Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 2307, the Global Change Research Improvement Act of 2007, be star printed with the changes at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 632, S. 2162.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee substitute amendment be withdrawn, the Akaka-Burr substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Rules Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 2967 and that the Senate then proceed to its consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times, passed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 741, S. Res. 550.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 309 which was received from the House.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 581, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, June 4; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and there then be a period of morning business until 11:30 a.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first 30 minutes, and the Republicans controlling the second 30 minutes; and that, at 11:30 a.m., the Senate consider the budget resolution conference report as under the previous order. I further ask unanimous consent that the time during any adjournment or morning business count against cloture.

Mr. President, under a previous order, the Senate will proceed to a vote on adoption of the budget conference report at approximately 11:45 a.m. tomorrow morning. Following the vote on adoption of the budget conference report, I expect the Senate to begin consideration of the climate security legislation.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of Senators Dole, Inhofe, and Enzi.

I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the remaining morning business time be yielded back, and under the previous order, the Chair will report the motion to proceed to S. 3036.

Sure.

I have to check because I have a number of Democratic Senators who wish to partake if we go to this. How much time will we have on this?

If the Senators could put a time certain on it, and I will be happy to put a time certain on my time?

Five minutes? Great.

I would have 25 minutes, to be followed by Senator Specter for 5, then followed by Senator Inhofe for 25, to be followed by Senator Lieberman for 20.

I make that as a unanimous consent request.

Mr. President, if you will let me know when I have gone 20 minutes, I will greatly appreciate it.

Mr. President, this is a historic day, not only for our country, but I think the world is watching us. It is because we have a pressing issue called global warming, climate change; you could call it either one. Scientists have told us that in fact we have a very small window right now within which to respond. But it is a historic day because for the first time we have what I call tripartisan legislation out of the Environment and Public Works Committee. It is the Boxer- Lieberman-Warner bill. It is a Democrat, it is an Independent, and it is a Republican. We have come together to say to our colleagues and to the American people: Finally, we are going to deal with this critical challenge.

I wish to take a moment to thank Senator Reid for scheduling this matter. There were a lot of voices saying: Why do this now? Why do we have to do this now? I know, because I came to the Congress with Harry Reid, why he wants to do this now. Because it is, in fact, one of the greatest challenges of our generation and we have to respond with a landmark bill, it will take us a while. We must get started. We certainly hope our colleagues will vote to get started. If they do not vote to get started, they are going to have to explain why they have turned their backs on the world's leading scientists and on the Bush administration's own political appointees--such as the head of the CDC, who told us that we face real problems if we do not act, such as the vectors that will now live in warming waters. They will be turning their backs on the intelligence community and the military community, who have looked out in the future and have written papers--and this is the main reason John Warner is into this--telling us that if we do not act, we are going to see desperate refugees throughout the world. We are going to see droughts and floods worse than the ones we have seen. When refugees are moving because of rising waters, droughts, or floods, you are going to see wars develop in all parts of the world. That is why Senator Reid said yes. He said yes to American leadership. That is what we want to say by moving to this bill and supporting it. We say yes to green jobs.

Because the President already said he is going to veto this bill if it passes, I have to say it is very interesting that one of the reasons he gave is that in one of the models, it shows that gas prices will go up 50 cents a gallon in 20 years. That would be 2 cents a year. In fact, if you look at the record of this administration--and they have done nothing to stop it--gas prices have gone up, under their watch, 250 percent. Just take a look at this chart--250 percent, from $1.47 to $3.94; 250 percent. This administration did nothing. Now when they come forward and they say we can't pass this bill because gas prices will go up, here is the truth.

The truth is, because we are going to get better fuel economy-- because of a bill the President did sign, and we are glad he supported this part--you are going to be putting less fuel in your tank. So even if it is more per gallon, you are going to be getting better mileage, so you are not going to feel that 2 cents a year. And second, and this is key, it is fitting for this administration which has supported big oil and supported foreign oil and goes to the Middle East and holds hands with the leaders there and kisses them on the cheek and begs for oil--it is very fitting: They are still the voice of the status quo. They are still the voice for continuing our dependence on oil.

This is what has happened without a climate change bill. This is what has happened without a bill to fight global warming. We see this ridiculously impossible increase in costs, and then the administration does nothing about this but is scaring the people and saying they are going to get hit with higher prices.

