Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent, notwithstanding adjournment of the Senate today, that the Record remain open until 1 p.m. today for the purpose of the introduction of legislation, adding cosponsors, submission of statements, and that committees may file reported legislative and Executive Calendar business.

I now ask unanimous consent when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 6; 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; that there then 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 Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half; and that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 2881, the FAA reauthorization bill. I further ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding any adjournment of the Senate, Senators be permitted to file amendments between 2 and 3:30 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. President, as previously ordered, the cloture vote on the substitute amendment will occur at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 6. The filing deadline for first-degree amendments to the FAA bill is 3:30 Monday.

I now ask unanimous consent the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Madam President, following my remarks and those of Senator McConnell, if he decides to make such remarks, there will be a period of morning business for up to 1 hour, with Senators to be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each during that time. The Republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the final 30 minutes. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2881, the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization.

Madam President, 5 years ago on the deck of an aircraft carrier returning from the Middle East, America and the world witnessed perhaps the greatest act of hubris our country has ever seen in wartime. Resplendent in a flight suit, landing theatrically in a fighter jet, President Bush declared: ``In the battle for Iraq, United States and our allies have prevailed.'' Above him was a banner, printed by the White House, with the idea coming from Karl Rove. That banner proclaimed ``Mission Accomplished.''

With families fleeing from Iraq by the tens of thousands to live as refugees, now approaching 2\1/2\ million--mission accomplished? With no government in place, with towns destroyed, with infrastructure in shambles--mission accomplished?

When President Bush put on his flight suit, 139 American troops had lost their lives. Today, the toll has reached 4,058 or 4,059. In April, with the highest death count in 7 months, 51 Americans were killed.

When President Bush landed on the runway of the USS Abraham Lincoln, 548 Americans had been wounded. Today that count is far more than 30,000, many of those grave injuries.

When President Bush announced that ``major combat operations have ended,'' the American taxpayers had spent about $79 billion in Iraq. Today, $526 billion and counting, we are spending $5,000 every second, 7 days a week, every week of the month, every month of the year. Those costs are going up, not down, with experts such as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz predicting $3 trillion will be the cost of the war, with every penny of it borrowed--from Japan, from China, from Saudi Arabia, even from Mexico.

In May, 2003, many of our allies had already begun to stand apart from us on the war. Today, our moral authority in the world has been gravely damaged. Not one American looks back on the 5 years since that aircraft stunt with any sense of satisfaction. Our country looks back with grief, sadness, yet with a fierce and unwavering commitment to finally change the mission and responsibly end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home.

That day aboard the USS Lincoln, our President told us the war would not be endless. He said: ``Americans, following a battle, want nothing more than to return home.'' He told the brave men and women aboard that carrier that home was their direction that day; that:

After service in the Afghan and Iraq theaters of the war,

after 100,000 miles on the longest carrier deployment in U.S.

history, you are homeward bound.

Madam President, let me again read that quote:

After service in the Afghan and Iraq theaters of the war,

after 100,000 miles on the

longest carrier deployment in U.S. history, you are homeward

bound.

To the men and women aboard the Lincoln that day, that speech must seem a distant memory. Could they have imagined that day that many of them, and their brothers and sisters in arms, would now be in their third, fourth, and fifth tours of duty? The ``Mission Accomplished'' speech will rightly be remembered with great anguish by all.

Look at this. This chart, sadly, is a little behind but it makes the picture. I indicated that wounded troops are more than 30,000 now. Troops in Iraq on that day were 5,000 more then, with the troops, some of them, coming home.

Cost of the war to the taxpayers--you can see that.

What do you American people think about the war in Iraq, was it worth fighting? You can see the numbers.

The estimated number of Iraqi civilians killed--Johns Hopkins University did a study. Their study says over 200,000 Iraqis have been killed. The number of Iraqis who have fled their homes is almost 5 million. The number of Iraqi security forces--we have trained them, we paid for them--is almost half a million.

Iraqi prison population.

Number of daily attacks by insurgents and militias in Iraq: to date it is about 55.

The number of multiple-fatality bombings in Iraq in May of 2003: zero. Now look at that.

Suicide attacks: almost 1000.

The price of oil: in May of 2003, it was $26.03 a barrel. Yesterday we had a little drop in the oil price. It is down from more than $120 a barrel the last few days to only $115 a barrel.

