Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, May 22; 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, and the Senate resume consideration of the House message to accompany H.R. 2641, the supplemental appropriations bill, as under the previous order.

Mr. President, under the previous order, the Senate will proceed to a series of up to four rollcall votes beginning shortly after 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. I am sorry to everyone involved that we didn't have this finalized earlier, but we were unable to do it any sooner.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, following leader time, there will be a period of morning business until noon, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the second. At 12 noon, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Michael McGinn, of Minnesota, to be U.S. Marshal for the District of Minnesota; Ralph E. Martinez, of Florida, to be a member of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States; and G. Steven Agee, of Virginia, to be U.S. circuit judge for the Fourth Circuit.

The time from noon until 12:30 is equally divided and controlled between Senator Leahy and Senator Specter. The Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly caucus luncheons. At 2:15, there will be 15 minutes for debate equally divided and controlled between Senators Warner and Webb or their designees. At 2:30, the Senate will proceed to a rollcall vote on the confirmation of the Agee nomination. Upon confirmation of the Agee nomination--and I am confident that will take place--the other two nominations will be confirmed by consent.

Following executive session, we expect to consider the House message accompanying H.R. 2642, the 2008 emergency supplemental. As previously announced, the time from 11 a.m. until 12 noon tomorrow will be set aside for tributes to former President Lyndon B. Johnson on the centennial of his birth.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 3035.

Mr. President, 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 relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I just finished a meeting to try to lay out to a number of Senators what we are going to be doing on the supplemental appropriations bill. It is going to be extremely difficult for us to get from where we are today to completing this legislation in a timely fashion. There are some very complicated issues, some very strong feelings by a lot of different Senators.

As highly controversial as is this war and this war funding, we are going to have to work together; otherwise, we are going to walk away from here this week with nothing done. That, I assume, is one alternative. It is not one I think most want, but that is an alternative.

The other problem we have, because of longstanding commitments, including the wedding of one of our Members, is we are going to start losing Senators very quickly. Because of that, there are two Senators who are going to leave sometime Thursday. They will not be here. We have, of course, Presidentials out in the country someplace. We are going to have to try to figure out when they need to be here. Senator Kennedy is still having tests run to determine when he can return.

So, to make a long story really short, we have a complicated path to completing our work, and we have to try to figure out a way to do the budget in this time period also.

So, Mr. President, I wish I could tell Members to just take it easy, everybody can leave, but I think what we are coming to is we are going to have to finish our work Thursday or this war funding bill will not be completed. That may not be the case; maybe we can work with less than 100 Senators trying to get it done, but it is not an easy chore. It is one that is necessary but difficult.

Mr. President, I say respectfully to my friend that the logic of his statement is really without foundation. Keep in mind, the complaint he has is the House sent us a bill that did not have war funding in it. Bingo. Why? Because 132 Republicans walked out--did not vote. One hundred thirty-two Republicans in the House did not vote for war funding. Don't blame it on the Democrats. Had 132 Republicans voted, there would have been war funding. But they decided not to vote.

So don't blame the House for sending us only conditional aspects of the war and sending us some other things, like the GI bill of rights. We have funded this war on borrowed money, spending $5,000 a second on this war--borrowed money. The House made a decision. They said: Well, don't you think it is a good idea we spend some money on the troops coming home, as we did in World War II, so they can get an education? This bill, written by Jim Webb, was adopted by the House overwhelmingly. And they did something else: It is paid for, not like the war. The war is not paid for. The GI bill of rights is paid for, as we have it.

So, Mr. President, I know we have a difficult road ahead of us because we do not have war funding in this bill because the Republicans in the House did not vote for it. Don't blame it on the House Democrats. There were enough of them to get a majority to do it. The Republicans walked out.

But I say, Mr. President, is it any wonder that the House Republicans have lost three special elections in districts that are overwhelmingly Republican? In Illinois, the former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert's district--they lost that. They lost a seat in a special election in Louisiana that was a slam dunk Republican district. And then in Mississippi, they lost one. Is it any wonder when they do tricks like this: ``Democrats didn't fund the war''? ``Well, don't check too closely because 132 of us just walked out and didn't vote.''

