Floor Statements

Mr. President, it is my understanding there are 11 amendments pending on this bill. There are points of order that lie against several of them. And the managers will make those whenever they see fit. I hope that those people who have other amendments pending would agree to short time agreements on them and accept a time for voting. Maybe the managers can even accept some of them.

This is a bill we want to finish today. It is an important piece of legislation. It has been improved in many different ways, not the least of which is this border security legislation that was passed earlier today. So I hope that Democrats and Republicans who offered these amendments will contact the managers and agree on a reasonable period of time so we can vote. It is 1 o'clock in the afternoon. It is important we do this.

I do not want to sound like a stuck record, but we have to finish this legislation before we go home in August. We have to finish the SCHIP bill before we go home in August. We have a 9/11 conference report we have to finish before we go home in August. We have the ethics and lobbying reform we have to finish before we go home in August. We are going to do that.

Everybody should understand--and, of course, I mentioned on the floor about the bill that Senators Boxer and

Inhofe have worked on dealing with WRDA, which is so important to the whole country, but certainly important to the western part of the United States.

I would be happy to yield.

That is a really good example to set for the other people offering amendments. I would also say, as I said on the Senate floor this morning, there is an extremely important congressional delegation that is scheduled to be in Greenland this weekend. I would really like--first of all, I would like to have gone on the trip. But there are 10 or 11 Senators scheduled to go on that trip. I hope that trip can take place. But we are going to have to get this legislation done.

If we get some idea that there is a real stall going on here, we will have to file cloture on the conference report dealing with homeland security, the 9/11 Commission recommendations, and that vote would not take place until Saturday. So we are doing our best to work through all of this. But I want everyone to know, as I have said here so many times, we have a very few things to do, but we are going to do them. And it is no bluff. We have a whole month to complete everything in August. I hope people will help us work through that so that is not necessary.

I would be happy to do that for my distinguished friend, the senior Senator from the State of West Virginia, of the West Virginia hills.

We have four things to do for sure: the bill we are on now, this appropriations bill, children's health, the conference report on the 9/ 11 Commission recommendations, and the message that we are going to get from the House on ethics and lobbying reform. Those four things are essential.

The luxury we would have is also to complete WRDA. The conference report is important. We should be able to do that quickly. We got a huge vote when it came out of here.

These are the things that we must do before we leave. This is not anything new that I just sprung on anybody. That is something that I have been saying for a long time. We have made great progress. I am very happy with it. We were able to get Wounded Warriors done. We were able to get the pay raise for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. We were also able to pass for the first time in 3 years the higher education bill--that is important--reconciliation, getting the biggest change in how students are able to go to our schools in our country since the GI bill. We have a few things we need to do, and we really need to do it.

I repeat, it is almost 1 o'clock on Thursday. I will be happy to work into the night to complete this bill. I say that the managers of the bill says it all, Senator Byrd and Senator Cochran. They are the best we have.

Madam President, I gave a talk a week ago tomorrow to a group of people. It was a church meeting. There were adults and young adults there. I told them about my experience serving in the Congress. I have served in the House, and I have served in the Senate. It is not like when I practiced law.

When I practiced law, you put everything in writing. We do not do that in the Congress. We do not do that in the Senate. Your word is your bond. If a Republican Senator or a Democratic Senator--it does not matter--if you tell them you are going to do something, that is the way it is.

To show how powerful and important that is, Alan Bible was a Senator from Nevada who served 20 years and became ill. He retired. When he passed away--there was a plane that was always available to take Senators to funerals. The plane was scheduled to go to Nevada so Senators could attend Alan Bible's funeral.

There was a Republican on that airplane, Ted Stevens. The reason he was on that airplane was there was a vote very important to Ted Stevens dealing with Alaskan oil. Alan Bible had given his word he was going to vote with Ted Stevens. There was tremendous pressure on Alan Bible. Alan Bible's vote was the essential vote, and he withstood all the pressure and voted with Ted Stevens. That is the reason Ted Stevens went to Reno, NV: to honor the life of Alan Bible because he kept his word.

That is what we do in this Senate. We keep our word. It does not matter with whom you make an arrangement; if you tell him you are going to do something, if you tell her you are going to do something, that is the way it is.

So my disappointment in what has happened in the last few minutes is--it appears Senator Murray said it in a more discreet fashion than I am going to say it. Somebody did not keep their word. And that, I suggest, should be worked out. I think if someone in this body is known to have broken their word--and I was part of the little conversation right here--you do not take advantage of people. There are a lot of rules that allow you to take advantage of people, but you cannot do that.

So this is not appropriate. This is wrong. And I would hope that the Senator from Louisiana would kind of retrace his steps and back off and put us back where we should be. If that is not the case, and he chooses not to do that, I think it is going to be a difficult time, I would suggest, for him making other arrangements with Senators in the future because that is how we do business here.

Madam President, if the Republican floor staff would check to find out if we could do the vote at 1:50, 2 o'clock. Two o'clock is fine? Two o'clock.

Madam President, are we in a quorum call?

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 15 minutes prior to the vote be equally divided between those in favor of the amendment and those opposed to it. Senator Dorgan is in favor of it, so he would get 7\1/2\ minutes. Is that appropriate?

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

Mr. President, we are in the twilight zone. We are on an appropriations bill. An amendment was offered subject to a point of order. The point of order was raised and sustained by the Chair. And now the person who won wants to appeal the ruling of the Chair.

I will be happy to yield for a question.

I say to my friend, you won. The rule XVI you raised and you won. The amendment falls. And it is a Democratic amendment.

