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The SENATE of the One Hundred and Twelfth Congress Second Session will CONVENE 2:00 P.M. on Monday, May 21, 2012.

UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT

1. S. 3187 (ORDER NO. 400) the Senate will resume the Legislative Session and vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.3187 sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa. S.3187 is a bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to revise and extend the user-fee programs for prescription drugs and medical devices, to establish user-fee programs for generic drugs and biosimilars, and for other purposes; provided, that with respect to the cloture motion filed on the motion to proceed, the mandatory quorum call under Rule XXII be waived.

2. S. 2343 (ORDER NO. 365) with respect to the cloture motion filed on the motion to proceed to S.2343, a bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the reduced interest rate for Federal Direct Stafford Loans, and for other purposes, the mandatory quorum required under Rule XXII be waived.

LIVE FLOOR PROCEEDINGS

Senate Videos


May 16, 2012 Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama scolds the Democrats within the Senate Chamber for not supporting Republican efforts in creating a federal budget.

May 15, 2012 Senator Lee from Utah speaking boldly about why his S.Admt.2100 should be passed on the Senate Floor.

May 15, 2012 Senator Maria Cantwell from Washington State speaking out against Senator Paul's S.Amdt.2101.

May 15, 2012 Senator Vitter from Louisiana advocating why his S.Admt.2103 should be passed on the Senate Floor.

May 8, 2012 Senator Sanders speaking in favor of Government run Student Load Programs and how Republicans are 'filibustering' against the American People and 'progress'.
May 8, 2012 Senator Richard Lugar Defeated in Tuesday's GOP Primary .

Senate Status

  • May 16, 2012 the Republican efforts to provide a federal budget with drastic spending cuts to entitlement and other federal programs where for naught, all five of the Republican proposed budget resolutions went down in defeat failing to get even one roll call vote from the Democratic controlled Senate.  The Democrats were in lock-step with their Party Line and refuse to even consider the idea of comming to 'consensus' with the Republicans on budget cuts and spending. There are currently 42 of 53 Democratic Senators that have a Party Percent Average of 90% or greater, the Republicans have only 8 of 43 Republican Senators with a Party Percent Average 90% or greater while having 10 Senators that are 75% or lower. Not one Democratic Senator's Party Percent Average is 75% or lower...NOT ONE! That's, a partisanship record since 2005.
    Senator Pat Toomey's (PA) S.Con.Res.37 received the most Republican roll call votes with 42, four Republicans sided with the Democrats; Brown (R-MA), Collins (R-ME), Heller (R-NV),and  Snowe (R-ME). Republican Congressman Paul Ryan's (WI) H.Con.Res.112 gathered the next most roll call votes in the affirmative from his fellow Republicans with 41. Five Repubicans did not support Rep. Paul Ryan's budget resolution; Brown (R-MA), Collins (R-ME), Heller (R-NV), Paul (R-KY), and Snowe (R-ME). The Republican Minority only supported two of the five Republican budget resolutions, S.Con.Res.37 and H.Con.Res.112. Senator Rand Paul continued to have lack of success in convincing Democrats to support his legislation, S.Con.Res.42 went down in flames without getting even one Democrat roll call vote while managing to gather only 16 Republican roll call votes in the affirmative.  But the most bizarre and shocking result came from the roll call vote on S.Con.Res.41 sponsored by Senator Jeff Sessions (AL), it did not recieve even one roll call vote from any Senator from either Party, even Senator Jeff Sessions himself voted against S.Con.Res.41. Which beg's the question, why even proposed the Resolution in the first place?
  • May 15, 2012 the Senate continues to waive Rule XXII on 'Cloture' but the following Republican Admendments to H.R.2072 (Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2012 ) failed to get even 51 much less 60 roll call votes to be 'Agreed to' and passed on the Senate Floor:

