Work Before the Senate

Floor Speech

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Madam President, over the next few weeks, Senators will work to conclude the business of the 114th Congress as we begin looking forward to the 115th. We have a lot to do, including approving several conference reports and funding the government. It is good to see the respective committees making important progress on conference reports for the National Defense Authorization Act and the Water Resources Development Act.

We will work with our counterparts in the House to consider each of those in the coming days and to send final bills to the President's desk for signature. We will also take up the 21st-century cures bill, which contains resources to promote medical research, including advancing regenerative medicine, among many other important provisions.

Sometime soon we will also take up the Iran Sanctions Extension Act, which provides underlying authorities necessary to reimpose sanctions if those sanctions are called for on the country that has continued to exhibit disturbing and very aggressive behavior. And of course we will work to pass the continuing resolution to fund the government.

I would also like to note that my friend from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, is continuing her efforts to advance the Energy Policy Modernization Act, which passed the Senate with large bipartisan support earlier this year. As the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, she has been a champion of this critical bill and has never stopped working to move it forward. I appreciate her work in that capacity, as well as the many other Members who have been leaders on each of the issues I just named.

I would encourage colleagues on both sides to continue working together so that we can complete our work very soon.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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