Floor Statements

Madam President, I urge this amendment be adopted. I think Senator Brownback has been very careful in what he has taken out of the measure. It does mirror pretty much what the House did. The lion's share of the $20 billion is going to be there. But I think Congress has the right to prioritize, and I think these are better priorities.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I will be very brief. I am happy to work within the system. I have a sense-of-the-Senate amendment.

I send up a modified amendment.

Mr. President, I send a modified version of my amendment No. 1877 to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. President, I will be brief. The sense of the Senate says we support helping Iraq as it builds a new democracy and believe we need to finish what we have started there and in Afghanistan. It is critical that this reconstruction effort have a multilateral approach, that our allies would help us in the war on terrorism, because our allies are reaping the benefits of this war on terrorism. No one will be free in the world if we lose the war on terrorism. It is essential we have all of the support we need to finish this job. So we ask the administration to continue to seek commitments during the donors conference and afterward. It encourages the President to provide aid in a way that promotes economic growth in Iraq and limits the long-term cost to our taxpayers. The President is in the best position to determine how to accomplish this, and we must support him in every way.

That is my amendment, my sense of the Senate. I hope we can support it and vote for it.

Mr. President, it is my understanding that our side took 3 minutes early. So how much time is remaining on the other side?

Mr. President, I will proceed. If a Member of the other side comes, I will be happy to yield to them under their time. But I will start with the majority time.

Mr. President, one of the biggest successes in Iraq in the past month has been the first day of school for millions of Iraqi children. America's service men and women worked with local partners to refurbish the schools that were destroyed under Saddam Hussein's regime so these children could experience the freedom that comes with learning. One example of this progress involves soldiers from the 1st Armored Division's 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, who did an immense amount to improve the quality of life for Iraqi children. Led by Squadron Commander LTC Charles Williams, the soldiers focused their efforts on 25 schools around the rim of Baghdad. The schools had been neglected by the former regime.

They were in a sad state when 1AD forces arrived in Baghdad several months ago. The desks were in pieces. The blackboards were broken. There were no doors on the rooms and there were no ceiling fans. There was very poor lighting or no lighting at all. The squadron took charge. Their engineers came forward. American contractors and local Iraqi contractors worked together to repair the schools.

Over the past few months the schools underwent a dramatic change: Walls were painted. Electrical wiring and plumbing were fixed. Glass was replaced. Security bars were installed in windows and school supplies were issued.

I have some pictures that show better than any words could some of the progress that is being made. This is a picture of Mahmoud Al- Jabouri, a former Iraqi Army general who worked with the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division in repairing the schools in Baghdad. He is giving a speech for the first day of classes at Dufaf Al-Neil primary school. The progress our troops have been making in working with Iraqi citizens enabled this school to open. It was a joint effort. We can see the children at the opening day of the school with our soldiers and the former Iraqi general.

Look at the excitement on the Iraqi faces as soldiers from the 1st Squadron,

1st Cavalry Regiment helped an Iraqi schoolgirl cut the ribbon at a ceremony celebrating the first day of school. These children are so excited, as they see their world opening up. Iraqi children at Dufaf Al-Neil school hold up the markers they received along with other gifts from soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Regiment. Everyone can see that these school supplies have opened a new world for these children. Their liberation cannot be overemphasized.

Aside from the new facilities, there is something else the American forces have provided for these children. They have ended the fear and terror that Saddam Hussein instilled in Iraqi schools. I want to read an excerpt from a National Review article from October 13. This is stunning.

. . . there will be no mysterious disappearances from the

classrooms. No teachers and pupils will be found dead in

school doorways. . . . Teenage school girls will not be

abducted and taken to one of the many harems maintained by

Uday, Saddam's sadistic elder son. . . .

We could hardly imagine how these children went to school living in fear that they might be abducted and taken into Uday's harem; that their teachers might be killed in the doorway for something that they could not even imagine they had said or done wrong. Not only are we opening these schools with new school supplies and painted walls and lighting, but we have taken the fear from these children that when they go to school, something horrible will happen.

Our Armed Forces are performing heroic acts every day, trying to ensure that the Iraqi people are free and working toward self- government. Step by step, normal life in Iraq is being established as basic services are restored and hope is reborn.

