in grace and generous and love we pause to confess our shortcomings forgive us for speaking when we should listen manipulating facts to suit our purposes or give us also for waiting for opportunities instead of creating them lord we have forgotten faltered and failed and we asked today for your mercy strengthen our senators for today's journey give them strong heart and sound minds to do their ethical best in representing you as they look to the future give them the wisdom to join their plans to your will and to do your work on earth lord radiate your hope through them making them communication to the senate washington d c october fifteenth two thousand and seven to the senate under the provisions of rule one paragraph three understanding rules of the senate i hereby point animal jim webb a senator from the commonwealth of worked on the energy and water subcommittee together over these many years and during most of that time he's either been chairman or i've been chairman and the other one would be the ranking member we've traveled the country looking at were water pride acts that were long overdue we were we set up the safety and reliability of our nuclear arsenal did that it was not easy but we worked through that center in a way has a tremendously interesting background because of my fascination with athletics and especially baseball i was stunned to see this respectable man who has has so much mettle actually and was so good with numbers and all this to learn that he had started out as a great baseball player and was a pitcher left handed pitcher as i understand he played professional baseball he was in the brooklyn dodgers farm system he left this become a junior high school math teacher went under no law degree and he had a storied career and stayed in new mexico city councilman mayor and now course and one of the more more senior members united states senate during the time that it's hard to manage i have known each other we've gotten to know each other spouses he's very kind and thoughtful to landrieu my wife as i try to be two years very very sweet person will nancy said they have eight children he is a person who i have great respect for i have the i will really miss him he had has a unique knowledge of the importance of our national laboratories one reason of course we have two of them in the state of new mexico but we have them other places california illinois my travel time to missouri with them to missouri i he as a person who really looked out for the nevada test site a place where almost a thousand nuclear devices were exploded most of them underground but not all of them underground and he worked with me to make sure that that facility that is a  billion dollar facility is still used to serve for the security of this nation he worked on as i've indicated on the safety of our nuclear stockpile he made  decision for reasons that are i'm certainly valid but that doesn't take away from the fact that they will miss him and i didn't he didn't we i must say mr president one of the other issues that he worked so hard on originally was senator wellstone make sure that our bill no house bill or conference when we finish those two bills but it's certainly a step in the right direction so i really do  domenici my congratulations for the wonderful job he's done as a senator and as i told him on the phone how much after the next fifteen months i will miss him i think it's also important as president turn to tell everyone that senator kennedy is strong and well and happy he had some minor surgery that wasn't really an important surgery a lot of people don't know  kennedy was nearly killed in an airplane crash his life was saved by evan by his father birch by he never complains but senator kennedy has constant pain from his back and as a result of that he had some work done to see what was going on with his back and they did a cat scan and they did a of his full spine which normally isn't done because  can look at his spine they will spot that a new void some serious problems in the future i can't possibly overstate the importance hundred counties leadership in this body as we address a critical issues that lie ahead this work period and  forty five years he's been a person who has been on the cutting edge of doing the right thing for this country and certainly in the state of massachusetts now mr president we today are going worries in consideration of the department of commerce justice and science appropriations act under an order that was previously ended people have until two three day to file any first degree amendments we're going to finish this bill perhaps not tonight but i hope we can finish it tomorrow because we're going to move then to the labor h h s legislation tonight we're going to have a vote and we're going to see if we can come up with an amendment to the bill that we're working on the appropriation bill if not you're still of a judge that we need to have a proven will do that tonight i would hope mr president that everyone understands that we need to do the labor h h s bill that would be the sixth bill that we will have completed i'm going to we're going to start on that bill as soon as we finish the bill that's before us the congress t justice and we're going to finish that bill this week we really never have to do that the farm bill is so important all across this country and the e said i hope it doesn't spill into the weekend we've talked about that several times this year and rarely have we had to do it but we really need to get that done after this week we long have for work weeks before we have our thanksgiving day recess and we're all on line to see what we can do to work out our differences with the white house to finish our funding for this year we really need to do that and finishing this bill would point us in that direction are indeed fortunate that he will be here for another fifteen months and i look forward to serving with them and i'll obviously a lot more to say about his remarkable tenure here in the senate later it's also good to  update on our colleague senator kennedy and to learn that his operation went well and that he's doing well and be back with the senate finally let me underscore the observations the majority leader made it our goal to pass as many of these appropriation bills as possible previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order there will now be a period where the transaction of morning business or a period of one hour with senators permitted to speak there and for up to ten minutes each in with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designated mr president that of new mexico as president i rise to discuss the presidential records act amendments of two thousand and s presidential records act of one thousand nine hundred seventy eight declared that a president's papers were the property of the people of the united states and were to be administered by the national archives and records administrat the act provided that presidential papers would be available twelve years after a president left office allowing the former or incumbent president the right to claim executive privilege for particularly sensitive documents and in order to fulfill that mandate that mandate that was in the one nine hundred seventy eight law president reagan in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine signed executive order twelve six six seven which gave the the former or incumbent president thirty days to claim executive privilege however in two thousand and one early in his administration president bush issued executive order thirteen to thirty three and this executive order by president bush nullified president reagan's order and imposed new regulations for obtaining presidential and vice presidential documents president bush's new order greatly restricts access to presidential papers by requiring that all requests for documents no matter how innocuous be approved by both the former president whose papers are involved and also by the current white house occupant there is no time limit to the white house review and their right to review and a executive privilege has been extended by president bush and in his executive order to include the vice president and also to include presidential family members in this way the order goes against the spirit of the presidential records act and also against the letter of the presidential records act by creating a presumption of non disclosure and expanding the executive privilege claim th allowing the white house to prevent the release of records literally for generations in the future h r twelve fifty five the presidential records act amendments of two thousand and seven which is the bill that i have came here to speak about this bill was passed in the house by a vote of three hundred thirty three to ninety three on the twentieth of june of this year i introduce similar bill s eighty six in march of this year here in the senate the bill that i introduced is a bipartisan bill it's co sponsored by senators cornyn and leahy and s president h r twelve fifty five is a bipartisan bill that merely seeks to clarify the process under which the presidential records act is to be implemented the bill seeks to nullify president bush's executive order by limiting claims of executive privilege to the president and to former presidents and requiring that the president notify the archivist of any claims of executive privilege within sixty days of receiving a notice  request for a document with an additional thirty days if if requested these measures essentially return the process to the procedural framework that had been in place since president reagan issued his original executive order this is an important matter and deserves to be brought to a vote here in the senate there is strong bipartisan support for the reasonable approach to the presidential records ac is contained in h r twelve fifty five and now is not the time in my view for political ploy but for instead for a thoughtful debate animals from a vote on that bill two weeks ago the u s district court for the district of columbia ruled that executive order thirteen to thirty three is in part this is this is the executive order president bush entered that that executive order is in part invalid and requiring the archivist of the united states to delay release of the records of former presidents at their request as permitted under the order the court found that the archivists reliance on section three b of that executive order is without constitutional basis and violates the administrative procedures act as holding gives us clear direction in legislatively addressing the problems that have arisen as a result of executive order thirteen two thirty three under the presidential records act there is a clear and unequivocal assumption that the records of a president's administration bowl long to the people of this nation barring a national security interest or an executive privilege play the people of this nation hard the president his work is undertaken on behalf of the president of behalf of the people can anyone doubt that the nation is made stronger and our government and the electorate better served by the study of the actions of past presidents this is not a matter of trying to uncover dark secrets rather it is in everyone's interest in the interest certainly the interest of this nation that scholars and students of the public have access to the records of former presidents in order to understand and appreciate the work of those presidents and