dialogue on health care i think americans expect us to address this issue and not just a fight about it as a senator from texas has said this national discussion i think is bringing us to some agreement at least i think all of us have decided in congress or at least most of us that every american should have access to a health insurance policy that they can afford and i own  where we disagree is is how we get to that point and i think the disagreement in this body goes to how we do that do we do it more like canada did where we just say ok everyone needs to have insurance so let's let's let the government take it over let's have government run health care and some are saying the canadian system works just fine until you talk to doctors and patients from canada and find out that every year the waiting lines get longer every year the program gets more expensive and every year the health care is of less quality so now the people in canada who have the means come to the united states to get health care the reason we have such good health care in the united states is for most of our history that it's been done by private doctors working with patients hospitals that are independent of government that are free enterprise system h worked to a great degree government programs like like medicare in the program we're talking about today like the children's health plan have have come in and help those in need to buy and access health insurance and  have access to health care but for the most part americans have resisted government run health care now we do know in the early ninety's there was an attempt to to move totally to government health care and when that failed failed we were able to s that the advocates of government run health care believe that the best way to get to government health care is to do it one step at a time with the children first because it's very hard to vote against expanding health care for children certainly all children should have health care they should have health insurance but the fact is every american should have health insurance and it's not good enough just to expand the government program from covering poor kids to covering middle class kids and and we don't need to mistake the fact that this is moving us towards government health care in fact if my democrat colleagues get their way on this children's health bill is over seventy percent of the children in this country are going to have government health care and what happens to him once they become adults we haven't discussed but we need to help every american on a health insurance policy and what republicans want to do is continue this children's health plan to add additional funding to cover inflation and additional children we have some good proposals here one of them by senator martinez that would  continue the program is it is but also offer tax credits to children and families that are two and three hundred percent of poverty so that they can buy their own insurance believing that the best thing we can do for families in this country is to help them have insurance that they can afford a known and there are other republican proposals that we'll be talking about that include tax credits for every family that buys their own insurance it would also allow employers to give money to individuals to help buy their insurance we don't do that now employers are not allowed to contribute to an individual's health plan we also have proposals that would allow individuals to shop for health insurance all over the country a lot of folks don't know that we don't allow that now you can only shop in your own state there's a proposal that would allow people who put money tax free in a health savings account to use that money to buy their own health insurance plan it's pretty amazing that as a congress that we won't allow people to use their own health savings account to pay for health insurance premiums and their proposals to allow small businesses to come together to buy health insurance is less expensive then when they buy it individually there are a lot of things that we can do as a congress that don't cost taxpayers any money but that would make it easier for individuals to have health insurance that they can afford and  i hope this debate will continue to open this issue up in a way that americans can really understand the goal is that everyone has affordable health insurance good health insurance the goal is not to turn more and more of our health care and health insurance over to the government because we know that that won't work and we know that it's not efficient and we know that the children we're trying to help or eventually going to have to pay the debt that we put on their heads by paying for something that we ca to for the fact is we can get better health insurance better health care for less money if we do it with private health insurance just by helping individuals buy health insurance that they can afford and  mr president we started the national discussion on health care as we look at this debate specifically about children's health care that we will see it as part of a larger issue and decide today that it's not good enough just to get a few more children insured every american needs health insurance policy and we can do it first of all about taking down the barriers that congress has put in front of individuals when they're trying to buy their own insurance but we can also look at those in the end whether it's tax credits or tax deductions we can help every american have a health insurance policy that they can afford they can keep it from job to job in throughout their life and we can have better health care and it's better for our future and i thank you m to be recognized for five minutes and following my presentation senator chambliss from georgia had the remaining five minutes without objection sword thank you mr president mr president we pass lots of laws in the congress united states and from time to time there's a byproduct of the passage of some of those laws and it's called a law of unintended consequence such as the case with the endangered species act in my state of georgia we are in a level for one hundred year drought as many as seven million citizens in my state are looking at the possibility of there being no drinking water in less than one hundred twenty days our state has imposed restrictions of every cat landscapers out of business car washes threatened no outdoor watering my own home county of cobb in the last fourteen days has reduced through conservation water consumption by twenty percent and i personally commend commission chairman sam owens and the entire north georgia planning water planning district for everything they are doing but in the absence of rain there is nothing we can do why does this affect the endangered species act very simply because a court case was filed a few years ago under the endangered species that asked thing for the management of the chattahoochee river basin to be controlled so as to protect a sturgeon the judge in that case family rule has as much and developed the judge's own interim operating plan for the chattahoochee river that plan means that the corps of engineers make releases to keep the flow in the chattahoochee river where the sturgeon exist at a level sufficient to sustain the sturgeon the problem is the level is insufficient to sustain human life in north georgia if it continues this morning just a few minutes ago on behalf of myself and senator chambliss i reduced an amendment to the endangered species act to deal with this law of unintended consequences and it very simply says the following the head of the corps army corps of engineers or the governor of a state within whom a region lies where there is a drought that threatens the he safety and welfare of the people in that region may suspend the course in effect of the endangered species act until that endangerment has passed it's a simple request we are at a place in our time in our country today a region my home region the state i represent where the health safety and welfare of my people are threatened they are threatened by an act that this congress passed that had no intention to threaten if we have the power to do that we also have the power to make the exception to see to it that their drinking water is safe and their livelihood is safe and at hand mr president this is a critical critical emergency it is time sensitive and i urge each member of the senate to follow this simple amendment and this simple proposal and think about what they might do if it was their state if it was their people it is time we gave the army corps the latitude in the governors of the state the authority to protect our people when i stood in this chamber three years ago and raise my right hand and we're agreed to defend the constitution united states and protect the domestic tranquility from enemies foreign and domestic today i stand recognizing there is a domestic energy domestic energy an enemy and that enemy is the endangered species act which controls the chattahoochee river and limits the access to drinking water and safe water for the people of north georgia are urged the members of the senate to join myself and  the history of our state elana georgia is a great place to live it's a great place to work it's going great place to visit but we are in a crisis the water splashed system for metropolitan atlanta depends upon two basins like