Let me also address this. In this Boxer-Lieberman-Warner substitute that is before us, we have in there two things we didn't have in the Lieberman-Warner bill. One is a deficit reduction fund.

You can take down the chart now. It is too ugly to look at.

In the Boxer-Lieberman bill, we did not have a deficit reduction trust fund, and therefore people could have argued that this is going to be a terrible thing for us as we look out in the future. We put that in there, and CBO says our bill is deficit neutral.

We also have in this bill a very large piece--almost $1 trillion--of tax relief. So when we do see some increases in energy costs in the early years--electricity, for example--we can offset that because there will be tax relief and then there will be this consumer relief that will go through the utilities. They will give rebates immediately.

For those people who said: Oh, my goodness, we are moving forward with this and we need to make sure we can get off the track, I want to say thank you to Senators Bingaman and Specter who, in their bill, had created what I thought was a very important off-ramp. The one thing I didn't agree with them on was the price they pegged for the price of carbon because the business people I spoke to, including those in Silicon Valley, said: That is a mess. If the price is too low, then business will simply not invest. The Silicon Valley people and the investors from across this country--we had one at a press conference today who said he represented, I think, a $4 trillion fund,

said they are waiting to invest in new green technologies, in new jobs. They are waiting to do it. They are waiting for this legislation. But they will not do it unless we don't have an easy off-ramp, we have an off-ramp that can be used in circumstances that warrant it.

We have put the number between $22 and $30, which reflects the consensus of the labor groups as well as the environmental groups. We have tried to come together. We have tried to put this together in such a way that it essentially moves us forward, takes us where we have to go, and takes us there in a way that will mean the creation of millions of jobs.

Some of our colleagues will say this: Why do this now? We are in a recession. Precisely because we are in a recession is why we should be doing this. This bill is the first thing that brings us hope.

We sent a rebate check to people. I am really glad we did it. I voted for it. Guess what. We had no money to do that. We had to go into the red to do that. We had to go into deficit spending to send a rebate check. This bill gives us the funds to give relief to our consumers. This bill does that.

I compliment Judd Gregg because I have had meetings with him, and this was his point. Mind you, he wants to give it all back to taxpayers. We use some of it for investments in these new technologies so we can swiftly move away from foreign oil and big oil, but it was Judd Gregg--who I know was not a fan of our bill, again because of what I said--who gave us this idea and this notion that we could have these funds to return to our consumers.

I know Senator Warner, who is on the floor now, has many contributions he is going to talk about in this bill. I will not go into details. But he also said it was important that the President has an ability to say: Wait a minute, this bill goes a little too far. We have to take a pause, a timeout. He has written it in such a way that I am very supportive of it because it balances the powers of the President and Congress. He will talk more about it.

Now that I see my two colleagues are on the floor--I have not had a chance to thank him on the Senate floor--I want to say to Senators Lieberman and Warner how much they mean to me--on this issue and also personally. I will not get overly emotional about it at all, but I will say this about Senator Warner: Senator Warner has a legacy that if he didn't do one more thing in the Senate, if he just decided to come by and say ``Hi'' to us for his last 6 or 8 months, it would have been enough. It would have been 10 times what most of us will achieve.

His legacy on national security is unparalleled; you know that and I know that. You have spoken to me about it. But when Senator Warner came to me, since I am now chair of the EPW Committee--which is the deepest and greatest honor I have ever had--and he said: I have been doing a lot of thinking about this, Barbara, and I think we have to move; we have to get America back into a leadership position; I have told Joe Lieberman; he said he is going to work with us.

I knew at that moment we would, in fact, reach this day. Now, even reaching this day was not easy. When you read ``How a Bill Becomes a Law,'' and it says, you take it to the subcommittee, and the subcommittee approves it; you take it to the full committee, the full committee approves it; then you take it to the floor and the floor approves it, this was difficult for us to get through subcommittee and then to get through the full committee and now to take it to the floor. We know this is not easy. We know this is difficult. All great matters of the day are not easy. They take time. They take effort.

Landmark laws take effort. They do not happen overnight. But at moments such as these, when we are dealing with such a big issue, we should think back to our predecessors, when our predecessors in Congress saw rivers on fire from pollution or contaminated water that made us sick or filthy air that filled our lungs, and magnificent creatures such as the bald eagle close to extinction, Congress acted. We were not afraid. We were not afraid. We stepped to the plate and said: This is America, and our ingenuity can resolve these questions. We could have walked away. They could have walked away. But they did not walk away.

