Vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the yeas are 86, the nays are 2. The nomination is confirmed. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the the president be immediately notified of the senates action with respect to the nominations confirmed during todays session of the senate. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer the question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 387. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, department of homeland security, chad f. Wolf of virginia to be under secretary for strategy, policy, and plans. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the 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 chad wolf of virginia to be under secretary for strategy, policy, and plans, department of homeland security, signed by 17 senatorsals follows mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i of mo to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent that it be in order to move to proceed to calendar number 486. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 486. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, the. Steven j. Menashi of new york to be United States circuit judge for the Second Circuit. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the 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 much steven j. Menashi of new york to be United States circuit judge for the Second Circuit signed by 17 senatorsals follows mr. Mcconnell i ask consent the reading of the names waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motion be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent that notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture motions ripen at 5 30 p. M. On tuesday, november 12. The presiding officer without objection. The senator for ohio. Mr. Portman mr. President , id like to take this opportunity to talk about something positive thats happening back home in ohio with the help of the u. S. Army corps of engineers. The army corps is involved with some civicminded Community Volunteers in something that will help us to preserve our history in ohio. It wouldnt be happening but for the vision of the head of the army corps, mr. R. D. James, the assistant secretary of the army for civil works. It is a goodnews project regarding the preservation of an important piece of history in the Northwest Territories in my home state of ohio. It is called the barker house. It is an historic home dates back almost 200 years when it was built by the owners father who was a revolutionary war father. It is a number of Historic Homes of his were built along the ohio river and this is one still left standing. Joseph colonel barker senior h. Sr. Was his name. He is one of our most famous early pioneers in ohio. It was listed on the list of National Historic places for its significance. The houses he built played an Important Role in a new awardwinning book that i would recommend to you by that great historian David Mccullough called the pioneers and it tells the story of the Northwest Territories and the founding of ohio in wake of the reflation nature war. His stately homes were an anomaly out on the frontier. His own home was described in the book as, and i quote, a large brick house in the federal style with a handsome front door flanked by recessed side windows and and elliptical fan overhead. The whole house was painted white and soon became a distinguished house of hospitality. End quote. This also describes the Historic House were trigg to preserve. These houses stood in sharp contrast to the log cabins on the rugged landscape. The barker house is currently owned by the u. S. Army corps of engineers. Its owned by them because its right i right next to the willow dam on the river. Today the house is Still Standing. It is vacant, in bad shape, and its unsafe to enter, but it is safable. I visited this Historic House back in september of 2008. I learn then that the core was proposing to demolish the barker house. They then considered a proposal to try notify it brick by bic to a new location off of army corps land. Neither made sense. Thats when i met jack hayesly, who has led a group along with others, a local barker house friends group, who said theyd beological to raise the money to theyd be willing to raise the money to restore this home overlooking the oat owe river. They wanted to be sure it would be accessible to visits and could be made into a museum. I immediately called the secretary, mr. Aade james of the army corps and asked if he would consider the decision demolish the home. After hearing the story of the house and the tee tails of the local groups l. A. N. Plan to reserve it, mr. James agreed to reverse the corps decision and to work with us on preserving the home. He deserved great credit for that. Congressman bill johnson, who represents the area, who is also been an excellent partner in pursuing these sensible solutions. Right now we are working on developing legislation that i hope to introduce soon to convey the house and the surrounding land to the friends group. Weve made a lot of progress so far. Just last week the corps completed drawings of the specific parcel to be conveyed, which also includes the creation of an access road so the house can be visited and enjoyed by the public. And we appreciate the Ohio Department of transportation and director Jack Marchbanks for working with us on that. The road access issue was critical, and odot was very helpful. Also the oat owe state Preservation Office has jumped in and played a constructive role. This is an example of a true publicprivate partnership, again, made possible by secretary james. So again id like to thank him, thank the army corps, thank his team. Id like to thank the barker house friends group, the ohio historic Preservation Office, odot, all of whom are partnering together with us to ensure that this Historic Place is Still Standing so it can tell the story for generations to come. Id like to ask that my remaining remarks appear in a separate part of the congressional record. The presiding officer without objection u. Mr. Portman im here on the Senate Floor Today to talk about the opportunity we have here in congress to make substantial relieves to address an issue that keeps a lot of americans up at night, and thats whether theyre going to have enough money in their retirement. I chair the finance subcommittee that handles retirement and pension issues, and ive worked to pass Bipartisan Legislation with thencongressman ben cardin, now senator ben cardin over the years. That legislation has helped let people save more in their i. R. A. s, 401 k s, other Retirement Plans, but we still have a long way to go. In fact, according to a recent study, twothirds of americans believe theyll outlive their Retirement Savings. And people are right to be worried. Right now way too many workers dont have access to a private Retirement Plan at all, and too Many Americans who do have a plan are not saving enough. Less than half of the employees at businesses with less than 50 workers even have access to a plan p. And only 34 of them participate. Thats where the major problem is. These are workers that mom and pop shops, small manufacturers, cantless other employers who make up the backbone of our economy. We can and should do more to make sure these Small Business employees are set up for retirement, where they can find peace of mind in their retirement. Whats