Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all postcloture time be considered expired and that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 732, which is S. 3001, the Defense Department authorization bill, and that once the bill is reported, it be considered under the following limitations: that the only first- degree amendments in order be those that are germane to S. 3001 or to H.R. 5658, and that the first-degree amendments be subject to second- degree amendments which are germane to the amendment to which it is offered; that there be up to 10 additional amendments which are relevant to S. 3001 or to H.R. 5658 and have been agreed upon by the leaders--the leaders being Senators McConnell and Reid--with up to 5 amendments per side; that those 10 relevant amendments also be subject to second-degree amendments which would be relevant to the first-degree amendment to which offered; that upon the disposition of all amendments, the bill be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill; that upon passage, it then be in order for the Senate to consider en bloc the following calendar items: Nos. 733, 734, and 735; that all after the enacting clause of each bill be stricken and the following divisions of S. 3001, as passed by the Senate, be inserted as follows: Division A: S. 3002; Division B: S. 3003; Division C: S. 3004; that these bills be read a third time, passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc; further, that these items appear separately in the Record; provided further that the Senate then proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 758, H.R. 5658, the House companion; that all after the enacting clause be stricken and the text of S. 3001, as amended and passed by the Senate, be inserted in lieu thereof; the bill be read a third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that the title amendment, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to; that upon passage of H.R. 5658, as amended, the Senate insist on its amendments, 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 above occurring without further intervening action or debate, and that no points of order be considered waived by virtue of this agreement.

Mr. President, maybe we can do indirectly what we can't do directly. That is, we are going to go through the procedure here to-- and when I finish the procedural issues I am going to bring before the Senate, then the two managers, Senator Levin and Senator Warner, will be, in effect, the gatekeepers. They won't be under the control of Senator McConnell or Senator Reid. These two very professional, experienced legislators will move through these amendments as quickly as they can. We all relish the time we used to move to this bill and other bills to have an old-fashioned legislative battle. I don't think--with all that is going on around the country today, including the Presidential election being in effect and all the other things going on politically--we can do that.

I hope, as I said, we can do indirectly what we can't do directly. It would be good for the country if we could finish this bill this week. It is so important. It has extremely important elements in it, including a pay raise for our troops, a good pay raise for our troops. This bill has things that are done to improve our military that only these two managers of this bill could lead based on their experience. I believe I am right when I say I think this has been--this is the 30th bill Senators Levin and Warner have worked on together, the 30th bill. It would be a shame, as Senator Warner leaves this great career in the Senate, that in his final year we don't do something that is as much of his legislative history as anything he has done in his career, and that is the Defense authorization bill. So I hope for his sake, the Senate's sake, and the country's sake, we can complete this legislation sometime this week.

Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk and I ask for its consideration.

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

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

Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment at the desk and I ask for its consideration.

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

Mr. President, I now move to recommit the bill to the Armed

Services Committee with instructions to report back to the Senate with an amendment.

I have an amendment at the desk, and I ask that it be considered.

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

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

Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk and I ask that it be considered.

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

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

Mr. President, I have a second-degree amendment at the desk and I ask that it now be considered.

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

Mr. President, finally, I now ask unanimous consent that no motion to proceed to any calendar item be in order during the pendency of S. 3001.

I note the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, in July, the House of Representatives responsibly passed legislation to prevent the highway trust fund from running out of money. They put the date that the $8 billion would be transferred at October 1, the end of the fiscal year, the beginning of the new fiscal year. That legislation passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 387 to 37.

The reason the bill receives such strong support is Democrats and Republicans in the House recognize that funding for these critical transportation projects is extremely important. This is infrastructure. For every billion dollars we spend in infrastructure, there are 47,500 high-paying jobs, and a lot of other jobs spin off from that amount. So this $8 billion is about half a million jobs. Yes, that is a lot when you think about the problems we have in the country today economically.

