Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 622.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 623.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, the Senate has been considering the supplemental appropriations bill for 2 days now. The Republicans, I am told, are in the process of trying to picture out what they want to do. We have other concerns, as you know. We had the tragedy in Connecticut, and we had the untimely death of our friend Senator Inouye. But time doesn't stop for anything. It keeps marching on, Christmas is coming. We have a fiscal cliff that is on the horizon. So I hope we can make progress on this bill in the morning. If not, I will be forced to file cloture to try to figure out a path forward on this bill. It has been open for amendment. That is what my friends said they wanted, and that is what they have.

We have the DOD authorization. We need to complete action on that conference report, which has been completed now. We expect they will file tonight or tomorrow, so we need to complete that before the end of the week.

Christman is 7 days from today. We have judicial nominations. We have been making some progress with the district court nominations. We have to do three more before the end of the week. We have executive nominations we need to consider before the end of the week.

FISA is an important piece of legislation. Imperfect as it is, it is what is necessary to help us be protected from the evil that is in the world. We have to complete this before we leave here this week.

Today is Tuesday. Everyone else can do the math just as well as I can about how many days are left.

I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader after consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to consideration of Calendar No. 463, S. 3276; that the only first-degree amendments in order to the bill be the following: Judiciary Committee-reported substitute; Leahy, sunset; Leahy, oversight; Wyden, public reporting; Wyden, backdoor searches; Tester, reverse targeting; and Merkley, declassification of FISA Court opinion; that there be 1 hour of debate equally divided between the proponents and opponents; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to votes in relation to the amendments in the order listed; that there be no amendments in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes; that upon disposition of the amendments, the bill be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended.

Mr. President, before the Chair rules, it is pretty easy to figure out how much time this includes. This is the better part of a day--the better part of a day if we got this consent done. So I ask that the Chair approve the consent agreement.

Mr. President, I will continue to work on a path forward. If anyone has any ideas how to help me do that, I would be happy to listen to them, but this is something we must do before we leave here. Christmas is not more important than this legislation. I am sorry, I hope I am not offending anyone, but that is the way it is. We have to get something done on this before the end of the year, and I think we will be walking on very, very thin ice to try to wait until after Christmas to try to move this legislation. It is hard for me to comprehend the potential damage to our country if we do not extend this legislation.

I object. I feel somewhat ill at ease here with not having anyone managing the bill at all, but I would hope that my friend will-- I will talk to Senator Leahy, but I am not in a position here to agree with it.

One thing I am not going to do, regardless of what the managers say, is have a big stack of amendments here that we are going to be worrying about. So I don't know where everybody is, but the managers aren't here.

Mr. President, do we have amendments pending now?

How many amendments are pending?

The Senator is filing a first-degree amendment?

One more shouldn't do much damage.

I say to my friend again, through you, Mr. President, I am happy to do one, but the managers--I haven't talked to them in the last couple of hours. I am not going to agree to five amendments. I have no idea what is in them. If the Senator wants to lay down one of the amendments tonight, that is fine, but until we have managers on the floor, I am not going to agree to that.

I would also say to my friend the Senator from Oklahoma that the manager will be here bright and early in the morning. I will call him now.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate observe a moment of silence for the tragedy.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 3 p.m. today.

Following morning business, we will begin consideration of H.R. 1, the legislative vehicle for the supplemental appropriations bill. That bill will be managed by Senator Pat Leahy.

At 5 p.m. the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the Olguin and Durkin nominations, both to be U.S. district judges of Illinois and California, respectively.

At 5:30 p.m., the Senate will vote on confirmation of the nominations. It is expected there will be a rollcall vote on the confirmation of the Durkin nomination and a voice vote on the confirmation of the Olguin nomination.

Mr. President, this afternoon the families of Newtown, CT, are burying two 6-year-old boys--Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto. Noah turned 6 last month. Even though he was only 6, Jack was a New York Giants fan.

In the days to come, many of their classmates will also be laid to rest--the victims of a tragedy too terrible to comprehend. Twenty little girls and boys, twenty tiny daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, friends and playmates, twenty children who will never grow up to learn to drive, go on a first date or graduate from high school, twenty 6- and 7-year-olds who will never have the chance to fall in love, get married or have children of their own: Noah and Jack, Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeline, Catherine, Chase, Avielle, Jesse, Grace, Emilie, Caroline, Jessica, Benjamin, Allison, and James.

No words of condolence could possibly ease the pain of families who lost cherished little children, but I hope it is some small comfort that the entire Nation mourns with them. My heart and warm wishes go out to all those affected by Friday's massacre. My thoughts are with the students and faculty of Sandy Hook who witnessed such unspeakable violence.

Newtown and the Nation have seen great evil. We have also seen incredible bravery.

In her final act on Earth, 27-year-old Victoria Soto hid the children of her first grade class in closets and cabinets and then sacrificed herself to save them.

Dawn Hochsprung, the principal, forcibly--as the word goes--attacked the assailant, and he killed her.

Mary Sherlach, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel Davino, and Anne Marie Murphy also died trying to safeguard the children in their care.

These six educators devoted their lives to teaching Newtown's children how to read, how to add and subtract, and how to be good boys and girls. They gave their lives to keep these children safe. They are a source of hope in a hopeless situation.