    Amendment SponsorImage LinkParty
    Percent
    Cloture
    (2011)
    President
    Votes
    Roll Call Vote Dem Yeas Dem Nays Dem Maj Rep  Yeas Rep Nays Rep Maj Fem Yeas Fem Nays Fem Maj
    S.Admt.2100 Senator Lee Senator Lee (UT) 69% 12% 25% 12-86-2 0 52 -52 12 34 -22 0 17 -17
    S.Admt.2101 Senator Paul Senator Paul (KY) 84% 9% 25% 9-89-2 0 52 -52 9 37 -28 0 17 -17
    S.Admt.2102 Senator Corker Senator Corker (TN) 87% 35% 75% 36-62-2 0 52 -52 36 10 26 5 12 -7
    S.Admt.2103 Senator Vitter Senator Vitter (LA) 75% 29% 70% 37-61-2 0 52 -52 37 9 28 4 13 -9
    S.Admt.2104 Senator Toomey Senator Toomey (PA) 84% 38% 55% 35-63-2 0 52 -52 35 11 24 3 14 -11

    By the end of the day H.R.2072 'Passed' by a whopping 78-20-2 with the Democratic-Socialist from Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders being the only Democrat joining the Republican minority in voting 'Nay' on H.R.2072. All 17 women Senators voted 'Yea' in favor of H.R.2072. Senator Rand Paul's S.Admt.2101 was 'Rejected' and only mustered 9 roll call votes in the affirmative. Since becoming the junior Senator from Kentucky in 2010  Senator Rand Paul has yet to have any of his sponsored legislation (19) passed on the Senate Floor by a roll call vote. For the record the Republican majority has supported 14 of the 19 pieces of legislation Senator Paul has sponsored, it is the Democratic majority that refuses to support Senator Paul's legislation based on constitutional principles of limited government with enumerated powers. In fact Senator Paul has only managed to get 50 affirmative votes so far from Democrats on all of his 19 pieces of sponsored legislation, that's averaging only 2.06 Democrat votes per sponsored legislation.
  • May 8, 2012 the Senate continued to waive Rule XXII on 'Cloture', it is now operating on a 60 vote threshold to move legislation along on the floor of the Senate without actually calling for a 'Cloture' vote. S.2343 (Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012) sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from Nevada failed to meet the  60 vote threshold to 'Proceed' forward for debate or even 'Table' Amendments, it was rejected by a roll call vote of 52-45-1-2 along Party Lines with Senator Reid being the only Democrat to voted against the motion to proceed for the chance to move other motions forward. Senator Snowe from Maine voted 'Present' while Senators Kirk (R-IL) and Lugar (R-IN) being the only Senators not to vote. SenateReports.com counts and records 'Present' votes as 'Not Voting' votes, both ofcourse count negatively against the Senator's Party Percent Average.
    S.2343 is one of many conundrums facing Republicans within a Democrat controlled Senate. 
    How can a Republican in good conscience support or oppose tax increases on something that is clearly unconstitutional to begin with?
    The Constitution clearly does not give Congress the power to administer loans to Students much less raise taxes to support a Student Loan program.
    How can a Republican agree on such a flagrantly misuse of federal government power including twisting the words and orginal intent of the Constitution around to justify and support such a student loan program?
    The Democrats in the Senate clearly do not display any 'qualms of conscience' when it comes to NOT adhering to constitutional principles of limited government of which their oath of office maintains, so they continue to advance socalism thru democracy merrily spending taxpayers money while not providing the means to pay for such government programs.
  • May 8, 2012 Republican Senator Richard Lugar was soundly defeated in the Indiana GOP Primary by 'Tea Party' backed candidate Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock by more than 20 percentage points. Senator Lugar's defeat should be a warning to all Republicans that do not take their oath of office seriously and seek compromise with seditious progressive democrats that would advance socialism thru democracy and would put international interests above national interests such as Senator Lugar's strong support for the LAW OF THE SEA TREATY.
    Senator Lugar's Party Percent Average for the last 7 years is 84% while the Republican Party Percent Average for 7 years is 83% which makes Senator Lugar a moderate Republican for the last 7 years, but he voted for Progressive Judges and Cabinet Appointments President Barack H. Obama nominated of which the Democratic Majority strongly supported while the Republican majority 'Rejected' as being far too 'progressive' to honor their oath of office.
    Supreme Court Justices...Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan,  Department of Justice Attorney General...Eric H. Holder, Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration...Cass R. Sunstein, and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebeliu are some of the 'progressives' Senator Lugar helped confirmed. But the most grievous offense against Republican principles was Senator Lugar's vote to confirm infamous 'transnationalist'  Harold Hongju Koh, of Connecticut to be a Legal Adviser of the Department of State.