provide guidance for future presidents and future administrations as president i strongly urge that h r twelve fifty five be brought to the senate floor for debate and for   statement i made a few minutes ago i made a mistake i have known the candidate for many many years and my staff tells me i referred i mispronounced her name and that's certainly unintentional i know thankee she was so kind and thoughtful to call me very early saturday morning to let me know that ted was going into the hospital and i said please call me when the surgeries finished and they did that self i miss and i called her jackie for reasons unknown to anyone other than whoever put word puts words in my mouth but i've known her for so so long and i want that record t senators working off the floor here as they resume work on a fifty six billion dollars spending bill for the commerce and justice departments and science programs before adjourning for the columbus day recess the senate adopted by a voice vote an amendment adding one billion dollars in nasa funding for costs associated with returning the space shuttle fleet to service after the loss of the columbia in two thousand and three little earlier senate majority leader reid asked that work be completed on this bill with final votes tomorrow the first votes on amendments to the bill expected today in the five o'clock hour the house is also in session and they are debating a number of bills under suspension including one congratulating the state of israel on chairing united nations committee for the first time in history coming up in just a few moments on c span three a panel on chinese investment and national security issues a panel examines the issue following chinese cyber attacks on the pentagon and other government  past year speakers include the senate intelligence committee vice chairman chris bond that will be coming up shortly on c span three live coverage of the house on c span and you're watching the senate live here on c span t senators working off the floor here in what remains of an hour of morning business senators are working on a fifty six billion dollars spending bill for the commerce and justice departments and science programs senate majority leader reid  has announced that he hopes to finish up work on this bill by tomorrow and first votes on amendments to this bill scheduled today in the five o'clock hour live coverage of the senate here on c span to the house on c span were a number of bills being debated debated under suspension rules right now resolution condemning the lebanese opposition groups that seek to overthrow the elected government there live coverage of the house on c span live event under way on our companion network c span three about the risk of chinese investments and u s national security that's from the heritage foundation and you can watch that live on c span three of the stories in the news today senator larry craig has announced his intention to appeal a judge's ruling against bid to appeal his restroom guilty plea and you can find out more on that story and others at capital news dot org our poll of the day also a capital news dot org is do you believe the u s military has significantly qaeda in iraq the washington post reported that the military believes it's crippled al qaeda in iraq and some generals want the u s to declare victory of the terrorist group you can cast your vote at capitol news dot org and see more of the stories in the news today i speak in morning business with the understanding that if someone on the minority comes to wish to speak in morning business on their time that i would relinquish the floor without  president i believe mid week this week the u s house will take up the veto override of the president's veto on the children's health insurance program and a lot of discussion about what this congress either has or hasn't done i think spite all the obstacles and roadblocks we've made progress in a wide range of areas but the one that we made significant progress in and i'm very proud of is expanding children's health insurance coverage regrettably we have a lot of children in this cover in this country that have no health insurance coverage at all and so the question of whether when they are sick they have an opportunity to go find a doctor and get health care regrettably is a function in many cases whether the parents have the income they have money in the checkbook they have money in their pocket if not in many cases those children get no health care so we put in place ten years ago in one thousand nine hundred seventy something called children's health insurance we know it works because we've had it for ten years in my state for example the children's health insurance program is not a government program that has created more bureaucracy it's a block grant to my state and that block grant is used by state government to purchase health insurance from blue cross blue shield and cover children that have no health insurance so that and most states do that this is not a big government program but this congress passed a bipartisan piece of legislation i'm a emphasize that a bipartisan piece of legislation expanding health insurance coverage for children and i'm proud that we've done that in the united states senate we had sixty seven senators vote in favor of it and two senators that were in favor of that bill were absent at that time so that sixty nine united states senators said yes let's expand that program it was fully paid for doesn't increase the debt by one penny it expands the program and would allow three point eight million additional children in this country to have access to health care coverage i must present i don't know what's in second or third or even fourth place in terms of most people's priorities but i know what's in first place for most people it's their children and their children's health the president says that he vetoed this legislation because it's big government to veto this legislation because he says that it would cover kids that eighty three thousand dollars the family level of eighty three thousand dollars president knows better than that he wasn't telling the truth on that so let me just if i can speak a bit of truth to this issue this is not big government and contrary to most of what the president sending down to this congress this is paid for interesting contrast this children's health insurance a proposal from the congress that's paid for with the proposals that  front of this congress from the president for iraq and afghanistan to prosecute the war right now we have one hundred eighty nine billion dollars request that's with a b one hundred eighty nine billion dollars requested by this president to continue funding the war in iraq and afghanistan not one penny of it is paid for not a penny we send the soldiers to war and the president says let's send them the bill later when they come home and they can help pay for it the straight contrast that with what we've done with children's health insurance thirty five billion dollars over five years all of it paid for three point eight million children who at this point don't have access to health insurance coverage will get that coverage and there will be children living in pain there will be children living with disease there will be children who don't have access to go see a doctor get to a clinic or get to a hospital who will have that opportunity in the future is that something that we ought to be proud of in my judgment it is now the president when he vetoed it he said well if that this going to provide coverage to kids with eighty three thousand dollars that's not the poverty level well there's no eighty three thousand dollars that was a level requested by the state of new york which was not approved it is true that there are a couple of states that a number of states that cover children with families that have income above the two hundred percent level of poverty but let me just point out that this george w bush administration approved every single one of those and i'll give you an example two thousand and three new jersey had applied for a waiver to be able to cover children with whose parents have higher income secretary thompson the bush administration said absolutely and he signed the waiver said with this waiver new jersey will be able to expand health insurance coverage of thousands of residents who otherwise would be uninsured california asked for a waiver the bush administration says by giving parents of children a chip program the children's health insurance program health insurance we're providing quality health care to the whole family this is the bush administration that has actually provided these waivers the very waivers the president seems now to be critical of and let me also say this the president campaign he campaigned on expanding children's health insurance in two thousand and four here's what he said in a new term we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's health insurance programs women and we will not allow a lack of attention or information to stand between these children and the health care they need so the president veto this bill the sky's the limit when it comes to the other spending but this bill when it's fully paid for gets a veto is plenty of votes in the united states senate to override the president's veto the question is in the u s house and my hope is that members of the u s house will understand the opportunity to override this veto to establish a clear priority for this congress on a bipartisan basis my hope is that they will round up the votes in the u s house override this president speedo this is about priorities now the fact is one hundred years from now all of us will be dead and gone and the record of our service here and the record of this present service the record of this government will be in the history books and they'll be able to tell just a bit about our value system by looking at how do we spend our money and they'll say well there was a time in october of two thousand and seven and this congress had a couple of choices one the president says give me another one hundred eighty nine billion dollars for iraq and afghanistan to prosecute the war give me another one hundred eighty nine billion dollars and by the way i don't intend to pay for a penny of it just added to the debt and another priority was the congress said let's expand health insurance for children thirty five billion dollars over five years let's expand health insurance for children and by the way we'll pay for it in the bill which we did and the president says the second priority is the one that's inappropriate what can he be thinking of when those historians look at this value system and determine that the value system said children are less important children are not the priority to scratch our heads and wonder how on earth did we come to that conclusion i hope that's not the lesson that will come from this effort to override the president speedo i hope the lesson will be a bipartisan congress will say to this president not this time not today your priorities aren't square with what we ought to be doing in this country today our priority is number one let's expand health insurance coverage for america's children my hope is at the end of this week that will be the results from the u s house of representatives and i know that very soon the united states senate would vote and we would vote easily to override the president's veto mr president let me in another section of the record today talk just for