Floor Statements

Mr. President, if my friend will yield for a unanimous consent request, I now ask unanimous consent that there be a period of 1 hour for morning business--we have a number of Senators who want to come over and talk--with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each during that hour's period of time.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the previous order with respect to H.R. 6304--that is the FISA legislation--be modified as follows: that all debate time on the amendments must be utilized during Tuesday's session; and that on Wednesday, at 9:30 a.m., immediately after the opening of the Senate, the Senate resume H.R. 6304, with the debate time previously specified prior to the cloture vote commencing at that time; with Senator Bingaman controlling 10 minutes of the time controlled by the majority leader; and that after all debate time has been used or yielded back, the Senate then proceed to vote in relation to the amendments, that upon disposition of the amendments, the Senate then vote on the motion to invoke cloture, and then passage, as previously ordered; provided further that the previous order with respect to debate time between votes and the vote time and sequence and all other provisions of the previous order remain in effect.

Mr. President, if the Chair would withhold, this is the matter about which I spoke to the Senate earlier today. I, of course, have conferred with the distinguished Republican leader. What we want to do--the order is set now that we would do all the debate time and all the votes tomorrow. We are not sure how late the plane will be getting back from North Carolina. This morning we had one Democratic Senator--there may be two or three--now going to North Carolina.

So rather than having people who are here waiting around until the plane gets back, we will complete all the debate tomorrow, and then vote, and have all the time used up except what I have outlined here, Wednesday morning. I would assume we would start voting probably at around 11:15, and we would complete those votes well before the caucus of the Republicans on Wednesday.

Mr. President, if I could also inform Senators, there are storms in the Midwest and, as a result of that, we have received calls. I guess what happens after a holiday, we have Democrats and Republicans who may not be here 20 minutes after 5:30. We are not going to do any heavy lifting after the vote tonight anyway, so we are going to keep the vote open for a while to see if some Senators who would like to be recorded--I do not think it will be a close vote--have that opportunity, both Democrats and Republicans. As everyone knows, we have had a rule around here that, unless it is a close vote, we close it as quickly as we can after the time has expired. We will continue doing that. But I thought tonight it would be appropriate to not cut people off because of these flights being delayed.

Also, of course, the previous order with respect to counting postcloture time, if cloture is invoked--there is an order already in effect for that--and that would remain as if cloture had been invoked at 5 p.m. today. We will invoke it a little later today when the time is up.

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

Mr. President, we have a number of nominations we are going to try to clear today. We have a number

of consent requests but just a few in number. We have been asked by the White House to hold off on one of those for the next 15 minutes, so we will do that. We have quite a large batch of nominations to clear. We have a hold on them. We thought we had it all worked out, but there is a problem on the other side. That is unfortunate, but that is what seems to happen. I have had a number of conversations with the President's Chief of Staff, and they have had numerous meetings with my people and the President's people. We thought we had everything worked out--and we do on our side--as to what Mr. Bolton wants. But we will wait to see if that can be worked out with the minority, and sometime in the near future.

I have nothing further at this time, Mr. President.

Mr. President, following leader remarks the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

There will be no rollcall votes today. The next vote will occur at 5:30 p.m., Monday, July 7. That vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur with respect to the housing reform legislation.

Last night, we were able to reach agreement to complete action on the FISA legislation. That will be when we return from the recess. So there will be three amendments in order to the legislation, with limited debate time on each. Senators should be prepared to debate and vote on the FISA legislation, which we will complete on Tuesday, July 8.

Mr. President, I understand there are three bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to proceeding to these bills en bloc.

Excellent. That is good news.

Mr. President, in 2003, Congress responded to President Bush's call for action by creating the Global HIV/AIDS Program. The goal of that program was to confront the crisis which has killed more than 30 million Africans since 1982. Thousands are dying every day. About 5,000 are dying every day in Africa--every day, weekends, no holidays off. This strongly bipartisan effort to create this legislation has already helped tens of millions of Africans affected by HIV/AIDS. It has been 5 years since we passed that legislation, and now it is time to reauthorize the Global HIV/AIDS Program.

This program was started with bipartisan support, and that support remains today. The House of Representatives passed the reauthorization on a strong bipartisan vote. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee also passed the bill with broad bipartisan support. This legislation has the strong support of Senate Democrats, most of the Senate Republicans, and President Bush.

