Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate

receives from the House H.R. 2206, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, it be placed on the calendar.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 194.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record as if given.

Mr. President, it is my understanding, prior to my doing the closing--and I don't know if the distinguished Republican leader has anything today--it is my understanding that the Senator from Virginia wanted to make a statement. Does the Senator from Kentucky have anything to say?

Mr. President, there are many issues--in fact, most issues that come before this body deal with monetary things, policy issues, which do not deal with the lives of our men and women in uniform. This issue does. I cannot speak for my Republican counterpart, Senator McConnell, but I can say without any question that I believe he and I are arm-locked in the recognition of how serious this is and how we have to do the very best the Senate can do. We are going to try to do that.

This is a time when we have to work on a nonpartisan basis--not bipartisan but a nonpartisan basis--to get a matter to the House of Representatives so we can do a conference. At this stage, I have to say to my friend from Virginia, who is so knowledgeable about things military, we don't know how we are going to do that yet. That is a fair statement. Everything is on the table. But how we take things off the table and put certain things back on the table, I don't know at this stage. I don't think my friend from Kentucky does, either, but we are open for suggestions and comments. It is not an easy situation. The House of Representatives is a different body than we are. The majority party there can do what they want to do. We cannot do that. This is the Senate, which is divided, as we speak, 50 to 49. So we have to work together.

I say to my friend that I understand his involvement in this. He has worked over the years very well with the Democrats. I look forward to that continuing during the supplemental appropriations bill. Speaking for me, I don't know how we are going to get there, but we are going to try. We have no choice. Failure is not an option.

Mr. President, I only add that I have been as critical of the President as anybody in the Senate. But I have to say that, in the last week or two, his spokesperson, his Chief of Staff, speaking with the authority of the President, has been available to Senator McConnell and me anytime I have asked. I appreciate that. If we are going to get this done, the President has to be part of the solution.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 2 p.m., Monday, May 14; that on Monday, 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 be reserved for their use later in the day; that there then be a period for the transaction of morning business until 3 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled by the two leaders or their designees; that at 3 p.m., the Senate begin consideration of H.R. 1495, as provided for under a previous order.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Record remain open today until 2 p.m. for the introduction of legislation, submission of statements, and adding cosponsors.

Mr. President, it is my understanding there is no further business to come before the Senate today. That being the case, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. President, I have not had an opportunity to speak to the distinguished Republican leader about this, but I ask unanimous consent that the vote, rather than starting at 9:45, start at 9:55 a.m. This will still allow those who are attending hearings to get there immediately after casting their vote.

Mr. President, I ask consent that all other elements of the previous order remain in effect.

Mr. President, the effect of this consent agreement is that the rollcall vote will occur at 9:55. We will proceed then to the water resources bill. Since this is a very bipartisan bill, I hope cloture is invoked on the motion and shortly thereafter we can proceed to the bill so the managers, Senators Boxer and Inhofe, can work toward completing that action.

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings on these matters.

Mr. President, I am concerned about comments made by a Republican Senator yesterday suggesting that I have made a commitment that the Senate will confirm a specific number of judges in this Congress.

Senator McConnell and I have a lot of private conversations on a lot of different subjects. Senator McConnell has told me that the number of judges confirmed and the way judges are handled in this Congress is very important to him. If that, in fact, is the case, that it is important to him, it is important to me, and I have told him that.

The only way this Senate is going to run well is if the Republican leader and the Democratic leader have an understanding as to how things should proceed. There are certain things I feel strongly about. He knows what they are. I feel that he understands how I feel about those things. And I think the converse is true: If I think something is important, he thinks it is important.

I reiterate, he believes the way judges are handled in this Congress is important to him. It is important to me. It is important to both of us for a number of reasons.

He and I are both lawyers, and we both revere the Federal judiciary. We have worked with present members of the Supreme Court to work on increasing their pay. We have worked with them on a number of issues that are important to the administration of justice in this country. The Federal judiciary, really, is the third branch of our Federal Government, and it is entitled to great respect.

