Floor Statements

I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) is necessarily absent.

Before the Senator from Wisconsin leaves the Senate, I want the record to indicate he has worked hard on issues relating to veterans. This is no exception.

I know the Senator, when he travels home to Wisconsin, will meet with American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other such assembled groups. By looking at this record, they should understand what the Senator from Wisconsin has tried to do for the veterans of this country. I applaud and commend the Senator from Wisconsin for his tenacity. And he will be back, knowing the Senator from Wisconsin, to fight another day.

Mr. President, there is an amendment pending by Senator Landrieu; is that true?

The number of that amendment?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a modification to the amendment offered by Senators Landrieu, Snowe, Ensign, and Mikulski.

I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, we have worked with the Senator from Louisiana for many hours today on this amendment. There was an article written, and I joke with the Senator from Louisiana. She was the feature of a veterans publication. They had a picture of her with her sleeves rolled up, muscles showing: ``Military Mary.''

Mary Landrieu is someone who looks out for the military. And I call her, joke with her, and ask her: How is ``Military Mary'' doing? She is very proud of this name she has picked up. Tonight is an indication of why she deserves that name. She has been outstanding in her advocacy for American

veterans. This agreement we have here tonight indicates she is not only a good advocate for the military but a very fine Senator.

Mr. President, it is my understanding that, first of all, it will be the Daschle amendment No. 3409, as amended.

And that the Leahy amendment No. 3387--we all know Senator Leahy is going to offer a second-degree amendment to the underlying amendment.

And also, I say to the Senator, I want to make sure we would have the Daschle vote second and the Leahy vote first.

That would be for the convenience of the Democratic leader. I would also think it would be appropriate to have 2 minutes evenly divided prior to each vote. I would ask unanimous consent that the distinguished chairman of the committee allow the modification of his unanimous consent request as I have outlined it.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, my friend, has spoken for about 55 minutes, which leaves little time for the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, the person going to offer the amendment. I will not offer a unanimous consent agreement until such time as the manager of the bill or someone from the majority is able to respond, but I am going to ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Vermont be allowed to speak until the hour of 9:45.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order be extended to allow the Senator from Vermont to speak for 15 minutes, and that following his speech, we vote on the pending amendment.

I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Bingaman), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Hollings) and the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Bingaman) and the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) is necessarily absent.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) is necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask consent that Mr. Paul Thanos, a legislative fellow in the office of Maria Cantwell, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the consideration of this bill.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Senator Daschle is going to give a speech.

I am sure that is appropriate.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, prior to the vote going forward, it is my understanding the majority has been consulted, and the distinguished Democratic leader, following these votes, wishes to offer his amendment dealing with veterans health benefits.

How long does the Senator from Arizona wish to speak?

The votes will probably be completed shortly after 11 o'clock. We at least hope that is the case.

Mr. President, I meant to say 12 o'clock, which does not leave much time for the Democratic leader.

We would ask, then, that the Democratic leader be allowed to lay down his amendment, and that he would complete the debate at some subsequent time. And then if Senator McCain----

That is right. I do not know about the Dayton matter originally scheduled.

That is fine. I will be happy to do that. But I see no prejudice to anyone if he is allowed to lay down his amendment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending order be set aside and if there is a pending amendment that it be set aside, and I be allowed to offer for Senator Daschle amendment No. 3409.

Mr. President, does that amendment need to be reported?

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

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

amendment no. 3465 to amendment no. 3235

I send the amendment to the desk on his behalf.

I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Hollings.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Will the Senator yield?

Senator Dayton indicated he wishes to speak for a short period of time. The Senator from Arizona does not usually speak very long. Does the Senator have any idea how long he will talk?

We can complete all debate on this amendment. Senator Dayton said he would not speak for more than 5 or 10 minutes following the Senator from Arizona, and that would complete debate on the amendment.

Totally appropriate.

Mr. President, we are ready to vote. It is my understanding the leader wanted to have some votes today. We are ready to vote.

It is my further understanding after the next vote in relation to the Defense bill now before the Senate, he wanted some votes on judges. We are ready to do that.

Until Senator Warner appears, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I ask the pending amendment be laid aside and I ask that amendment 3414, which is at the desk, be reported. I offer the amendment on behalf of Senator Akaka.

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

I ask unanimous consent the amendment be laid aside.

I ask that amendment 3387 on behalf of Senator Leahy be reported.

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

Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk in relation to that amendment.

Yes.

There is no objection in order.

Is there?

The amendment has to be reported first.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, will the leader yield for a question?