What we are doing in Iraq is going to change the Middle East. It is going to give people in this country a taste of freedom, and others will see it. It will be a message bigger than anything we could say would happen. It is the results that we are working for, and the President is committed to that result.

That is why we are debating a supplemental appropriation that would bring freedom to this country and begin to spread it throughout the Middle East.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, how much time is remaining on the two sides?

Does the Senator from Louisiana wish to finish with the 2 minutes?

Mr. President, what I will do is allow the Senator from Louisiana to have the 2 minutes or the minority side to have the 2 minutes after Senator McConnell, but then I am going to yield, because we have the last 30 minutes, to the Senator from Montana. The Senator from Louisiana can take the time now or take it after Senator McConnell.

If the Senator from Louisiana wishes to reserve her time after Senator McConnell, I am going to yield up to 10 minutes to Senator McConnell, after which, she can speak; is that acceptable?

Mr. President, how much time is remaining on our side?

I yield the entire time to the Senator from Montana.

Mr. President, what is the time?

Has the Senator from Minnesota finished? Because I need to allocate 10 minutes.

Thank you, Mr. President. Let me ask for 1 additional minute for the Senator from Minnesota.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota for those profound remarks and appreciate his weighing in on this issue.

Mr. President, we now have 20 minutes left; is that correct?

Mr. President, I yield up to 9 minutes to the Senator from North Carolina; following that, up to 9 minutes to the Senator from Tennessee; and then I ask unanimous consent to use 3 minutes of leader time, which has been cleared by Senator Frist.

Mr. President, is there any time left on our side in morning business?

Mr. President, I asked for the leader time because I wish to respond to some of the remarks I heard on the floor earlier regarding the CIA leaks.

Mr. President, every one of us in this country would be very concerned about a leak regarding someone who was undercover and operating for the CIA, and we would want to get to the bottom of the issue if there were a leak. In fact, that is exactly what is happening. But I think it has been distorted and I think it has been blown way out of proportion before we really know the facts. So I want to set the record straight on a few issues.

First of all, many people on the other side are asking for a special counsel. Right now, the FBI is investigating this as a routine leak. The CIA Director, George Tenet, according to Bob Novak, did not request the investigation separately in some major way. The CIA Director was not involved because this is in fact routine.

According to Bob Novak, any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the CIA to the Justice Department, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July, shortly after the original column was published. This was a routine investigation of something that appeared to be a leak and which may be a leak. The investigation has been ongoing since July. I think it is certainly premature to start making this a political issue, talking about a special counsel, when we don't even know the facts yet.

Bob Novak wrote a subsequent column that appeared today in the Washington Post. I think it is very important because it was his original column that outed the woman who was a CIA employee. He says very clearly, first: I did not receive a planned leak. Now, it has been accused on television shows across America that the White House somehow leaked information about a CIA operative to the press.

The man who wrote the story said:

I did not receive a planned leak. Secondly, the CIA never

warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the

agency would endanger her or anybody else and, third, it was

not much of a secret.

According to him, this has been well known around Washington and, in fact, was even reported in the National Review Online from a nongovernmental source before Mr. Novak's column appeared.

Mr. Novak said an administration official told him this information but not the White House. He says this did not come from the White House.

I think it is very important that we tone down the rhetoric on this issue. It is an issue that should be investigated. It is being investigated. The President has said he wants it to be investigated. He has said it is important to him that it be investigated. He wants everyone in the White House to be fully cooperative, and the author of the story says no one in the White House was involved. So I think we need to tone it down.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I wish to take this time to talk about some of the successes that our wonderful military uniformed personnel are having in Iraq. We see a lot on the television that looks like things are in chaos, and in some places they are.

I want to talk about some of the good things because I think as we take up this supplemental appropriation, we are going to be talking about what this money is going for and why we need to put $20 billion into rebuilding Iraq.

This picture illustrates so well what we are going to be doing with this money and why we need that $20 billion to help us rebuild Iraq.

The schools are starting today in Iraq. Millions of schoolchildren are beginning to go to school today. According to TSgt Mark Getsy from the 506th Air Expeditionary Group, these children have been climbing the gates for weeks, climbing the gates because they are so excited that they are going to get to go to school. Why are they excited? Why are they able to go to school?