Now we are going to find out who is going to walk away from this and who is going to step to the plate. I think it is that important. The American people deserve to know who is willing to step to the plate.

Now, look, every bill means we have to compromise. Lord knows. I am looking at my friend, Senator Warner, and smiling because I am thinking of the many times he said to me: Senator, I do not think I can go there with you.

Then he wanted something, and I said: Senator, I do not think I can go there with you. But we met halfway here. We met halfway. That is what we need to do in the Senate.

I wish to say that my colleagues in the Senate, including Senator Webb, who is sitting in the chair, have allowed me into their lives, into their offices. We have talked for hours. I have heard their concerns. They have raised questions. In many cases, they have led us in a good direction to be stronger.

For example, in the case of Senator Webb, he had many concerns. One of them happened to be what about the countries we trade with, are not they going to have an advantage? I cited the Bingaman-Specter bill again and said: We took something good from that bill. We took that part of Senator Specter that deals with saying, if countries come and want to bring in a lot of products into our Nation, and their countries are not doing anything about this, they are going to have buy allowances; they are going to have to do their part.

These are the kinds of things we hope to strengthen in this bill. Look, we have clear evidence, evidence that greenhouse gas pollution will cause our planet to heat up well beyond what is safe. We have to act. I do not want to do more than is necessary; I do not want to do less than is necessary. I am trying to find that ``just right'' spot.

I do agree with Senator Warner that because we are looking out into the future, we have to give the Presidents now and in the future the ability to say: Let's take another look. We also have to continue to look to the scientists. Therefore, in our bill we say, the scientists should submit a report every few years. We need to see if we are doing too little or is it just right and adjust to it.

I think I mentioned this before. Senator Reid deserves a lot of credit for bringing this bill forward. We have wasted time. Look, I blame myself. I blame myself. I did not grab the reins of this thing early enough in my career.

I have to say, Senator Lieberman did. Senator McCain raised the issue early on. I had some problems with their approach, and I did not engage. I admit this. This is the hardest thing for anyone to admit, for a Senator to say: I was wrong. I was wrong. I did not get it.

I have to give Al Gore and all the people who came before the committee when I got the gavel a year ago, a year and a half by now-- and we said: You know, we are going to look at this thing. I did not have all the answers then. I had a lot of questions. We had the world's leading scientists, we had religious leaders, we had State leaders, we had Republicans, we had Democrats, we had businesses, we had mayors.

We had 25 full-blown hearings on this. Plus we had lunches and we had dinners where we invited in the scientists, the experts, people from Europe who have taken the lead, to ask them questions.

They made a lot of mistakes in the beginning. We were nervous about that. I remember one of the first times Senators Lieberman and Warner and I spoke was, we have to make sure that whatever bill we work on does not give rise to speculation and get-rich-quick schemes.

So we have been very careful to learn from the mistakes Europe has made. But when you cut it all up and you look at Great Britain, for example, a very small country compared to us, they have cut back carbon by 15 percent. In the same time, they have raised their gross domestic product by 45 percent. They have created 500,000 new jobs.

You do not have to go that far. Go to my State of California. We are in a terrible mess right now because of the housing crisis. We have so much of the foreclosure problem. We have a recession in housing and in construction. I was told unequivocally that because of

our global warming legislation we have there, 450 new solar businesses--and I am not even looking at nuclear and I am not looking at wind, I am looking at solar--450 companies have formed.

They are hiring many of the workers who are losing their jobs in the construction industry. So there are ways to do it that are wrong. There are ways to do it that are right. Now, today, you will hear from those who wish to kill this bill, kill it, kill it as dead as they can. They say it is too complicated, that we should do nothing and we should continue the status quo.

Well, the status quo is devastating, my friends. The scientists have told us that. The price of gas is off the charts. My friend, Senator Lieberman, made this point beautifully at a press conference we had. The whole point of the bill is to get us off oil, is to unleash the genius of America so there are investments in alternatives, alternative fuel cars that get better fuel efficiency.

I will tell you this, knowing what I know from California, it is going to have a positive and beneficial effect; whereas, if we turn away out of fear, out of fear mongering, out of scare tactics, out of saying global warming is a hoax, it does not exist, look at scientist X, look at scientist Y.