In years past, when Senator Dole was running for President,

when he was still here, we went out of our way to make sure Senator Dole had the opportunity to do whatever he wanted to do. If he wanted to vote on one, two, three, or four items, we made sure he had that same opportunity. It was the same with Senator McCain when he was running. We went out of our way to make sure when they were here they were protected.

Will the distinguished Democratic leader agree this is somewhat unusual that Senator Kerry, who feels this veterans amendment is important--he is a distinguished, decorated veteran. He feels he should be here to vote on the amendment. Isn't that somewhat unusual?

Mr. President, one of the points I am disappointed in and concerned about is I do not want the Senator from Virginia--he and I have worked together for two decades--I do not want the Senator from Virginia to think in any way that I tricked him or misled him or deceived him. That is why during the time we were here together I said I would be willing to withdraw the second-degree amendment.

The Senator from Virginia must understand that the amendment will come up again because we have a right to offer that amendment, and whether it is offered by me, Senator Leahy, or by whomever, it will be offered at some subsequent time.

I get the feeling, in talking to the Senators who were representing the majority, that simply because we were going to require a vote on this there would not be any more movement on this bill, and that is not productive. So my point is the offer is still there. The Senator from Virginia should understand that I would be willing to withdraw the second-degree amendment that is in my name but the Senator should understand that it will recur at some subsequent time.

Under the rules, there is no way it can be stopped, and even though the Senator was not aware of my offering the second-degree amendment, and I told him in privacy why I did this--I did not hide anything about why I did it when I did it, and I have no reservation about having done it--perhaps having disappointed the Senator from Virginia I would be happy to withdraw that, recognizing that at some subsequent time we are going to have a vote on it. The best way to do it would be to acknowledge at this time that there would be a vote on it and have a vote on whatever the Senator might want to do, if he decides to second- degree the Leahy amendment and have the Leahy first degree and second degree voted on, because that is ultimately what will happen if we are ever going to finish this bill, unless cloture is invoked.

So I would like a comment from the distinguished chairman as to whether he would want me to do that.

I want the Record to be clearly spread with the fact that if the Senator from Virginia feels that I misled, deceived, or tricked him in any way that I will withdraw my amendment. So the Senator understands that.

So all the Senator has to do is say he wants me to withdraw my second-degree amendment and I will be happy to do that, recognizing that if I do not offer it somebody else will at some subsequent time.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, the amendment I offered dealing with a request for documents and records basically says:

The Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the

Judiciary of the Senate all documents and records produced

from January 20, 2001, to the present, and in possession of

the Department of Justice, describing, referring or relating

to the treatment or interrogation of prisoners of war, enemy

combatants, and individuals held in the custody or under the

physical control of the United States Government or an agent

of the United States Government in connection with

investigations or interrogations by the military, the Central

Intelligence Agency, intelligence, antiterrorist or

counterterrorist offices in other agencies, or cooperating

governments, and the agents or contractors of such agencies

or governments.

Because of my longstanding work with the Senator from Virginia--I started out as a new Senator on the Environment and Public Works Committee and he was the chairman of the subcommittee there and he always looked after me and extended to me more courtesies than probably he should have, and all my dealings with the Senator from Virginia have been most courteous; I think he is really a gentleman and I know he is too proud to say that he wants me to withdraw this--and because he has not asked me to withdraw it because I think down deep he thinks that I perhaps did something I should not have done, I do not want anything to occur--I am doing this as a personal thing between the Senator from Virginia and the Senator from Nevada, but of course, as I indicated, I or somebody else will offer this at some subsequent time.

Amendment No. 3469 Withdrawn

I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 3469 be withdrawn.

Of course, this agreement would only go until 6:20.

I want to congratulate the Senator from Arkansas. He has added a new dimension to the Senate. He is someone who is thoughtful, and above all he is so concerned about the partisan contentiousness in the Senate, and he has spoken to Senator Daschle and me and others about the need to do something about this. I want the Senator from Arkansas to know how much we appreciate his being the good Senator that he is and being concerned about what is going on here on the Senate floor.

We have worked on this bill--I do not know, but I think this is about the 12th day. Some of those days were Mondays and Fridays, so I really do not know how many real days we have had to work on this bill, but it has been a long, tedious process to work through more than 300 amendments. We can see light at the end of the tunnel.

When the majority learned the minority was going to offer an amendment calling for the Attorney General to divulge certain information, as a result action was brought to a standstill. I have some difficulty understanding that, but I believe that on difficult amendments the majority and minority should face it and just vote on them rather than bring legislation to a standstill, but the decision has been made to not do anything on this legislation.