But when that bill reached the Senate before we left for the convention recesses, Republicans objected to it. Since that time, the legislation has even taken on more urgency. Gas prices have skyrocketed. Fewer Americans are driving, which has decreased the flow of the money into the trust fund.

Second, the Bush-McCain economy has plunged America further into economic peril. Just last month, 84,000 jobs were lost, bringing to the total this year during the Bush-McCain era over 600,000 jobs lost this year alone. And today it was announced that this year will be the largest deficit in the history of our country. So we have an economy that is in deep trouble, we have 84,000 jobs lost just last month and more than 600,000 this year, and it

has just been announced that the deficit is the largest we have ever seen as a country.

The investments in this highway trust fund make our transportation safe. It is not just roads, it is mass-transit projects that are so important to this country. As I told the distinguished ranking member of the Budget Committee who was here objecting yesterday, maybe two or three decades ago, my being from Nevada, I may not have been concerned about mass transit, but we are now. Las Vegas is a metropolitan area with traffic congestion. We have to do something with mass transit. It cannot be handled on the highways.

With this new urgency in mind, the Bush administration joined us in calling for a transfer of these funds immediately. I received a call from the Secretary of Transportation saying this needs to be done. I said: Why didn't you help us before? Basically, the Bush-McCain crew was just hoping they could squeeze through before the new President is elected before anything would happen. But even this President has acknowledged that we have to do something.

Democrats and Republicans in the House, I repeat, have already voted to have this money transferred, and they did it last July. We want to follow suit. Yet some in the President's own party continue to refuse this economically vital legislation that is so important.

We have had 92 filibusters led by the Republicans so far. I am not sure if we counted the last one. Anyway, we will say 92. I have expressed many times my disappointment about the Republicans blocking legislation supported by a majority of Senators--a majority of Senators. They have blocked legislation not only that we Democrats support but a majority of Senators, Democrats and Republicans.

Here we have an interesting thing now. This is new. Republicans are blocking a bill supported by an overwhelming majority of both parties in the House and in the Senate and supported by the President of their own party. They are even blocking that. They are doing everything within their power to maintain the status quo. Yesterday, Republicans prevented us from passing this bill. It is so important that it be done. I have trouble understanding why the Republicans are objecting to a bill that Democrats and Republicans in the House support, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate support, and the President supports. They are objecting to their own best interests, it seems to me. But that is what they are doing. I think we should send this bill to the President's desk, as the President has requested.

The people who are objecting are using all kinds of excuses. Yesterday, they said they had a few amendments. Tonight, I guess they have a few more amendments. They think it is really not right to take the money to replenish the highway trust fund from the general fund, but they haven't objected to almost spending a trillion dollars of borrowed money going to Iraq. They haven't objected to taking tens of billions of dollars from the general fund to give tax breaks to big oil companies. That didn't seem to bother them. But when it comes to $8 billion to maintain our highways and our mass-transit projects that create jobs at a time when we have about 10 million Americans out of work, they are even blocking that. This legislation is prudent and necessary. It is a prudent and necessary investment in the economic well-being of our struggling Nation. I hope our Republican colleagues answer the call of President Bush and Secretary Chertoff. Judge Chertoff said the lack of investment in U.S. infrastructure is ``kind of like playing Russian roulette with our citizens' safety.'' That is what President Bush's Secretary of Homeland Security has said. So this is no time for games such as that.

So, Mr. President, here is my unanimous consent request: That the Finance Committee be discharged from its consideration of H.R. 6532 and the Senate proceed to its consideration; that the amendment at the desk be considered agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements relating to this matter be printed at the appropriate place in the Record, with no intervening action or debate.

But we don't have a Republican here to object, and so I am not going to take advantage of their not being here. But I hope the American people see what is going on. It is another day gone by with our not having the ability here because of the Republicans refusing to approve legislation that is extremely urgent. It is emergency legislation. We have been told so by the President and his Secretary of Treasury, and they still would not let us do this.

