Floor Statements

Mr. President, following leader time, the Senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act, H.R. 2419. There will be 90 minutes for debate on the conference report.

I might add in passing that Senators worked until about 11 o'clock last night on this important piece of legislation.

The Senate will vote on any motions relating to the conference report prior to a vote on its adoption. Senators should expect the first vote of the day to begin about 11:05, 11:10, depending on how long Senator McConnell and I take. Upon disposition of the conference report, we expect to begin the process of appointing conferees to the budget resolution conference. Senators should expect rollcall votes to occur throughout the day.

I would note that there is a 1 p.m. filing deadline for first-degree amendments to the collective bargaining legislation, H.R. 980.

As I mentioned last night, when we finish adoption of the conference report, it will be up to Senators Judd Gregg and Kent Conrad to determine how many motions will be filed to instruct conferees. Other Senators can do that, of course, but it would have to be through the two managers. There is a total of 10 hours on that. We would hope that time could be shortened significantly. We are going to finish that tonight, the appointing of conferees.

I have spoken to Senator Dorgan. We have the media cross-ownership matter that he has proceeded forward with under a statute Senator Nickles and I passed in the early 1990s. The statutory time limit on that is 10 hours. Senator Dorgan told me last night that he would take 1 hour. I would hope others wouldn't take much more time than that. That being the case, there is an opportunity to finish that tonight. I hope that is the case. Otherwise, we would finish that tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we have scheduled now a cloture vote on the collective bargaining matter we worked on this week. As I indicated last night, we are going to see if Senators Kennedy and Gregg can work something out on that, along with the comanager of the bill, Senator Enzi. If they can give us some way to proceed to complete that, maybe we can work out a unanimous consent that we wouldn't have to do the cloture vote. I think the ability to do that is somewhat slim, but I never give up hope. It might be possible.

The point being, we have a lot to do. We are going to work late tonight unless there is some agreement that shortens the time significantly on the appointing of conferees and the cross-ownership issue dealing with the Dorgan proposal. I think that is what we have ahead of us.

The reason I am making sure we complete everything this week, the House is going to pass, sometime today, the supplemental. We have no votes on Monday. I would hope we could start maybe on that issue on Monday because we would like to do some other things next week. But that is a big issue to deal with. The House can jam things through, as we all know, because they have different rules than we do. But over here we have to follow our rules, which are not the

House rules. So one of the first things we will do when we see what the House finally does, because we don't know yet, is I will sit down and talk to the Republican leader and find out if there is a way we can proceed to allow people to do what they think is necessary on the bill but at least make it so it is more understandable and we are not here this coming Friday, a week from tomorrow, 8, 9 o'clock at night, still trying to figure out what we are going to do on that. As contentious as this matter is, I would like to have an orderly process on which to move forward.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the subsequent two votes on this agricultural matter be 10 minutes in length.

Mr. President, we don't often have the opportunity to celebrate on the Senate floor. There is oftentimes, we must acknowledge, a lot of acrimony and finger-pointing.

Today, I want to take a minute to express my appreciation to all those involved in this bill. We know there were Senators Harkin, Chambliss, Baucus, and Grassley, but many other people were involved in this process to get us where we are today.

This is a tremendously important piece of legislation. This was dead on at least 15 different occasions, but it was revived. There was true bipartisanship--a true situation where we had conferences, where people met in open session and voted. It was what we all should come here to look forward to doing--legislating such as we did here.

This is a very complicated and difficult piece of legislation. Was there enough reform? I don't know how much is enough. Certain groups look at these farm programs, and there is nothing you can do to satisfy them. No matter what is done, it is not enough for them. Every time we do a farm bill, the editorial boards from around the country roll out the old editorials, they change a few lines and send out the same editorial they did before.

This bill has reform in it. Could we have done more? Perhaps, but had we done more, we would not have gotten a bill. What did we get as a result of the compromises made? We got nutrition. What a wonderful thing. We got food stamps. For us in Nevada this is important. Since 2000, the numbers of food stamps-qualified people have gone up more than 100 percent. We didn't change the rules to let more people into the program. They qualified under the old rules, and now, by more than 100 percent, that has been increased. This legislation takes care of that.

