us pray holy god how excellent is your inane and all the your parade can never match your glory and your great gives worth even to the least of our efforts so use us to fulfill your purposes give the members of this body a new vision of your glory help them to see that no obstacle is so difficult no challenge so great no setback so irreversible that your purposes will not prevail free them to depend on you more deeply as they wait patiently for you to replenish their spirits lord speak to our senators so that they all would may reflect tenor of your truth and the tone of your grace father let your name be magnified for the kingdom  the clerk to read a communication to the senate washington d c april sixteenth two thousand and eight to the senate under the provisions of rule one paragraph three of the standing rules of the senate i hereby appoint the honorable benjamin cardin a senator from the state of maryland upon the duties of the to speak for ten minutes each time is equally divided patrol between the two leaders or the designees majority will control the first half republicans a second half falling morning business center will resume consideration the highway corrections between ten and eleven because the pope at the white house this is and we then i've just spoken to staff and i think there we should be on a pathway to finishing this bill today certainly hope some of us not necessarily have to file under the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order senate will proceed to a period of mourning business for up to sixty minutes of the senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each with the time equally divided to control between the two leaders or their designees with majority control in the first day of the republicans the final half were tragically cut short and what was the worst campus shooting in u s history we remember with sad terrible loss we all suffered that day while we all mourned with  attack family our prayers go out to everyone in the virginia tech community who is remembering a loved one on  third recess and appreciate that progress i live in the state of south carolina in the fourth judicial circuit and we have a judicial emergency on hand they are a third of the four circuit court of appeals is vacant we have two nominees one from south carolina one from north carolina that have been waiting hearings in confirmation for well over two hundred days now and i would urge your my colleagues to allow these fine candidates for the judiciary to move forward and the senate get on about its business when it comes to judges and what i worry the most about is that over the last four or five years we've had experience with judges pretty much unknown in the senate there are a lot of anecdotal stories a lot of cases in the past where people slow walt and i can only speak to my time here i was involved in the gang of fourteen trying to make sure that the senate did not do something that would haunt this in the body for years to come in the gang of fourteen was a bipart effort to make sure that filibustering judges would be done only in extraordinary circumstances simply because if we engage in this trying to hold up presidential nominations based on philosophy and to look at the model you're setting because if you do secure the white house you don't want this to come back to haunt you i worry about an independent judiciary i want to make sure that our judiciary in this country is well paid and insulated as much as possible from unfair politics the confirmation process is getting increasingly at a hand overly political too many special interest groups on the left and the right have a man a say as to who gets on the bench and i think the role of the senate is to pass judgment   qualified nominees sent over by the president and found in the senate if you get somebody who's an outlier there's a usually a lot partisan support to say no to that nominee president bush sent over a couple of nominees that i opposed but generally the committee in a timely process and that the fourth judicial circuit is in dire need of judge conrad and mr steve matthews from south carolina having hearings and having a vote and if you like these nominees you can vote against them but i think what's happening there is is is creating a problem and where the country i live in quite frankly is on fire and that look forward to working with my colleagues to to break this logjam and senator durbin the kennedy were kind enough to  the nominee from south carolina appreciate that but let's not get into a pattern here that will come back to haunt us as a body and do a lot of damage to the confirmation process and over time a road to independence and judiciary so i appreciate progress that was ach judicial confirmations in the past two years but i want to thank the majority leader for his promise last night to confirm three judges by memorial day this is certainly welcome news i just hope at least one of those is a nominee for the fourth circuit as we all know our courts are in crisis currently there are over forty vacancies on the u s circuit court and of those half are judicial emergencies the consequences of the majority's failure to act on these nominations results in extended judicial vacancies increased casework in a delay in verdicts this obstruction is harmful for the american judicial system and the american people one of the most important jobs that we have here in the united states senate is to offer advice and consent to the president's judicial nominees while i believe all of these nominees deserv up or down vote on the senate floor i rise today specifically to speak on the current judicial vacancies on the fourth circuit court of appeals in the qualified nominees waiting for a vote  four circuit of appeals which covers south carolina north carolina virginia west virginia and maryland is one third vacant even though the fourth circuit is facing such a pronounced  many pronounced vacancies that in there's a critical need for judges the democrat leadership has made no effort to move any of the pending nominees in spite of the number of vacancies the four circuit run by chief judge karen williams continues to do a remarkable job many of the cases brought before the fourth circuit are extremely complex in the judges must spend a longer amount of time on each of these cases before issuing their opinions  judges will not sacrifice quality but it may take a lot longer for the court to issue their decision we're lucky to have the fourth district with the leadership that it has said they're dedicated they're hardworking clearly but we cannot continue with this high level of vacancy i've heard firsthand about the impact these vacancies have on the fourth circuit appellate courts must have enough judges to fill the panel and if that seat is vacant they must fill it somehow this means judges from other circuits or judges from the district courts must take time away from their families their caseload their ministry of tasks to fill the spot on the panel two of the fourth district fourth circuit nominees mr steve matthews of south carolina and mr robert conrad of north carolina have the support of their home state senators in a ready for hearing in the senate judiciary committee despite these facts both nominees have been waiting for over two hundred days just for hearing let me quote an editorial from the washington post in december of two thousand and seven in which they address the dire straits of the fourth circuit and i quote the senate's should act in good faith to fill vacancies not as a favor to the president but out of respect for the residents businesses defendants and victims of crime in the region the fourth circuit covers two nominees mr matthews should receive confirmation hearings as soon as possible on that note i'd like to spend a couple of minutes telling you about mr steve matthews from south carolina president bush nominated steve mat  in september of two thousand and seven but the senate judiciary committee has failed to hold a hearing on his nomination matthews received his undergraduate degree from the university of south carolina in his law degree from yale law school is currently the managing director of haynesworth sinclar and boyd in columbia south carolina prior to joining the columbia fermat these practice in the washington office of dewey ballantine and served in the u s department of justice during president reagan's second term during his time at the department of justice matthew advised then attorney general ed meese and president reagan on the selection of nominees for federal judge ships and served a special counsel to meis on the iran contra investigation personally met with mr matthews several times and know he has the experience the intellect the integrity necessary to serve on one of our nation's highest courts we must fulfill our constitutional responsibility to vote on judicial nominations and all and allow hearings as well as just plain up or down votes here on the senate floor the committee has several extraordinary nominees before it in the fourth