At first glance, I thought I did not agree with what the majority was doing, but they have done this in the past and that is what they want to do, and we just have to live with it. It has been brought to my attention, though, that a bus pulled up in front of the Senate, and now the Republican Senators are at a reception at the White House. I do not know how many of them but enough that there is nothing being done here. We are trying very hard to finish this bill and we are not doing anything because the Republican Senators are at the White House for a reception? If, in fact, we had been told that, we could certainly have had people offering amendments and have no votes during that period of time. We do that on many occasions. But I think this legislation is not turning out as well as I thought it should, which has been handled so well by the two managers of this bill.

The distinguished chairman of the committee thought I should not have offered a second-degree amendment because he thought he should have that right. Perhaps he was right. So I withdrew my amendment and we are in the position where we would be if I had not offered that amendment. That is the status of the Senate today.

But as I have said and others have said, including Senator Leahy, that is an amendment we will need to vote on before we finish this legislation. At 6:20, the managers are going to offer all amendments that have not even been agreed upon, voted upon, or somehow that are on the list that haven't been offered. The way things are going we could end up with quite a few amendments to vote on because each of those amendments do carry with them the potential of having a second-degree amendment offered to each one of them. If we wind up with 15 amendments that haven't been offered, we could wind up with 30 votes. I hope that is not the case.

We have also been told there is a need to vote on judges. I understand the reason for that. We will have to take that into consideration over here.

My only point is after the reception is over, which should be around 5 to 6, maybe we could get back to working on this most important legislation. I think it has not accomplished what we need to accomplish here by simply bringing the Senate to a standstill this afternoon. Since the Senate picture was taken, we haven't done anything. We might just as well have stayed here and had other poses, I guess.

I hope we can work our way through this little situation we have here. We have some amendments. Senator Kennedy's amendment, I am sure, will require a little more debate. Most of the amendments have been debated. People have come over, those who are going to offer amendments, and stated their positions.

I recognize the importance of this legislation. As we speak, in Iraq and Afghanistan we have men and women who are actually on the firing lines. I don't know how many in Iraq have been injured or killed today. We know what happens every day. We know in Baghdad there are scores of attacks by these terrorists. Iraqis are being killed every day. This bill is an important piece of legislation. I think we all need to recognize that.

Yesterday, when I was here at my desk, my BlackBerry went off. I looked at it and it was CNN breaking news, to report four American soldiers had been shot. They had been found dead, shot multiple times in the head. There were 2 other soldiers killed and 11 who had been wounded in that same action.

What we do here is extremely important. There is nothing that we do during the year more important than this Defense authorization bill. I hope we can finish it because there is no reason we should not be able to. I hope the majority will not prevent us from completing action on this bill because we have requested a vote on the Leahy amendment.

Let me read again what this amendment says. The purpose is:

To direct the Attorney General to submit to the Committee

on the Judiciary of the Senate all documents in the

possession of the Department of Justice relating to the

treatment and interrogation of individuals held in the

custody of the United States.

That is directly related to this Defense bill.

I read the purpose. The amendment says:

The Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the

Judiciary of the Senate all documents and records produced

from January 20, 2001, to the present, and in the possession

of the Department of Justice, describing, referring or

relating to the treatment or interrogation of prisoners of

war, enemy combatants, and individuals held in the custody or

under the physical control of the United States Government or

an agent of the United States Government in connection with

investigations or interrogations by the military, the Central

Intelligence Agency, intelligence, antiterrorist or

counterterrorist offices in other agencies, or cooperating

governments, and the agents or contractors of such agencies

or governments.

This is directly related to what is going on in Iraq, what is going on in Afghanistan, and other trouble spots in the world.

I hope after a very short debate we can bring this before the Senate, vote on it, and complete the other issues on this bill, some of which are contentious, some of which are not. Most of them are not. We could dispose of them in a few minutes.

But it is not as if this has nothing to do with this legislation. We on this side have been very careful. Even though we had a number of Senators who wanted to offer amendments dealing with unemployment compensation, overtime, minimum wage, and things of that nature, we decided not to put them on this bill because of the importance of this bill. But this amendment which Senator Leahy or someone will offer at a subsequent time is directly related to this legislation.

I hope during this quiet time the staffs are able to clear a lot of amendments. That will save us a significant amount of time. The staffs of this committee are as good as any staffs we have in the Senate. I am sure if it is possible to clear those, they will be cleared.