The price of gas then was $1.50. If you are lucky, you can find it someplace in the United States for $3.62. That is the average.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld will be written in the pages of history as the men who rushed a peaceful, deliberate nation headfirst into war without the slightest notion of what it meant to run or to end it. Five years later, the cost of their hubris is staggering--in lives lost and damaged, dollars spent, moral authority squandered.

Let's think back to the men and women aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that day 5 years ago; the excitement they must have felt by a Presidential visit; the encouragement of his words; the satisfaction of heading home to their families after a job well done.

They did their jobs, but the Commander in Chief didn't do his--as he has not done his job here at home, with record gas prices, record oil prices, and an economy spiraling into recession. I met with a number of homebuilders yesterday in room S-219. Have we reached the bottom in the housing market? They said: No, we are not close yet. About 50 million Americans are uninsured for health costs.

On this fifth anniversary, a sorry moment in our country's history, we pause to honor the troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and all our troops, their brothers and sisters in arms who fought and sacrificed and continue to fight in Iraq. They deserve not the false hope of a slogan engineered by Karl Rove, the President's chief slogan maker, but the real hope of a responsible end to a war that has raged far too long.

Mr. President, the work done on this piece of legislation to bring it to the floor is a good piece of work. Democrats and Republicans worked together to move toward solving one of America's major problems, and that is dealing with our aviation system. Chairman Rockefeller, Senator Inouye, Senator Baucus, Senator Stevens, Senator Grassley, Senator Hutchison, and their staffs understood that ensuring the safety and efficiency of America's air traffic is too important to fall victim to politics, slow walking, or obstruction. It even appeared for a while that this bill was on the path to a relatively smooth and easy final passage.

But now our Republican colleagues have signaled that they plan to let this bipartisan legislation fall victim to more obstruction. We could have moved to the bill yesterday, but the Republicans wouldn't let us do that. They forced us to spend more valuable legislative time not legislating, not trying to strengthen our country for the American people but simply overcoming procedural roadblocks that have been thrown at us time after time.

As we have said on a number of occasions, but certainly it is worth saying again, Republicans broke the 2-year filibuster record in the history of this Senate in just 10 months. We are now up to 68 filibusters. That is not normal filibustering, it is filibustering on steroids.

Democrats want to change our country for the better. We want to change the status quo. We have an economy spiraling into recession. Gas and oil prices are at a record high. We have the war in Iraq that 70 percent of the American people want to end. The problems we have faced and now face can't be solved easily.

But it would not be solved at all if Republicans refuse to let us legislate. The distinguished minority leader raised questions about offering amendments to the aviation modernization bill. As I said several times yesterday, we welcome their amendments. We want them to offer amendments. We understand there is a Bunning amendment dealing with turning coal into aviation fuel. I don't know much about that, but it is something that appears to be germane and relevant to the bill. We should start to debate that amendment. But it appears no matter what I suggest, it is obvious the Republicans don't like this bill and are not going to let us pass it.

It is my understanding that today they are concerned about at least two provisions in the bill. One deals with strengthening the passenger rail system we have in America and also doing something about the depleted highway trust fund, which is leaving States with no money to do road repairs, construction, and modernization. If that is the case, it seems to me the logical thing to do is to offer an amendment to take those provisions out of the bill.

Long ago, when I was an assemblyman in the Nevada State Legislature, it didn't take long to understand that if you don't like something, just move to take it out. If you can muster the votes, that works. If your amendment doesn't pass, at least everybody knows you have tried. Here the Republicans don't even try. They want to just kill things by doing nothing.

I told my Republican counterpart that Democrats are making every effort we can to allow amendments to be offered. We welcome relevant amendments on both sides of the aisle. That is how the legislative process is supposed to work. I even offered to the Republican leader that we can sit down and let him help me be the gatekeeper of what amendments should be offered. That is fair.

Do I want to avoid amendments that have nothing to do with aviation? I don't even care much about that. I want to move this bill forward. The Republicans' obstruction and claims of unfair dealings are not reflective of the facts or reality. I made it clear that the amendment process will be fair, open, and take place in the light of day. This legislation is far too important to fall victim to the gamesmanship we are now seeing. Air travel is about getting from point A to point B, such as going from Las Vegas to San Francisco or from San Francisco to Chicago. That is what it is about--connecting to family and friends, getting goods to businesses, and connecting Americans to the global community.