circuit desperately needs their service mr president our courts are in critical need of judges and any inaction on these nominees is irresponsible and puts our nation judicial system at risk again i thank the majority leader for committing to at least three about memorial day and i appreciate mr president the opportunity address this issue thank you and i you know the and vote on presidential nominees for the our courts in america we're now into the fourth month of two thousand and i and only one circuit judge judge haynes rated highly qualified the highest rating that day and they argue that judges should be as judges justice chief justice now john roberts said it is his hearing neutral  they're supposed to call the ball and strike they're not supposed to be on one side or the other they're not supposed to be setting forth their personal political agendas in the gu they cannot be removed except through impeachment or death and it is critical that the judges show restraint now and the truth is that for many years my liberal activist colleagues have delighted in having federal judges and sometimes state judges promote and effect a political agenda they could not win at the battle ballot box i'm a naturist what it's all about and we need judges who respect the rule of law who understand they are not policy makers if they want to set policy let them run for governor let him run for president of the united states senate there are judicial legal offices and so president bush has consistently submitted nominees with high ratings even from the american bar association which frequently asked submit is more activist then i would favor and they meet and have all these resolutions and pass these resolutions on issues  i don't agree with a member they say but i don't agree with some of the positions i take in these resolutions i mean some big conference on representative of the members of the bar and i do these things rahm just saying all that aside that i've been writing these nomin very well they've been giving them have ratings because they're men and women good legal abilities sound judgment and president bush would nominate if they weren't committed to  the role the proper role of a judge in mabie south circuit court vacancies these are the eleven circuits that we have the circuit courts are the first level of appellate courts above the federal district court the drought courts so when you appeal a criminal conviction our civil judgment in america you appeal first from the district court to the circuit court as one step below the supreme court and then you can appeal from there to the u of the circuit courts become final and that that's one reason people considered to be important ultimately supreme court will rule well despite the fact that the ten nominees for the thirteen vacancies in the circuit courts the judiciary committee our committee of which i have been a member now almost twelve years has only given a hearing to one and the circuit nominee for the district d c circuit here in washington was given a hearing august of zero six but he is still not been voted down called up for a vote nominees he's so capable he would be on the short list for the supreme court of the united states i can tell i'm off at this level i won't be considered some time in the future and asked just the fact i've been here i know how this works no reason to cause or not to be confirmed so we he crisis the vacancy were right is alarming one third of the seats are vacant for nominees are pending for those vacancies but none have even been given a hearing robert conrad  form a federal prosecutor has been waiting for a hearing for two hundred sixty five days he's also at this point a federal district judge a federal district judge for the northern district of california north father for the western district of north carolina he was nominated for a june judicial emergency circuit he has the support of both his own senators he received a  justice he testified i remember him testifying on because i like the way he's honesty and directness in his testimony and he chose not to prosecute anybody for those offenses but him by all account a if you want to be an excuse for slow walking nominees and not approving nominees that out of the approved  remember my colleagues that are now committee chairman leahy when he assumed control of the judiciary committee he declared that he would institute that starman rule starting in the spring of this year he said quote a thurmond move and rule in memory  senator strom thurmond he put this in when the republicans were in the minority which said in a presidential election year after spring no judges would go through except by the consent of both republican and democrat leaders rule as interpreted is a false myth in fact does senator leahy in two thousand when the situation was somewhat different during president clinton's final year in office like this is president bush's last year this is what he stated quote there is a myth that judges are not traditionally confirmed in presidential election years that is not true recall that sixty four responsibility to made you deja nominees we should not be playing games get nominees with a strong support out of the move forward a lot of these nominees have not been treated fairly it's time to move them f judges republicans have reserved time hour period for morning business to speak to this issue in order to acquaint the american people with the importance of proceeding with the confirmation of federal judges they process has been slowed down very materially during the final two years of presidential terms when the white house is controlled by one party as the white house is now controlled by republicans in the senate by democrats as i have said all the senate floor this is a problem which has been going on for the past two decades and the last two years of president reagan's administration there was a slowdown with the democrats in charge i continued during the term of president the forty first president and then republicans retaliated during the term of president clinton by slowing down process and we've had very major disputes i would even call them bitter disputes notwithstanding the but history of use of the word better may be empty sometimes it's applicable and i think it is applicable certainly the filibusters in two thousand and five and the confrontation between the parties where the filibusters continued repeatedly by democrats republicans retaliated in common with the threat of the so called nucular constitutional option and as i have said on the floor on previous occasions the fault lies in my judgment with both parties and i thought the republican caucus was wrong its response to president clinton's  my opinion with my votes i voted in support of president clinton's qualified nominees and it is by hope that the we can find a resolution to this issue that we can reach across the aisle there is no doubt that the american people are sick and tired of party dickering and there's also no doubt that the american people want prompt justice in our courts and where you have judicial emergencies as you have in many courts where nominees have been pending for practice periods of time it is a great harm to the let against who are waiting somebody to emphasize the consequences of that people are perhaps out of work for the injuries medical bills rising they ought to have their day in court to have the matter issued or if the matter is tried and in the courts of appeals there are judicial emergencies so it is my hope we would move ahead here now i am pleased to know that there has been some progress made  as announced by the majority leader after mcconnell the republican leader there is an arrangement to have three circuit judges confirmed before the morial day and that is a step in the right direction providing the right judges are a confirm by newspaper editorials the washington post the los angeles times are preeminently well qualified to be confirmed for that position judge robert conrad chie judge in the federal district court it out of state just record in north carolina has been waiting for over two hundred seventy days where there is a judicial emergency and there is no blue slip problem with the judge the senators from north carolina are both urging his confirmation similarly with the nomination of steve matthews in the fourth circuit waiting for more than two hundred twenty days and again and senator barack obama asking for their positions on prospective motions which i am tend to pursue in the senate to discharge from by the senate no provision for committee action and in my judgment when the controversies arrange for this period of time they are to come to the to the to the full senate  the debate which is scheduled for the same thing at the constitution center in philadelphia to mr george stephanopoulos of a b c news and mr charles gibson of a b c news suggesting that these would be appropriate senator clinton senator obama and mr stephanopoulos and mr gibson be included with the record in the record following my remarks without