more, only 22 of parttime workers today have access to a plan. Only 22 . More americans can have access to a Retirement Plan just by making some simple changes in law. A lot of americans who do have a plan again havent saved enough, so theyreatic are of having their savings be inadequate for their increasing lifespans, as people are living longer, this is a bigger problem. Social security is absolutely essential. Its great that that safety net is there. Its necessary to cushion the retirement incomes of americans, but the average payout of Social Security is 1,400 a month. Try living on that. It is tough. A lot of people have a hard time with that, so they need this extra Retirement Savings. This lack of adequate Retirement Savings is made worse by the fact that we have more and more baby boomers who are retiring. So we have a bigger group in this category. And people are living longer, which is a good thing. But it creates an additional challenge with regard to Retirement Savings for all these reasons, we need to overhaul the laws governing the prime recivility system to help people get access to workplace savings plans, encourage savings to help our economy overall and make sure people dont outlive their savings in their retirement. The good news is that we have that package right before us right now here in the u. S. Senate. It would go a long way toward making these changes. Its called the secure act and its already passed the house of representatives five and a half months ago by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 4173. Thats right, 4173. That never happens around here. So this is totally bipartisan. Its one of these issues where we would have an opportunity to pass it and then send it directly to the president for his signature, and he has said he would sign it. Were so divided on so many issues here in washington today, but this is one where we have a rare chance for a truly bipartisan solution to a problem thats affecting people in every single state represented in this body. Today what was called a live u. C. Was tried. It was aaron attempt to an attempt to get a vote on the secure act, this legislation im talking about, with five amendments on each side. I support that, and i supported my colleagues today who came forward to offer that. The amendments that they outlined as our five republican amendments all make sense to me, and then the democrats said you should offer five amendments also. You will pick them. Unfortunately it was objected to by the other side, and that didnt surprise me because for the past five and a half months some of us have been trying to get this legislation done, and there have been concerns on both sides of the aisle. But were at a point now where we know, having raised this live u. C. , that we continue to have this stalemate. And after five and a half months, i think its time for us to move forward on these reforms. I like the amendments, again, that were proposed today. As an example, i agree that allowing 529 plans to be used for homeschooling expenses make sense and its a reform that congress should take up. But this underlying bill that almost every republican in the house supported even without this provision is one we also ought to pick up. So as difficult as it is for us to give up on amendments on both sides, if that cant be done because it gets blocked, then lets go ahead and move the underlying legislation, the secure act. Its a worthwhile piece of legislation. It helps in a category where we need the help badly and thats Small Businesses. They have an easier time setting up Retirement Plans under the secure act because the bill increases the tax credit for Small Businesses. In general you get 500 for starting a Retirement Plan. That would be raised to 5,000, a tenfold increases. Small businesses are the major gap where Retirement Plans are found say that would be a significant incentive for them to set up a Retirement Plan. Second it provides an annual tax credit to Small Businesses that introduce automatic enrollment features into their plan so Small Business employees would have to opt out of saving for retirement as opposed to opting in. These auto enrollment features are fantastic. The average participation of a 401 k in a midsized business is about 75 of the employees. If its auto enrollment where you are automatically enrolled unless you opt out, its about 95 . This makes a lot of sense to me and thats an innovative change in this legislation. Third is streamlines regulations. Small Business Owners that have a lot on their plates can have an easier time focusing on riermt for their employees retirement for their employees. Perhaps most importantly to me, the bill allows Small Businesses to participate in open multiple employer defined Contribution Plans. These are plans that allow business, some of the Small Businesses we talked about earlier, to come together to work out joint plans for their employees. That becomes much more effective for Small Businesses because they can share the administrative costs, share some of the liability expenses. It has a lot of benefits for small employers and will result in more people i represent getting a Retirement Plan. In all, the joint committee on taxation estimates that this reform alone would lead to 700,000 new retirement accounts for Small Business workers who need access. In my experience, that security really works. I grew up in a small family business. My dad started his own business when he had five employees. My mom was the bookkeeper and he said were going to set up a Retirement Plan. It was called a Profit Sharing plan. They had no profit the first few years so it was a little awkward. When they finally started making money, everybody had a stake, everybody got a little bit in their retirement nest egg. When 401 k s came in, they started a 401 k as well. Ive met people as well who have turned a wrench in their careers as a lift truck technician, lift Truck Mechanic who have a Retirement Savings plan because of that. A nice nest egg, 500,000, 600,000 they were able to accumulate. I know this works. I know Small Businesses have the opportunity to do more for their workers if we help them more here in washington. Im committed to trying to get this done. Another important part of the secure act has to do with Older Americans. It says that we should raise the age limit that forces older American Workers to start depleting and paying taxes on their Retirement Savings. Currently at 70 1 2, 70 years old and and a half you have to start taking money out of your Retirement Plan. You have to whether youre working or not. And many people are still working. My dad was still working at 70 1 2. It drove him crazy he had to start taking the money out. He wanted to keep building it out. We say lets expand that in this legislation to age 72. As important the bill lifts the current prohibition on i. R. A. Contributions by people over 70 1 2, meaning people can make the choice that they want to keep investing in their retirements for as long as they see fit. Somebody who makes it to 70 1 2 is likely to live into his or her 90s. Theres a lot of time in retirement where you need to have that funding. That kind of flexibility is how we allow people to manage their own Retirement Savings. The secure act is good for Small Businesses, good for Older Americans but reforms dont end there. It has a number of other good provisions. One is particularly urgent. It it reforms the pen