The Federal Aviation Administration is facing challenges like they have never faced before. A record 770 million passengers flew on U.S. commercial airlines in 2007--nearly double the number who flew just 20 years ago.

If these trends continue, the FAA told us we will have 1 billion passengers in just 12 years.

Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport--the fifth busiest in America--now hosts 4 million passengers every month. At this rate, McCarran will reach maximum capacity in the next 3 to 5 years.

Every American who flies understands what this new congestion means: longer lines, more delays, and a more stressful, less efficient trip.

If growth in air travel in Nevada and throughout America is managed correctly, it represents a tremendous opportunity for airlines, tourism, and our economy. But the risks we face if we don't bring our aviation infrastructure up to speed are clear: Americans could be put at greater risk, our economy could suffer, and air travel could grind to a halt.

This Aviation Investment Modernization Act will help ensure that we manage this growing challenge. It will help passengers take off sooner, land safer, help commerce flow with fewer interruptions, and help carriers lower their fuel costs--which will save us all money.

The Aviation Investment Act will make air travel safer by upgrading aging airport infrastructure, enhancing oversight of airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration, and improving runway safety. There was an article within the past week that most airline accidents--the close calls--are on runways, not in the air.

Right now, the GPS in your car is more sophisticated than the system that guides your flight in an airplane. That is why this bill modernizes an obsolete air traffic control system with modern technology. That is why this bill requires airlines to give passengers better information about arrivals and delays. That is why the bill incorporates elements of the passenger bill of rights to protect consumers and deal with the most egregious flight delays and cancellations. That is why this bill does things that make air travel safer.

As Americans take to the skies in record numbers, they deserve to know the Government is doing everything possible to keep them safe. This legislation will give the American people that confidence. It will also make flying not only safer but less stressful, more efficient, and more enjoyable.

We must not let a crumbling infrastructure grind our economy to a halt. That is what it is doing.

I urge my colleagues, once again, to put politics aside, put obstruction aside, and work with us to pass the Aviation Investment Modernization Act.

Mr. President, if somebody wants to offer an amendment to this bill, they can come down and do that. They can play all the political games they want, saying: Senator Reid filled the tree. This is something that is way inside the beltway, Mr. President. On this vehicle now before the Senate, people can offer amendments. All they have to do is come and give us an idea of what the amendment is. I have been in the Senate a long time, and it is no new theory that you would like to know what the amendment is. We always give our amendments to the minority and say here is what it is going to be. They should see it firsthand. This does not prohibit them from doing that.

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

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

Mr. President, I move to commit the bill to the Finance Committee with the instruction to report back forthwith, with the following amendment, which I send to the desk.

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

Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk.

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

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

Mr. President, it is really difficult for me to comprehend the reasoning of my friends on the other side of the aisle. All week we have done nothing. One of the most important bills that has been brought before this body this year, the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, as we speak there are thousands of airplanes going all across the United States. The equipment that allows those airplanes to take off and land is antiquated and way out of line for making air travel in America as safe as it should be. This legislation is very important and would be good for America, good for passengers.

We have in this legislation the passengers bill of rights, money to replace antiquated equipment. But the Republicans have stopped us from legislating. We have tried virtually everything.

I wanted to have an orderly process, which I think is not unreasonable. So last night I said: We have filled the different trees to allow amendments, but if you want to offer one, come on. No.

I said: Well, give us a list of the amendments you want to offer. No. They said: Bunning has an amendment. Let us see it. That went on all day yesterday. Finally, they told us today the subject matter of that particular amendment. When I learned about the subject matter, I said fine. It is something about coal being changed so they can use the fuel for flying airplanes. No.

I said: I will tell you what we will do. We will take down the tree. You can offer anything you want. No.

We heard what they didn't like were provisions that would allow rail service in this country to be updated and modernized. They didn't want that. There was some language in the bill that would do something to help make highway safety paramount. Don't want that. Offer an amendment to take it out. No.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that their objection was to a provision contained in the President's budget. I couldn't make up a story that is more ridiculous than the one I am relating, which is the truth. There is a provision in this bill that gives the State of New York the final amount of $20 billion that was promised them after 9/11 by President Bush. That amount of money is in his budget for this year, which he gave us. I talked to the distinguished Republican leader and said: Offer an amendment to take it out. This is in the President's budget. We still oppose it, is what I was told.