Which political party actually has been in control of the Senate since 2006? Consider the 'The Gang of  20'. Senators with over twenty years of Senate service have much more power in the Senate than Senators with less seniority and seniority has a heavy influence on which Senators are assigned to which prestigious committees. The Democrats have controlled the gang of twenty since 2005 (yes even during the Bush years) when it was 16 Democrats, 12 Republicans with over twenty years of Senate service, now under Obama its 18 Democrats, 8 Republicans, but on May 8, 2012 Senator Richard Lugar lost his GOP Primary and will be leaving the Senate after 36 years in January 2013.

The late Robert C. Byrd had almost 54 years of Senate Service. Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye from Hawaii will started his 9th term in the Senate Janauary 2011, he is 86 years old and will have 54 years of Senate service when his 9th term ends sometime around January, 2017 when he is 92 years old.  Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland is one of the most progressive democrats in the Senate and has been a member of the 'Gang of 20' for over 15 years!

Gang of 20
Last Name First Name State Party Party
Percent
YOS
Inouye Daniel Hawaii Democratic 88% 54
Leahy Patrick Vermont Democratic 93% 42
Baucus Max Montana Democratic 90% 37
Levin Carl Michigan Democratic 95% 36
Bingaman Jeff New Mexico Democratic 97% 30
Mikulski Barbara Maryland Democratic 96% 30
Reid Harry Nevada Democratic 95% 30
Harkin Tom Iowa Democratic 90% 30
Kerry John Massachusetts Democratic 89% 30
Rockefeller Jay West Virginia Democratic 87% 30
Conrad Kent North Dakota Democratic 93% 26
Murray Patty Washington Democratic 93% 24
Boxer Barbara California Democratic 92% 24
Kohl Herbert Wisconsin Democratic 89% 24
Lieberman Joseph Connecticut Independent 83% 24
Akaka Daniel Hawaii Democratic 94% 23
Wyden Ron Oregon Democratic 93% 21
Feinstein Dianne California Democratic 64% 20
Total Senators 18 Party
Percent Avg
90%
Last Name   State Party Party
Percent
YOS
Lugar Richard Indiana Republican 90% 36
Grassley Charles Iowa Republican 89% 36
Cochran Thad Mississippi Republican 83% 36
Hatch Orrin Utah Republican 57% 36
McConnell Mitch Kentucky Republican 94% 30
Shelby Richard Alabama Republican 90% 30
McCain John Arizona Republican 83% 30
Inhofe James Oklahoma Republican 85% 21
Total Senators 8 Party
Percent Avg
84%

James Inhofe John McCain Richard Shelby Mitch McConnell Orrin Hatch Thad Cochran Richard Lugar Charles Grassley Dianne Feinstein Ron Wyden Daniel Akaka Joseph Lieberman Hebert Kohl Patty Murray Barbara Boxer Kent Conrad John Kerry Jay Rockefeller Tom Harkin Harry Reid Barbara Mikulski Jeff Bingaman Carl Levin Max Baucus Patrick Leahy Daniel Inouye

If you have any questions about how or why a US Senator voted click the link to their official United States Senate web site found within the database portion of SenateReports.com and locate their mailing address, write them a letter and just ask them WHY? You can also call the US Capitol Main Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, the switchboard operator will connect you to your Senator's office where you may leave a comment.

Check out the Senate Reports, Cloture, Party Percent and Ideology reports pages to reveiw the various perentages, counts and other data on the U.S. Senators. These reports are just one small example of what is available within the database portion of SenateReports.com that is only available to registered members. On May 8th 2012 the Senate of the 112th Congress Second Session reached 89 roll call votes, when it reaches 100 roll call votes SenateReports.com will publish the 'midterm' data on the Cloture, Party Percent and Ideolgy report pages so make sure to come back to SenateReports.com to review the data!

This week's report is a updated report on comparing the most 'moderate' Progressive and Conservative Senators in the Senate, Ben Nelson and Olympia Snowe.

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