altoona and lake lanier like altoona and lakeland there are fed by nature rainfall that every year thus far in the history of our great country  degree temperatures than we've ever had in the history of atlanta a combination of natural forces as put us and the situation of crisis but there's also an unnatural source that has helped produce this crisis and that's what the legislation that sent the asics and has proposed along with mako sponsorship and it seeks to address this critical problem and seeks to help find a solution to this problem for the short term george's lecture low and continue to decline as the army corps of engineers releases water to protect a handful of sturgeons and mussels and the in the state of florida understandably folks who have had mandatory water restrictions for months in our state who are watching these lakes slowly decrease and who are wondering where the common sense in washington has grown they're calling my office and asking how can our government hear more about mussels and sturgeons than human beings well obviously that isn't the case but water continues to be released and that lake lanier lana's main source of water will be empty and i repeat will be empty by january two thousand and eight if the corps doesn't stop releasing so much water or if we do not get rainfall that's less than three months away so master presents clear that we are in a crisis we need to do something to ensure that we are not cutting off the drinking supply to seven million people in the metropolitan atlanta area this legislation does something very simple and practical to address this crisis in the short term it says that it's a sick to the army in consultation with the governor of a state determines the drought is in effect in a region in which there is a federal river bas n that is managed by the corps of engineers and the drought threatens the health safety or welfare of the human population in that region that the secretary of the army can temporarily suspend provisions of the endangered  such time as the drought is over in the health safety and welfare of humans is no longer at risk mr president we have larger issues to address in the long term updating the water control manuals by which the corps of engineers operates the river basins in georgia and getting the governors of our neighboring states together to apportion the among the states for the long term are critical issues that have to be addressed as resources get straights get scarce these things become more difficult to accomplish unfortunately the people of georgia cannot wait they need immediate relief and swift passage of this legislation will certainly help with that mr president would y the president and senator from illinois it's my understanding that the majority has the time now under morning business thirty five minutes and i ask for ten minutes of that time and i asked to be notified when i have completed four minutes without objections from and thank you mr president like to discuss two issues here this morning that i think are very important not only to members of the senate but to everybody across america if you can't go home and visit your home state and talk to real families and real businessmen and real workers without coming back feeling that the number one issue on their mind after the war in iraq is health care time and again people tell you stories from their own lives troubling challenging stories about trying to find the best health care and pay for it and they're concerned about the cost of health insurance cost of health insurance goes up every single year and covers less each year that's the real family squeeze in america and it isn't just by families that you hear these things you'll learn the same thing with businesses howard schultz is a fellow i respect very much he's pretty prosperous businessman in america a lot of us by his products with frequency howard schultz of brooklyn new york now living in seattle is the owner of starbucks and when he started the company a little company selling coffee i don't know if he had any idea that some day he would have fourteen thousand stores across america but he knew that if he started a company there was one thing he was going to do he was going to guarantee that everybody who worked in the starbucks store had health insurance because he had a personal experience when his father lost his health insurance after being laid off from a job and he saw what it meant to his family and he decided as a business leader he would take care of that issue so if you pay an extra fifty cents to a buck for that double double skim latte you are subsidizing the health insurance of the person who's making the coffee for you i think it's pretty good deal it's a deal i'm willing to make regularly and do most mornings but howard schultz said to me and to members of the senate i can't keep up with the cost of health insurance cost keeps going up i can't raise the cough cost of a cup of coffee enough to keep up with this you have to do something he told us two years ago when i saw him recently same challenge same issue his business trying to do the moral conscientious thing to cover its employees even part time employees is having a tough time large corporations like general motors finally strike a deal with united auto workers and the biggest problem the biggest challenge in their what to do with the health insurance of employees and retirees and so when you hear this over and over again and you think to yourself well what is congress going to do and the answer is virtually nothing there is no leadership in washington and it has to start in the white house when it comes to health care reform with one exception an important exception ten years ago we said of the forty million uninsured americans fifteen million are kids it's time that we provide health insurance for those uninsured children in america it was a republican congress democrats supported and the bipartisan bill passed signed by the president went into effect and in the span of ten years we moved from covering zero children to six point six million children who were given help through their families to buy health insurance it's from private insurance companies six point six million out of fifteen million were covered bipartisan proposal that worked now that law is about to expire called the children's health insurance program and so we decided we need to not only keep this program going but we need to expand from six point six million kids to ten million or ten and a half million kids let's keep moving until every kid in america every child has health insurance well we put together another bipartisan proposal brought together some very conservative republican senators chuck grassley of iowa orrin hatch of utah and many others and said let's work out something in a cooperative way that extends this program responsibly and we did it we ended up with an increase in the federal tobacco tax and the revenues dedicated to covering more children with health insurance i like that because more expensive tobacco products means fewer kids will buy and i like to keep tobacco out of the hands of kids until they become adults and can make a responsible decision about a product that can lead to addiction and disease and death so i like the tradeoff here from a public health you point we passed said bill extending the children's health insurance program over ten million to be covered with sixty nine votes in the senate that's pretty good around here you know we have these death defying struggles and end up passing amendments by one vote or two votes we passed this one by a big margin senate over the house they passed it sent it pres the united states he had his chance to extend children's health insurance and he vetoed the bill he said no he said socialized medicine too much government involved in it i disagree with the president first this is insurance from private health insurance companies it's not government insurance and secondly this is socialism what we're talking about is helping working families now the poorest families in america and their children are already taken care of we have medicaid in every state in the union the poorest kids have that they have that government health insurance protection and the kids of families where mom and dad get benefits are already covered it's the kids that fall in between the kids of mothers and fathers who go to work every day and have no health insurance that's who we're trying to help so this isn't about poor people this is about middle income working families who don't have health insurance at work what if you had to go out tomorrow and buy health insurance plan for your family assume your employer doesn't offer any benefits were you going to pay well if you happen to have a pretty healthy family and you don't want to lot of coverage and you have a big deductible and a big co pay you may get by for six hundred dollars a month but if there's a complication they're sick child your wife had some problems you've had some problems you know what happens to those premiums pretty soon they're eight hundred dollars a month thousand dollars a month and people who are making regular middle class incomes in america cannot afford that that's the reality so when someone in the white house says we shouldn't be helping families making sixty thousand dollars a year to pay these health insurance premiums i think they're really