objection now in these letters before these letters were re leased to the press i said i would do not plan to make the news media aware of my inquiries until april fifteenth in order to give you ample i think it worthwhile to read this into the record senator obama writes i'm responding to your letter or april tenth two thousand and eight regarding several pending judicial nomination as a former constitutional law instructor i fully appreciate the important work that are admiral judges do and they need to fill judicial vacancies however i have great respect for the senate constitutional advice and consent role in the confirmation of these judges the concerns you have raised in your letter are important ones however since i'm not a member of the judiciary committee in a bipartisan fashion that continue to fill vacancies just last week the senate confirmed vive judicial nominations and today chairman leahy has announced a resolution reached with the administration over and under the constitution of the united states of the united states senate has the constitutional responsibility to consent or not depending nomination every member of this body has taken on the show to uphold the constitution constitution says the senate confirms constitution says senators vote you can't delegate your constitutional note of the fact that there was the first confirmations this year that there'd been no hearing on any circuit judge from september twenty fifth two thousand and seven till february twenty first two thousand and eight so that what is required to move the process along is for they're proposing to bring these matters to the floor for action by the full senate it is my view that every senator ought to stand up and say whether he agrees with what's going on today b at the ballot box and i would prefer not to resort to the political process i would prefer not to make this a campaign or an election issue  objection without objection what is their objection in our bail synergy mentors been waiting and he's got a time problem so i'm willing to give another three minutes to our public and friends but seriously we need to get going on this bill we've been on this bill now three days and we finally have an amendment on judges and i will defer to to senator hatch and make my comments on this their objection without objection well for deferring to mr president last week an event occurred that was a long time coming i'm not talking about the grand opening of the newseum a few blocks from here down pennsylvania avenue know last week the senate finally voted on and confirmed a few nominees to the federal bench this event is of historical proportions because not since eighteen forty eight had the senate taken this long to confirm a federal judge in a presidential election year you heard me right the first judicial confirmation of two thousand four was on january twenty eighth the first one in two thousand was on february tenth and the first one in one thousand nine hundred six was on january second one of my democratic colleagues was here on the floor last week trying to shuffle the historical chairs on the judicial confirmation deck by talking about the one thousand nine hundred six session rather than one nine hundred ninety six itself because the second session of the one hundred fourth congress began on january third by dicing and slicing the calendar that way try to avoid counting all of the judges confirmed that year i'm not going to play that game i'm comparing apples with apples yours with yours and thirty three of the forty presidential election years since eight hundred forty eight the senate confirmed the first federal judge by the end of february not bad april not mid march but the end of february this is the latest start to judicial confirmations and a presidential year in one hundred and sixty years now i realize that the senate cannot vote on nominations that have not been reported to the floor from the judiciary committee united states senate these are the ninety fifth congress in one hundred seventy seven to seventy eight to the current one hundred tenth congress as you can see the little red graph over there shows what we're doing in this congress you can see are some variation here and there from congress to congress with but without a doubt the one hundred tenth congress is the lowest of them all appeals court nominees are simply not getting hearings this next graph helps us better evaluate what is going on today the judiciary committee how the hearing for an average of twenty three appeals court nominees in the previous fifteen congresses during which i have served in this body one of my democratic colleagues last week actually mocked using such an average as a comparison this averages over many years and includes periods when democrats as well as republicans ran the senate and occupied the white house it is a much better much more reliable standard than pulling out the single year or worse yet just the portion of a single year that makes a pre determined partisan point today fifteen months into the one hundred tenth congress only five appeals court nominees have received even a hearing that is less than one fourth the average over the previous thirty some might say the presidential election years and therefore a presidential election congresses are different and that everything slows down ok fair enough perhaps that would be a better comparison comparing in current congress with the previous seven presidential election congresses however only widens the contrast between what the senate has done in the past and what the senate is not doing today turns out that the judiciary committee held a hearing for an even higher average of twenty five appeals court nominees during those presidential election sessions in the current presidential election season however only five appeals court nominees that had hearings you can see the contrast and the difference were reversed and the pace of hearings for appeals court nominees had slowed to perhaps one app or one third of the historic average i can guarantee you that my friends across the aisle would be down here raising the roof about how we are failing to do our confirmation duty in fact when i chaired the judiciary committee under the previous president and hearing pace was much faster than it is today my colleagues on the other side did complain early loudly and often that the pace today is worse than one half worse than third worse than even one morning business is now closed under the previous order the senate will resume the consideration of h r lever ninety five which the clerk will report cal number six zero eight h r eleven ninety five an act to amend the say accountable flexible efficient transportation equity act and so forth and for the purposes of this president senator from california this president i have an amendment at the desk and i ask for its immediate consideration the clerk will report the senator from california ms boxer proposes an amendment number forty one forty six mr president i know my colleague senator de mint is here to offer what will be the first amendment to this bill and i and i just wanted to thank you if i could get attention for a minute senator de mint i want to get your attention i want to thank you very much because i know you had initially several amendments and looks like you've boiled it down to one  amendment i know center and i very glad about that and we i also have thanked you previously for calling me and saying that you were pleased with the way we treated the transparency of this bill so i wanted to thank you very much for that so mr president i will i will have to remarked i i've been given a copy of the amendment by the center for south carolina i will listen carefully to his cation of that i will have creates not one more penny of of new spending it will unleash however a billion dollars already already budgeted for into our economy that's why so many people are supporting th real life the construction companies and the workers and the transit operators all of them have written to us and i'll put those names in the record again and we're very hopeful if everybody cooperates today that we can get this done  you know this this bill isn't rocket science it's just very simply making technical corrections to safety lou and in places where some projects simply couldn't go forward replacing those projects without adding a penny of new chairman i would say that it's my understanding we're down now to but maybe three amendments is all we're going to have and i've talked to senator coburn who has an amendment and this was senator bond it's my hope  be able to present his amendment and then it's my understanding that we want to hold those to after the do this early this afternoon and maybe try to ease some of the other side away and i would only say the same thing i being a conservative i want to make sure everybody understands that oklahoma's mistakenly said two hundred yesterday that three hundred thousand on a road program that the department of transportation came back and said we thought we were ready