Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 450.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 489, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, the distinguished elder statesman, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, passed away today in his family home in Houston at the age of 85. He leaves behind his wife Beryl Ann and his three children, Lloyd III, Lan and Tina, and seven beloved grandchildren. He also leaves behind almost four decades of dedicated public service on behalf of Texas and the American people.

Alternately described as elegant, courtly, smooth, and collegial, Lloyd Bentsen of Rio Grande Valley was the picture of a Senator. A shrewd legislator with finely honed negotiating skills, he was able to work with both sides of the aisle and gain the trust and cooperation of his colleagues.

Senator Bentsen began his life in public service in 1942 when, fresh out of the University of Texas Law School, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. The war was on, and he was eager to serve his country.

After a brief stint as a private in intelligence, the young Bentsen became a combat pilot. He began flying B-24 missions over an embattled Europe. By the time he was done, he had flown 50 missions and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three oakleaf clusters. He retired a colonel in the Air Force Reserves.

Still a young man in his early twenties, he returned to his hometown, where he practiced law for a year. He then became a county judge at the age of 25, and in 1948 he ran for Congress, where he served for three consecutive terms. He took a 16-year hiatus from elected office to become a successful financier. Then, in 1970, Lloyd Bentsen ran for the Senate, where he rose to national prominence. In 1988, Democratic Presidential nominee Michael Dukakis selected the distinguished 67- year-old as his running mate, and in 1993, President Clinton nominated Senator Bentsen to serve the Department of Treasury. He led that Department and he retired in 1994, nearly 30 years in public office.

Over his long career, Senator Bentsen earned the respect of his colleagues and of the American people. He was an old-school gentleman who could don his partisan hat and share a respite from the day-to-day battles on the Senate floor. I came across a quotation of his, not as famous as another but one which I think sums up his lifetime in public service and one which is a valuable motto for us all:

It should be clear by now that serious problems cannot be

solved by public relations; they can only be solved by public

responsibility.

Lloyd Bentsen's words.

On behalf of the Senate and the American people, our hearts go out to the Bentsen family. We join them in mourning the passing of a noteworthy statesman. May God bless them, and may God bless America.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 490 which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, this resolution concerns a pro se civil action filed against all three members of the Delaware congressional delegation, Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Senator Thomas R. Carper, and Representative Michael N. Castle. Plaintiff complains that the defendants violated his rights under the Age Discrimination Act, by not actively assisting him in his quest to have the National Institutes of Health analyze and prove his research regarding the cause of a spine condition he terms ``equilibrium scoliosis.'' Plaintiff seeks damages for this alleged failure to help him in his dealings with the National Institutes of Health.

This suit is subject to dismissal on various grounds, including failure to state a claim against the defendants under the Age Discrimination Act. This resolution authorizes the Senate Legal Counsel to represent the Senator defendants in this suit and to move for its dismissal.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the President of the Senate be authorized to appoint a committee on the part of the Senate to join with a like committee on the part of the House of Representatives to escort His Excellency Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, into the House Chamber for the joint meeting tomorrow.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 24, 2006. 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 of the two leaders be

reserved, and the Senate resume consideration of S. 2611 as under the previous order; provided further that second-degree amendments be filed no later than 10 a.m. under rule XXII.

Mr. President, tomorrow morning we will be debating Senator McConnell's amendment related to ballots. That vote will occur at approximately 9:30 a.m., and that will be the first vote of the day. That will be followed by the cloture vote on the immigration bill. We have an agreement in place that will allow other amendments to be offered, and therefore everyone can expect another lengthy day of votes. I do thank everyone for allowing us to line up amendments as agreed to over the course of the day. I expect that cloture will be invoked tomorrow morning and that we will then finish this bill later on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment as a further mark of respect for our former colleague, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, following the remarks of Senator Sessions.

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

Mr. President, today we will be debating the comprehensive immigration bill. Several Senators will be coming over throughout the day to discuss either pending amendments or amendments to be proposed. At this point we have at least two amendments scheduled for votes beginning at 5:30 today. The first vote will be on the Chambliss amendment relating to wage requirements for agricultural workers. The second vote will be on the Ensign amendment which relates to the use of the National Guard.

