Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that after Senator Coburn moves to commit the bill with instructions, that there be 10 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled between Senators Kohl and Coburn or their designees; that upon the use of that time, the motion be set aside and the Senate then resume consideration of the Sanders amendment, No. 2276; that then Senator Brownback or his designee be recognized to raise a budget point of order against the amendment; that after the point of order is raised, then the motion to waive the relevant point of order be considered made; that the Senate then proceed to vote in relation to the Coburn motion to commit; that upon disposition of that motion, the Senate then proceed to vote on the motion to waive the relevant Budget Act point of order; that if the motion to waive is successful, then the amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that no further amendments or motions be in order; that upon disposition of all pending amendments, the substitute amendment, as amended, if amended, be agreed to, the bill then be read a third time, and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill; that upon passage, the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, with the subcommittee plus Senator Inouye appointed as conferees; further, that if a budget point of order is raised against the substitute amendment, then it be in order for another substitute amendment to be offered minus the offending provisions but including any amendments which have been agreed to, and that no further amendments be in order; that the substitute amendment, as amended, if amended, be agreed to, and the remaining provisions beyond adoption of the original substitute amendment remaining in effect.

I further ask unanimous consent that in the sequence of votes as described above, there be 2 minutes of debate prior to each vote equally divided and controlled in the usual form, and that after the first vote in the sequence, the remaining votes be limited to 10 minutes each.

I ask unanimous consent that the vote sequence be as follows: Coburn, No. 2244; Coburn, No. 2245; Coburn motion to commit; Sanders motion to waive the Budget Act point of order.

With the Republican leader here on the floor now, I ask unanimous consent that upon disposition of H.R. 2997, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 309, the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and that the first hour of debate be under the control of the chair and ranking member of the committee, Senators Leahy and Sessions, to be followed by 2 hours of debate, with the time equally divided and controlled between the majority and the Republicans.

Mr. President, before I ask whether my friend will accept this, I just want to lay out to the body, I am glad we are going to this. Everyone should understand we have other things to do before we leave here. We are going to do them before we have a final vote on this Supreme Court nominee. We have to work something out on travel promotion, and we have to work something out on the so-called cash for clunkers. The other matters we are going to put over until a subsequent time, but we will at least have some preconceived idea of what we are going to do when we get back.

I want everyone to be alerted that this is not the end of the work session before us.

Mr. President, I appreciate the statement of my friend. Everything relating to this nomination has been very civil, fair. Senator Leahy, the chairman of the committee, and the ranking member, Senator Sessions, have done an outstanding job of setting an example of how the debate should be handled here on the floor.

There are strong feelings regarding this nomination. That is the way it should be. I was told last night that there are as many as 28 Republicans who wish to speak on this matter. Of course, a lot of Democrats will also want to speak.

I want to lay out, as my friend, the Republican leader, did, we are going to be working into the evenings. People should not wait around here until tomorrow saying, I will put it off until tomorrow, or maybe I will wait until Thursday. There may not be a Thursday. We need to get these speeches done. They are all important. They are important for the record this body makes.

I would hope people would work with the floor staff to set up a way to proceed. What we are going to do is if at all possible, have a Democrat speak, a Republican speak, go back and forth. If there is not one of the other party here, we are not going to wait around until a Republican or Democrat shows up. If there is someone here ready to speak, that person will be recognized and the person who was supposed to be here can wait until some subsequent time.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, first, I compliment the managers of this bill, Senator Kohl and Senator Brownback. They have done a remarkably good job. We completed this major appropriations bill in a couple of days. One day was pretty short. They have done very good work.

We are going to vote on final passage, and then we are going to go to the debate on the Supreme Court nominee. Senator McConnell and I said earlier today we have a lot of Senators who wish to speak on this nomination. We don't want anyone to feel they do not have time to speak. But we are going to go in this order: We will have a Democrat and Republican. The cloakrooms have to be notified that you want to come and speak. If people wait until Wednesday night or Thursday to speak, there may not be an opportunity to speak on this nomination.

We know we have at least 28 Republicans who wish to speak and there is probably a like number of Democrats who wish to speak on this nomination who have not already spoken. We hope Senators will indicate to staff how much time they need, and then when they tell Senators they need to be available at a certain time, I hope all Senators will try to do that.

If there is not a Democrat available when it is the Democrats' turn, then we will move to another Republican, and vice versa.

The debate in the committee has been outstanding. I think Senator Leahy and Senator Sessions have done a very good job on an issue that people feel very strongly about on both sides. There is no reason the debate that is going to be on the Senate floor should not be as dignified as it was in the Judiciary Committee.

We are going to move to the nomination as soon as we finish final passage. This will be the last vote of the night. We will try to work out a program so we can finish this week. We have a little bit of work to do. I think there has been an agreement between Senator McConnell and me on what needs to get done. We have a few problems explaining what our desire is to some of the Senators. We will do that as quickly as we can.