I wonder where John McCain is. What is his idea on this? Should we let the fund go belly up? Where is John McCain? Couldn't he send a statement, a message from somebody saying: I agree with President Bush, or does he disagree, for one of the rare, 10 percent of the times when he disagrees? The word out is he supports the President 90 percent of the time. It is really 95 percent of the time.

But is he now going to be part of the 5 percent where he says: I disagree with the President; I don't think that money should be replenished.

Where is John McCain? Let us hear from John McCain.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair lay before the Senate the House message to accompany S. 2403.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Menendez) laid before the Senate the amendments of the House of Representatives to the bill (S. 2403) entitled ``An Act to designate the new Federal Courthouse, located in the 700 block of East Broad Street, Richmond, VA, as the `Spottswood W. Robinson III and Robert R. Merhige, Jr., Federal Courthouse'.'', do pass with the following amendments:

Mr. President, it is my understanding there is no objection to this, and it has been cleared by the Republicans. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the House amendments, that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, September 10; 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 then be a period of morning business for up to 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 the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 3001, the Defense authorization bill, as provided under a previous order.

Mr. President, I conferred with Senator Levin. It is clear in our minds that we should proceed on this bill. I think we are making progress on it. We may be able to finish this bill. There was some consideration given to filing cloture, but we both agreed that there is no need to do that; that we may be able to complete this legislation this week, and I hope in fact that is the case.

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

Mr. President, I had the good fortune last month to go to Afghanistan. It was, of course, tremendously educational. We had the opportunity--a number of five Senators, Democrats and Republicans--to visit with our allies in Kurdistan and Kazakhstan. It was a good trip. Then, of course, we completed our trip by going to look--which I had not done--at medical facilities in Germany. All of the troops who are injured or hurt in any way in Iraq or Afghanistan go through that facility. So it was a good trip.

It made it very apparent to me that we should do everything within our power to pass the Defense authorization bill because 7 years after 9/11, we all recognize that our No. 1 enemy, Osama bin Laden, is still free, and al-Qaida has rebuilt its safe haven, it appears, in Pakistan. The central front of the war on terror, we have learned, cannot be won in Iraq. Yet that is where our troops are located. Our treasure and our strategic focus remains in Iraq, but it should be other places. That is why it is so critical to pass a Defense authorization bill that not only supports our troops and our families but also takes a step toward a smarter war on terror.

The Defense authorization bill gives the troops a much needed pay raise of almost 4 percent. It also renews a number of special pay increases provided to troops who fill high-skilled areas that were so undermanned. We all know because of what has happened with the Bush and now McCain efforts, troops are in Iraq and our resources are in Iraq. Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence and suicide attacks are up. We have more coalition forces being killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq, roadside bombings have increased, and opium production is up with Afghanistan producing 93 percent of the world's opium. So we have to refocus on Afghanistan.

Our troops have done a tremendous job in Iraq and, of course, in Afghanistan. It does your heart a lot to be able to visit with those troops in the battlefield as we did. So it is time we get this Defense authorization bill passed. We have to do that. We need the funds for the programs in Afghanistan that are critical to winning the peace that have been ignored for far too long.

This legislation increases the size of the Army to 532,000; the Marine Corps, 194,000; along with other steps to improve readiness and reduce the strain and improve the capabilities of our Armed Forces. We have had other occasions with our Republican allies to pass a Defense authorization bill in the Senate, but we haven't been successful in doing that. So I hope we are allowed to go to the bill.

I have had a number of conversations with Senator Levin, the chairman of the committee. Each conversation I have with him, he tells me he is going to confer with Senator Warner, the former chairman and now ranking member of that most important committee. We want to get on the bill. We want to get the bill passed. This bill is not an opportunity for people to vent their frustration on all of the issues that are floating around this country. This is a bill that deals with the safety and security of our Nation and the well-being of our troops. So when we get on the bill, I hope we can move forward and complete legislation on this

most important part of what we are trying to do.

