Floor Statements

Mr. President, every 4 years, at the time of the inauguration, it is a festive time in America. It certainly is a time of celebration in Washington, DC. I have had the good fortune of being able to be here on a number of occasions.

As I look back, the thing that stands out--Democrat and Republican-- is how cold the weather is. It is always cold. It is always a question of how cold it is going to be. I had the good fortune, historically, of being able to serve here in the Senate when we canceled an outdoor inauguration ceremony for President Reagan. It was so cold it simply could not be held outside, and the crowd had to be thinned down by thousands and thousands, and people jammed into the Rotunda behind us. Even though it was cold outside, it was still warm inside at the second inauguration of President Reagan. It is a time when we put political differences aside and honor the American presidency.

I have had a lot of microphones shoved in my direction today. Each of those times I tried to recognize the day. The day is to honor our system of Government.

If we look back 4 years ago, there was a situation where the man who was elected President received fewer votes than the person he beat. We had the tremendous problems with the electoral system in Florida, and then we had the race decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. But America being as it is, the minute the Supreme Court made their decision, Vice President Gore and the rest of the country recognized that the election was over. There wasn't a window broken; there were no riots; no one was hurt. The inauguration went forward as if President Bush had won by 10 million votes. That is what our country is all about. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men.

It is my hope that today will usher in a new beginning in Washington. I say that because we have had a lot of partisan rancor and squabbling. I hope that now gives way to a spirit of bipartisanship. Frankly, we didn't get much in the last 4 years with the new tone. The President said he wanted to be a uniter and not a divider. For reasons I don't fully understand, that never took place.

I spoke to the President the day after the election, and it was a pleasant conversation. He clearly indicated at that time that he wanted to reach out. He said: I haven't another election, and I want to do my best to get along. That is my take on what he said to me. I hope we are able to go forward on the message the President delivered to me. This country needs unification. We have been divided too long.

Today we had a little lunch after the inauguration ceremony. Of all the speeches the President has given, his speech there, which took less than 5 minutes, was the best he has ever delivered. I commented on that. It was because he delivered the speech recognizing the tremendous responsibilities he has as President of the United States. You could tell by listening to and watching him the emotion that he felt. I was very impressed with that.

I trust and hope that the President's expressed feelings today go forward in the months and years to come. I say that because the American people are counting on us. People from Rhode Island, people from Illinois, people from Nevada, people from all over the country are depending on us to work together to tackle the immense problems facing this Nation.

We on this side of the aisle--the aisle that we talk about so much is right here--all 45 of us have stated privately and publicly, we will work with the President. But I do say this: We will not shy away from living up to the values and priorities we believe are important in our country. We are serious in tone and in context. We will work with the President.

He took an oath of office today. We all saw that on national television. People don't often see us every 6 years when we take the oath of office. During his remarks following taking the oath of office, he praised the wisdom contained in the document we call the Constitution. That document lays forth the separation of powers within our Government, the three separate but equal branches of Government. I take my constitutional responsibility just as does the President of the United States.

We as Senators have constitutional obligations to which we swear every 6 years when we take our oath of office and fulfill our contract with the people of our respective States. Speaking for those on this side of the aisle, we are going to work as hard as we can to live up to the expectations the American people have in us. We may be elected as Democrats and Republicans, but we don't serve as Democrats and Republicans. We serve ultimately as Americans. There are so many areas where we can find common ground, we need not look to areas where we can squabble and be partisan. If we work together on the areas where we have common ground, it would take every waking minute the Senate has.

I look forward to being the new Democratic leader, working with this caucus and working with the President and my Republican colleagues to find ways that we can keep our commitments to the armed services, those serving in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, the Balkans, all over the world, as they are serving to keep Americans safe. The war on terror is a war for which we must be vigilant, and we will do everything we can to support the armed services of our country.

One of our immediate tasks must be to put our Nation's fiscal house in order. There can be no question about the need to do that. We are spending more money than we are taking in as a government. We are spending in excess of our resources by far too much. There is much work to be done to strengthen education, expand access to quality, affordable health care.

I don't talk about bipartisanship just in theory. I have had the good fortune to work with Senator John Ensign, a Republican. John Ensign and I are from the State of Nevada. Six years ago we were in one of the most difficult, bitter races, not only in the history of the State of Nevada but the history of our country. That race was ultimately decided by 428 votes. Here it is 6 years later, and John Ensign is now a member of the Senate.