Mr. President, I rise today to thank two of my colleagues, Senators Lincoln and Crapo for introducing the Senate resolution designating August 7, 2009, as National Purple Heart Recognition Day.

I am proud to support the commemoration of our Nation's Purple Heart recipients by granting them and their families a much deserved day of recognition. More than one and a half million Americans have earned the Purple Heart Medal, and this is just one more way we can honor their service.

The Purple Heart Medal is awarded in the name of the President, and it designates those servicemembers who have been wounded in the service of our Nation during combat or an act of terrorism. Many recipients have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and it is a symbol of true selflessness. The brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces today volunteer knowing full well the hazards of their chosen profession. On

August 7, 2009, all Americans should be encouraged to learn about the significance of the Purple Heart, honor those selfless citizens who wear the award and bear the proud scars earned in service protecting and defending our Nation.

Today, there are approximately 550,000 Purple Heart recipients still living in the United States. I am sure that each Member of this body knows someone in their respective States who is a Purple Heart recipient, the family member of a recipient, or the friend of a recipient. A day of recognition is the least we can do to honor those who have been awarded this medal for serving our country.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for up to 1 hour. Senator Begich will give his maiden speech. We all look forward to this. He will have the first 30 minutes of morning business time. I note before he starts his speech, we are all so pleased with the work he has done. He has done an outstanding job for the people of the State of Alaska and our country, and I look forward to his remarks. The Republicans will control the final 30 minutes.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Agriculture Appropriations Act. At 5:30 the Senate will proceed to a cloture vote on the substitute amendment to the bill. Additional votes in relation to the amendments are possible following the cloture vote. The deadline for filing first-degree amendments is 3:30 today.

In speaking to Senator Brownback and on our side Senator Kohl, who is the comanager of the bill and who, of course, would love to finish it today, Senator Brownback said on Thursday that he thought we could finish the bill this evening and I hope that in fact is the case. The longer we are on this bill the less time there will be for Sotomayor speeches, so we look forward to completing this Agriculture appropriations bill so we can go to the Supreme Court nomination and listen to what people have to say about the new Supreme Court Justice.

Mr. President, the American people wake up every morning worrying about real problems. They go to bed every night with real concerns. They worry about the agonizing sacrifices they have to make so they can afford to stay healthy, and their fear is sincere.

Our response and responsibility to the American people should be equally grounded in reality. That reality is that our health care system is in serious distress. I believe serious problems

deserve serious efforts by serious legislators to develop serious solutions.

Unfortunately, much of what we have seen from the other side is simply one radical distraction after the next. For months, Republicans have perpetuated a pollster- and consultant-created myth that our plan and our goal is to have the government run your health care. It is not. Let me repeat: It is not. In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it. But the other side simply won't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

A Republican Congressman recently claimed that our plan to improve health care would ``put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.''

A Republican Senator made a similar statement to mislead his constituents. He actually accused Democrats of proposing a plan that would kill Americans. It is hard to imagine that. Rather than having a serious and real debate about a serious and real crisis, some Senators and Congressmen want the American people to believe their colleagues are proposing a plan to kill them.

These distortions and distractions are revolting, and they are not limited to health care.

An artificial controversy is getting far too much attention lately-- one that ignores the undeniable and proven fact that President Obama was born in the United States of America. Last week, one of the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives continued to give this false and misleading claim credence. Let's be clear: It is a phony issue that does not deserve even a minute of our attention on the floor of the Senate. It is absurd, irresponsible, and baseless, and the false claims have long ago been refuted.

The American people have every right to expect we will solve real problems before creating fake problems. They should know that rather than helping them get ahead, some of our colleagues would rather spew ludicrous conspiracy theories.

The other side hasn't stopped at fake arguments and fake issues. We also have seen them resort to fake letters. Some Members of Congress have recently received forged letters purporting to be from the NAACP. Others have received a similar letter signed by a fake name with a fake job title purporting to be from a local Hispanic group. The bogus letters have been tracked back to employees of a Republican lobbying firm. This behavior is sick, it is shameful, it is dishonest, and it is undemocratic.

When we passed the economic recovery plan this winter, some opposed it. They didn't believe we needed an aggressive plan in response to a grave crisis that now is putting people back to work, ensuring middle- class families can get ahead, and investing in our future. But objecting to that legislation is their right. As we start to see a return on our investment, many of those who tried to block this bill have since sought credit for the good it is doing. Others who opposed the plan outright--those who wish we weren't investing in their States and districts--now complain they wish to see us invest more quickly. Well, you can't have it both ways. It is yet another embarrassing example of misinformation and misrepresentation upon which some on the other side tend to rely.

