Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I rise on behalf of myself and Senator Ensign to offer legislation that will give greater protections to our Nation's wild horses and make needed improvements to the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse and burro adoption program.

Right now there are an estimated 32,000 wild horses on our Nation's public lands. This is 4,000 more horses than our rangeland can sustain. The Bureau of Land Management has established that nationwide, the Appropriate Management Level for wild horses and burros is 28,000. Unfortunately, after many years of trying, the BLM has been unable to reach this benchmark, even after many significant budget increases for the wild horse and burro program. This situation is compounded by the fact that wild horses naturally reproduce at a rate of 20 percent per annum, adding to management difficulties and placing greater strain on our public rangelands.

In Nevada, we feel the failures of the wild horse and burro program most acutely. Of the 32,000 horses on America's public lands, roughly half are in Nevada. So when the program fails, it hits us hard. In recent years, the program's shortcomings have been amplified by an ongoing drought in the Southwest that has, in places, seriously jeopardized the health and well-being of wild horses and burros and has devastated the rangeland upon which they depend for their survival.

At present, the wild horse program is failing on both ends. The BLM is struggling to remove sufficient numbers of horses from the range and many of the horses that are removed are placed into an adoption program that is not locating a sufficient number of willing adopters. This means that more horses stay in Government hands, driving the cost of this troubled program ever higher. As a result, today we have nearly 22,000 wild horses sitting in long-term holding facilities in the Midwest, costing the U.S. taxpayer approximately $465 per horse, per year. And this is only part of the roughly $40 million we are spending this year to manage our Nation's wild horses and burros. Add this to the fact that the cost of running this program has doubled in the last five years and it becomes clear that reform is needed.

Last year, Congress passed language that allowed the BLM to sell a limited number of the horses that are held in long-term holding facilities. Unfortunately, this additional management tool has been abused by a handful of people and a small number of horses ended up at slaughter. These unfortunate events have led to calls for greater protections for wild horses that are being offered to the public under the sale program.

Mr. President, the legislation that we offer today provides that greater protection for wild horses, while also giving the BLM greater leverage to put more horses into the hands of good, caring owners.

Currently, wild horses that are acquired through the BLM's adoption program are federally protected for 1 year. This is the strongest protection available to wild horses that are placed into private ownership and our bill extends this protection to horses that are acquired under sale authority.

Our legislation also gives the BLM more flexibility in finding good homes for wild horses. We do this by giving the BLM the authority to make all horses that are not suitable for the adoption program available for purchase by caring owners.

We also lift the limit on the number of horses that an approved adopter can take title to in a single year, and we lower the minimum adoption fee from $125 to $25. It is our firm belief that when good people want to adopt horses and meet the requirements set forth by the BLM, they should have as few barriers to overcome as possible. By increasing the number of horses that can be adopted and lowering the adoption fee, we believe that we can put more horses into the hands of more quality owners.

Our goal is to give all wild horses the maximum protection available under our current system and to provide the BLM with the management tools they need to get tens of thousands of wild horses and burros into safe and caring homes. We believe that this is the right thing to do. I look forward to working with the Energy Committee and the Senate to move this legislation expeditiously.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

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

Mr. President, first, I rise to express my appreciation to Senator Cantwell for the issue she has brought before the Senate. I am so convinced that the 40 percent can be met in 20 years. When President Kennedy said, We need to go to the Moon, he did not set a formula how we would get to the Moon, but we got to the Moon. When we were in the depths of our Depression in 1932, President Roosevelt said, We need to get out of this. We went a number of steps forward, some steps back, but we were able to work our way out of the Great Depression.

Senator Cantwell's amendment is visionary. I really do believe that we can do this. I know there are people concerned, well, does this mean CAFE standards? Does this mean we are going to go totally to biomass? Are we

going to do it all with alternative energy? I do not know, but the great genius of America can figure out a way to do this.

We need to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. There is no question about that. Fifty-eight percent of the oil we use comes from foreign countries. Listening to the news this morning, the stock market just moved a little bit yesterday. Why did it not move more? Because the price of oil went up almost a dollar a barrel. We have to do better than that. The only way we can do it is to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

Unless we have a directive of this President and Presidents that follow him to meet this goal, we will continue to be dependent on foreign oil.