Children going to schools all around America, as a result of this legislation, will get fresh fruits and vegetables in their lunch programs. That is remarkable. There are people in this Chamber who didn't have the opportunity when they were kids in school to have fresh fruits and vegetables. That is the way it is all over America, especially with kids who grew up in these urban centers. Fresh fruits and vegetables are something they don't get often. This is wonderful.

Food banks, I have heard Sherrod Brown and others talk about how the food banks are going empty. We have a lot of hungry people in America, and we have to acknowledge that. This farm bill acknowledges that. We are going to increase food bank money by $100 million each year. That is a lot of money. It is very important.

We have conservation. My friend, Tom Harkin, has caused me so much grief on this conservation program. It was his idea to do some conservation programs. The administrations--plural--a lot of times didn't want to give him what he felt was the law. He held up a lot of things going on in the Senate as a result of that. So the conservation programs, because of the dedication of Tom Harkin, are remarkable. I watched Senator Harkin, last night, show the pictures of what takes place when there is good conservation. Now farmers and ranchers will be rewarded as a result of that. That is extremely important.

Even the State of Nevada will be able to compete for money in the conservation programs.

There are disaster programs. We in the West have been ravaged by wildfires. As a result of being ravaged, the Bureau of Land Management and other land managers close up rangeland, and there is nothing the ranchers can do; they close them up. They will now qualify for disaster relief, which is in this bill.

For the first time, this is going to be the case: compensation for wildlife damage.

One of the favorite talking topics is energy. This bill actually does something about it. There is a demand we stop using corn and other such items that are edibles to make fuel. This legislation recognizes that point.

I have talked about reform. This bill contains reforms. There are reforms on caps on payments to farmers. Remember, farm programs count for less than

13 percent of this bill's spending and are expected to climb by $60 billion over the next 10 years. That sounds pretty good.

This bill, as other important legislation, is one of compromise. That is what legislation is all about.

I know we have a lot to do. I extend my congratulations for this remarkable piece of legislation. This is how we should legislate. I am so appreciative of the bipartisan nature of this legislation. I look for a real big vote. I hope we have a strong vote indicating the bipartisan nature of this legislation.

I ask unanimous consent we now proceed to a period of morning business for 1 hour with Senators being allowed to speak therein for a period up to 10 minutes each.

I tell all Members the reason for this is we are going to move to the budget, appointing of conferees, with Senator Conrad and Senator Judd Gregg having some issues they need to work out prior to that. I think it would be in the best interests of us all if that consent agreement were confirmed.

Madam President, I would amend that to have the time equally divided between the majority and minority.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, for all Senators, I have been talking this afternoon with Senators Kennedy, Enzi, Gregg, and McConnell, of course. We believe it would be in the best interests of the Senate to vitiate the cloture vote in the morning. Senator Kennedy and Enzi have agreed to continue working on the firefighters bill. Yesterday, it was interrupted by the farm bill, and the Graham amendment was an interruption.

As I have said on a number of occasions, there is not more of a gentleman in the Senate than Mike Enzi. He felt aggrieved--that is my word, not his--and he needs more time on this. Again, I have talked to him and Senator Kennedy. They believe they can get from here to there and work out something so that we can wind up completing the bill.

I have asked the managers to work together to see if they can reach agreement on the process that will permit the Senate to complete action on the bill in a timely way.

Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote be withdrawn with respect to H.R. 980.

Mr. President, let me further say that when these two good Senators come back to me with that process, I will confer with the Republican leader, and then I will make a decision when to return to this. I favor this a lot. I think it is a great piece of legislation. I hope we can complete it.

We should continue the bipartisan approach we have had up to this time on that legislation. I appreciate the understanding of the Senate in allowing us to approach this in a different way. This is not unique. We have done it on other occasions. For a lot of reasons, cloture would not be invoked tomorrow. I think people favor this legislation and they would vote for cloture if there is more of an opportunity to work on amendments. I appreciate the cooperation of everybody.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, upon disposition of the House message on S. Con. Res. 70, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 731, S.J. Res. 28, a joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the FCC with respect to broadcast media ownership, the statutory time be reduced to 2 minutes equally divided and controlled between Senators Dorgan and Stevens or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of the time, the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution; provided further that all remaining provisions of the statute remain in effect. I further ask that all statements relating to the matter be printed in the Record prior to the vote on this important piece of legislation.