This is the first issue we are going to take up when we get here. So my goal is to do what we have to do to work on the Defense bill this week.

We have an energy summit this Friday. It has been requested by a significant number of Senators, including the gang of 10, which I am told is now up to a gang of 22--or if it is not 22, last week it was 16. It is a lot of Senators. So we are going to have the energy summit this Friday. It doesn't mean we will not have votes this Friday, but at least starting at 9:30 on Friday morning we are going to have an energy summit. My desire is to spend next week dealing with energy.

We have a piece of legislation we have had the opportunity to move to. It was a bill on speculation which was very important. I would think it could be a vehicle to work with. If our Republican colleagues wish to get rid of the speculation part of it, in an effort to be cooperative and show some degree of conciliation on our side, what we would be willing to do is have that as a vehicle.

The first amendment to be offered on that piece of legislation would be the Bingaman-Baucus legislation, which is a Democratic proposal that has been on the calendar, the only difference being there is a drilling provision in it. The second amendment would be the gang of whatever it is--now we are up to 22--and then I would hope we could have some kind of an agreement if the Republicans are not satisfied with the Bingaman- Baucus amendment or the gang of 22 amendment; if they want to come up with an amendment dealing with legislation, fine. That would be the next amendment in order. I hope we can agree on a limited number of amendments dealing with energy on this Energy bill. It is my understanding--and I understand this fairly well--that both the Bingaman amendment and the gang of 22 amendment have drilling provisions. So I hope we can move forward. We have attempted in the past, as everyone knows, to do energy legislation, including that with drilling. But, so there is no confusion or consternation on anyone's behalf, next week we should be able to do the drilling votes and other votes as they relate to energy.

The state of the economy is very desperate, for lack of a better description. Oil and gas are just part of our economic crisis. Since we left for our recess and the conventions are over, we have only more bad news, which means we should look forward also during this work period to see if we can do an economic stimulus bill. Why is one necessary?

Well, the Bush economy has lost jobs every month this year. Just last month alone 84,000 jobs were lost. A total of more than 600,000 jobs have been lost this year alone. The total number of jobless Americans is now about 10 million. A number of people are out of work also, but they stopped keeping track of the unemployment after they had been on the rolls for a certain period of time. Housing values have decreased by almost 20 percent. The unemployment rate has soared now to over 6 percent.

American workers are holding up their end of the deal because one of the interesting things through all of this is that productivity by our work force is up by 20 percent since 2000, but wages have not kept pace with productivity.

Then, finally, the news of Freddie and Fannie--these two huge financial operations that have been so important since the 1930s in our country--are now in trouble, and the Federal Government is taking them over, which is certainly another strong piece of evidence about the disastrous shape of our economy. I hope we can move on and do something with an economic stimulus package. To this point, Senator McCain has been unwilling to do that. Let's hope this string of bad news items will bring him back to saying we need to do something with the stimulus.

We have--I am sure Senator McConnell has, and I know my colleagues, the counterparts on the Democratic side of the Congress--received calls from Secretary Peters. We have tried in the past on a number of the bills we have put forth to put money in the highway trust fund to replenish it. We were thwarted from doing that. We have to do something. Secretary Peters said now States are only getting part of their money. Eighty percent of them have dropped; 50 percent have basically dropped to nothing. We can pass the highway trust fund replenishment bill immediately. We have a bill from the House that starts doing that on October 1. We would have to move the date forward. We are willing to pass it today. Democrats are willing to pass this today. I say to the Bush administration, to Secretary Peters, we are willing to do this today. She said it needed to be done immediately. I talked to her over the weekend. I acknowledge that is the case.

For this $8 billion, we will create eight times 47,500 high-paying jobs for people. So we should do that. I would hope we can get my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to move forward by unanimous consent today to pass that. What we would like to do, as I have indicated, is move the time forward from October 1. Secretary Peters said we need to do that. It passed the House by a 387-to-37 vote. I hope we can do that. In effect, what we could do is transfer $8 billion from the general fund to the highway trust fund.