So I am totally impressed with the Senator from Washington and the great work she has done on this amendment. I hope it passes by a large margin.

Mr. President, the time I have is leader time, and I wanted to say a few things. I was not here yesterday afternoon because of the funeral of Senator Exon. I say to my colleagues, those of us who went to that funeral were so impressed with what this man did for the State of Nebraska. For the first time in the history of Nebraska, a funeral was held in the State capitol. Why? Because Jim Exon made a difference in the State of Nebraska. I am sure all 100 Senators, as I have, ask are we making a difference in what happens in our States, in our country. The lesson we can look to is Jim Exon, a man with not a great education by modern-day standards but a person who by modern-day standards, or any standard, had a great heart and a great mind and was able to do wonderful work for the State and for the country.

His family expressed so many warm feelings about their father and grandfather. Bob Kerrey gave one of the most moving eulogies that has ever been given. I am sorry I was not here yesterday, but for those of us who went to that funeral--Senator Ben Nelson, Senator Hagel, Senator Bingaman, Senator Levin, Senator Akaka--it was so worth our time.

Mr. President, I rise to respond to a statement that was made yesterday. I want to provide an update on the status of the Bolton nomination. As I said yesterday, and I say now, we on this side of the aisle have been clear and consistent on our position on this matter. If the administration works in good faith to give the Senate the information it requires, Senate Democrats are ready immediately to give this nomination a vote.

We are not going on a fishing expedition in this instance. Democrats are seeking clearly defined and specific information about two very important issues that bear directly on John Bolton's fitness to represent this great country in the United Nations. I know what a fishing expedition is. A fishing expedition is, for example, in the law when one does a deposition or sends interrogatories and they have no idea what the answers are going to be, they have no idea what information they are really seeking to obtain, they hope something will turn up. That is not the case here because we have given two important areas where we want information: Did Mr. Bolton attempt to exaggerate what Congress and the American people would be told about Syria's alleged weapons of mass destruction capabilities? Secondly, did Mr. Bolton use or maybe perhaps misuse highly classified intelligence intercepts to spy on bureaucratic rivals who disagreed with his views or for other inappropriate purposes?

At the time I made those remarks, sadly, the administration and Senate Republicans had taken the position for the past month or more that nothing needed to be provided to the Senate on either of these issues, nothing. Last evening, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, my friend, Senator Roberts, came to the floor to announce that he had attempted, ``one last good-faith effort to alleviate Senate Democrats' concerns.''

These questions were not directed to a member of the Intelligence Committee or to a member of the Armed Services Committee. These questions that we have asked were directed to the White House, to this administration.

Let us take a look, though, at Senator Roberts' efforts. First, it completely ignored one of the two issues on which we are seeking further clarification; namely, whether Bolton attempted to exaggerate what Congress and the American people would be told about Syria's alleged weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

I remind my colleagues, this is no small matter. All over the news the last 2 days has been concerns about weapons of mass destruction by virtue of the memo that was discovered in England. Concerns about this administration hyping intelligence and Great Britain hyping intelligence cannot be dismissed lightly.

U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq today largely because this administration told the Congress and the American people that Iraq not only possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction but was also capable of using them against us and our allies.

U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq today. In the last 48 hours, 11 American soldiers have been killed. During that same period of time, I do not know the exact count, but well over 100 Iraqis have been killed. During that same 48-hour period, I do not know how many American soldiers have been grievously injured. I have no idea how many Iraqis have been paralyzed, blinded, or lost limbs. It is serious.

But we have learned since the war that the administration's own investigator concluded Iraq did not possess either the stockpiles or the means of delivery. Just as importantly, there are a series of unanswered questions about whether senior officials in this administration dramatically and intentionally hyped this threat to justify their desire to invade Iraq. So one can see why we believe it is no small matter for us to learn whether Mr. Bolton was a party to other efforts to hype intelligence.

Let's be clear about what is happening in Washington and the Senate. We have a White House that continues to drive an agenda--some say it is a radical agenda--determined to consolidate power and abuse it when necessary to push its unpopular policies. This disagreement over the Bolton nomination is not about partisan politics, ideology, or even reform at the United Nations. It is about whether we permit this administration yet again to walk roughshod over the Constitution.