John Ensign is a loyal Republican, and I do my very best to represent the Democratic Party. But because of our work together, the work of Senator Reid and Senator Ensign, we have worked on that which is important to the State of Nevada and, we believe, to the country. We have worked together in a bipartisan basis. That work has been beneficial to our country.

With the spirit of the inauguration close to our hearts today, I look forward to the great debates ahead in the great debating society we call the Senate. I am optimistic and confident that today could be a new beginning. But it will only be a new beginning if the tone that is set today is carried forward in the years to come in making our country the country it has the potential to be.

The majority leader is correct. The preliminary calculations that we were provided did not accurately reflect our goal of an across-the-board freeze including the COLAs. The aggregate funding levels identified today by the majority leader accurately reflect the intent of our agreement.

Madam President, we are very close to working something out on committee funding. We have an agreement on the split. It is just a question of what we are splitting. I have a meeting today with the ranking members. I spoke to virtually all of them last night and we will be able to work something out here. It is important we do that. We have Members on our side, new Senators, we want to appoint to committees. The majority has new Members they need to appoint to committees. There will be some new committee chairs, new ranking members. We want to expedite this. We hope to have it done, as I told the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, by noon today. It is something we need to do. I am confident we can do that.

On our side if, in fact, there is an objection filed to any of the States that are going to report their electoral college findings, we will not require a rollcall vote on our side, but that does not mean there won't be one. So whether there is an objection filed, we will wait and see at 1 o'clock today. After that, there will be decisions made by individual Senators as to whether there is a vote.

Procedurally, as I understand the rule, if there is an objection filed, automatically the electoral college proceedings are put in recess for 2 hours. During that 2 hours, Members in the House and Senate are allowed to speak for up to 5 minutes each on the objection. Following that, the electoral college reconvenes. If, in fact, there is an objection filed, I think everything would be completed by around 4 o'clock today.

Madam President, the distinguished Senator is again absolutely right. We have had a few requests on our side. At last count, I had less than five. That is 25 minutes, at most. But we cannot do anything until the House finishes. If they finish earlier, we would finish earlier and be able to move forward.

We will see what the day brings us. But it should not be a long day, no matter what happens.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to.

Mr. President, 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.

Funding Levels

Mr. President, I want to engage my colleague, the distinguished majority leader, in a colloquy regarding committee funding. As the majority leader is aware, the current biennial funding authorization for committee funding expires on February 28. Normally, by now the Rules Committee has advised the committees of the budget assumptions for the next biennial period, March 1, 2005 through February 28, 2007, so that they may be preparing their committee authorizing resolutions for the next biennial funding period. However, the Rules committee is awaiting direction from the

leadership. Based on conversations between the majority leader and myself, is the majority leader in a position to announce the funding and allocation assumptions for the next biennial committee funding period?

Is it my understanding that such a freeze will result in aggregate funding levels, subject to appropriations, as follows: March 1, 2005-September 30, 2005: $53,243,918; October 1, 2005-September 30, 2006; $93,467,365; and October 1, 2006-February 28, 2007: $39,782,891, and that such funding levels include, but do not separately allocate, the additional 10 percent allocated to the committees in the 108th Congress?

I thank the majority leader for his comments and assistance in reaching this agreement.

Mr. President, if I could, if the distinguished acting leader would allow me to say a word, what we have just done has been something that is important for the institution. We want to show bipartisanship, and this has been very difficult. Briefly, because I know we have a joint session, let me say the chairmen and ranking members do yeoman's work around here. They work very hard.

What has just been completed is a compromise. I appreciate the cooperation of Senator Frist and Senator McConnell, Senator Lott and Senator Dodd. We have worked hard to arrive at this point, and we have shown some bipartisanship. We on the Democratic side, and I think I can speak for some of my friends on the Republican side, hope that the money the committees are going to get to do their work is not all needed. We didn't use it all last time. I hope we don't need it this time. But at least we have a framework where we have divided the responsibilities of the Senate on a 60-40 basis. I believe that is fair. I hope never in the future of this institution, no matter what party is in control, will it ever change and be any lower.

Mr. President, I advise Members on the minority side if they

want to speak on this issue, I have been informed that when the speeches end there will be a rollcall vote. If people are waiting to come here an hour from now, they may not get the chance to speak. Members who want to speak should come here now. I have been informed on the majority side there may not be another speaker or, if so, maybe only one other speaker.

For my side, I repeat, as I understand the rules, they should be here to speak for the 5 minutes when the time comes. That time is now.

Mr. President, I spoke on a procedural matter earlier. I ask unanimous consent that not be deemed to be my speech in regard to this matter.