Other amendments may be offered today, and we hope to schedule debate and votes on those amendments.

I thank my colleagues for helping us move the bill forward to this point. We will finish the bill this week, and I believe Senators will agree to reasonable debate on amendments and we can finish that bill in relatively short order.

We have other issues to consider this week prior to the recess. We will address a supplemental appropriations conference report when that measure is available for floor action. We also will be considering other conference reports that may be raised this week.

We have several important nominations that are available, or soon will be available, after committee action for the full Senate to consider. The Kavanaugh nomination is on the Executive Calendar and will be voted on this week. Other nominations are in committee and will become available.

We have the nomination, for example, of Dirk Kempthorne, our former colleague, to be Secretary of the Interior. This week the Hayden nomination may be available from the Intelligence Committee as well.

We have the nominations of Sue Schwab for the USTR and Rob Portman for OMB--a number of nominations.

Needless to say, the days will go quickly, and we will need to work together in a collaborative, collegial way to get our business completed prior to the start of the recess.

Finally, in order to get all of this done, Friday votes are likely if we are to complete this busy agenda.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, on the Defense authorization, I have talked to both the chairman and ranking member, as I am sure the Democratic leader has, and have asked them to do their very best to address how we can best bring that bill to the floor and have

reasonable time for debate and amendment where we don't have to be starting and stopping and starting and stopping like we had to do over the last several years. Both of them are working very hard in that regard. It is a high priority.

I agree with the Democratic leader. We want to address it as soon as possible. The supplemental bill is in committee now. I have met with leadership involved in that bill, in terms of the managers on Thursday night and with the House as well. I was advised to let them work hard and aggressively over these last what has now been 3 or 4 days, and I will get a report back later today.

I, too, have been both advised and called by a number of people, both from the Department of Defense, our military, and it is clear that this money is needed. We need to work together to accomplish that this week. That is my intention.

After I talk to our conferees later today, I can get back in terms of whether that is going to be possible, but we are working very hard.

Mr. President, I see the Senator from Iowa. I want to make a statement. If the Senator from Iowa would allow me to suggest the absence of a quorum so I can speak to the leader, and I will be back and talk, it shouldn't be too long.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we have had a good process to this point on the immigration bill. I thank the bill managers for their hard work. We are now, as I outlined this morning, in our final week prior to our recess. We have a lot of legislative and executive items we need to complete before that recess. Therefore, in a moment, I will be filing cloture on the immigration bill to ensure we will complete action before the Memorial Day recess, by the end of this week. In doing so I hope we can still have a fair process and continue to work through amendments.

There are a number of germane amendments that may be in order postcloture. I hope Senators will have the opportunity to have votes on them.

Having said that, we also have a lengthy list of important executive nominations that I will be discussing with the Democratic leader. It is my hope we can reach time agreements on these so we can schedule those nominations for votes this week, as well.

One of the nominations we will consider is the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be a U.S. circuit court judge. I understand we would not be able to reach a time limit for that nomination for this week. Therefore, it

is my intention to file cloture on that nomination, as well.

Cloture Motion

I now send a cloture motion to the desk on the comprehensive immigration bill.

I ask that the live quorum under rule XXII be waived.

I ask unanimous consent the live quorum be waived, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. President, the last action was filing cloture on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, the President's nominee for the DC Circuit Court of the Appeals. I have been discussing with the minority leader the nomination this morning and over the course of the day and will continue to work with him as we try to reach a time agreement with respect to getting an up-or-down vote later this week. It is because we have not been able to agree to that, that I filed cloture to ensure we have a vote on this nomination.

I expect the full Senate to vote on this nomination. I don't know exactly what the schedule will be. It will depend on the outcome of the immigration bill.