out of touch with reality this morning two of my colleagues senator cornin texas senator de mint of south carolina came to the floor to talk about health care good we need more conversation but we also need their support they didn't support the passage of the children's health insurance program i wish they had we really need to make this a broader bigger bipartisan issue in just two days the house representatives will try to override the president's veto i don't know if they'll make it they need fifteen republican congressman to switch over to override the president's veto to extend the children's health insurance program maybe they can't do it and if they fail it means that at the end of the day this program will cover fewer children in america is that our goal i think our goal should be the other way we need to reach a point where everybody in america has the peace of mind of health insurance i'm lucky as a member of the senate congressman i get to enroll as they do in the federal employees health benefit program this is a great deal for eight million federal employees and their families we get to choose open enrollment every year in my case for my wife and myself from nine different private health insurance plans offered in my home state of illinois nine choices it's like shopping for a car my friends and if i don't like last year's model i'm trading in for a new model i can go to a new company something that most americans would dream of to have that kind of opportunity it's available to me as a federal employee shouldn't every american have that peace of mind shouldn't we all understand that if you go to work every day and you love your family that you can provide them the protection the health insurance for forty seven million americans the answer is no they don't have it for nine million kids across america out of that forty seven no health insurance a child without health insurance is a child without a regular doctor a child without regular checkups a child who may not get the immunizations they need that's what kids face when they don't have a medical home or a health insurance policy and i need not tell you what happens when a medical disaster strikes a family like that it just becomes overwhelming it can bankrupt a family that thinks it's in pretty comfortable situation so i urge my colleagues in the senate and in the house on both sides of the aisle we've got to get together on this there has to be some common ground here i thought children's health insurance was a great place to start i hope the house of representatives will override president bush's veto i just think the president is out of touch with working families in america and the reality of the challenge they face with health insurance and i hope that we can override his veto that we can extend this program and cover many children today who don't have protection mr president i ask that the statement above to make the place separate the record from my earlier statement that objection mr president tomorrow the senate judiciary committee will hold hearings on the nomination of judge michael z b attorney general i want to look forward to those hearings and hope to ask some questions about his plans if he in fact is our next attorney general to repair some of the damage that's been done in the justice department i'm concerned that progress really isn't going to be possible without some significant changes there in particular i think we need new leadership the justice department's office of legal counsel today joined by senator ted kennedy and russ feingold i'm sending a letter to president bush calling on him to withdraw the nomination of steven bradbury to be head of the office of legal counsel and to submit another nominee oh well see the office of legal counsel is a small office most people don't even know it exists but it really has a lot of power especially in this administration their legal opinions are binding on the president and the executive branch of government in august two thousand and two zero o l c issued the infamous torture memo this memo narrowly define torture as limited only to abuse that causes pain equivalent to organ failure or death it also concluded the president has the right as commander in chief cease to ignore the torture statute the law of the land which makes torture a crime this memo was the official bush administration policy for over two years a memo produced by the office of legal counsel jay bybee who was then head of that office signed the torture memo unfortunately mr by the  confirmed to a lifetime appointment as a judge on the ninth circuit court before congress and the american people learned about this infamous torture memo jack goldsmith succeeded jay bybee as head of the office of legal counsel we only recently learned about the critical role that he played as head of the office of legal counsel he revoked the misguided office of legal counsel opinions regarding warrantless surveillance deputy attorney general jim comi who has come out as an almost heroic  time and again as we learn of his role in the justice department under attorney general ashcroft and solace supported mr goldsmith's actions this led to the infamous showdown at the bedside of attorney general john ashcroft where white house chief of staff andrew card and former attorney general alberto gonzales who was then white house counsel tried to strong arm mr ashcroft into overruling mr goldsmith in june two thousand and four mr goldsmith revoked t bybee torture memo shortly afterwards he left the justice department two thousand and five president bush nominated steven bradbury to succeed him although he has been confirmed mr bradbury has been the defacto head of the office a legal counsel for over two years during the confirmation process mr bradbury refused to answer questions from judiciary committee members regarding torture in november two thousand and five i initially objected mr bradbury's nomination and i said and i quote mr bradbury is currently the acting head of the office of legal counsel in this capacity he approves justice department legal opinions since the justice department refuses to provide us with oil the opinions on interrogation techniques we do not know enough about where mr bradbury stands on the issue of torture what we know is troubling mr bradbury refuses to repudiate un american and inhumane tactics such as waterboarding mock execution and physically beating detainees mr president are also serious unresolved question about mr bradbury's role in n s a warrantless surveillance programs in august two thousand six hundred kennedy feingold myself sent a letter to president bush calling for him to allow an internal investigation relative to this issue we've not received a response recent reports regarding mr bradbury's involvement in approving the legality of abusive interrogation techniques provide sort of further evidence of his unsuitability according to an october fourth article in the new york times mr bradbury signed all we'll see legal opinions of proving they were the legality of abusive interrogation techniques mr president in the interest of turning the floor over to my colleague from north dakota i will not read this entire statement but i do want to tell you that the cumulative evidence against mr bradbury raises i think serious questions as to whether he should even continue in this interim capacity as head of the justice department's office of legal counsel we're not asking the president to nominate some democrat the position we don't expect it but we ask him to a nominate someone a professional integrity who can restore the morale of this department and the luster which should be part of this important office smith describes himself as a conservative republican but he stood up to a white house when it came to issues of torture and warrantless surveillance i urged the president to withdraw stephen bradbury's nomination submit another nominee for assistant attorney general of the office of legal president talk just a moment about that because we are unbelievably dependent on foreign oil and if anybody thinks they should nap through this or sleep through this vulnerability they're dead wrong sixty percent of the oil that we need in this country and use every day we get from outside of our country we stick little straws in this planet of ours and suck oil out we suck out about eighty four million barrels of oil every single day we use one fourth of that in this country every day about twenty one twenty two million barrels of oil so of all the oil that we suck out of this planet every day we use a fourth of it just in this little space called the united states of america the problem with using a fourth of it is that sixty percent of that which we use comes from other countries much of it from troubled parts of the world saudi arabia kuwait iraq venezuela well if tomorrow god forbid somehow the import of oil into this country were interrupted we would be flat on our back economical we get up in the morning he just take it off for granted we get up in the morning get out of bed rub our eyes and just flick a switch and lights go on we get in the car we turn the key and the engine starts we take it all for granted but at some point just shut off the petroleum shut off the electricity see what life is like see what our economy is like so we decided to do something about that if we're unbelievably dependent and vulnerable on