Our duty as Senators is to ensure that our country is represented by qualified and, yes, ethical individuals. Instead of joining the Senate to protect and respect the Constitution, the administration has decided to pick a fight with large rhetoric and negative attacks as it consecrates its power and continues its secretive approach to governing.

Instead of joining us in a bipartisan conversation to reform Social Security, the administration pursues a risky privatization scheme that will slash benefits and threaten our economy with massive new debt. Public support for this privatization scheme is around the 20-percent mark.

This administration has also acquiesced to its radical rightwing base and supported the intrusion of the Federal Government into the private lives of families.

Just as troubling as all of this might be, when the administration fails to get what they want, they rev up the negative attack machine and set up the slash and burn, and I can say that is certainly true.

This pattern could not be clearer, and the American people are joining us to say enough is enough. For months now we have been talking about reforming Washington and focusing on the issues that affect the lives of the American people. We have been trying to do that as Democrats. Our work on the Energy bill this week is an example of what can be done with bipartisan work. We have a bipartisan bill that we hope to continue to improve.

Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman have been exemplary in the work that they have done. We want to improve the bill. That is what legislation is all about. Americans are tired of getting caught in the crossfire of partisan sniping. So let us continue to join in a commonsense center and do the work the American people sent us to do.

I end as I began. If this administration, like previous administrations, respects requests of the Senate, we will immediately move to grant Bolton an up-or-down vote. I stand by that pledge today as I did more than a month ago.

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

Mr. President, it is my understanding that the only time remaining is that of the majority. Is that right?

Mr. President, I will use leader time or, if no one is going to use their time, I will just use whatever is available.

If someone from the majority wants to speak, I will be happy to put the vote over for a few minutes for whatever few minutes I use.

I, first, want to thank Senator Bingaman for his leadership on the renewable energy issue. He has always been there. It is also important to mention Senator Jeffords. Senator Jeffords has been so stalwart. I remember an Energy and Water bill that Senator Domenici and I did in years past. We did not put enough renewable in there and Senator Jeffords brought amendments to the floor and fought us on this on the Senate floor. He has been a stalwart.

In this particular instance, the leader has been Senator Bingaman, and I appreciate very much the work he has done.

There is no question in my mind that we must harness the brilliance of the Sun, the strength of the wind, and the heat of the Earth to provide renewable energy for our Nation. There are many reasons our Nation needs to develop more renewable energy. It can power our homes and businesses without polluting the air we breath or the water we drink. Renewable energy will protect consumers from wild price swings by providing steady, reliable sources of energy. There is a reason we call the famous geothermal geyser Old Faithful, and that is because renewable energy is as old as the wind, as durable as the Sun, and as constant as the Earth.

Renewable energy will bolster our national security because it is made in the USA. The supply cannot be manipulated by any foreign power. Scientists have said, for example, the Nevada Test Site where we have detonated about 1,000 nuclear weapons, one could have solar power that would supply the whole Nation with electricity.

We do not have that, of course. We have no solar energy at the Nevada

Test Site, but it is an example of what can be done.

Finally, renewable energy creates jobs, often in rural areas that need them the most. Nevada is a perfect example. Most of our geothermal energy is in rural Nevada. The steam has been coming from the ground in those places since man started coming there. When the pioneers came across Nevada, one of the places they would come after leaving the area that is now Utah is this dry, parched desert. The first thing they would see is water in a place near Gerlach, NV. The first few pioneers, immigrants, and their animals went into that water. They did not do that very often. They could not do it because it would kill them. It was boiling water. As thirsty as they were, they would have to siphon the water down and cool it.

It is still there, the same hot water, the same steam coming from areas around Gerlach. There is tremendous potential for renewable energy. In 2002 and 2003, the Senate passed the renewable energy electricity standard requiring that 10 percent of the electricity sold by utilities be generated from renewable energy sources. We should do no less this year. It would be even better if we could match our friends in Europe and achieve 20 percent.