Finally, as I understand, we have one more rollcall vote we are going to have now. There will be no votes tomorrow. This will be the last vote until Tuesday morning, unless someone has an objection.

Mr. President, following leader time, there will be a period of morning business for up to 1 hour, 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. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 980, the collective bargaining legislation. Rollcall votes are expected to occur throughout the day.

Debate on this legislation has been exemplary. All amendments to this point that have been offered relate to labor issues. That is important. This is a bipartisan bill. We should be able to legislate on this, hopefully get it completed in the near future. There is a lot of pent- up desire on both sides to offer amendments on all different issues, but I think we would get more done if we could focus on this legislation.

I indicated to Senator Enzi, who was so involved in this, how we would proceed. He has been, as he always is, a gentleman. Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi didn't get everything worked out on this piece of legislation that they wanted prior to coming to the floor; therefore, Senator Enzi feels an obligation to offer some amendments to take care of some of the issues he believes are important, and I support him on that.

Mr. President, S.J. Res. 32 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with respect to the joint resolution.

Mr. President, before turning this over to the Republican leader, we have worked long and hard on the farm bill. It is a bipartisan bill. It has been a struggle to get where we are. I so appreciate the work done by Senators who are responsible for bringing this to the floor, Senators Harkin and Chambliss, Baucus, Grassley, and a lot of other players who are involved. It is a very important piece of legislation. We expect to turn to the farm conference report as soon as we receive it from the House. We even will try to do it before it comes here, if we can get a consent agreement. We hope we can limit debate on this matter and get it out of here.

Remember, this week we have to hopefully dispose of the collective bargaining legislation. We have to take

care of the farm bill. We have to appoint conferees on the budget. We also have to dispose of, because we have a statutory problem, the media cross-ownership issue. There are 10 hours of debate on that. I hope we can limit that significantly. Those are the items we need to complete this week--this week--and it is already Wednesday.

Mr. President, I thought things were too good to be true, that we would have a debate on a bipartisan bill. There are a lot of things we could do to bring the Presidential politics into what is going on here on the floor. I think this is untoward.

This is a bill that has been worked on for a long time. Senator Kennedy and Senator Gregg have worked in good faith to bring this up to help firemen and police officers. I had a group of police officers in my office today. They were so excited about this bill because we are doing something to help them.

We have been through this before. I told Mike Enzi last Friday, through staff, that I would not fill the tree on this. I wanted to see if we could work in good faith for once without the Republicans playing their petty politics. But, obviously, we cannot do that.

Now, is it any wonder--I ask: Is it any wonder--that the Republicans have lost three special elections for House seats? It is no wonder. The American people understand what this Republican-led Congress has done, led by this man in the White House.

Now, is it any wonder that in a poll yesterday in the Washington Post, the Democrats have a 21-percent lead on the Republicans on being better able to handle the problems of this country? It is no wonder because this is what we have. They are not serious about anything.

We have had 71 filibusters that have been filed this Congress we have tried to break--we have had to break them--71 filibusters.

So I tell my friend, Chairman Kennedy, and Ranking Member Enzi, it is obvious we cannot complete this legislation. It is obvious that games are being played.

Now, can you imagine on this bill dealing with people who are first responders--on 9/11, who were the people rushing into that building to die? Firefighters and police officers. They have asked for some help from us. For example, in Nevada, we have a situation where the State legislature said local law enforcement officers can bargain collectively. But isn't it interesting, the State cannot. Highway patrol officers cannot, those people who are capital policemen in Nevada cannot.