Just a second; I have the floor.

I will be happy to yield for a question.

Mr. President, that is why I said I think we are kind of in a twilight zone here. The Chair is not partisan. The Parliamentarians who serve at our pleasure, Democrats and Republicans, are not partisan. They go by the rules and the precedents set in this body.

I will be happy to yield to my friend. I will say to my friend, he and I were on this floor and we danced this tune once before. It took us 4 years to unwind from it. That is why the vote yesterday was so important.

Mr. President, our roles were reversed too many years ago when I had his job and he had my job, and it was a very difficult time. Even everything being in order, to move these appropriations bills is hard, and then anybody can offer anything on them. The key to these appropriations bills is you deal with matters of appropriation, not some of the subjects people have thrown into them all the time.

As my friend said, there is a lot of frustration. The House can move a lot of authorizing legislation. We cannot over here. So there is a tremendous temptation to stick in these appropriations bills all kinds of authorizing legislation that shouldn't be on appropriations bills.

I plead to my friend from South Carolina: It doesn't prove anything to have us vote on something--you have already won. I will also say this. The only partisan nature of raising points of order is we try--it usually works out that way--if there is a Republican who violates a point of order, a Democrat who is the manager of the bill will raise a point of order; if it is a Democrat, then a Republican will raise a point of order. That is the only partisan nature of raising points of order.

I will be happy to yield.

Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague, calling on his years of experience, to try to settle things down.

I would say that, perhaps with Senator Vitter, giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe there was a misunderstanding in the conversation. That is totally possible. Maybe he didn't understand the rules. Maybe he didn't do one thing and say something else, and I accept that, if in fact that is the case.

So I think what we should do is, I am going to ask a quorum call be started, and then we will huddle over here and see if we can work all this out.

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, due to the good work of my friend from Mississippi and others, on both sides, here is what we are going to do. There has been a point of order raised against the Dorgan amendment, and that has been sustained. So that amendment will fall. And in the order of amendments filed, Senator Vitter's is at No. 11 or 12; OK?

Senator Vitter, when he had his conversation with Senator Cochran, Senator Murray, and me, was under the impression he could still modify his amendment. We thought differently. It was just a misunderstanding. Maybe we have been around here too long--I shouldn't say ``we.'' Maybe I have been around here a long time and just accept things for the way they appear to be and not sometimes the way they are. Senator Vitter has said there was nothing nefarious in what he did. He just assumed he could automatically modify that. And under the rules, he could.

So we will go back right where we were. No one is accusing Senator Vitter of anything that is illegal or unethical. It was simply a misunderstanding among the four of us. So anything I have said earlier today, based on my misunderstanding of him and what his thoughts were, just forget about them because based on the conversation I have had with him in the last few minutes, that wasn't the case. So I shouldn't have been as upset, and

Senator Murray shouldn't have been as upset as she was. Senator Cochran was his usual stoic self trying to lead us in the right direction, which we didn't go.

I will be happy to yield.

Finally, Mr. President, let me say, I haven't mentioned his name but, of course, the distinguished Republican leader, being involved in this little huddle that took place, had a tremendous influence on our ability to work this out. I would say--and I hope I don't jinx anything we are working on now--what I would really like us to do is to see if in the foreseeable future we can work out a time on this bill for final passage. No one has had any amendments being prohibited. If people don't want to have final passage in the next 24 hours or so, that's fine.

As I have said before, I don't want to file cloture. We can just keep grinding through the weekend, but I would rather not do that.

Sometime today we are going to see if we can move to the conference report that Senator Lieberman has so masterfully brought back to us dealing with the 9/11 Commission recommendations. He, of course, worked with Senator Inouye and others to get this done, and so we will do that at a later time. But I wish everyone would work--certainly the two managers of the bill--to see when would be an appropriate time to see about a time for final passage.

Remember, we have this bill to complete. We have to work on children's health. We have two conference reports--there may be three conference reports--and that is all we have to do. But we have to go through all the procedural hurdles, and that may take longer than any of us wants to get through in the next few days.

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

Mr. President, I have consulted with the Democratic manager of this bill, I have spoken to Senator Cochran, Senator McConnell. We are going to plow on to finish this bill tonight.

Now, we have worked long and hard the last couple of weeks, late nights, and we may have to have one tonight. We really need to finish this legislation for all of the reasons we have all talked about before, not the least of which is we have so much to do next week that we have to finish this tonight. We also have some other things we are going to try to do, but everyone should be aware of that. Do not plan on going home for dinner tonight.

And following the vote on that, that the Senator from Louisiana be recognized for 10 minutes to speak on the amendment.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of H.R. 2638, the Senate turn to the consideration of the conference report on H.R. 1, the 9/11 bill; that there be 90 minutes of debate to be equally divided under the control of the two leaders or their designees, and 30 additional minutes for Senator Coburn; that at the conclusion of the time for debate on the conference report Senator DeMint be recognized to offer a motion to recommit the conference report to report back with his dock worker provisions; that there be 20 minutes equally divided for debate on his motion; that no other amendments or motions be in order; that at the conclusion or yielding back of time, the Senate vote on his motion to recommit; that if the motion is defeated, the Senate then vote on passage of the conference report, with the proceeding all occurring without intervening action or debate.

Of course, everybody knows this has been cleared with my counterpart, Senator McConnell.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that upon passage of H.R. 2638, the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate and the subcommittee be appointed as conferees, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, we are working our way through things, so we will go into a short quorum call.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, thank you.

