Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 11:30 tomorrow morning, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the following amendments in the order listed, that there be 2 minutes of debate between each vote, with the time divided and controlled in the usual form: amendment No. 316, McCaskill; amendment No. 315, Lieberman, as amended, if amended; Collins amendment No. 342; and amendment No. 314, the DeMint amendment.

Yes. If I was unable to do that, that is what I will do. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I appreciate the statements of my friend.

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

Mr. President, it is with great sadness that I rise to share the passing of a real Nevadan, Dr. Hal Rothman. After a struggle with Lou Gehrig's disease, Hal passed away on February 25, 2007. He was a loving husband to Lauralee, a father to Talia and Brent, and a friend to many who were privileged to know him, including me.

Hal's professional life and community involvement were remarkable. Hal was a history professor at UNLV, a Las Vegas Sun columnist, and a respected author on Western and environmental history. Whenever anyone needed a quick quote or quip about Las Vegas, they often called Hal. From syndicated news shows to historians, Hal was often seen as the go- to-man for anything related to the city.

Hal's love of Las Vegas was clearly apparent last October when he was honored as the Chin's Humanitarian of the Year by the southern Nevada chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In his prepared remarks Hal wrote:

I have sought to explain our wacky city and State to an

often skeptical and sometimes incredulous national and

international audience. Las Vegas not only became our home

but also a city I love with all my heart.

Hal was an outstanding ambassador for Las Vegas and to a larger extent Nevada. He was our front man. He was our image. He was our voice to the world. Nevada has lost one of its favorite sons, and Hal will be forever remembered as a tireless advocate for Las Vegas.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 94, which was submitted earlier today.

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, S. 761, introduced earlier today by Senators Reid of Nevada, McConnell, and others, is at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Mr. President, I will briefly comment on this action. It was a good occasion today. A press conference was held, led by myself and Senator McConnell, with a good bipartisan group of excellent Senators, regarding legislation that would improve America's competitiveness. It is important legislation. It has been worked on by a number of bipartisan Senators, including Senator Bingaman. The person who worked on it, from my perspective, more than anybody else is the distinguished Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Alexander, as did Senator Ensign and Senator Lieberman. It is totally bipartisan.

I hope we can, on a bipartisan basis, move it out of here in the near future.

Mr. President, I object to the bill's second reading.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 6; that on Tuesday, following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that there then be a period for morning business for 60 minutes, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the first 30 minutes under the control of the majority and the next 30 minutes under the control of the Republican leader or his designee; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 4; that at 12 noon the Senate resume consideration of amendment No. 314, and the majority leader be recognized; that on Tuesday, the Senate recess from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. for the weekly conference work sessions.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate today, and if the Republican leader has no further business, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order following a very brief statement I am going to make.

Mr. President, the Senate is in the second week of consideration of the 9/11 bill. S. 4 was reported out during the recess and was available to all Members on Monday, February 26.

We had to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed last Tuesday. Once cloture was invoked, there was a further delay in proceeding to the bill, and we were not allowed to begin consideration of the bill until Wednesday, February 28.

On Thursday of last week, Senator DeMint offered his amendment to strike the TSA provision of the bill. We have been trying to get an agreement to vote on his amendment basically since that evening and on other amendments on the same subject matter as his amendment by Senators McCaskill and Lieberman.

Today, Senator Collins offered her TSA amendment. We are willing to add her amendment to the agreement. That was objected to.

As I indicated and the distinguished Republican leader indicated, tomorrow I will move to table the DeMint amendment.

I mention this because this is a good, very important piece of legislation. It has all the markings of being able to do something on a bipartisan basis, once we get over these few little humps. There are now 31 amendments pending to the bill. Most of the amendments do not deal with 9/11 recommendations. They are important funding issues that must be resolved and other 9/11 issues I would like to resolve before there is a cloture vote on this bill. We have all day tomorrow and we have Wednesday to finish this bill.