That is what this legislation would do. It would direct attention to some of the problems law enforcement has in this country, and we are not going to be able to do it because we are working now and are going to have to vote on whether there should be a holiday on gas prices. I talked to a woman in Pahrump, NV, yesterday, 50 miles out of Las Vegas. She moved to Pahrump because it would be cheaper to live. She works in Las Vegas. Well, that was a bad bet she made because she has a diesel vehicle. Yesterday, it cost almost $130 to fill it with diesel fuel, and she has to fill it once a week.

So we have a situation here where now we are going to start debating the energy policies of this country. We are happy to enter into that debate because we know the energy policy in this country has been set by Dick Cheney. He met with oil companies. It was all secret. They protected themselves, even through the Supreme Court, that we would not know whom they met with and what they met with. But it is obvious the policies they came up with have been a real big boon to the energy companies, making more money than any companies in the history of the world.

So if my Republican colleagues want to debate energy, we are happy to do it. What we wanted to work on is something to help police and fire. I am very disappointed. We on this side wanted to finish this legislation. But we have a cloture motion filed on the McCain proposal, and I am forced to acknowledge that probably he is trying to do anything he can. He is a flawed candidate, and he is wrong on the war, and he is wrong on the economy. But it is too bad he is still interfering with what we are trying to do here to start doing some serious legislating, ``he,'' meaning John McCain.

Mr. President, all except the 9--10 new Senators we have remember the time that I lived on the Senate floor. For 6 years I was here from the time we came in session until we left, with no exceptions. I tried at that time to be as fair to the Republicans as the Democrats. If someone asked for more time on our side, with the Republicans not being here, they automatically got that time.

That is what took place today--I want Senator Kennedy to hear this. I want Senator Kennedy to hear this. Here this morning I congratulated you and the ranking member, Senator Enzi, because we were having a good debate and we were going to be working from the idea that we would try to improve this bill. I said specifically that Senator Enzi said he wished he had more time to do some committee work, and he wanted to do some work out here.

More power to him. That is what he should be able to do. I complimented everyone for the way this bill was being handled. Do you know the sad part about it, I say to my friends. Senator McConnell was standing right there. We had a conversation walking out the door. Shouldn't he have said to me: Well, maybe you shouldn't feel that way; I am going to file cloture on the McCain amendment to get the tax holiday on gas.

But I am so surprised. I never try to avoid a phone call from my Republican counterpart. I always try to be available. I would say this: I would never do to him what he did to me this morning. It is untoward.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Because we had so much notice on this, I thought it was the McCain tax holiday amendment. But, no, it is the McCain effort to change the Jim Webb bipartisan GI bill of rights because it is too generous. So this idea is about the same as the gas tax holiday. He doesn't like the GI bill of rights because it is too generous. Now I am wondering if we want to debate Iraq on this bill because we are happy to do it. We are happy to debate an intractable civil war that is costing the American people $5,000 a second every day of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year, $5,000 a second. No weekends off, no holidays, $5,000 a second of borrowed money.

Do we want to debate the Iraq war? Is that what we want to do on this bill that was set aside to deal with firefighters, police officers, and first responders?

Those people came to my office today, some in uniform, some in plain clothes, because that is what they do. Some of them wear their uniform to work every day. Some do other work so they can't wear the uniform. They are

undercover. But no--I apologize to everyone. I thought we were on the McCain tax holiday. But, no, we are now on the GI bill of rights McCain effort because it is too generous.

The bipartisan bill of Jim Webb that he wrote himself, bipartisan in nature, is too generous according to John McCain. We are happy to debate that. If that is what this body needs to do is to start the supplemental debate a week early, we can do that too.

I note the absence of a quorum.

Yes.

Yes. We are going to do it next week anyway. Do you want to do it a week early? Fine.

I say to my friend not only was an amendment filed, but untoward cloture was filed at the same time on that amendment. Now, what would happen if on every piece of legislation around here, when you offer an amendment, a person walks in and files a cloture motion at the same time? That is a little funny way to do it. But maybe the Republicans love this filibustering so much--they broke the record, the filibuster record, in 10 months. Maybe they really want to in effect break Hank Aaron's record big in the way of filibusters. It is not enough to break it in 10 months, they want to really break it big, so now they are going to start filing cloture motions on their own amendments.