We have accomplished a lot today. We have had a few blowups but not for long. That is the way it is. For those of us who have been here a while, this reminded us all of how we used to legislate. This is fun for us legislators. It is great.

I am so happy we did not file cloture on this bill. We were able to work through it. I would say that we have earned tomorrow off. I am anxious the people who have the important trip to Greenland will be able to do that. We will not be in session tomorrow. The next vote will be on the children's health bill sometime Monday. We will do it Monday. The first vote will be at about 5:15 or 5:30 on Monday night. I think that should be about it. We will have this vote. We will finish this vote and one more, and then we will have some speeches, and that will be it for the day.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Monday, July 30, following a period of morning business, the Senate proceed to calendar No. 58, H.R. 976, and that once the bill is reported, Senator Baucus be recognized to offer an amendment, which would be the text of the children's health legislation, also known as SCHIP, reported by the Senate Finance Committee.

In view of the objection, I now move to proceed to calendar No. 58, H.R. 976, and I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum be waived.

Mr. President, finally, I hope that Monday, after the Republicans have a chance to study this legislation, we can move without a vote to this most important legislation. I had indications from the other side that that may be the case. If that is not the case, we will try to invoke cloture on this matter.

I appreciate everybody's hard work today. I now withdraw the motion.

I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate LTC Jean McGinnis upon retiring from military service. For more than 25 years, our Nation has been fortunate to have such an intelligent, accomplished and decorated American in our armed services.

Lieutenant McGinnis exemplifies selfless devotion to one's country. Born in Deadwood, SD, Lieutenant McGinnis began her service early. The New Mexico Military Institute commissioned her as a 2nd lieutenant before she even completed her bachelor's degree at Texas A&M. She joined the Army Reserve as an active Guard Reserve Officer, and continued her education at Fort Eustis, VA, where she successfully passed the aviation maintenance officer course to become an Army test pilot in the UH-1 Huey helicopter.

In 1991, Captain McGinnis was stationed in Pennsylvania at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station as the aviation operations officer for the 2/ 288th Aviation Regiment. Five years later, she was assigned to the Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, Program Analysis and Evaluation Division and then as a budget analyst for the Army. In 1999, Major McGinnis moved to Arlington, VA, in order to serve as a congressional liaison after training at the Command and General Staff College.

Throughout her service, Lieutenant McGinnis has gained wide recognition from her commanding officers. She has earned the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Senior Army Aviator Badge, and the Air Assault Badge and the Army Staff Badge. These accomplishments speak volumes for her dedicated service to the country.

It is with great pride that I commend Lieutenant Jean McGinnis on this wonderful accomplishment. You have served our Nation with distinction, and I wish you the best on your well-deserved retirement.

Mr. President, this morning we will be in a period of morning business for 1 hour. The first half will be controlled by the Republicans. Once morning business is closed, the Senate will resume consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill.

I understand there are a number of amendments that are being talked about to be offered on this legislation today. I hope Members come and do that as quickly as possible.

Mr. President, I yesterday asked by unanimous consent that we adopt the Wounded Warrior legislation that was brought to the Senate during the Defense authorization bill in a form of a bipartisan amendment. A number of Senators worked very hard. Senator Murray is on the floor. She worked very hard, and a number of Senators have worked very hard on this legislation. It came about as a result of what we learned at Walter Reed about how our returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan were being basically neglected. They had been wounded, and they were receiving unacceptable and poor treatment when they came home. That failure was learned about--not only about the veterans care system, which had many bureaucratic failures, but also the physical facilities that were there failed to meet a minimum level of acceptability. The American people were outraged by the facts that came to light, and the Senate took prompt action.

The Wounded Warrior amendment, now in legislation that is before the Senate, would address the substandard facilities we have talked about and we have seen. It would address the lack of seamless transition and develop one when medical care for troops is transferred from the Department of Defense to the Veterans' Administration, which oftentimes in the past has led to diminished care. It addresses the inadequacy of severance pay. It addresses the need for improved sharing of medical records between the Department of Defense and the Veterans' Administration. We are told now that there are as many as 600,000 pending claims of returning veterans. It addresses the inadequate care and treatment of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and a number of other very important items.

So I again renew my request. Yesterday we were told that the Republicans were looking at this. Mr. President, I am going to renew this request. There are all kinds of reasons, I guess, for objecting to something such as this. Now I am told the reason for objecting is the pay raise isn't included. The Wounded Warrior legislation becomes effective upon passage and approval. The pay raise for the troops doesn't become effective until October 1 or January 1--I don't know how the legislation reads, but it is not now. So that would not be a good reason in my estimation, and I think in the estimation of these wounded warriors, for objecting.

The pay raise does not become effective until the beginning of the fiscal year. In fact, I think it is January 1 of next year. It is different than a number

of things we pass. But it does not become effective now. So if that is a reason for objecting, it is a poor reason, because they are two different issues. One is the pay raise does not become effective now; this does become effective.

So I ask unanimous consent that the Armed Services Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1538, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the substitute amendment at the desk, which is the text of the Wounded Warriors provision in H.R. 1585, be considered and agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table; and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record, with no intervening action or debate.

I accept the modification.

Mr. President, could we also send this matter to conference?

I understand that, Mr. President. I appreciate the cooperation. This is a good step forward.

Madam President, before the Senator from Connecticut leaves the floor, I appreciate his leadership on the 9/11 Commission recommendations conference report and the bill generally and, of course, the work he has done on the other conference report, the only two we have had to speak of, on ethics and lobbying reform. He has been essential to moving these things along. We have approached these two measures on a very bipartisan basis which is, I am confident, the reason we were able to get them to the floor. The work of the Senator from Connecticut has been exemplary.

