Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 283, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 284, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, September 24; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed 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 for 1 hour with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, 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 consideration of H.R. 2996, Interior appropriations. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the filing deadline for second-degree amendments be 10:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. President, the managers of the bill are working on an agreement to limit the number of amendments in order to the bill. If an agreement is reached, the cloture vote would not be necessary. However, if we are unable to reach an agreement on amendments, the cloture vote would occur at approximately 10:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I ask that the Interior bill be reported.

Madam President, it is my understanding we are now on the bill and that the time until 12 o'clock noon will be equally divided. At noon, there will be a vote on the Feinstein amendment. So the floor is now open. I hope individuals who have amendments will come to the floor and that we will be able to offer those amendments and debate them as soon as possible.

I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the time in a quorum call be equally divided between both sides.

I note the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that once the Senate reconvenes at 2:15 today, it then stand in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Obviously that is for the purpose of the Senate photograph.

Madam President, I note that 12 o'clock has arrived. We will have a vote on the Feinstein-Alexander amendment No. 2460. I will take a brief moment to describe it.

This is an amendment cosponsored by Senators Alexander, Levin, Schumer, Cochran, Bennett, Warner, and I ask unanimous consent to add the name of Senator Boxer.

Madam President, this amendment simply makes $250,000 available so the Smithsonian can carry out activities under the Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009. Obviously this means this has been authorized. It is also paid for.

This is a joint project between the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, which aims to collect video and audio recordings of the personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the civil rights movement.

By coordinating the effort at the national level, the project will build upon and complement previous and ongoing documentary work on the American civil rights movement. I think it is a very special effort because it essentially will mean that youngsters who are present in 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, will be able to have audios and videos that contain the actual photographs and actual wording of people who participated themselves in the great civil rights movement of this country.

I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

If there are no other comments by the ranking member--would the ranking member like to make a comment? Then we will ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Delaware be permitted to speak in morning business not to exceed 5 minutes.

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

Mr. President, I compliment the Senator from Delaware. He did go 5 minutes.

I believe Senator Barrasso has an amendment he wishes to offer.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Wyoming. He has a very good point and a very good amendment. This was not the intention of the Interior part of the stimulus bill. It is not the intention of this bill. Therefore, I think the amendment of the Senator from Wyoming is completely in order. It has been called up, and our side is prepared to accept it.

So we will accept it, Mr. President.

Mr. President, is the Senator calling up that amendment?

I object.

Mr. President, I want to make clear that it would be my intent, should the other two climate change amendments be called up, to object to them. However, this has nothing to do with the distinguished Senator, whom I respect enormously. It does have something to do with putting climate change on this bill.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I object.

After the Senator completes his remarks, I would like the opportunity to say why.

Mr. President, I am rather surprised about this. I don't think anyone in my State or in this body has spent as much time as I have on water in the State of California. The motion offered by the Senator from South California surprises me since no one from California has called, written, or indicated they wanted this on the calendar. No one has indicated to me, as chairman of the committee, in all of the time Senator Alexander and I have been working on this bill that this is what they wanted. In fact, what this would do is prohibit the Secretary of Interior from expending appropriate funds to restrict, reduce, reallocate water supplies from the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project under biological opinions issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States and the NOAA fisheries.

The Senator from South Carolina is venturing into a very complicated area. This would prohibit the approval on two gates. It would prohibit work on the intertie where water is now being transferred from one system, State-run, to Federal and back and forth based on need, water transfers in the hundreds of thousands of acre-feet. It would prohibit Interior from working on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. It would prevent Federal agencies from working on water quality issues in the delta.