I will give some instances of how successful we are. Air Force and Army volunteers have extended a helping hand to these children for weeks so that their education can be in the best possible facilities. Members of the Air Force's 506th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron at Kirkuk Air Base and the Army's Battle Companies 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne, have teamed up to renovate two schools in the local area. The first school is a model for the rest of the Kirkuk schools, and it is opening today.

Said 1SG Richard Weik, the Army project officer:

We adopted the schools because they were close to our safe

houses. The first thing we did was go around and assess the

electrical and plumbing situation. It was a mess.

The Army called in Air Force electricians to help get the school ready for business. TSgt Jack Vollriede, an electrician from the 506th ECES, said Air Force electricians were already working in the area on Army safe houses when they heard about the project.

The Army asked us if we would check out the electrical work

being done at the school. I saw the work needing (to be) done

was very similar to what I do in my civilian job back home so

I asked others in my shop to volunteer and help out with the

project.

Since mid-September, more than 10 electricians have been working daily to get the schools up and running. Vollriede said it was hard at first to find the right parts, but the team managed to accomplish a great deal in a short period of time.

We have completed five electrical service panel

replacements, installed emergency lighting, fixed all the

interior lighting, and even fixed the school bell. We are now

working on installing grounded outlets for computers in all

the classrooms and offices.

I know the Senator from Montana is in the Chamber and is scheduled to speak. I will yield to him as soon as he is ready, but I first will say how important this is. It is happening all over Iraq. These Army and Air Force volunteers are coming in and fixing the schools so that these children can start learning, not just the limited knowledge that they had during Saddam Hussein's time but knowledge of the world, knowledge of freedom, knowledge of other horizons that they will be able to share when they get their education. They know it and they are excited about it. It is something that America is providing.

The $20 billion that we are going to be voting on in the $87 billion package is going to encompass projects like this that will start the process for the Iraqi people to have a better quality of life, educated children--what every person in the world would like to have: quality of life and education for their children--and that is what the money will go for. So we are going to be debating why we need $20 billion to rebuild Iraq. It is for the national security of the United States that these children start school, that our great volunteers help them do it, because if we can get these children educated and a quality of life, and an economy for the people of Iraq, those terrorists will not have a safe haven. Those terrorists will be driven away by the Iraqi people because they will see the difference in their lives when they have freedom versus when they live under a tyrant or when they have terrorists in their midst.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, responding to the comments of the Senator from Montana, he could not be on target any more. I hear the same thing from the men and women who return, the men and women I talked to when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan. I agree with the Senator that it is those wonderful, clean-cut, all-American soldiers who give the best possible image of our country.

This picture is of a soldier from A Company, the 101st Airborne Division. He is handing out school supplies. The A Company took up a collection in the town of Mosul. They went to the local economy and they bought school supplies for these children to be able to have pencils, erasers, and paper when they go to school. One could not ask for better ambassadors. They did it from their own pockets because they know what we are doing in this country is important for the security of the American people.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Kathryn Kolbe, a legislative fellow in my office, be granted the privilege of the floor during the consideration of the Defense supplemental bill.

Mr. President, it is my pleasure to speak in support of the confirmation of Judge Marcia Crone. She is a native of Dallas and alumna of the University of Texas. She will preside over a newly created seat

in Beaumont where she has agreed she will make her home and stay for the duration of her term.

I know she will serve with distinction. Judge Crone is currently a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of Texas serving in that capacity since 1992.

Marcia was valedictorian of her high school, Hillcrest High School in Dallas, a National Merit Scholar, and the valedictorian of the University of Texas class of 1973. She also graduated first in her class from the University of Houston Law Center in 1978.

Her outstanding educational accomplishments are also joined by accomplishments in her professional life. After graduating from law school, she joined the Houston-based firm Andrews & Kurth. Her specialities included product liability, breach of contract, oil and gas, and securities law. She became a partner in that firm where she remained until her appointment to the Federal bench.

Mr. President, is there another minute, or am I the only speaker?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, if there is no opposition, to take the final minute.