I did have the opportunity to meet with Mr. Kavanaugh today. He is an outstanding candidate, a candidate who has stellar credentials, both in the private sector and the public sector, working as counsel and adviser to the President. He has had a distinguished legal career that has had him argue before the Supreme Court and appeals courts around the country. He is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School where he served on the law journal. He has, on three separate occasions, received the American Bar Association stamp of approval.

He was nominated 3 years ago. He has waited 3 years for the vote we will have later this week, for that fair up-or-down vote. It is time the Senate fulfills its constitutional duty, the advice and consent, by giving Mr. Kavanaugh that vote he deserves. I look forward to moving ahead on his nomination and upholding the confirmation process.

Mr. President, I will be closing shortly, but I do want to comment briefly on the immigration bill today. I want to make a few remarks on where we are and then where we will be going.

Mr. President, we began debate on the comprehensive immigration reform before the Easter recess. The majority was at that time set to strengthen the underlying bill by having debate and amendment on the underlying bill to be able to toughen the border security aspect, but at the 11th hour, the other side said: No, we are not going to allow that open debate and amendment process. So what had come to the floor under the leadership of Chairman Specter was a bipartisan bill that did need continued work, and that bipartisan effort was scuttled for a period of time.

The Democratic leader and I agreed to a process whereby we could bring that bill back to the floor, which was the beginning of last week, where we, in a bipartisan way, would have that opportunity to offer amendments and attempt to improve or adjust or modify that bill. That is the process we are in the middle of right now.

I am pleased where we are today, but as I said 2 weeks ago or 3 weeks ago, we do need to complete this bill before the Memorial Day recess. Resuming consideration in the early part of last week, we have made real progress. And I do not know the exact number of amendments, but we have had amendments every day come to the floor for those up-or-down votes from both the Republican and the Democratic side of the aisle.

We allowed discussion and debate, and I think the country's understanding of this legislation, which is complex, has improved over the course of the several weeks we have had it on the floor. We are all looking closer at what is in the underlying bill, with the proposing of amendments to modify that, and having good debate--Democrat and Republican--on the issue.

The more time we spend with it, the more time we come to understand there are some very good things about the bill, things that still need some correction. And we will have the opportunity to do that, with the cloture motion filed tonight, over the course of voting in the morning, tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday over the course of the day, and once cloture is in effect, still have germane amendments come to the floor. So that process needs to continue. What it will do is allow us to complete that bill before Memorial Day.

We have had a number of amendments that have been interesting to watch as we have gone forward. Mr. Sessions, the Senator from Alabama, had an amendment early on to strengthen our southern border, to build those 370 miles of triple-layered fence, and 500 miles of vehicle barriers at strategic locations--a clear-cut improvement on the bill, strengthening the bill along the border consistent with our first priority; that is, to secure that border.

The Senate also approved the amendment by Senators Kyl, Graham, Cornyn, and Allen to close a loophole in the bill that would allow criminal aliens to obtain legal status. Once people looked at that, they said that is only common sense. Again, it became overwhelmingly supported in a bipartisan way--again, an important demonstration of why it was important to have open debate and amendment. That amendment clarifies that any illegal alien who is ineligible for a visa or who has been convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors is ineligible for a green card--again, just common sense.

Another commonsense issue of national cohesion that really hits at the heart of what makes this country great was when the Senate voted in favor of an amendment by Senator Inhofe to require that English be declared our national language of the United States. As people listened to that and digested what it meant, people said: Well, of course English is a necessary tool for every aspiring American to be successful and to join the mainstream of American society.

That is just an example of a few of the amendments. Again, we have considered a number of amendments, and we will consider a number more as we go forward.

It was last October when I said we would start with border security and we would build out a comprehensive approach to this very challenging problem of thousands--indeed, hundreds of thousands--of people coming across our borders illegally and millions working in this country illegally and many taking advantage of our social services illegally in this country. So we have made real progress--again starting in October--and we will complete that process by the Memorial Day recess, with the action I took tonight.

Mr. President, given our policy meetings tomorrow afternoon, I now ask unanimous consent that the filing deadline under rule XXII be extended until 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 486, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.