a moment about general sanchez speech this weekend that i read about in the washington post before i do that i want to there's some really interesting news about what's happening at the defense department in advance research something called dar defense that vance research area dr tony tether came and spoke at a technology conference i had in fargo north dakota last week and his speech was extraordinary he's a very good presenter and a really wonderful public servant and i know there are some who wonder if government ever does anything right government does a lot of things that improve and help the american people and advance this country's interest and let me just describe one of them dr teather describe experiments that are going on in advanced research and darpa in which they have taken a monkey and a monkey sits at a council with a joystick and sees a red ball go across in front of him and uses the joystick to touch the red ball with the arm from the joystick and then is given a treat and that's a learned behavior for the monkey the ball goes across the monkey exercises joystick the joystick aperture touches the red ball and the monkey gets a treat then what they did is they took the joystick away and they instead put a mechanical electrical arm that they are working on for those that have lost their limbs and they implanted electrodes in the brain of the monkey and now when the red ball goes across in front of the monkey the monkey has no joystick but the monkey thinks about touching the ball and getting a treat and the electrodes capture the thoughts i think of that capture the thought send the electric impulses to the prosthetic arm that has been developed and the arm reaches out and touches the ball because the monkey is thinking about touching the ball this is about breathtaking new technology and research and approaches that will help those who have lost limbs in warfare yes and in every other area of life and there are so what's going on that is interesting and breathtaking in the advanced research and i again say to  appreciated his his presentation it was extraordinary well that's something called darpa not a lot of people know but darpa the department of defense but let me talk just for a moment going from darpa to the issue of general s speech on iraq policy he gave this past weekend general sanchez was in charge of the war in iraq and he is now retired and general sanchez has some very strong things to say about the war in iraq and his retirement he says the war began with quote a catastrophic lee fall flawed unrealistically optimistic war plan assume that's optimistic war plan quote since the start of this war america's leadership has known that our military alone could not achieve victory in iraq starting in july two thousand and three the message repeatedly communicated to washington by military commanders on the ground was that the military alone could never achieve victory in iraq sanchez said the quote surge unquote which he called the quote latest revised strategy and quote is in his words quote a desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war and they have definitely not communicated that reality to the american people as a result the american military he says finds itself in an intractable situation the best we can do with the slot approach is stave off defeat the war in iraq has been quote a catastrophic failure unquote this according to general sanchez who was in charge of the war in iraq during a portion of this period now over twenty other retired generals have spoken out after they have retired general eaton said the military throws his give your advice privately to those in a position to make changes not the media but this administration is immune to good advice and so general eaton retired general eaton went public with his criticism of flawed policies general batiste that the afternoon to meet gen but d c was one of the brightest stars in the military considered virtually certain for promotion to the highest ranks in fact he turned down his promotion from a two star general to a three star general that's right he turned down his third star and retired rather than continue to implement a war policy that he fails and he had experienced firsthand as being flawed he retired so he could quote speak out on behalf of soldiers and their families point is general sanchez has said the other retired generals has said i believe that most believe that there is not a military solution only in iraq in fact there is not a military solution there  only a solution that embodies substantial diplomatic efforts and efforts in the political system in iraq as well the military alone cannot possibly prevail in iraq i want to make a point i've made before we have now apparently train about three hundred fifty thousand people in iraq to be soldiers or to be in law enforcement we've said to the extent that i have numbers this was from the two thousand and seven report of the general jones commission we have trained one hundred fifty two thousand members of the iraqi army which incidentally is about the number of american soldiers in iraq one hundred ninety four thousand members of the iraqi police that's three hundred forty six thousand iraqis to be soldiers and police men and women now one i think reasonably can ask the question after we've been in iraq longer than we were in the second world war if we've trained over three hundred fifty a thousand or three hundred fifty thousand roughly police men and women and soldiers when will they have the will to provide for their own security they have a new constitution the people of iraq have seen saddam hussein executed they have a new government and they've had nearly three hundred fifty thousand of their own trained to be law enforcement and military soldiers and yet they can't provide for their own security my nephew just went into the marines about ten months ago and he's fully trained and he's now in iraq we do it and we can train three hundred fifty thousand iraqis and they can't provide for their security something wrong with that so mr president i only make the point when i read with interest general sanchez comments this weekend they mirrored comments that we have heard previously from general eaton from general batiste and colonel hemis and many many others that the current strategy has been flawed all along and must change and that strategy must understand that the solution in iraq is not going to be a military imposed solution it is going to be a diplomatic solution and a solution in the political system in iraq the absence of which means that there will remain in iraq a protracted long term civil war and while we are going door to door in baghdad in the middle of a civil war with american soldiers osama bin laden continues to send us messages because he is in what our national intelligence estimate says a quote safe unquote or secure unquote hiding place in northern pakistan and he has now recreated training camps reconstituted the iraqi the the al qaeda leadership now think of that those who committed the acts of terror against our country and murdered thousands of american us are now in a safe or secure place that's according to our intelligence estimates reconstituting training camps and plotting new attacks against our country we on the other hand have our soldiers going door to door in baghdad in the middle of a civil war i think general sanchez comments in the comments by over twenty other high ranking military officers upon their retirement are  represent a basic body of thought that most of us have long understood but is not understood at this point by the president all of us want this country to succeed we want our country to succeed in our war against terrorism but the fact is if we don't develop the right processes and the right policies to embrace that war against terrorism eliminate the al qaeda leadership which represents the greatest terrorist threat to our country again the national intelligence estimate that we all have we've all read it it says the greatest terrorist threat to our country including to our homeland is the leadership of al qaida and they are in a safe or secure haven and they are plotting additional attacks against our country and they reconstituting the training camps to train the terrorists now it shouldn't take a colored mouth to describe to us what our obligations are  kalar number two eighty nine h r thirty ninety three an act making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice and science related agencies for the fiscal year ending september thirtieth two thousand and eight and for other purposes mr president of north dakota the chairman of the subcommittee will be here at four o'clock i know senator shelby is is here and i believe will be out momentarily mr president i have agreed to be on the floor until returns as well might i did want to take just a moment to talk about an amendment that i was discussing when we were previously in session on this bill dealing with law enforcement on indian reservations i did not actually we could add some funding for these critical areas and i wanted to make note that senator mikulski and senator shelby already added funding to accounts that the president had decided to zero out but i wanted to make the point that these accounts are accounts dealing with the law enforcement on indian reservations and we just held a hearing on these issues in the indian affairs committee here in the senate and it's pretty stark when you hear from folks who t about the crisis on reservations with respect to law enforcement the united states government made a decision a long long time ago well over a century ago that law enforcement on indian reservations is a responsibility of the federal government now our country has a legal obligation to be involved in preventing crime on indian lands that obligation is a result of treaty provisions and on federal laws that grants the united states the responsibility and the authority to investigate and prosecute major crimes on indian reservations so that's not it that's not the choice of of indian tribes that's a decision our government made over a century ago so the tribal governments then on our indian reservations rely on the federal government specifically the f b i and the u s attorney's office to investigate and prosecute the violent crimes on indian reservations and we had a hearing last week a week or two weeks ago rather and there was testimony that hearing from some research that had been done that thirty four percent of indian women will be raped or sexually  their lifetime one third of the indian women will be raped or sexually assault during their lifetime that is the state of violent crime on indian reservations a retired b i police officer who worked on the standing rock sioux and indian reservation said well we don't have the resources we could only take cases in which there was a confession but there wasn't a confession there wasn't a case we were forced trios our cases he says when this violence becomes so commonplace that the police have to treat as rape cases there's something dreadfully wrong and one of the big factors in the rise of violent crime on indian reservations is a lack of police presence or law enforcement presence on indian lands there are fewer than two thousand federal and tribal law enforcement officers that patrol fifty six million acres of indian land in north and south dakota for example we have four police officers that patrol two point three million acres on the standing rock