Mr. President, as a U.S. Magistrate, Judge Crone has presided over a number of civil and criminal cases, ranging from employment discrimination to pretrial arraignments and detention hearings in felony cases. In her more than 10 years on the Federal bench, she has authored approximately 700 opinions, over 130 of which are published. She is an active member of the Houston community and bar association. She serves on the board of directors of the Garland Walker Inn of Court and is a mentor to Houston area law school students. She is also active in her church.

Marcia Crone meets the high standards to which we hold all Federal judges, and she has quite an impressive record. I am pleased that John Cornyn, the other Senator from Texas, joins me in supporting the nomination of Marcia Crone, and I urge our colleagues to join us.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Wyoming. We are beginning a very important week. We are going to be talking about what is happening in Iraq and the President's request for $87 billion and added funding.

A lot of people are saying: Wow, $87 billion. But it is important for us to look at what that $87 billion is going to do.

First of all, $66 billion is for our troops. That is for our troop protection, equipment, making sure they have everything they need to do the job we are asking them to do over the next year. I don't think there is anyone in this Congress who would deny the President a dime of the money that is going to our troops to make sure they have everything they need to do one of the toughest jobs I have ever seen.

I was in Iraq and I was in Afghanistan in August. In Iraq and Afghanistan, our troops are in harm's way every day--every moment, really. I just woke up this morning to the news that two of our wonderful military personnel have been assassinated in Afghanistan. It is a very tough place. We are having to deal with a Taliban that has rejuvenated its efforts, and they are now into drug dealing. They are preying on the police in Afghanistan. If somebody doesn't deal with them, they are murdering them, assassinating them because they want the drug trade.

Why do they want the drug trade? They want the drug trade because that is how they are going to finance the terrorist operations around the world. That is why they are trying to raise money in this illicit way. What could be more important to the security of our people than to stop the drug trafficking in Afghanistan and stop the resurrection of the Taliban?

In Iraq, we see on a daily and weekly basis the harm our young men and women are in. We need to make sure they have the capability to do the job we are asking them to do. That is what the President is asking for, and that is what we will give him.

The other $20 billion is what most people are talking about. How much should we be giving to rebuild Iraq and how should it be done? Those are the questions we are going to hear on the floor. The Appropriations Committee right now is marking up the bill that will come to the floor, hopefully tomorrow.

This is a legitimate area of disagreement. Most certainly people can reasonably ask the question: Why are we putting $20 billion into Iraq? There are things we need in America.

The first responsibility of the Congress of the United States and the President is to provide for the security of our people, to provide for a national defense. This is national defense. If we can stabilize Iraq and stop Iraq from being a breeding ground for terrorism, that is a United States security interest. That is why putting the money into the rebuilding of Iraq so that the people will be able to start having an economy, and if they have electricity, water, and basic living conditions, we also will begin to see the startup of business. We hope the oilfield infrastructure will be repaired or rebuilt. It is in much worse shape than we ever thought it would be. We want to rebuild the oil infrastructure so when the Iraqis get the oil out of the ground, it will give jobs to the Iraqi people. They will be able to use it and export it, but it also means other businesses will crop up to service those oil wells and the delivery of that oil.

We are talking about the beginning of an economy for Iraq. If we don't put $20 billion into the rebuilding of Iraq, what will those people have to do? How can they start their economy from scratch? How can they start the creation of jobs if the oil pipelines are being held together with rags and cannot deliver the oil?

It is a package of $87 billion that will be for the security and support of our troops, and for the rebuilding of Iraq which, in turn, will allow our troops to leave earlier but with the knowledge that the people of Iraq will have stability, that Iraq will not be a breeding ground for terrorism, and that they will have a justice system and a security system in place with their own policemen and their own army to protect their borders from the terrorists who are infiltrating their borders from Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

This is a very important bill, it is a very important request from the President, and it is important that we give to the President what he needs to do the job Congress has given him the authority to do. Congress gave the President the right to declare war on terrorism. Congress declared the war. The President is implementing that war, and we are going to have to give him the support he asks us to give. It would be unthinkable to walk away with the job not yet completed.

I am very pleased to be supportive of the President and this effort, even though it is a difficult situation and a lot of questions have been raised.