I wish a number of things. One of the things I wish is that we could legislate the way I remember the Senate legislating. There have been editorials written, there was a cartoon this morning in the Washington Post, about all the many filibusters led by Republicans. We came to our first appropriations bill. We have two individuals who are historic in their knowledge of the Senate, Senator Byrd and Senator Cochran. I have lamented with my friend from Mississippi on a number of occasions how we would like to follow regular order. We try to do that as much as we can.

There are a number of ways to kill legislation. One is to get on the floor and talk forever. That is the old-fashioned filibuster. The other way is to do it by diversion, other ways. That is what we have before us today. We have here a bill dealing with Homeland Security. We all know border security is important, and we know the underlying bill is $2.3 billion more than the President requested, most of that money going directly to border security--3,000 new detention beds, 3,000 new Border Patrol agents. It is a good bill. But my friends who want to not have this bill have now done what would seem almost impossible: They want to relegislate immigration. We have spent about a month on immigration this year, about a month last year, far more than any other issue.

Now we have pending before us an amendment, the Graham amendment, that in effect relegislates immigration.

Of course, there is a piece in there for border security. We all support that. But there are also pieces in that that take away basic rights people have, people who are American citizens. So it is unfortunate we are at this juncture.

I have no alternative, and I have thought of everything I could think of to try to avoid this collision. It is my understanding the Graham amendment is pending; is that true?

The Graham amendment is in violation of Senate rules. It is legislating on an appropriations bill. I raise that as a point of order.

Yes.

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

I know we are not in debate, but I wanted to inform Senators, there has been an evacuation order issued on the Hart and Dirksen buildings. We are going to go ahead and start the vote, but when the buildings allow the Senators to come, we will make sure they have an opportunity to vote. We are not going to cut anybody off because they are locked in a building someplace.

When you finish, I won't need as much time as you. I will take 2\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. President, I have expressed my affection for my friend from New Hampshire on many occasions. He is a wonderful Senator. I am very aware of his great record of public service--Congressman, Governor, Senator. But the statement he made is wrong. This is not a vote on immigration. This vote we are going to take today, if the Chair is overturned, will set a precedent for all future appropriations bills, all of them, lowering, if not eliminating, the legislation on appropriations threshold. So this will mean any appropriations bill that comes through here, you can put anything on it. Some of us will remember--I know Senator Cochran will remember--I raised a point of order against something that Senator Helms did, and it was one of the biggest mistakes I made because we overruled the Chair. It took years for us on a bipartisan basis to go back to where we were.

On appropriations bills, you will be able to put in an appropriations bill anything you want. We will get back to the days of appropriations bills just putting anything you want in them. One of the good things about the appropriations process is you should not be able to legislate on an appropriations bill. That is what this is all about.

I also say to my friend from New Hampshire and all those people who believe this is a way to vote on immigration, it is not. It will lower the standards here in the Senate significantly. I would say, the funding aspect, none of us have any problem with that. We agree. That is one of the things I said publicly, that I appreciated the President when we had our immigration debate. He provided money that was emergency, direct funding of $4.4 billion for the border. I supported that. It allowed us to pick up more votes. It was a very important thing. I applauded the President for having done that. I told the President after that legislation fell through how much I appreciated his leadership.

But we need some leadership. This is going to lower the standards of the appropriations process and the Senate. We accept the funding measure. We would agree right now. Do it by unanimous consent. We agree to that. Then let's have the immigration debate some other time. We have spent 2 months on it already. Isn't that enough?

Mr. President, I want all Senators to know, Democrats and Republicans, if the Chair is overturned, this will set a precedent for all future appropriations bills, lowering, most likely eliminating, the legislating on appropriations threshold. We should not go down that road. I want to pass some of these appropriations bills. We want to get things done. Is this the picture we are going to have?

I will use leader time at this time. I came here this morning. I felt so good because we passed by unanimous consent the Wounded Warrior legislation. The distinguished Republican leader said: Well, why don't you add to that the pay raise for the troops? I said: It is OK, we will do that. I walked out of here--if I had some muscles, Mr. President, I would flex them because we really did well this morning. But the fact is, this afternoon we are back in the bog trying to claw through legislation we should not have to.

We have filed cloture 45 times this year. Why? For this bill we have now on the Senate floor, Homeland Security appropriations, we had to file cloture on a motion to proceed to it. That is hard to comprehend, but we did. We had to file cloture.

I do not want to file cloture on this bill because the first thing that would happen is people would come and say: I have not had a chance to vote on an amendment.

So I don't want to file cloture on this bill. I want people to have the opportunity to offer amendments and vote on them. But let's try to stay within the rules. This is legislating on an appropriations bill.

If my friends on the other side of the aisle want to overrule the Chair, that is really too bad and that will go into part of the writing where people will talk about how this Republican minority--I understand our majority is pretty thin: 50 to 49. Come September, it will be 51 to 49. That is pretty close. So it is not an issue where we are bulling our way over and through everybody. Every vote we take here is close. But this is not the way to go.

This may make everybody happy, but then there will be no appropriations bills. We will just do a big omnibus at the end of the year and do away with the appropriations process because now it does not matter what bill we bring up--we can bring up the Veterans' Administration, the VA, Military Construction appropriations bill, and with that, we can put anything in that we want that does not have anything to do with the purview and the scope of that bill. That is what people are getting into here. It is a shame.