You will hear it all on this floor. You will hear it all on this floor. But I remind you, there were people who said the world was flat, even when everyone knew it was not. There were people who said cigarettes did not cause cancer, when the rest of us knew they did. There are still people who say HIV does not cause AIDS. They are wrong. I can go on.

Oh, airbags, they will not save lives. Wrong. When you stand on the Senate floor, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, an Independent, whether you are short or tall or medium, whenever you challenge the status quo, watch out, folks, because the slings and arrows are going to be at your back, at your front, at your side.

I am ready. Why am I ready? I am ready because we have unbelievable bipartisanship on this bill. The quality of this partnership runs deep. Lieberman and Warner, Lieberman and Warner.

Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?

Thank you very much. The bipartnership on this runs deep. I have mentioned Senators Lieberman and Warner. Every member of my committee on the Democratic side and even some on the Republican side who did not like the bill contributed to the debate. Colleagues all over the Senate helped us.

The Energy Committee helped us. I will tell you, I went into member's offices, and I got great ideas from many offices. I mentioned Senator Gregg gave me a great idea. He does not like this bill because he wants to give all the money back. He does not want to invest any of the money, but he gave me a great idea on the tax cut. We had Senators Cantwell and Murray point out the importance of hydropower and how we could address that.

I could name colleague after colleague. Senator John Warner, who will be here for a lot of this debate, is a magnificent voice on this subject. I put him in the category of Al Gore on this subject. He knows what he is talking about. He helped so much without any credit. He put together business meetings, he put together dinners. He had people come over. We studied together. We studied with scientists. It was like going to school.

Senator Kerry, Senator Casey. And I could go on with other colleagues. The fact is, I am not fearful of what is going to come at us starting soon because we have the facts on our side. We have a deep well of support from colleagues who know their stuff. There are 11 National Academies of Science that concluded climate change is real. The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change: Global warming is unequivocal. Human health impacts, children and the elderly vulnerable. I have lots of other information which I do not have the time to do.

I mentioned national security. National security. A report by the Center for Naval Analysis found that the United States could more frequently be drawn into situations of conflict to help provide stability before conditions worsen and are exploited by extremists. This is what Senator Warner said so wisely.

So in summing up at this point, I urge my colleagues to vote yes to proceed. I do not know whether there is going to be a deliberate effort to try to stop us on this motion to proceed because I have not been informed. I can only say to colleagues: Do not be fearful because you have nothing to be fearful about.

I will tell you what there is to be fearful about: doing nothing, saying no, turning your back on the scientists, on the religious leaders who are with us, on the mayors, the Governors, on so many supporters who understand this. That would be dangerous because gas prices are shooting up to the sky. If we do not get off oil, that is our future.

With that bill, that is not our future. So if you want to be afraid, and that is your motive, to be afraid, you want to be afraid, vote no. If you want to start to address energy independence, clean energy, if you want to address the threats science says we face, vote yes on the motion to proceed. Let's get down to this and have a great debate in the Senate tradition. Because this issue definitely deserves to have that kind of debate.

Mr. President, I think I can resolve this. If my colleagues will wait a minute, can you tell me how much time remains on our side after Senator Lieberman finishes?

I think he got some time from Senator Inhofe.

Senator Inhofe said he is speaking on his time, which is fine either way. But I am trying to find out how much time remains.

May I give 2 minutes to Senator Cardin following Senator Lieberman and the remainder of the time to Senator Warner?

Is that all right with the Senator?

So it is 10 and 10.

After we hear from Senators Specter and Inhofe.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to read this e- mail and then to add 2 minutes to Senator Warner's time.

This is the statement of Dr. Allan Freidman, who is Senator Kennedy's surgeon:

I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy's surgery was

successful and accomplished our goals. Senator Kennedy was

awake during the resection, and should therefore experience

no permanent neurological effects from the surgery. The

surgery lasted roughly three and a half hours and is just the

first step in Senator Kennedy's treatment plan. After a brief

recuperation, he will begin targeted radiation at

Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatment. I

hope that everyone will join us in praying for Senator

Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery.

Mr. President, I share that with all of our colleagues. I think we should take just 10 seconds to think about the Kennedy family and pray for them--just 10 seconds.

