Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 124, S. 151.

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 any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 215 and that we now proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements pertaining to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2632.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that there be no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to S. 1513.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendars numbered 282, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 305, 306, 307, 308, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Foreign Service; further, that the Agriculture Committee be discharged from Presidential Nomination 333, that the Senate then proceed to its consideration, the nominations be confirmed firmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, no further motions be in order, and any statements relating to these matters be printed in the Record, and the President of the United States be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, on Monday we are going to move to another appropriations bill. Senators Dorgan and Bennett will manage that. I think it would be wise at this time for me to tell everyone that I think we will not have a vote Monday. There is a lot of work to do on that bill. We will have some votes before noon on Tuesday, but we will not have votes on Monday.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. on Monday, July 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, and there be a period of morning business until 3 p.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; further, that following morning business, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 116, H.R. 3183, the Energy and Water Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010.

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 leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the Department of Defense authorization bill. Last night, I filed cloture on this bill. The vote is expected to occur 1 hour after we come in tomorrow. Germane first-degree amendments must be filed at the desk prior to 1 p.m. today in order to be considered postcloture. Rollcall votes in relation to amendments are expected to occur throughout the day and into the evening. This is the time for people who have indicated they want to offer amendments to do so. We had a lot of down time in which Members could have, but we are making progress on the bill. It is my understanding, from speaking to the managers, that for the most contentious issues, there is a pathway to completion. I hope that in fact is the case.

Mr. President, we will be in session tomorrow. We have some work to do. There will be no votes tomorrow. We received permission from everyone to move to the Energy and Water appropriations bill. We will do that sometime late Monday afternoon. We have to make sure the managers are available.

We have accomplished a great deal with this massive bill that is now before this body. We had a few rocky roads to begin with--hate crimes and gun legislation--but we were able to arrive at this point with the skill of the two managers, frankly. I appreciate very much Senator Levin and Senator McCain for their brilliant work on this bill. We have 2 weeks after we come back. We have two appropriations bill to do. We have the Supreme Court nomination. We have to make sure we take action so the highway fund doesn't go dry. We have some FHA stuff that is important. We have some unemployment stuff. It appears at this time the House is going to send us a single package for that. We have travel promotion. All of these things I have spoken about in some detail with the Republican leader. Now that we have a pathway forward, I think we can have a very productive work period.

The Finance Committee is still working on a markup as it relates to health care, but that is a different issue, and I don't think we need to involve that tonight.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the Department of Defense authorization bill. The time until 12 is for debate on the Thune amendment, with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Thune and Durbin or their designees. At 12 today, the Senate will proceed to a rollcall vote in relation to the Thune amendment. Under an agreement reached a couple of days ago, there will be 60 affirmative votes required for the adoption of the amendment.

As a reminder to all Senators, there will be a live quorum at 2 p.m. today for the Court of Impeachment of Samuel Kent. Senators should be in the Chamber at that time. There will be a delegation from the House that will appear at that time.

Additional rollcall votes are expected throughout the afternoon as the Senate considers amendments to the Defense authorization bill. Yesterday, the managers, Senators Levin and McCain, asked for an 11 a.m. filing deadline for first-degree amendments. We hope this will be accomplished with a consent agreement this morning.

I will later today meet with the distinguished Republican leader and make some decisions as to how we will finish our work the rest of this week and the next 2 weeks and to find out if we will have to work any weekends. We have a number of things we are required to do. I gave the Republican leader last week an idea of what I think we need to accomplish. Without going into detail now, I will be meeting with him later to see if we can figure out a way to do it as easily as possible. We have two weekends until the August recess. I hope it is not necessary that we work weekends, but it is certainly possible. I hope we can end when we need to end. We have some things we have to do before we leave. I hope that can be accomplished. I am confident that with some cooperation it can.

Mr. President, the choices in this health care debate should be about which ideas contain the best solutions to fix a severely broken system. The choices in this health care debate should be about how best to lower costs while increasing quality of care and how best to bring security and stability back to health care. The choices in this health care debate should be about how to make it easier to stay healthy. But for some, the choice seems to be whether we should do anything, whether to act at all. This is a false choice. That is not a choice we have. Not acting is not an option.

A week or so ago, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives said:

I think we all understand that we've got the best health

care system in the world.

Unlike the vast majority of Americans, he seems pretty content with the status quo.