Mr. President, I ask the vote be started.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I appreciate the vote turning out the way it did. First of all, I want the record to clearly reflect that the author of this legislation, my friend from South Carolina,

Lindsay Graham, offered it because he thought it was the right thing to do. He has very strong feelings about a lot of issues and he expresses them. One of those he feels strongly about is the issue of immigration. He offered this amendment in good faith, and I want everybody to know that is how I feel.

Procedurally, though, sometimes here we get in the way of each other. In fact, that is what has happened. What I would like to do is ask unanimous consent that the money portion--the portion of the Graham amendment that funds border security for all the things he and Senator Gregg laid out--that we accept that by unanimous consent.

My friend from New Hampshire wants to look at the legislation they have. I am hopeful that sometime tonight I can offer that in the form of a unanimous consent request. I wish to make sure everybody on both sides has the opportunity to look at the legislation. In effect, I again state simply it would give more money for border security. I will not harp on this, other than to say we in Nevada have a tremendous problem. We arrest illegals, and there is no place to put them. So they are let loose. This money would allow us to build more detention beds, hire more border security officers, and it will add the first part of the legislation that is absolutely necessary--that we do something about immigration. We always talk about border security wherever any of us go. But then there are other things that would not happen today with this legislation.

Hopefully, within the next hour or so, when Senator Gregg has had a chance to look at that--and I will clear it with Senator Kennedy and others--we can, by unanimous consent, pass that portion of the bill dealing with financing border security.

I yield the floor at this time and, again, express my appreciation for the bipartisan vote that we had.

Mr. President, I am not sending this up in the form of an amendment. I want this to be placed in the Record to indicate what we would like to have accepted by unanimous consent. If there is an agreement on both sides, we will propose the amendment together. This is not an amendment, but I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.

That is directed at border security, yes.

We will take a look at your language, and you can look at ours, but the answer to your question is yes.

Madam President, if I may say a few words so people know what the schedule is, first of all, this may surprise people, but we care about agricultural jobs in America. Where most people see the bright lights of Las Vegas and Reno, we specialize in garlic and white onions. We have tremendous need for agricultural workers, and they are hard to get in central Nevada. So I personally am in favor of the AgJOBS

bill. It is something that I know I have spoken with the Senator from Idaho, Mr. Craig, about on many occasions and the Senator from California on more occasions than she and I could ever calculate.

I am committed to doing something about AgJOBS. I hope we can do something soon. One of the bills we have to do in September is the farm bill. We have to do it. It has been 5 years. We have to renew it. Part of that has to be AgJOBS. If we can figure out a way to do it as freestanding legislation, I am willing to do that. I want all those who are concerned about AgJOBS to know that I am on their side. I will do whatever I can to help expedite this legislation.

I will also say, getting back to the Homeland Security legislation, I have conferred with the managers of this bill, Senator Murray, Senator Cochran, and Senator Byrd. It seems to me it would be in everyone's best interest not to have any more votes tonight. If there is something the managers can work out by voice vote, then we should certainly do that.

What I think we should do tonight is, if people have amendments to offer on this very important piece of legislation, do it. Tomorrow is Thursday. I remind everyone, we still have a lot to do. I spoke with Senator Inouye. I believe he was the last one to sign the conference report on the 9/11 recommendations. That will be done. We should have something on ethics and lobbying reform. SCHIP, we have to be on that legislation next week. We have to finish this bill.

Even though there have been a lot of starts and stops today, we have had some progress.

In 1 second, I will.

Unless the two managers have some objection, I would hope we could have people offer amendments tonight. If their amendments requires votes, we will set those for as early in the morning as we can. It would be wonderful if we could finish this bill tomorrow. As I said early on, I don't want to file cloture on this bill. I don't want to. This is the first appropriations bill. We have to set an example of trying to move forward.

I have just been notified that I am asked to go to the White House with the Speaker on Wednesday to talk about appropriations bills. This would be something really important to talk to him about on Wednesday, and we may be able to get one of them done.

Unless somebody has an objection to my suggestion, I think we will have no more votes tonight.

I didn't want to take the floor away from the Senator from California. I wanted to let people know what we were doing here.

Madam President, I say to my friend, I am happy to make that commitment. I will do everything I can to make sure it is part of the farm bill. I will do what I can. I will talk with Senator Harkin. I will talk with Senator Chambliss, who is on the floor. I am sure he is in favor. I ask through the Chair, is the Senator from Georgia in favor of the temporary worker program for agricultural workers?

Madam President, I appreciate the Senator from Georgia being so candid.

I say to the Senator from California, Senator Chambliss obviously is not in agreement with her. I will make a commitment without any qualification that I will do whatever I can to make sure that is part of the farm bill. I will talk with Senator Harkin, that is sure, the chairman of the committee. It is important we do this, and the Senator from California has my commitment--all four Senators--to do whatever I can. If it is not impossible, we may try to work something else out. Rather than have it part of the farm bill, we may try to do something freestanding.

Madam President, also, Senator Chambliss is a reasonable man. You never know, he might wake up some morning and say maybe we should help those onion farmers out in Nevada.

I say to my friend, I hope it doesn't violate any of the ethics rules, but somebody sent me a box of onions, and my wife and I ate all we could and we gave some to our daughter. They were really quite good.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, we have spent this time wanting to get the legislation passed dealing with border security. It would have been the Graham-Pryor amendment. We basically would have taken the amendment offered by the Senator from South Carolina, the first several pages of it, dealing with border security, the money part of it. My friend, the distinguished junior Senator from Texas, objects to that. That is unfortunate. He wants to add additional language to that. As I explained to him, we have had many Senators want to add language.

