Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 33.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, there be no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration en bloc of the following resolutions, which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 154, S. Res. 155, S. Res. 156, and S. Res. 157.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to the resolutions be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry be discharged from further consideration of S. 375 and the bill be referred to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that during the adjournment of the Senate, the majority leader or Senator Rockefeller be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the Senate, the President pro tempore and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to commissions, committees, boards, conferences, or interparliamentary conferences authorized by law, by concurrent action of the two Houses, or by order of the Senate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn under the provisions of H. Con. Res. 43, the adjournment resolution, until 2 p.m. on Monday, May 2; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that the Senate proceed to a period for the transaction of morning business for debate only until 4:30 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; further, that following morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session under the previous order.

Mr. President, therefore, the first rollcall vote will be at 5:30 p.m. when we return. That vote will be on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 76, the nomination of Kevin Hunter Sharp to be U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.

I appreciate everyone's patience, including the Presiding Officer, in completing the business of the Senate for this period of time. I hope everyone has a good work period. Some will go a long way away, maybe as far as Alaska.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Madam President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will be in morning business until 3 p.m. today. During that period of time, Senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The Republicans will control the time from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., and the majority will control the time from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

We are working on an agreement to complete action on the small business bill. It has been a difficult thing to do. We have a number of amendments that are pending. Some Senators will not allow an agreement on those amendments unless they get their amendments. There are a lot of amendments, and we are trying to work our way through them. The three amendments at the top of the list are one offered by Senator Cornyn, one by Senator Hutchison, and one by Senator Sanders.

We have not been able to work through this legislative morass. We have spent more than enough time on this bill. I am going to continue working on that with time here not being so heavily used. Certainly yesterday was a case in point. Everyone is looking forward to the final conclusion of this fiscal year 2011 budget. We are going to have a vote this week to complete that. Everyone, I guess, is anxious to get that done. We need to get the small business jobs bill done.

Additionally, the text of the long-term CR has been filed in the House and is available for review. We expect to receive it from the House sometime tomorrow--of course, from my perspective, the earlier, the better. So I ask Senators to come and talk about this resolution. If they have any problems, things they like or dislike, they can come and talk about this bill. This would be the time to do that because we will be cramped for time when the bill gets here. Senators, of course, will be notified when votes are arranged.

H.J. Res. 37 is due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with respect to this joint resolution at this time.

Would the Chair announce morning business?

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the period of morning business for debate only be extended until 6 p.m. this evening, with Senators during that period of time being allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each, and at 6 p.m. I be recognized.

Mr. President, we are continuing to work on an agreement to move ahead on small business. We have three main amendments--I should not say ``main,'' but I think they are the ones on which we are focused. One is an amendment by Senator Cornyn, one by Senator Hutchison, and one by Senator Sanders. There are others who now have come into the fray, and it is making it very difficult to get votes on these three amendments, but that is where we are.

It is unfortunate. I think each of these amendments were offered in good faith. We should be able to have a vote on them even though they have virtually nothing to do with the small business bill, but I am going to continue to work to see if I can get universal agreement to get these amendments disposed of either by passing or bringing them up and moving toward completion of this bill. We should have been able to do something in the last 2 days, but that is where we are.

Overhanging all this is the continuing resolution which we need to work on tomorrow. If people have any feelings about that, I wish they would come to the Senate floor to discuss it.

I note the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I say to my good friend from Arizona, we came to the House of Representatives together, came to the Senate together. When we came here, we both had the same service except the State of Arizona had more people than the State of Nevada, so he is one step ahead of me in seniority. I appreciate my friend's statement.

I appreciate my friend's statement. He and I are both going to vote for this piece of legislation for different reasons, but as I have said publicly and privately, there have been very few people in the history of our country who have served our country so valiantly in battle and in the government than John McCain. Even though we have disagreed on a number of issues over the years, my admiration for him will always be there.

(Mr. WHITEHOUSE assumed the chair.)

Mr. President, as the country learned today, certainly we learned in Nevada, there was a terrifying close call at the Reno airport last night. It is a miracle that everyone is OK today, and we are grateful they are.

This is what happened. Only one air traffic controller was in the tower during last night's overnight shift. Medical aircraft carrying a critically ill passenger couldn't land because the controller fell asleep on the job. We now know that the pilot circled several times. We now know that he tried to call the tower not once, not twice, but seven times. The controller slept through every one of the calls. He slept through the circling of the aircraft.

More than 15 minutes later, with the passenger critically ill in the airplane, minutes during which no one could reach the air traffic controller while this critically ill passenger suffered in that aircraft, the pilot landed without any guidance from the airport.

The Reno airport is situated right below the great Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is an extremely difficult place to land. Those of us who have been landing there for all these years know how terribly rough it is many times coming out of there with the winds coming off the Sierras. To think this pilot was forced to land without any control on the land is very scary.

This should not happen in Nevada. It should not happen anywhere in the country. It shouldn't happen in any airplane, and it certainly shouldn't happen to an air ambulance.

Just a short time ago, I spoke with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. I am very happy he is acting, and acting quickly, to make sure this never happens again in Reno or anywhere else. We know we had an experience a few weeks ago right here in Washington, DC, the same type of situation.

Why did it happen? Reno was one of 27 airports across the country that sometimes had only one air traffic controller on the overnight shift. Because of Secretary LaHood's quick action, there will now be zero--effective immediately, every airport will have at least two air traffic controllers in the tower at any given time.

As I indicated, I have flown into and out of that airport many times. In October I was there for a celebration. We were opening a new control tower. It was very badly needed. From the old one, you couldn't see parts of the runway. When Reno's old control tower was built, Dwight Eisenhower was President and the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. In the half century since, the area's population has more than tripled. So it was fitting, we said at the time, that the airport open a control tower three times as tall as the old one.

Last night's near tragedy reminds us that state-of-the-art structures and the best technology work only as well as the people operating them. If these people fall asleep on the job, literally, they risk the lives of millions of Americans flying into and out of airports every day.

Secretary LaHood and Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator, are doing their jobs. I appreciate their responsiveness and share their outrage that this ever happened, but Congress also has a key role to play. We have to do our jobs.

The Senate passed a bill in February to modernize America's air travel. With that legislation we created or saved 280,000 jobs. It would improve aviation safety and protect travelers, and that is an understatement. It would even help reduce delays, improve access to rural communities, and it would do all this while creating jobs.

The Republican House also passed a companion bill a few days ago, but the House bill is almost the opposite of ours. It is dangerous. It doesn't protect passengers, it imperils passengers. The Republican bill would cut the modern navigation systems at our Nation's airports. It is hard to comprehend--an FAA bill, to which we have had to give short- term extensions--I don't know exactly the number of times but like 14 different times--now we are going to try to pass a bill that doesn't modernize our navigation systems at our airports. That would be wrong.

The FAA said the House bill would force it to furlough safety-related employees--not just any employees but those whose primary job is keeping air travel safe. That doesn't make any sense. It would also keep airports from making the infrastructure improvements they need and would completely end the program that ensures rural communities--in small towns such as Ely, NV--have air service.

The Senate-passed bill and the House-passed bill are now in conference to work out the differences. Clearly, there are a lot of differences. The conferees have some choices to make, and they are important, but they need to make them quickly so that both Houses can pass this bill and send it to the President, and do it quickly.

This bill passed on a huge bipartisan vote. Again, we are grateful everyone in Reno is OK, but the next time we may not be so fortunate. Let's make our airports and our travel as safe as possible as soon as possible so the next time we don't have to rely on luck. That is what it was.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.