Floor Statements

Madam President, I extend my warmest congratulations to John Ascuaga for this honor, as well as to his wife Rose and his entire family. I also commend the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for recognizing his contributions not only in the business world, but also for his generous philanthropic efforts.

John Ascuaga's Nugget for decades has been a first-class operation and a favorite destination of Nevadans and Americans from across the country. More than that, though, it has kept Sparks alive.

I have worked with John for many years. A first-generation American and a veteran, he has lived the American dream. And John would be the first to tell you he has done so with the support of his entire family, including his daughter, Michonne, whose leadership continues to keep the Nugget flourishing. Congratulations, John.

Madam President, I rise to extend my warmest congratulations to Gordon Cowan, John Solari, and the Reno Rodeo on this historic milestone.

The Reno Rodeo is celebrated throughout Nevada for its first-class entertainment and dedication to philanthropy, which continues this week for the 90th consecutive year.

The Nation's third largest regular-season rodeo, Nevadans look forward every year to its cowboys' skill and showmanship and its preservation of the great traditions of the West.

Particularly this year, the non profit Reno Rodeo's contributions to Nevada's economy are significant--it draws 120,000 fans and generates millions for the hotels, casinos, restaurants, and stores in northern Nevada.

But the Reno Rodeo is not only important to our economy--it is a central part of our community as well. Incredibly, the rodeo is run by only two full-time staff members and countless volunteers. Since 1986, it has donated more than $5 million to various causes, including charities, community partnership grants, and educational scholarships to schools including the University of Nevada, Reno. It has also given generously to literacy, high school rodeo and therapeutic equestrian programs.

Nevada is particularly proud of the Exceptional Kids Rodeo, which for more than a quarter-century has given children with special needs the opportunity to interact with the rodeo cowboys, animals and the exciting rodeo experience.

The ``Wildest, Richest Rodeo in the West'' is one of Nevada's oldest and proudest cultural institutions, and we wish it many more decades of success.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. There will be no rollcall votes today.

Senators Dorgan and Martinez, the managers of the travel bill that is before the Senate, have indicated they are ready to move forward on amendments being laid down. We will have a series of votes Monday night and move toward completing that legislation as quickly as possible. It is important legislation, and we look forward to the completion of it.

Mr. President, as the debate escalates over the best way to ease the crushing burden of health care, it is easy to become sidetracked by misrepresentations, distracted by minor details or tempted to point fingers. When we do those things, we lose sight of what is at the heart of this effort, this debate, and this reform.

I wish to take a moment at the end of this week to remind all of us what this is all about--the health care debate. It is about hardworking Americans because they are too often the casualties of our broken health care system. They deserve better than to be also casualties of misleading politics.

To the millions of Americans without health care, this is a concrete and critical crisis that affects children, families, small businesses, and big businesses every single day. It is about the parent who can't take a child to the doctor because insurance is prohibitively expensive. It is about the family who lives one accident or one illness away from financial ruin. It is about a small business that had to lay off employees because it couldn't afford the skyrocketing cost of health care premiums or that small business that had to cancel health insurance for its employees because it couldn't afford it. It is about the three-in-five families who put off health care because it simply costs too much.

As Democrats in the Senate, we are committed to lowering the high price of health care, ensuring every American has access to that quality, affordable care and, finally, letting people choose their own doctors, hospitals, and health plans. We are committed to protecting the existing coverage when it is good, improving it when it is not, and guaranteeing health care for the millions--including 9 million children--who have none. We are committed to preventing disease, reducing health disparities, and encouraging early detection and effective treatments that save lives.

No matter what Republicans claim, the government has no intention of choosing for you any of these things or meddling in any of your medical relationships. If you like the coverage you have, you can choose to keep it.

Health care is not a luxury. It shouldn't be a luxury. We can't afford another year in which 46 million people have to choose between basic necessities and lining the pockets of big insurance companies just to stay healthy.

I hear every day from Nevadans--through e-mails, phone calls, letters, and other means of communication--that people are turned down for health

coverage by insurance providers who care more about profits than people. I hear about people who lost their health coverage when they lost their jobs and now have no means of getting it back. I hear of people from Nevada who play by the rules and rightly demand that our health care system be guided by common sense.

That is what this debate is all about--nothing more, nothing less. These people--and nothing else--should be the focus of the open and honest debate they deserve--the people of America.

Mr. President, has the Chair yet announced that we are in a period of morning business?

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

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

Mr. President, we have worked several days this week trying to move forward on the tourism bill. It is an extremely important piece of legislation. It is important to every State in the Union. That is why it is so heavily bipartisan.

We have almost 50 cosponsors of this legislation. Lots of Republicans cosponsored this legislation--Bond, Brownback, Enzi, Graham, Martinez, Thune, Wicker, Alexander, Cochran, Ensign, Vitter--and I am sure there are others. It is a bipartisan bill.

We have already wasted so much time. We had to file cloture on a motion to proceed to this heavily bipartisan bill. Once we were on the bill, I spoke to the Republican leader. We thought we had a pathway to having civility here, so the Republicans would try to help us. But, of course, we learned yesterday the GOP is still saying no; Democrats need to know when they bring bills up, we are going to extend debate as long as we can, even if we cannot win.