Unfortunately, as happens often, the legislation has been blocked by a small group of Republican Senators who have placed a hold on this legislation, preventing us from moving forward. That is why several months ago I asked Chairman Biden and Ranking Member Lugar to negotiate a compromise. They worked tirelessly on this challenge. I thank them for their hard work. Also, Senator Enzi, the ranking member of the HELP Committee, in the absence of Senator Kennedy, has worked very hard to get rid of some of the holds.

Given the importance of this legislation and the overwhelming amount of work we have to do in the Senate, I thought it would be appropriate to set a deadline to get something done, and that deadline was this week for the negotiations to be completed. First, it was Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday. Then yesterday I was told by Senator Enzi there was one more person to work it out with and we could clear it tomorrow. That is today--he told me that yesterday.

We thought an agreement had been reached, and we have a final text of the agreement. I thank everyone for their work and their leadership during these negotiations, for their hard work over the past few days to close the deal on the final issues.

Senators Coburn, Enzi, Burr--I indicated, and the White House--have all taken part. I certainly hope my colleagues on the other side will not block this bipartisan agreement.

President Bush will be attending the G-8 conference over the July recess and

should have this bill in hand to show the commitment of the United States on HIV/AIDS. As President Bush said in February of this year:

Congress needs to make sure that this HIV/AIDS plan,

PEPFAR, gets reauthorized for a 5-year period of time. We

don't want people guessing on the continent of Africa whether

or not the generosity of the American people will continue.

Mr. President, we really must act now. I ask unanimous consent----

Mr. SESSIONS addressed the Chair.

Mr. President, Calendar No. 698, S. 2731--this legislation is named after Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde, with whom I had the good fortune of serving in the House of Representatives. They were both wonderful men. This is called the Lantos-Hyde U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 698, S. 2731, that the only amendment in order, other than the committee-reported substitute, be the Biden-Lugar substitute which is at the desk; that the substitute be agreed to, the committee-reported substitute, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill and there be no further intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I am disappointed, to say the least, that again the Republicans objected to passing this bill. The White House made a number of calls this morning but obviously not enough. They are concerned that the President is going to be embarrassed when he goes to Europe and not be able to say that this legislation is going to be approved.

I now will offer a unanimous consent agreement, another one, which I think is reasonable based on the bipartisan agreement we have reached so far, which allows Senators on both sides to offer amendments. So I say to everyone, if people do not like this, let's bring this to the floor and have some amendments. That is what this is all about. The consent agreement will have the bill come to the floor at a time when both leaders agree--not just me.

A lot of things we do here say: The majority leader in consultation with the minority leader. That is not what we are saying today. It will take the consent of both leaders. I hope this will be something that is acceptable.

With this consent agreement, we are making the commitment to move the bill to the floor but giving both Democrats and Republicans a voice in the process. This agreement is fair and allows for a substitute to represent the bipartisan agreement--and, as I said, this offer is more than fair. So here is my next unanimous consent request that I will propound.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 698, S. 2731, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Republican leader, and that the only amendments in order, other than the committee-reported substitute, be the following: Biden-Lugar managers' package substitute amendment, two amendments from each side that are germane to the Senate bill, committee-reported substitute and the Biden-Lugar substitute; with second-degree amendments in order to the four amendments that are germane to the amendments to which offered.

There will be two amendments on each side with second-degree amendments in order to the four amendments. As you multiply that, that is a lot of amendments. They have to be germane, would be the only stipulation.

General debate on the bill will be limited to 2 hours equally divided, controlled between the leaders or designees; debate time on any first-degree amendment be limited to 60 minutes equally divided and controlled in the usual form; and any second-degree amendments be limited to 30 minutes equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that upon disposition of all amendments, the use or yielding back of time, the substitute, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Foreign Relations Committee then be discharged of H.R. 5501, the House companion, and that all after the enacting clause be stricken and the text of S. 2731, as amended, be inserted, the bill be read a third time, and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of H.R. 5501, as amended; that the provisions of this agreement become effective only after each of the amendments covered under this agreement have been available for 24 hours for review and printed in the Record; and each leader notifies the legislative clerk that they have no objections, and places a statement in the Record; further, that S. 2731 then be returned to the calendar.

Mr. President, I am deeply disappointed. We are going to finish this bill sometime during the next work period, or certainly give it a real try.

Democrats have listened to the concerns of every Senator, especially a small group of Republicans standing in the way of international AIDS assistance. We have compromised, and we have negotiated for months.