What is the delta? The delta is a large inland body of water in northern California. It is the drinking water for 16 million people. It is the source of water, some of which trickles down to southern California. The Metropolitan Water district, for example, in Los Angeles uses between 800,000 acre-feet and a million acre-feet a year of this water. Jurisdictions all over the State use some of this water. The agriculture community uses 80 percent of the water in the delta. There are enormous endangered species issues in the delta, the death of certain kinds of fish, the nonnative species of fish, deteriorating levees that when they deteriorate, the peat soil drifts into the water and creates all kinds of problems for treatment and would likely collapse in the instance of a major earthquake.

What is happening is a whole effort to restore the delta, to develop a management plan for the delta, how to rebuild it, how to shore it up, and also whether in fact there should be some conveyance around the delta to bring some of the water south. This is a very hot issue in California. It is not a hot issue in South Carolina, trust me.

It is interesting to me that groups go to the Senator from South Carolina instead of to the chairman of the committee for something which is preemptive and would handcuff the Secretary of Interior. The Secretary of the Interior has appointed his No. 2 person, David Hayes, to handle western water. David Hayes has been in California. He has solved many problems. He came with me in August to a meeting in the southern Central Valley to discuss these problems and say what the Department was prepared to do about them.

On September 30 of this month, the Interior Secretary is holding a meeting to announce what actions he is going to take on 2 Gates, on the intertie, on water transfers. I don't understand why we would want to handcuff the Secretary of the Interior by saying no money can go for any of these things, that water has to be released to the Central Valley with no controls on it. This makes no sense to me.

I see a series of letters that have come in from people I have talked with. I know there is a problem with the biological opinions. There are 30 lawsuits against the biological opinions. I understand that. To that end, I have been asked to put $750,000 in this bill to allow the National Academy of Sciences to come in and do an overarching but quick, within 6 months, look at the biological opinions and either say the opinions are founded in sound science or they are not. That is in the heart of this bill.

The ranking member has agreed to put this money in this bill for that purpose. Along comes something now which would totally handcuff the Secretary of Interior, which would mean no permits to move water between the California aqueduct and the Central Valley Project and back and forth and no permits for 2 Gates, two of the emergency solutions that have been put forward.

If this passes, we can be sure there will be court action, and we will most likely be enjoined. To my view, it makes no sense. We need the help of Interior. I have asked the Department of Interior, in terms of Federal agencies, to take the lead in dealing with California water. A specific person has been designated, the No. 2 person in the Department, David Hayes. A whole process has been entered into now for the administration, through the Secretary of Interior, to begin to put its hands on the problem and deal with it.

I cannot support legislation that says: Go ahead and release water, regardless of endangered species, regardless of any court that might come down on top of you and say stop. I can't do that. It isn't responsible to do so.

It is interesting to me--and I am looking at some of the letters--the people who I meet with, whose phone calls I respond to, who have never called and said: Look, this is what we need.

I don't quite understand what is going on here. That is the reason for my objection. I am not going to put the State of California and the bay delta in the threat of another lawsuit. We have enough already. Water is a huge, complicated, and difficult issue. No one cares more about it than I do or has tried harder to sort out the problems.

In a way, this is a kind of Pearl Harbor on everything we are trying to do, which is to work together to put Interior in the lead, not to handcuff Interior. That is the reason I objected to the amendment.

I understand on the motion there will be a vote. I urge a no vote.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, earlier while I was arguing the opposite side of the question of the DeMint amendment which is now before this body, I mentioned that there were 30 lawsuits pending against the biological opinions having to do with the bay delta. The number is actually 13. I apologize. I wish to have the record corrected. Thirteen is enough.

I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I listened to the comments of the ranking member, the Republican manager of the bill. I agree with everything he said. I have great respect for the Senator from Maine. I find this amendment reasonable and our side is prepared to accept it.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we have one issue up right now, and then we will be happy to call on the Senator from Georgia. I know he has an amendment. I will ask unanimous consent that directly following disposal of the amendment of the Senator from Maine we turn to the Senator from Georgia.

To understand this correctly, the intention is to take this by unanimous support. However, there is one thing that needs to be checked

on. The clerks will do that, if the Senator from Maine is agreeable. In the meantime, we will proceed with the Senator from Georgia? Hearing no objection, I yield to the Senator from Georgia.