So it is obvious. The Republicans don't want to do anything to improve, to modernize the Federal Aviation Administration. I hope people who are within the sound of my voice think about that when they are flying across the country.

We are not going to be able to do it this year, more than likely. There will be room made in the schedule by the Republicans to take up $170-odd billion for funding the war in Iraq from now until a year from this June. With glad hands, they will all come to the Senate floor and spend more money in Iraq. I

guess they don't want to pull the plug on spending $5,000 every second. Maybe they are trying to up the ante. I will have more to say about this tomorrow, but it is really a disappointment.

This is not a victory for the Republicans to maintain the status quo, is it? Of course not. Would it be a big victory for the Democrats to pass the Federal aviation reauthorization? No. It would be something good for the American people. I hope the American public sees this for what it is. We Democrats are in the majority. It is a slim majority. It is 51 to 49. The Republicans obviously are upset over the fact that we are in the majority. They want the record to show that this Congress accomplished nothing.

In spite of the obstacles and their obstruction, we have still accomplished quite a few things. We are proud of what we have accomplished, considering all the hoops we had to go through to get where we did.

I never give up hope. I hope there will be a new day in Washington starting next week. One way we can have a new day: We give all the blame to the Republicans in the Senate. They certainly are the ones who are on the firing lines. But do you know how much it would mean if the man down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would call the Republican leader and say our country needs this FAA reauthorization? We need it. The President could call down here and break this logjam, as he could have done on all the other legislation they have stopped. How in the world do these people go to bed at night not worrying about the air traffic system falling apart, because it is going to. It is in desperate shape.

Out in this parking lot there are new automobiles that have GPS systems in them. That is better equipment than the FAA has moving all the airplanes around the country.

Cloture Motions

I send a cloture motion to the desk to the substitute amendment No. 4627.

I now send to the desk a cloture motion on the bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the substitute amendment No. 4627 occur at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 6; further, that the mandatory quorums for both motions be waived.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of Mr. McConnell, if he decides to make such remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2881, the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act. Senator Durbin will be recognized to offer an amendment on his behalf and that of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

As a reminder, the joint meeting of Congress with the Prime Minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern, is today at 11 a.m. Senators attending the meeting will gather in the Senate at 10:30 a.m. and proceed as a body to the Hall of the House at 10:40 a.m. In order to accommodate the joint meeting, the Senate will then be in recess from 10:40 until 12 noon.

Mr. President, the first amendment is a bipartisan amendment that will be offered, as I have indicated, by Senator Durbin and Senator Hutchison. I am going to have another conversation with the distinguished Republican leader as soon as he completes his statement here today, to see if we can figure out an orderly way to proceed on this very important piece of legislation. I think the managers have a good feel of this legislation. They think it is something we can complete fairly quickly. We just have to make sure we legislate on the FAA aspect of what is going on in the world today and not other things that have no bearing on this issue. We will see what we can work out. Hopefully, we can have a good day today and, with a little bit of good fortune, finish this bill this week.

Madam President, I have a perfecting amendment to the substitute at the desk, and I ask for its consideration.

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

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, it is a change of date.

That is our understanding.

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

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

Madam President, I have an amendment to the bill at the desk and I ask for its consideration.

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

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Madam President, to all the Senators who are on the floor, and those within the sound of my voice, there has been a new substitute filed. The purpose of that is to eliminate the provision we have been dealing with all day here. I say to my colleagues, there are discussions going on as to how we can resolve that, if, in fact, we can resolve it.

I say to especially my distinguished counterpart, Senator McConnell, at this stage we are now ready to start the amendment process. I was told early this morning that there was a Bunning amendment the minority wanted to offer. No problem; we just have not seen it. I think this bill, which is a tax bill--we do not want to tell anyone what they can or cannot offer--but I think it should be in keeping with what this bill is about. I have no problem if the Republicans want to offer one amendment, two amendments, or lots of amendments. I have no intention of trying to prevent them from offering amendments to this piece of legislation. But there comes a time when you have to move on, and that is what we are doing now.

