Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 487, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto to be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 488, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23. 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 the Senate resume consideration of S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act; further, that the Senate stand in recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to accommodate the weekly policy luncheons.

Mr. President, to clarify, we will have a vote on the pending Feinstein amendment regarding the orange card program. Members can expect this vote to occur shortly before 11 a.m. That will be the first vote.

A few moments ago, I filed cloture on the immigration bill and a judicial nomination. We have a lot of work to complete this week, including other nominations and the supplemental appropriations conference report if it becomes available. Members can expect a busy week as we work through our remaining business before the upcoming recess.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today we return to the comprehensive immigration bill. We had a very constructive day and evening yesterday. I appreciate everyone's patience and participation in moving the debate along. We worked late last night, up to about 11 o'clock, and we had votes over the course of the day and the night. Because of that, and our agreement for multiple votes on Monday afternoon, we were able to announce no rollcall votes for today.

I do encourage Members to take advantage of the session today if they desire to speak on the immigration legislation, to look over amendments that are likely to be proposed, and to spend time getting ready for those amendments once they reach the floor. Today would be a great opportunity to come to speak on some of those amendments in advance as well.

It is my intention to complete action on the bill next week, and it would expedite the process if Members would use the time productively today and Monday.

I want to comment on a couple of issues and take advantage of the time that we have this morning.

Late last night, in closing, we passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act to address abuses and potential abuses in the broadcast arena and to raise indecency fines by a factor of 10.

We told broadcasters in a loud and direct and unanimous voice--it was a unanimous vote last night: Clean up your act or face the consequences.

When families are watching Sunday night football games, they should not have to brace themselves for a televised striptease. I am, of course, referring to Janet Jackson's infamous ``wardrobe malfunction'' during that 2004 Super Bowl.

While this particular incident represented a new low in broadcasting, unfortunately, as all of us know who do watch television regularly, it was not an isolated incident. Numerous studies have shown that prime- time network programming is growing, has grown, and continues to grow over time increasingly coarse, even during the evening family hour when children are most likely to be watching TV either by themselves or with their other family members or parents.

That Super Bowl stunt was just the latest in the ever-worsening attempts to grab out commercial attention. It is obvious why this tried to appeal to a low, broad, very coarse common denominator--to make people look, and to make people look to increase those commercial ratings and thus end up accumulating more money.

Between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m, when there is a reasonable chance that children are watching, broadcasters are required to keep television clean. The requirement is there. Families should be able to turn on that television during that period of time and trust the broadcasters to abide by the law. Broadcasters should know that if they cross the line the penalties will be serious. That is why this legislation is so important.

Broadcasting has become such big business that, steadily, the current FCC fines have become a little drop in this sloshing bucket of profits. This bill, the bill we passed late last night, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, will help change all of that. The fact is, airwaves are a limited natural resource that we, in essence, all own.

In return for free access to this limited space, this limited supply, broadcasters are obligated to serve the public's interest. If adults want to watch adult material in the middle of the day, there are plenty of pay stations they can go out and purchase so they can see that material. And late at night, between 10 o'clock and 6 a.m, the FCC rules allow a safe harbor for material adults can handle but kids really should not be seeing. When they know kids are watching on free TV, broadcasters should not be able to shrug their shoulders, to look the other way, to disobey the rules.

I hope to see the decency bill we passed last night become actual law

and toughen those penalties. I hope TV becomes smarter, becomes more engaging. That is a task not for us but for the people who make TV. Our job as legislators is to protect those basic standards of decency.

Mr. President, briefly on another issue, just because each day we are bombarded with so much bad news, disappointing news, news that makes you want to put the newspaper down or turn off the television, I want to share with my colleagues a piece of good news, heartwarming news, news that is reflective of the compassion that we as an American people have, that we have the opportunity to express at times, and this particular incident, I believe, represents it quite concretely. It is about a very special 7-year-old boy from Afghanistan.

His name is Mohammad Omar. He suffers from a congenital anomaly, a birth defect that is not all that rare but we didn't know how to treat until the beginning of the 1940s, 1950s, when the research was initially done. Before that, it had a 100-percent mortality rate. As you will tell from the outcome of the story, surgery has changed that.