Other nations have been developing renewable energy resources at a much faster rate than the United States. In 1990, America produced 90 percent of the world's wind power. Today, it is less than 25 percent. Germany now has the lead in wind energy; Japan in solar energy. We have an opportunity to regain the position as a world leader in renewable energy. In the United States today we get about 2 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. That is a paltry sum. The potential is there for a much greater supply.

The renewable electricity standard and the production tax credit are critical to growth of renewable energy in America. The State of Nevada is blessed with enough geothermal energy to generate one-third of the needs of Nevada today, but geothermal supply is only about 2 percent of our power. I am happy that Nevada has adopted one of the most aggressive renewable portfolio standards in the Nation. We set a goal of generating 15 percent of our electricity with renewable energy by the year 2013. Our legislature is to be commended. They did that 2 years ago.

Developing these resources will protect our environment, will help consumers, and will create jobs in our State. If Nevada can meet its renewable energy goal of 15 percent by 2013, then the Nation certainly should be able to meet a goal of 10 percent by 2020.

Many States are blessed with abundant supplies of renewable energy resources. Twenty-one States have already adopted renewable electricity standards. If we consider environmental and health effects, the real costs of energy become more apparent, and we see the renewable energy is a winner. A national renewable electricity standard by 2020 will also spur nearly $80 billion in new capital investment and $5 billion in new property tax revenues to communities.

Let's never lose sight of the fact that renewable energy sources are domestic sources of energy and using them instead of foreign sources contributes to our energy security.

I urge my colleagues, both the majority and minority, to vote for the Bingaman amendment.

Admiration.

Mr. President, the two managers of the bill are here. They are ready to take amendments. All amendments cannot be offered next week. When we come to these bills, it is always: I am not quite ready; I will do it tomorrow or next week. That time has arrived. We have worked through some very difficult amendments this week--three extremely difficult amendments. They are disposed of now. They were complicated. They were difficult in the eyes of many.

As I see it, Mr. Leader, I think the big issue left, in major scope, is the global warming issue. A number of Senators on both sides are concerned about this. I would hope that an amendment would be offered Monday when we come in, debate this however long it takes, within a reasonable period of time, and dispose of it, maybe Tuesday. I just think it is time we move on.

I think what the majority leader has outlined, in consultation with me, is extremely good; that we are going to finish this bill next week. And no one has been jammed on time. It has been a hard week also because there have been funerals and events that have taken some of our time, but we have worked our way through that.

I think it would be good for the country that they see we are now legislating. We have had a number of problems earlier in the year. Those are over. And now the leader has said he wishes to pass a couple of appropriations bills before we leave in August. That would set a good tone. The Appropriations Committee met today. That work has been done. The bill is ready to bring to the floor.

So I hope we can move forward. There is a tentative agreement--it is not finalized in any written form yet, but I have worked with the distinguished majority leader now for a couple weeks. There is an issue that is before the country, and that is stem cell research. We are going to try to work out something on that so we do not have a bunch of side issues coming up on the legislation we have. We have had a number of important meetings, and I think we are at a point soon where we can arrive at some way to dispose of this at a time certain.

We have other issues that we have talked about--the Hawaiian issue and China. These are all in the Record that we have to bring those up at a specified time. So we have our plates full. And I would acknowledge we probably might have to do some of this next Friday.

If the Senator will yield, I also think if cloture is going to be filed on this bill, it would be on a bipartisan basis. I think you would have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans signing that cloture motion. And I think that it is really important for this body that we do that on occasion.

On the Energy bill.

It is amazing to me, Madam President, the more the popularity of the President plummets, the more the people downtown try to play this game ``I gotcha.'' Families are attacked, reputations are impugned, bogus, baseless statements are made. The attacks by the very noisy noise machine of the far right never stops, and it has gotten so much more in operation in the last few weeks with the numbers on the President dealing with Social Security, the unpopularity of the efforts made to spend 2 months on judges, five people, basically.

This is all a distraction by the White House. Why? Because this country is in trouble for lots of reasons, only one of which is Iraq. In the last 48 hours, 11 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Scores of Iraqis have been killed in the same period of time. I do not know--I do not know if anyone knows--the death and destruction that is taking place in Iraq as we speak. We focus on the dead. The dead American soldiers are on page A26 of the newspapers now. Sometimes they do not even make the front section. We do not know because we are not focusing on the blind, the maimed from that war.