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

I ask unanimous consent that Isakson amendment No. 2504 be modified with the changes that are at the desk, which are technical amendments.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 5:45 p.m. today, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the following amendments and motion; that prior to each vote there be 2 minutes of debate, equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that no amendments be in order to the amendments or motion prior to the vote; that after the first vote in the sequence, the succeeding votes be limited to 10 minutes each: McCain amendment No. 2461, DeMint motion to recommit, and Reid amendment No. 2494.

Right.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Reid amendment No. 2494 be modified with the change at the desk and that once the amendment is modified, it be agreed to, as modified, and the motion to reconsider be made and laid upon the table.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I join Senator Harkin in urging a ``no'' vote. I think he argued quite eloquently on the floor.

I yield my time, and we can go straight to the vote.

Madam President, both Senators from California, as well as the managers of this bill, urge a ``no'' vote on the DeMint amendment.

What this amendment would do is essentially prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from expending appropriated funds to restrict, reduce or reallocate water supplies from the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project. In essence, South Carolina is telling California how to handle its water issues.

To handcuff the Secretary of the Interior will essentially prohibit transfers between the State and the Federal water projects, which transfers are being done to facilitate additional water to go to a very needy farm belt in the great Central Valley of California. To put a prohibition on the Secretary to use any of the funds in this budget to reallocate or transfer this water is a mistake.

I urge a ``no'' vote, and I move to table.

Madam President, I move to table this motion to recommit, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

I move to reconsider the vote.

Madam President, I object.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each. I ask unanimous consent for the Senator from Oklahoma to proceed.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2009, at 9 a.m., in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2009, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``World at Risk: The Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2009.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 22, 2009 at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, on September 22, 2009, at 2:30 p.m. in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Strengthening Security and Oversight at Biological Research Laboratories.''

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

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Landrieu.) Without objection, it is so ordered.

Amendment No. 2460

I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam President, this amendment is cosponsored by the ranking member of this committee, Senator Alexander, Senators Bennett, Cochran, Levin, and Schumer. Representative Carolyn McCarthy has been the leader in the House. I thank her for her leadership in enacting the Civil Rights History Project Act into law.

This is an amendment that would direct $250,000 in salaries and expenses at the Smithsonian Institution to be used for the Civil Rights History Project. This is a project that was authorized by law in May of this year. It will give us a permanent historical record of the firsthand stories of the individuals who risked and sacrificed in the civil rights movement. The project is modeled after the Veterans History Project and will be housed in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and the Library of Congress. So for generations to come, historians, students, and the public will be able to listen to civil rights pioneers tell their stories and describe a time that is quickly receding into history. If you think about it, this could be a very exciting teaching tool for future generations.

I am very pleased to support this amendment, along with the ranking member of this committee.

I thank the ranking member. I agree with him strongly. I believe it is important to hear the voices of the actual people so the students 20, 50, 75 years from now can really listen to what happened from the mouths of the people who were actually there and participated.

You should, once again, know this has been authorized, and it is simply coming right out of salaries and expenses of the Smithsonian.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Warner of Virginia be added as a cosponsor on the civil rights oral history project amendment, amendment No. 2460, which is before this body.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I believe the ranking member will concur with this. I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside.

Mr. President, I send to the desk a modification of the amendment on the Smithsonian Civil Rights History Project, amendment No. 2460. What this amendment does is simply on line 2 change the word ``shall'' to ``may.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 12 noon Tuesday, September 22, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to amendment No. 2460, as modified, with no amendment in order to the amendment prior to the vote, with the time until 12 noon equally divided and controlled between Senators Feinstein and Alexander or their designees.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 276, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 277, 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 the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Executive Calendar No. 374, the nomination of J. Michael Gilmore; that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that any statements relating to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.