for this but we're not but we are on down the road in the bill and so that just makes common bill in order to go forward with a lot of the projects have been authorized way back in two thousand and five so i'm hoping we'll be able to proceed along those lines this president senator from south carolina i make a motion to recommit it at the desk the clerk will report the senator from south carolina mr de mint moved to recommit h r eleven ninety five to the committee on environment public and ranking member for i really believe setting an example for this body and how a bill should be presented to the senate with full disclosure all the documentation it allows us to have an open and honest debate about any differences and there's no question about what's in there and what's not and i think in this case we we disagree on parts of this but i don't want to say anything without first saying i believe the chairman ranking members have set an example for the rest of the committees my motion to recommit simply addresses what i think are serious problems in developing a technical correction bill that actually goes back in chain inches the legislation from one earmark to another or plus's up earmarks takes money from an earmark that might be not needed anymore the projects not wanted that money has to move somewhere where else and while it's certainly correct that the total cost of the bill is about the same we do need to remember that by next year we are projecting a three billion dollars shortfall in the trust fund so instead of plussing up adding to earmarks in creating new earmarks in this bill it makes sense to try to save some of that money so we can find  very important impulse trucks or projects around the country my motion to recommit is very simple it sends this bill back to committee with an amendment that says it should be presented back to the senate floor where all of the new earmarks are excluded and any additions to the funding for existing earmarks is returned to the current level what that leaves us with is a technical correction bill which is what this bill should be i should point out that the administration has noted with very strong concerns that the majority of this bill this technical correction bill is devoted to earmark it modifies hundreds of earmarks from the bill that passed in two thousand and five and effectively creates new earmarks including a standalone section that would provide mandatory funding for a magnetically levitating rail system so the presence of excessive earmarks in the two thousand and five bill created significant inefficiencies in the allocation of resources to fund transportation infrastructure and heard regularly from the department of transportation about the difficulty and implementing a national transportation system with thousands and thousands of earmarks for special projects that don't necessarily match state pro already so i encourage all my colleagues to take a look at this motion to recommit it does not kill the bill it simply refocus it on a technical correction perspective rather  on a foreign you mr president again i thank the senator for his kind comments about the way we've handled the spill but i have to say that this this amendment is that first of all i believe it's wrong on his face and second of  all it's going to kill this bill and of all the times trying to kill what i consider a mini economic stimulus plan this is not the time we've got a lot of people out of work a lot of people who have called our center and  myself and others saying this is an important piece of legislation i'll read to the names of people because i think it's important that we shelve the breath of support for this for this piece of legislation it's a very simple piece of legislation but it will correct some errors it will say as it as an example in oklahoma and we have them in california and all these five hundred projects you know one leg of a project might not have been ready let's put the funds where they can be used now where they're ready to go so unleashing up to a billion dollars of funds right now means tens of thousands of jobs and we have to rebuild our infrastructure and we're doing it within the confines of the monies that were already authorized again and i've said this so many times i'm sure it's boring people but i think it's important to know who has written to senators in art and myself to move this  the american association of state highway and transportation officials whose members include the department of transportation for all fifty states the american highways is allowing alliance whose members represent millions of highway users the american public transit association the american road and transportation builders association the associated general contractors the council of university transportation center the national don't sand and gravel association national asphalt pavement association and as i say this this is not one of these bills here that's just a matter of intellectual debate this means real jobs for real people would send this bill back to the committee in essence killing the bill and you know we we passed this bill out of committee in a bipartisan voice vote on june of zero seven now here we are moving toward june of zero eight why on earth would we want to stop the forward moving process of this piece of legislation we can't afford further delay let me just simply say this and i'm sorry my colleague has left the floor but jobs and improve transportation in the state of south carolina and that's why i supported that mass was there and have supported that and that's why we all supported that now there's a number of projects here there's thirteen projects a hundred and ten million dollars there's a mentality in safety lou now fortunately for senator de mint none of his projects required any technical corrections well let's take this one for example construction of i seventy three from myrtle beach south carolina to i ninety five ending at the north carolina state line supposing something had turned up in the engineering and they had to stop it  further toward myrtle beach but they couldn't go ahead with the project until they made that technical change then the entertainment would find that the project was stymied these fortunately didn't have this problem but a lot of us weren't so fortunate we did have issues in our states where we had to make changes so this legislation fixes nearly five hundred descriptions for highway and transit projects without the changes includ militarization many of these projects will continue to be stuck at red lights and again this isn't the time it's slow down job creation this is the time to unleash job creation and this technical corrections bill provides a green light that can unleash up to a billion in transportation projects this binding this funding again has been to prove before so we're not increasing spending time in the current slowdown in our economy we simply can't afford to allow these funds to remain unused so at the appropriate time i am going to move to table of this immense amendment and i think we're working on an agreement to have a vote on that motion and say that this is right there's not a senator here of all fifty senators who don't have things going on in their states in my state of oklahoma we had some things that we it took seven years for this bill to be to come to reality the reauthorization is something we should do every other year but we didn't do it and when you pass a bill of this magnitude and look i have to say mr president there is no one person in this body of one hundred senators who is more conservative than i am that's with all the ratings they you know you see you had me as never would so it's not a matter of conservative versus liberal this is a matter of doing what we are supposed to do we're supposed to defend america we're supposed to work on the infrastructure we've been doing it since the national highway system came into effect back in in eisenhower administration but i had two changes that were in in my bill i had a the partner transportation oklahoma said put in tulsa so that we know which where that belongs the other one i've already mentioned was the three hundred thousand dollars for a project a actually it was a feasibility study and do rant oklahoma and southern oklahoma then they found out later that that year or you're better off to do it down the road from there in and consequently if we were forced not to be able to make that technical correction we'd be spending forced to spend three hundred thousand dollars on something that we're not ready to do in so the important thing to get across to people is that this techno corrections bill does not in cruise increase the total amount and i kind of agree with the chairman of the committee when she talks about this will kill the bill it would if it went back and they couldn't move it the house would not accept this and this is one of the most difficult things to deal with you're doing the authorization bill because every time we finally get to an agreement here we got to go over there and