I cannot blame people for wondering why, with an issue as important as health care now before us, bipartisan consensus sometimes seems so elusive. So I say to them: This extreme brand of strategy and the extreme tactics that come with it are what we have to contend with.

First, Rush Limbaugh happily admitted he wants our President to fail. Then a Republican Senator openly admitted he wants to block the health insurance reform for millions as a way to ``break the President.'' Another Republican Senator admitted that at least half of the other side's opposition to reform is purely political. And an influential commentator advised Republicans to avoid consensus at all costs and instead ``go for the kill.''

These partisan tactics have consequences. These consequences will be evident at any kitchen table, in every family budget, and every American's peace of mind.

And they are watching. A poll released last week found that a majority of Americans credit President Obama with putting partisanship aside and trying to work with congressional Republicans to get this done for the good of the country. Republicans, they found, weren't returning the favor.

Others may be focused on delaying and denying health insurance reform, but we will make sure we don't let that happen. We already have seen what happens when we do nothing. The costs of sitting this one out are far too high and not acting is not an option.

The American people appreciate those Republicans who have come to the negotiating table in good faith. I am sorry to say that there simply aren't enough of them. At this stage, out of 100 Senators, we have 3 Republicans who are willing to work with us on health care. I am very happy to have them, but I wish we had more.

Rather than having a serious and real debate about a serious and real crisis, some would prefer to deploy tactics to scare the American people. But what scares the American people is that under the status quo, they live just one illness, one accident, or one pink slip away from losing everything.

This is no time to let partisanship get the best of us. This is no time to obsess over fake controversies or oppose ideas simply because they were proposed by people who sit on the other side of this Chamber. This is no time to instill unfounded fears and incite the hope that our Nation's leaders fail. This is the time to get serious about making it easier for American citizens to afford to live a healthy life.

Mr. President, I rise to call the attention of the Senate to the 40th anniversary of the Nevada Association for Latin Americans, Inc. NALA is a Las Vegas-based organization that strives to provide low to moderate income families educational and social services to enhance their quality of life. NALA aids the people in the Silver State with exceptional services in education, language immersion, health prevention and immigration.

NALA was established as a nonprofit organization in 1969. As a Hispanic social-service organization, NALA acquired a small daycare center in 1978. At the time it was serving mainly African-American families, but now the center serves all low-income members of the community. The Social Services that NALA offers include emergency rental, utility assistance, food vouchers, and food pantry assistance to individuals who qualify for assistance. During these difficult economic times where many families are in dire need, we are grateful for NALA's excellent services and resources.

The association's affordable preschool/childcare program benefits more than 400 children annually. The preschool program includes an exceptional ESL program and meals for the children. Many of these children become so well versed in English, that most become teachers to their limited-English speaking parents. NALA offers HIV prevention services and outreach to those living with AIDS through counseling, health care, and job training. In addition to their educational and health outreach, NALA offers immigration services through their targeted program that assists with application processing, naturalization preparation and employment referrals.

I praise the Nevada Association for Latin Americans, Inc. for their 40 years of support to the low-income community of Nevada. It is through the hard work of organizations like NALA that low-income families across Nevada and the United States will be able to overcome the challenges of our current economy.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, if any, the Senate will resume consideration of the Agriculture appropriations bill. There will be no rollcall votes during today's session. However, the two managers, Senator Kohl and Senator Brownback, will inform all Members that they will accept amendments, and people who have amendments should be ready to offer them today or on Monday.

Mr. President, S. 1552 is at the desk and it is due for a second reading.

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

Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk, but before it is read, we need to have the bill reported.

Mr. President, I would now ask that the cloture motion which is at the desk on the substitute amendment be stated.

Mr. President, I have a cloture motion at the desk on the bill itself.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the substitute amendment occur at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, August 3; that if cloture is invoked, postcloture time be considered to have begun as if cloture had been invoked at 11 a.m.; further, that the mandatory quorums required be waived, and that first-degree amendments be filed at the desk by 3:30 p.m. on Monday.

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

Mr. President, it is my understanding we are in a period of morning business.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to H. Con. Res. 172.

I ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 265, 267, 319, 329, 330, 332, 334 to and including 367, 369, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, and Navy en bloc; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc; that no further motions be in order and any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record; and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

I ask unanimous consent that the Agriculture Committee be discharged from further consideration of PN386, and that the Senate then proceed to the consideration of the nomination; that the nomination be confirmed and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc; that no further motions be in order, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, August 3; that following the prayer and the 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 there then be a period of morning business for 1 hour with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with Senator Begich controlling the first 30 minutes and the Republicans controlling the final 30 minutes. Finally, I ask that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 2997, the Agriculture appropriations bill.

Mr. President, under a previous order, at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, the Senate will vote on cloture on the substitute amendment to the appropriations bill dealing with Agriculture.

I ask unanimous consent that the action on executive Calendar No. 370 be vitiated.