But I hope in clearing these amendments we will get back to where we were prior to the Senate picture that was taken at 2:15.

And will come back.

Mr. President, before the distinguished junior Senator from Massachusetts leaves the floor, I wish to say this, from a total Nevada perspective, how proud we are of the campaign he has been running in Nevada. The Senator from Massachusetts has run all positive ads. The people of Nevada recognize that and, as a result of that, all the polls show him ahead at this time.

I compliment the Senator. When he comes to Nevada, he is totally open to the press. Each time he comes he answers any questions that the people have to ask him. The press is there. For example, last time he was there, he not only did a press conference but he was on individual programs, Ed Bernstein's show, for example, John Alston, where he was answering any questions they had to ask him.

I compliment the Senator from Massachusetts from a Nevada perspective for the type of campaign that has been run. Positive campaigning is something that is so necessary. We have far too much negative campaigning. We need to make ourselves available to questions of the press. We should not hide ourselves from the press. Senator Kerry has not done that, which makes us in Nevada feel very good.

Will the Senator withhold?

I say to the distinguished leader, the chairman of the committee, 6:30 is coming. I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call go into effect and that the two managers of the bill still have 10 minutes to offer these amendments when the quorum call is called off.

I am wondering if it would be agreeable to the two managers of the bill that the 6:20 time will now become 6:40?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 7:20 this evening.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, will the distinguished chairman tell me again the order that those votes will take place?

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I ask that the distinguished Senator modify his request, first of all, that after the first vote there be 10 minutes for each vote.

Second, that there be 2 minutes between each of these amendments. Senator Byrd has always asked that we do that.

Two minutes equally divided. That is fairly standard. The majority leader didn't want any time, as the chairman will recall.

Mr. President, this is fine with us. But I want the Record to reflect that we would agree to even less time on amendments. As we proceed with the debate on this group of amendments, we could have saved 30 minutes if we did not use all of our time.

We have no objection to the request of the distinguished Senator.

Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate Robert H. Perry, who has been recognized as Nevada Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association.

Mr. Perry grew up in Topeka, KS, and attended the United States Naval Academy. Following his graduation, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. After he completed his military service, Mr. Perry worked in sales in Montana, and then returned to Kansas where he became a mentor for youth who were detained in the justice system. That whetted his interest in the legal system, and he decided to attend law school at the University of Kansas.

After he graduated law school, Mr. Perry moved to Nevada, where he became a successful prosecutor in the Washoe County District Attorney's Office. After several years, he rose to the position of Deputy District Attorney for the Criminal Division.

In 1976, Mr. Perry joined the law firm of Laxalt and Berry, and a few years later he formed a partnership with Richard Davenport. He ventured out on his own in 1991, forming Robert H. Perry, Ltd., and concentrated on civil trial work.

Since then Mr. Perry has dedicated himself to representing average citizens who have been harmed by the wrongful actions of others. Many times the party that did the harm was much more powerful than the victim--but in our legal system, it is possible for ordinary people to get justice, thanks to lawyers like Mr. Perry.

In 2001, Mr. Perry represented a young girl whose medical treatment had been delayed because the treating physician thought she was complaining in order to receive more painkillers. But in fact, she was really sick. When surgery was finally performed on this girl, only three feet of her small intestine remained. Today, and for the rest of her life, she must receive her nourishment intravenously.

Mr. Perry fought for her and she won the largest verdict for medical malpractice in Nevada history.

This is just an example of the kind of battles that Robert Perry wages on behalf of his clients. I salute him for his selection as Trial Lawyer of the Year, and extend my best wishes for success in all his future ventures.

Mr. President, this has been a very contentious day on occasion. I would like to add what I hope will be a moment of pleasantness to what we do here, and that is talk about the Presiding Officer who has the patience of--I don't know if it is a Job at this stage, but a lot of patience because he has sat through the longest quorum call we have had in a long time which the Presiding Officer called himself. So on behalf of the Senate, the junior Senator from Missouri deserves our applause and congratulations for his patience.

If the distinguished majority leader will allow me to offer a few comments, it is my understanding that the distinguished chairman of the committee and Senator Lautenberg worked out side-by-side votes on his amendment and your second-degree amendment.

I said it is my understanding for this afternoon we could have a vote on the Lautenberg amendment and also the amendment you offered in the second degree.

Mr. President, I think the distinguished chairman, as usual, makes a lot of sense. If, in fact, the second-degree amendment is agreed to overwhelmingly, of course it would not make a lot of sense to vote on that first amendment. I am sure we can work something out on that. I wanted the majority leader to know that we at least have one vote, perhaps two votes, lined up tonight at 5:30 or whenever the majority leader decides.

