Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent the Finance Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3523 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 255, S. 1409.

I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be

agreed to, the committee-reported amendment as amended be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 639, S. 3938.

I ask unanimous consent the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 636, S. 3879.

I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the committee-reported amendments as amended, if amended, be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the EPW Committee be discharged and the Senate immediately proceed to H.R. 315.

Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of the following courthouse- naming bills, all en bloc. Calendar No. 649, H.R. 1463, H.R. 1556, H.R. 2322, H.R. 5026, H.R. 5546, H.R. 5606, H.R. 6051, Calendar No. 626, S. 3867.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended, if amended, be read a third time and passed en bloc, and the committee-reported title amendment be withdrawn and the title amendment at the desk be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 536, S. 3526.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged from further consideration of the following postal-naming bills en bloc: S. 1726, S. 3845, H.R. 4109, H.R. 4805, H.R. 4674, H.R. 4768, H.R. 5428, H.R. 5434, H.R. 5054, H.R. 5664, and H.R. 6033 and the Senate proceed to their immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate en bloc consideration of H.R. 6075, H.R. 5224, and H.R. 5929, postal naming bills which were received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent the bills be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements be printed in the Record en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination on today's Executive Calendar: 769.

I further ask unanimous consent that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the

table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. President, we have completed a lot of business. We may have a little more business in a bit. While we are conducting that business, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, in the early hours of the morning, we are going to be closing down here in a few minutes. We do have some very important business to conduct, first on the Defense authorization conference report, and closing up with a few other matters.

It has been a long day, with a lot of productive work. The Democratic leader and I were just commenting it has been a constructive and productive last 2 or 3 weeks.

Mr. President, before I propound a unanimous consent request on the Defense authorization conference report, I turn to my colleague, the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma, who has been intimately involved in this issue over the last several days and the last several hours.

Mr. President, it looks like we will be able to proceed with our unanimous consent request and pass a very, very important bill to this country. We passed earlier today the appropriations for our Department of Defense. And with this, on the same day, we will be able to pass the authorization bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 5122, the Defense authorization bill, and the conference report be agreed to, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I do want to add my congratulations to the managers, Senators Warner and Levin. They have done a tremendous job on the Defense authorization bill, a very important bill. We had several pauses over the course of today that we were able to work through, and not at all with the substance of the bill, but with related issues. But I congratulate both of them for their hard work, for their dedication, and for their patriotism, all of which is reflected in that Defense authorization conference report that we just passed.

Mr. President, I do want to turn to another very important issue. It is an issue the Democratic leader and I have been discussing and moving towards. It is on the India nuclear arrangement. I will propound a unanimous consent request and comment after that.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3709, the U.S.-India nuclear bill. I ask consent that the managers' amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I know my distinguished Democratic colleague agrees with me about the need to enact this United States- India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act.

Therefore, once again, I am disappointed that this Senate is prevented from passing this important legislation by their objection.

All Republican Members of the Senate are prepared, this evening, to pass the managers' amendment to the legislation without any debate or amendment. But it is clear the Democrats will not allow us to do so.

The reason so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are not prepared to pass the legislation is that in some cases they oppose it and wish to defeat it, and in other cases, a lot of amendments. In my opinion and the opinion of other Republican Members of the Chamber, there really is no need to further amend the managers' amendment. It was carefully worked out between Chairman Lugar and Ranking Member Biden of the Committee on Foreign Relations. They have done an outstanding job working on that bill and refining that bill that was reported by their committee. It is a tribute to their fine work, to their dedication, to their hard work that all concerns with that legislation, at least on our side of the aisle, have been fully addressed.

The reason I have continued to push for it is because it means that now that we have this recess, we will not be able to get back to it until November. And this means we just lose valuable time in working out differences between S. 3709 and the corresponding bill that has already been approved by the House of Representatives for several weeks now. So that is the reason I have tried to work out a reasonable way of addressing this and have not been successful to date.

So with that, Mr. President, I hope we will be able to do this just as soon as possible. If there is no progress made on the other side between now and November in narrowing down the large number of amendments on the other side, we would have to take the measure up under cloture. That is not the way I would want to proceed. When I look at the large number of amendments on the other side, though, it looks like we would have no alternative. I assure our colleagues that I consider this legislation very high priority, and absolutely I am determined to bring it back to the floor at the earliest date possible--I hope soon after we return.

We have a lot of legislation to do when we come back. We need to get to this as quickly as possible. With that, there should be no doubt on our side of the determination and President Bush's commitment on this matter and to get this done as soon as possible.

Mr. President, it is my understanding the managers' amendment has been worked out between Senator Lugar and Senator Biden to their satisfaction.

We all agree that it is critical to do this as soon as possible. We have this promise of a new relationship between our Nation and India, which is the world's largest democracy, and it is a relationship President Bush has begun to construct. That can only grow if Congress delivers on the commitment the President put forward to revise the U.S. law. There should be no doubt about our determination to deliver on President Bush's commitment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment under the provisions of H. Con. Res. 483 until 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 9, and that following the prayer and the pledge, the Senate stand in adjournment until Monday, November 13, at 2 p.m. I further ask that notwithstanding the adjournment of the Senate on November 9, Senators be permitted to introduce bills and submit statements and the Senate receive messages until 10:30 a.m. on November 9.

I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge on Monday, November 13, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the Journal of the proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.