Floor Statements

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 executive session; that the Rules Committee be discharged from further consideration of the following nominations: Rosemary Rodriguez and Caroline Hunter to be members of the Election Assistance Commission; that the nominations be confirmed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that the Senate then proceed to Executive Calendar No. 29, the nomination of Leon Sequeira to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor; that the nomination be confirmed and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table; that any statements be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and the Senate return to legislative session.

Mr. President, this new Assistant Secretary has a lot of good qualifications, but the most important was his employment record with the distinguished Republican leader.

Rosemary Rodriquez and Caroline Hunter.

Mr. President, I ask consent that the HELP Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 487 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

I understand there is an amendment at the desk. I ask consent the amendment be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements be printed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 23, S. 188.

I ask consent that the committee-reported amendments be considered and agreed to, the amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to and the bill, as amended, be read three times, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Con. Res. 12.

Mr. President, I further ask 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 measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, it is my understanding there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. President, I now ask for a second reading and, in order to place this bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, object to my own request.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12 noon tomorrow, February 16; that on Friday, following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, and that the time until 12:30 p.m. be equally divided and controlled by the two leaders; that beginning at 12:30 p.m., there be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein, with 30-minute blocks of time in an alternating fashion, with the majority controlling the first 30 minutes.

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

Madam President, today following whatever time the leaders might utilize, the Senate will be in morning business for 1 hour, with the time equally divided and Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Yesterday, cloture was invoked on the continuing funding resolution by a vote of 71 to 26. We need to run the 30 hours postcloture. Then all time will expire at 8:52 this evening.

Following morning business, we will resume consideration of the funding resolution.

I have had discussions with the Republican leader about other matters which we might consider prior to adjourning for the February recess. Among those would be several judicial nominations on which I have acknowledged on previous occasions we would be able to secure a time agreement. Members will be apprised of the likelihood or the possibility of votes today.

Madam President, I would like to say that this 110th Congress, when we came here, Democrats and Republicans alike had a real problem because the last Congress only funded the Government until February 15. With cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, difficult negotiations took place, but it was a situation where Senators Cochran and Byrd, who lead us in the Appropriations Committee, working with Chairman Obey on the other side of the Capitol, together with all ranking members and all chairs of the subcommittees on both sides, worked through these difficult issues. And they were difficult. We had not enough money to do all that is necessary to be done, but we got it done without a single earmark. I know this was difficult.

There are issues that are so troubling. There is a Senator on the other side of the aisle, Johnny Isakson from Georgia. I don't know how you could find a nicer person in the world than Johnny Isakson. He is pleasant. He always has a smile on his face. He has an issue that is really important to him concerning children and health--something that should be in this bill. It is not.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senior Senator from Texas, has an issue dealing with BRAC that has bipartisan support. There are bases that we legislated closure for, and communities are having difficult times as a result of these base closures doing all that needs to be done, and we promised them money to allow these closures to go forward without as much concern and real hardship. But there wasn't anything we could do. If we had a single amendment on this bill, it had to go back for conference.

As a result of that, it would mean that very likely we couldn't complete this by tomorrow night at midnight. I have made commitments to a number of people that we are going to take care of these things in the supplemental which should be here the last week in March, and I am going to do

everything I can to make sure the process on the supplemental is as open and free as people think it should be. We will be as patient as we can be to work our way through this. I have told the distinguished Republican leader that vehicle will be open to amendments.

So I think we have done very good work. Legislation is the art of compromise and consensus building, and I appreciate very much the Republicans supporting this. There were some who didn't and I understand that and I understand why. What we did yesterday in invoking cloture on this bill is a step forward to allowing us to get the country's financial affairs in order. I have talked to Senator Byrd. I have spoken to Senator Cochran. I have spoken to the distinguished Republican leader. We are all going to do our very utmost this year to get appropriations bills done. We are going to be able to do that now that this CR is going to be out of the way either today early on or, if we can't work anything out, when the time expires tonight.

So, again, I want to express my appreciation publicly to everyone who worked on this matter. There were people who voted against the bill who were a part of the process of working things out. I have spent time on this issue with the senior Senator from New Mexico. I have spent a lot of time with him. He and I did that Energy and Water Subcommittee for many years as chairman and ranking member. We went back and forth. He didn't get everything he wanted, but he got quite a bit. I am not going to go through the whole rollcall of others with whom we worked on this to try to make it as easy a slide as possible. But anyway I am glad it is done. It is good for the country.

Madam President, I know there are Senators wishing to speak, but I just want to say a few more words on a different subject. First of all, S. 574 is at the desk and due for a second reading.