There is a funding shortage looming, and we hear strong support from both Democrats and Republicans, with now Secretary Peters. I am confident she speaks for the administration. So we could pass this legislation immediately.

There are other priorities we need to work on this work period. If we have time to do that, we certainly will do that. We have the tax extenders. Without going through the list, I look forward to working with my friend, Senator McConnell, to see what we can do to move forward on these things.

Finally, before we leave here, we must find some way to fund the Government. If the Republicans want to do it on a week-by-week basis, that is fine. If they want to wait to do it until after the election so we have to come back for a lameduck, we are willing to do that. If they want to do it sometime in February, we are willing to do that. We are not interested in games being played on the CR. We simply want to make sure Government is allowed to function. There have been Republicans on the other side of the Capitol--in the House--saying they want to close down the Government. I hope some of those people have read recent history where Gingrich tried to do that and it didn't work out well for the Republicans and certainly not for this country.

I look forward to this short work period we have left to show the American people we can get some things done. I hope that is, in fact, the case.

Mr. President, it is my understanding that S. 3430 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to proceed to the motion to reconsider the vote by which cloture was not invoked on the motion to proceed to S. 3001 be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be agreed to, and the time until 5:30 be equally controlled between Senators Levin and Warner or their designees; that at 5:30 today, there be a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 3001, the Defense Department authorization bill, with the time from 5 o'clock to 5:30 equally divided and controlled between Senators Levin and Warner or their designees, with Senator Levin controlling the final 15 minutes prior to the vote.

Mr. President, I say to the Senator from Virginia that I hope we can work out something. We have this week to do it. It will be the last week that we have an opportunity to finish this most important piece of legislation. I think we owe it to our troops to work out something. We can get hung up on germane and relevant. One thing we could do--and I know we have had a problem here with people wanting to offer amendments on everything, as they have said, ``like we used to do in the Senate.''

Mr. President, I have been through a number of Presidential elections, and we have one coming up in about 60 days. We have to do things a little differently. I hope we can come up with some way to move forward on that. One of the suggestions made is maybe we could come up with something where the Senator from Virginia and Senator Levin can look at the amendments first related to the bill. We need to finish the Defense bill. Next week, we are going to be able to legislate our hearts out on energy. People have been wanting to do that for a long time. Let's get rid of this piece of legislation, which is important. I hope we can figure out a way to move forward on it.

Mr. President, I hope we don't have to use the 30 hours. We can start working on this tomorrow. There are amendments, as the Senator has indicated, members of the committee want to offer which relate to the bill. We should do that. Now, I hope we don't have to file cloture on the bill itself if we get on it. I think we should try to finish the Defense bill.

As I have indicated, I went to Afghanistan. We have learned a lot, and we are implementing what we learned in Iraq. There are some things in Iraq that didn't do so well. We are trying to do better in Afghanistan. But it takes resources, and that is what this bill is about. I hope we don't have to wait 30 hours. We don't have to do that.

We have a national election coming up. Speaking for the Republican leader, we don't want to be here until November 3, which is a Monday. We need to allow people to get back and work--those who want to help McCain and Obama, those who want to work on their own campaigns, and those who want to help others who are campaigning. I hope we can legislate on this tomorrow. Before we do that, we have to proceed to it tonight.

Mr. President, for the benefit of Members, cloture has been invoked on the motion to proceed. We are now waiting to see if we are going to require the use of 30 hours. We hope that is not the case. The two managers of the bill are ready to start legislating whenever they can.

We have worked all afternoon trying to figure out a way to move forward on this bill, and I hope we can do that very quickly. This is an extremely important piece of legislation. This is the way we take care of our troops. There is a 3.9-percent pay increase in this bill, and there are a lot of other good efforts to help the Nation's military, so I hope we can move as quickly as possible. But we will wait for the Republicans to tell us if they are going to require the use of the 30 hours postcloture.

There will be no more votes today, Mr. President.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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