But that is only one of our problems we are not focusing on. Health care: 45 million Americans are without health care. Have we spent 5 minutes this year talking about health care? No. No. We have been spending time on five judges.

Have we spent any time about what is happening in our public school systems around this country? No, not a single minute. The average age of a public school in America is approaching 50 years. The Leave No Child Behind Act is leaving kids behind in Nevada and all over this country.

The environment is something we do not even talk about anymore because global warming does not exist in the minds of the people at the White House.

Do we spend any time here talking about the devastating deficit that is affecting people in my little town of Searchlight and all over the country? No. This administration took over with a surplus in the trillions. We now have approached a $7 trillion debt in this country.

So this is all an attempt to distract us from the issues before us. Rather than spending time on my friend, the distinguished Senator from Illinois, whom I have known for going on 23 years, who has dedicated his life to public service--do we have a problem in this country with the issues he is discussing? Yes. Focus on them, not anything he said. Let's focus on the issues before us.

I would hope it would be worth a little bit of our time here to see what we could do about the Defense authorization bill. Five weeks it has been out of committee--5 weeks. We have our Guard and Reserve that are overwhelmed with responsibilities in that war. We have men and women who are there on duty station as we speak. But we do not have a Defense authorization bill. Why? We always did them in years past. Why? Because we may get an amendment on that bill dealing with what is going on with the subject about which my friend speaks. There may be other amendments that may not be in keeping with the mindset of the White House.

I want the record to reflect I have great affection for the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He is my friend. He is truly a Southern gentleman, and I care for him a great deal. I am sure he must be frustrated by the fact that the Defense authorization bill is not before us.

But I also have great affection, loyalty, and deep friendship that will be with me for the eternities for my friend from Illinois, who has been such a good friend over all these many years. He is a person who loves to talk about issues, whether it is an issue dealing with energy, as we have talked about here for a few days--the first real substantive issue we have dealt with, really, in a long time on this Senate floor-- or whether it is any of the other issues I have spoken about here: the deficit, education, the environment, health care.

Nothing is being talked about. But he cares about those issues deeply. I would hope we can turn down the noise machine downtown a little bit and understand the American people want to focus on issues, issues important to them. They are tired of this ``gotcha'' game because they don't get you; it is just an attempt to divert attention from the issues before this country.

Mr. President, we made a lot of progress yesterday. It may not seem that way because all we did was ethanol. There were a lot of activities going on behind the scenes to move this legislation forward. Senator Cantwell will offer her amendment this morning. I do not know how long that will take. The unfortunate death of Jim Exon, I hope, will not cause us to hold things up. I hope the two managers of the bill can have a number of amendments offered and stack those amendments, with the permission of the majority leader, and probably vote on those, we hope, in the morning sometime.

The big issues left are a renewable standard for electricity, we have a number of global warming issues, and there are other issues. If we get the Cantwell amendment decided and we do the global warming amendments and electricity standards, I think we are down the road on this important piece of legislation. We need cooperation from both sides.

It is an important piece of legislation. I know the President gave a speech yesterday wanting us to move forward. We want to move forward on it. Senators Domenici and Bingaman have done a very good job of getting us to where we are.

Mr. President, from the outset of the debate on John Bolton's nomination, Senate Democrats have had a clear and consistent position. If the administration works in good faith to give the Senate the information it deserves, the Senate Democrats are ready to immediately give this nomination an up-or-down vote. We said this as far back as April, and it remains our position today. Despite the administration's refusal to turn over any of the requested information during this time period, Senator Frist told me yesterday he was inclined to seek another vote on the Bolton nomination. While the majority leader is certainly within his rights to do this, unless the administration changes course before this vote is held, the outcome will be exactly the same as it was last month and may even have less support than it did before.

Here is why: The history and precedent in the Senate makes it clear the Senate has a right to information that bears directly on the fitness of a political nominee to serve. Virtually every other administration has recognized the Senate's rights and provided the needed information--every administration, that is, except this one. Many colleagues on the majority have stood for the Senate's right to get information from the executive branch in the past. We have many statements on record to that effect. These colleagues have made it clear, with their words and deeds, that it was perfectly legitimate for the Senate to withhold action on an executive nominee until the executive branch provided certain information, even if the information requested had nothing to do with the nominee in question.

