bill. because he has -- and i understand why the president is going to do what he's going to do. the distinguished presiding officer was here and we passed that bill by a 2-1 margin in the senate, republicans and democrats alike. and it reflects what we know. there are currently 11

president acts to keep families together. mr. leahy: mr. president, will the distinguished majority leader yield? the presiding officer: will the majority leader yield? the floor is yours. mr. leahy: mr. president, in the years i've served here, i've never seen a time when so many noncontroversial nominations are being held up, whether we've had a republican or democratic president. and i note for the majority leader, we have on the calendar 18 nominees for federal judgeships that passed unanimously. every republican, every democrat in the judiciary committee voting for them. many of them recommended by republican senators, and four of them, four judicial emergencies. now, and the oldest one has been pending since june, having gone through the committee unanimously. mr. president, this is not being responsible to the american people. the distinguished majority leader talked about the use of executive orders. concerns have been expressed by the other side about executive orders on immigration. i would remind everybody that this body, by a two to one margin, republicans and democrats

of debate equally divided before a vote on the may nomination. mr. leahy: mr. president, i yield my time to the senator from georgia, senator chambliss. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: mr. president, i thank senator leahy for yielding time, and i thank you most importantly for working through the process of getting several of georgia's judges to the floor of the senate. we've got some emergency positions that need to be filled, and senator leahy has been very cooperative in helping us to do. on behalf of my colleague senator isakson and myself, i encourage all of my colleagues to support the nomination of leigh may to be a judge for the district court for the northern district of georgia. miss may is graduate of our two flagship institutions, georgia tec as well as the university of georgia law school. she's practiced law with the butler wootan firm for many, many years, been involved in many high-profile case us. she brings intellect and integrity to the bench. she will be a great addition to the northern district of georgia and i encourage my collea

on this matter. i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president, would the republican leader yield for a question? mr. president, would the republican leader yield for a question? well, then i unfortunately will not yield for a -- unfortunately, he will not yield for a question, but i would note based on his concerns about the bipartisan piece of legislation regarding n.s.a. and others and his concern about isil, which we all share, that n.s.a. and all our intelligence community had every single -- every single tool the republican leader advocates for while isil built up its strength, while isil had iraq's army flee from them, while they went forward, and with every single one of those elements that the republican leader advocates for, there was not one single alarm bell that rang. so let's -- let's deal with facts, not hypotheses. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate wil will proceed to the consideration of s. 2280, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 371, s. 2280, a bill to approve t

chairman leahy moving these nominations through. and i'd yield it my colleague from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. toomey: mr. president, i would just whrie like to say bry that i would like to thank senator casey for the terrific cooperative relationship he and i have. when wendy beetlestone confirmed, that will make the i- make the 11th federal judge that's been confirmed as a result of the work we've done. wendy is a great candidate and i think she will make a great federal judge and urge my colleagues to confirm her confirmation. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the noings voke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of wendy beetlestone of pennsylvania to be united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania, signed by 1 senators. -- signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, th

nomination. a senator: mr. president? mr. leahy: i ask consent all time be yielded back. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection all time is yielded back. mr. leahy: i withhold that request. i yield back my time on this side. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia is recognized. mr. isakson: on behalf of myself and is senator chambliss from georgia -- the presiding officer: the chamber will come to order. mr. isakson: we would like the senate to look favorably. we could appreciate your consideration and your yes vote. i yield back. the presiding officer: all time is yielded back. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of leigh martin may of georgia to be united states district judge for the northern district of georgia, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is: is it th

, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 2:00 p.m. today. during that period of time senators will be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. there will be five roll call votes at 2:00 p.m. on confirmation of pepper, seans, arleo, beetlestone and bolden nominations to be district court judges. there will be 11 voice votes following that on executive nominations. mr. president, the famous poet oliver wendell holmes said -- quote -- "put not your trust in money, but put your trust" -- i'm sorry. let's try that one again. "put not your trust in money but put your money in trust." that's what he said. and since 2005, the united states senate has put its money, pressures taxpayer dollars, in the trusted hands of a man named chris doby. the financial clerk of the senate and he's proven himself to be equal to the task, and that is an understatement.