Senator McConnell and I believe that the process for considering judicial nominees has become too partisan over the years. The way the Republican-controlled Senate treated President Clinton's judicial nominees was wrong. And, of course, Republicans have their grievances about the way Republican nominees have been handled. We could weigh them and say: You treated us worse than we treated you, and vice versa, but that does not solve the problem. In this regard, there is no need we look back to yesterday. We should focus on today and tomorrow, and that is what I intend to do.

I do agree, without any reservation, with Senator McConnell that we should work to improve the confirmation process for a number of reasons, part of which is selfish; that is, I understand how the Senate works. Everyone is contemplating the election a year from this November. We are going to have a new President. It may be a Democrat, it may be a Republican. Those elections may tilt the balance of this Senate so that Democrats have more than just the one-vote majority we have now. But, Mr. President, I have been around here a long time. You never know what is going to happen in an election. We may find ourselves in the minority.

So I think one reason we should put all this stuff behind us is we want to handle the judges the same way, no matter who is President or who is in control of the Senate. The House has nothing to do with judges as far as confirmation.

I told Senator McConnell we would work hard to process judicial nominees in due course and in good faith, and I will continue to do that. To Senator McConnell, due course would mean 15 to 17 circuit court confirmations in this Congress because that is the historical average for Presidents during the last 2 years a President is in office. I cannot commit to a specific number. We should measure quality, not quantity. There is no reason we cannot confirm 15 nominees if, in fact, they are seen to be, on both sides, mainstream, capable, experienced nominees who are the product of bipartisan cooperation. But we should not confirm nominees who are out of the mainstream, who are unacceptable, for example, to home State senators.

Now, I say, Mr. President, I think we started off this year in a good light. The President decided not to resubmit names he knew were problematic, and I say publicly, as I have said to Senator McConnell privately, that showed good faith. I appreciate that.

We have confirmed three circuit court nominees in this Congress, including Debra Livingston of New York yesterday. There is a hearing for Judge Southwick that starts in 20 minutes. He is from Mississippi. That has been a seat which has been very difficult to fill. We have been through at least two nominees that I know of. I would hope this hearing goes well.

I will continue to work in good faith. We presently have pending two judges on the appellate level. We have a number of district court judges, but we will focus today on circuit court judges--Mississippi, Southwick, whom I just talked about, and one who was sent up late last month from Texas. We are going to make sure we work to move these as quickly as possible. But I do not have a specific numerical goal, other than the outline the Republican leader has given. The Senate should fulfill its constitutional duty with care and confirm nominees who deserve a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench.

Finally, let me say something about the two who are responsible for this Judiciary Committee, Senators Leahy and Specter. It is no secret-- it has already been written about--that Senator Leahy and Senator Hatch, when they were running this committee, had a difficult relationship. It did not work out well. It has also been written about--and very clear--that the relationship between Senator Specter and Senator Leahy is one of respect. They have done a lot of work together, good work together, and they get along extremely well, including with their work on judges.

I do not want the situation on the floor today to show any disrespect to the two men running that committee, Leahy and Specter. They are doing the best they can. But I would hope that--in the Senate, Pat Leahy has been here a lot longer than I have. He has a distinguished career--the only Democratic Senator ever elected from the State of Vermont. He had a distinguished career as a prosecutor before he came here. He has a wonderful family. I care a great deal about him, and I have worked very closely with him over these many years, trying to help when I could with the work he has in the Judiciary Committee. And I will continue to do that. So I can only say positive things about Senator Leahy and Senator Specter as a result of what they are doing in that committee.

I do want the record to reflect that--maybe it was a misunderstanding of one of the Senators on the other side of the aisle to say I was not living up to my word in not moving forward on judges. At least that is what I was told he said. If that is the case, I am sure he did not understand all the facts. The record should be very clear that I am going to do everything I can as the majority leader, working with Senator Leahy, to move these judges as quickly as we can. If, in fact, there are problems that arise during the confirmation process, I cannot make myself the Committee of the Judiciary. I am only

one Senator. I am not a member of that committee. That will be up to Senators Leahy and Specter to run as they see fit and to bring the nominations forward. I will do what I can, working with Senator Leahy, to expedite the judicial process, but I do not want to interfere with their work other than to say what I have said. I hope people understand the relationship Senator McConnell and I have as to how the Senate runs is extremely important. There are times, I can tell my colleagues without any reservation, when I wish I were the Speaker of the House. The Speaker of the House doesn't have to worry about the minority; they run over everybody. That is the way it is set up. But here, the Founding Fathers those many years ago when they came up with this unique experiment called the Congress, a bicameral legislature, these wise men set up this situation so that one House, if you are in control--if one party is in control, they can do anything they want, and in the other House--the Senate--if one party is in control, they can do some things they want but not everything, because the minority has tremendous power in the Senate. I know. I have been in the minority quite a bit.