In this instance, we are seeking information that bears directly on the fitness of John Bolton to serve as our representative to the United Nations. We are not engaging in any fishing expedition. We are seeking clearly defined documents and information about two very important issues:

No. 1, did Bolton attempt to exaggerate what Congress would be told about Syria's alleged weapons of mass destruction capabilities? Remember, we have some experience in weapons of mass destruction information being altered and manipulated.

No. 2, did Bolton use and perhaps misuse highly classified intelligence intercepts to spy on bureaucratic rivals who disagreed with his views or for other inappropriate purposes?

These are two very direct, simple issues that bear on this man's capability and fitness to serve in the United Nations.

The administration's position on these requests has been that political appointees are qualified to see this information but that Senators elected by the American people are not. I believe this is unacceptable.

During this impasse, Senate Democrats have repeatedly demonstrated our good faith to break the current impasse and give Mr. Bolton a vote. Yesterday, I heard some of my Republican colleagues assert that Democrats have been shifting the goalpost on resolving this issue, and they are absolutely right, we have. Instead of having a 100-yard football field, now we have made it only 60 yards. We have moved in their direction. Just last week, Senators Biden, ranking member of Foreign Relations and, of course, Senator Dodd, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, made another effort to resolve the impasse over the Bolton nomination. Everyone in the Senate and outside this body should understand that this offer moves significantly away from our initial request in a sincere effort to resolve the situation. Everyone should also understand that, unfortunately, this latest effort to reach an accommodation with the White House has apparently met the same fate as previous efforts to work things out--silence from the administration.

Even yesterday, the ranking member of the Finance Committee--I should say the vice chair Senator Rockefeller of West Virginia, which is the proper title--offered his assistance, to break the impasse. He sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, to that effect.

We have said publicly, if this administration, similar to every other administration, respects the requests of the Senate, we will immediately move to grant Bolton an up-or-down vote. I stand by that pledge today. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will recognize we are following their precedent with our actions today. I hope this administration brings an end to its pattern of abusing its powers and treats this coequal branch of Government with the respect it deserves.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, we are ready for the next amendment. What I would suggest for the good of the order is that while they are negotiating a finality of this ethanol amendment--that is taking place as we speak--Senator Cantwell be allowed to move forward on her amendment. We would certainly agree that anytime they want to come back and finish the work on ethanol, she would step aside. But we have such a limited amount of time on this most important piece of legislation.

We have today. Of course, because of the funeral of Senator Exon, we cannot have votes this afternoon. There are six or seven Senators leaving. Then we have a longstanding conference on Friday, so tomorrow is going to be the heavy workload of this week.

This is our first amendment. We believe we would do well if we could move forward with it. Senator Cantwell has been very patient. She waited here all day yesterday, and she is here again today.

So I am wondering--I see, of course, that the distinguished chairman of the committee is here. I wonder if I could have Senator Inhofe's attention. If I could, I am sorry to interrupt the conversation, but I am wondering if the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma would allow the present amendment to be set aside. I know there are negotiations going on at the present time. We could allow Senator Cantwell to offer her amendment. Anytime you wanted to come back on the floor, we would be happy to yield the floor and come back to you. It would just help things move along.

Mr. President, I know the majority leader, and I want to move this legislation along. We have great plans for the last week of this work period to do some appropriations bills, one of which I hope would be the bill of Senator Domenici and this Senator which we have been fortunate enough to be chairman and ranking member of that committee for many years. We were able to complete that yesterday in the subcommittee and will be ready to move. It is such a waste of the country's time not to move forward. I have made my good-faith gesture to do so. I hope everyone understands that we can't rush forward on cloture when there is nothing having been done to allow us to offer amendments.

It is my understanding that Senator Inhofe's amendment or the underlying ethanol amendment will be the pending business after Cantwell. That would be fine with us.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, we have had a conversation as suggested by the distinguished chairman. He is, as usual, right.

