Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn under the provisions of H. Con. Res. 282 until 2 p.m. on Monday, June 7;

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, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; further, that at 4:30 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session as provided under the previous order.

Mr. President, under a previous order, there will be a series of votes at 5:30 p.m. on the confirmation and nomination of three district court judges on the Monday we get back.

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, I will yield a few minutes to my friend from Florida to introduce the guest Chaplain.

Madam President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 4899, which is the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. There will be up to 20 minutes for debate prior to a series of votes. In the first series, the Senate will proceed to vote in relation to the following amendments: McCain No. 4214, National Guard; Kyl No. 4228, as modified, dealing with courthouse funding; Cornyn No. 4202, as modified and amended, if amended, dealing with border security.

There will then be up to 15 minutes of debate prior to votes on the following items: Feingold No. 4204, dealing with a report on the war in Afghanistan; Coburn No. 4231, offset including real property; Coburn No. 4232, offset with spending cuts; and there will be cloture on the committee-reported substitute amendment to H.R. 4899, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill.

All votes after the first vote will be 10-minute votes.

Madam President, a community in Kansas still shakes 1 year after the brazen murder of one of its own. This weekend will mark the first anniversary of Dr. George Tiller's death. He was gunned down in front of his Wichita church the day before the last Memorial Day.

Dr. Tiller was killed at point-blank range at his place of worship in the middle of a Sunday morning, while his wife sang in the church choir just a few yards away.

He was murdered by an unrepentant assassin who took his life in the name of protecting life. It was an indefensible crime and an incomprehensible excuse.

Just as despicable as Dr. Tiller's death was the fact that his murder wasn't an isolated incident. It wasn't even the first time someone tried to kill him. His clinic was bombed in 1985. He was shot twice in 1993. Over the next 16 years, 7 clinic workers would be killed before Dr. Tiller would become the eighth murder victim. More than 6,000 other acts of violence have been launched at clinics and their workers-- bombings, arsons, assaults, and other attacks. One of the things they do is go into one of these clinics and throw acid all over and make the building not habitable.

The last doctor killed before Dr. Tiller was a husband and father from Buffalo named Barnett Slepian. He was an OB/GYN, who also helped poor women access safe, legal abortions. Because of that, he was murdered in his home, in his kitchen--standing in his kitchen, he was shot through the window with a high-powered rifle and murdered. I didn't personally know Dr. Slepian, but I knew his niece. She came from Reno, NV, and she once worked in my office. She worked as a legislative assistant and a speechwriter. Her name is Amanda Robb. She is now an accomplished writer living in the Presiding Officer's State of New York. As life is so unpredictable and so unusual, I worked on the speech last night, and to the person helping me, Stephen Krupin, I said, ``We are going to talk about Dr. Slepian, whose niece worked for me. And she is here in Washington today--just out of nowhere. I have a gathering every Thursday morning, and I will be darned, Amanda Robb showed up, which is so unusual. I was so glad to see her. She was a great personality and someone I will always remember having worked for me.

The tragedy of Dr. Tiller's death and of Dr. Slepian's death--and of every atrocity like it--is independent of the issue of abortion. It is not about the legality of abortion or the funding of it. These are emotional debates, and ones on which people of good faith can disagree.

What so shook that Kansas town was rather an act of terrorism. What reverberated out to our borders and coasts from the center of our country was the violation of our founding principle--that we are a nation of laws, not of men.

Everyone in America has the right to disagree with its laws. Everyone has the right to dispute and protest its laws. But no American has a right to disobey the laws.

Not all of us would choose Dr. Tiller's profession or seek his services or agree with his philosophy or that of Dr. Slepian, but it is the responsibility of every American to respect another's right to practice his profession legally.

Those who believe in the sanctity of life cannot be selective. We must value every life--not just those with which we agree.

Madam President, President Obama has articulated a sound strategy for surging our force in Afghanistan, a well-defined mission to enable them to succeed, and a clear plan to begin to bring those troops home starting next July. His plan honors the service of the 100 Nevadans in Afghanistan today and those of every American fighting terrorists abroad to keep us safer at home.

I have always believed that our commitment in Afghanistan should not be open-ended, which is why I continue to support the President's plan. We have begun to reverse the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan and weakened al-Qaeda's operations, safe havens and leadership in the region. Our troops will continue to defeat those terrorist networks and others like it and we will continue to press the Afghan government to end corruption and take responsibility for governing the country. But, as the President's plan makes clear, these troops have a clear task in place: to reverse the Taliban's momentum and to begin returning home next July.

In light of the President's strategy and the recent progress, now is not the time to change course.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent it be in order for Senator DeMint to be recognized. That has already happened so we don't have to worry about that because he was recognized, because he has already moved to suspend Senate rule XXII.

I appreciate his understanding and finishing his remarks as quickly as he did. The amendment he is offering is in regard to border fence completion. I ask the Senator, does he still need time to speak, additional time?

I would like the agreement to indicate if someone speaks against the DeMint amendment, that he be entitled to equal time in opposition thereto.