Thank you so much.

I thank the, Senator from Virginia.

Madam President, how much time remains on either side?

I yield 5 minutes to Senator Klobuchar, a wonderful member of our committee and, by the way, author of the carbon registry portion of the bill.

I thank my colleague. Today we are going to vote on whether we want to continue the status quo when it comes to energy policy and when it comes to ignoring the great threat to our planet that scientists tell us is very serious.

Now, we can vote no, we can weaken this bill. It seems to me that is every Senator's right. But, frankly, this Senator and I know my colleagues who have worked so hard on this bill, Senators Lieberman and Warner, feel deep in our heart that this is a moment for us to come across party lines as we go back and remember we have tripartisan legislation, a Democrat, an Independent, and a Republican.

Again, we did not agree with each other on every detail. Lord knows we did not. But for the good of this country, for the good of the world, for the good of future generations, we came together.

I ask the Chair to let me know when there is 4 minutes remaining so it can be equally divided by these wonderful cosponsors. Would the Chair let me know when 4 minutes remains.

Let me take this little time I have to say I do not mind debating on the facts of our bill. But I have heard so much fiction that I had to go over to both Senators Warner and Lieberman and say: Did I hear them right? First of all, they are using numbers that are coming out of the air by groups that oppose our bill, that have no validity, that are not based on any modeling.

We have numbers based on modeling. Then I hear now the new thing. My dear friend Senator Inhofe--we are dear friends--says the Boxer tax bill. There is no tax in this bill. This bill is modeled on the acid rain bill, I say to my friend.

Polluters pay. This bill has one of the largest tax cuts in it that we have seen around this place in a very long time. It has a big piece of consumer relief. So I say to my friends, do not get up here and say: Boxer tax bill. Point to where there is a tax in this bill. There is no tax. I will point to where there is a tax cut and a set-aside, a huge one, almost $1 trillion, and a huge pot of almost $1 trillion in consumer relief which will be given, if necessary, to consumers if the cost of the electricity goes up.

So here we have a bill that takes care of our consumers, takes care of our taxpayers. Then we hear from Senator Domenici and Senator Bond: Oh, we cannot do this bill because oil prices, gas prices at the pump are going to go up.

They put out a number that they pull out of the air. The modeling shows, worst-case scenario, worst case, gas prices would go up 2 cents a gallon per year until 2030. By the way, the modeling that Senator Lieberman has shows that the automobile fuel economy bill we passed will negate all that.

So this bill will bring no higher cost at the pump to our drivers. But let's look at what has happened under the last 7 years. Here is the status quo, folks. We have all lived it; now let's look at it. Gasoline prices have gone up 250 percent in the last 7 years. The source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is this administration's own energy department.

So without a global warming bill or a climate change bill, call it what you will, we have seen a 250-percent increase in the price of gas. What we do in our bill will get us off foreign oil, will get us off big oil, will lead to new technologies which will free us, will free us from these prices.

So those people who say: Do not vote for this bill because it is going to raise gas prices, only in a humpty-dumpty world, where you are over on your head could you come out with that. It makes no sense.

Let me show you the job growth that people are telling us we can expect from the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill. First of all, look at Great Britain. They have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent. They have grown their economy by 40 percent, and they have 500,000 jobs in the last 5 years in these new green technologies.

A report by the Apollo Alliance--that is a beautiful organization here in America--says this bill could create over 3 million new American jobs over a 10-year period, stimulating $1.4 trillion in new gross domestic product and producing over $280 billion in net energy savings.

We are going to get off foreign oil. I do not want to see a President have to run over to Saudi Arabia and hold hands with the Prince anymore. I am tired of that. It has to be the end of the status quo. This is an opportunity to do it.

Let's take a look. Job growth will follow strong legislation. In California--I mentioned this before--450 solar companies are now putting electricians and carpenters and plumbers to work where the construction industry is laying them off because of the housing crisis we are facing.

The top manufacturing States for solar are Ohio, Michigan, California, Tennessee, and Massachusetts. That comes from Solar Energy Industries. So we already are seeing it. Here is the labor support for the Climate Security Act. The Sheet Metal Workers, the Journeymen and Apprentices of Plumbing and Pipefitting, the United Union of Roofers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators. And it goes on. The Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the brick layers, the elevator constructors. Why are they supporting this bill? These are the workers that my colleagues on the other side are scaring.