foreign oil what do we do well we'll begin to produce energy in our farm fields we produce biofuels oh that's not a new thing it's been around over a century i was at a biodiesel plant the other day that was just a grand opening and i pointed out that there was a man that went to the world's fair in the year nineteen hundred you know his name was his name was rudolph diesel that's right rudolph diesel showed up at the world's fair in the year in one thousand nine hundred with fuel made from peanut oil biodiesel made from peanut oil for engines he was developing so this isn't new but all of a sudden our country has decided we ought to begin to produce fuel biofuel ethanol for example and we've begun to do that now the oil companies don't like it very much the opec countries don't like it very much the last thing they want to see is for us to begin to produce not only the fossil fuels in our country including oil and natural gas but also the biofuels in the renewable energy that you can grow in your farm fields we can take a kernel of corn in from that kernel of corn and various processes produce fuel that will substitute for fuel we now get for oil we now get from trouble parts of the world makes a lot of sense to me we use about one hundred forty billion gallons of fuel a year hundred forty five billion gallons a year if every single gallon if you were blended with ethanol our total market for ethanol would be about fourteen a half billion gallons president says let's go to thirty six billion gallons i agree with that sort of most of my colleagues the senate's already voted on that but how are you going to use thirty six billion gallons if you're only blending a ten percent well you've got to have the eighty five pumps they're producing flex fuel vehicles on the right now they've said they're going to get to fifty sixteen to eighteen thousand flex fuel vehicles there are twenty three places in the entire state where you can pull up to a pump and get eighty five in california there are over two hundred seventy thousand flex fuel vehicles and there's one gasoline pump in the entire state of california that pumps eighty five think of that one gasoline pump now let me describe what some of the obstacles are and i have long been concerned that if we're going to produce  l and we should and we must we have to not only produce it we have to market it you've got to produce it then you've got to run it to the carburetors in the fuel injectors of these vehicles if you don't have a market that that whole industry collapses but here let me give you some examples of why we don't have more eighty five pumps number one because we've got some folks in here that want to produce ethanol and they support all that but they don't they don't support any kind of mandate that would require that we have an infrastructure out there to actually use the ethanol and we now starting to see the results of that let me describe in the article in the wall street journal ethanol one obstacle is big oil april second this year well companies employ a variety of tactics that keep the eighty five to a lot of the stations that bear the company's name for instance franchises sometimes are required to purchase all the fuel a cell from the oil company since oil companies generally don't sell it a fire that is eighty five percent ethanol fuel that you would use in a flex fuel vehicle the stations can't some of these are only describe some of the ways that the major brand retailers are trying to prevent the widespread marketing of of ethanol well exxon mobil and b p require their franchise stations this is directly from the wall street journal article require their franchise stations to buy fuel exclusively from them and neither company offers eighty five so the station owners must apply for an exception if they would wish to sell the eighty five or eighty five percent ethanol a conoco phillips memo to franchisees says this the company doesn't allow it to five sales on the primary island under the covered canopy or gasoline is sold the stations must find another spot as a result it's not quite so simple for a driver on the spur of the moment to pull up to an island where they have gasoline pumps at conoco phillips because conoco phillips says you can't market eighty five with the same bank a pub pumps on the same island chevron texaco and conoco phillips station owners aren't allowed to list the five on their primary scion listing fuel prices and they must pay to erect a separate sign b p won't allow its franchise stations to offer payment by credit eighty five thereby see a pattern here these companies sell or oil and gas i want them to do well but i hope they want our country to do well as at the same time in our country will do well by becoming less dependent on the coase saudis venezuela's and we do that by expanding our supply of renewable energy and guess what these companies say no we're not we're not interested in that that's not our product and so by the way  one hundred seventy thousand gasoline stations in our country about one hundred seventy thousand gas stations on every corner of this country virtually and twelve hundred of them have pumps hundred seventy thousand places you can pull up to buy gasoline and twelve hundred of them i have a five now if you drive a flex fuel vehicle and you can run it on eighty five percent ethanol that's the way they sell a vehicle you can run o either gasoline or eighty five percent ethanol and you want to choose one of one hundred seventy thousand gas stations in this country one hundred sixty eight thousand two hundred  not going to have ethanol are not going to have rather i should say eighty five andrew carson or who's the secretary of the renewable energy area said that the department of energy said last year we stalled four hundred fifty five pumps across the entire country and if we as i calculated continue to install four hundred fifty eighty five pumps a year that means that it will in about one hundred years we will have about fifty thousand pounds or less than one third of the stations where they selling eighty five my point is very simple i see these these stories in the wall street journal the new york times i know based on what is reported what the major oil companies are doing and it's not just setting  for failure setting this country up for failure we cannot move from sixty percent dependence on foreign oil to sixty nine percent dependence on foreign oil and that's where the experts say we're headed if we don't find a way to be less dependent on foreign oil this country's in trouble now how do we become less dependent we expand our opportunities for renewable energy including ethanol but if we do that and when we do that we are set up for failure if one hundred seventy thousand gas stations across this country have country we up for failure in my judgment and what should we do about it well the energy bill that we moved through the united states senate recently was an energy bill that provides some grant programs not nearly enough some grant programs to help some service stations to put in some other pumps you're going to need to pump eighty five eighty five percent ethanol you're going to need to have glenn pumps to pump ethanol at twenty percent blend thirty percent forty or fifty percent blend you've got to do all of those things if this country is determined to move in a direction that makes us less dependent on foreign oil but our country it seems to me is willing to kind of sit back in the congress seems willing to sit back and say well whatever happens happens we've got to make things happen an infrastructure bill that says we're going to produce these biofuels and we are and we're if we're going to aspire to get thirty six billion gallons of biofuels and we should then you have to have a plan by which you market that if you produce it and don't market the market for that particular energy collapses and that we it will set us back decades now what should we do we should we should in my judgment as we move this energy bill have an infrastructure provision in that bil strong assertive bold and moves in the right direction and it sets up a circumstance where either this happens by the market system or you have mandates i know nobody likes mandates but look if if we're going to be less dependent on foreign oil we've got to find a way to make this happen and make this work i believe that we have an opportunity here to do something good for this country we can just sit back and doesn't work somehow i have you know you can't find it on the local service station because they won't let it they won't let the market down there ain't that a shame well it's not going to be a good life if we find someday we don't have this energy that we need coming in with sixty percent of it coming from our far shore and it's not going to be just a shame it's going to be a catastrophe for this country if we don't put in place the infrastructure to expand our opportunities to produce renewable energy here in this country and therefore make us less dependent on foreign sources of oil let me just make this point we're going to use our fossil fuels i support the production of oil and natural gas i support the continued use of our coal i happen to believe and i increased the president's request by thirty percent for the fossil fuels accounts in our appropriations bills the subcommittee that i chair the president talks a lot