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 text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I move to instruct the Sergeant at Arms to request the presence of absent Senators, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, in the last hour or so we have had numerous discussions on the floor, as our colleagues have observed, and many participated in the discussion. My understanding and the general agreement that we have is to go to the Agriculture Appropriations bill tomorrow. That does facilitate the progress we need to make on the current bill that is on the floor, which I hope and expect to be able to finish tonight. If that is the case, we plan on going to the Agriculture bill tomorrow. All rights will be reserved for all Senators, of course. We don't have an agreement, but that is the intention. The disaster ag relief bill is very important and has been talked about by Republicans and Democrats and we expect to debate it tomorrow. It is a more appropriate place for this amendment. So I think this is a good understanding.

Other bills, such as Energy and Water, we want to come to very soon. We have a number of appropriation bills--10 of them--out there. I have not talked to the Democratic leader specifically about the Energy and Water bill. I am not sure if the chairman has, but it is a bill that I hope we will be able to go to quickly, as well.

I don't think there is a formal UC on the floor, but I have to object to that only because as leader, I am going to have every chairman coming out putting bills in order. I want to be able to keep that flexibility a bit, just as we have today, because if we don't reach some sort of agreement working together, we are not going to finish even the first MILCON bill on the floor of the Senate.

What I can say is what I intend to do tomorrow--again without any UC; I guess we can write up something--is complete this bill that is on the floor tonight and then tomorrow go to the Agriculture bill, finish that bill, and then very high on the list would be Energy and Water.

What I don't want to do is get in the overall sequencing of bills when I don't know how long this bill is going to take--hopefully tonight--or the Agriculture bill.

I hope so.

No, all rights will be preserved for Senators as we go on the Agriculture bill tomorrow. My understanding is the Senator from North Dakota will withdraw--in fact, why don't we go ahead and do that. The pending amendment will be withdrawn, and we will proceed with the MILCON bill.

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

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session on Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 11 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to consider pending nominations.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 10 a.m. to consider the nominations of the Honorable James H. Bilbray to be Governor, U.S. Postal Service, Thurgood Marshall Jr. to be Governor, U.S. Postal Service, and the Honorable Dan G. Blair to be Chairman, Postal Rate Commission.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a hearing on ``Competition in Sports Programming and Distribution: Are Consumers Winning?'' on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 9 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226.

Witness List

Panel I: Roger Noll, Professor, Economics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; Jeffrey Pash, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the National Football League, New York, NY; Daniel M. Fawcett, Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs and Programming Acquisition, DlRECTV, Inc., Washington, DC; Landel Hobbs, Chief Operating Officer, Time Warner, New York, NY.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a hearing on ``Judicial Nominations'' on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 2 p.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226.

Witness List

Panel I: The Honorable Arlen Specter, United States Senator [R-PA].

Panel II: Thomas Michael Hardiman to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third District.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 2:30 p.m., for a hearing entitled ``Failure to Identify Company Owners Impedes Law Enforcement.''

As in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that Executive Calendar No. 995, the nomination of John Peyton, be recommitted to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

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

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

Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk due for its second reading.

Mr. President, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceeding.

Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the Senate on November 14, 2006, by the President of the United States:

Treaty with Malaysia on Mutual Legal Assistance, Treaty Document No. 109-22.

I further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the President's message be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, November 15. I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and that there then be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 5 minutes each.

Mr. President, today we did complete our work on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. Tomorrow afternoon, we hope to begin the Agriculture appropriations bill. We are also continuing our efforts to reach an agreement for the consideration of the U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. We do expect votes in the afternoon, so Senators should plan their schedules accordingly. This week, we will also need to pass a short- term continuing resolution when received from the House.

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

Mr. President, I have a few announcements and then the Democratic leader may want to respond to those and then I will have a brief statement. I know he has a statement following that.

Today we return to begin the process of finishing our work for the 109th Congress. This afternoon we will begin consideration of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. Senator Hutchison will be here around 3 o'clock today to begin consideration of that bill with opening statements. Although we do not have any rollcall votes today, I hope the chairman and ranking member will work together to reach an agreement for completion of that bill during tomorrow's session.