They are smart, they read the bill. They understand the many billions of dollars that are going to go into new technologies. And these technologies will heat our homes and they will cool our homes and they will run our cars and they will run our businesses.

The green jobs that will come are going to be jobs that can only be filled in America. Time is of the essence. Time is of the essence. Sir Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, found that by spending $1 now to address global warming we will save $5.

We know we cannot afford to wait. The time is now. People say: Why are you doing it before a Presidential election? Why this? Why that? This is above politics. This is above partisanship. If somebody told you, if somebody told you that if you brought your child to the supermarket on a very warm day and say it was your grandchild, because I know you are a proud grandma, and you said: Well, I have to run in there just for a minute, can I leave my child alone? Well, obviously you would never do it. The fact is, we would not lock our child in our hot car in front of a supermarket.

We cannot consign the next generation to a hot planet that is going to be inhospitable to our grandkids. We cannot do it. It is wrong. That is why we find Tony Blair saying: America must lead. He says the legislation sponsored by myself, Joe, and John matters. It shows America will act. It will allow the United States to say to others: You must act. We are not going to sit around and wait for India and China. Since when do we do that? This is America.

I wish to go to the faith community. I think people ought to understand who is backing our bill. I see the Senator from North Dakota, who has been weighing this very strongly. The Evangelical Environmental Network and the Evangelical Climate Initiative, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Interfaith Power and Light Campaign.

Let me close by saying why. All you have to do is read, read from the Scriptures, read from some of the great writings:

See my handiwork, how beautiful and choice they are. Be

careful not to ruin and destroy my world, for if you do ruin

it, there is no one to repair it after you.

This is, it seems to me, the moral reason we must act. I thank you very much. I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Connecticut and the remainder of the time to Senator Warner.

Mr. President, I do not see the ranking member on the floor, but I do see Senator McConnell here. So if I could get Senator McConnell's attention for a brief moment.

I understand from my colleagues on the other side that they do not intend to filibuster. So I would inquire, based on the vote we have just had, can we now agree that following morning business tomorrow we can begin consideration of the legislation?

I ask unanimous consent that following morning business on Tuesday, June 3, all postcloture time be yielded back, the motion to proceed be agreed to, and the Senate then proceed to the consideration of S. 3036.

Mr. President, I wonder if I modified my request to provide that following the official Senate photograph on Tuesday, all postcloture time be yielded back, the motion to proceed be agreed to, and the Senate proceed to S. 3036.

Mr. President, let me say, I am a little disappointed. First, I thank my colleagues from the bottom of my heart, and I know Senator Lieberman and Senator Warner are very gratified by this vote. We are going to move forward. We are challenging the status quo. We want to get us off foreign oil. We want to begin to move toward energy independence and a clean and healthy environment and green jobs and all the rest. So this is a great start.

But I am a little disappointed we cannot move to begin the real debate which comes, obviously, after cloture on the motion to proceed. I am sorry that is the case. But I say to my colleagues here, on both sides, we look forward to a very important debate on this legislation. This is a matter that is bigger than any one of us here. I think the fact that you have a Democrat, an Independent, and a Republican bringing you this legislation speaks to this issue. I think this is an issue that has to leap over those differences.

I hope we can all show up tomorrow. Since we are going to have this time--I am disappointed we cannot get to the amendment process, but we will take advantage of the time. I know Senator Kerry will be here in the morning. He is a national leader on this issue, and I intend to yield as much time as he would want. I hope Senator Feinstein will come tomorrow. Looking around, Senator Cantwell, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Lincoln have all played such a major role in the part that dealt with making sure our consumers who are in need get help. Senator Collins just went on the bill. We have a great number of people here whose voices need to be heard, so I look forward to that debate tomorrow.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I can't let that go by. I mean, we are ready to start the amendment process now. We are ready to start work on this bill now. There is no reason to wait 30 hours. I think colleagues in the course of offering amendments can speak for as much time as they want. It is disappointing to hear that we do have to delay. We are ready, willing, and able to get to the amendment process.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I thought it would be a good time to thank you, since you are here in the chair today, for all of your hard work on this bill. This has been a long time in coming. When you got on the committee, when you came as a new colleague, you worked so hard. You and Amy Klobuchar and Ben Cardin and Bernie Sanders, all new Members, became my right arm on this issue.