So I think what we need to do is just relax a little bit. We are going to suggest the absence of a quorum in just a second, and we will talk a little bit to see if there is a way out of this. I hope there is a way out of it for the benefit of the police and firefighters and first responders of this country. They are in town this week because there is going to be a memorial for those who were killed this year, police officers who were killed this year in service to their counties, their cities, and their States. They are here. Part of the reason they are here and the reason we scheduled this at this time is because they were going to be here.

So I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I yield for a question without losing the right to the floor.

As I said, Mr. President, we are going to go into a quorum call and huddle down here and find out if there is a way out of this.

Yes.

I say to my friend, and he is my friend, we are not going to have any more discussion on this piece of legislation until we figure out a way to help the police and firefighters. The decision was made by the Republican leader to debate the GI bill of rights, OK? That is where we are now.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I object.

I object.

I object.

I object.

I object.

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

Mr. President, I appreciate the patience of all Senators. I am going to, in a couple minutes, move to table the Graham first-degree amendment. That vote will take place shortly. Following that, I have asked Senators Kennedy and Enzi to sit down and see if there is a way we can finish this important legislation. We have other things to do this week. We have the farm bill that will be here within the hour from the House. We have the budget conferees we have to appoint. Senator Dorgan is pushing hard on the media cross-ownership. That is something we need to complete this week. I want all Senators to see what they can do to exert influence on their friends to finish this bill. I have talked to the head of the firefighters. He is tremendously troubled that we ran into this roadblock. The underlying bill is very important. I would hope everyone understands that. We have all next week to do whatever needs to be done on the supplemental appropriations bill. We will get into a lot of discussion on the war in Iraq and what is going to happen to returning veterans.

In the meantime, it is my understanding the matter before the Senate is the Graham first-degree amendment. I move to table Graham amendment No. 4763 and ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, we have tried very hard. I was here a few hours ago when the Senate opened, congratulating the Senate for moving forward on a very important bill for firefighters and police. I guess my expectations were far too high. I thought we were going to legislate and finish this bill. It is a bill that is so important.

I had the opportunity after the log had been thrown in the road to speak with the head of the firefighters union. I don't run from organized labor. I think it is important that we recognize the good they do in the country, and no one can dispute the work that firefighters do. I talked with Mr. Schneeberger and told him I don't know if we can do this bill; it appears Republicans don't want to do it. They have offered a mini GI bill of rights. Of course, we have been delayed. That is very unfortunate.

I hope Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi can work something out to complete the bill in a very short period of time. We have done about the best we can.

I spoke with Senator Enzi last night--I don't know what time it was-- 4:30, 5 o'clock. I asked if he wanted votes last night. He said no because he didn't get the work done in committee that he wanted and he had some work to get done on this bill. I accepted that. I said fine.

I was hoping we would do more today. We tried to get a vote on an amendment and could not get agreement to get a vote on an amendment. So at this stage, we are going to see if we can invoke cloture on this bill. If it doesn't work, it is just another bill the Republicans brought down.

Mr. President, I said this morning, is it any wonder that three special elections held for House seats have gone to Democrats in districts where no one expected a Democrat to win? The reason is because the American people are seeing what is going on here. They see what is going on at 16th and Pennsylvania Avenue, and it is down here now

where we cannot do anything, nothing. Mr. President, 71 or 72 filibusters. I don't know how many we are at. We are moving up the road. Is it any wonder that a poll came out yesterday in the Washington Post saying that the American people believe Democrats in Congress are 21 percent better able to handle the problems of this country than Republicans? It is no wonder.

In spite of that, in spite of 7 years and almost 5 months for President Bush, I still would like to work for the next 7 months with him to try to get things done. I would hope he would pick up the phone sometime and call down here and maybe help us get Federal aviation reauthorization done, just as an example. That is fresh in my mind because that was legislatively killed last week.

Cloture Motion

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I send another cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I want to shift gears now and express my appreciation to lots of different people.

I mentioned briefly this morning my congratulations to Senator Harkin, Senator Chambliss, Senator Baucus, and Senator Grassley, but there are other team members who worked so hard to get this most important bill done, the most important bill being the farm bill.

