Floor Statements

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 107, H.R. 3081, and I send to the desk a cloture motion.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to H.R. 6190.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent now that the Record remain open until 2 p.m. today for the introduction of bills, resolutions, statements, and cosponsor requests.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m., Monday, September 27; 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 after any leader remarks, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each until 3 p.m.; following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3816, the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act.

Mr. President, we expect to have a live quorum at 7 p.m. on Monday, as we consider the motion to proceed to S. 3816.

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

Madam President, it is my understanding that S. 3827 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

Madam President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to the bill.

Madam President, following leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business until 10:30 this morning, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the second half.

At 10:30 a.m., the Senate will consider the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 30, which is a joint resolution of disapproval regarding the National Mediation Board. Under the time agreement previously reached, there is 2 hours of debate equally divided, so the vote on the motion to proceed to the joint resolution is expected to occur around 12:30 p.m. today.

Upon disposition of the joint resolution of disapproval, the Senate will turn to the consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3628, the DISCLOSE Act. A cloture vote on the motion to proceed will occur at 2:15 p.m.

Mr. President, there are three bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. President, on these bills, would it be in order now to ask unanimous consent that on S. 3815, Senators Hatch and Menendez be added as original cosponsors?

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to these bills en bloc.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 4 p.m. today, with the time until 10 a.m. equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. The time from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. will be controlled in alternating 30-minute blocks of time, with the majority controlling the first block and the Republicans controlling the next. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3454, the Defense authorization bill.

Mr. President, the debate this morning will be related to the Citizens United case. That is the case where the Supreme Court changed more than 100 years of precedent in the United States, which in the past had totally prevented corporations from being involved in Federal elections. The Supreme Court stood that rule on its head and denied stare decisis, which certainly surprised nearly everyone. They became involved, it appears, in the political process by a 5-to-4 majority, now allowing corporations, including corporations that have foreign interests, to become involved in our process. They really have opened the door. We have these nameless, faceless individuals spending huge amounts of money--corporate money and other money--where there is certainly no transparency whatsoever. These ads are being run on television and radio around the country. No one knows where the money comes from, how much it is. In fact, I repeat, there is no transparency. That is what the debate is about today. We have had a vote on this once before. I have the right to call it up again, and I will do so at the appropriate time, but it is important that the American people know how

outrageous the Supreme Court's decision was.

Would the Chair now announce morning business.

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

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

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

Mr. President, America has one of the safest and most abundant food supplies in the world, but it is not perfect. Foodborne illnesses sicken one in every four people every year. Twenty-five percent of people get sick from foodborne illnesses every year. As many as 5,000 Americans die from food poisoning every year.

The bill we are attempting to bring to the floor today is a very simple bill. It will make our food safer. It is a bipartisan bill that was reported out unanimously from the HELP Committee, and there have been negotiations going on for a long time--months and months.

People often think of food poisoning as an upset stomach that goes away in a few hours or maybe a day or two. Sometimes that is all it is, but sometimes it is much worse. I have met with families from Nevada who have been seriously sickened by food they have eaten, people who have been hospitalized for weeks and months and a number of whom came very close to dying. In some of these cases, they will deal with the results of their food poisoning for the rest of their lives.

One of the little girls I met with is named Rylee Gustafson. She is from Henderson, NV. This little girl, when she was 9 years old, was doing what her mom asked her to do: eat her salad. The salad had spinach in it. E. coli was in there with the spinach. She got so very sick. I have seen her on a number of occasions. She is a beautiful child, but she is going to be small all of her life because of that illness. She was hospitalized for a long, long time and survived. Three others got E. coli from fresh spinach, and they died. She didn't.

I also had the opportunity to meet with the Rivera family in Las Vegas. Linda Rivera also became sick from E. coli from cookie dough. Last October, she was in a coma and on life support, and doctors didn't know if she would survive, but she did. She is still recovering. The effects will be with her for the rest of her life. It is food poisoning. It will be a long road back to full health for Linda. We hope she arrives to that.

Last month, there was another big recall. This time, it was eggs contaminated with salmonella. More than 2,000 people have been sickened during this outbreak.

The egg recall and stories such as Rylee's and Linda's and their families and what they went through illustrate the need for food safety legislation. People in Nevada and across the country are asking for this legislation. They want to know what food they can put on the family's dinner table, what they can pack in their children's lunches, and is it safe.

There is no excuse to wait any longer. Our current food safety system hasn't been updated in almost a century. It is not keeping up with contaminants that cause these problems, and new ones come along all the time. The FDA doesn't have the authority or resources it needs to keep up with the modern advances and expansion in food processing, production, and marketing.

This bill will fix that. The bipartisan bill called the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act would improve the system while minimizing the regulatory burden.

It gives the FDA mandatory recall authority of contaminated foods, sets up a system to allow the FDA to keep track of foods so we can find out where the contaminated food came from and stop it quickly from getting to grocery stores. It strikes the right balance between assuring consumers that food is safe, without overburdening farmers with new regulations. It makes no changes to the current organic program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nothing could be more important than using our time here in these waning days before the election to help our constituents. Nothing should be less controversial than keeping them out of harm's way. So let's move to this commonsense bill and pass it. That is why we are here--to do things to help the American people. This would do that.

I also add that the committee has worked very hard. They have negotiated and negotiated and negotiated. They had different versions. They kept moving forward, and finally it was all done. We thought we were going to be able to get this done. But it appears we have one person who doesn't want this bill to pass, and that is unfortunate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by me, following consultation with Senator McConnell, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 247, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510, and that when the bill is considered, it be under the following limitations: that general debate on the bill be limited to 2 hours, equally divided and controlled between Senators Harkin and Enzi or their designees; that the only amendments in order, other than the committee-reported substitute, be those listed in this agreement, with debate on each of the listed amendments limited to 30 minutes, with the time equally divided and controlled in the usual form; further, that when any of the listed amendments are offered for consideration, the reading of the amendments be considered waived, and the amendments not be subject to division: Harkin-Enzi substitute amendment; Tester amendment regarding small farms and facilities; Harkin-Enzi amendment--I add editorially that these are the chairman and ranking member of the committee, who are both extremely easy to work with and good legislators--

Harkin-Enzi amendment regarding technical and conforming, and that once offered, the technical amendment be considered and agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; Coburn amendment regarding offset for cost of bill; Feinstein amendment regarding BPA; Leahy amendment regarding criminal penalties; that upon disposition of the listed amendments, the use or yielding back of all time, the Harkin-Enzi substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; that the committee-reported substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; and that the bill, as amended, be read the third time and the Senate then proceed to vote on passage of the bill.

Before the Chair rules, I should have mentioned earlier in my remarks that the person who has been heard on this for months has been Senator Durbin. This is something he believes in, as he can come to believe in things so intently. I respect the work he has done on this bill, keeping it always at the front of my attention list.

It is my understanding that my good friend from Oklahoma would have no amendment.

What I say to my friend, I think this is something I would like to take a little time--not a lot of time--to talk to my friends, Senators Durbin, Harkin, and Enzi, and see if there is something we can do to move this down the ballfield; if not, we can come back again and talk about this.

In light of my friend's request to modify my unanimous consent request and my inability to intelligently respond to it because it is something I had not anticipated, I will be happy to withdraw my request, and I will renew it at a later time if I can come up with something that is more appropriate.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.