Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:15 a.m., Friday, July 11. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 2657, the legislative branch appropriations bill, as provided under the previous order.

Madam President, for the information of Senators, tomorrow morning following 15 minutes of debate, the Senate will vote on the motion to table the Sessions amendment regarding AmeriCorps. Following that vote, the Senate will vote on the passage of H.R. 2657, the legislative branch appropriations bill, which will be immediately followed by a vote on passage of H.R. 2559, the military construction bill. Therefore, the first vote in tomorrow's session will occur at 9:30 a.m., and that vote will be the first in a series of three consecutive votes.

Madam President, I ask that the second and third votes be limited to 10 minutes.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Madam President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 177, H.R. 2559, a bill making appropriations for military construction, family housing, and base realignment and closure for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that all after the enacting clause be stricken, the text of Calendar No. 176, S. 1357, the Senate committee-reported bill, be inserted in lieu thereof, and the bill, as amended, be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendment, and that no points of order be waived by reason of this agreement.

Madam President, I yield to the Senator from Texas.

Madam President, when the Senators brought this bill to the full committee--Senators Hutchison and Feinstein--I was totally astounded at the consensus on this bill. This is a fairly difficult bill and there are difficult decisions in which the House may not concur. But the two Senators managing the bill proposed decisions for the Senate to which not one Senator has objected. I think that is really a milestone in dealing with this bill.

I congratulate the Senator from Texas and the Senator from California not only for their work product but for their work ethic, working together as a bipartisan team on a very difficult subject. I hope we can bring the bill back from the conference as it stands. I am not sure we can, but it certainly is an extremely good work product dealing with a whole myriad of subjects that affect our bases at home and abroad, and I congratulate the Senators for a marvelous job.

Madam President, we are close to wrap-up. I ask unanimous consent we temporarily set aside the pending business, and Senator Dayton be allowed to make a statement about Iraq for 15 minutes while we prepare the wrap-up for this evening.

Madam President, for the information of the Senate, I am informed we will open the Senate tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. We will have 15 minutes of debate and then proceed to the three votes that will be stacked at that time.

I renew my request to permit the Senator to speak as in morning business for 15 minutes.

I ask unanimous consent that following the vote in relation to the Sessions amendment, which is amendment No. 1202, the legislative branch appropriations bill be read a third time and the Senate then proceed to a vote on the passage of the bill with no intervening action or debate; provided further that immediately following that vote the Senate proceed to vote on the passage of the military construction appropriations bill, again with no further intervening action or debate; provided further that no further amendments or motions or points of order be in order to either bill.

I further ask unanimous consent that following the votes on passage of the two bills, the Senate then insist on its respective amendments, request conferences with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate for both bills.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period for morning business.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 120, S. 886.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Parliamentary inquiry: I have been asked, is it still in order for Members to place statements in the Record, including colloquies, with regard to either bill we have just moved for a vote tomorrow morning. Is that correct?

Anyone who wants to file a statement concerning either of those bills has that right.

Mr. President, next Tuesday it will be my honor to be part of the funeral delegation to South Carolina to attend the funeral of our departed President pro tempore. When I first came to the Senate, I was in the Gallery up there watching the debate on the Alaska statehood bill. A filibuster was being led against that bill by the Senator from South Carolina. As a matter of fact, he held up the bill for a considerable period of time.

Because of his opposition, we developed a strategy of trying to get the bill passed by the Senate without amendment--passed by the Senate as it had come to us from the House, without amendment. It was, I think, the only statehood bill in history that ever passed both Houses in identical form without amendment by the Senate. We did that because we knew if the bill went to conference and came back, Strom Thurmond would have another shot at the bill and another filibuster.

I remember that today because I remember how, when I did finally arrive here in 1968 as a Member of the Senate, Strom came up to me and said: I remember you, boy.

And he remembered I had been part of the group from the Eisenhower delegation that worked on our bill. We formed a friendship that day that I never expected to have.

Strom was, as I have said, a distinguished member of the U.S. armed services. He was the oldest officer to land in Normandy. As we all know, he landed in a glider. The pilot was killed. I talked about that with Strom because I had been trained to fly gliders. Even though I was a pilot, some of us were trained to fly gliders in case they needed glider pilots and I had anticipated I might have gone to Normandy. Instead, I was sent to China. When I returned and was a Member of the Senate here, we often discussed our wartime service. Of course, he was considerably older than I was and his experience was entirely different. But over the years I grew, really, to have great fondness for Senator Thurmond, despite our original, really, antagonism. Believe me, as an advocate for statehood for my State, anyone who was going to filibuster that bill was not exactly a friend at that time. But as we grew together and grew older together here in the Senate, Strom became a person who did give me a lot of guidance. At one time he was chairman of the Armed Services Committee and I was chairman of the Defense Subcommittee for Appropriations, and we did a lot of work together.

But my memory of Strom really goes back to the time after 1981 when we had a dinner for the new President pro tempore as we had taken the majority in the Senate. Strom became President pro tempore. I was the assistant leader. Senator Baker was the leader. We had a dinner at one of the local hotels. Senator Baker and his wife Joy and I and my wife Catherine were at the head table. When it became Strom's time to thank the people there for honoring him, he started talking with the people at the head table, and he came to me. I had just been remarried. Catherine and I were married in December of 1980. Just before that dinner, she had informed me we were going to have a child.

Strom stood up and was introducing people. He came to me and made some kind remarks about me. And he turned and said: Here is his lovely lady who has now joined our family. She is a beautiful woman, and isn't it nice that she is with child?

I thought Catherine was going to break my arm and bust my head. I grabbed Strom and asked him to come over and tell Catherine I had not told him that. She did listen to him for a moment or two. And he smiled, and said: Child, he never told me. He never told me anything about that. He said: I just looked at you. I can tell when a woman is in flower.