go through the same thing aircraft republicans here democrats or republicans there and i joined up that is ourselves in a position where we stand anything over there that is that could kill this because senator from mr president i rise to speak in favor of the technical corrections bill and in large part mr president we have a technical correction in here affecting a major interstate project in florida that needs to be passed now the story i am about to tell you is going to some people of what out a few years back when we passed the highway bill we passed the version in the house and we passed the version in the senate and they get merged up so they are identical and they're getting ready then the same bill that has been passed both houses to go to the president for signature but a strange thing happened on the way to the white house because someone a dentist ye went in and changed the language which was quote widening and improvements to i seventy five in collier and legality  quote a matter of ten million dollars in the highway bill and change that to be instead of ten million dollars for a study for interchange on interstate seventy five at coconut road now the long and short of it is you simply can't do that once it passes the house and passes the senate in and then a coal form and then goes to the president in that adenike will form for signature somewhere in the process of unrolling the bill does send it down to the white house someone is not permitted to go in and change the meaning of the appropriation in this case ten million dollars for widening interstate seventy five which has become a parking lot at seven o'clock in the morning and five o'clock in the afternoon because of all the traffic that's why we want to widen interstate seventy five in southwest florida to six lanes instead of the existing to say to have the law read in fact what it was intended to read and what it in fact did until somebody went in and tampered with it now in the meantime what we've had the is we've had we've had correspondence from the chairman of the committee on transportation and infrastructure in the house of representatives to the local metropolitan planning organization which has under state law the authority for setting up the priorities for road projects  saying to them that you need to follow the law the law as it went to the president for signature we have corresponden back from the metropolitan planning organization in this case many letters but on the one that i have in my hand to me stating that there was an error in enrollment of the bill and the metropolitan planning organization wants the original intent of the legislation to be what governs which is the widening of interstate seventy five and the ten million dollars used for that so mr president with unanimous consent i would like to enter into the record both of these pieces of correspondence without objection now so we come to this point it is absolutely critical that we pass a technical correction so that the law as it was intended by the passage in the house in the senate beyond the question is what about the tampering well we need to find out now senator coburn the senator from oklahoma has taken great umbrage at this tampering and i can tell you as the senior senator from florida i am very grateful to him for him being upset and wanting to do something about  this and this senator and my colleague from florida have signed on to an amendment by senator coburn trying to get at the bottom of who did the tampering and how did it occur so that this kind of stuff will never happen again there is some question about the way that senator coburn's amendment is drafted that it would be a direction to the house of representatives which might meet some constitutional problem in which case what we are trying to work out is that there would be a future amendment where there would be an investigation by the general accounting office and maybe some resolution with regard to the justice department saying that this matter ought to be investigated as to a violation of the laws of this country that you can't tamper with legislation like this whatever we resolve i hope we will get it again because we have that separate issue of the tampering that needs to be dealt with and it needs to be exposed to the light of day so that people will understand and you just do not take a bill that is duly passed by the congress of united states and while it is in route from capitol hill to sixteen hundred pennsylvania change the meaning of the bill it is my hope that as we get into all these other issues that seem to have cropped up that have nothing to do with interstate seventy five that we can get these other issues resolved so that the technical correction can proceed and that we can get this particular text technical correction mr president senator from california president i ask unanimous consent that a two fifteen today the senate proceed to vote in relation to the demand motion to recommit the veil and that no further amendments be an order to the motion prior to the phone and following the conclusion of the debate this morning with respect to the motion it be set aside to recur at two p m with a time until two fifteen equally divided and controlled between senators boxer and demand on or does it need and that  two fifteen without further intervening action or debate the senate proceed to a vote in relation to the demand motion to recommit that now is their objection without  mr president since we have a while and the conversation about the technical corrections bill and the reason for that is frankly it's a very straightforward bill we we know of two other amendments were working with senator coburn on his amendment dealing with an investigation into what occurred in the covered up road project in florida and we know senator brown has an amendment which is really not a technical correction it goes to overturning a law that was passed which protects consumers when they are defrauded by furniture moving companies that his his amendment we we hope that he could come down here so we can get it going we can start to debate that but in the meantime i've asked them or enough if he had any objection if i were asked to pay tribute to nineteen young americans who were killed in iraq who were either from california or based in california and he had no objection to that and i don't know if i need to ask if i could speak as if in morning business if that is the appropriate thing i would do that i would without objection ask that mr president i rise to pay tribute to nineteen young americans who've been killed in iraq since november sixth or seventh this brings to eight hundred thirty one eight hundred thirty one the number of service members who are either from california or based in california that have been killed while serving our country in iraq this represents twenty one percent of all u s deaths in iraq specialist peter w schmidt age thirty died on november thirteenth mckeith iraq of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated during this mounted combat up aeration specialist smith was assigned to the second battalion twenty third infantry with regiment fourth stryker injuries sustained as a result of a vehicle accident in kuwait staff sergeant diallo was assigned to the ninetieth logistics readiness squadron f t e warren air force base wyoming he was from riverside california dayton twenty two died december third and ash was iraq of injuries suffered from a non combat related incident sergeant dayton was assigned to the second battalion five hundred fourth parachute infantry regiment first brigade combat team eighty second airborne division force greg north carolina he was from eldorado hills california chief petty officer marty carter age twenty seven died december eleventh as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in iraq chief petty officer carter was permanently assigned as an east coast based navy seal he was from tarboro california private first class your child twenty four died december twenty one in riga iraq of wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked by an improvised explosive device private first class now was assigned to first battalion eight operations private first class merle was assigned to the second battalion three and twenty seventh infantry regiment first brigade combat team one hundred first airborne division air assault in fort campbell kentucky he was from san marcos california scuse me david hart twenty two died in ballade iraq and january nine of wounds sustained during combat operations and some are iraq sergeant hart was assigned to the second battalion three hundred twenty seventh infantry regiment first encountered an improvised explosive device during convoy operations on january twenty eighth in mosul iraq sergeant craig was assigned to the first battalion eighth infantry regiment third brigade combat team fourth infantry division fort carson colorado he was from hollywood california private first class brandon meyer twenty died from wounds suffered when his unit encountered an