Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I now withdraw the motion.

Today the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 3:30 p.m. The time will be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. Once morning business has closed, the Senate will resume consideration of the energy legislation. There are no rollcall votes today. There are a number of amendments pending. The managers are going to work on trying to dispose of some of those, and maybe there will be other amendments that will be offered today and debated today.

Mr. President, it is summertime and school is out and people are planning their vacations. Most all the vacations are ones where people drive. They, of course, go visit relatives, they go to the beaches and the mountains where it is cool, barbecuing with friends, but driving is part of America. If you have traveled in Nevada, which millions of people do by automobile every year, going through Nevada and coming to places such as Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe, you find the price of gas is very high. But it is that way all over the country, not just Nevada. The record-high price is no accident. It is a result of America's addiction to oil.

I say again, as I have said many times before, today in America we are going to use 21 million barrels of oil; 65 percent of that oil we will import. We will do it from unstable countries and regions. We have been told with no uncertainty by scientists that we have only 10 to 15 years to do something to dramatically reduce the elements of pollution that cause global warming.

This week we are going to continue our debate on energy legislation. This is a bill on which every Senator should agree, but they do not. This is a bill that comes out of the Energy Committee on a bipartisan basis, a bill that comes out of the Environment and Public Works Committee on a bipartisan basis, a bill that comes out of the Commerce Committee on a bipartisan basis. They were all put together and this is what is before us, a bipartisan energy bill.

The bill addresses both sides of the energy crisis, consumption and supply. That is what it is all about. On the consumption side, this bill raises fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and raises efficiency standards for light, heat, and water.

We now know we have to produce vehicles that get 27 miles to the gallon. For people, including our automobile manufacturers, to say: We can't do it, we can't simply in a decade produce vehicles that will be 35-miles-per-gallon efficient--our country is one of ingenuity, of inventing things--certainly we can do that. We have to do that.

On the supply side, our legislation invests in renewable fuels that can be produced right here in America. It would sure be good for our country if we could include an amendment that would diversify power generation to include at least 15 percent of the energy from renewable sources. This will save consumers tens of billions of dollars every year, cut our oil consumption by more than 4 million barrels a day, reduce our dependence on oil and foreign energy sources, and take a giant step

forward in the fight against global warming.

Raising CAFE standards and implementing a renewable portfolio standard are two of the most crucial parts of this legislation. I urge my colleagues to stand on the side of the American people by supporting this legislation: CAFE that is in the bill, and the renewable portfolio standard that was introduced by Senator Bingaman.

There are some who say we need to produce more oil. Of course we do. But keep in mind, out of 100 percent of the oil in the world, America controls less than 3 percent of it. This is the world; here we are. We have that much of the oil. We can't produce our way out of the problems we have. But it appears to me that many are saying more of the same: drill, drill, drill, which is similar to what the administration is saying about the war in Iraq, more of the same. That will not work. Drill, drill, drill will not work either.

It is time for our country to stop stonewalling and start supporting the kind of innovation that is already happening across America with the renewable portfolio standard. In the State of Nevada, there is a renewable portfolio standard. American ingenuity is looking at things, like in California where one professor is working on a new technology that can manufacture fuel out of simple plant material in any industrial park in America. I have eminent scientists who visit with me on this issue. There is wide-ranging support. I had come to my office one day last week--I was surprised--Paul Newman, the famous actor. He came to talk about this plant material. He is a person who is devoted to the environment. He is using his celebrity status to come and tell Members of Congress to do something about it.

So we have eminent scientists, we have people of celebrity status such as Paul Newman, and the rest of Americans who want us to do something about it.

In Pennsylvania, Amish farmers are charging their buggy batteries with solar power. In the State of Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is Las Vegas, is using solar energy at water pumping stations to move water uphill, something that in the past would have required tremendous nonrenewable power. There are things that can be done.