We only do a farm bill every 5 years. There are some who say it took us 5 years to get this bill done. That is really not the case, but we worked on it for a long time, worked very hard.

I mentioned in my caucus yesterday that this was an example of how we should legislate because we had conferences. We have been kind of getting out of the habit of having a public conference where Democrats and Republicans are appointed and sit down and try to work out the differences on a bill. That is what they did here. I think it was exemplary legislative work.

Was there any side that was more right than the other side? No. But they worked together to come up with a fine piece of legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2419, the farm bill, and during today's session there be 5 hours of debate--remember, this farm bill deals with food, it deals with energy, and it deals with security--with the time equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees; and when the Senate resumes the conference report tomorrow there be an additional 90 minutes of debate divided in the same manner; further, that if any motions to waive are made in response to points of order, then these votes occur in the order in which they were made prior to the vote on adoption of the conference report on Thursday; that on Thursday, upon the yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on adoption of the conference report.

Mr. President, my friend can have all the time he wants--10 minutes?

How about doing this then? We will go ahead and have this approved, and you do 10 minutes or however much time you want?

You would get it as soon as the consent is granted--right now.

Mr. President, before my friend starts, I have said publicly, I have told him privately--we do not have a Senator, Democrat or Republican, who is easier to get along with and who is a better legislator than Mike Enzi. He is a very fine man, and I am sorry he was cut off.

There will also be no more votes today as a result of this unanimous- consent agreement.

Madam President, I will just be a brief minute. I wanted to advise the Senate what we have in store the rest of this week.

Because of the cooperation on both sides, we have 90 minutes of debate on the farm conference report tomorrow. There could be two or three points of order offered on that, or whatever Senators want to offer. We will vote on those points of order after 90 minutes of debate prior to voting on the conference report.

Following that, we received the papers from the House on the budget. They have appointed conferees, and we also are going to appoint conferees tomorrow. Statutorily, there are 10 hours for the ability of any Senator to offer amendments to instruct conferees. We don't know how many amendments there will be. Senators Conrad and Gregg have been working on a number of issues they want to have resolved by votes in the Senate. That will be done. We look forward to that.

We would like to finish, and we are going to finish, the budget tomorrow. It may go into the evening, but that is fine. We have now scheduled a cloture vote for Friday morning. I hope during all day tomorrow Senators Gregg, Enzi, Kennedy, and others can see if there is a way of moving forward on the collective bargaining bill. If there is, then there would not be a need for a cloture vote. At least we need to spend tomorrow making that decision whether that can be done.

The other thing we have to finish before we leave this week--either tomorrow night or Friday--is the Dorgan cross-ownership issue that he indicated would only take a very short period of time. We have to do that. We have to complete that because it is statute, by June 3. We have 10 hours of debate allowed on that matter. It is also a privileged piece of legislation. Senator Dorgan said he thought, in my last conversation with him, he would only want 1 hour out of the 10 hours. Others will want to speak on that.

So that Senators know, that is what we have ahead of us this week. We have a situation where there are no votes on Monday, but Tuesday we enter into a critical stage of what needs to be done.

We have coming from the House tomorrow, we are told, a $180 billion supplemental appropriations bill. We are going to have to work hard on that. It will take work. We will be getting a message from the House. As I understand it, there will be three trees in that message they will give us. So we will have to have at least three separate votes on what they send us.

I look forward to working with Senators on both sides next week to complete that. In order to do that, we have to complete all of the work outlined a few minutes ago this week.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 10 am., in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 9:30 a.m. to hold a hearing on responding to the global food crisis.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 2:30 p.m. to hold a working coffee with Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate to conduct a hearing entitled ``Addressing the Challenge of Children with Food Allergies'' on Wednesday, May 14, 2008. The hearing will commence at 2:30 p.m. in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 10 a.m. to consider the nomination of the Honorable Paul A. Schneider to be Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 3 p.m. to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Archives Oversight: Protecting Our Nation's History for Future Generations.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Committee on Aging be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in SD-106 for the purpose of conducting a hearing.