Mr. President, today great men and women of our Armed Forces are working to bring the right of free and fair elections to Iraq. In less than a month, there will be elections in Iraq. The sacrifice of our military demands that we work to ensure our own elections are fair. That is why today's debate is here, and I applaud my friend from California for allowing us to talk a little bit about elections generally.

A constitutional right that can be said to help secure all other rights is the right to vote. History has shown us that the right to vote demands constant vigilance and attention. While secured by our Constitution, widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans and other Americans led to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the amendments in 1970, 1975, and 1982.

Constitutional protection was not enough. We needed tough new laws and took action. More recently, the abuses in Florida 4 years ago demonstrated the need for change and led to reform--and it was reform-- in the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

I spread on the Record today the good work of Senator McConnell, Senator Dodd, and Senator Bond. There were others, but those are the three who stand out in my mind.

While the literacy tests and poll taxes of the past are gone, a more insidious form of disenfranchisement continues to taint our electoral system.

In this past election, in the State of Nevada, phone calls were made to heavily African-American parts of Las Vegas to try to trick those voters into not voting. The same happened in the Hispanic areas of our State, especially in Clark County. These calls, which we were unable to trace, told voters election day was November 3, not November 2.

Our registration process in Nevada is also tainted by the proven destruction of Democratic voter registration forms. This is clear. It happened. There was a company hired by the Republican National Committee to register only Republicans. We had people come forward and say they destroyed Democratic registration forms. That investigation is still underway.

In some of my earliest elections in Nevada, private individuals dressed in uniforms meant to resemble police officers stood around polling places in minority voting spots to frighten people from coming to vote, and it worked. These officers were posted, as I indicated, at the polls to intimidate these minority voters.

In this past election in Ohio, we heard a lot about what appeared to be wrong there, and I hope there will be more done to determine what went on in Ohio.

Legal challenges to restrict provisional voting, a provision of HAVA, which is the Help America Vote Act which I talked about earlier, meant to cure the widespread disenfranchisement of minorities in Florida and around the rest of the country.

These problems damage our system, deny our citizens equal protection, and undermine the right to vote. Rooting out this corruption requires not only strong laws but I believe strong hearts. It relies upon the integrity of our election officials in every State and each one of us to speak up when abuses occur.

It is my hope the debate today will once again lead to action to cure some of the more glaring defects of the 2004 election. One of the most significant problems in Ohio and in many other States was the lack of measures to ensure the integrity of electronic voting machines. While we have made improvements that are historic with HAVA, one important omission is in this area; that is, electronic voting, how to ensure the integrity of it.

In the last election, of all 50 States, Nevada was the only State where we had total electronic voting with a paper trail. When you voted in Nevada, you did your electronic voting and you could look right there to see for whom you voted. No mistakes. You did not take it with you, of course, but it was in the machine, and if there was a recount, it could be determined easily.

This is the way it should happen all over America, an electronic machine with a paper trail.

Last year, my colleague, the distinguished junior Senator from Nevada, Mr. Ensign, and I introduced a measure to require paper trails for electronic voting machines every place. We will introduce our bipartisan Voting Integrity and Verification Act in this Congress.

I hope that as we consider the 2004 election today--I ask unanimous consent for one additional minute, Mr. President.

I will end by saying we look forward to enacting commonsense measures such as the Voting Integrity and Verification Act which Senator Ensign and I will introduce in a few days to continue to improve the integrity of our elections.

I do not view the need to consider these additional reforms as a sign that our electoral system has failed. That we learn, investigate, and reform demonstrates its strength. The only failure following the 2004 election would be to not acknowledge and act to strengthen the right to vote.

I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join with me in that effort.

Mr. President, I appreciate very much the remarks of the Republican leader, and I think there is no better example of public service than Bill Frist, a person who, if not the most prominent transplant surgeon in the country, is one of the most prominent transplant surgeons in the country, and he decided to become involved in public service and he has done it very well.

I repeat, there isn't a better example of public service than the leader.

When I was less than a week old, my father was working in the mine in Chloride, AZ. It was a short way over the river from Searchlight. He was working in a vertical shaft. They were sinking a shaft. He was working with another man by the name of Carl Myers. They drilled holes and set the dynamite charges. In those days they did not have all the product liability protection we have today.