Accordingly, I am going to wait as long as I can to file cloture. We need to resolve this bill this week. Immigration amendments are going to have to wait until we deal with that bill later this year. It is not going to be too late because we are going to have to do immigration. I know the immigration people feel strongly about this issue. A number of the people who have been heavily involved in this immigration debate previously have offered immigration amendments on this bill. I think it is better we do the immigration legislation all at once and not piecemeal. I know how strongly the people feel who have offered these amendments, but this is not the vehicle to offer those amendments. If cloture is invoked, most of these amendments will fall. In fact, I think all of them will.

I have indicated to the distinguished Republican leader that we are willing to make sure we can dispose of the amendments that appear to be germane prior to the cloture vote. We want to move this legislation as quickly as possible and as fairly as possible. So I hope the people who have amendments to offer will do it on this legislation. I hope they keep in mind that this is the 9/11 Commission recommendations and not an immigration bill.

Mr. President, we are going to immediately resume consideration of S. 4. At 10 a.m., there will be two rollcall votes, first with respect to the Sununu amendment regarding cross-border interoperability. The second vote is in respect to the Salazar amendment regarding rural policing. These will be the only votes today. Members are welcome to stay after the votes and offer amendments and speak on amendments that are pending.

One amendment that has generated a lot of controversy within the Senate and outside of this body is the DeMint amendment. I hope Members will come and speak about it. As staff has talked, I have mentioned briefly to the Republican leader what we would like to do. Monday night, we will have several votes. We will have more than one vote at 5:30. What I would like to do is on Tuesday have McCaskill and DeMint in the morning. The only thing we have to work out is how much time has to be spent on the DeMint amendment prior to a vote. We hope Senators will come and talk about those matters this afternoon and Monday.

I repeat, Members have the opportunity this afternoon and Monday. We will come in at whatever time we think is appropriate. If we get word that Senators want to offer amendments, we can come in earlier rather than later so that Members may offer amendments and speak about them and so we can move to conclusion of this legislation.

Members have been previously informed that we would be voting on March 5. I am surprised that March is here already, but it is.

We have done well on this bill. I have been satisfied--I think everybody has been--with the demeanor of the debate. It has been very good.

Mr. President, I understand that H.R. 800 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

Mr. President, I object to any further proceedings at this time.

Mr. President, the person about whom I am going to speak has never been on C-SPAN. Members of the public would not recognize him in any capacity. But he is a central part of the Senate family, helping make sure offices have whatever they need to function.

His name is John ``Pedie'' Morton. I have known him for all the time I have been in the Senate. He has been here almost 40 years, working to make the Senate a better place. His name is unfamiliar to the general public. He works behind the scenes in Capitol Facilities. He is a familiar face to those of us who walk the halls of the Capitol. We know him from his great smile, which is disarming. He always expresses warm greetings. Even though he cares a great deal about the Senate, I have to acknowledge that he likes the Redskins more than the Senate. That is his love, the Washington Redskins. After more than three decades of work, he will be missed.

Students learn in civics class about the hundred of us, but they don't learn how many workers it takes to keep this body running. There are hundreds of men and women just like Pedie who help us do our jobs. While the American people recognize us, the hundred Senators, today I want to recognize Pedie and the multitude of colleagues with whom he shares responsibilities in making this place work so well.

There are people every day, seated in front of the Presiding Officer, doing things we don't know how to do but they do to make this body function so that there is a Congressional Record every day and it is absolutely correct, the court reporters taking down every word we say. The police officers make sure the evil people who want to do harm to this beautiful building and the people in it are safe. Today, I recognize Pedie on behalf of all these people who do so much to make the Senate the wonderful institution it is and our country a better place.

Mr. President, I say to my distinguished colleague, the Republican leader, I don't know how anyone could care more for athletic teams than he does for those in Kentucky. I am not sure he has a lot of time to share any of his affection for teams other than those in Kentucky because they are a passion of the distinguished Republican leader.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.