about this stuff but he doesn't commit himself to it i increased by thirty percent his fossil fuels account why because coal is our most abundant resource we're going to have to use it the question isn't whether it's how and when we use it we have to invest in the technology and research to allow us to use coal in zero emission plants and i believe we can do that i really believe we can do that we can't do that with the baby steps coming from this president he watches baby step along you know a little money here a little but you if you're going to make a commitment to use our fossil fuels you have to make that commitment but even as we do that much much more needs to be done to deal with the renewable side you can't at the same time try to advance the interests of fossil fuels in a way that that does not contribute to climate change and then say we're going to ignore the renewable side you've got to do both you've got to use the research and the capability of technology to unlock our opportunity to continue use fossil fuels but then you've got to commit yourself our country has to commit itself to renewable energy and to ethanol in the biofuels industry president the reason i wanted to make this point is i saw last evening on n b c news a big feature story about this subject i saw to the new york times i saw in the wall street journal you know you ought not be surprised about this i mean only over the major major gasoline companies don't want to sell e eighty five because they feel it competes with them well the fact is what competes with them is the solution to making us less dependent on foreign sources of oil it's unbelievable to me that we have this little planet of ours we circle the sun we have six point four billion neighbors you know and half of them have never made a telephone call half live on less than two dollars a day and we ended up right in this low spot called the united states our lifestyle as is really pretty unbelievable what we've built here is very special but we are prodigious consumers of energy and now we've worked ourselves into a position where we use so much energy in the form of oil outside of our country and so much of it now comes from very troubled areas of the world that if we don't in a sober way understand our responsibility to address that shame on us and our future will not be very bright so this is and this isn't just some other issue this is a big issue the standard of living in this country rests on the issue of our being able to provide the energy the quality of life in this country address on our ability to rest rather on our ability to get the energy and produce the energy and acquire the energy even as we protect protect the air shed with respect to climate change all of that is important so mr president i just think this is a really important issue and i'm going to work with my colleagues hopefully we can get an energy bill and when we get that energy bill we'll get this this resolved in the right way mr president much time remains three and a half minutes mr president i don't have time i don't think but i want to show my colleagues something that i found absolutely fascinating this called the nail house let me suggest on a different subject the consume the three and half minutes this little house right here as you can see is in the middle of a hole dug out x excavation area a sense china chinese government the developers decide we're to go in and we're just we're clearing this whole place out and and one family said no you can't do that to me it's not legal it's not fair we're not going to move so they came in and excavated around the entire house there's a little levin is the chairman i'm the cochairman of the congressional executive commission on china this describes a whole series of things on china the those who are in prison today in china as a result of advocating for human rights and other related issues i tell you this story about the nail house they called the nail house because just stuck right up out of the excavation now the story wasn't such a happy ending for the nail house the chinese eventually they must've thought this was funny i guess the chinese authorities by digging on around this fellow's house but they have actually came in and tore the whole thing down and and that's the this property owner lost pretty hard to take on the chinese government but one of the things that is in this report we talk about what is happening with technology in china and the ability outside of the purview of the communist government to control everything the ability of people to communicate now the chinese have thousands of thought police trying to figure out who's visiting the internet and prevent them from visiting certain sites on the internet but there is a trend that's going on in china that's very interesting internet users in china rose from six hundred twenty thousand in the last ten years six hundred twenty thousand one hundred sixty million internet users blog mobile phone ownership went from from three million to five hundred million in the last twelve years five hundred million  china has an estimated twenty million blogs where people are talking on blogs personalized web pages in the entire year of two thousand and three about four years ago the chinese people sent a hundred thirty seven billion text messages  now i tell you all of that because i think it's going to change things in china i'm part of this china executive commission trying to understand what's happening in china what's that mean for our future but there are some striking examples of citizen activism these days which is very interesting  this is one the nail house this family that didn't end so well but the local officials ignored the mass complaints but what happened was this picture was on all the blogs in china and it stirred up a hornet's nest of people willing to demonstrate in the streets on behalf of this family but there's one other issue the chemical factory protests in the southeast corner of the show money local government plan to build a hazardous chemical plant near the center of town and they publicize the information on websites and blogs and citizens responded by overwhelming the local chinese officials with a million text messages and later they use blogs and text messages they organize massive protests and marches attracted thousands and finally the local official suspended that the building of a chemical factory in the middle of sham and another use of the in and they were and boys mentally ill forced to work under heavy pay because the heavy guard often with no pay and very little food and parents looking for their missing sons organized on the internet in china and they were pleading for government assistance and they were forced really to cover the story in the chinese press because it was such a mass uprising here and that finally china's prime minister ordered and ordered investigation of five hundred workers were freed hundred sixty people who ran that the kills were arrested and there was very little party or very few party officials were seriously punished but the point is it's things are changing the technology is changing in china the burmese monks protests the activism continues right up to today and while the chinese government is attempting to shut down this open and free communications with the thought police that got thousands of people trying to regulate the internet use the fact is it's not working and technology and communications is having a profound impact and i believe will come to have a significant impact in the future but i would say to my colleagues we have some very skilled people that have worked with the congressman levin and myself on the congressional executive commission on china the only report two thousand and seven we have the most complete list of those that are being held prisoner in china particularly as a result of human rights issues and this this booklet if you have a chance to read it is a great description put together by some very skilled people on exactly what is happening in china there is some progress and there are areas that are of great three which of her call report counsellor number two eighty nine h r thirty ninety three an act making appropriations for the department of commerce and justice and so forth and for other purposes thank you very much mr president to bring our colleagues up to date we are resum the evening working to clear amendments we believe we're making very good progress and if our colleagues so where we are now is the senator from georgia will be offering some amendments  and we will be probably having a debate before the before the noon hour and at that time we'd like to have our college visit with us or how they intend to deal with the amendments that they have filed i wish to share with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle it is the democratic leader the majority leader senator reid's intent that we will finish this bill tonight senator reid has instructed me as the manager of this bill to complete actions even if it means staying well into the evening we don't have to do that mr president because we have just a core group of amendments and with the cooperation if the democrats would talk to me during the first vote and the republicans would talk to senator shelby we can move to  disposed of them either to withdraw them clear them or we'd ask our colleagues to answer them i'm going to thank