I was listening to public radio this morning. They are having a drought in Australia--I believe it was Sidney. I am not sure what the name of the city was. But they have had a lot of new people come and their water supply has dropped by 21 percent, so they are desalinizing water from the ocean. But the people said: We are not going to do that by burning fossil fuel. So what they have done is they have wind farms 60 miles away--I think that is how far it is; quite a ways away--wind farms, producing all the energy which now supplies 20 percent of the water for that city in Australia which needs millions of gallons of water every day.

It can be done. We need to lessen our dependence on fossil fuel. That kind of innovation is exactly what America does best, and that is what the Government should be investing in, things like I just talked about. The energy crisis will not be solved overnight, but this bill is a crucial first step. So let's take that first step. It is a bipartisan piece of legislation; not divided by our political parties but united, I hope, by our commitment to a cleaner, safer energy future. We are going to finish this bill sometime this week unless something goes haywire.

Then, when we finish that, we are going to move on to everyone's favorite subject, immigration.

I mentioned this last Friday, and I say it again: People who have weekend schedules should understand if they are going to be gone from the Senate, they are likely going to miss votes. We cannot get to immigration until Thursday at the earliest. In an effort to finish by our Fourth of July recess, we have to take up the bill Thursday, probably late in the day, which will mean votes over the weekend. It is always possible by unanimous consent that may not be necessary, but I am telling everybody the odds are tremendous that we will be voting this weekend. And on Monday there will be votes and there will be votes before 5:30. It is our last weekend before the Fourth of July recess. We have work to do. I hope we don't run into the Fourth of July recess, but we may have to if we can't get things done.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news regarding the schedule, but we have obligations to complete energy and immigration.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask the time be charged equally against both the majority and minority time.

Mr. President, we will shortly resume consideration of the energy legislation. There are no rollcall votes scheduled today. We have heard from a number of Senators on both sides of the aisle of their desire to come and offer amendments. The managers of the bill have indicated they are willing to set amendments aside to move on that. I think that is appropriate.

There will also be no rollcall votes on Monday. This has been a long schedule, but it is, again, my hope that Members will take that opportunity to come offer and debate amendments on this energy legislation.

Sometime next week--and I will meet and discuss this with the distinguished Republican leader--if this debate doesn't speed up and more amendments are not offered, then we will have to see if we can move to end the debate and finish this legislation.

There are issues that are important. There has to be some decision, a finality made with regard to the pieces of the bill that are so important, such as the renewable portfolio standard, the CAFE standards, and there is also interest in coal-to-liquid and the different ways that can be done.

As I understand it, those are the three big issues, so I would hope Members who have those issues, whether amendments or whatever else they want to focus their attention on, would do so. The American people want us to do something dealing with energy. This is a good bipartisan bill, and I would hope Members would understand this is their time to come and offer amendments.

I would also note, as indicated in the morning press, that Senator McConnell and I met last evening with a bipartisan group of Senators regarding immigration, and we now have a pathway forward on that. When we finish the energy legislation, we will move to that legislation. I think we have now an agreed-upon number of amendments that will be offered by Republicans and Democrats and we should get to that sometime next week.

We are going to finish that legislation and the energy legislation prior to our having our Fourth of July recess. I would also indicate to all Senators and staffs, it is Friday, and I know that a lot of times-- I would not say a lot of times but on a number of occasions--I have indicated we might have to work weekends. I know this causes a lot of stress to folks. But everyone should know that to complete this bill and to complete the immigration bill will require next weekend, without any question, next weekend, Saturday and Sunday.

Now, of course, it is always possible that through unanimous consent certain work that could be done in 1 day could be put over to another day, and I understand that. But Senators should understand this is the real thing. If we are going to finish these two bills, which both the Republican leader and I think is absolutely mandatory and essential, Senators should be advised that next Saturday and Sunday, which means the preceding Friday, which is a week from today, and a week from Monday, we will be in session.