I commend the teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary who didn't hesitate when they saw danger coming. Some barricaded their students inside classrooms or hid them in closets, preventing an even greater loss of life.

I thank the first responders who rushed into the school, despite the danger and horrors around them, knowing they had a job to do.

It is hard to comprehend this type of tragedy, let alone recover from it. But in the words of Helen Keller: ``Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.''

As the families of Newtown mourn, all America mourns with them, and we will stand with them as they overcome this suffering and begin the healing process.

Part of the healing process will require Congress to examine what can be done to prevent more tragedies such as the ones in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Portland, OR. These are fairly recent.

As President Obama said last night, no one law can erase evil. No policy can prevent a determined madman from committing a senseless act of violence. But we need to accept the reality that we are not doing enough to protect our citizens.

In the coming days and weeks, we will engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allows this violence to continue to grow. We have no greater responsibility than keeping safe our most vulnerable and our most precious resource--our children. Every idea should be on the table as we discuss how best to do just that.

Mr. President, today we have an opportunity to pull together to help the citizens of New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the Northeast as they recover from the damage of Hurricane Sandy.

As we did when Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast and Irene struck communities up and down the eastern seaboard, we have an opportunity to help make families and communities whole again. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in moving quickly to send aid to those affected by Sandy as they continue to recover and rebuild.

The Senate must move swiftly to approve the supplemental disaster act and act to give the intelligence community the tools it needs to keep our Nation safe before the Christmas holiday. In short, before we leave for Christmas, we are going to have to finish our work on Sandy and FISA. They are both extremely important and they have to be completed. So everyone should understand we have that to do. We will see if anything changes, but it appears we are going to be coming back the day after Christmas to complete work on the fiscal cliff and a few other leftover items.

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

Mr. President, I rise with a real heavy heart. Our friend, Dan Inouye, just died.

I have never known anyone like Dan Inouye. No one else has. The kindness he has shown me during my time here in the Senate is something I will cherish always. He was a man who has lived and breathed the Senate. If there were ever a patriot, Dan Inouye was that patriot.

A week ago last Friday he and I spent some time together in his office, just the two of us alone. We spent an hour together, and we ended the meeting with both of us saying: You know, we need to do this again. Well, I won't be able to do that again. He won't be able to do that again.

He was a wonderful Senator, brave soldier, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. He left an arm in Italy. He said to me at that last meeting together, when I asked him: Dan, did anything else happen to you, other than your arm? He said: Yeah, I got shot in the gut--that is what he said--and the leg a couple of times.

We will all miss him, and that is a gross understatement. I wish I were capable of saying more, but that is all I can say. I have talked to his wife Irene. She is there, with his son. We have known for a few hours this wasn't working out well for Senator Inouye. But he was certainly one of the giants of the Senate.

I remember what he said when his son asked why he fought the way he did after having been declared an enemy alien. He said he did it for the children. That was Senator Inouye. His commitment to our Nation will never be surpassed. His service in the Senate will be with the greats of this body.

Now I should ask my friend if he wishes to speak upon this issue. It would be my hope the two votes that are scheduled could both be done-- these judges--by voice vote. I don't think it is appropriate to record a vote at this time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the two judges be approved by voice vote.

Mr. President, I think we all, at a subsequent time--I just talked to his wife and walked out here--will have some more formal remarks.

Mr. President, I didn't mention, and I should have, but I really have been waiting the last hour or so to make sure it was okay with his wife that I come and say something, so I haven't had time to do much other than feel bad about Senator Inouye.

As I indicated, I talked to Irene. I wasn't able to talk to Ken, but I did talk to Irene. I want to make sure everyone understands the depth of my feelings--and I know I am speaking for the entire Senate. Dan Inouye believed in me, even more than I believed in myself. Many, many years ago--a couple of decades ago--he said: You know, you're going to do great things in the Senate, and he always talked about my leading the Senate. And he always came and said: You did the right thing. He would always tell you that you would do the right thing.

The chapter of Dan Inouye in the Senate is something that is remarkable, not only his military record but what he did with the defense aspects of our country, the security aspects of our country. And there was no one more bipartisan than Senator Inouye.

He has a brother who lives in Las Vegas, and a wonderful person he is, but he was as close to Ted Stevens as he was to any person could be to a brother. They were brothers. They called themselves brothers. So he set an example always about bipartisanship, about working with others. And as far as being a good member of our caucus, no one was better than he was.

No one has been a better American than Senator Inouye. And when we talk about people in Hawaii and who they revere, it is Senator Inouye. The State of Hawaii is going through a great deal at this time. Senator Akaka has announced his retirement, and now the death of Senator Inouye.

On behalf of all Senators, I express my appreciation for his service and his friendship.

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

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

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 246, S. 1792.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the

table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to this matter be placed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that we proceed to Calendar No. 233, S. 1793.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Whitehouse substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; and that any statements related to this matter be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to H.R. 6223.

I now ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. 3687.

I now ask that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any related statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 236, H.R. 2076.

I further ask that the committee-reported amendment be considered; the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; the Whitehouse amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; a motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to this matter be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 619.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.