sioux indian reservation we have heard from people who call to report a violent crime as it was occurring and they waited an hour and fifteen minutes for the police to show up in other cases they waited a day for the police to show up at tribal jails and bed space adds to the problem because there's no place to put criminals i've been in tribal detention facilities i've seen kids laying on cement floors and tribal detention facilities because it was a juvenile facility and the other detention facilities didn't have proper beds and didn't have enough space and so young children lying on on the floor of a detention facility there's a four hundred million dollars backlog for construction for tribal jails one federal official said that there is what is called a catch and release system just catch the criminals and release many of them right back into the community because there's no space to put them and because of that the indian reservations have become soft targets for organized crime and particularly for organized efforts dealing with methamphetamine in may of last year federal officials seized a huge methamphetamine business plan and the business plan outlined how that organization wanted to replace alcohol abuse as it infiltrated indian reservations and replaced alcohol abuse with methamphetamine abuse on indian reservations and the plan also outlined how the tribal police could arrest them while on the reservation and they described in a business plan how they were going to introduce and use the reservations as a basis for their methamphetamine addiction and their business well after creating a system in which we said law enforcement is the federal government's responsibility the administration now in its budget wants to tell the tribes were too busy so you're on your own the statistics i have described are really sobering crumbling jails what is the administration proposed to spend for detention facilities tribal jails discretionary grant program by the administration proposes we spend nothing not a thing the tribal courts assistance of the tribal courts what's the ministration suppose we spend nothing these are all programs that have always been funded these are programs for which the federal government has a responsibility by previous agreement cops program president says that's funded at zero five will use program funded at zero indian alcohol and crime demonstration program zero every single one of these all except the last of al been funded present says not my responsibility not this administration we don't intend to provide funding now let me thank senator mikulski and the ranking member as well senator shelby because they have provided some funding in this subcommittee mark it's not as much as i would like it's not as much i'm sure they would like to do but they should be complimented for rejecting the president's recommendation at a time when we have a serious problem and at a time when that problem is our responsibility to deal with because we have made agreements and required that we will be responsible for dealing with it the president says let's not do it and center mccall skin senator shelby said we reject that we have a responsibility here so i was intending to offer an amendment two weeks ago and i did not do that to to add even further because senator mikulski and senator shelby indicated that they want to work with me but first and foremost i want to compliment them for rejecting the president's suggestion that we not fund any of these programs for which we have a responsibility and force and mccoskey and shall be deciding these are exactly what we should be funding it is our responsibility to do so my home state of illinois traveling from four southern illinois to chicago and most points in between it's a busy week i met with a lot of people and continue to be amazed  that there's such a disconnect between the real world of america and the world of capitol hill in about forty eight hours the united states house of representatives is going to have a story vote it's about children's health insurance here we are the wealthiest nation on earth with the best doctors the best hospitals with the best technology amazing medical research and yet when it comes down to basic health care protection america fall short we spend more money per capita than any nation on earth on health care but our outcomes don't show it countries that spend a lot less get a lot more other countries around the world have made a dedicated effort to make sure that every citizen in their nation has the protection the basic health care but not america forty seven million americans have no health insurance we tried to address that with the children's health insurance program ten years ago we looked at the forty million uninsured americans and said fifteen million are kids let's start there let's cover these children let's make sure that they have health insurance not through a government plan but through private health insurance will take money grants and money send it to the states work with the governors share the expense and bring these kids under hospitalization coverage in ten years it worked from fifteen million uninsured we were able to insure six point six million children in america three hundred thousand in my home state of illinois well with the new congress and the expiration of this program we took another look at it and said can we do better can we extend this beyond six point six million kids to more of the fifteen million targeted group of children and we found a way to do it and we did it in a bipartisan way a cooperative effort with the republican side of the aisle an effort that involves senator chuck grassley of iowa senator orrin hatch of utah well known conservative republicans who sat down with senator max baucus ted kennedy hammered out the details thirty five billion dollars more in spending over the next five years now the first reaction of course most people say great if you dreamed up an expansion of a program that cost us thirty five billion dollars thanks a lot or kids will pay for it wrong we insisted that it be paid for how is it paid for by increasing the federal tax on tobacco products that's it i'm not going to beat around the bush and tell you that there's some secret way to do it that's how we did it we raise the federal tax on tobacco products cigarettes and cigars you can sign me up incident and for that any day of the week i'm one senator and i'm sure there are many like me who has lost a loved one to cancer brought on by tobacco most people in america have been touched by tobacco disease and illness and i believe one of the best things we can do is to keep tobacco products out of the hands of our kids when you raise the price by raising the tax children are discouraged from buying the product good if kids don't get addicted early and stick around until they're about eighteen to make the choice they'll decide it's a pretty dumb idea if they start smoking at fourteen fifteen and sixteen and addiction get started so we raise the tobacco tax come up with the thirty five billion dollars and over the next five years we'll expand the health insurance coverage from six point six million children to ten million children america still not fifteen but clearly moving in the right direction we passed the bill over here with an amazing vote in a time when we have these death defying votes of one vote here one vote there sixty nine senators supported this bipartisan approach to expanding children's health insurance so we sent the bill over to the house they were disappointed because they wanted more i want more i'd like to see all fifteen million kids covered be honest with you i'd like to see all americans covered i'll get to that point in a moment but they passed it and we sent it to president bush now president bush is now in his seventh year as president of the united states he has vetoed  four times once to veto a plan passed by congress on a bipartisan basis to change the policy in iraq and start bringing our troops home president bush vetoed  had two opportunities and used his pen twice to veto the expansion of medical research using stem cells you'll recall the president stopped this research at the federal level states are now doing it private companies are doing it and foreign governments are doing it but the bush administration won't allow our national institutes of health through federal funding to do this while the president uses veto pen twice to stop this promising research to find cures for diseases and causes of death his fourth use of the veto pen was to kill the children's health insurance program what did they say about it why did the president veto this bipartisan bill that came out of the senate and the house well they said first it was socialized medicine socialized medicine you know that is a cliche that was probably born in the one nine hundred sixty s maybe before at the notion that the government would provide all the health insurance for america well it didn't work then we created medicare and thank goodness we did for the millions of americans who had peace of mind age sixty five because of that socialized medicine what the president failed to say was that if he gets sick tomorrow god forbid he will go to a military hospital the doctors will be members of the military the nurses who answer his call will be members of the military he will be protected by government health services as president of the united states is that socialism i think i'll leave it to the president to the side and i think it's really troublesome that we've reached the point that we dismiss a program of such value to so many children and call it socialized medicine what was even more galling was someone in the white house along the way argued with the point that this plan would cover individuals who make up to three times poverty level in the united states let me translate that into terms americans can understand if you make up to sixty thousand dollars you could get help under this plan and the argument in the white house was people making sixty thousand dollars a year or well off in their terms and don't need this help really well let's think about that for a second sixty thousand dollars a year is gross pay now let's take about forty percent of that for all of the taxes that are taken out and all the deductions that are taken out that leaves you somewhere in a range of thirty six thousand dollars a year three thousand dollars a month in take home pay now go out and look for health insurance for a sick child and i'll tell you what you'll find it be lucky to get by with a thousand dollars a month for health insurance for your family if you have a sick child if you have a healthy family it may still cost six hundred dollars or eight hundred dollars so what to take home pay of three thousand dollars they say you're well enough off that you don't need help to pay a thousand dollars a month for health insurance who is kidding whom the reality is that families are crippled by these costs many of them can't afford health insurance and they need the help of this program it's a reasonable thing to do and those people in the white house who just want to call this socialism or whatever the word of the day might be or dismiss families making sixty thousand dollars a year is not needing a helping hand with health insurance for children they're so out of touch they don't really understand the drama that these families go through every single month for lack of health insurance but mr president there's a