He lit the 10 fuses. One of them went off way before it was supposed to. He was hurt very badly. It blew him into the air, blew the soles off his shoes. He was in a state of shock. He knew he had to get out of there because the other holes were burning. When they were sinking the shaft, they had a 10-foot ladder they would bring down, take it out when they climbed out of the hole, and leave it at the next level. He knew he had to get out of there. He put the ladder down and it would keep falling. He did not realize a leg of the ladder had blown off and when he tried to climb out, it would fall.

On the next level was Carl Myers. He knew one of the holes went off; he knew there were nine others. He did something heroic, to say the least. He could not stop the other holes from going off because they were covered with muck at the time, covered with dirt. So Carl Myers climbed down. He was a smaller man than my dad. My dad was 6 feet tall and probably weighed 185 pounds. He carried him up to the next level and saved his life. As soon as he got up there, the holes went off.

I tell this story because the acts of one man did much. Among other things, it allowed my mother not to be a widow, allowed her to have a husband and a father for three boys. Later, another brother came into the family.

Carl Myers received a Carnegie medal for heroism for what he did to save my father's life. Lowell Thomas wrote about this episode involving my father. He quoted Carl Myers as saying: To hell with the medal, Harry's alive, isn't he?

Carl Myers, from the time I was a little boy being raised in Searchlight, was a hero to me. Because of his decision our family was allowed to function.

Actions of U.S. Senators and the President of the Senate have consequences, just as Carl's actions had consequences. In the Senate we make decisions. We have a lot more time to make these decisions than Carl had deciding to go back down in the hole. The decisions we make touch the lives of Americans. People all over America are affected by what we do in the Senate.

The citizens are counting on the Senate to make sure public schools are institutions that we as Americans are proud of. The American people are counting on us to make their life better by making medical care easier for them to come by. People are counting on the Senate so a child's ability to go to college will not be determined by how much money the parents have. People are counting on Congress to make sure Social Security is a stable fund they can depend on. People are counting on Congress to make sure the environment is good, so the water we drink is pure, the air we breathe is good. Women are depending on us. They are counting on us to make sure their wages are no longer 75 cents of every dollar we make as men. There is an article in the Washington Post today discussing a problem with more unintended pregnancies than we anticipated. They are depending on us to do something about that. Citizens are depending on us to make sure our fiscal house is in order. They are depending on us to do our work in a bipartisan fashion to effect change in our country to the good.

I spoke to Senator Frist this past week. We are working on items for when we return in late January, items we can work on, on a bipartisan basis, to show the American people that, yes, we can work together. There are issues we can work on--maybe the highway bill. We did not do it last Congress; maybe we can do it this time. There are many other issues the leader and I talked about.

There are bipartisan opportunities, and I as the new Democratic leader speak on behalf of 45 Democratic Senators. We are here with our arms open to work with the administration, the Speaker, the Republican leader, to accomplish good for this country. There is much we can do that is going to make this country a better place.

Our decisions will affect the American people. We should never as a Senate forget that what we do has an impact on everyone.

I look forward to this new Congress, that we can forget what went on in the past, only call upon that which was positive in the past and look to the future with a greater day, a nicer day, a more pleasant day ahead.

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

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

Mr. President, the day after the tsunami, I had the opportunity to meet with scores of people from Southeast Asia. There were people from Sri Lanka. The person who put the event together was from Bangladesh. We had people from Thailand, India, many people. It was an event in my honor. They had bought out a restaurant that night. It was a festive occasion, but there was a pall over what we were doing as a result of the tsunami that had taken place.

This tsunami was so difficult. These people in Reno, NV, had come to our country for the opportunity to realize their hopes and dreams. Each one of them love America, but of course they also feel an abiding love for their native lands and cultures.

I have trouble comprehending the power of nature. I read that the earthquake that took place was a million times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki--not one thousand times, a million times. It was so powerful it threw off the Earth's rotation. This was a powerful act of nature.

In today's world, there is no such thing as an isolated event. It hit 11 countries. We are all connected to those countries. One hundred or so years ago that wouldn't have been the case. Fifty years ago it would have been less the case. The earthquake that caused the deadly tsunami was estimated at 9.0 on the Richter Scale. It was first picked up in Hawaii. They thought it was 8.0. I thought to myself, 8, 9, is that a big difference? It is 100 times different.

The President pro tempore is from Alaska. It is my understanding that the only earthquake in recent history that was stronger took place in Alaska. Fortunately, there were not a lot of people in Alaska and there wasn't the deadly tsunami that occurred following that earthquake.