We only have 2 weeks left in this work period, and I hope we don't have to run into the Fourth of July recess

period, which is only 1 week long. We have a number of things we are going to try to do this morning. We are going to get to a couple of judges. We hope to pass those. We have a number of other things we need to do. We have so many things we need to complete, but a lot of them are very complicated and difficult, such as the Energy bill and immigration. At least we have a pathway forward on these, and I think we can work them out.

It goes without saying that if we are able to complete these prior to the Fourth of July recess, that would be fine. But if we can't, the Fourth of July recess will take second fiddle to these important pieces of legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from Senator Levin to me dated June 15, 2007.

Mr. President, there will be no morning business today. Following the remarks, if any, of myself and Senator McConnell, the Senate will resume consideration of the energy legislation.

There is currently pending a Bingaman first-degree amendment regarding renewables and a Domenici second-degree amendment on the same subject.

I am going to be meeting with the managers of the bill as soon as possible to find out how we are doing and what they think can be done to move us toward finalizing this bill. We have, in Senators Bingaman and Domenici, two real professionals in this body. They are both from the same State, both on the same committee, one is chairman and one is ranking on the committee, and that has gone back and forth in recent years. So I am confident we can move toward resolving this issue.

The other issue that is difficult that we need to work on is dealing with the efficiency of automobiles, the CAFE aspect of the bill. There should be an amendment laid down by Senator Levin on that matter. He thought he could do that today, so perhaps, when we dispose of this, we can move to that.

These are the two big issues, as I see them. There are other important issues, such as coal and gas, that a number of Senators want to debate, and we can do that. It is an important bill and, I repeat, a bipartisan bill. This is not a Democratic bill or a Republican bill. The only matters that came before the Senate were bipartisan bills that were reported out of the various committees, and we put those together and that is what is now on the floor.

Mr. President, the Senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour this morning. The majority controls the first half, Republicans control the final 30 minutes.

Following the period of morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 6, the comprehensive energy legislation.

Under an order entered last night, the time following morning business until 11:45 will be equally divided between Senators Boxer and Inhofe, dealing with an amendment offered by Senator Inhofe regarding oil refineries. So at 11:45, the Senate will vote in relation to the Inhofe amendment.

Other amendments are expected to be offered after the Inhofe amendment is disposed of, and votes will occur throughout today's session.

Senator McConnell and I have a meeting at the White House this afternoon, so I don't think we will have a vote until about 3:30 or so after this first vote. I will also state it appears, because we need to move this Energy bill along, there will likely be no morning business tomorrow, so we should alert Members to that fact.

It is my understanding the Republican leader has something which he has to attend to.

Mr. President, I thought it was important to point out to the Senate and to the country what we have accomplished during this 6 months that we have been in session. We have had some hurdles to go through, and as a result of that, it has taken a little longer than we wanted on most everything, but we have made some significant accomplishments, and I think the Senate should talk about the accomplishments we have made.

Democrats can't take credit for all this work that has been done because everything that passed took Republican votes also. So I think we, as a Senate, should be able to talk about what we have accomplished.

We have passed the minimum wage bill, which is now law. We passed a balanced budget, which also has in it the restoration of pay as you go. We passed a continuing resolution. Remember, when we came here, there had been no funding preparations made for after February 1, so we had to do that, and we did. We worked on approving the appointment of U.S. attorneys. That passed on a bipartisan basis.

We worked to make sure there was equipment for Guard and Reserves that was appropriate for those people serving in Iraq. We worked hard to push Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, and now they are in theatre. We passed health care legislation for the veterans, and we provided military medicine that was over and above what the President requested.

We basically full funded the Katrina disaster, which was something that was long overdue. We provided health insurance for children. And I would say, without question, this was as much pushed by Republicans as Democrats--the $600 million that will fund many programs in an adequate fashion until the 1st of October, which would not have been the case otherwise.

We provided $1 billion for homeland security, something we had been working on for a long time. This will allow the Department of Homeland Security to provide more security at our train stations and on our rails and to do some things we have not been doing at airports.