Madam President, I object to any further proceedings with respect to this bill.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Coburn be recognized for up to 1 hour at 3:15 p.m. today, not to exceed the 1-hour time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 4:30 p.m., the Senate go into executive session to consider Executive Calendar No. 25, the nomination of Nora Barry Fischer to be a U.S. district judge; that there be 10 minutes for debate on that nomination equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and 5 minutes under the control of Senator Casey; that at 4:45 p.m., the Senate vote on the nomination; that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session and resume consideration of H. J. Res. 20; that all amendments and motions be withdrawn, the joint resolution be read a third time, and the Senate vote on final passage, with the preceding all occurring without any intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined by Senators Hatch, Clinton, Murkowski, Sanders, and Snowe in introducing the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act of 2007. On behalf of the millions of Americans who are affected by breast cancer, I urge all my Senate colleagues to support this important bill.

Many of us are familiar with breast cancer's serious toll on the Nation. Approximately 3 million women are living with the disease today, including an estimated 1 million who have not yet been diagnosed. Moreover, anyone's mother, daughter, wife, sister, or friend is at risk. It is thought that breast cancer will strike one in eight American women in her lifetime, with a new case diagnosed every 2 minutes. That means almost 275,000 new cases are expected to be diagnosed annually, including over 1,600 in Nevada. More than 40,000 lives are lost to the disease every year.

Deanna Jensen, a lifelong Nevadan and tireless activist for breast cancer research, was one of those lives. Sadly, Deanna passed away this year after her own heroic battle against breast cancer. Although the loss is most painfully felt by her loved ones, her legacy can be a reminder to us all that there are real people and real stories behind the impersonal statistics.

There are many more women across the country whose stories go unrecognized. But they deserve more than recognition and appreciation. They deserve answers to the same questions that many patients must surely ask themselves: Why me? Why do I have breast cancer?

The search for those answers is the driving force behind the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. Unfortunately, we still do not know what causes breast cancer, despite the remarkable progress achieved so far. Scientists have identified some risk factors, but those factors can explain fewer than 30 percent of cases. Because many women, and men, have no family history or known genetic links to breast cancer, it is generally believed that the environment plays a role in the development of breast cancer. However, we still do not understand the extent of that role.

We do know that environmental toxins could be partly responsible for America's high breast cancer rate. Studies have explored the effect of isolated environmental factors, such as diet, pesticides, and even electromagnetic fields. In most cases, the results have been inconclusive. Furthermore, there are many other factors that are suspected to play a role that have yet to be studied.

What is needed is not just a boost in the research investment on the role of the environment in the development of breast cancer, which has been very limited so far. We also need a comprehensive, national strategy to fully and effectively explore these issues. The Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act would address both needs, thereby spurring on promising research. The resulting discoveries could be crucial to improving our knowledge of this complex illness, which could lead to new treatments and perhaps a cure one day.

Specifically, the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act will authorize $40 million each year for five years to establish multi- institutional, multi-disciplinary Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Centers of Excellence. Each Center would include institutions with different areas of expertise working together to tackle the same problems from different angles, as well as collaborating with community organizations in the area. Modeled after the tremendously successful Breast Cancer Research Program at the Department of Defense, grants would be awarded under a competitive, peer-reviewed process that involves patient advocates.

Small studies sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences are already underway to study the prenatal-to-adult environmental exposures that may predispose a woman to breast cancer. This is a promising step in the right direction, but it is only a down payment on the task at hand. Moreover, the research strategy for these grants does not follow the nationally-focused, collaborative, and comprehensive model as outlined by the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. Now, more than ever, we need to see the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act signed into law.

If we miss promising research opportunities because Congress has failed to act, millions more and their families will face difficult questions about breast cancer. Every day, many of these Americans, like Deanna Jensen, rise to the challenge of fighting back against breast cancer. I encourage Congress to heed the national call to action as well.

In the 109th Congress, 66 of my Senate colleagues and 262 members of the House of Representatives joined me in doing so. I hope that my colleagues in the 110th Congress will support the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act.

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

Mr. President, I am introducing a bill today dealing with resident physician shortages. This bill will expand the number of Medicare-supported physician residency training positions in States all over the country which face a shortage of doctors.

This legislation is important because we know that the cities where doctors are trained are often the cities where they stay. For example, Nevada currently has 199 physicians in training and will be eligible for an additional 93 positions under this bill.

As Nevada continues to grow, so do our health needs. The two bills I am introducing today will help ensure communities across Nevada that they have the doctors they need and the quality of care they deserve.