improvised explosive device during convoy operations on january twenty eighth in mosul iraq private first class meyer was assigned to the first battalion eighth infantry regiment third brigade combat team for the infantry division fort carson colorado i was from orange california february eighth entire iraq of wounds suffered when his vehicle and carried an improvised explosive device specialist man apart was assigned to first battalion twenty first infantry regiment second stryker brigade combat team twenty fifth infantry division schofield barracks hawaii it was from alameda california lance corporal drew w weaver twenty died february twenty first while conducting combat operations in air and b iraq lance corporal weaver was assigned to third armored reconnaissance battalion first marine division marine expeditionary force twenty nine palms california george dog otto twenty one died march twenty fourth in baghdad iraq for moon suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device on march twenty third privateer gado was assigned to the fourth battalion sixty fourth armor regiment fourth brigade combat team third infantry division fort stewart georgia he was from humble california major william hall thirty eight died march thirtieth aircraft wing marine expeditionary force camp pendleton california sergeant richard vaughn twenty two died april seventh in baghdad iraq i should say richard avon from moon suffered when enemy forces attacked using a rocket propelled grenade improvised explosive device and small arms fire sergeant vaughn was assigned to the first battalion sixty six armor regiment first brigade combat team fourth infantry division fort hood texas he was from san diego california sergeant timothy smith timothy m smith twenty five died april seventh in baghdad iraq of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device sergeant smith was assigned to the fourth brigade special fourth brigade combat team tenth mountain division light infantry located in fort polk louisiana he was from south lake tahoe california technical sergeant anthony l capra thirty one died april ninth in their golden hills iraq of wounds suffered when here in canada an improvised explosive device technical sergeant capper was assigned to detachment sixty three six hundred eighty eight armament systems squadron indian head city maryland he was from hanford california i would also like to pay tribute to the eight soldiers who caliph anya who have died while serving our country abberation enduring freedom since november second specialist lester g ro twenty three died nov tenth of forces in iraq and afghanistan first lieutenant farrar was assigned to second battalion five hundred third airborne infantry regiment one hundred seventy third airborne brigade combat team for chance italy he was from phillips a box twenty eight died nov ninth while conducting combat operations in iran and afghanistan sergeant fox was assigned to marine corps barbara air base afghanistan in a non combat relay incidentally senior airman shane was assigned to the sixtieth medical operation squadron travis air force base california he was from sangar california healy was assigned to the seven hundred thirty explosive ordnance ordinance detachment fort knox kentucky he was from his steria california sergeant robert t rap twenty two died march third in the district of afghanistan of moon's suffered during combat operations sergeant wrap was assigned to the first battalion five hundred eighth parachute infantry regiment fourth brigade combat team eighty second airborne division fort bragg north carolina he was from denmark california sergeant gabriel guzman twenty five died march eighth at oregon in afghanistan a boon suffered when his vehicle team eighty second airborne division fort bragg north carolina he was from  all of these brave soldiers brave means brave navy seals brave all may be rest in peace and i would like to say mr president that if you come to my office in the hart building before you enter i have listed on big chart the names of every individual who was either from california or assigned california in california and and if they passed their on that listing and we started with one just enormous chart two three four sad to and the reason i like to mention their names here on the floor is because sometimes we tend to just look at numbers and we should single one of these brave americans died doing something they wanted to do for their country their commander in chief sent them into battle and so of course not one of them has died in vain but i want to do i can and i say this from my heart to ensure that when we get into a conflict we know that there's a way out and that we can bring these conflicts to an end as soon as possible because so many sacrifices are being made and no more so than the wife of america's finest mr president i have a unanimous consent request for committees to me during today's session of the senate they have the approval of the mr president the senator from wyoming from his present asked to speak as if in morning business without objection thank you mr president later today mr president president bush will propose halting growth in u s greenhouse gases by the year twenty twenty five in his speech at the white house the president is expected to place significant emphasis on new technology now i recently introduced legislation to address the challenge of how to deal with greenhouse gases the bill is called the greenhouse gas emissions atmospheric removal act or the gear act members of this body have discussed various proposals to regulate the output of greenhouse gases some advocate doing it through a cap and trade approach others have advocated a carbon tax such proposals are a at limiting future carbon output into the atmosphere many proposals have been introduced and debated using this approach of dealing with carbon output overlooked in the debate or the greenhouse gases that are already currently in the atmosphere the best science the best science tells us that the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere are the gases that are causing the warming of our planet to what extent we are not certain so let us resolve to find a way to remove the excess greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere remove them and then permanently sequester them to accomplish this goal we are as a nation going to need to make a significant investment to develop new technology the approach that my legislation takes to address this is through a series of financial prizes prizes where we set the technological goals and also define the outcomes that we demand the first researchers who meet each criteria will receive not only a financial prize but also international acclaim the prizes would be determined by a federal commission under the department of energy the commission would be composed of climate solid scientists physicists chemists engineers business managers and economist the commission would be appointed by the president with the advice and the consent of the senate view awards would go to those both public and private who would achieve bile stones in developing and applying technology technology that could significantly help and slow and even reverse the accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere the greenhouse gases would have to be permanently sequestered and sequestered in a manner that would be without significant harmful effects this is how it would work there would be four different levels of prices the first level would go to the either private or public entity that could first demonstrate a design a design for successful technology that could remove and permanently sequester the greenhouse gases second there would be a prize for a lab scale demonstration project of that technology that accomplishes the same thing third there would be an award for demonstrating the technology to remove and permanently sequester greenhouse gases that is operational and in a larger working scale model finally there would be an award for whoever can demonstrate the technology to remove and permanently sequester greenhouse gases on a commercially viable scale there you have it four different levels of development first to design the technology second the lab scale demonstration of the technology then a larger working model and then finally the proven use of technology on a commercially viable scale well once the technology is developed the united states would share intellectual property rights to that technology with whoever invented it this bill is drafted does not include a specific dollar amount for each prize instead it authorizes such sums as may be necessary the commission will be directed to report to congress one year after an act of the law the commission will recommend the levels of funding that would be necessary to achieve the goals of this act i believe prizes can be a unique tool in creating the technological development that we need it only seems natural that if we get all the best scientific minds thinking about the same problem and working on it we