We have a number of other issues pending. Senator Durbin has offered an

amendment. It is my understanding Senators Hatch and Harkin wish to second-degree that amendment. Senator Durbin is, of course, waiting around to see what that second degree would do.

Senator Dayton has an amendment. He is willing to offer that. It is a ``Buy American.'' He would agree to a short time period, but the Senator from Arizona said he wanted to be here when that amendment was offered so Senator Dayton is somewhat hesitant. I am going to talk to Senator Dayton and tell him he should get his vote out of the way today. If Senator McCain does choose to offer a second degree, we would be that much further ahead.

Senator Bingaman has a number of amendments but it appears maybe they can be worked out. Senator Bingaman thinks so. Senator Byrd is going to make a decision tonight as to whether he is going to offer his amendment. Senator Corzine is indisposed today and is unable to offer his two amendments, but they should be on short time agreements. Senator Kennedy has said he would be ready to offer his first thing in the morning.

So we are moving along. We don't have too much left to do. But there are a few things that will take a little bit of time.

Senator Dayton is here. He would be willing to do that.

Mr. President, the reason we have considered these side by side on a number of occasions is the person offering the amendment initially wants a vote on his amendment. The second degree usually wipes out that amendment, which causes that person to reoffer the amendment, which they have a right to do. It has been discovered in the past that we are much better off considering them side by side right off the bat rather than doing the parliamentary skirmishing. Of course, as I said to the distinguished Chair, if there is an overwhelming vote on the second degree, a lot of times the Senator who offers the first degree doesn't want to do that. That is what we will have to see.

Mr. President, the first Senator we have indicated to speak on an amendment will be here at 2 o'clock. Senator Dayton will be here on the Buy America amendment. Senator Levin has a missile defense amendment with which the distinguished Chair is familiar. He will be here also to offer that amendment shortly. We probably won't have too many other amendments offered today, but we will see. We have placed calls, as you know. We have lined up for today Senators Levin, Dayton, Byrd, and Bingaman. But we now understand that Senator Bingaman may not want to offer his amendment, Senator Byrd

may not want to offer his, and Senator Dayton's is with the condition, of course, which we have talked about. Senator Levin will be here. I assume Senator Levin's amendment will take probably an hour between both sides. He usually doesn't talk very long.

We are in a position to move forward.

Mr. President, I spoke earlier today with Senator Byrd. He said he would make a decision tonight as to whether he is going to offer the amendment.

Mr. President, through the Chair to the distinguished Senator from North Dakota, on this side we have been very careful about extraneous amendments being offered. There are a lot of things we would like to talk about. There is minimum wage, just to name one and which we feel is long overdue. There are a lot of amendments regarding Medicare we could offer on this legislation--prescription drugs. But because this is an important Defense bill, we have chosen not to offer any extraneous amendments. We have been very thorough in stacking amendments that would be offered on this side.

Speaking personally, that is why I am somewhat disappointed that an amendment dealing with broadcast indecency would be offered on this bill because there is no question it will hold up things. The Senator from North Dakota has led the effort in the Senate, and that effort has been successful. A limitation on what the administration did was passed by a wide margin. This just opens the door.

Senator Dorgan would be legislatively irresponsible if he didn't offer his amendment sometime during the pendency of this Brownback amendment. I am in support of the Senator from North Dakota in offering this amendment.

I want to underscore and underline that it is too bad this broadcast indecency amendment was offered on this bill because it is going to take a little bit of time.

Mr. President, I want it made clear that the reason I said this is we have worked very hard to move this bill along. This is an important bill. We started off with about 300 amendments. Those amendments were defense oriented with rare exception. The majority leader has worked hard and filed a cloture motion. That was withdrawn, and rightfully so. But now we have this measure being offered on the other side of the aisle.

I want the Record to be very clear that the extraneous matters on this important Defense bill have not come from this side of the aisle.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the distinguished chairman allow me to send a modification for Senator Lautenberg to the desk prior to this consent being approved.

Mr. President, there is no objection to the consent request by the Senator from Virginia.

Mr. President, we have been given a consent agreement drafted by the staff that is now being vetted with the majority. We should be in a position to approve that shortly which would allow us to handle the underlying Brownback amendment, the Burns amendment, and the Dorgan amendment, which we will offer on a future occasion not too long from now. That should resolve this totally. In the meantime, I think it would be appropriate if the Senator from North Dakota spoke about his amendment.