the senator from georgia to be here so promptly we don't want to stand in the way excuse me south carolina i've got georg my mind i must say i love those peaches i want to thank the senator from south carolina for being here so promptly and i'm going objection sort thank you and i thank the chairman is well and i do want to remind her that there are more pages grown in south carolina than in georgia and the georgians doll like us to talk about that but thank you very much i actually have two amendments this morning i'll speak briefly on both of them i believe both sides have agreed that these are are good ideas and i believe one will be accepted in the other we're going to have a vote at twelve as i understand it but the first amendment relates to earmarking and wasteful earmarks that we've talked about often here on the senate floor much has been done to make earmarks more transparent more earmarks disclosed i think as we do that we are probably getting a better focus as a federal government on how we should be spending our money but old habits die very hard and it's been very difficult for a number of members of the house and the senate to give up this practice of being able to send money wherever they want back in their own states or anywhere in the country and as we've made it harder to do earmarks in the open way have found that a number of members of congress or their staff have been calling agencies to request that earmarks be done without congress approval at all and these this type of phone marking has created a new loophole this amendment that we are offering would just disallow any use of funds for that type of earmarking and if i could just read the amendment it is very simple and again i believe both sides agree on it it just says that none of the funds made available under this act may be used to circumvent any statutory or administrative formula driven or competitive awarding process to award funds to a project in response to a request from a member of congress or any employee of a member or committee of congress unless the specific project has been disclosed in accordance with the rules of the senate or house of representatives as applicable that's all there is to this amendment is to disallow this whole idea of picking up the phone and deciding where taxpayer money should go so mr president i understand the other side is prepared to accept or have a voice vote on this amendment mr president or from maryland mr president and i'm want to acknowledge the senator from south carolina says spirit of form here we need to support the spirit of reform  amendment designed to to get more accountability in the federal agencies the government accounting office recently published a report that has been in the media all over the country pointing out that mahan's of dollars of taxpayer dollars are being wasted and as employees of the federal government are flying all over the world premium business class or first class when the rules of these agencies the civically say that that should not be done my amendment does not change any rules of federal agencies it just says that the rules have to be complied with or the rule or the money that is in this bill cannot be used and i will read this amendment is well that none of the funds made available under this act may be used to purchase a first class or premium airline travel that would not be consistent with the sections in a number of sections are listed under the code of federal regulations so again we're not changing any regulation we're just demanding that the federal agencies comply with their own rules and save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of president i also further asked unanimous consent that it noon today the senate proceed to vote in relation to the day demand amendment thirty two eighty nine and no amendment be in order to the amendment prior to the vote sword mr president i'm all my colleagues to know that i rise in support of the dimon amendment i think it is a very commonsense amendment i believe that when we're what our government employees traveling on official business can do we've heard all kinds of stories about some going on business class some going go in first class some where it's just even short trips and so on and so we acknowledge of course is always the validity of the g a o report but what i also want to say is that this sub committee chaired by myself but  ranking member senator shelby is on this side a reform our three things this year were security for our country and a vision to keep us competitive and at the same time accountability we have done a major set of reviews one thing the cost overruns in the nasa excuse me in the no one satellite program we've also taken on these things  where we offered an amendment to together on dealing with putting discipline on the funding of conferences we stopped the lavish conferences the so called four dollars swedish meatball amendment we think that the demand amendment is also in that same spirit of reform that senator shelby and i brought to this subcommittee and we now bring and our bill to the floor we are deep down reformers we want to make sure that we accomplish the mission of the agencies for which we are the quiet guardians of the purse but at the same time we want to make sure that the taxpayers are getting value for their dollar where there is excess poor judgment or poor management we're going to hold agencies to the fire we're going to hold agencies accountable therefore when this vote is taken i urge in the spirit of reform the spirit of accountability that we joined once again when a bipartisan basis and passed this amendment we so appreciate the work of the g a a wonderful independent watchdog of congress can turn to where it's not the senator from south carolina's opinion where the senator from maryland opinion about what is going on where the need for reform but we work on clear headed analysis and to actual real rigor but the facts speak for themselves and i tell you when you look at this g a o report the facts do point the fact that we do need reform in this area so i am a supporter of this but i also want to acknowledge though we need reform i want to clearly state that most civil servants follow the rules when they book their tickets when government travel it just ensures again i'm going to think senator shelby for his work on this we've made a lot of progress on when the spirit of reform mr rubb president you know before then or from alabama i just want to take a minute this morning flying first class and and so forth and abusing the system we ought to do it and i think the spirit of this amendment is very good and i hope that we can all vote on that it's twelve noon when we've agreed to do this and  pending pending amendments be temporally set aside that i may call call up a couple of amendments talked for three four minutes on the amendments is there objection without objection so ordered mr president i call upon block amendments number three three two nine four and three two nine five o'clock report the senator from nevada mr and some proposals and block amendments number thirty two ninety four and thirty two ninety five i ask consent that the further reading of the amendments be dispensed with without objection this president the first amendment that i offer is to increase by one hundred fifty million dollars state criminal alien assistance program and offset it with eight hundred fifty million dollars decrease in the nasa budget currently in the bill the nasa budget was increased one hundred fifty million over the president's request and the underlying bill and then an emergency spending of an additional billion dollars in the bill which was by the way already from last year over a billion dollars more than in the bill last year so we're taking one hundred fifty million of that and putting it toward this program that is underfunded a every year and it is to assist the states in prosecuting and arresting people who are here illegally who have committed crimes this is an important piece of legislation we don't have enough money for correctional officer salary costs for ink incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens and this amount of money especially for the border states in the southwest is a very very important piece of legislation we know that right now and you've heard a lot about this whether it's drug programs that people who are here illegally are running i just was watching a program the other day or other day that was talking about cheese heroin something that can addict our children with one dose kids have died there's thirty or forty of them who have died in texas literally with one dose of this most of that is coming from our southern border and we need to have local law enforcement have the resources able to deal with a lot of the aliens who are coming to this country who are dealing with the drug program  so mr president i think this is an important problem that we need to add extra funding to we still have a problem with illegal immigration in securing our borders but without a comprehensive immigration bill we at least need to add money so that we can help the states prosecute incarcerate people who are here illegally undocumented criminal aliens who are here illegally who have who are really wreaking havoc on some of our communities around the united states so i believe this is an important amendment it's critical that