But Senator Graham, he came to us after all the changes, the suggested changes in the legislation, and he said: You take our bill as it is written. Now it was not easy to get that approved on our side, but we did get it done. There is an objection now. I am sorry that there will not be the money for border security, but that is the way it is. I regret that. I am sorry to have taken so much of the Senate's time to do that. It is 7 o'clock at night. We are back to where we were.

We will move forward. There are a number of amendments pending. My friend Senator Alexander has waited around for a long time to offer his amendment. My understanding is that Senator Vitter is here. Is he ready to go?

I apologize. I hope other Senators will come and offer amendments. We will do our best to try to finish this bill tomorrow.

Is there anything my friend from Texas wishes to say in addition to what I have said?

Mr. President, if I could say to my friend, I also think this is a problem we should deal with. But I think the language as written in this legislation would allow that. I would be happy to join with my friend in a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security. I would be happy to meet with him when we get this done to tell him that this legislation, in my opinion, and hopefully in the opinion of a distinguished former member of the Texas Supreme Court, a great legal background, as we have propounded it would also allow this. We could make a very good case to the executive branch of Government that that is so. I hope my friend would take that as an offer of good faith to try to move this along.

I am convinced that if we pass what has been suggested by Graham and Pryor--and the Senator from Texas knows this better than I do--this does cover the fact that the Department of Homeland Security certainly should use some of this money to make sure we know where people are. It is absolutely wrong that we have people here who come on study visas and we lose track of them. That is one example. I know a significant number of Senators would agree. I think Secretary Chertoff would think this is something he should do with part of that money.

It seems sometimes people like to have the issue rather than solving the problem. This would have gone a long way toward easing the friction on both sides toward problems with immigration. It hasn't. My friend, I could say, will still have an issue to talk about. Maybe that is more important to him than solving this problem.

Mr. President, we are going to conclude action today--in fact, this morning--on the higher education authorization measure. It is a very important piece of legislation. We have not done this in 3 years. It is important this be completed.

The good news I received walking into the Chamber today is it appears we will not have a vote on final passage. So that is really good work. Further, it underscores my repeated compliments of Senators Kennedy and Enzi for their true bipartisanship. This is the second bill in a row they have managed, and they have done a tremendously important and good job in getting the bills done in regular order.

Once we complete action on this education matter, we will move to the Homeland Security appropriations bill. Today, at 3:40 p.m., the Senate will observe a moment of silence in memory of Detective Gibson and Officer Chestnut. A wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the Memorial Door at 3:30 p.m. I encourage Members to come to the Chamber at 3:40 p.m. to observe this moment of silence.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate observe a moment of silence at 3:40 p.m. today.

Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess today from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for our weekly party conferences.

Mr. President, I wish to say a brief word about a couple of matters. As we heard in the prayer offered by Admiral Black, some will remember that day 9 years ago when these two officers were killed. I remember it for a number of reasons, not the least of which, when I attended law school, I went to law school during the daytime and worked a full-time swing shift, a night shift, as a Capitol police officer. My service as a Capitol policeman was not one where I showed any bravery or courage or any valor; I was directing traffic much of the time. That was the most dangerous job I did.

But 9 years ago today, two police officers did exemplify courage and valor. These two Capitol police officers, Special Agent Gibson and Officer Jacob Chestnut, were stationed by the east entrance on the House side. At 3:40 in the afternoon, a man with a gun tried

to force his way past them. When Officer Chestnut blocked his path, the gunman shot him point-blank in the chest and killed him. Special Agent Gibson then warned nearby tourists and staff to seek cover. In fact, he chased the gunman down the hallway. He was headed for the House leadership's office. When they exchanged gunfire, one tourist was hit. Officer Gibson was also hit and died from his wounds, as did Officer Chestnut.

A plaque has been placed in the Capitol Building where the confrontation took place, and their names are carved in the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial recognizing their sacrifice.

I knew Officer Gibson. Senate Democrats had a retreat. During that retreat, my wife became very ill one night. Special Agent Gibson was the first one there. He was carrying all the resuscitation equipment. He was sweating. He had run from the office where the police were stationed to take care of my wife. I remember how kind, thoughtful, and considerate he was, and how gentle he was.

I didn't know Officer Chestnut other than exchanging greetings when I met him, but his reputation was outstanding, and his actions that day proved his enormous strength of character.

I think of the brave police officers who protect me every day, Mr. President, with the skill and hard work I see firsthand each day. I also think of all the law enforcement men and women who keep this building and those who serve within it safe. We should all be grateful, but I am grateful beyond words.

So on this somber anniversary, I will lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence for these two heroic men we lost. Our hearts, and certainly our thoughts, are with the families of Special Agent Gibson and Officer Chestnut. I have met their families on a number of occasions. We hope that remembering them is some comfort to them that the sacrifice of their loved ones will be forever remembered with our gratitude and utmost respect.

Mr. President, I have not had a chance to convey this information to the distinguished Republican leader. I have not had time because the decision was just made this morning. I want to go over the calendar for the remainder of this year.

We, of course, know what we have to do this week and next week. We need to complete the work on the Homeland Security appropriations bill, which is so important, with the 9/11 recommendations to become effective soon, and we have the National Intelligence Estimate report just rendered which indicates we have to be vigilant at home. We must complete the appropriations bill dealing with homeland security before we leave this work period.