story closer to home for members of the united states senate it doesn't relate to the children's health insurance program but i think it's a story worth telling it's a story about a member of the senate family here someone that most of us have seen many many times may not know his name but someone who's gone through a life changing experience because of no health insurance and his family forty seven million americans have no health insurance we who are privileged and senate probably don't lie awake at night worrying about it because a bad diagnosis isn't going to lead to bankruptcy for us we're lucky we're part of the federal employees health benefit program we get the best coverage in america eight million federal employees members of congress we can open enrollment period every year don't like your company change it it's like shopping for a car there's so many choices out there you want to big plan you pay more more money taken out of your check less coverage pay less less money taken out of your check federal employees have a good plan here and it's been around for decades and members of congress benefit from it and we have the peace of mind that comes with that but we don't have to look forward to see families who are struggling and facing terrible decisions because of the high cost of health insurance they're everywhere they're in every town every county every state all across our nation and the right here in the family there's a young man who works just a few feet away from where i'm standing here is an elevator operator his name is sergio elias he's worked here for off and on is in turn and now it's been an elevator operator since last may only got a big smile on his face great young fellow says hello and most of us of him and head off for more business he's twenty one years old bright young man happy disposition a great future ahead of him but a few months ago sergio who works right outside this door as an elevator operator had a tragedy strike as family his mother died of an aggressive form of brain cancer she was sixty one years old single mom sergio was her only child doctors think she may have had tumor for a long long time of the symptoms didn't show up just two months ago and then she died before that she'd suffered a stroke which left her paralyzed on the right side she was an authority on health and nutrition and work for organizations including the centers for disease control usa id unicef and the organization of american states but she'd been unemployed and uninsured for five months when she got sick even cobra which is the way to purchase health insurance when you're not working was just too expensive for someone with a limited income like sergio's mother as a result when she died from this aggressive form of brain cancer she left two hundred fifty five thousand dollars in unpaid bills hospital and doctor bills a quarter of a million dollars the hospital at first threatened to sue or son sergio for payment lawyer who's helping him pro bono negotiated the hospital charges down first to two hundred sixteen thousand dollars them to ninety five thousand dollars with another forty thousand dollars in doctors bills sergio our member of our senate staff here still owes one hundred thirty five thousand dollars in medical bills for his mom how's he dealing with this he's selling his home in bethesda where his mom of lived for the last eight years the only home they've ever owned and the proceeds will go for the payment of these medical bills sergio said that when his mom got sick she'd been waiting to hear about a possible new job with the federal government and it would have had health insurance and a job offer family came as mom was just suffered a stroke and couldn't even get out of bed to answer the phone two months and two hundred fifty five thousand dollars in medical bills later she passed away at the age of sixty one in another week or month she might have had health coverage with a new job in another four years she would have been eligible for medicare instead she had the bad luck and bad timing the fall through one of the gaping holes in america's unraveling health care safety  now her only child her son is paying the price i wonder how many of us senators have been in the elevator with sergio talked to him share smile with him but had no idea of the terrible burden in his mama carrying as a result of the cost of health care and the cost of being uninsured in america today how many more families are going to have to sell their homes how many more bright talented young people are going to have to drop out of college so their family can pay medical bills before we finally come up with a real plan to make health care more affordable for all americans the truth is almost every family in america is at risk because of a fra failing health care safety net all but almost all of us could be one pink slip one of election one bag diagnosis or one serious accident away from a health and economic disaster for our family this affects sergio this affects our senate family it affects all families we need to deal with it we need to find a way or combination of ways to give every american access to affordable health coverage can help sergio pay these bills that we can sure look to the possibility of three point four million children across america and their moms and dads finally having the peace of mind of knowing that their kids are covered it's a small step in a big nation but isn't that the kind of step we want to make together in a bipartisan way president bush says no he vetoed the bill the senate back to the house of representatives and on wednesday they'll take a  fifteen republican congressmen who voted against the plan have to change their to override his veto overall sixty two republican senators and congressman voted for this plan so it is bipartisan i just hope that the fifteen who are thinking about it now will think about the vulnerability of a lot of people like sergio people we don't know who every single day have to wrestle with this terrible challenge in this great nation of ours from illinois for a question be happy you mr president the senator from illinois has raised the issue of the override of the president's veto that will occur in the u s house this week when the president veto the legislation bipartisan legislation that would expand opportunities for health coverage for america's children now the three point eight million kids that don't have health coverage now would have health coverage under that bill the president first of all i believe referred to it as some kind of socialized medicine some sort of big government solution and then second he talked about the prospect of people of families with eighty three thousand dollars in income and ask about both of those first of all is it the case that most states my state included receives a block grant and uses the block grant in my state to provide coverage by buying the coverage from blue cross blue shield other words it's a block grant that the states use to purchase coverage health insurance coverage for children  is that what the president was referring to as big government and if so isn't the president misrepresenting what this bill does i'd say i'm a senator from north dakota that that is the case in almost every state this isn't a matter of the state of illinois health insurance plan it's a matter of our state or the state of north dakota it's a matter of our state taking the federal funds and buying private health insurance which is something these families currently cannot afford and it strikes me as reasonable for us to give them a helping hand it is not socialism whatever that they're the machine maybe it is not a big government plan and the president argued incidentally as well he thought it was unfair to the health insurance industry now i don't understand that if these fifty million children have not had health insurance for years that industry had plenty of chance to sell it fact is it's too expensive for these families especially if the senator real further for the question the president the senator from illinois i think mentioned this mention this in his presentation but the president went vetoing the legislation referred to some eighty three thousand dollars families with eighty three thousand dollars would be getting this largest so that their children could get subsidized health insurance coverage isn't the case however that most states my state as an example covers children at one hundred fifty percent of poverty most states at around two hundred percent of poverty which i believe is around forty or forty four thousand dollars gross income and the eighty three thousand dollars to which the president refers does not exist it was a request from the state of new york which has not been granted and in any event all those requests that have been granted for above the two hundred percent have been approved willingly and in a way that allowed this administration to boast that they had approved them now the president of jecks to the very thing that they had approved and the other point is didn't this president actually campaign in the year two thousand and four saying he supports the expansion of this very program so i would ask the question about the eighty three thousand dollars that clearly must be a misrepresentation is that the judgment of the senator from illinois as well i say the center for north dakota the state of new york said we want to cover families up to eighty three thousand dollars it's more expensive to live in new york than it might be in some other state but ultimately it was a decision made by the president the president had to give them permission and he denied it now under this bill the still the president well has that authority to deny states permission to go beyond sixty thousand sixty's two thousand dollars a year and so he still has that authority arguing eighty three thousand dollars makes no sense he turned it down we didn't change that in this bill the president still has the authority to stop any program that expand in that direction i might add to that in my state and others i will concede we've been trying to find every way we can to ensure the people that live in my state our governor general assembly and other people have tried to find ways to work with the federal government to cover people who don't have health insurance and just as a reminder and i know the senator from north dakota is well aware of this the poorest children in america are covered by medicaid the poorest children in america have health insurance the for the children who are fortunate enough to have parents with health insurance aren't the ones we're talking about we're talking about the group of children who belong to families who go to work every single day and have no health insurance that's a lot of americans and a lot of kids i've had several press conferences during this break at hospitals with doctors and nurses and they tell the story of these children these children don't have a regular physician they don't have regular checkups they don't have a regular place to go so an earache turns into a substantial infection as much at an early stage becomes a serious challenge diabetes goes undetected because these kids are not brought into our health care system until they reach such a grievous situation they end up in the emergency rooms and we all pay for it so this really is an ounce of prevention that we would have health insurance for more of these kids to be covered the children of working families who