we help our states counties local paresis tribal municipal governments battle illegal immigration and keep lawbreaking illegal a aliens off of our streets the second amendment is an amendment that will take and fully fund the adam walsh program and we all know what adam walsh child protection safety act has done this will fund it up to the president's request at seven point eight million dollars for the u s marshal service to fully implement the a child protection and safety act and we are taking the money from the a t p program i believe it is absolutely critical that we fully fund the adam walsh child protection and safety act as a father of three children the adam walsh child protection act is critical to keeping our children safe is a small amount of money but this will bring up this program to what the president has requested i think it's an important program i think the advanced technology program has been something that is questionable efficacy and we should take some of that money and fully fund the adam walsh child safety act of two thousand six so mr president just having briefly spoke on this i can speak on a more later i know there's other business to attend to but i think these are both very important members and i hope my colleagues will support the acknowledge the validity of the senator from nevada concerns here you know the senator know i have been involved in a group where we're trying to put our values into action  senator might recall my own background is that of the a social worker i would say child abuse worker and i find that there's nothing more despicable than a child predator  i just think that it is so dastardly so despicable so repugnant that every time i think about the work that adam walsh did the work that comes out of our excellent billionaire funding we know that we always more to do more whether our children are stalked in neighborhoods or playgrounds now they're being stalked on the internet and without going into putting even more vile things out there in conversation the senator from nevada is very well aware of some of the most awful things that are going out and the internet so we want to acknowledge the validity of what you want to do here i know the senator from alabama wishes to speak  it but i think we we believe that we could even take this amendment and so i know the senator will move on to speak about it now when it comes to what the with the senator from maryland yield just very brief absolutely no idea and i appreciate the comments on that the only the only reason i would object to a voice vote on it is because i've seen too many voice votes in this place and then things get dropped in conference so i would hope that we could have a recorded vote i know they take up a little more time but i think it's important to establish on the record that that this senate and get people on the record that the senate actually does support to see how we can accommodate the senator from nevada one on that and we'll be able to asper you see before we go in to the caucus but the minority republican staff is program what can i ask the senator what he's going well i think i'll reserve further debate when that amendment a little bit later when we're heading to a vote mr president the assistant majority leader and stamps consent form called be suspended not objection mr president i rise in opposition to the better amendment number three two seven seven which may be considered later th afternoon on this pending commerce justice and science appropriations bill this amendment would prohibit fiscal year two thousand and eight cops funding from being used in contravention of a provision in the federal law that relates to information sharing about a person's immigration status the senator from louisiana has said that this amendment is targeted at sanctuary cities he is referring to the policies that have been put in place by many cities counties and police departments in at least twenty three states and the district of columbia that limit enforcement of immigration laws by state or local authorities the cities counties and police departments have decided that is a matter of public health and safety not to inquire about immigration status when people report crimes or have been the victims of domestic abuse or go to a clinic to obtain vaccinations for their children the state and local confidentiality policies do not stop the federal government from enforcing immigration was a traditional function of the federal government not state and local governments rather they reflect a decision made by state and local authorities that they do not want to have to their police departments spend their time and resources enforcing a traditionally federal responsibility relative to immigration law those laws of the federal government's responsibility to enforce in many cities including several in my home state of illinois city and law enforcement officials have decided reasonably they want to focus their attention on and their police resources on stopping violent crime mr president yesterday i was in a section of chicago known as logan square there's a wonderful organization known as christopher house which was opening a family resource center a neighborhood center in the tradition of the settlement houses that were started in the chicago area by jane adams almost a century ago this logan square area is up and coming part of the city of chicago it's a beautiful neighborhood but it's a neighborhood that's been riddled with violence for over a decade literally children are being gunned down in the street i just attended a memorial service just a few weeks ago there for a young african american girl killed on the playground playing with her friends by drive by shooting in gang bangers the alderman  thirty fifth ward ray cologne who is quite a leader in the community himself attended the service with me and as we walked into the church he pointed to a section on the sidewalk and said just a few years ago remember my family was killed on that spot violence is in demick unfortunately in america and we see it in cities great cities like chicago and others mayor daley is making an extraordinary effort to deal with this i'm joining him in that effort it is hard for me to imagine that the senator from louisiana wants to cut off the cops program funds for the city of chicago that's why he suggested one of the cops program funds do for the city of chicago to put more police on the beat they'll be more policemen out there in the neighborhoods to keep them safe and the cops money can be used by bulletproof vest so when a policeman shot he might survive the money also being used for forensic analysis d n a testing trying to find ways to exit fender's can be brought back in a peaceful way to the cities and towns where they started from and it's use for task forces to go after sexual predators the senator from louisiana is amendment would cut off these funds for the city of chicago why why in the world with a senator from louisiana state that i have bent over backwards to help since hurricane katrina want to cut off federal funds to the city chicago funds to make the streets safer why would he want to cut off the drill funds to any city in america to make the streets safer he wants to argue about immigration laws well that's a valid debate we had it for three weeks here and will have to return to it because we ended up doing nothing but in order to bring this immigration issue out to the floor of the senate he is threatening the federal funds for many big cities in my home state of illinois that they're using to fight bile and crime why it makes no sense at all will he feel better if there are more killings on the street of course not none of us would i think he would feel better if there were more cops on the street but his amendment will cut off the cops funding for the cities of chicago evanston cicero cook county and that's not right i urge my colleagues when they consider the veteran then consider how you would respond to the mayors of these towns when they ask you how in the world did you do qualify my city from receiving money for bulletproof vests for my policeman how can you senator or congressman explain to their families why that full and policeman's life was taken because no bullet proof vest could be provided from federal funds i just don't understand the logic behind this i would just say that in many of these cities they're working hard to fight crime they're working with many people the president former president of the international association of chiefs of police joseph estey said and i quote many leaders in the law enforcement community have serious concern about the chilling effect any measure of the nature as proposed by senator vitter would have on legal and illegal aliens reporting criminal activity or assisting police in criminal investigations this lack of cooperation could diminish the ability of law enforcement agencies to police effectively their communities and protect the public that they serve is particularly troubling that the vitter amendment seeks to link cops funding to overturning city confidentiality policies this bill the one that some of the calls did senator shelby bring before us provides for six hundred sixty million dollars in cops funding that is a dramatic increase over the administration's request and the money of course is used for new police officers bulletproof vest combat a methamphetamine