Over the course of the next several days, we have orientation events for Senators-elect for the 110th Congress. We will be welcoming them a little bit later tonight at a dinner that formally kicks off that orientation meeting. We will also have our leadership elections this week and policy luncheons as well. Those will be on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Democratic elections will occur Tuesday morning, followed by their Democratic policy luncheon, and on this side of the aisle we will proceed with our elections on Wednesday morning, with our policy luncheon to follow that afternoon. Given this schedule, our first vote will likely occur sometime Tuesday--late Tuesday afternoon. We do hope to finish the military construction bill on Tuesday afternoon.

This week we will also consider a short-term continuing resolution. The current CR expires on Friday, and we need to pass a further resolution as soon as we possibly can. I have talked to the Democratic leader about this and we hope we will act on this quickly.

This week we will also work toward agreements and passage of the Vietnam normal trade relations legislation and the U.S.-India nuclear agreement, as well as other appropriations measures that can be considered. We will keep Members apprised as we schedule these and other matters as we move through the week.

Mr. President, I want to take a moment to comment on the recent elections and then a very brief look ahead. First, let me remind my colleagues in every year that we have waged war, our troops have fought to uphold certain ideals: the ideals of democracy, of liberty, and of freedom. They are those very same principles upon which this Nation was founded in 1776 and they are the principles we strive to live by today in 2006. We saw that play out in last week's election, a natural manifestation of those ideals. We saw democracy at work, an opportunity for the American people to speak, to influence Government. So while I, of course, was disappointed in the outcome, we are not discouraged, and people come back today not discouraged because, as I have said, this election was democracy at work.

Change can be tough. Change opens the door, however, to new opportunity, and with that new opportunity comes new hopes. The American people have spoken and now is the time for us to move forward together. That is a very powerful message from the American people: Move forward and move forward together.

For a number of my colleagues--and I think of this as I mention the orientation program that begins for our new colleagues for the next Congress--moving forward means concentrating in part on paving the way for their successors. For them, it is a time of transition. The next few weeks, the last of the 109th Congress, will be my final weeks serving as a Senator, but as most everyone knows, I self-limited my time as a Senator 12 years ago, so I have known every day--every day for the last 12 years--that I would be departing this body next month, and it did help me to keep focused. It kept me grounded in the fact that those of us serving here only occupy our positions of service and that we don't own those positions. As Senate majority leader, my job is to focus on finishing the business of the 109th Congress, and that is where I will be concentrating my efforts.

As I look back on this Congress, the Republican majority has accomplished many things of which I am very proud. We submitted the tax cuts for every American which have helped to create 6 million jobs in the last 3 years. We have waged a bold war on terror, which has prevented every potential terror attack on our soil right here in this country over the past 5 years. We have given seniors prescription drug coverage through Medicare for the first time, affordable prescription drug coverage. We confirmed outstanding judicial nominees, including two Supreme Court justices. We passed a forward-looking energy bill. We strengthened our commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS here at home and around the world. We have eliminated frivolous class action lawsuits. And we did all of this in one of the most challenging partisan political environments ever.

But as we move forward--and that really does officially begin today-- we begin with finishing the business of the 109th Congress, and we must work together to overcome that partisanship we have seen in the past, that crippling partisanship that has plagued us in the recent past. America wants results and America wants solutions, and it is with that focus we enter the waning days of the 109th Congress. We must return to an era of working together in a civil, bipartisan fashion. It is my hope both parties, Republicans and Democrats, will work toward governing together to produce those solutions, to produce those tangible results for the American people. That begins here, and it begins now.

This week the Senate agenda will focus, as we mentioned earlier, on completing the remaining appropriations bills, and in the days and in the weeks ahead, we will consider the nomination of Bob Gates as Secretary of Defense and, as we just stated, the Vietnam trade legislation and the U.S.-India civilian nuclear technology bill. Each of us has many ideas to contribute to the discourse and I know we will continue to do that. We must build on our successes, the successes that make America the best place--the best place--to raise a family, the best place to start a business, and the best place to get and keep a job. Now is the time for us to get back to work.

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