Mr. President, will the Senator from Virginia yield?

The Senator from New Mexico is here to offer his amendment. The Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Dayton, is on his way to offer his amendment. We also have the missile defense amendment to offer, and he indicated he would be happy to do that today. So we have a lot to do.

I was looking at my BlackBerry, which is giving this information, which is the reason we are here today:

Four U.S. servicemembers were killed Monday, shot repeatedly in the head during an ambush while they were on patrol in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Ramadi. On Sunday, two servicemen were killed and 11 injured in an ambush on the road to the airport.

That is what this is all about today.

We ought to move this bill along, not only as quickly as we can, but with as much quality as we can. This is an important piece of legislation. We certainly understand that in 2 days, six Americans were killed in Iraq. We only know of 11 wounded, but I am sure a lot more than that were wounded. Each person in the Senate understands the importance of this legislation. We are reminded of that every day when we see news such as this.

Mr. President, if the two managers will yield?

Mr. President, Senator Dayton is here to offer his amendment. He is going to take about 20 minutes. It is my understanding Senator McCain or someone on his behalf will second degree this amendment. Following that, Senator Harkin is here ready to offer a second-degree amendment to the Durbin amendment. That will be offered on behalf of Senators Harkin and Hatch, dealing with supplements.

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

Mr. President, people wonder if debate helps. It does. This is a perfect example of how. This debate has helped resolve a very contentious issue. I congratulate Senators Hatch and Durbin for their work.

I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 minutes equally divided prior to the vote with respect to the Warner amendment this evening.

I ask also there be 2 minutes prior to the Lautenberg vote we are going to have this evening.

Mr. President, at this time the Senator from Wisconsin----

I am happy to.

The Senator from Wisconsin has been waiting very patiently all afternoon. He has an important amendment. He can finish the debate prior to 5:30 today when our vote starts. The majority will have to make a decision on what they want to do with his amendment.

I ask the pending amendment be set aside and the Senator from Wisconsin be recognized to offer his amendment.

I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Clinton), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Miller) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Clinton), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) are necessarily absent.

Madam President, I ask the distinguished chairman, amend his unanimous consent request to state that Senator Hollings or his designee is to offer a second-degree amendment relating to children's programming.

I further ask following the last word in the proposed unanimous consent agreement, the word ``amended,'' there be added to that, ``with no intervening action or debate.''

Madam President, I rise today to congratulate Mr. Tom Leshendok of Sparks, MV, on his selection by the Department of Interior for the Meritorious Service Award. It is my honor to recognize the contributions of this dedicated public servant.

Mr. Leshendok's career has spanned more than three decades and several Federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the Minerals Management Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Bureau of Land Management. In each of these positions, he has contributed tremendously to the effective and responsible management of our public lands and natural resources.

Mr. Leshendok's work as Deputy State Director of Minerals for the Nevada BLM was particularly important to the economy and welfare of my State. Not only does the BLM administer almost 48 million acres of public land in Nevada, it also overseas the production of 72 percent of our Nation's gold and silver.

As the leader of the BLM's largest mining law administration program, Mr. Leshendok was responsible for the leasing and development of geothermal, oil, and gas resources, the Abandoned Mine Lands program, and hazardous material detection and remediation. His ability to craft effective collaborative approaches to these important issues was a hallmark of his leadership at the Nevada BLM.

Please join me in thanking Tom Leshendok for his strong commitment to public service and congratulating him on his selection for the Department of Interior's Meritorious Service Award.

Madam President, I rise today to congratulate David A. Christiansen, the principal at Huffaker Elementary School in Washoe County, who was selected as Nevada's 2004 National Distinguished Principal.

The National Distinguished Principals Program, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Association of Elementary School Principals, was established in 1984 to honor exemplary elementary and middle schools from each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia.

This honor highlights the importance of school principals in building excellent schools, and recognizes their accomplishments and leadership in helping children develop a lifelong love of learning.

Mr. Christiansen has been a principal in the Washoe County School District since 1989, and has served at Huffaker Elementary School since July 2001.

His talent and leadership skills speak volumes. For the last 3 years, Huffaker Elementary School has received awards for academic excellence from the Nevada Department of Education. He also has implemented and enhanced programs in art, science, reading, and physical education.

Mr. Christiansen is the third principal from the Washoe County School District to be named a National Distinguished Principal.

I salute David Christiansen for his service and dedication to the children of Washoe County and extend him my best wishes for a successful future.