We also need to do our work on SCHIP, children's health care. The Finance Committee, on a very bipartisan vote--17 to 4--passed that matter out of committee. It was led by Senators Grassley, Baucus, Rockefeller, and Hatch. What came out of that committee has been a compromise. That is how bipartisanship works. As reported in the Congressional Daily yesterday, that matter should have more than 60 votes. So if there is, in fact, an effort to slow that bill down, it appears on a bipartisan basis we can move it forward. It is certainly important legislation, and we need to complete it.

We also, as I just mentioned, need to complete the conference report dealing with the 9/11 Commission recommendations. We expect that to be passed in the House this week. The conference committee, basically, has wrapped up all its work on that bill. It has been very heartwarming that the conference has been led by Senators Lieberman and Collins, and we had an actual conference, just as we used to have around here all the time. The first conference committee meeting was mobbed with press looking in. That is the way it used to be. A real conference report will come out of that conference committee, and that is very important.

Finally, we are going to complete the ethics legislation. I want to tee up so that when we come back in September, we will have some work to do without looking for something to do. What I would like to do is move to the VA-Military Construction appropriations bill. We will do that one way or the other. I hope on a motion to proceed that I will not have to file cloture, but if I have to, that is what I will do. So when we get back in September, we will have something to work on.

Let's talk about September. Whenever we leave here, Mr. President-- and, as I have indicated, I hope it is next Friday, but that may not be the case if we have to do some extra days to complete our work--when we come back, of course, September 3 is a holiday, so we will come back on September 4. September 4 will be treated as most of our Mondays are treated. We will have a vote at 5:15 p.m. or thereabouts that evening, and we will work that week.

On September 10--everyone is on notice--we will be in session that day, and we will have votes before noon. It is not going to be 5:15 p.m. Everyone knows that is going to be an early vote day. Why? Because on September 10, 11, and 12, we will have full work days. We have to complete our work by 6 o'clock on September 12 because that is the beginning of the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah. We will be out of session September 13 and 14. There will be no votes on Monday, September 17. It will be a work day, but we will not have votes. And then we are going to work the remainder of that week, the remainder of the next week, and the remainder of the next week. We could have--and I will try to give the distinguished Republican leader and all Senators notice--we may, because of what we are working on, have to have some Monday votes earlier than 5:15 p.m. We will try to announce it a week ahead of time so people can make arrangements.

Then, on October 8, which is a holiday, Columbus Day, we are going to have that as a home State work period. That whole week, we are going to be out of session; that is, October 9, 10, 11, 12, we will be out of session. We will come back on October 15 and work that day. We will have votes on October 15. I don't expect early votes. We will have votes on the 15th. We hope we can complete work for the session by November 16. If we cannot, then we have to come back. We will come back on December 3 and complete our work. That will give us 3 weeks before Christmas. I hope we don't have to do that. I think it will be good for everybody if we can complete our work on November 16.

I say to my friend, the distinguished Republican leader, if he has any questions about this, I will be happy to answer them. I apologize for not being able to give this information to him first, but the decision I was waiting to make was what to do on September 17, as to whether that will be a vote day. We decided it will not. I am now in position to state this publicly.

Mr. President, before I leave the podium, I wish to say a couple words about another important piece of legislation.

Earlier this year, Americans were shocked by reports of the crisis at Walter Reed and other armed services medical facilities. It wasn't just Walter Reed, but that was the picture everyone saw. We learned that many of our courageous men and women wounded in service to our Nation were receiving unacceptably poor treatment and care upon their return to our shores.

I learned from this morning's news that there is a big lawsuit filed by Afghan and Iraqi veterans. Hundreds of thousands have joined together in a lawsuit against the Veterans' Administration. I do not procedurally understand how that is going to go forward, but it was in the morning headline news.

There is now, according to this news report, about a half a million backlog requests for Iraqi veterans to get care.

We learned during the early look at Walter Reed and other facilities not only was the veterans' care system ripe for bureaucratic failures, but even the physical facilities failed to meet a minimal level of acceptable quality.

The American people were outraged by these facts, and I am glad to say the Senate took prompt action. The Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs Committees held a rare joint hearing to identify the best ways to make right the existing failures and to prevent similar injustices from ever happening again. Members of these committees

worked together in an entirely bipartisan manner. Last month, they introduced the Wounded Warriors bill, which was entered as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill. The Wounded Warrior amendment addresses the substandard facilities, which we have all read about and have visited, such as Walter Reed, and the lack of seamless transition when medical care for troops is transferred from the Department of Defense to the Veterans' Administration, which often leads to diminished care.

The legislation also looks at the inadequacy of severance pay to help those who have sacrificed so much already to support their families while they recover, and the need to improve sharing of medical records between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It addresses the inadequate care and treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress syndrome by authorizing $50 million for improved diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. We saw this problem highlighted, as I have indicated, in the morning news. There are a number of stories about that, but the main story is in the L.A. Times, which cited a report by a special Pentagon task force showing that 38 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of National Guard members come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues. Yet only 27 of these 1,400 VA hospitals have inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder programs.

Finally, the Wounded Warrior legislation provides support for wounded troops whose health insurance programs, such as the TRICARE program for retired veterans, have allowed gaps in medical coverage and treatment.

In the next few days, I intend to take the Wounded Warrior amendment from the Defense authorization bill--there were additions made to that from the time it left committee--and I will seek unanimous consent that we pass it now. The rest of it, with rare exception in the Defense authorization bill, if we passed it yesterday, wouldn't kick in until the beginning of the fiscal year. But the Wounded Warrior amendment legislation becomes law upon passage and approval. I hope we can do that. This would make these provisions immediately effective when the President signs this. Given the immediate care these people need, and the immediate need to act on the Wounded Warrior amendment, which has overwhelming bipartisan support, I am hoping we can all work together to pass it before we leave here. If we have to do it by unanimous consent, I hope we can do that.