Mr. President, being from Alabama, you can understand the way he pronounced that.

It is something I will never forget.

When our child came, he became Uncle Strom to Lily Stevens. Every day he sat here in that chair, he would ask me about Lily. Lily, as a matter of fact, last evening had a tear in her voice as she called to tell me she had heard about Strom.

Strom was really a member of this Senate family. He got to know every one of us in a way that I think no one else did because no one else was near 100 years old. He was like a 1,000-pound gorilla around here; he did what he wanted to do, but he did it in a way which really reflected his southern heritage. He was a southern gentleman to the core.

I have to tell the Senate that there are many things Senator Strom Thurmond did in his life with which I didn't agree. There were many votes he cast here on the floor that I opposed. But I can't think of a person who more epitomized being a Senator and what it meant to be a Senator. He lived up to his principles, and he lived up to the idea of what this democracy is about. He was, I believe, one of the finest Senators who will ever serve in this body.

I am honored, following him as President pro tempore, to go back and participate in the services and to once

again remind his people who sent him to the Senate that he was a person who became a very distinguished Senator whom history will always admire.

Thank you very much.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized for 30 seconds.

Mr. President, I have a resolution at the desk. I ask that it be held at the desk so that I might be able to clear it this evening. It pertains to my great friend who is now 86. He was the first person to pick up the news of the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor. He is now getting along in years. We are going to honor him on Friday night, and I would like to have this resolution adopted by that time.

I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, I would like to a moment of the Senate's time to recognize someone who has served our Nation with great dignity, humility and energy. For more than two decades, Mr. Courtney Stadd has worked tirelessly to secure America's future in technology, aeronautics, and space. His leadership as a team builder, policymaker, entrepreneur, and senor administration official are evidenced around this city, our Nation and in the horizons that surround the Earth.

In my home State of Alaska, Mr. Stadd helped guide the construction of Kenai and the Alaskan Spaceport Authority. As a board member, he played a critical role in enabling America's newest spaceport to serve the well-being of commercial, public sector, and military interests.

As a member of the Reagan and Bush administrations he was an active voice and proponent for creating commercial markets in geospatial imagery, launch services, information technology and other critical sectors that will advance America's economic far into the 21st century.

In his service to this President, Mr. Stadd led the transition team for NASA and ultimately assumed the role of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, Chief of Staff/White House Liaison. In this role, he served then administrator, Mr. Dan Goldin--working to support missions and nationwide personnel through the September 11th attacks and anthrax threat, which struck NASA Headquarters, just blocks away from this very body. He served Administrator Goldin until the end of his tenure in November 2001 and provided for a smooth and orderly transition for NASA's current administrator, my friend, Mr. Sean O'Keefe.

During his transition into NASA, Administrator O'Keefe found a valued partner and ally to support his vision and charge for fundamental management and financial reform within the agency. He asked Courtney to lead the Freedom to Manage Initiative, which focused on empowering NASA's extraordinary workforce to identify policies and regulations that impeded performance. The administrator also took advantage of Stadd's distinguished commercial background and asked for his assistance in restructuring NASA's accounting systems and management strategies. Both efforts have put NASA on solid ground and will enable the agency that revealed the secrets of the heavens to once again soar without abandon.

His service to this administrator and its workforce know no boundary and for that reason, Mr. O'Keefe called upon Courtney's talents and energies for support during the Columbia accident and its subsequent investigation. His care for the crew, their families, and the entire NASA workforce truly distinguished itself during some very challenging days.

As my words have chronicled, Courtney Stadd has been a faithful and valuable colleague for Administrator O'Keefe and the NASA workforce to depend upon. He has been a model to his peers and colleagues at NASA, the aerospace community and throughout the administration of integrity and poise in service to the American public. We are blessed in a Nation as bountiful as this one to have people such as him who take upon the cloak of public service and perform so admirably.

In the coming days, Mr. Stadd will be departing from his position at NASA to return to private life. As he leaves public service, the Members of this body and administration should pause to recognize him for his distinguished service. He has contributed much in his distinguished career to better America and I am greatful to honor him today.

I wish him well in all of his endeavors.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

I really could not say.

May I inquire, did the Senator from Kentucky just cosponsor that amendment?

Mr. President, I shall be short under the circumstances because I assume we will have another occasion to speak on the McCain amendment.

Parliamentary inquiry. I am informed it is the pending amendment.

It was referred to committee.

I was improperly informed, but I would like to speak for a minute or two on that matter.

Mr. President, everyone should understand the scope of the proposed resolution of the Senator from Arizona. I have before me some books. The books with white covers are requests I received as chairman of the Appropriations Committee on one bill last January, when we talked about the defense portion of what we call the omnibus bill.

The Chair will recall we had 11 bills that had to be put together. This is the portion pertaining just to the foreign assistance subcommittee dealing with matters of foreign assistance. Every one of those pages is a letter from a Member of the Senate asking our committee to change a portion of the appropriations bill for the specific subcommittee received from the administration. The President sends us a budget, and the budget is broken into 13 separate bills. These represent the requests received from Senators to change just 2 of those 11 bills.

Senator McCain's proposal would, in effect, say if any one of these requests were granted, it would be subject to a point of order and it would take 60 votes to allow that amendment to stay in the bill.

In other words, a Senator could make a motion after the Senate or the committee had agreed to one of these requests, and that motion would be to take it out. It would take 60 votes to sustain it. I think the Constitution assures a majority can pass any amendment. This is a procedure that is unheard of in terms of parliamentary procedure and one I want the Senate to know if it possibly comes up on the floor, I think we shall demonstrate what a good old-fashioned filibuster is all about. I thank the Chair.