go to work every single day and don't have health insurance the president vetoed the bill for one additional question mr president my understanding is that senator from illinois is on the appropriations committee with me and my understanding is the president is going to be sending down the second supplemental request within days understand the white house may not want to send it down before the override issue on  children's health insurance program but the children's health insurance program would spend seven billion dollars a year for five years as thirty five billion dollars all of it paid for none of it contributing one penny to the debt and the result of that spending well you'd have three point eight million children who at this point have no health insurance coverage would now be fully covered with health insurance that's that's the wonderful portion of this priority in this value system now the president seemed to when he vetoed the legislation be saying look i'm going to be the guardian here of the of the federal treasury and the taxpayers checkbook this is big government bureaucracy socialized medicine in fact this is fully paid for seven billion dollars a year is it the case that the president has requested two things of us one is already here and the other will come next week one is one hundred forty five billion dollars emergency funding for iraq and afghanistan the war in iraq and afghanistan not it paid for all this year and on top of that we believe another roughly forty i believe it's forty four billion dollars supplemental so it'll be a one hundred eighty nine billion dollar emergency supplemental this year seven billion dollars for kids is too much one hundred eighty nine billion dollars which will bring us to somewhere close to two thirds of a trillion dollars that the president's requested we spend not a penny of it paid for the implication of all of that is going to send soldiers to fight and when they come back they can pay for the debt we've incurred because we don't intend to pay for any of it is it the case that the very same president who says seven billion dollars a year that's fully paid for that will result in children's health insurance for three point eight million children is the president who's sending us one hundred eighty nine billion dollars additional requests for one year none of it paid for i might say in response to senator murtha's his math is right this president has funded this war in iraq and afghanistan borrowing money from future generations is not paid for a single day of this war by imposing a tax or cutting spending in some other area is the first president in the history of the united states incidentally in the entire history of our nation to cut taxes in the midst of war i'm sure the senate of north dakota joined a lot of us and watching this ken burns documentary the war it's been on for the last couple of weeks on public television one of our great friends and heroes in the senate danny in a way of why he was featured in a position i have been congressional medal of honor recipient and told the story of his life that led to his service to our country and you couldn't help but feel as you watched this documentary that america was at war it wasn't just our soldiers and sailors and marines and airman america was at war we were all involved in it this war this war that has claimed three thousand eight hundred twenty one american lives this war that has injured more than thirty thousand of our fighting men and women this war that has left ten thousand grievously injured with amputations and traumatic brain injury and serious burns this war has been waged in a much different way by this president what america was going to wage this war on terrorism the president said we're going to invade iraq and america you can help go shopping that is what they said world war two they said america we can all pitch in together and be behind this effort and then he said america we have to sacrifice we have to give tax cuts to people at the wealthiest levels in america and so we end up with a debt a debt that continues to grow because the president does not pay for a penny of this war the senator from north dakota is right it will be close to seven hundred fifty billion dollars by the end of next year we are spending twelve to fifteen billion dollars a month on this war in iraq none of it is paid for none of it is generated by taxes none of it is paid by compensating cuts in other spending it is added to our debt the president who proclaims himself a fiscal conservative when it comes to vetoing a children's health insurance program within the next several days will send us this massive spending bill of one hundred ninety or two hundred billion dollars for the next year of this war seven billion dollars for health insurance for children paid for the president says is wasted federal funds but two hundred billion dollars for a war with no end in sight he considers to be appropriate i don't understand this i understand we have to stand behind our men and women in uniform but a strong america begins at home it begins with our families in our communities in our parishes and church groups and neighborhoods and it begins with the peace of mind of knowing that you have health insurance and for literally three point eight million children the pet president's veto means no help to buy private health insurance so these families have a chance to have that peace of mind i sincerely hope that those who feel that this is an important program will contact their members of congress both house and senate in the next forty eight hours this is a critical moment in our history we have to decide once and for all whether we are going to start taking important steps forward to bring the peace of mind of health insurance to every family in america that is a worthy american goal president bush's veto should not stand in its way and i certainly host hope the house of representatives s objection mispresent i ask unanimous consent that the five fifteen today the senate resume consideration of the brown amendment number thirty to sixty with the time until five forty five p equally divided and controlled between senators brown and makovsky or their designees that no amendment be in order to the amendment prior to the vote and then at five forty five the senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendment that  modified with the changes at the desk w mr president let me ask and sample over waiting for the ranking member to speak in morning business for three minutes of direction without objections or this present last week i introduced some legislation the senate that my hope is that my colleagues will join and it deals with the issue of the do not call list that is housed down at the federal trade commission i don't think there's much more that irritating in life than to receive calls from telemarketers almost everybody has received bundles of calls from telemarketers always during meal time they always wait until the family is but able to sit down to start a meal and then you get a telephone call would you like to take our cables service would you like to take ours cell phone service you need new siding we get some people in the neighborhood tomorrow selling the sheet rock or siding so on and on and on quitter's unbelievably annoying so congress passed a piece of legislation and it says we're go set up a list at the federal trade commission called a do not call list you call in put your name on that list and it says the telemarketers you may not call them names on that list and so the list has been very very successful except the federal trade commission commission rather did one very inexplicably oh and and i think trying to think of an appropriate word kind of an ignorant thing you sense a general description they said that of the people who call in and put their names on a do not the list will expire at a certain time you'd have to call back in so we had we had one hundred forty nine million people call in think of this one hundred forty nine million americans picked up their phone and called their federal government and said put my name on a do not call list i'm sick and tired of getting telephone calls from telemarketers i want my name on a list it's the biggest vote in american history is not it is voted by picking up the phone one hundred  forty nine million people voted to say i don't want those calls anymore stop us and so the federal trade commission put their name on the list and then the federal trade commission said oh by the way your name goes off the list at the end of five years and by the way next  october first about the first day or so or it within just a couple of days we'll have about fifty million people whose name comes off the list and makes no sense to me what your name on the list saying we don't want people making annoying calls to together you call get your name on the list say i don't want irritating annoying calls from telemarketers your name or to stay on the list or you decide to pull it off and so i've put in a piece of legislation that that says that you put your name on the list your name is going to stay on the list you don't have to call and there's not going to be an automatic expulsion we didn't provide for that in the congress the federal trade commission came up with that goofy idea and so my that just place in will say that idea is gone if your name is on the list it stays on the list you deserve to have the supper or dinner or whatever you might call it at the end of the day that having a phone ringing by somebody wanting to sell a sighting or a new telephone service so my hope is that every member united states senate might pass that might might co sponsor the legislation except for those members of the senate who love to get telemarketing calls and for those who do i expect they wouldn't sign on now probably come and announce their names soon but if we can get all of those two co sponsored we can get this passed real quickly and thank you very much and mr president to bring our colleagues up to date we are working on the commerce a justice of science appropriations senator shelby and i are working to clear amendments now all amendments have been filed we have sixty of them but we hope some could be cleared and for those the senators who wish to have a vote when their amendment i wish they would consider offering the amendment in debating it though this evening i certainly will be willing to stay for that but mr president why really rise while we're working on corny's amendments this is stand up for my constituents to stand up for a family in baltimore that has been vilified by the right wing bloggers because they dare to say that they benefited from and support a public program called the children's health initiative mr president i really don't know what's happening in america here now where instead of working to change policies the right wing tries to change the subject and they do it by backing people rather than attacking the problem is the problem of poverty the problem that our children don't have health care the problem that one of my constituents a little boy named amante died in prince george's county because he didn't have access to dental care and had a severe oral i'm taking up for a family name bonnie and helsing frost who live in baltimore and a few weeks ago they stood here in the congress to say that they benefitted from the as schip program they told the story about how two of their children had been in a horrific accident graham