We said: OK. You offer--you, the Republicans--four amendments. And they did. They picked all the amendments they wanted to offer--not germane to this bill.

I said: OK. They were all involving TARP or the money that we all know about by now. So I said, and I told the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Sanders: If the Republicans want to offer nongermane amendments, I will be happy to have you offer your amendment.

His is a fairly simple amendment. We see what is happening in the world today as it relates to oil. Again, we are seeing speculation. We know it was there before, we are seeing it again. We have a large inventory, with no reason for the price to spike. But we have those people, these commodity traders, who are rolling the dice as if they were coming to Las Vegas to roll the dice on the oil because they think the price is going to go up.

What Sanders wanted to do is basically nothing unique. He wanted to make sure the entity that is responsible for making sure there are no shenanigans being conducted by these traders, that we pass some legislation saying: You have to do better than what you have done, in effect. I am paraphrasing the picture of that legislation. It was fairly noncontroversial. But the Republicans said no. Whom are they trying to protect?

So we were generous in our offer. What was the other amendment they wanted to offer? They still had another amendment. I said: Fine, go ahead. The Senate should take hard votes. I am not concerned about my folks having to take difficult votes.

The Presiding officer knows, in the short time he has been here, that we have taken some hard votes. That is what we are elected to do. We are not elected to run from issues. To be clear, some of the amendments which my Republican colleagues wanted to include would have been votes that have nothing to do with this bill. I said: Let's do it anyway.

But the standard for a Democrat offering an amendment that is not germane, I guess, is different. You can have four. I said: We do not even need the same number of amendments. I guess what is good for us is not good for them.

I am disappointed this has not been worked out. I was going to propound an agreement which was agreed upon that would permit the process of legislating on this most important tourism bill, but I am not able to do so because we do not have a Republican here to object. I certainly am not going to take advantage of anyone because no one is here to object.

But I do want the Record to reflect that the majority is ready to move forward with amendments now or Monday. I hope that on Monday, when our managers are here, Senators Dorgan and Martinez, we may still be able to reach an agreement to begin the process of working through this legislation. If we cannot, we are going to vote at 5:30 on Monday on cloture on this bill.

A decision is going to have to be made. I have not tried to jam anybody. We have not tried to jam anybody. We have been as reasonable as anybody can be. But we are going to have to make a decision on this legislation.

The State of Oregon, the home of the Presiding Officer, a couple years ago I took my family to Oregon. Every summer we take all 5 children and all 16 grandchildren and try to go someplace. We went to Oregon. We rented a home on the beautiful coast that was stark. For 8 days the Sun did not shine. But I loved it. Being from the desert, I loved that rain a little bit. It was wonderful.

I would love to go back. There were so many things to do around there. We drove 20 miles to see a waterfall. The water fell some 300 or 400 feet. It was not a lot of falling, but it dropped a long way.

The only point I am making is there is so much for people to see. Years ago, UNLV had a great basketball team. Yours was good, but theirs was great--the Tarkanian years. So I flew into Portland with my wife. We drove over to the coast, down the coast, and went to--I think it was called Salem, the University of Oregon, I think, or Oregon State, whatever university it was where they had this tournament.

I watched UNLV play. The reason I mention it, driving down that coast was so beautiful. But every State, every State I have ever been to--I have been to most of them. I think I have been to all of them--have beautiful things for people to come and see. That is what this legislation is all about.

The No. 1, 2 or 3 most important driver of the economy in every State is tourism, every State. It is the same in Oregon, where unemployment now is over 12 percent. We can get more people to come to Oregon or Nevada. It would be tremendous for those economies. That is what this legislation does. It sets up a public-private partnership in the model, frankly, of what the Las Vegas Convention Center did, which has been so successful. That is what this legislation is all about.

It is bipartisan legislation. Because we could not work anything on amendments, I hope we will get cloture on this bill. But whether we do or not, I am happy to work with my Republican colleagues to move forward on this.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we close morning business.

Mr. President, it is my understanding that bill is now going to be reported.

Mr. President, the majority on the Commerce Committee has provided authority to the Chairman, Senator Rockefeller, to withdraw the committee amendments and the chairman has now provided me with that authority.

Therefore, on the authority granted by Senator Rockefeller of the Commerce Committee, I now withdraw the Committee amendments.

On behalf of Senators Dorgan and Rockefeller, I offer a perfecting amendment.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

It is my understanding that there is a cloture motion at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

I now call up my amendment to the language proposed to be stricken and ask for its consideration.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I now have a motion to recommit with instructions. That motion is at the desk.

I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion.

I have a first-degree amendment to the instructions at the desk.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have a second-degree amendment to the instructions at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 187, 189, 190, 191, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 210, 211, 212, 213, 216, 220, 221, 222 to and including 250, 253, 254 and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Foreign Service, and Navy; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; the motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc; that no further motions be in order, that any statements relating to any of these matters be printed in the

Record, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 814 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, 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 related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 80, S. Res. 182.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to this measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 193, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we now proceed to S. Res. 196.

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