Will the Senator withhold?

Mr. President, George Mitchell told me this. Of course, I didn't believe him, but I do now. One of my most difficult jobs is trying to determine when votes take place and what the schedule is.

I have not had a chance to speak to my friend, the comanager of this bill. But I believe it would be in the best interests of the body--I have conferred with the staff of Senator McConnell--that we have these votes--we have two votes is my understanding. All debate has been completed; is that right?

The procedural matter would not take any time?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent--and I am doing this because I want everyone to be happy, and we don't need unanimous consent, but I am going to ask unanimous consent that the first vote occur at 12:25; then the second one occur--the second vote will be a 10-minute vote--and that there be no speeches in between the votes, we just vote on both of them, one right after the other.

I have spoken to Mr. Schiappa. He understands that. He was going to speak to either Senator Hutchison or Senator McConnell. We have not heard anything back from them. We will try it at 12:20 with the same unanimous consent request I previously mentioned, except 5 minutes earlier.

I ask unanimous consent that the first vote will be at 12:20 and the second vote on final passage be immediately after the first vote, with no speeches in between.

What would happen, I have asked Senator Cochran and Senator Byrd to give their opening statements on homeland security.

I say to my friend, we have lots of time for thank-yous now. Senator Cochran and Senator Byrd need to work their way up here.

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

Madam President, I have been watching the floor, and not much is happening. What we are going to try to do now, with the consent of the two managers, is move to something the Republican leader has worked on for many years, and that is the Burma sanctions legislation. That will take about an hour. That will take us to 5 o'clock or thereabouts, if we do it right away. But in conferring with the two managers--this is an important appropriations bill--we want to get this thing to conference so that for any problems the White House has with it, they can weigh in and try to work this out so we can send the President a bill. So if we do not have amendments start coming in tonight or in the morning, we will move to third reading.

I have laid out, in as much detail as I could, alerting everybody what we need to do this work period. I think I am like most everyone. We have worked long and hard. We had one work period during this year that was 7 weeks long. We have worked hard. We have worked late nights. We have worked a couple of weekends. We worked all night last week. We have things we need to do at home in our States.

Speaking for this Senator, 90 percent of the people in the State of Nevada are in Reno and Las Vegas, but that makes up a relatively small part of the area of the State of Nevada. I have 10 percent of the people in the State of Nevada whom I also represent, and I need to visit with them. I have a wonderful trip scheduled this August to make a tour of places I do not have the opportunity to get to very much. With the rules changes we have made and the lack of air travel, I have to drive. I cannot take a train. There is no air travel. So I will drive around there. I am looking forward to it.

The reason I mention that is we have a lot to do when we go home in August. People have things to do, just as I do. But I told people we have to finish this Homeland Security appropriations bill. We have to complete SCHIP, which is a bipartisan bill. It was reported out of the Finance Committee 17 to 4. The two big cheerleaders we have for that legislation are Senators Baucus and Grassley. We need to finish that. The 9/11 Commission recommendations conference, Senator Lieberman informed me earlier today, should be completed very shortly, within a matter of hours. Then we have ethics and lobbying reform. We have to do that before we leave here.

I hope we can do all this by a week from Friday, but if we have a lot of delays, we cannot do that. I have said it a number of times, but we are going to finish that stuff before we leave. If there are insurmountable obstacles, one of the obstacles that is not insurmountable is to stay here until we get it done. So this is not a threat. I have indicated this is what we needed to do weeks and weeks ago.

So I hope we can have some cooperation. We need to get appropriations bills done. I had a conversation with Josh Bolten today, the President's Chief of Staff. We are trying to figure out some way we can work together on this issue. I hope we can. One way we could start is to finish this bill.

One thing I didn't mention--it won't take a vote--but the Tuesday we get back here after the break, we are going to be on another appropriations bill. If we cannot get a motion to proceed agreed to, then we will file cloture on it and have cloture the day we get back.

I also telegraph my punches here, so there is no surprise; the next bill I want to move to is the VA-Military Construction appropriations bill. The subcommittee has changed a little bit from in the past, but my friend from Mississippi can remember when we used to do the Military Construction bill in wrap-up. There was no discussion on it at all. We know it has more jurisdiction than it had in the past. I chaired that Subcommittee on Military Construction for a while. It was really a good experience. You understand what our military leaders need. They have a process they go through to put on the drawing board what they would like, but we never give them everything they want. But, with rare exceptions, these are not just things we throw in; we work this out with the military. So that is what we are going to move to when we get back.

I laid out the schedule, and we have to move to third reading if we do not have some amendments here. We will wait until the morning. We should give everybody a chance.

Also, I say to the managers of this bill, I do not want to file cloture. I really don't want to file cloture. I hope on an appropriations bill we do not have to file cloture. Now, I know I cannot control unusual amendments on my side, and I know the distinguished former chairman and ranking member of this committee cannot control them on his side, but I hope it will not be necessary to have cloture as a result of amendments that have nothing to do with this very important piece of legislation.

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

Madam President, one of the things I did not do when I talked about the Burma sanctions bill--because I was so focused on the Republican leader--was to mention that working with him side by side on this legislation has been Senator Feinstein. She has worked on this very much. So, again, this is something we can bring to the floor that is bipartisan. But I apologize for not mentioning her name because she has worked on this very long and hard herself.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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