significantly enhance our chances of solving it historically prizes have been used to spur all types of technological development to solve big problems in seventeen fourteen the british government offered the first prize of this type and they did it for a device capable of accurately measuring longitude john harrison a clock vacuum sealed food was produced after fifteen years of experimentation it was driven again by a prize offering this time by napoleon today vacuum sealing is still used throughout the world and in  thousand nine the first flight across the atlantic of story across the english channel was spurred by a prize offered by a newspaper charles lindbergh was competing for a prize offered by a wealthy hotel owner when he flew the spirit of st louis nonstop from new york to paris in one thousand nine hundred seventy well that achievement spawned a three hundred billion dollar aviation industry today it is my hope and my goal that this legislation will foster the kind of solutions that we need to address the concerns about climate change when i am proposing is that we take a brand new look at climate change with that new look our solution will be based on removing removing excess greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere we must think anew and we must act a new that line we must think anew and we must act a new is engraved on a scenic overlook along interstate eighty between cheyenne and laramie wyoming it is engraved on a pedestal that holds a large bust of abraham lincoln lincoln was the one to have the vision for the transcontinental railroad it is now now time for us as america's to think anew and act a new about the issue of climate change and controlling greenhouse gases americans have always looked within ourselves for solutions we have always had confidence in american ingenuity and american creativity to deal with the challenges of the future yes we want to protect our environment and yes we want to strong economy the way to have both is by thinking anew and acting the new it is time to use our untapped human potential and use the american spirit to develop the technologies that we need it is now time for the united states senate and for congress to find a solution to global climate change not through limits but through imagination innovation and invention i look forward to working with each and every member of the united states senate in achieving this goal so i would just say the conclusion of my remarks we recognize then arrested for ten minutes for them to let me just say first of all i want to make another clean to my friends on the other side you know there's a that he mentioned the president gold the president says we should halt the growth of greenhouse gases mr president by twenty twenty five halted gro which means eighteen years of nothing what a pathetic response to a crisis that has united evangelical groups scientists  businesses and much of the world so i'm just here to say and i'm not going to have a debate with my friend my good friend who i really enjoyed a member of our committee but i want to say that this gives new meaning to doing nothing when we have a crisis that we have now and we have a small window to act and we waste eighteen years this isn't talking about moving the problem to the new president like it's doing in iraq this president who we don't even know who they are it means that we are following a recipe for gloom and do instead of looking at this looking at this problem and thing it for what it is an amazing opportunity you know it's interesting that my friend senator grassley theory was so strong on well this is the kind of thing we're going to do so we can get off the fossil fuels and we have other opportunities sell you life that we have a new way of making cars i happen to drive a hybrid i think it's amazing i get over fifty miles per gallon and just sort of wave actually you know gas station i don't have to go there that often and these cars are getting better and better and better we have so many ways but it isn't going to happen if we simply say by twenty twenty five will halt the growth of greenhouse gas emissions we have to halt the growth very soon and i view it as a great opportunity for an economic renaissance in this country if you look at great britain what they've done they've cut their carbon as a fifteen percent of the last ten years and so their g d p has grown by forty five percent and five hundred thousand new jobs that agree so i think rather than be so frightened and meek as the president is about to say we should be leading the world to this new great economic renaissance then america should be in the front inventing these products i know the president says he wants to invest in new technologies unless you have a cap on greenhouse gas emissions unless your proposal involves a cap so that we get down to what is necessary to prevent attach a c then you're part of the problem you're not part of the solution you just you just making believe you're part of the solution i don't want to do any more than is necessary i want to do what is necessary to we're virt a real serious or respect problem for the world as our intelligence community tells us as our pentagon tells us that if we do nothing the ravages of global warming will be the cause of war will be the cause of drought will be the cause of famine will be the cause of unrest will be the cause of refugees wondering around starving to death that's why so many of the churches have joined us so many of the religions the great religions joined us in this effort we have a great group working here and i was a little bit surprised  on this issue i've been wanting to get to talk to you on this issue i know the former prime minister of england tony blair has spoken to he's coming next week to speak to me again we need to work together this should not be partisan unfortunately it is you know when i was in great britain and my staff we were meeting to understand you know what steps they've taken and how about a cap and trade system and the rest you know we found out it was the most remarkable wonderful thing each party labor and conservative with staking claim to the issue of global warming and saying to the other party you're not doing enough you're not doing enough and i turned to my staff and i said oh if i have one prayer is that we have a situation where that happens at home instead of this horrible fight and if i have another prayer it's that the presidential candidates republican and democratic will be arguing over who has the best plan that may happen that may happen and that would be exciting but i don't want to wait till then to do nothing i don't want to be part of the problem i don't want my grandkids to say where was my grandma at the moment they had the window to do something they slammed it shut so i'm glad my friend came to speak warming but i hope we can continue to work together to get him on board in a more aggressive well to do more really to do our job to fulfill our responsibility we would never take our grandchild put him in an infant seat in a car go to a parking lot at the supermarket and leave him or her in a car with the windows closed and the sun beating that we would just wouldn't do that because we adore our children and our grandchildren and we want the world to be better at least we want to be as good as it was for us we're so lucky you know with such golden years for ourselves and our families got the american dream we thought richard nixon to step up to the plate and create the environmental protection agency and presidents republican and democratic come after us and stand up really until now so i say to my colleagues we're going to have a moment huntin it's going to be a little bit different than today today have concerns because i've discussed these concerns with these c m s medicaid regulations so let me be very clear that i'm not unsympathetic to those concerns i'm not here to argue the regulations put forth by the administration are perfect i have a sure there's some of them that i'd like to see addressed however the regulations do address areas where there are real problems with  medicaid and c m s is taking care of those and we ought to let them move forward instead of just delaying all of these medicaid regulations all at once as everyone knows medicaid is a federal state partnership that provides a crucial health care safety net for some very vulnerable populations people we all agree we have every a social responsibility to look out for low income seniors the disabled pregnant women children these class classes of people depend on medicaid and it does generally serve them well medicaid is also a program with a checkered history of financial challenges that we as fiscal conservatives and we all brag about fiscal conservatism we ought to be concerned about these financial challenges coming from medicaid sometimes not being administered the way it should be and quite frankly using the terms fiscal challenges is kind of a gentle way of putting it sometimes a most a more severe way of putting it would be that medicaid has a