mr gregg mr gregory hi mr kerry mr kerry i mr bond mr bond mr rockefeller mr rockefeller a but without objection under the previous order there on now be two minutes of debate equally divided on the ensign amendment number thirty three forty two time the senate will come to  take their conversations off the floor out of the well that it will come to order vendors to take their conversations off the floor so that the amendments can be moved on mr johnson mr kennedy mr kerry this is feinstein  mr warner i r senator wishing to cast a vote is any senator wishing to change their vote if not on this amendment the i's are ninety one the naser three and the amendment is agreed to let out without objection under the previous order there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided on the ensign amendment number thirty three fifty two  bannon mr biden mr bang on and mr bond mrs boxer mr brown mr brownback mr bunning mr mr coleman ms collins mr conrad mr call mr kyle mrs lincoln mr lot mr menendez mr roberts mr rockefeller mr sala collins conrad corker corn mr white house hi this is boxer this is boxer  senator wishing to cast a vote is there any senator wishing to change their vote if not on this amendment the i's are ninety two the nays are two and the amendment is agreed to under the previous order the senator from new mexico is to be recognized disability benefits the average is five hundred twenty three days now if a person filed today for a hearing in social security they would expect to get that hearing in june of two thousand and nine that's unacceptable citizens who are on disability to have to wait two years on an appeal as senator said is unacceptable the monies that providing will take care that he's he's asked the administrator and that's exactly what's needed and we ought to do it and we have social security and disability and then make them wait two years and all the offices are being cut back because they don't have enough operating money we should pass this amendment messed santa fe new mexico call up amendment thirty four forty as modified ask for the a's and a cyclical report mr mr president or from new mexico mr bingaman proposes an amendment number thirty four forty as modified what we have an opportunity to address it for two minutes one there are two minutes i he sighed on this monday mr president said i i rise in support of the goals that seeks by this amendment but i want to speak about process for a minute so nobody gets an understanding that the committee of finances given up jurisdiction over this area we also want to explain that the offset is coming from the medicare physician assistants and quality initiative fund which we have set aside to make sure that doctors don't get a ten percent cut this year in their formula and that something has gone be coming out of the finance committee in the next few weeks the reason we're going along with this offset is that we have found another offset that will fill the void in this fund that i just referred to so that we will be able to keep this hole but i would like to advise people that just because we're allowing this fund to be to after there we're we're not going to tap this fund again because we're going to save this to make sure that we the trend