law enforcement technology enhanced ment's arresting and prosecuting child predators that are and then that would cut off federal funds for efforts to arrest and prosecute child predators and a lot of other important programs the cops money is focused on helping state and local law enforcement stop violent crimes stop crimes against children stop the sexual predators cities and police departments or put policies in place regarding confidentiality of immigration status so that the law enforcement officials have tools to work with in communities that they might not otherwise have the goal of reducing violent crime is not served by telling police departments they can either have one crime reduction tool the cops money or another these confidentiality procedures do we really want to deprive police forces in twenty three states additional manpower men and women on the beat keeping schools and neighborhoods safe night the same policemen and women bulletproof vest through the cops program because local officials have determined that when it comes to the enforcement of federal immigration laws the federal government should assume that unfortunately that's what it comes down to we do have serious immigration problem this country i have voted most members maybe all members of voted for some seven billion dollars more in enforcement at the border between the united states and mexico we have to stop the illegal flow into this country and i think we have put our money where our intentions are that's a fact earlier this year we considered comprehensive immigration reform i supported controversal we didn't have enough votes the senator who has brought this amendment to the floor which would cut off cops funding opposed any effort for a comprehensive immigration reform instead he wants to force on state and local governments a responsibility that we have not met at the federal level and he wants to really threaten them with cutting off cops funds that are critically important for them i don't think that works by a lot crime is a serious problem in my state and across the nation and the rates have gone up in the last two years we need to give their communities the tools to address them and i hope that the vitter amendment will be defeated let's make sure that we don't make the safety of people living in twenty three states a a pawn in this debate over that over one hundred twenty million dollars tax dollars will waste wasted mr president by federal agencies dealing with travel first class travel when economy travelers are something less than first class to do the that's not acceptable to all of us here aca me and my colleague from south carolina sent them in for bringing this to the senate's attention and i encourage all of my colleagues to president senator from mariette unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be vacated not objection mr president i have five you notice consent request for committees to meet during the today session of the senate they have the approval of both  majority and minority leaders and i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record that objection all time has expired the question is on the demand amendment number three to eight nine the a's unaids have been ordered the clerk will call the rol to brown to brown that don't know their stamina now i mr craig i mr pryor i mr kerry is lincoln  this is mccaskill i mr carper i mr lieberman  mr sanders  get their attention any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote on this the eyes are ninety the naser zero the amendment is agreed to mr president or senator from maryland mr president i ask unanimous consent that a three fifteen p m today there be two minutes of debate prior to a vote in relation to the  ensign amendment number thirty two ninety four and upon the use or yachting back of time the center proceed to vote in relation to the amendment that upon a disposition of that amendment the senate resume amendment with thirty two ninety five another and some amendment with two minutes of debate prior to a vote and rushing to that amendment that upon the use or yachting back of time the precentor proceed to voted into the amendment that no amendments be in senator shelby standing sentry on the floor is urge action without objection so order mr president senator from louisiana i mr president here we also believe that we will be having a vote at more or less the same time when the soon amendment as it relates to the legal services coop when we return from the respective caucuses launch we expect there to be a debate when the soon amendment senator from iowa senator harkin will be speaking and about that time will we expect to have another see there will be votes throughout the afternoon we urge our colleagues that through our respective party going just to speak to both senator shelby and myself as a way of disposing of those amendments that have been filed  you mr president it's with sadness that i come to the floor today to pay respects to one of our congressional former congressional leaders that passed away earlier this week a congressman joe wagner represented the fourth district of louisiana from one nine hundred sixty one to nine hundred seventy nine but literally mr president up until the last weeks of his life stayed very very active in the fourth district in what went on there both at the political level and the civic level lending his voice to many important efforts in the community literally up until the last few weeks of his life he was always engaged always open always welcoming to leaders coming in to the shreveport area he was not from the big city in that district shreveport louisiana he was from a small town called playing dealing it was actually a very fitting name for this congressman because he was a very straightforward plain speaking progressive leaning congressman from this small town called plain dealing of only a thousand people that small community  of loving and supportive families made up of farmers and small business owners and churchgoers provided a great foundation for joe wagner as he grew and came into his professional life and then turned into a congressman for a great region from this small town he was down to earth he was honest he was a congressman that represented his constituents with a lot of enthusiasm and intelligence he was one of the congressmen that people would say he could see an issue from all different sides and then make the best decision he could his favorite saying was do unto others as you would have them do unto you and so he was always quite courteous and respectful in the way he treated other people he was a natural leader as i said he was enthusiastic up until the end he was lieutenant commander in the u s navy during world war two after returning from service there he began his political career as a school board member and throughout his career carried an enthusiasm and excitement and energy for school issues and for the children of the fourth district and our state in one nine hundred sixty one he won a special election after a long time u s representative overton brookside died in office and again continued in a great tradition of representing the fourth district i can't name all of the things that joe did for our state it would be such a long list but there are a few things that cannot be overlooked because of congressman wagner's work in the congressional district barksdale air force base is now one of the largest and strongest air force bases home to the mighty a air force this base had been scheduled to close some decades ago but because of his efforts and others led by many of the business the civic leaders in that district but primarily because of this congressman barksdale is not only opened but it is now going to be the proud home of u s strategic command cyber command joe was also on known for being a pioneer of interstate highways in their early days and warning shreveport to be on the map shreveport and bowser city today are growing in large measure because of his fierce advocacy for ports and airports and transportation hubs as well as the barksdale air force base along with bob bennett johnson have created actually a whole new image for shreveport because the work done on the red river to open it up for trade and transportation but also now to be home of several floating and i use that word in quotes because senos that have transformed bowser and shreveport louisiana from a very sleepy small town to really booming commercial developments attracting gaming interest from all over the region and contributing mightily to the economy in north louisiana i want to us a personally my thanks to his family mary ruth carter wagner his two children carol and david and his three grandchildren for the contributions that they have made  supporting a man through many many careers of public service and louisiana david as a personal friend and his son peter and i know that they are mourning the loss of their father and grandfather he was a man of tremendous faith he made louisiana proud to serve us with distinction and with honor he will be remembered as a very distinguished and dignified leader for our state and particularly for north louisiana a straightforward straight thinking man from plain dealing with sienna he was laid to rest this week he's a graduate of louisiana tech university very proud of his alma mater and very proud to call plain dealing home and i