Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1 and that the Senate then proceed to its consideration; that all after the enacting clause be stricken, and the text of S. 4, as passed the Senate on March 13, 2007, be inserted in lieu thereof; that the bill be read the third time, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table; that 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.

I further ask unanimous consent that it not be in order to consider the conference report if it contains collective

bargaining provisions which I have committed to drop, as has the Speaker.

Mr. President, finally, again, I want the record spread with how much I appreciate this. I know the families of 9/11 appreciate Democrats and Republicans coming together and agreeing to complete this legislation, which we will complete very quickly.

The bill (H.R. 1), as amended, was read the third time and passed.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes consideration tomorrow of Senator Webb's amendment No. 2012, that the second-degree amendment be withdrawn and there be 4 hours for debate equally divided in the usual form on that amendment, and that at the conclusion or yielding back of that 4 hours, the Senate vote, without intervening action, on the Webb amendment.

Mr. President, my friend has stated he would object to 4 hours, and I assume the same answer would be to 6 hours or 8 hours; is that right, I say to my friend.

I understand that. Mr. President, what I suggest then is this: Senator Levin has been here all day. He didn't give his opening statement because he was occupied doing other business. He is here now. He was here all today in the Senate. I talked with him earlier this morning. What I suggest then is we get an agreement that if, in fact, I file cloture tomorrow, we can have a cloture vote on Wednesday. That way we wouldn't do it tonight. We will work with the minority leader. I think there is a strong possibility we could do side by sides. We wouldn't lose anything by waiting until tomorrow to see if we can work out some agreement.

What I am asking is that rather than my filing cloture tonight, hopefully I won't have to do it tomorrow, but if I did on this amendment, rather than waiting until Thursday to vote on it, could I have an agreement from my

friend that we would vote on the cloture motion on Wednesday rather than Thursday?

That is fine. What we will do, Mr. President, is hopefully not have to file cloture on this amendment. If we do, we will have a cloture vote on Wednesday. I feel confident we can work something out. We will certainly do our best on this side. Senator Levin is here. He is easy to work with, as is Senator Warner.

I thank the Chair.

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

I ask unanimous consent that Jacqueline Beatty-Smith, a fellow in my office, be granted the privileges of the floor during consideration of H.R. 1585.

On behalf of Senator Clinton, I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to the following fellows in her office during consideration of H.R. 1585: Jaime Martinez, Nicole Wilett, and Eleanor Edson.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 77, H.R. 710.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Levin amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read three times, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record, the above occurring with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 262.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 265.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until tomorrow morning, Tuesday, July 10; that on that day, following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired and the time for the two leaders reserved for their use later in the day; that there then be a period of morning business for 60 minutes, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each and the time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, with the first half under the control of the Republicans and the final half under the control of the majority; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of H.R. 1585; that on Tuesday, the Senate stand in recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for the respective conference lunch meetings.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. There will be no votes today. The next votes are expected to occur Monday, around 5:30; that is July 9.

As I said yesterday, the Senate will vote on the remaining four judicial nominations that are on the Executive Calendar. Also, on Monday, July 9, the Senate will begin consideration of the Defense Department authorization bill, an extremely important bill for all of our military servicemembers in Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, and all over the world.

So when the Senate leaves today for the Fourth of July recess and returns on July 9, Members should expect a very busy legislative work period during the month of July.

Mr. President, we have tried and tried and tried to get the Republicans to allow us to go to conference on ethics, on lobbying reform and also on the 9/11 Commission recommendations. They have prohibited us from doing that.

In the Senate, there are procedural blocks that can be placed on measures, and they have done that. They have done it for reasons that are fleeting in importance. We were ready to do ethics and lobbying reform, and someone stepped in and said: Well, I don't like the earmark provision, I want them to be handled some other way--a diversion, a dilatory tactic to stop this Congress from doing what it needs to do regarding lobbying and ethics reform.

Republicans are trying to stop reform. We have lived in a culture of corruption during Republican leadership. For the first time in 131 years, someone working in the White House is indicted, the man is now in prison, Scooter Libby. Safavian, head of Government contracting for the President, appointed by the President, handles billions of dollars for the Government contracting, he was led away from his office in handcuffs; he is now in prison.

The majority leader in the House of Representatives was convicted three

times within 1 year of ethics violations. He was indicted in the State of Texas. He resigned.

Another Member of Congress is serving jail time for corruption. Abramoff, whose tentacles seem to go throughout this town, is in prison.

Trips to Scotland to play golf, lavish gifts by lobbyists, parties by lobbyists, free travel on airplanes, the legislation that passed the Senate eliminates all that. I have only given a brief capsule of the corruption in this town under Republican leadership. I have only given a brief capsule of what they have done to prevent our going to conference.

I want all of the Republicans to know, I am not going to ask again for unanimous consent to go to conference. When they get ready to go to conference, they can come to us.

But everyone should understand that prior to the August recess, we are going to complete ethics and lobbying reform. We are going to do it if we have to spend nights, weekends, take days out of our August recess. Everyone has had fair warning.

It takes a lot of time to overcome the hurdles they have placed in front of us, but we are going to do that. It will eat up valuable Senate time, but we are going to do it. We are going to complete lobbying and ethics reform. That was the first bill we placed on the agenda, ethics and lobbying reform, to try to have the American people feel better about their Congress and what we do.