I repeat: The floor is open. I do think it is appropriate--and the only thing I did here is to stop random amendments from being offered. I do not know how I can be more suggestive of the fact I want to finish this bill. I want it to be done. If there are people who want to amend parts of this very important bill, they should have a right to do so. I have no problem with that. I do say it would be appropriate that we at least see what the amendment is so we can move on, and as long as it is in keeping with this bill, I do not care what it does.

Madam President, I say, through the Chair to my friend, I want to legislate on this bill. If someone can come up with a better way that we do it, I am happy to do that.

As we know, if this vehicle is here, standing alone, anyone can offer any amendment on anything. I do not think that is helpful to the process. I do not want to stop them. If there are amendments over here to offer, I have said once, twice--this is the third time--more power to you, offer them. I don't wish to stand in the way of anyone offering an amendment. I don't want to be dealing with the war in Iraq, abortion or anything else which are some things that are very difficult to deal with. That is my whole purpose in doing this. I want to deal with FAA or anything within the realm of transportation. I hope everyone understands that. I will be happy--if somebody can figure out a different way to do this, let me know, and I will be happy to cooperate.

Mrs. HUTCHISON addressed the Chair.

The Senator from Texas makes my case. If there is part of this bill she doesn't like, whether it is tax provisions or anything else, offer an amendment to try to take it out. No one is trying to stop her from legislating. It appears to me my friend from Texas is looking for an excuse to kill this bill. If she doesn't like the tax provisions in this bill, offer an amendment to strike them. No one is stopping her from doing that.

I don't think it is asking too much to say we would like to have some idea of what amendments are going to be offered. I don't care what they are if they relate to this bill. I don't know how

many more times I need to say that. I think people, such as my friend from Texas, are looking for an excuse to deep six this bill, and that is what is going to happen.

We are at a place now where I have said if you want to offer amendments, offer amendments, and they are saying, well, we don't want to offer amendments because you have said you want to look at the amendments first.

I have said--it is so easy. If anyone wants to offer an amendment, we take that little tree and add her branch to it. It is easy to do. I am not trying to stop anyone from offering amendments to this FAA bill. It is an important piece of legislation and it should be accomplished. But we can't stand around for days on end looking at each other. We have people who say they want to offer amendments. Good. Let them offer amendments. I have no problem with that.

Madam President, I have an idea. Why don't we have an arrangement where the minority leader, the Republican leader, can also look at amendments with me. I am not going to try to stop anyone from offering an amendment. He can be part of the deal. I shouldn't be the sole arbiter. He can work with me on these amendments.

Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of three young Americans recently chosen by the American Automobile Association to receive the School Safety Patrol Lifesaving award.

In 1920, the American Automobile Association, AAA, began the School Safety Patrol Program in order to ensure that children across the country could commute to school in a safe manner. Today over 500,000 young people participate in this program, and every year since 1949, the AAA has recognized those patrollers who go above and beyond their duties.

For nearly 50 years, the AAA has given its highest School Safety Patrol honor, the Lifesaving Award, to those patrollers who have risked their own lives to save the life of another. Today I have the great honor of recognizing three courageous patrollers who, while on duty, showed the kind of clear-thinking, quick-acting skills that save lives.

Nicole Epstein participates in the School Safety Patrol Program at North Chevy Chase Elementary in Chevy Chase, MD, not far from where we stand today. In June of 2007, an 8-year-old boy watched the traffic light turn to green and began to cross a busy road, unaware that a car making a right-hand turn was heading directly toward him. Nicole, seeing the oncoming car, stepped off the curb and grabbed the boy's backpack to pull him to safety. The driver of the car must not have seen the boy, because the vehicle completed the turn and drove on

with out slowing down or acknowledging the children. Through her bravery and quick thinking, Nicole saved this young boy from being hit by that car.

Raul Valdez, a AAA school safety patroller at West Gate Elementary in Manassas, VA, showed great courage when he saved a young girl who ran out in front of an oncoming van on April 13, 2007. Following an adult guard's ``hold back'' instruction, Raul put his arms up to prevent students from crossing the busy area of the school drive where buses and daycare vans collect children. When a young girl attempted to run across the drive, Raul reached for her shoulder and swiftly pulled her out of the way of an approaching daycare van. Thanks to Raul's attentiveness and his speedy reaction time, that young girl was saved from harm.