The unanimous consent agreement that I have offered is more than fair and will bring forward a strong bipartisan bill. As I said, we will have to finish this when we get back in 10 days or so. We have to finish the housing bill, we have to do the work on FISA; that should take up the first week.

And, of course, we have other things to do. But this will be part of what we plan to do during the next work period. There are literally millions of people depending on us.

That is true.

We will certainly hope to make it good enough that we can get it out of the Senate. We have tried very hard to do that. It is an important piece of legislation.

This is something the President has wanted. He talks about it all the time. We have done our best for him, and we will keep everyone advised of our progress.

We are going to do our very best to finish this next work period. I am confident it may take a little bit of time that people do not want to spend, but we are going to have to do that because it is too important not to.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of H.R. 6327--this matter was received from the House earlier further, that a Baucus substitute amendment at the desk which is a 3-month FAA extension and a highway trust fund fix be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; and the motions to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I am wondering while my friend is on the floor, the highway trust fund, according to the States, is upside down. There is not enough money in it. With the construction season upon us for renovation and repair of streets, highways, and bridges, I say to my friend: Would any smaller amount of money be satisfactory, say, $6 billion?

Mr. President, I am disappointed but not nearly as disappointed as 50 Governors. This is a situation where the highways of this country are in desperate need of repair and construction.

With the economy faltering, as it is, and the housing market stumbling, this would be a tremendous help. For the $6 billion, it would create about 300,000 jobs--300 thousand. For every billion dollars we spend, it creates about 47,500 high-paying jobs. The spinoff from those jobs is significant.

This would be vitally important to give our economy a little shot in the arm. So I am disappointed my friend has objected.

We are going to have to continue to work to try to replenish that trust fund. The trust fund is not adequately funded because of the fact that people are not traveling as much. They are not buying enough fuel at least to fill the trust fund. The price of gasoline, when President Bush took office, was $1.46, $1.47. Now it is an average of about $4.12 a gallon.

We have real problems around the country. When gas was at $1.47, the same tax came into the coffers to fill this fund. So it is an issue, and I would say to my friend, the technical corrections bill was just that, it was to take care of other things that were essentially needed at that time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 6327.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read three times 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.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 836, H.R. 3661, an act to extend the expiring Medicare provisions; that the bill be read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I say to my friend, this legislation passed the House by a huge bipartisan vote--359, as I recall, House Members voted for this.

Now, as far as putting the stamp of the Senate on this bill, we have already done that. We passed a bill. We had every Democrat and nine Republicans. That is basically what the House has sent back to us--that matter we took a look at earlier.

I say that the chairman of the committee, Senator Baucus, is 100 percent

behind this request I have, as is the AARP, the AMA, and many support groups around the country. That is now in the Record. We put that in the Record yesterday.

So this is something we have to do. I would say to my friend, on the 30-day extension, I understand the seriousness of his proposal. I have said many times on this floor, I will not repeat it in detail, I have the greatest respect for the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire. But it is my understanding that there has been an objection to my proposal, and he will go ahead and offer the 30-day extension, to which I will object.

I will be happy to seriously consider it but not too seriously.

I object.

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

Madam President, under the authority of the June 24 order issued by the Chair, I now ask that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 627 and 628.

Madam President, all Senators should be aware that this vote will occur very quickly and the second vote will occur immediately after the first one is completed. We appreciate everyone's cooperation. We are still working through some issues, and we will have some news for the rest of the Senators by the time, hopefully, the first vote is announced.

Yes.

Madam President, let me say to the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee, we are glad we are at the point where we are today. There has been cooperation. We have approved two circuit court judges. This will be the third district court judge. It is my understanding there was a markup that went ahead today without any problem and a couple more judges were reported out at that time.

I appreciate the continued good work of my friend, the distinguished Senator from Vermont.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

For the information of all Members, Senator Leahy and Senator Specter have agreed that we can have the judge's vote by voice, and we will do that in a minute. But I wish to inform everyone that the Republican leader and I, following this judge being approved--we will go into a quorum call, and we will be in a position, hopefully, in the next 15 minutes, half hour--you know how time is counted in the Senate. Jack, who used to work down here--one night I came in here and he gave me a dog chain. I said: Why did you do that? He said: Because the Senate goes on dog time.

We will try to do something very quickly. But we will go into a quorum call following the judge being approved, and Senator McConnell and I will be back with the next chapter of the saga as quickly as we can.

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

Mr. President, we do not have our path forward yet, and that is an understatement. But we are working on it. There are a number of Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who want to speak in morning business.