history of our respective states not every state but a lot of states abusively pushing the limits of what should be allowed to maximize federal dollars that we send to them under various formulas i'm not going to devote time in my remarks today to issues of fraud and abuse in medicaid but that's legitimate to talk about but i'll be back with that at another time instead i want to focus on a very simple concept and that simple concept is that medicaid program integrity depends upon the center for medicare services and the states and providers and ultimately beneficiaries having a clear understanding of the rules of the road that's what we ought expect out of any government program that everybody knows how that program operates now in  states have not had clear guidance they could and in that case they couldn't be in appropriately spending taxpayers dollars improper payments wasteful spending what does it do it only increases the financial pressure on a very worthwhile safety for medicaid regulations that h r fifty six thirteen attempts to  halt would be to halt all efforts by c m s to provide clear rules rules of the road in in very critical areas where there have been well documented problems and most of those problems costing the taxpayers more money during the recent debate on the budget resolution i entered into the record a c a congressional research service mammal that showed some of the humans that exist under current all and i'm not going to go into all of those today in detail because they're in the record but when c m s doesn't know how a state is billing for a service and states don't have clear guidelines for how they should bail neither medicare beneficiaries nor the taxpayers at the federal or state levels are well served now we should be in fact talking about fixing the regulations so that they better address real problems and medicaid but instead the house of representatives is trying to kick this can down the road to next year so what does that mean for the taxpayer h r fifty six thirteen spans one and seven ten billion dollars to place a short moratorium on these regulations this is only did delay the regulations until just march of next year one in seven tenth's billion dollars just to de lay the regulations for one year now i know supporters hope that the next administration whichever party that might be what you ever the three candidates still in the race it might be that that next administration will completely cancel the regulations well if these regulations were cancelled what would it cost if we tried to completely prevent these regulations from ever  well i wouldn't cost just this one and seven pence billion dollars that's going to be spent between now and next march it would actually cost the taxpayers almost twenty by in dollars over just the next five years and almost fifty billion dollars over the next ten years now it is absolutely a farce for anyone to argue that all of those dollars are being appropriately spammed and that congress ought to just walk away from these asian but that's what this bill h r fifty six thirteen does it walks away early to say another way kicks the can down the road with the hoping that the next president might walk away now i know supporters that bell will say that they just need more time they say that they haven't had enough time to study the regulations and to respond t hat argument is starting to strain credibility the public provider rule was proposed well over a year ago well over a year ago to study and the rehabilitation services rule was proposed nine months ago nine months ago for people in the house of representatives to respond to and to react and supporters of that bail have had plenty of time that's plenty of time if they wanted to make new policy but it's obvious by these actions that legislation their only real interest is in making these regulations goal now mr president this is very unfortunate because finding solutions is what we should be doing instead of kicking the can down the road when we start talking about the integrity of the medicare medicaid program its clarity of the rules clarity is what is most needed between the center for medicaid services and our fifty states solve if you don't like the rules you know that's fine but there are tens of billions of dollars involved in this de lay so all i say to my colleagues up your sleeves or maybe i better say roll up our sleeves and let us all get to work to solve a problem that the regulations try to solve instead of just kicking the down the road that's what we should be doing for the taxpayers that's what we should be doing for the credibility of the medicaid program a medicaid program that's needed a medicaid program for the most part that serves people well contrariwise putting more tory aims on all of the medicaid regulations issued by the center for medicaid services is not the right answer state's accountable flexible efficient transportation equity act and so forth and for other purposes signed by seventeen senators as follows boxer reid of nevada schumer lautenberg tester pryor sanders car without objection so ordered as president as i've indicated to the chairman and of course i have not had the thanking me there but we have explained to the and i have done so with the hope and anticipation that we need not have a closure on this bill we should finish this bill today i hope we can do that if not worse with these things out of a cloture vote writing morning and i hope that's not necessary there's not a reason the world we should finish this bill today and go on to something else as present this morning i was hon d to help welcome pope benedict the sixteenth the united states for his first papel papal visit to america and its brief remarks this morning on the south lawn of the white house he spoke of his admiration respect for america our country his lifetime of righteousness and faith and deeds are news breaking not just to the more than one billion catholics worldwide but to those of every faith pope benedict said shortly after his election three years ago quote i place my ministry in the service and i would mention mr president i had a wonderful conversation there this morning with cardinal mahoney of los angeles indicating can we please do something immigration and i said we're trying and he has been so helpful to us on this issue and tom i hope that we can feel the wishes and i would ask that the following statement be separate apart from that that i just did regarding the pope without objection one year ago today i campus not far from here southwest of where we stand virginia tech community suffered a tragedy it continues the fire comprehension is great university academically sound athletically in many instances perrier suffered a great loss thirty two lives were taken by the hand of a young man with a deeply disturbed mind and as some guns one year from that day we pause honor the memory of those thirty two young men and women and to grieve for their friends family and loved ones i would just in passing  with those unfortunate individuals also with life's snuffed out for no reason also grieve for our country community of that community and our common memory who we really are also the amazing strength of virginia tech's community in those days and weeks that followed how they lifted themselves from the deepest depths of despair to find a brotherhood sisterhood the time of this tragedy to this day he's in a wonderful job of reaching out to the community everyone in the state of virginia meeting with people and giving them confidence the future will be better time of year with allergies are being outside on the south one for an hour today as indicated with my my inability to stop coughing makes me reflect on how great it is to live in the desert with not all these things rose petals and flower petals and pollen around in the desert we don't worry about that kind of stuff but we also don't have much quorum call the agenda today the surface transportation bill and technical changes to that bill a bill dealing with highway and transit programs also today on capitol hill the house is meeting they're working on a bill dealing with debt cancellation also a student loan bill and a bill they started last week dealing with beach water quality they can follow senate or house coverage rather on c span we're covering a senate hearing today armed services white house budget director jim nussle in front of the senate armed services committee talking about additional funding for the wars in iraq and afghanistan it's live now on c span three and it's also available online at cspan dot org later today here on c span i have i want to remind you the pope is in washington we'll have coverage of his speech in washington at six even six this evening on c span three now later today the democratic debate happens in philadelphia that'll be on a b c we'll cover post debate reaction here on cspan to tonight at ten o'clock eastern we'll take your calls and show you some of the some some of clips from the debate tonight and also get reaction from the spin room tonight from