Mr. President, we have had a good beginning. We have had the beginning of 6,000 individual reconstruction projects. Schools, universities, and hospitals have been opened. They are not up to the standards we hope they will be, but it was important for the Iraqi children to start school; it was important they have health care services. We have gone in to augment the opening of those facilities.

Iraq is also in the process of transitioning to a governing council. We hope they will be able to form their own government, create their own constitution, have representatives of their people for whom they can vote. That is what we hope to leave them.

We have made a very strong beginning. If we look at where we started, which was absolutely a deteriorating infrastructure, we are making progress. What we hear about in the news is very disconcerting. We hear about a terrorist putting a landmine in a road and it blows up one of our people or one of their people. We hear of terrorists tearing down the electricity grids and cutting the water supply. This shows, if nothing else does, that this is the terrorists' last stand. They do not want the United States to succeed. They do not want the Iraqi people to have a stable lifestyle. They want there to be foment and unrest. They

want people who are desperate for change. We are not going to let them win. That is why this bill is so important.

I am pleased to talk about the important accomplishments and the importance of what we are doing in Iraq. The President and Congress must come together and do what is right for the security of the American people, and doing what is right means we will give the President the money which he has asked for the rebuilding of Iraq and for the protection and support of our troops in the field.

I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am very pleased to call on the Senator from Mississippi for the first 10 minutes or so of my time, after which Senator McConnell and then Senator Sessions will speak, all of them for up to 10 minutes.

Mr. President, I heard and appreciate Senators Lott, Sessions, and McConnell speaking this morning about the importance of what we are doing in Iraq. We are preparing in the Senate to take up a supplemental appropriations bill at the request of the President to try to make sure we do two things:

First and foremost, to give support to our troops in the field. I visited them in the middle of August. I have seen how they live, and I have seen what they are doing. They deserve to have the troop support which allows them to do the job--the equipment, the living conditions, and troop protection. Everything we can do to allow them to do their jobs more effectively we are going to do. That is what the major part of this supplemental appropriations will do. We are going to support our troops in the field.

The second thing the President is asking for is money to rebuild Iraq. We will not be able to rebuild Iraq if we continue to have the ongoing terrorist attacks that tear down everything we have built. So we want to go in there with a full plan to get the electricity grid going, to get the water supply going, and to try to start building the economy by rebuilding the oil infrastructure.

We are going to support the President in his request. I have no doubt about it. We must win this war, and we must win the peace. We must stabilize Iraq if we are going to keep the terrorists out of our country and stop them where they are.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it was my understanding that the Democratic side had from 9:30 to 10, and the Republican side from 10 to 10:30. Could you clarify where we stand at this point?

Mr. President, I would like to ask, then, that the minority take its time, after which I would like to reserve the remainder of our time for Senator Santorum.

Mr. President, let me clarify that. What is the status, then, of the minority's time allocation?

Mr. President, it was my understanding that----

May I ask the distinguished minority leader what his intentions are, then, with regard to the minority time, because we had thought we had a division that is the tradition here where the minority takes the last 30 minutes on one day and then the majority the next.

Mr. President, in that case, I will withhold for our majority leader to make a decision about what the time allocation would be, and I yield up to 5 minutes to Senator Santorum.

Mr. President, what is the status of the time?

For the majority side. And how much on the minority side?

Mr. President, I am going to use the 1 minute 14 seconds to say that there is one thing I must object to that was said recently by Senator Kennedy, when he said that the war is ``a fraud that was made up in Texas to give the President a political boost.'' I have great respect for Senator Kennedy and every Senator who represents his or her State in this body. But that is a slur on my home State of Texas, to say this plot was made up in Texas.

I remind the people of America that Texas is a patriotic State, that Texas has 1 in 10 Active-Duty military. On the very day that statement was made, a plot in Texas to help a political campaign of a President, in fact, on that very day, three Texas soldiers were ambushed in Iraq and lost their lives serving our country. Those are great Texans. The 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, TX, is there now, as we speak.

As I traveled through Afghanistan and Iraq, I met Texans who were serving their country. I don't think there should ever be a slur on another State when we are talking about foreign policy or the policies of a President.