So I am here, Mr. President. We are going to go to this bill this afternoon. I spoke briefly to the distinguished Republican leader yesterday. We are going to have to try to figure out some way to work together to get votes. At the end of the day, we will see what happens. In the past, war funding has been--after a lot of arm-twisting and cajoling, there have been enough votes

to get that. I don't know if the votes are here this time, but we certainly recognize that we have an issue, and we are going to do the best we can with my friend, the distinguished senior Senator from Kentucky, to see what we can do to get to a point where we have this war funding over with until sometime next June. If we can't get it done, then we are going to have to worry about what we do in the next month, as he said, but hopefully we can complete it this week.

I object.

Mr. President, first of all, let me say this, before we get into Senate business. I made some remarks outside the Senate Chamber, as I always do, following our Tuesday caucus. I had with me Senator Chris Dodd and Senator John Kerry. The purpose of our being there was to talk about Senator Kennedy; and we did that.

Amidst the politics and partisanship that takes place in the Senate, the casual observer may not realize how the Senate is a family. We are 100 men and women who work hard during the day, each of us doing our very best to make the country a better place. We argue, we debate, but we approach each other with deep respect and friendship.

That is why, in the heat of battle, I always refer to my Republican counterpart as my friend. That is just not something we do for protocol. That is because Mitch McConnell is my friend. We say that as we proceed through our debates.

But just as we, as Senators, celebrate joyous occasions--birthdays, weddings, new children and grandchildren--we also face hardship together.

Today, we learned the concerning news about our friend, an American icon, an American legend, Senator Ted Kennedy. I know I speak for every Senator that our thoughts and prayers are with Ted and his family.

I had a conversation on the floor with Senator McConnell. He told me during the Republican caucus today they paused to say a prayer for Senator Kennedy, as we did in our caucus.

One of Senator Kennedy's brothers was killed in combat in World War II. Of course, we all know his brother, President Kennedy, was assassinated. We all know Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, was assassinated.

As I said outside, the thing I remember and will always remember about Senator Ted Kennedy is the speech he gave at his brother's funeral. I was not a Member of Congress at that time, but I watched on national television the speech he gave. It was remarkable what he said and how he delivered it. I will never forget that.

But in addition to that, we know one thing--all of us who know Ted Kennedy--he is a fighter. We have heard this lion roar on the Senate floor on so many occasions. His work ethic is unsurpassed. His effectiveness is legendary. The challenge Senator Kennedy now faces will not be easy, but I think no one is more prepared to fight and beat it.

I spoke at 1 o'clock to Vicki, his wonderful wife, and she said he has approached this like he does everything: with determination that he is going to beat it. She said he has a bounce in his step today that he has not had in a long time.

So he is in good spirits. He is full of energy. If Ted happens to be watching on C-SPAN, I want him to know all his brothers and sisters in the Senate are thinking of him, cheering, and praying for him.

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to H.R. 2642, the supplemental appropriations bill.

Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment-- that is amendment No. 2--with an amendment that is at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 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 for its consideration.

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

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

What now is the pending business before the Senate?

Mr. President, I appreciate the patience of my friend from New Jersey. He was here much earlier in the day. For a number of reasons we were unable to have him recognized at that time, but he is always such a team player who is willing to wait. I appreciate my friend from New Jersey very much.

At this time I now move to concur with House amendment No. 2, with the amendment which is at the desk.

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

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

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

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

I now send a cloture motion to the desk.

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

Mr. President, I have had a number of conversations with the distinguished Republican leader and I

have told him where we are going to try to get by the end of the work week on this matter now before the Senate, and he is mulling over my suggestions that I made to him this afternoon. We will meet again and talk about this tomorrow.

We also have now the budget conference report that has been filed. That was done this afternoon. Tomorrow I am going to ask consent that we move to that. There is a 48-hour rule. Under the 48-hour rule we can't get to that until Thursday at 4 o'clock. I think it would be to everyone's interest to see if we could get rid of that--I don't know if ``get rid of'' are the right words, but see if we can move on to that and adopt that report tomorrow.

We also received from the House the veto message--I am sorry, the farm bill. We are going to have to, at some time before we leave here, have a vote on overriding the President's veto on the farm bill. So there are things we have to do.

The budget has a statutory time. I am not certain we will need to use the whole 10 hours. I rather doubt it. We have the veto override. That is very privileged. We can spend a lot of time on that or whatever time people want. We hope we could get to that very quickly and see where the votes are.

And then we still have the supplemental to dispose of. So we have a lot to do in the next few days, but with some cooperation I think we can get to where we need to get. I certainly hope so. I hope that is important and understandable to the Senators.

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