His defect is called tetralogy of Fallot. Tetralogy means there are four things--It doesn't matter what they are--but it is a hole between two chambers of the heart; a ventricular septal defect it is called. The second is an outflow tract obstruction from the right ventricle to the lungs, and therefore the obstruction there means the blood does not get up through the lungs. There is an overriding VSD and then there is some right ventricular hypertrophy--the right side of the heart is big and very muscular.

That is three of the four tetralogies. I know my colleague knows the fourth is that right ventricular hypertrophy. I would be happy to yield to the Democratic leader.

I will be brief. But what is fascinating is that with science and with the great progress that is made, today it can be cured, where before it couldn't. What is interesting about the overall story is that Mohammed's father, Fateh, about a year ago--this is over in Afghanistan--brought his son to an American military hospital, reaching out, not knowing where to go. The province is the Khowst Province. He happened to run across my colleagues, or colleagues in the military, who are cardiologists, who are heart specialists. And looking at the blue appearance--because you don't get this oxygen flow through the heart, blood through the right side of the heart--they said it was probably tetralogy of Fallot.

With a few tests they made the diagnosis and they petitioned Mohammed to come to the States for treatment, but the visa applications by Mohammed and his dad, Fateh, were initially denied. But somewhere out there was a little angel looking out, and sure enough they ran into a fellow who happened to be a student of mine back at Vanderbilt, Dr. Sloane Guy, whom I hadn't seen for a while, and I was with him at a time when he was looking to the future, didn't know where he was going, whether it was heart medicine, cardiology, heart surgery. He was on active duty in Afghanistan.

He called me and said: Isn't there anything that we can do? So, working together, I--and this is really compassion, reaching out, going beyond what a lot of people usually do--but working with the State Department, again reaching out, the Department of Defense, we were able to get approval for young Mohammed to come here and, indeed, on Tuesday, just 3 days ago, they arrived at Andrews Air Force Base.

Yesterday morning, Mohammed underwent surgery at the Children's National Medical Center. Straightforward surgery, it would be described by Dr. Jonas, Richard Jonas, who is a renowned cardiac surgeon, fellow cardiac surgeon, but does the surgery over at Children's National Medical Center--fairly routine surgery, although it was pretty complex surgery in truth, repairing the hole between the ventricles--the right outflow obstruction--and hooking things back up so they flow normally. Right now the young boy is still in the intensive care unit. That is the normal course, but he is recuperating nicely. You never want to predict the long-term outcome because in the first 5 or 6 days anything can happen.

But my point is, that is the kind of story you don't hear. It took a lot of people reaching out, coming together, the best of the public sector, the best of the private sector, the best of the generosity of doctors, the compassion of individuals in Afghanistan who made the initial diagnosis coming together with the result that just a few miles from here is unfolding.

Larry King, whom you know, although sometimes we are here after he is on at night, many of us turn him on at night, just about every night-- the Larry King Cardiac Foundation provided much of the financial support to bring him here. The Afghan Embassy, right now, is providing support for the family and support with interpreters and food and the like. Dr. Jonas and his cardiac surgical team, including the people who run the part of the pulmonary bypass machine, and all the technicians there who contributed their time, the great resource of the Children's National Medical Center, which is right here--everybody came together to make this story possible.

To me, this reflects the stories that never get told. But it also shows how humanitarian outreach can be used as a currency for peace. It is built around trust. It is built around outreach. It is built around selflessness and going beyond faces that you see every day; everybody working towards a common goal.

So I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell that very brief story. I do wish Mohammed a speedy recovery and wish his dad the very best. While waiting in Afghanistan, not knowing whether or not this lifesaving surgery--without surgery he would die--without knowing whether this lifesaving surgery would be provided by people in a country they had no idea even existed, in terms of the people, he became known as the little blue boy; Little Boy Blue, I guess, is what they called him because of that blue appearance.

So it will be a great story because that blue appearance, Little Boy Blue no longer will be Little Boy Blue. He will be a healthy young child with a normal lifespan thereafter.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today's Executive Calendar: Calendar No. 631, 635, 636, 637, 638, 639, 641 through 662, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions 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.