For 3 years, we have been trying to get agriculture disaster relief passed. We were able to do that. Again, clearly bipartisan. Western wildfire relief is important. For example, in the State of Nevada, more than a million acres have burned.

We have had many hearings dealing with the conduct of the war. We have had only two things that have been vetoed. One was the emergency supplemental with timelines, and the other is--I don't know if the President has vetoed it yet. I didn't check with my staff before I came here. But I know we sent the President the stem cell bill yesterday, and I am told he is going to veto that.

We have a number of things that are in progress. We expect to be able to do the ethics and lobbying reform in the near future, hopefully within a matter of the next week or 10 days.

The 9/11 Commission recommendations, Senators Lieberman and Collins have been working hard on that with their House counterparts. That is basically done. We have security at the U.S. courts. I have spoken to the House yesterday and they are going to move on that, so that can be completed with the conference because we passed it over here.

Reauthorization of FDA, we have done that here. I think that should be able to be conferenced quite soon.

WRDA, Senators Boxer and Inhofe are working on that very hard. We expect that conference to take place without a lot of heartburn. And the competitiveness legislation. I spoke with the Speaker last evening. They have a bill they have already passed. We have passed one. We should be able to do that--again, clearly a bipartisan bill.

We have a number of things we tried to move on and were unable to do so because procedurally we couldn't get to them, even though we tried. One was to change the Medicare prescription drug law on negotiation and allow Medicare to do that. We wanted to do intelligence authorization. We were prevented from being able to get it on the floor because of a filibuster. Immigration reform is a work in progress. Perhaps in the next few days we will have a pathway to get that completed.

I have had some good conversations this morning with both Democrats and Republicans on that issue, and the Republican leader and I hope we can sit down and talk about that when he has a proposal he can give. I understand that could come as early as today or tomorrow.

We have on the Senate Floor now an energy bill--again, totally bipartisan. Everything that is in the bill that is on the Senate Floor has been bipartisan. So I hope we can move forward on that and complete that.

As I indicated, we need to start, before we leave here, the Defense authorization bill. I hope we can do that.

So we have done a lot. A lot of times you hear little bits and pieces of what we have done. I have not covered everything, but I have touched on most everything we have been able to do this year, and I think it is something that we should feel good about.

I am happy to yield.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Bingaman.

Madam President, today I rise to honor the achievements of Peter Chase Neumann. Not only is Peter recognized locally and nationally for his skill as a trial lawyer, he is also deeply involved with philanthropies whose work has been enormously beneficial to Nevada. These significant contributions have resulted in Peter being named the recipient of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and deservedly so.

Peter has tried more than 150 civil and criminal cases to verdict and almost 50 appeals to the Nevada and Arizona Supreme Courts. His ability in the legal profession is renowned, and his talents are wide-ranging, from trial advocacy in personal injury cases to writing academic articles. He has dedicated himself to the cause of justice for the wrongfully injured, and has been recognized for his work in Town and Country Magazine's Top Trial Lawyers in America, in Las Vegas Magazine, by Top Gun Lawyers in Nevada and by The Best Lawyers in America.

His leadership in the legal community is unparalleled: He has served as president of the Arizona, Nevada, and Western Trial Lawyers Association, and on the Board of Governors for the American Trial Lawyers Association. He was both legislative advocate for and president of the Plaintiff's Bar, and was accepted as a diplomat in the International Society of Barristers and the American Board of Trial Advocates.

His devotion to the law has not in any way impeded his philanthropic contributions. He and his wife Renate have served with the Angel Kiss Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families cope with the financial burdens associated with childhood cancer. President Clinton recognized Peter's influence and appointed him to the Tahoe Regional Planning Committee. He has involved himself with Scenic America and Scenic Nevada, committing himself to the cause of protecting Nevada's natural treasures in the Lake Tahoe region and beyond.

