Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 51, previously agreed to, to the bill S. 1 be modified with the technical modification which is at the desk. This is strictly a technical modification to allow for the proper placement of the amendment in the bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a full hour of morning business following my remarks.

Mr. President, also, we are going to take up the minimum wage bill this afternoon. I hope we can finish it this week. There are a lot of things going on. There is a conference going on someplace outside the boundary of the United States. We have a lot of work to do. We are going to have votes throughout this bill. It will be a little complicated because of cloture being involved, but I will be meeting with the Republican leader later today, and we will talk about ways we can move forward on this minimum wage legislation, perhaps in a more timely fashion. Again, it would be nice to finish the bill this week. It will be difficult to do, but we would like to work it out so that we won't have a series of votes on Friday.

Yes.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I send a substitute to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, that amendment is on behalf of Senator Baucus. I failed to mention that.

Mr. President, I send to the desk a motion to invoke cloture.

Mr. President, let me say briefly, we are now at the point where we said we would be last week. Again, I have said on a number of occasions that I appreciate the courtesy of the Senator from New Hampshire. This is an issue which he believes in very strongly. I just finished a conversation with Senator Byrd in his office a short time ago, and he does not believe in it. This is what legislation is all about, and we look forward to voting on this amendment. We will vote on it Wednesday, or we will, as I said, meet with the distinguished Republican leader later today and we will decide if we need to vote on it more quickly or we need to take all that time--whatever the rules call for, unless we are able to work with Senator Gregg and Senator McConnell to move that more quickly.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that reading of the names of the Senators be dispensed with.

I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to a period of morning business with Senators allowed to speak therein for a period of up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to Deanna Jensen, a lifelong Nevadan whose commitment to breast cancer advocacy will always be remembered. After her own long but heroic battle against breast cancer, she passed away on January 7. My thoughts and prayers are with Deanna's husband Don and her family as they mourn this great loss.

As a loving wife and mother, cherished friend, and respected member of the community, Deanna touched many lives near and far. And my home State of Nevada was fortunate to have her from the beginning. Born in Elko and raised in Clover Valley on a cattle ranch, she graduated from Wells High School and eventually earned a master's degree in speech pathology-audiology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Deanna remained in Nevada, devoting herself to a career as a speech pathologist and working by her husband's side at his business, Jensen Precast.

When breast cancer finally struck, Deanna fought back and became a cancer survivor. In fact, before her recurrent metastatic breast cancer had returned for the final time, she had been cancer free for 5 years. In that time, Deanna had become a tireless activist for the cause of advancing breast cancer research. With a determination and persistence that would not surprise her loved ones, she sought to translate her private struggles with this terrible disease into civic action for the greater good. It was clear to everyone that she cared deeply about the issue. ``Why me?'' was a question Deanna surely wondered about herself, but she wanted answers for all women who asked that question.

The search for those answers is a driving force behind the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, bipartisan legislation that Deanna sought to see enacted. While the devastating effects of breast cancer are all too evident, its causes are still mostly unknown. We do know that a better understanding of the links between the environment and breast cancer could help improve our knowledge of this complex illness. The Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act is designed to reveal those links by making a truly meaningful research investment and charting a national research strategy.

In Deanna's words, that is why passing the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act is a real opportunity for Congress to ``step up for women and breast cancer.'' Recognizing this call to action, 66 of my Senate colleagues and 262 members of the House of Representatives joined me in the 109th Congress in supporting the legislation. I hope that the new session of Congress will give us another opportunity to make good on our promise to finally pass the bill.

In one of my last correspondences with Deanna, she wrote of her frustration that a bill with so much support had yet to be enacted by Congress. It was a fitting reminder of the way Deanna was mindful of the public sphere beyond her own immediate situation, even as she dealt with a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy in her final moments. Her inner strength could not be extinguished then, nor will her contributions be forgotten now. She will be greatly missed.

I ask unanimous consent that S. 1, as passed by the Senate, be printed.

I ask unanimous consent that S. 69 be discharged from the Committee on the Judiciary and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 38.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the concurrent resolution, as amended, be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, without any intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, cloture has been filed today on the line- item veto offered by Senator Gregg. I filed a cloture motion on the underlying bill,

which is a straight minimum wage with no small business set-asides on it.

Today, we have had 4 amendments laid down, and there has been good debate. Tomorrow, we can have our party caucuses at 12:30. We may vote in the morning. There are four amendments pending. We have the Enzi amendment, and the HELP Committee majority is working with him to see if there can be a couple of changes made and, if so, we can vote on that.

Mr. President, during the next couple of days, until we vote on the two cloture matters, if cloture is not invoked on the matter relating to Senator Judd Gregg, then that matter, it is my understanding, would be withdrawn and we would go to cloture on the underlying bill. If that is, of course, passed, it would be just as Senator McConnell said--it would eliminate the matters the Finance Committee placed on the bill. If it is not invoked, we are right back where we started from and would work off the substitute.

Mr. President, I hope Senators would look at and offer whatever amendments they want on this matter. There is going to come a time, because we have so much other business to do and, besides, there is ample opportunity to file amendments on this bill, that I will be required to file cloture. It would be great if I didn't have to. We could agree on a finite list of amendments, dispose of those amendments, and move to final passage of the bill.

Next week sometime it is likely, as I explained to the distinguished Republican leader, we are going to have to go to the Iraq resolution or resolutions reported out of the Foreign Relations Committee. What the Republican leader and I have talked about doing--and we don't know if that is doable in the Senate--is to limit the votes that would be on that issue, whether we have a couple competing resolutions or one resolution. Whatever we do, we will try to work something out to the satisfaction of the body.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Tuesday, January 23; that on Tuesday, 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 that there then be a period for the transaction of morning business for 60 minutes, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the first half under control of the Republicans and the second half under the control of the majority; that following morning business, the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 2, the minimum wage bill; that on Tuesday, the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. in order to accommodate the respective party conference luncheons.

Mr. President, we began, as we have just spoken about, a very good debate today on minimum wage. Senator Gregg offered his line- item veto amendment. We had very stimulating debate on that matter from both sides. I filed cloture on that amendment. The cloture vote will occur on Wednesday, unless we decide to move it up earlier.

Also, today I filed cloture on the underlying bill. The Republican leader and I discussed that at some length. If cloture is not invoked on the Gregg amendment, then we will go immediately to a cloture vote on the underlying bill.

Order of Procedure

I ask unanimous consent that the live quorum, with respect to these two cloture motions, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators have until 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, to file first-degree amendments.

Mr. President, does the Republican leader have anything further?

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that following the remarks of Senator Warner, the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, it is my understanding that H.R. 391 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings at this time.