Mr. President, following leader time, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 2284, the flood insurance legislation. There will be 60 minutes for debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form prior to a series of votes. Senators should expect votes to begin shortly after 11, maybe 11:10 or thereabouts, in relation to the following items: The McConnell amendment on energy with a 60-vote threshold; Reid amendment on energy with a 60-vote threshold; passage of S. 2284, the flood insurance legislation; cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 980, first responders collective bargaining. As a reminder, the Senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 today to allow the weekly caucus luncheons to meet.

Mr. President, we have talked now for several months about the number of filibusters. Today, this will be raised to 71. Comments have been made by Republican leaders that it doesn't matter; we are just doing the people's business; we are only getting done what is important.

The American people know what is going on. It is obstructionism at its zenith, at its best. The American people are beginning clearly to see this issue. A story in newspapers all around the country today, based on an article by Jon Cowen and Dan Balz in the Washington Post, indicates that the American people are seeing what is going on.

In polling done by the Post, along with others, the political party in America best able to deal with the country's problems: Democrats, by a 21-point advantage. It is obvious why. We are trying to do something about the problems facing America today. We are trying to do something about the intractable civil war we are engaged in in Iraq. We have a situation where we have 50 million people with no health insurance. We have the Earth's temperature rising every day. Our Earth has a fever. We need to do something legislatively to try to bring down that fever. We have an education system that is in crumbles. We want to do something about educating the troops coming back from Iraq. We believe these troops are just as gallant and heroic as the troops who fought in World War II. When the World War II troops came home, they had the ability to go to school and were educated, and it happened. It changed America forever. We think America could be changed forever again in the new paradigm we now face with these men and women coming back by the tens of thousands and not being able to afford to go to school.

We know that the Presidential candidate of the Republicans, Senator McCain, says it is too generous. Well, this piece of legislation, written by Jim Webb, is generous, but it should be because these troops returning from Iraq deserve our generosity.

The Democratic advantage is going to be pronounced come election time. We have tried to work on a cooperative basis and have been denied that time after time after time. We know that

Bush's disapproval rating in some polls is around 70 percent. Think about that. We have had a number of stories written in just the last 10 days that the lowest approval rating of any President in history is the President we are now dealing with, a person who is a divider, not a uniter. The American people see this. Eighty-two percent of the American people feel our country is headed in the wrong direction. I would hope that during the next few months we have left in this legislative session, we can stop the increase in this number here and work to try to accomplish good results for the American people. We have so much that needs to be done. We want to work to get this done. If we are able to accomplish things, there is credit to go around for everyone, Democrats and Republicans. But, of course, the obstructionism we face has made it so that there is no credit to go around, period. The American people have identified this, and rightfully so.

Mr. President, first I move to reconsider that vote.

Mr. President, I am going to ask unanimous consent, if everyone would be kind enough to listen to me--we just passed an amendment by 97 votes, I think I heard the Chair announce. I would therefore ask, as a result of that vote, that the Senate--the one we just concluded--I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a bill, which is at the desk, which encompasses the text of this SPR amendment which the Senate just adopted; that the bill be read a third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that there be no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, we could have this out of here today. The House could take care of it either tonight or tomorrow and be on the President's desk on Wednesday. I have been told by my distinguished friend, Senator Domenici, that there is going to be an objection on the other side. I think it is really unfortunate. That is one reason people are a little concerned about our conduct here. We just passed something by almost 100 votes, and someone now is objecting to taking this up as a bill. I think that doesn't make a lot of sense. I am terribly disappointed that we have more of this stalling and obstructionism that has gone on this entire Congress.

Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the previous order with respect to S. 2284 be further modified to provide that following third reading of S. 2284, the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3121, the House companion, and the Senate then proceed to its consideration; that all after the enacting clause be stricken, and the text of S. 2284, as amended, be inserted in lieu thereof; that the bill be read a third time, and the Senate then vote on passage of H.R. 3121; that upon passage of H.R. 3121, S. 2284 be returned to the calendar, with the remaining provisions of the previous order remaining in effect, and without further intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Is the Chair going to report the bill now?

Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Kennedy and Senator Gregg, I send a substitute to the desk.