I can still remember 9/11. I was in S-219. I was the first one in that room that morning. It was a Tuesday morning. It is when Senator Daschle held his leadership meeting. Senator Breaux came in and said: Flip on the TV, something is happening in New York. We could see one of the buildings burning.

Without elaborating in great detail, the leadership meeting started, someone came and got Senator Daschle. There was an evacuation of this building that took place. There was a plane heading toward the Capitol.

It would take someone living in New York to understand the horror of that day, I believe. But it was a horrible day. There was a 9/11 Commission appointed after great turmoil and consternation. The President fought that for a number of months. Finally, it was done, a bipartisan commission. They came back with recommendations. It has been almost 3 years and those have not been implemented.

We passed in the Senate, as one of our top priorities, implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Remember, that same commission graded the Bush administration on how they were implementing those recommendations: Ds and Fs.

With the legislation we passed, all As. Once again, the Republicans have stood in our way procedurally and will not let us go to conference. Yesterday someone came in and said: Well, I do not like what happens postaudit; we need to make sure that following the spending of those moneys the audit trail is appropriate.

So do I. So does every member of the Senate. We want this money spent wisely and properly. This is a diversionary, delaying tactic to stop us from doing this.

The President did not want the 9/11 Commission appointed in the first place. He wouldn't implement the recommendations. He is trying to stop the Congress from forcing him to sign a bill.

I will say the same thing on the 9/11 Commission recommendations that I said on ethics and lobbying reform. I am no longer going to come and beg the Republicans to do what is good for the country. It is up to them. When they get ready to do the 9/11 Commission recommendations, come to us and we will appoint conferees immediately and complete the conference within a matter of a couple of days.

Like ethics and lobbying reform, we are going to complete this before the August recess. Now, is that going to shorten the August recess? It is up to the Republicans. But we are going to complete this legislation. It is not right that two of the most important issues facing this country, ethics and lobbying reform--getting rid of the culture of corruption--and implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations should not go into effect.

The 9/11 Commission recommendations, they are not just for the State of New York, they are for our country, to protect people in Las Vegas and Reno, to protect Hoover Dam, where millions of people cross that bridge every year, to make sure there is not some terrorist act, throwing something over that dam, disrupting power that is generated that goes, most of it, to California, or the water sources, most of which goes to California.

I think this is a very dangerous game the Republicans are playing, delaying the implementation of ethics and lobbying reform and the implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

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

Madam President, this Sunday is the halfway mark of the year 2007. It is also the 2-month mark since President Bush vetoed the supplemental appropriations bill we sent to him which would have set a responsible path to reduce our combat operations, save lives, and finally change course in Iraq. President Bush called our bill a ``recipe for chaos.''

Now that 2 months have passed, here is what has happened under the President's escalation plan. It is clearly chaos: 126 brave Americans died in May alone, and more than 100 in June. This quarter has been the deadliest in the entire war. Sectarian killings have not declined. Yesterday, more than 20 Iraqis were beheaded. There is little evidence the Iraqi Government will meet any of the political benchmarks they have set for themselves. The surge was supposed to create the space for Iraq's political leaders to make the difficult decisions to unite their country. That has not occurred.

I have said from the beginning that as long as President Bush remains obstinate and the Republicans in Congress continue to toe his line, this tragic war will continue. There is no sign of President Bush awakening to the devastating reality of this intractable war. But this week, there is new reason for optimism in that my Republican colleagues in the Senate are finally willing to join in calling for a new direction.

A couple of days ago, on Tuesday, I congratulated the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Lugar, for courageously breaking ranks with President Bush and calling for the war to end. Senator Lugar said, among other things:

Persisting indefinitely with the surge strategy will delay

policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting

our vital interests over the long term.

I agree with those words.

The day after Senator Lugar's comments, another distinguished Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, George Voinovich, wrote a letter to the President. In the letter, Senator Voinovich urged the President to wake up to the truth that so many of us already know: that the war cannot be won militarily.

It can only be won politically. Yet another distinguished member of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, then said he expects the number of Republican defections with the President to rise.

I am encouraged by what we are hearing now from Republican Senators, even though it is only a handful. But when you join these three Senators with Senators Smith and Hagel, we are up to five. We still have 44 to go.

I said earlier this week that this could and should be a turning point. After the recess, we will turn to the Department of Defense authorization bill, which is our next chance to force the President to change course.

But we are still a long way from reaching our goal. More Republicans are saying the right things, but now we badly need for them to put their words into action by voting the right way also.

The current handful of Republicans isn't enough. We would not be able to get any legislation passed without 60 votes, but we are getting closer. We are not where we need to be yet.

In May, as I said, the President called our plan a ``recipe for chaos.'' Each day that goes by we sink further and further into the President's escalation, and it becomes even clearer that the best way to ensure chaos, death, devastation, and destruction is to stick with the President's failed policy. Let's go with our plan, which is not chaos but stability and the saving of people's lives.

As we leave for the celebration of our Nation's birthday, the Fourth of July, I ask my colleagues to listen to the call of the American people. Choose the path that honors our troops, makes our country safer at home, and stronger abroad.

When we return next week, let's get to work on a responsible new direction that Americans demand and deserve and, in fact, is long overdue.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 197, S. 1610.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that a Dodd-Shelby substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read the third time; further, I ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from the consideration of H.R. 556, and the Senate proceed to its consideration; that all after the enacting clause be stricken, and the text of S. 1610, as amended, be inserted in lieu thereof; the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, without any intervening action or debate; that S. 1610 be placed back on the calendar; that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.