Clarissa Sourada is a safety patroller at Union Mill Elementary in Clifton, VA. On a morning in February 2007, Clarissa was holding two children at the edge of a residential driveway near her post, waiting for the clear to cross, when she noticed a vehicle backing towards them. She alerted the children to the danger and called for them to move out of the way. When one child did not heed her warning, Clarissa pushed the child from the driveway to the sidewalk, safely out of the path of the car. That child's life was saved thanks to Clarissa's quick thinking and attentive supervision.

As these three exceptional young people have demonstrated, the participants in the AAA School Safety Patrol Program serve an important role in ensuring that our young people get to school safely. This program has helped save countless lives, and I thank the AAA and the program volunteers for making it all possible. I know I speak for every Member of the Senate in expressing our gratitude for their valuable work in our communities.

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

Mr. President, as we close tonight, I want everyone within the sound of my voice to understand this: We are working on a very important piece of legislation, the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration--the agency responsible for making sure aircraft is safe and reliable.

Right now, we have an antiquated system. This legislation will do what has been needed for a long time to change the way we do aviation in this country. All the experts say it is long past due. We have had hard work for a

long period of time. This bill is way overdue. Senator Rockefeller has worked very hard in bringing the product to the floor. It is a good product.

We had an issue today that came up, and Senator Rockefeller offered an amendment which takes away that as an issue. My friends, the Republicans, obviously, want to kill this bill to add to the other list they have sent to the graveyard. They are using an excuse: Well, we don't have the ability to offer amendments.

Mr. President, I have offered them anything possible to make sure they can offer all the amendments they want. The distinguished Senator from Texas, Mrs. Kay Bailey Hutchison, obviously does not like some of the tax portions of this bill. Offer an amendment to try to take them out. I have offered the Republican leader: Give us a list of the amendments you want to offer. This is very standard procedure around here. No response to that.

It is very obvious to me this is an effort to kill this bill. Let's be logical. We are on the floor. I have said: Any amendments you want to offer that are germane or relevant to this bill, you can do that. Now, that is very wide. It allows anything that relates basically to transportation to be offered on this bill. But they have turned that down.

They have broken all records for filibuster--they, the Republicans. On this one, on the motion to proceed, I said on the floor earlier this week, this was not their fault. We did not have the substitute Senators Rockefeller and Baucus had worked on. It was not ready until Monday night. But it was ready Tuesday morning, and they had every opportunity to work at that time and give us a list of amendments they wanted to do. We would give them ours.

I was told today, when the Durbin amendment was filed, that they wanted to offer the next amendment. They wanted to offer it from Senator Bunning. No problem. We have been waiting all day for the language of that amendment, which is probably nonexistent.

We have been fair. We have been reasonable. But, obviously, we are now at a point where they are back to their old tricks and just killing the bill. They should just tell us this rather than play the games. They should say: We do not want this bill.

I have spoken to the Republican leader saying: If we really want to get this bill done, why don't I file cloture then, because no one seems to be wanting to offer any amendments. He said: No, it's too early. You have not allowed us to offer any amendments. I say: Offer amendments.

So this is really, Mr. President, a typical procedure around here, that the minority, wanting to maintain the status quo with air travel, as everything else, puts us in a position where we have no alternative but to either pull the bill or file cloture, and they said they will not give us the extra nine votes we need.

Remember, Mr. President, this bill has, for example, the Passenger Bill of Rights in it so that when people are held up on a flight--you are on a runway for hours at a time--there are certain rights passengers have. All those things that cause so much consternation when you are trying to travel on an airplane--the Passenger Bill of Rights addresses many of those. But with Republicans that will go down the tubes with everything else in this bill.

Mr. President, I am happy to yield.

Mr. President, I even went one step further. I said the distinguished Republican leader would have the right to look at our amendments. It would not be just me; I want him in on the deal.

Mr. President, I say to my friend from Illinois, I asked our staff: When we close today, let's not have morning business. Let's go directly to the bill. But we found that was fruitless. They did not want us to go to the bill. I have said so many different times, in so many different ways, that we want to finish this legislation. We want to work with Republicans to finish this legislation.

And I say to my friend, the Senator from Texas, it is my understanding, has asked other people: Why don't you offer the amendment to strike all this stuff? For whatever reason, she does not want to have her fingerprints on eliminating this amendment, obviously. I just think it is really too bad.