I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and that Senator Cantwell be allowed to offer her amendment, and that at such time as the majority wants to regain the floor to discuss the matter of ethanol, Senator Cantwell would step down.

A couple of hours. With the 12:30 schedule, I would hope we would have a vote on ethanol; otherwise, we will debate that and whenever that finishes move to another issue, if ethanol is not resolved. It is not going to be a day-long debate.

It is my understanding that the ranking member of the committee has one on renewables that is ready to go, electricity renewables, portfolio standard that we have debated on a number of occasions. I assume that with all the work done on global warming, there are several amendments around, some of which are bipartisan. I am sure that is ready to go. So there are a number of amendments ready to go.

Which is fine with us.

Basically, to set aside this amendment.

Mr. President, what is the issue before the Senate?

It is my understanding the Senator from Nebraska wishes to speak for 3 minutes as in morning business prior to turning to the Energy bill. I ask consent that be the case.

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

Mr. President, the ranking member is in the Finance Committee at a very important meeting dealing with CAFTA. He is going to return as soon as the distinguished chairman of the committee makes his opening statement. I ask unanimous consent that the first two amendments in order be the one I would define as the ethanol amendment--I do not know who is going to offer that. Who on your side will offer that, I ask Senator Domenici?

I ask that the next amendment in order be that of Senator Cantwell of Washington.

Mr. President, I think that would be totally appropriate. I would ask--the amendments we are talking about would be first-degree amendments.

Mr. President, has the bill been laid down yet?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a list of fellows and interns of the Democratic staff of the Finance Committee be allowed on the Senate floor for the duration of the debate on the Energy Bill.

I am going to depart the floor and let the managers manage this bill, as they should. They are some of our most experienced Senators. The only thing I want to make sure is that the record is clear that following the offering of the amendment the Senator from New Mexico, or someone in his stead, is going to offer an ethanol amendment, and that the next amendment in order would be the Cantwell amendment.

Of course, I certainly understand that. I am only talking about first-degree amendments.

Will the Senator yield for a question?

I ask the Senator to yield so the Senator from California can offer an amendment. She will speak for up to 20 minutes. In the meantime, Senator Domenici has a piece of paper you are probably interested in, and that would probably move this thing along rather quickly.

I ask unanimous consent Senator Boxer be allowed to offer her second-degree amendment to the legislation.

Let me say, through the Chair to my friend from Florida, the Senator from New Mexico has worked very hard on this bill. Both Senators from New Mexico worked very hard. This is an issue that is difficult for reasons it probably should not be, but it is a difficult issue. I know the Senator from New Mexico has done everything he can.

I appreciate everyone's cooperation. This is an important bill to Republicans and to Democrats. One reason I feel some anxiety is there is an event downtown tonight that is going to cause us to have a short night. Unfortunately, when people die, it is always at a bad time. Senator Exon's funeral is tomorrow. It will make us have an afternoon without any votes. And we have a longstanding Senate retreat this Friday. So we need to get as much done as we can.

I appreciate everyone's cooperation, especially the two managers of the bill and Senators Martinez and Nelson and Landrieu, for helping us work through this.

I ask my unanimous consent request be adopted.

Do we have consent on the vote?

It is my understanding there will be a vote after that on or in relation to the amendment.

That was Senator Domenici's request.

Mr. President, I rise to discuss the energy bill that we will consider over the next 2 weeks. Senators Domenici and Bingaman should be commended for their bipartisan work in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to bring us to this point today.

The events over the last 4 years have highlighted what Americans have known since the 1970s--our national security and our economic security depend on our energy security. Americans need and deserve an energy bill that truly moves us toward energy independence.

Seriously addressing our national security means kicking our dependence on foreign oil.

Today, we import 58 percent of our oil.

Our dependence on imported oil poses a risk to our national security and our economic well-being.

We will consider a number of additional proposals that can help make greater energy security a reality for future generations of Americans.

There will be amendments offered to the bill regarding energy security, renewable energy, biofuels, climate change, and fuel economy.

We must reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make a commitment to clean, renewable energy.

If we choose to invest in energy efficient technologies and renewable energy, we will create thousands of new jobs . . . we will protect our environment . . . and we will bolster our national security.

That is the vision our Nation needs. That is the leadership we must provide.