So I want the Record to reflect I will continue to work with Senator McConnell to move these judges as quickly as we can, and I hope this statement reflects my position on judges. I will do my very best, and if any problems arise regarding judges and people don't understand my position, if I haven't explained it clearly enough today, I will try to do so again if any questions arise.

Mr. President, how much time is left prior to the vote?

I ask that the time be divided equally between Senators Boxer and Inhofe, and that the vote occur immediately after their statements.

Mr. President, this morning, there will be 60 minutes for morning business, with the Republicans controlling the first half, and the Democrats controlling the second half.

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the FDA legislation. Last night, due to the hard work of Senator Enzi and the staffs of Senators Kennedy and Enzi, they were able to come to an agreement to complete action on this legislation today. I compliment the hard work of the many individuals who worked to accomplish this, especially Senator Brown who, in the absence of the chairman, was here throughout the day to assist in moving the process along. In addition, I would like to single out Senator Enzi, who has worked so hard on this legislation in the committee and, of course, with it being on the floor. He has worked very well with Senator Kennedy in the entire process of getting this legislation through the committee to the floor and now toward completion.

Through the hard work of these I have mentioned, we have only three amendments that are in order to the bill, and we have 60 minutes of debate time. Votes on the remaining amendments and passage of the bill will occur around 11:30 this morning.

Following final action on the FDA bill, the Senate will consider, for up to 3 hours, the nomination of Debra Ann Livingston to be a circuit court judge. Upon the use or yielding back of that time, then a vote on confirmation will occur.

Once the judge has been confirmed, I have every belief that the Senate will begin and complete the process of going to conference on the budget resolution. I have spoken to Senator Conrad earlier this morning. He and Senator Judd Gregg get along extremely well, and they will work out the time on the number of motions to instruct and how many motions to instruct the minority will require. So Members should be prepared to work into the evening on this most important item.

Finally, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the water resources legislation will not occur before tomorrow morning. Today will be a busy day, with votes occurring throughout the day, so Members should plan accordingly.

Mr. President, on the FDA legislation, it is my understanding there will be three votes, and then final passage.

Mr. President, the votes occur all at one time?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that be the case, and I also ask consent that there be 10-minute votes after the first vote.

Mr. President, this morning the Senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour, with the time equally divided. The majority will control the first half and the Republicans will have the final 30 minutes.

The Senate then will resume consideration of S. 1082, the FDA bill.

For the information of the Members, there is a filing deadline at 10:30 this morning for second-degree amendments to the substitute amendment and the bill.

At 11:50 this morning, we will change course and proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Frederick Kampala, to be a U.S. district judge in northern Illinois. There will be 20 minutes of debate and then a vote. Following the vote, the Senate will recess for our regular conference meetings.

Yesterday, cloture was invoked on the committee substitute. I hope that at some point we will be in a position to agree to the amendments by unanimous consent or to get cloture for completing action on the FDA bill. There are still a number of amendments pending, and a preliminary review by all the Parliamentarians indicates some of them are arguably germane postcloture.

I would say on this matter, I informed the Republican leader yesterday we would not have any votes after 4 o'clock today, but that doesn't mean we would not be in session. If we can't get some agreement on running out the 30 hours, we will have to be in session until that time expires, around 10 or 11 o'clock tonight. Then we would in the morning come in and finish this FDA bill. Then it is my understanding-- the Parliamentarian can correct me if I am wrong--that there would be a cloture vote on WRDA at that time, unless some agreement is worked out on that, to move to that bill.

I understand that S. 1312 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

I object to any further proceedings with respect to the bill.