We don't know the death toll. They found 6,000 more dead people yesterday, 9 or 10 days after the event. It is probably 150,000 and counting. Tens of thousands of people are missing. Millions have lost their homes. We are all affected by this catastrophic loss. We all share the anguish of a mother who lost a child, a father who lost a child. We feel the bewilderment and fear of children who lost their parents. That is why I am happy this resolution contains a paragraph dealing with adoption.

We all want to help. Since this tragedy took place 9 days ago, the world has seen an outpouring of aid for the victims of this tsunami. I spoke with the Democratic ranking member on the Finance Committee. He also has to deal with Senator Grassley, the chairman. They are concerned that the outpouring of charity by the people of the United States will be recognized taxwise. We need to do that so they can get some benefit for the money they gave before the end of the year. I hope we can.

The American people have opened their hearts and wallets, donating millions of dollars to groups such as the Red Cross that are working to provide relief from this disaster. Two former Presidents with whom I had the good fortune of serving in the Congress, Bill Clinton and George Bush the first, have agreed to lead the charitable efforts for the United States.

We got off to a slow start. There is no question about that. At the event I talked about in Reno, we talked about Secretary Powell's press conference where he said we were going to provide $15 million. We were all terribly disappointed in that. I hoped that the Secretary didn't realize the full impact of the tragedy that had taken place. I couldn't imagine he would have done that had he known. Fifteen million is half as much as we are spending on the inaugural ceremonies this month. And then it took a while for the President to step forward. Let's put all that behind us. America has now stepped forward. I am proud of what we have done and what we are doing. We have a lot more to do.

I was glad to see the U.S. military, as stretched as we are, step forward with aircraft carriers and other resources that only the military can put forward. I listened to something on Public Radio today. It said that on one island in Indonesia, they had instructed the American helicopter pilots not to bring in any more wounded: People who are sick, we cannot take care of them. The American pilots brought them in anyway. As a result of that, the American military responded by setting up a field hospital that will take care of those people. We are doing a lot. We have more to do.

The magnitude of the disaster that befell this part of the world is unbelievable to most of us. I am glad that America is now responding. That is why this resolution is so important. We have increased our commitment. I have already talked about the aircraft, the ships, the helicopters that deliver the food and water and clothing. One of those aircraft carriers makes thousands and thousands of gallons of pure, fresh water every day. That will be taken off the aircraft carrier to people who have despoiled water, water that is contaminated.

The response of the American people and our Government is important for many reasons. Obviously, our efforts help relieve the suffering of these victims, but they also help show the world what kind of a nation and people we are. David Ignatius wrote a wonderful column in the Washington Post where he talked about our ability to respond to world situations when there is such a disaster. We are not going to be able to win the war against terror unless we are able to show the world that we are a country based upon laws, not men, that we are a charitable nation, that we are a nation that is concerned about people's rights, human rights.

If we are able to show by virtue of the example we are setting with the disaster that befell these 11 nations, we will be able to convert people who are sympathetic to evil terrorists. We have a lot of people who are sympathetic to what these evil terrorists are doing. With actions such as this, we will be

able to show to those people who are sympathetic to the terrorists that maybe their sympathy is not well placed. I am confident we can do that, and in the process we will win the war on terror that is being perpetrated against not only us but against the world.

I commend and applaud the majority leader for working to make the resolution the first order of legislative business in this session of Congress. It is important that we do that. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, we are very close to being able to wrap up the time agreements on the most important legislation that is before us. Two efficient staff people are now typing as we speak. I think we should be able to vote around 3 o'clock or something like that. They are adding up the time now. Senator Byrd has indicated he wants 2 hours, leaving a half hour for the managers or the leader, if he wants that time before the vote. So we are almost there. Within a few minutes that should be able to be completed. I think we should get that done as quickly as we can.

Mr. President, I just want to say one thing before we get into debate. I think it is appropriate today to mention the death of Stan Kimmitt. Stan died last night. We have had a lot of familiarity with him here. He was in the cloakroom yesterday. Some may not recognize him by name, some of the new people here, but he was a fixture on the Democratic side of the Senate.

He served for 11 years as Secretary of the majority under Senator Mansfield when he was the majority leader. He was also elected Secretary of the Senate from 1977 to 1981. He was well known.

He was a World War II combat veteran, and he spent 25 years in the Army. He served in combat in both Korea and the European theater. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit.

I am not going to dwell on this other than to say it is people like him who have such a love for this institution they have worked in, that even though they leave, they are back. He had a very good business downtown but came here all the time.

As the Chaplain in his prayers talks about the Senate family, Stan Kimmitt was truly a part of the Senate family. I express my condolences on behalf of the entire Senate to his wife and his family.