Madam President, we will be closing in a few moments, but I did want to comment on an event this week that in many ways celebrates the progrowth tax policy that President Bush initiated over 5 years ago, and which, with the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, tax relief, and the relief of regulatory burden, has resulted in quite remarkable growth in our economy over the last 18 months.

This week in the Rose Garden the President signed into law the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005. The bill represents a real victory for the American people, for each and every American family, and for the continued strength and vibrancy and resilience of an economy that leads the world.

The Republican majority has worked hard to resist efforts to raise taxes, and that is exactly what this bill accomplished. It was 6 years ago, back in

2000, that the President inherited an economy that was in recession. It was emerging from a bursting Internet bubble, and the answer to our economic malaise at the time was tax relief, was tax cuts. There was a lot of opposition on the floor of the Senate, but we got them through; sometimes by just a few votes, but we got them through. Now, because of the President's firm, fiscally bold vision and strong fiscal and tax leadership, our economy is doing very well. America's families now feel better off because, indeed, they are better off.

We now have cut taxes for nearly 100 billion hard-working citizens. New home sales were up nearly 14 percent just last month, and minority home ownership is at its highest level ever. Consumer confidence is the highest since May of 2002. The economy has created 5.3 million jobs. Unemployment is down to 4.7 percent, lower than the average of the 1990s, lower than the average of the 1980s, and lower than the average of the 1970s. The tax cuts on capital gains and dividends are benefiting Americans across the income spectrum.

It is interesting that if you look at the income tax returns each year that are reporting capital gains and dividends, almost half of them come from households with reported adjusted gross income of less than $50,000. Tax relief, capital gains, and dividends go across the economic spectrum.

Overall, the economy has enjoyed 18 consecutive quarters of economic growth. Meanwhile, all of this spurred growth has filled the tax coffers just as anticipated, just as we said it would. As we argued back then, and as history has demonstrated, cutting taxes actually results in increased tax revenues.

In January, the Congressional Budget Office found that the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends resulted in the Government collecting an additional $26 billion in revenue in 2004 and 2005. This year, tax revenues will be 29 percent higher than they were in 2003 as a result of tax cuts. In fact, the Treasury Department reported last week that this year's tax revenues were the second highest in American history, giving the country a significant surplus for the month.

Last November, we called for extending the alternative minimum tax relief. In February I insisted that Congress keep rates low on capital gains and dividends. Last week, as part of the Tax Increase Prevention Act, we delivered because we always remember that tax dollars are the people's money, not the government's money.

We believe open markets and abundant opportunity unleashes our greatest resource: the energy of the American people and the ingenuity of the American people. Keeping taxes low helps Americans find and keep jobs, it boosts the family budget, and makes America a great place to do business. It allows the entrepreneur to take a chance on that great idea, to reinvest, to hire more workers, to create jobs. As Republicans, we believe in encouraging that creative and optimistic spirit. It is what has built this country. It is what makes America great.

We will continue to champion economic growth and fiscal responsibility. We will continue to keep America moving forward.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 1 p.m. on Monday, May 22. 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, and the Senate resume consideration of S. 2611, the comprehensive immigration reform bill, as under the previous order.

Madam President, the Senate has made a lot of progress on the immigration bill. After spending almost 2 weeks on the bill a month ago, we brought the bill back this week, and not knowing exactly what to expect, I set out with a pretty high watermark, a pretty high goal, and that is to consider a number of amendments in an open and free debate and have those amendments voted upon. We have accomplished exactly what I had set out to do.

We are going to have another busy week. We have a recess, Memorial Day recess, after next week, so we have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to conduct a lot of business. Senators are using the day today--some of them have come to the floor to speak and to debate and talk about the various issues. Others are using it to study amendments for next week. Our next voting will be with two rollcall votes on Monday, at least two votes, maybe others, beginning at 5:30.

The chairman will be here Monday working through the afternoon, working with Senators on their proposed amendments. It is important that we have the language on amendments people might be offering.

