Do they enroll their children in the school where they are now or assume theyll be confirmed by then and look at enrolling them in the country in which theyll be serving . Why are we putting people who are serving their country through that type of uncertainty and anxiety . But we are. We are, by failing to move in a timely way the nominations that have been brought forward to us. Ill just mention one other example. I started with the hearing that i chaired today on behalf of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee dealing with four nominees. One was the ambassador to vietnam. I was just recently in vietnam. I met with our current ambassador, ambassador scher. I mention that because hes been nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for asia so hes leaving vietnam. We had a hearing today on the next ambassador to vietnam, a wellqualified career diplomat. The question is, are we going to have the orderly change of command in vietnam, a country critically important to u. S. Interests . Were negotiating a Transpacific Partnership agreement. Part of that is goodgovernment changes we expect in vietnam. We expect our ambassador to be there to to negotiate these issues. The question is, will we have that early transfer, two career people seeking to move forward in their careers, being held up by inaction on the floor of the United States senate . Ill come back to the last point i want to make. Yes, were hurting the United States in not having these confirmed c. E. O. s. Its creating unfairness to the families of people who want to serve our country and the uncertainty thats there. But its also hurting the United States senate because its our responsibility to act on president ial appointments. And its our responsibility to act in a timely, thoughtful way. Were not carrying out that responsibility. By the republicans obstructing votes on the president s nominations on Foreign Policy key Foreign Policy positions, we are not carrying out our responsibility, the oath that we took to serve in the United States senate to protect the interests of this country, its our responsibility to act on these nominations in a timely way and we have not done that because of the obstructionists of the republicans. I urge my colleagues to put National Interest first. Lets move forward with the responsibility. The committee has carried out its responsibility and, quite frankly, chairman menendez, youve carried that out in a very bipartisan way. Weve had cooperation between republicans and democrats on the Senate ForeignRelations Committee. Weve carried out our responsibility. Now its time for the United States senate to carry out its responsibility, for the republicans to allow us to vote in a timely way on this backlog of nominees for critical Foreign Policy positions. And i urge my colleagues to allow us to move forward in the best interests of our country and in respect to those who have stepped forward to serve our country and in carrying out the responsibilities that we all swore to uphold in the United States senate. With that, madam president , i would suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call mr. Reid i ask consent the call of the quorum be terminated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to paired of morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid i ask the chair lay before the senate a message from the house to accompany s. 1254. The presiding officer the clerk will report the chair lays before the senate a message from the house of representatives. The clerk resolved that the bill from the senate, s. 1254, entitled an act to amend the harmful alcohol blooms and Hypoxia Research and control act of 1988 and for other purposes do pass with an amendment. Mr. Reid i move to concur in the house amendment and ask unanimous consent the motion be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid i now ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to s. Res. 477. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk Senate Resolution 4 477, designating june 20, 2014, as American Eagle day and so forth. The presiding officer without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. Mr. Reid i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9 30 tomorrow morning, wednesday, june 18. Following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. Following any leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to h. R 4660 and the time during adjournment count postcloture on the motion to proceed to h. R. 4660. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Reid so, madam president , we hope to begin consideration of the appropriations bill during tomorrows session. Senators will be notified when votes are scheduled. If theres no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. The presiding officer the Senate Stands adjourned until 9 30 a. M. Tomorrow. Tomorrow senators continue work on federal spending bills for 2015 including one for the commerce and justice department. Follow the senate live here on cspan2 when members gavel back in. President obama is in new york city this evening attending a fundraiser hosted by the Democratic National committee. You can see his comments live here on cspan2 at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Tomorrow General Motors ceo testifies on gm defective ignition switch recall, which some people say caused 13 deaths she will speak in front of the House Oversight subcommittee live coverage at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on wednesday. You can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. On tomorrows washington journal former administrator of the Iraqi Coalition of 40 looks at his recent piece in the wall street journal on u. S. Troops. Then california representative Loretta Sanchez on what military and political options the u. S. Has. After that senior staff writer talks about his recent article looking at the Health Care Website and how the original version was fixed. Phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. Live wednesday and every morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. The pieces of the book is that there are a whole group of people in america, a big swath of america that is being ignored, left behind, not included in the discussion, i think, for either party. Particularly, i would argue, the Republican Party. That is what i call bluecollar conservatives, the folks out there that are working people, most of whom did not have college degrees, folks that really still understand the value of work in the importance of work and responsibility and people who understand the importance of family and faith panel believe in freedom and limited government. Those are conservative Republican Voters and in many cases they are not. In fact, a lot of them dont vote because they do not see either party talking to them about the concerns that they have in trying to create in the opportunity for them to live the american dream. Former pennsylvania senator and former president ial candid argues that working americans have been abandoned by both Political Parties and offers conservative answers to their problems saturday night at 10 00 eastern, part of book tv this weekend on cspan2. And this month on our Online Book Club we are discussing the forgotten man, a new history of the great depression. Start reading and joined others to discuss the book in our chat room at booktv. Org. Book tv, television for serious readers. Ohio republican senator and Maryland Democratic representative today discussed the federal budget and different priorities repeat between republicans and democrats. They serve on their respective budget committees hosted by the National Press club. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the National Press club. I am than Newsmaker CommitteeEvent Coordinator for todays bipartisan, bicameral News Conference by two National Leaders on the federal budgets future. Our two speakers will address future federal Budget Priorities and methods to achieve them. They will cover areas budget should attend to, programs that should or should not be funded and to what extent the usefulness and future of shutdowns and sequestration, strategies for bipartisan cooperation and action and the projected time line all in one hour. [laughter]. And to club members. Now let me introduce the two speakers. Congressman Chris Van Hollen is the ranking minority leader of the house budget committee. He was elected to congress in 2002 and beat some very wellknown people with big legacies. In addition to representing the eighth district of maryland and is serving in the house leadership the congressman was reelected by colleagues to serve as the second term top democrat on the budget committee. In this position he serves as the key point of budget person on economic legislation for the democratic party. The Washington Post described chris as a bona fide budget expert and the la times said he is among the partys best budget minds. Roll call has noted which is here today been hollen gets near universal respect for his intellectual firepower and the combination of political shots. I think a few years ago we called chris a rising star. Now hes just a star. The congressman van hollen was recognized by the washingtonian magazine is the best metropolitan area in congress and the local official by the federal magazine. There may be some in Congress Today who have recently lost elections and will tell you just how important that local Service Recognition can be. Chris also played an integral role to pass on behalf of healthcare a four man fought to ensure that adults receive expanded access. He continues to lead the fight for the disclosure act and secret election elections and tn the bills on the disclosure reforreform and whistleblower protections that were enacted. A former professional staff member of the Foreign Relations committee p6 and i emphasize as a former staff member myself has a strong background in National Security policy. Maybe his interests there come from the fact that he is the son of a Foreign Service officer. Before his election in the house, the congressman served for four years in the maryland house and eight years in the maryland senate. He also worked as an attorney private practice for ten years and is the graduate of swarthmore college, the john f. Kennedy school of government at harvard and Georgetown University law center. He lives in kensington maryland with his wife and their three children. Rob portman is the United States senator from ohio. He was elected in 2010 running a campaign that focused on conservative ideas to create jobs and get the deficit under control. He was born and raised in cincinnati where he lives today with his wife and their three children. He grew up in a Small Business family where he learned early on the value of hard work about leadership and fiscal responsibility. When he was young, his dad borrowed money to start Portman Equipment Company where he and his brother and sister worked while growing up. His father and his brother built a Family Business from a small truck dealership with five employees. He developed his own private practice representing small practices. In 1993, he was a partner in a Cincinnati Law Firm when he was elected to congress and where he represented the papers 722nd district in southern ohio. He served 12 years and off seven elections he never received less than 70 of the vote. During tha the time in congresse is involved in the historic welfare efforts and he was an advocate of the balanced budget bill that passed in 1997. He gained the respect of both republican colleagues in his successful bipartisan legislative initiatives including the measures that he offered to increase retirement savings, reform the irs and had over the new taxpayer rights and curb the mandates and reduce taxes and expand Drug Prevention and planned a conservation efforts. In the spirit of disclosure, it is his support for the community antidrug coalition of house members where i was the white house drug office or public affairs. In 2005, rob left the congress when he was asked by president george w. Bush to serve as the United States trade representative come at a cabinet level official responsible for u. S. Trade policy. Under his leadership america and exports increased and the u. S. Brought successful challenges against International Trade law violations. Following his accomplishments and there he was asked to serve in other critical cabinet post offense to todays discussion the director of the office of management and budget. He made his mark as a deficit hawk proposing a balanced budget and fighting the irresponsible year marks and putting in place new transparency measures for all federal spending. He was listed as a Vice President ial prospect in 2008 and 2012 and we wonder will he also be in 2016. So, the nationacertainly the nas club was privileged to have two superstars here today and their staff. Kaitlyn for senator portman and bridget for the congressman van hollen having immensely helpful in also displayed the kind of bipartisanship that we are seeking to augment today. I also want to introduce my wife, doctor Patricia Burke is the professor at George WashingtonMedical Center in nyc that has a real job looking for cures for cancer. And also i want to thank the national also, rebecca if you would raise your hand because she will be carrying the microphone around to the audience commandeaudience commae immediately able to also get the box advantages of the questions from the audience. And i know thats important to cspan as well. And i want to thank the National PressClub Executive director joanne booze, the staff liaison for the committee, and is st. Johns still hear that it does such a spectacular job and won the outstanding volunteer award for the whole club this past year and are audio people. We will lead first with the senate, senator rob portman. Thanks very much. We have worked together in the past. We consider him an honorary ohio ohioan. Hes worked for republicans and democrats on the drug issue and he has been an advocate for not the current approach to drug abuse and addiction but rather one that focuses on prevention education and treatment and recovery. And i think that this is one of the issues although we are going to talk about directly today is an example of something on the discretionary part of the budget that is being squeezed more and more as we dont deal with a larger problem on the mandatory spending side of the budget and succumb as we are talking about that, maybe we can sort of keep in mind that as an example of a program for instant is the Second Chance act that we are trying to get reauthorized right now thanow i offer to ten yearsn the discretionary side that is under more and more budget pressure even though it is a program that actually saves money because it encourages and saves localities to put in place the Prisoner Reentry Program to keep people out of the revolving door in prison. And in fact it encourages getting people into Productive Lives where the taxpayers are taking care of their families and so just an example of the kind of things i fear its going to be under increasing pressure if we do not do something about the bigger problem in the budget. This is a nice turnout. I would have come thursday if i were you. And i will tell you why. I looked at the website for the National Press club and the description for today is basically come here to talk about the intricacies of budget baselines warehouse on thursday herheres what it says about ths this is a direct quote called on camera smoking cocaine with a downtown what the controversial that he will be done here on thursday. [laughter] i dont know why y