Just this week, the junior Senator from South Carolina said that we just need to ``get out of the way and allow the market to work.'' In other words,

he says: Let's do nothing. Let's repeat the same mistakes of the past and dig ourselves deeper and deeper into this hole the Obama administration inherited.

That is not responsible and is not legislating. That approach does nothing to help the millions of Americans who live just one accident, one illness, or one pink slip away from losing their health coverage. That posture certainly does nothing to help the millions of Americans who have no health insurance to begin with. If we just get out of the way, as the Senator suggests, health care costs will get higher and more people who have health care this year will not be able to say the same next year. Today, 14,000 people in America will lose their health insurance. Yesterday, 14,000 people already lost their health insurance. Tomorrow, 14,000 people will lose their health insurance. No weekends off, no holidays--14,000, 7 days a week.

If we let the market work its will, as the Senator suggests, less than a decade from now you will have to spend almost half of the family's income on health care. That is not sustainable. If we sit this one out, as the Senator suggests, more parents will decide they can't take their children to the doctor when they are hurt or sick because it simply costs too much to pay the medical bills, and more small businesses will lay off more of their workers because it simply costs too much to give them health coverage. If, as the Senator suggests, we do nothing, we will keep our economy from recovering, keep businesses from growing, and keep families from getting the doctor visits and medicine they need to stay healthy. Allowing the market to work is code for letting the greedy insurance companies, companies that care more about profits than people, continue to deny coverage because one has a preexisting condition or they have gotten a little too old or maybe they have even changed jobs.

We have already seen what happens when we do nothing. Over the past 8 years of inaction, the costs of health care rose to record levels and the number of Americans who cannot afford insurance did the same. Right now in Nevada, far more than 100,000 people already lack coverage, the coverage they need to have adequate care when they get sick or hurt. We can't afford to treat these people in emergency rooms, which is where the uninsured go for treatment. That is the only place they can go in many instances. If we don't act, many more Nevadans will lose their coverage and many around America will also lose their coverage.

There are a lot of good ideas about how to fix the health care system in America. At this critical time for our economy's health and our citizens' health, it is important we exhaustively determine what those changes should be. The question is not whether we should explore any of them; our job is to determine which of these paths will lead us back to recovery, prosperity, and good health.

Mr. President, at this time the oath should be administered in conformance with article I, section 3, clause 6 of the Constitution and the Senate's impeachment rules to those Senators who were not in the Chamber while the Articles of Impeachment were presented.

The Secretary will note the names of the Senators who have been sworn today and will present to them for signing the book which is the Senate's permanent record of the administration of the oath.

The following named Senators are recorded as having subscribed to the oath this day:

Bennet

Cochran

Franken

Roberts

Mr. President, as the Sergeant at Arms advised the Senate prior to the July 4 recess, following the service of the summons on Judge Kent by the Sergeant at Arms on June 24, 2009, Judge Kent tendered his resignation as a United States District Judge, effective June 30, 2009. At the direction of the Senate, the Secretary delivered Judge Kent's original statement of resignation to the President. On June 29, 2009, counsel to the President accepted Judge Kent's resignation on behalf of the President. The House of Representatives has now moved that the Senate dismiss the Articles of Impeachment.

Mr. President, I have conferred with the distinguished Republican leader, Mr. McConnell, and with the distinguished Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles Against Judge Samuel B. Kent appointed by the Senate, the Senator from Missouri, Mrs. McCaskill, and the Senator from Florida, Mr. Martinez. All are in agreement that, with the resignation of Judge Kent, the purposes of the House's prosecution of the Articles of Impeachment against Judge Kent have been achieved. Judge Kent is no longer serving on the Federal bench, and he has ceased drawing his judicial salary. It is agreed that no useful purpose would now be accomplished by proceeding further with the impeachment proceedings against Judge Kent.

Accordingly, I now move that the Senate order that the Articles of Impeachment against former Judge Samuel B. Kent be dismissed and that the Secretary be directed to notify the House of Representatives of this order.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the motion was agreed to.

Mr. President, I wish to thank, on behalf of the entire Senate and the House of Representatives, the Chairman and Vice Chairman and all of the members of the Impeachment Trial Committee for their willingness to undertake this task. I ask unanimous consent that the Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles Against Judge Samuel B. Kent be terminated.

That concludes the proceedings on the trial of the impeachment of Judge Samuel B. Kent. As such, I move that the Court of Impeachment stand adjourned sine die.

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

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

I now ask that morning business be closed.