We have a lot of other work to do. The supplemental bill is currently in conference. Our colleagues are working very hard, in the House and Senate, so that we can complete that supplemental bill before the Memorial Day recess. The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh also is pending. Brett Kavanaugh has been nominated to the circuit court, and we need to bring him to the floor before we depart for that Memorial Day recess.

A lot of other issues are underway. The pensions conference report is being worked on aggressively, day in, day out, and I look forward to having that completed so when it is available we will be able to take it to the floor.

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

Mr. President, while they are looking at that amendment, the plans will be that in about 30 to 45 minutes we will have 2 rollcall votes, and then we will keep amendments going, and we will be voting tonight. We will do at least several other amendments. I will let the chairman speak to that. We plan on having two votes tomorrow morning. We don't know exactly what time. I expect us to be able to debate those. I ask that whatever amendments they be, we debate them tonight so we can vote as early as possible tomorrow morning.

Mr. President, in the big picture, let me say at the outset that things are going very well. It is 9:30 on a Thursday night. We are making decisions about tomorrow and Monday. We have had a very good week. I thank the Democratic leader and both managers for making great progress over the course of the week.

It is very frustrating, from a leadership standpoint, for the Democratic leader and myself, where we have to truncate and essentially stop tonight when we could have had a productive day tomorrow morning. Two reasons. The managers have done such a good job addressing such a large number of amendments--more than I had anticipated--which is good, which means the amendments that remain, they want a lot of people around to be able to vote on those. In part, I am making an excuse because I told everybody we are going to vote tomorrow morning. Given where we are, it is in our best interest to complete debate tonight, and the votes we would have had tomorrow we will have Monday. There will be at least two votes starting at 5:30 on Monday.

We do have to recognize in this body that we cannot stop work on a Thursday afternoon or evening. We have to be able to use Fridays, especially over the remainder of the session. We don't have that many days. Even between now and next week, we have this bill--and that is why we are working as hard as we can--and we have the Kavanaugh nomination, which is out there and ready to bring to the floor. We have a supplemental spending bill which funds our troops overseas. I talked to three different generals today and the Secretary of Defense, all of whom say we have to act on that supplemental. So we have to have Senators here. We have to have them participating.

Again, this is not the fault of the managers. They have done a superb job. It means that tomorrow we will likely be in session, but we will not

have rollcall votes. We will be voting Monday afternoon at 5:30.

Mr. President, this morning following the opening remarks of the two leaders we will proceed to the consideration of a nomination to the Ninth Circuit Court. We have set aside up to 15 minutes for comments on that nomination prior to the rollcall vote. Therefore, I expect the vote to occur after 10 a.m, but it should not be too long after 10 a.m. this morning.

Following that vote, we will resume debate on the comprehensive immigration bill and the pending amendment proposed by Senator Isakson. This amendment was offered yesterday and had been pending from our earlier consideration of the immigration bill. It was my hope to lock in a vote to occur shortly after the judge vote of this morning, and we want to allow a few minutes for closing remarks and we want to accommodate a few minutes before that vote. I will be in discussion with the Democratic leader about that. There may be a Democratic alternative which I believe may have been just submitted. We will take a look at that and plan the vote on this accordingly. I do want to alert Members that we could expect a vote or two prior to our luncheons today.

As Senators return for the first vote of the week, they should be reminded--which both the Democratic leader and I did yesterday--that this will be a very full week, with lengthy sessions and with a number of votes. We recognize that people have a lot of schedules which compete with the votes, but our major priority must be this bill. We ask for everybody's consideration in that regard. We will be in session as long as it takes in the evening to accommodate the wishes of Senators and their desire to present amendments.

We have this week and next week prior to the next recess to complete this bill. We have a supplemental bill, a pensions bill, and the Kavanaugh nomination--all which is a heavy load which I believe can be accomplished.

I will also add, the manager of the bill yesterday--both managers, I believe--stated we want these votes to be 20-minute votes, when we are actually voting and recognize that 20 minutes is a short period of time, but it is plenty of time if people know as soon as the bell goes off that they need to start coming here.

I have a statement--it will be brief--on immigration, but I turn to the Democratic leader if he has anything in terms of scheduling?