who was the boy they gave the democratic radio address spoke about what he needed had a brain injury he was treated at hopkins so did his little sister graham was in a coma for weeks one of his vocal cords was paralyzed one of his eyes continues to be damaged jenna his little sister has suffered permanent injuries which i won't go through the family has had their business spread all over the right wing blogs i'm not going to spread it all over the senate floor but i want to take up for them i want to take up with the fact that when they stood up to talk about how they benefited from this program they were attacked because they weren't seemed worthy the frost have four children graham who's twelve maximus grams twin who was not and who saw the accident gamma who also was in the accident and an older brother named zeke bonnie and her children were in a car crash in two thousand and four when the s u v she was driving had an accident the children had these terrible problems now who are the frost family well the frost family are a family of six they are given baltimore and they qualify under the maryland and she a program which says that if you have a family this size in an income of the under fifty one thousand dollars a year you qualify they qualify so what happened through other friends of theirs who were involved with health advocacy in the state they were invited to come and tell their story to show why there isn't a compelling need for the children's health initiative well they did it and then guess what happen after young graham who long with the sisters i said had this terrible thing happen to them after they then spoke up and gramm gave the democratic radio address what followed was just unbelievable it was a firestorm against them that went across the right wing bloggers victory olic volcanic ugly nasty trading their name shredding their reputation all your talk to them about what they went through they couldn't believe they were in the united states of america they thought hello under the constitution freedom of speech one of the right wingers showed up where he has around the area where he has his business to do on the spot investigative reporting i wish we were as good as keeping our borders safe as we are keeping the boundaries around  s chip i wish we were as good as they keeping an eye on terrorists but no they had to go after the frost family paul krugman felt so outraged about it he wrote a column about it in the new york times he calls it a teaching moment on politics and health care he tells the story about this and then he said what followed happened to this family should be a teaching moment i'm going to read from this and then i'm going to ask unanimous consent that his article be included in the paper first the frost or the kind and therefore children are the kind of people who s chip was intended to help working americans who can't afford health insurance the parents have a combined income of or the fifty thousand dollars what they then do what they have is that the father is a self employed woodworker and welder they bought a house in east baltimore in a neighborhood that's going gentry it's called butchers hill but when they bought it yes it was called butchers hill from years and years and years ago when there were slaughter houses killing cows and beef making sausage for the ethnic communities but it took on another name about the time they bought it it was like a fine care town riddled with drugs all kinds of problems but they believed in baltimore they believed in their country and they were willing to be urban pioneers so they bought this house for a modest price now we've been reclaiming baltimore yes the plows are selling at very high prices but that's not what they paid for it now this man self employed when he married yes they're from a prominent family they were there their wedding announcement was in the new york times since when does that mean anything  he has a small warehouse that provides a modest rental income his wife works part time at a medical publishing firm they don't have health benefits so do go on with what crewman said soon after the radio address why right wing bloggers kept insisting that the front there's something wrong with the frost they have a house in the neighborhood that they said is now expensive but i can tell you when they bought it it was truly a butcher bill they have two of these children that are private school all one scholarships no one bothered to find that they right wing bloggers made unfounded accusations against them all of the time it was g quickly picked up by rush limbaugh the same guy who's calling dissident military people microphone moraines and the g o p and then as the smear went on with them at the same time this was going on a c n n report suggested that the democrats made a tactical error because we had this family on i don't know what folk were doing here again we're attacking the family when we should be attacking the problems of children's health first of all i've called the frost family goes into what they've had to endure both what they had to endure because they didn't have health insurance after what's happened to their children after this terrible accident and forced me their own recovery then i'd listen to what they had to endure because they spoke up for a children's health initiative and when i was sent to them they said i said to them that i think the senate owed them an apology that we now have come to this point that in behalf of this tone now i've watched good people be attacked by right wing and the other day we sanction move on because of what they did to general petraeus i voted for that sanction but what about my frost family what about my frost family should we have a sense of the senator on that i don't know i don't know if i want to put this family more to it but i will tell you this mr president i think we have to start changing the tone we have to start changing the tone not only an error institution to work a bipartisan basis the way the senator from alabama and i have we're moving forward a solid bill that promotes scientific research keeps america's space program going but even equally we're funding local law enforcement can't we change the tone do we always have to attack each other that we always have to be so tart so violent and our language so vicious so vitriolic i don't think so i think our country has to get back to basics where you can disagree without being disagreeable that you focus on one the policy not one the person that you try to deal with issues you don't attack people who'd be for the simple reason that they've spoken up and they've spoken out mr president i just think we need to take a time out in this country you know i respect free speech i respect the bloggers and what they have but i think when there is a deliberate attempt from either the right or the left to go after people simply because they've spoken up i think it's the wrong direction i think we we had been heading in the wrong direction so i just wanted to speak about it eloquently than i've been able to describe but i tell you i feel bad about what happened to them and i hope we can get back in focus now when dealing with the children's health initiative and start protecting all of the children well i tried to stand up considering the two thousand and eight commerce justice science appropriation bill this bill is everyone probably knows funds of departments of commerce justice nasa and the national science foundation among others given the extremely diverse subject matters contained within the bills jurisdiction we must entertain a wide range of amendments on the senate floor as the president this is been true in the past and will be true again this year chairwoman mcauliffe skin are currently reviewing a substantial list of amendments and are working with various members and staff is is this is going on to the term an appropriate resolution to this list of  that have been filed what i would like to do mr president now is ask members of the senate to come to the floor if they can to this gus with the chairwoman and myself your concerns so they can we move this critical funding bill forward we hope mr president and we expect to finish this bill no later than midday tomorrow but that complicates this we will need the help of other members of the senate it's monday afternoon and we can loosen things tonight and get this bill move tomorrow with the help of a lot of our colleagues of both mr president senator from new mexico mr president i have an amendment that's been filed that i would like to call up so that it could be considered at an appropriate time and i gather that to do thirty two zero eight the clerk will report the amendment throughout indian country have the resources they need to fight the meth epidemic in management is based on a bipartisan bill that i introduced along with senator smith in title the native american methamphetamine and treatment act of two thousand and seven would ensure that native american communities are able to access essential federal funds saying to fight the use of methamphetamines senators the house of representatives overwhelmingly passed this legislation by a vote of four hundred twenty three to zero we all know that indian country has been hard hit by the use of meth over seventy percent of indian tribes surveyed by the bureau of indian affairs identified meth abuse as the greatest threat to their communities and about forty percent of violent crime cases investigated in indian country involve meth in some capacity according to the substance abuse and mental health services are samhsa american indians alaskan natives and native hawaiians have the highest rate of meth abuse of any ethnic group in our country unfortunately when congress passed the combat meth epidemic act tribes were unintentionally left out as eligible applicants under some of the newly authorized grant programs they were left out of the department of justice hotspots program which helps local law enforcement agency obsessed agencies obtain the tools they need to reduce the production and distribution and use of meth and to clean up meth labs and to support health and environmental agencies and purchase equipment and support systems to combat meth act authorized ninety nine million dollars in new funding under this program tribes are also left out of the drug endangered children grant program which helps children who live in a home in which math has been used for manufactured or sold under this program law enforcement agencies and prosecutors and child protective services and social services and health care services work together to ensure that these children  get the help that they need the act authorized twenty million dollars for this program i can see absolutely no reason why native american communities that are struggling to contain the meth epidemic should be denied the resources necessary to address the problem and to this and i hope my colleagues will agree with me and support this important amendment when the time comes for its consideration mr president i yield the floor and suggest the absence  mr president or for maryland mr president i wish to have to respond to the senator from new mexico pharmacology on tuesday i ask you see that the call the corn be vacated objection i wish to say to my colleague from new mexico we agree with the intent of the amendment certainly in the challenges facing the west we see that the scourge of meth it's one of the largest area of request we have for congressional