Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent that following the remarks of Senators Burr and Harkin, the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, we will return to the consideration of H.R. 2 this morning. Last night, we entered into an agreement that there be a vote in relation to amendment No. 158, and that vote will occur around 10:30 this morning. Last night, we worked on a number of amendments. We are anxious to meet with the Republican staff this morning. We are ready to vote on the DeMint amendment dealing with minimum wage, the Sessions amendment dealing with immigration, the Ensign amendment dealing with health savings accounts, the Smith amendment dealing with education, the Bunning amendment dealing with Social Security, and the Kyl amendment dealing with expensing. We hope to get votes on these and other amendments as the day progresses. If we can get other votes keyed up, it could be a late night.

We are going to vote tomorrow on the confirmation of General Petraeus, who will be the new commander in Iraq. The Foreign Relations Committee reported that out yesterday. It may have been the Armed Services Committee. I think it was. One of the committees reported it out. There is a lot of activity. It is in the Senate, and we will take care of that tomorrow. We are trying to line up a judge vote in the morning, also. Then I am going to be discussing with the distinguished Republican leader as to what we will do at the end of the week and get keyed up for next week.

Mr. President, morning business this morning will not be the full hour. When the Republican leader and I complete our brief statements to the body, the time will be divided 50-50, with the first half of the time being controlled by the Democrats and the second half of the time being controlled by the Republicans.

At 10:30, we will resume consideration of H.R. 2, the minimum wage bill. The time until 11:30 will be equally divided or controlled between the two leaders or their designees regarding the Gregg amendment. The cloture vote will occur at 11:30.

Madam President, I move to reconsider and table that vote.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I ask unanimous consent that prior to this vote there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided.

I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Madam President, the time is moving on. If people wish to offer amendments, this is the time to do it. I know there are Members tied up in committees. If someone feels strongly about an amendment, someone managing on the minority side can offer it, someone here can offer amendments for the majority, if there are amendments they wish to offer and simply can't be here. We would like to get this set up so we can start voting on amendments. Vote on a Democrat amendment, a Republican amendment or vice versa. Let's move on.

Some of these votes are not pleasant. They are tough votes. That is why we are here. The sooner we move to start voting, the better off we are going to be. If it comes to a period in the next 24 hours that Members are not going to offer amendments, there is little alternative but I will have to offer another cloture motion.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized for a couple minutes, also. I would appreciate that.

Mr. President, I have had the good fortune in my lifetime, my adult life, to see people for whom I have developed a tremendous respect and admiration, and certainly one of those people is John Kerry. Why? Why would I say that about John Kerry? Why would I say that as I have traveled through life he is one of those people who has meant so much to me in being a role model for the things that I do and the things that I think the American people should focus on?

He has a tremendous educational background--Yale, Boston College. He was a prosecutor. He was a war hero. A war hero--multiple awards, fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, for heroism. We saw someone last night stand in the House Chamber whom the President directed, who received the Silver Star, and that is wonderful. We all looked at him with admiration. John Kerry has had a Silver Star, multiple Purple Hearts--I repeat, multiple awards for bravery. He is a political activist, someone who at great sacrifice decided to do gallant things after his heroic efforts in Vietnam. He came home and continued being a hero politically. The people of Massachusetts elected him to Lieutenant Governor, a job I also had,

and I have some understanding about that job. He came to Congress the year I did. In 1982, we both came here. He is a cancer survivor. His wife is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. Teresa Heinz is a real fighter in her own way. I knew her before the Presidential election, but I got to know her very well during the Presidential election, and I like her so much.

John Kerry was my nominee for President of the United States. I worked hard for John Kerry. I believed in John Kerry. I believed John Kerry would change the direction of this country and the world. I still believe that. John Kerry came within a few votes of being President of the United States in one of the dirtiest, most negative, unfair campaigns I have ever witnessed. I am not going to go into all the things they did to John Kerry other than to say that to try to take away from this man, his gallantry as a warfighter, was beyond the pale, but they did it.

John Kerry and I have shared heartache together. We have done it recently. I will always have admiration and respect for John Kerry. The mere fact that he announced he is not running for President speaks well of this gallant man, this heroic man, because he could run for President. He has money in the bank, so to speak. He knows people all over America. He has the best e-mail addresses in the country. He has chosen that this is not the time. But I will continue to look to John Kerry for his leadership in foreign affairs. He is a man who knows this world. Listen to the speech he just gave on the conflict in Iraq, a textbook address about the ills of the present status of what we are doing in Iraq. He will approach whatever he does with a sense of morality. He will proceed to be one of the leaders, as he has been for decades, on the environment. He has a book coming out soon with his wife, and I am sure it will lay out things he has believed in for so long, such as health care. He is the chairman of the Small Business Committee.

So I say to John Kerry: I love you, John Kerry. I am so sorry things didn't work out for our country, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I will always care about you greatly and remember the times we have spent together. We have a lot more to do for Massachusetts, Nevada, and the country.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter addressed to me dated January 24, 2007, from Senator Levin.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at 10 a.m. in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

The purpose of the hearing is to evaluate the state of the airline industry, and the potential impacts of airline mergers and industry consolidation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at 9:45 a.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on analysis recently completed by the Energy Information Administration, Energy Market and Economic Impacts of a Proposal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Intensity with a Cap and Trade System.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session on Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at 10 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to consider the nomination of Michael J. Astrue, to be Commissioner of Social Security.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate

on Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at 9 a.m. to hold a business meeting in 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building to consider Senate Concurrent Resolution 2, a concurrent resolution expressing the bipartisan resolution on Iraq.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions meet in executive session during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 at 10 a.m. in SD-430.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at 10 a.m. for a business meeting to consider pending committee business.