I wanted to make that note. Also, I want to say specifically that the Senator's work on the wildlife and enforcement sections, to name two, I think is really important because we are going to push hard to make this bill the law of the land right now. If we don't achieve that, eventually we will have a bill that will be the law of the land. The Senator's work will be present in all of those iterations going forward. So I thank the Senator.

Mr. President, I am waiting for the closing script, and I will do that when it arrives. I was taken by the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Corker, who has been a very interesting member in terms of this issue. He went with our committee to Greenland and saw the ice melt. I have to say to those who haven't been, it ought to be required if you really care about this issue. It is extraordinary. You can actually sit and watch the ice move and melt--the ice up there in Greenland. The average age of these enormous icebergs is 9,000 years.

Mr. President, from the minute that ice starts moving, it is a year until these enormously beautiful icebergs melt to nothing, leaving the sea to rise as they melt. Senator Corker was very taken by that. He will speak for himself, but he has problems with this bill. I don't agree with him in the way he is interpreting the bill, but that is all going to come out. He talked about the importance of debating. I have to smile because today we had to debate, and we should not have to debate a motion to proceed. That is ridiculous. We should just proceed. We had a 74-to-14 vote to move to the first step.

Let's get to the bill. I have never seen a situation where you force more debate time when you really are interested in doing a bill. You usually force debate time when you are interested in slowing down the bill. This is the way it is here. If you want to move forward, then you don't say: I need 30 hours.

It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. As Senator Reid said, I will be on the floor of the Senate all day. I encourage my colleagues--particularly those who worked hard on the bill--to join me. Let's see how many from the opposing side come over here. We need to debate them and refute them because already, I say to my friend from Rhode Island, we had charts on this floor that you would not believe. We had charts that had numbers that were out of the air, predicting a 140-percent increase in gasoline, when I can tell you right now, we looked at every model, and it is nothing like that.

As a matter of fact, we know the slight increase in the cost of gasoline that could occur--2 cents a year--from the impact of the bill will be entirely offset by the energy efficiency bill we just voted for and is now the law.

What we know is that this bill is going to get us off foreign oil, move us away from the status quo. Go out on the street and ask the average American: Are you happy with big oil, the record profits for them and their executives, and we are getting killed at the pumps? They will say: No--unless they are related to one of them.

If you say: Do you think it makes us look good when President Bush goes to the Middle East and kisses dictators and holds their hand and begs for oil? Does that make America look strong? They will say: No.

Next, if you ask them: Would you support legislation that will lead us to energy independence once and for all--and, by the way, we will clean up our environment, the greenhouse gas pollution, and we will save the planet? They will say: Yes.

So our opponents have a very tough job. They have to fight for the status quo. I can say from their presentations today--and they worked hard on them, believe me--in order to fight our bill, they have to distort it. One of them said it is a tax increase. There is no tax increase in this bill. There is a huge tax relief fund for tax cuts in this bill. There is another almost $1 trillion in a fund to give consumers relief.

If today was any indication, we are going to have a spirited debate. I only ask my colleagues to debate the bill that is on the Senate floor, not one that came to them from some special interest groups that oppose this and don't want us to go to energy independence.

I wish to read from a statement from former Vice President Al Gore. Since Senator Corker is from Tennessee. I thought it would be interesting to put his statement in the Record:

I want to commend Senator Boxer for her leadership of the

Environment and Public Works Committee. We have the first

global warming bill in history that is comprehensive,

bipartisan, and that enjoys support across the country, from

labor and agriculture, to the business and the environmental

community.

Then he says he wants the bill to be stronger, but then he says it is vital that Congress begins to act.

I think this last line is so important:

While it is important that people change their light bulbs,

it is even more important that we change the laws.

I think that says it all. We are so late to this issue. We are so late. My Governor, a Republican, and my State legislature, Democratic, crossed party lines and passed laws. We now have just in the last year or so hundreds of new solar energy companies that have moved into the State, and they are hiring people who are hurting because of the crisis we have in the housing and construction business. So we believe a P- 32--they have told us this--the bill leading the way in the country, is restoring economic renaissance to our State which otherwise is hurting very badly because of the recession we are all experiencing. We owe this to our grandkids, to our kids. We know the Conference of Mayors has acted, so have the State legislatures, along with Governors reaching across party lines, city councils, and boards of supervisors. Companies are saying we should do this. Labor unions are saying we should do this. Environmental and religious groups are saying we should do this. So there is no question that we need to act.