Peter is also an accomplished airplane pilot. In recent years, he has spent untold hours soaring in his gliders all over America.

Most people know Peter for his reputation as a renowned trial lawyer or for his work in the philanthropic community in my State. But I have had the privilege to call Peter my friend. It is my great pleasure to offer congratulations to Peter Chase Neumann for his lifetime of excellence in his profession, in his public service, and in his philanthropy.

Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 60 minutes. The Republicans will control the first half, the Democrats the second half. Following this period of morning business, the Senate will resume postcloture debate on the motion to proceed to H.R. 6, the Energy bill.

We have consent to move to the bill itself after the caucuses end at 2:15 today. The motion to proceed will be agreed to, and the Senate will begin consideration of the energy legislation. Senators Bingaman, Domenici, we understand Boxer and Inhofe and Inouye, or his designee, and Stevens, will come and talk about this bill. Hopefully, they will do it this morning to lay the groundwork for this very important piece of legislation.

As with the competitiveness bill, this is a bipartisan bill. I remind everyone, matters that the Energy Committee reports out of their committee on a bipartisan basis are part of this bill. The same applied to Commerce; the same applied to the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Those matters the chairmen wanted out of those committees that were not bipartisan are not part of this bill. This is truly a bipartisan bill. There will be amendments offered to weaken the bill, to strengthen the bill--of course, the understanding of those words is in the eyes of the beholder.

I hope this will be a good, strong debate. I hope people will offer amendments. We have a limited amount of time to complete a lot of work. If there are long delays, people not offering amendments, I know the managers will be saying we have to end this some way, and the ``some way'' that we are always forced to look at is whether we want to have a bipartisan cloture vote on ending debate.

Let's have people who want to offer amendments do it as quickly as possible. I have asked the managers of the bill, rather than wait around for people who say: I don't know if I want a vote on this, we need more time--after there has been a reasonable amount of time discussing one of these amendments, the managers should move to table the amendment. If it is not tabled, nothing is lost. We need to move along and get this legislation completed as quickly as possible.

Gas prices are going down. They have dropped a few cents the last week or two, which is good. The cost of oil coming into this country has gone up. It is now at $67 and people are saying it is going up higher, which will mean there will be an increase at the gas pumps a month or so after the cost of oil importation increases.

Remember, we have an obligation with this legislation. This legislation, which some people say is not strong enough, if it passes, will cut the amount of oil we use per day in this country by 4 million barrels. Think about that, 4 million barrels a day. This is a step in the right direction. I hope we can do this.

The setting for this is, among other things, we use 21 million barrels of oil every day. We import 65 percent of that. As I said yesterday in illustration of how much this is, it is a ditch 150 feet deep and 11 miles long filled with oil. That is how much we use every day.

We have an obligation to the American people to lessen our dependence, to make that ditch shorter and not nearly as deep.

Mr. President, we have reached another tragic milestone in the Iraq war: 3,500 American troops have now been lost. Every one of those 3,500 is a hero. But every brave man and woman who continues to serve and protect us is a hero as well.

This is a somber time. At a somber time such as this, words betray our grief and our gratitude. So I ask my colleagues to join me in a moment of silence to honor the memory and sacrifice of every airman, soldier, sailor, and marine we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Mr. President, would the clerk report what is now before the Senate or what should be before the Senate.

Mr. President, I have amendment No. 1502 at the desk.

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

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

Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 3:30 p.m., with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. At 3:30 p.m., the Senate will have 2 hours of debate as follows: an hour on the motion to proceed to the energy legislation, and the second hour will be debate on the motion to proceed to the legislation expressing no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales. Starting at 5:30 p.m. today, the Senate will conduct a rollcall vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the Gonzales legislation. If that cloture vote fails, then the Senate will have a vote on the motion to proceed to the energy legislation.

Order of Procedure

I now ask unanimous consent that at 5:10 today, until the vote at 5:30, the time be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders, with the majority leader controlling the final 10 minutes.