I further ask unanimous consent there be no amendment in order to the DeMint motion to suspend; that upon the use or yielding back of the time, the Senate then proceed to vote with respect to the DeMint motion to suspend; that if the DeMint motion to suspend is not agreed to, then no further amendment or motion on this subject of the DeMint motion be in order; that upon disposition of the DeMint motion, the Senate resume consideration of the Collins amendment, No. 4253, and there be 2 minutes of debate remaining prior to a vote in relation thereto, with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Boxer and Collins or their designees, with no amendment in order to the Collins amendment; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the Collins amendment; that upon disposition of the Collins amendment, the Senate then consider the Burr amendment, No. 4273, with an Inouye side-by-side amendment No. 4299; that the amendments be debated concurrently for 8 minutes, equally divided and controlled between Senators Inouye and Burr or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote with respect to Inouye amendment No. 4299 to be followed by a vote in relation to Burr amendment No. 4273; that upon disposition of these two amendments, all remaining pending amendments be withdrawn, with no further amendments in order except a managers' amendment which has been cleared by the managers and leaders; and if offered, the amendment be considered and agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that all postcloture time be yielded back with no further intervening action or debate; the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Senate then proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as amended, without further intervening action or debate; that upon passage, the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, with the Appropriations Committee appointed as conferees; provided further that the cloture motion with respect to the bill be withdrawn.

Mr. President, if I can just say, before anyone says anything, if we complete this, these will be all of the votes for the evening and the week. We are waiting for the House to do action on the extenders package, a jobs bill. The latest information I have is that they will not complete that until sometime late this evening. I have spoken to the Republican leader on several occasions. We are going to have several days to take a look at this because I understand it is going to come to us in pieces, not all as one bill.

We will take a look at that. We will start to work on that the Monday we get back. We are going to work to have a vote on that Monday we get back. I think it is June 7. We do not know what the vote will be on, but we will have it on probably a nomination. We are trying to figure out what that will be. I do not think we will be ready to start any actual voting on the so-called extenders package.

The Republican leader and I have talked about that. There are certain amendments that people have indicated they would like to offer to that. I think, frankly, it works better to allow people to offer amendments. There is no reason to move forward on any procedural effort to curtail that at this time.

The next work period is 4 weeks. That is all we have. We have so many things to do, and we are going to do our best to get the extenders done. We have a small business jobs matter that we need to move to. It is so important for our country's economy. We have talked about this for months now.

We have a bipartisan food safety bill that we need to do. That would be a good time to do that. And we have a number of other issues we will try our best to work through as quickly as we can. I appreciate everyone's cooperation this week. This gives great relief to the Pentagon. The House, that is supposed to complete their work on this bill today, did not.

So that is something we will have to take a look at, what they do, and get the conference completed as quickly as we can.

Mr. President, pending what the House does, there will be some unanimous consent requests offered on both sides as I understand. But everyone should be aware of that later this evening maybe.

I do not have anyone here to speak on the DeMint amendment.

Mr. President, in 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act to bring electricity to the sparsely-populated rural areas of our vast Nation. Today, with advances in renewable energy from the sun, the wind, water, and geothermal energy beneath the Earth's surface, our rural communities are ready to produce clean, renewable electricity and sell it to cities and towns. Just as our national highway system grew out of the network of farm roads to bring agricultural products to market, our electric transmission system needs connections to rural areas to bring our abundant rural renewable energy resources to load centers. For example, Nye and Lincoln counties in Nevada have the potential to generate more solar and wind energy than their small populations can use. Without transmission to connect these rural areas to load centers, they cannot fully develop their local renewable energy industry and are losing out on important opportunities to create jobs and diversify their economies.

That is why I am introducing two bills today to give rural communities more options to finance the clean energy infrastructure we need to develop our rich renewable resources. These two bills would help rural communities fund clean energy infrastructure, which will create many short and long term jobs and attract badly needed investment in rural Nevada's struggling economy. While Nevada is in an especially good position to benefit from this bill, I am pleased to be joined by Senators Ensign, Harkin, Tester, Michael Bennet, and Klobuchar whose states also have renewable energy resources stranded by a lack of transmission.

Existing government loan and tax-exempt bond programs are available to finance rural renewable generation, but not to finance the connections between that generation and the high-voltage

transmission system that carries electricity to load centers. These proposed bills would provide three ways to finance important transmission for rural renewable generators--through the USDA Rural Utilities Service, through modifications to the Clean Renewable Energy Bond, CREB, program, and through modifications to the Exempt Facility Bonds program.

As we have seen with the electric and telephone infrastructure financed by the USDA Rural Utilities Service since 1935, energy infrastructure is crucial to economic development for rural communities. Natural gas pipelines crisscross rural communities, but small towns near these pipelines lack natural gas today. Some of these towns, including some in Nevada, have plans for natural gas distribution systems and local economic development that depend on access to natural gas. Federal programs to provide loans, loan guarantees, or tax-exempt bonds do not fit these plans.