I want this bill to go forward. The main thing I want is to make sure everyone understands we Democrats want to change things. We want change. We need change in a lot of different places, but one place we need change is the way air traffic is handled today. And the Republicans, obviously, want it to stay the same; let's keep it the same; let's maintain the status quo.

Mr. President, there are things we need to do. The No. 1 issue in America today: gas prices. We cannot go to gas prices because we are stuck on this thing that they will not let us move on, and that is the way it has been going since we took the majority. That is something they have had trouble getting over, that we are in the majority. It is a slim majority, but it is the majority, and because of that, we have the opportunity to determine what issues come to the floor. The issue that was long past due was FAA reauthorization. But they are stopping us from doing virtually anything that needs to be done for this country.

I have trouble understanding why they want to continue to up the record they have already broken. They broke the 2-year filibuster record in 10 months. But now I guess they want to keep adding to their record to see how many filibusters they can conduct. And they have been fairly successful stopping us from passing things that the American people want, such as the matter now on the floor. But energy legislation--they stopped us on that. That is to go to alternative energy so we do not have to use 21 million barrels of oil every day. We have wanted to do things dealing with education. We have not been able to do that. Health care, we haven't been able to do that. Things that the American people want are being stopped because of the Republicans' love of the status quo.

Mr. President, if there is nothing more to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, following my remarks and those of Senator McConnell, if he decides to make some remarks today, we will proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

order of procedure

I ask unanimous consent the morning business hour be extended to 12:30 today, with the time to be equally divided.

Mr. President, if I could say to the Chair through my distinguished friend, I asked consent that we be in morning business until 12:30 to complete our conversations with our caucuses because of the bill that is coming up.

Mr. President, I ask you approve that consent request.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 2881, the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization.

As a reminder, at 11 a.m. tomorrow, there will be a joint meeting of the Congress in the Hall of the House of Representatives with the Prime Minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern.

Mr. President, the bill we hope to start legislating on after the caucuses today is an important piece of legislation, FAA reauthorization.

Last Thursday, I met in my office with representatives of various unions that deal with the airline industry--flight attendants, mechanics, and air traffic controllers. They had some opinions as to what was going on. An hour or two later, I met with the chief executive officers of the major airlines in our country today. They were terribly concerned about what goes on. The fuel costs for these airlines is now approaching 50 percent of their overall cost. I may be a few cents wrong in my illustration, but they said: We can't compete. We pay $1.20 for a gallon of aviation fuel. In Europe they pay 70 cents. You cannot compete because the dollar has become so low in value around the world.

This is an extremely important bill. If there were ever a time we had to work in a bipartisan basis in order to approve legislation necessary to give the airline industry a chance to survive, then we must do it on this piece of legislation.

I will work with my Republican counterpart to see if we can see a way of each side offering amendments. I do not want to have to fill the so- called legislative tree. We have to be very careful. This is a tax bill. So I will have a conversation with my colleague this morning before our caucus to see if we can come up with a way to proceed on this legislation. It is very important legislation.

We have so many other things to do. We have the farm bill that is completed, basically, I understand. We are going to have to go to that soon because it expires the end of this week. We have the Consumer Products Safety Conference. That should be completed hopefully by the end of next week. We have the budget, our budget that we have to complete. Fortunately, on

that, we have a statutory time to work toward its conclusion.

Whether we want it, there is going to have to be a discussion about fuel prices, what is going on. That is the No. 1 issue facing America today. It is more important now than the housing market, which is so in a state of distress.

So we have much to do in the next few weeks, not the least of which-- the House is going to pass, next week, the supplemental appropriations bill dealing with the funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is no easy venture to complete that because, as you know, there are certain things the President wants to have on that bill that he has told us, in addition to the funding for the wars.

We have had a lot of opportunity in recent months to point fingers at each other. Hopefully, the next 4 weeks, until the Memorial Day recess, we can start pointing fingers to a way to complete some of this legislation because it is extremely important we do that. For example, we had to file cloture on this bill. I told my leadership team I met with this morning, we cannot blame that one on the Republicans because the fact is the substitute coming from the Finance Committee and the Commerce Committee had not been completed until 10 o'clock last night. So realistically we couldn't expect Republicans to start legislating on that before they had the piece of legislation themselves. But they have had it now since last night. I hope, after we have had our caucuses, we can proceed toward completing this legislation in some reasonable manner.