When somebody gets up on the other side and says they are not slowing it down, but they are going to require 30 hours of extra debate before we get to amending this bill, excuse me, but I have been here long enough to know they are trying to slow-walk this bill. The other side is slow-walking it.

I want them to read the scientific records, listen to the religious leaders, and listen to the venture capitalists coming forward and saying we need a signal now. Listen to Tony Blair,

George Bush's best friend internationally, saying we must act because America is pivotal. So we have our time tomorrow, after we wait here for people to come and talk, and at some point maybe they will give us permission to start the amendment process.

Our children want us to act. I have to tell you that one of the great moments was when Senator Warner came to me and said: My daughters really care about this issue. I knew if they were talking to him, he might be open to this issue. He saved the day in committee. He is a man who has such a great legacy already. He didn't have to do one more piece of legislation. He has his place in history on national security. He understood that global warming is a national security issue. Our Navy intelligence officials tell us that, and we will have some quotes tomorrow.

This is a win-win bill for national security, for our kids. It is a win for clean air, and it is a win for our consumers and for our workers and our businesses. Anything to the contrary--I believe this so much--is just scare tactics.

Mr. President, today I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the memory of a very special man, Harvey Korman of Los Angeles County, who died May 29, 2008. He was 81 years old.

Harvey Korman was a man of many talents and will be fondly remembered for his work in Hollywood as a comedic actor.

Harvey Herschel Korman was born to Ellen and Cyril Korman on February 15, 1927, in Chicago, IL. Interested in acting as a child, Harvey was signed by a local radio station when he was 12 years old. After serving in World War II, Harvey came back to Chicago to attend the Chicago Institute's Goodman School of Drama. After his studies at the Goodman School of Drama, Harvey moved to New York City, where he spent several years trying to find roles in Broadway theater productions.

After 13 years in New York, Harvey moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s. In 1964, Harvey was hired by Danny Kaye to be a part of ``The Danny Kaye Show'' ensemble. He stayed with the show for the next 3 years before joining the ``Carol Burnett Show'' in 1967. Harvey's versatile acting abilities played a critical role in explaining the success of the Burnett show, which appeared without interruption in television's top 10 during its 11-year run. It was through the ``Carol Burnett Show'' that Harvey also met one of his closest friends, Tim Conway. Through their many years together performing on the ``Carol Burnett Show,'' Korman and Conway formed one of television's most formidable comic teams.

On the big screen, Harvey made more than 30 films, including four comedies directed by Mel Brooks: ``Blazing Saddles,''1974; ``High Anxiety,'' 1977; ``History of the World Part 1,'' 1981; and ``Dracula: Dead and Loving It,'' 1995.

Those who knew Harvey Korman recognized him as an animated and brilliant man. He took pride in promoting comedy to audiences worldwide. His work in comedic film and television will be remembered fondly by all those whose lives he touched. He will be deeply missed.

Harvey is survived by his wife Deborah Fritz and his four children: Kate, Laura, Maria, and Chris.

Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Lieberman, I ask unanimous consent that Alexander Barron, Ellen Cohen, and Sherry Gillespie, congressional fellows in his office, be granted the privileges of the floor for the duration of the debate on S. 3036. I also ask unanimous consent, on behalf of Senator Pryor, that Suzanne McGuire, a fellow in his office, be granted the privileges of the floor for the duration of debate on S. 3036. Further, I ask unanimous consent that Rachel Radell, a fellow in the office of Senator Feinstein, be granted the privileges of the floor for the duration of debate on this bill.

Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Carper, I ask unanimous consent that Khesha Jennings, a legislative fellow in his office, be allowed privileges of the floor during the climate change debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Javier Gamboa, an intern with the EPW Committee, be allowed privileges of the floor for the duration of the debate on S. 3036.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that there be a period of morning business until 11 a.m., with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume the motion to proceed to S. 3036, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008; that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until after the official Senate photograph to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons to meet, and that any time during adjournment, recess, or periods of morning business count postcloture.

Mr. President, as a reminder, following the weekly caucus luncheons tomorrow, the official photograph of the Senate of the 110th Congress will be taken at 2:15 p.m.