The USDA does not currently finance these types of projects. My bill would allow the USDA to finance natural gas systems to connect rural communities to natural gas pipelines. Access to natural gas will provide these communities with a clean, efficient energy source, and encourage economic development.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, in 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act to bring electricity to the sparsely-populated rural areas of our vast Nation. Today, with advances in renewable energy from the sun, the wind, water, and geothermal energy beneath the Earth's surface, our rural communities are ready to produce clean, renewable electricity and sell it to cities and towns. Just as our national highway system grew out of the network of farm roads to bring agricultural products to market, our electric transmission system needs connections to rural areas to bring our abundant rural renewable energy resources to load centers. For example, Nye and Lincoln counties in Nevada have the potential to generate more solar and wind energy than their small populations can use. Without transmission to connect these rural areas to load centers, they cannot fully develop their local renewable energy industry and are losing out on important opportunities to create jobs and diversify their economies.

That is why I am introducing two bills today to give rural communities more options to finance the clean energy infrastructure we need to develop our rich renewable resources. These two bills would help rural communities fund clean energy infrastructure, which will create many short and long term jobs and attract badly needed investment in rural Nevada's struggling economy. While Nevada is in an especially good position to benefit from this bill, I am pleased to be joined by Senators Ensign, Harkin, Tester, Michael Bennet, and Klobuchar whose states also have renewable energy resources stranded by a lack of transmission.

Existing government loan and tax-exempt bond programs are available to finance rural renewable generation, but not to finance the connections between that generation and the high-voltage

transmission system that carries electricity to load centers. These proposed bills would provide three ways to finance important transmission for rural renewable generators--through the USDA Rural Utilities Service, through modifications to the Clean Renewable Energy Bond, CREB, program, and through modifications to the Exempt Facility Bonds program.

As we have seen with the electric and telephone infrastructure financed by the USDA Rural Utilities Service since 1935, energy infrastructure is crucial to economic development for rural communities. Natural gas pipelines crisscross rural communities, but small towns near these pipelines lack natural gas today. Some of these towns, including some in Nevada, have plans for natural gas distribution systems and local economic development that depend on access to natural gas. Federal programs to provide loans, loan guarantees, or tax-exempt bonds do not fit these plans.

The USDA does not currently finance these types of projects. My bill would allow the USDA to finance natural gas systems to connect rural communities to natural gas pipelines. Access to natural gas will provide these communities with a clean, efficient energy source, and encourage economic development.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has received requests from Federal and State government entities seeking access to records that the subcmmittee obtained during its recent investigation into Wall Street and the financial crisis of 2008, examining the role of mortgage lenders, bank regulators, credit rating agencies, and investment banks in causing the crisis.

S. Res. 545 would authorize the chairman and ranking minority member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, acting jointly, to provide records, obtained by the subcommittee in the course of its investigation, in response to these requests and to other government entities and officials with a legitimate need for the records.

Mr. President, following any leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 4899, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. There will be no morning business this morning. We will go directly to the bill.

Yesterday evening, I filed cloture on the committee-reported substitute amendment in the underlying bill. As a result, there is a 1 p.m. filing deadline for germane first-degree amendments.

Today, I will continue to work with the Republican leader on an agreement to complete action on the bill without cloture. If an agreement cannot be reached, a cloture vote would occur tomorrow morning. Rollcall votes are expected to occur throughout the day in relation to amendments on the supplemental appropriations bill.

We have had a number of conversations. Some amendments may have technical points of order against them. I think we are at a point now where we should arrange some votes on a number of these amendments and move forward on this bill. There are Senators on both sides who have amendments to offer. I will do my best over here to talk down the number of amendments. I know the Republican leader will do the same. We have to have some amendments. I am anxious to move to them. I have directed my floor staff to try to work out arrangements so we can vote on some of those this morning.

We may be in a position where we would have to have a 60-vote threshold on all these amendments. A lot of them may require that anyway. I think that would be the appropriate thing to do.

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading, is that correct?

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings on these bills at this time.

Mr. President, we are waiting today to see the success of the efforts of BP to plug that well that is spilling into the gulf. This morning, it is reported that there is a 70- to 80-percent chance that they can be successful. I certainly hope the odds that favor the stopping the oilspill work.

It is very important that the American people understand, and the world

understands, that we have to be ready for the damage this has caused. BP has indicated they will pay for all damages. The people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf States are waiting to see when the oil will stop flowing.

We have a number of issues that are concerning to the whole country as to our security. Of course, we have the cybersecurity issue, which, as the Pentagon mentioned, is a very important issue. We are working on that, and committees are doing legislation now to see what can be done to make us more secure in that regard.

The other thing is we will never be a secure nation as long as we are dependent upon foreign oil--or to drop it down a notch, dependent on oil, period. This is an opportunity for the country to move away from fossil fuel and do a better job at looking at the renewable energies that are available to us all over this country, including Sun, wind, geothermal.

I am very supportive of what Secretary Salazar did in approving the wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. This is an opportunity for us to be independent and not have to depend so much on fossil fuels. It is no longer just the environment; it is also the security of this Nation. So as we wait with bated breath to see what is going to happen today in the gulf, I certainly hope it is successful and that we improve as a result of this terrible degradation of our environment, and improve our ability to use whatever domestic oil supply we have in a safer way.