Agenda

(1) Funding resolution.

(2) Rules of procedure of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

(3) Appointment of subcommittee chairmen and ranking members.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that tomorrow, following the prayer and the pledge, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 2; that the Senate then resume consideration of the DeMint amendment No. 158; that there be a time limitation prior to a vote in relation to the amendment of 1 hour, equally divided between Senators Kennedy and DeMint; that no amendments to the amendment be in order prior to a vote in relation to the amendment; and that at the conclusion or yielding back of the time, the Senate vote in relation to the amendment.

Mr. President, we are working with the Republican leader's staff to arrange for votes throughout tomorrow's session in relation to several amendments. So Members should be on notice there will be a vote at approximately 10:30 tomorrow morning, and there will be other votes throughout the day.

I would say that we have five or six amendments all teed up to vote on. We have a few more things--we have one we thought we could vote on in the morning, but we could not get the person offering the amendment on the minority side to allow us to go forward. We hope we can work that out either later tonight or in the morning.

We would like to move through this bill, but we cannot do that unless people are willing to let us vote on their amendments. So after the vote tomorrow at 10:30, hopefully we will have more to tell the body as to what votes have been able to be lined up for later in the day.

Everyone should know that it is unlikely there will be any votes from about 1 to 2 o'clock tomorrow. Other than that, everything is fair game.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m., Thursday, January 25; that on Thursday, 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 the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 2, as provided under the previous order.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, it is very good to have back Reverend Ogilivie, our former Senate Chaplain. A lot of thoughts came to my mind. I sat here for 6 years and listened to almost every one of his prayers. My mind goes back to some of the tragedies that had come to the Senate during his tenure, including the death of Governor Carnahan, the death of Paul Wellstone, and the death of Paul Coverdell. I mention Paul Coverdell because I traveled to his funeral in Georgia, and the Chaplain at that time, Chaplain Ogilivie, delivered the eulogy and was in charge of the services there in Georgia. I will always remember the dignity, compassion, and the understanding in the words of Reverend Ogilivie. It is good to have you back. Thank you very much for all you do for our country. I am sure you are doing good things in California, as you did here for so many years.

Mr. President, this morning, we will be in a period of morning business for 60 minutes. The first half of the time will be under the control of the Republicans and the second half of the time will be under the control of the Democrats.

Following morning business, we will resume consideration of H.R. 2, the minimum wage bill. We will be in recess today from 12:30 to 2:15 for the party luncheons. As I indicated, we have two cloture motions that have been filed. The first vote, on line-item veto, will take place tomorrow. If cloture is not invoked, we will then proceed to a vote on the underlying bill, which is S. 2.

There have been a number of amendments filed and that is very good. We are looking at a number of them closely to see if we can schedule a vote on one of them sometime this morning.

Looking at the schedule, we are going to have a couple of votes Friday morning, and everyone should understand that. The only way I can see that we will not have votes Friday morning is if we can figure out a way to finish minimum wage on Thursday. That is certainly possible. I am impressed with the seriousness of the amendments that have been offered. To this point, five amendments have been offered, and we certainly could complete this bill this week if we put our minds to it. I hope we can do that. If we cannot, it will spill over into next week. I am not sure that is good; we have so many things that we have to do. I have had a number of conversations with the Republican leader and we are going to have debate on Iraq. We are going to make that as meaningful as possible. We are going to work together to see if we can limit the subject matter of the debate on Iraq. We hope we can do that. We also have other things that are facing us down the road, not the least of which is stem cell research and negotiation on Medicare. But more importantly, we have to make sure the Government has money after February 15. That is something, again, I have had a number of conversations on with the distinguished Republican leader. The Appropriations Committee, with Democrats and Republicans, has worked very well on that. Senator Cochran has been fully engaged and all of the subcommittee chairs and ranking members have been engaged.

I think we are at a point where we have a pretty good idea of the subject matter of the CR. There will be no earmarks, zero, not a single earmark on the CR. That is what we have agreed upon. Senator McConnell agrees with that, as I do, and the two appropriating bodies agree with that. So we are going to move forward on the CR. It is not going to be fun. I have been an appropriator here for many years, as has Senator McConnell. We like to do the regular process, but in my opinion we cannot get to that unless we get the CR out of the way and work on the budget and get the appropriations bills done.

It is my goal to work very hard to get the appropriations bills done this year. It has been done before and we can do it again. It has been done under Republican leadership and under Democratic leadership in the Senate. We have been working on it on a bipartisan basis. I think we can get it done.

As a reminder, first-degree amendments must be filed at the desk by 2:30 p.m. this afternoon.

Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. At 2 p.m., we are going to begin the consideration of the minimum wage bill.

Last Thursday, prior to action being concluded on the ethics bill, Senator Gregg and I engaged in a colloquy on his plan to offer an amendment to the minimum wage bill which relates to enhanced rescissions. Some call it line-item veto. That amendment is expected to be offered today. Cloture will be filed on that amendment, as I told him I would do, setting up a cloture vote for Wednesday. I advise all Members that we may even do it sooner. It is up to Senator Gregg. We talked about that a little last week.

There will be no rollcall votes today. I expect we will have a vote prior to the caucuses tomorrow. Also, tomorrow evening is the State of the Union Address by President Bush. We will be in recess around 6 p.m. and will reassemble at 8:30 p.m. so that at 8:40 we can proceed to the House Chamber to receive the President's State of the Union Message.

I ask unanimous consent that during morning business today, Senator Dorgan be recognized for up to 30 minutes.

Mr. President, I understand that H.R. 6 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I now object to any further proceedings at this time.