the designated projects but i know you want them to be eligible for grants and to compete to compete for them and so we support the intent right now there is an objection from two senators and we also understand that the senator from arizona would like to have further conversations with you with the possibility of a modification if you could have that colleague from maryland and responded yes i'm anxious to deal with any concern that any senator has and i have spoken to the center of mars on a about of his concerns and i've tried to accommodate them to to date we've not been able to get his agreement to an accommodation that has been suggested so i i just want to be sure that we have reserve the right to have a vote on the amendment if we're still not able to get agreement i think you have our word that you have and the parliamentary what is the parliamentary mechanism for reserving that right to the senators vote there's no particular order i would say to the senator from new mexico you have your word that if you can work it out we'll see if we can take it and if not you'll have your  further like to say to the senator from new mexico in keeping with what my colleague from alabama said we'd like to be able to finish this bill before the caucuses tomorrow so i would discuss this with the senator from a group of stacked votes scheduled for tomorrow if this could be included in that list then of course if agreement is reached prior to the time of the vote we could deleted you have our word thank you thank you very much  mr president senator from maryland mr president i asked at the call the core me vacated objection mr president we're working very well here again on a bipartisan basis i'd for its immediate consideration the amendment the modify with the modification of the desk that objection this amendment is been cleared on both sides of the aisle and i ask for some mediated option question as on the amendment all as a favor unanimous consent or scuse me the reading of the moment has been taken care of this image has been clear to both sides of the aisle and i ask for its immediate adoption the question is on the amendment amendment also has been cleared on both sides of the aisle and ask for its immediate adoption question is on the amendment all those in favor say aye aye of those opposed say no it is appear to have  that objection mr president we've now cleared twenty eight amendments and we would now as we continue to move towards a vote that we will be having at five forty five when the brown amendment dealing with the international trade we would hope if colleagues do you have amendments in which they wish to have a vote to please come now and offer the amendment and goats have a debate on it we would like very much to debate as many amendments as we could get stack votes tomorrow and even to come to a final passage rowe the twelve thirty caucus so colleagues out there will both sides of the aisle senator shelby you know i are here we're open for business we're ready to hear your ideas and are ready to debate them  follow through in our regular process but either that or if you don't wish to offer it to then come and see us and withdraw it and perhaps operate at another run another time  ranking member cochran for their strong leadership on this bill as the former attorney general for colorado i am particularly proud of the investments that this bill we'll make in the local state and federal law enforcement agencies across our country the more than eight hundred thousand officers that patrol america's streets put their lives on the line every day to help make our communities safe and secure they are truly the frontlines of america's homeland security madam president in my six years as attorney general of colorado and in the last two and a half years of the u s senator i have traveled thousands of miles through my state to visit with county sheriffs police chiefs and law enforcement officers working in our small towns rural counties and big cities they are public servants through and through they knew they know that security is the foundation of a free society they know that to enjoy our liberties and a prosperous economy americans must live in a society governed by the rule of law free from the threat of violence and secure in their place of residence it is the voices of these men and women in uniform across our country america's peace officers that should help guide our law enforcement efforts in this  country they should help us make sure that we are prepared to meet the emergencies that we will confront and they will help us address the domestic six security priorities that we face as a nation we should therefore madam president take notice when sheriffs and police officers tell us that they don't have the resources that they need to combat the scourge of meth that is devastating so many communities across our nation meth is tearing families apart and financing an underground economy an abandoned farm buildings fire traps and houses that are shrouded with plastic but police go to raid a lab they never know what they're going to find whether it's going to be a drug dealer that's armed whether it's going to be chemicals that are ready to burn and to explode or drug users that are in desperate need of medical attention in my state on a raid on a meth aurora colorado this past summer police found a two year old boy two years old lying in the basement next to a highly toxic cocktail of chemicals the police rescued him but what his parents were doing or thinking one can only imagine stories like the like this story have been too common across our country we should also take notice when people like the united states attorney in colorado troy i'd tell us that we do not have enough federal law enforcement officers to serve native american communities in south western colorado last year we had a total of five bureau of indian affairs officers policing six hundred thousand acres in the corner of my state this is astonishing five bureau of indian affairs officers policing six hundred thousand acres criminals in fact on the reservation were calling in false crime reports on one side of the reservation riot police away from their target they were aiming to hit on the other side of the reservation with this shortage of law enforcement the murder rate on the u mountain ute and southern new reservations in southwestern colorado has climbed to almost twenty percent of the national average to our destination that's the way things are done in rural colorado sheriff leggett knows very well the boundaries of his department's communications coverage and the risk that the limitations that coverage pose to residents and travelers the mineral county sheriff's department like so many rural sheriff's departments need broader communications coverage and a better ability to talk across agencies and jurisdictions in case an emergency arises madam president in the late one nine hundred ninety s we made some progress in helping bring safety and security to america's communities the federal government seeing homicide rates on the rise responded to the public's call for a crackdown on crime by making smart investments in law enforcement and crime prevention these investments paid off with the violent crime in the united states dropping by nearly forty percent from the record highs of the early one nine hundred ninety s unfortunately these investments have lagged in recent years and the administration has tried to cut key programs at the very moment at the very moment when our law enforcement officers are facing a set of growing challenges from homeland security and emergency preparedness to combating meth to all the other issues that the eight thousand eight hundred thousand men and women who keep the security in our country face every day madam president i know that this administration has been focused on iraq and that this has consumed a massive proposed proportion of federal spending almost seven hundred fifty billion dollars in the last four and a half years but this focus on iraq and our security objectives abroad should not come at the expense of american security right here at home in our united states too many americans live with fear of drug related violence in their communities too many americans have seen meth destroy the lives of a family member or of a neighbor too many americans worry that when a disaster strike the way it did in katrina that help will not come help will not come quickly enough this bill which the chair person from maryland and ranking member shelby have put together resets our priorities to where they should be on the safety and security of america's families and for that i help i thank and i applaud the leadership of senator murkowski mr president the appropriations committee have has reported a bill that restores critical investments in law enforcement that this president has proposed to cut i want to briefly talk about a few of those provisions that will benefit the peace officers of my state of colorado first i am pleased that the bill we are considering today includes one point four billion dollars for state and local law enforcement assistance including six hundred sixty million dollars for the burn memorial justice assistance grants and one hundred ninety million or burn discretionary grants this program which the president had beyond my understanding proposed to eliminate provides grants to state and local governments for law enforcement for prosecution and court program for prevention and education programs for drug treatment and community corrections programs these are the kinds of programs that the men and women in law enforcement in this country know do in fact work to make our community safe secondly madam president this bill includes five hundred fifty million dollars for the community oriented policing services program known as cops these funds  tribal state and local law enforcement agencies for community policing initiatives which put law enforcement professionals on the streets with the beat so that they can build relationships with the people that they serve and they protect by earning the trust of the members of their communities and making these individual stakeholders stakeholders in their own safety community policing makes law enforcement safer and more efficient some of the cops program funds that are set forth in this bill will go directly to the drug task forces that have been operational and effective in my state of colorado they include the someways valley drug task force my native valley they include the twenty second judicial district drug task force the north metro task force the delta montrose drug task force the eagle county drug task force the greater route and moffat county narcotics and forstmann team the weld county drug task force rest assured that from my point of view as a former attorney general of the state of colorado i know that these task forces are at the point of the spear in combating the scourge of drugs in my state of colorado and these important funds will allow us to keep that quiet up finally madam president i am pleased that this bill provides five point six billion dollars for the bureau of prisons to help curb the staff shortages construction needs and operations budgets of the federal prison system the correctional officers who handle some of the most dangerous dangerous criminals in america will tell you that the funding levels over the past few years have been reid at that supermax facility where we have the most dangerous of the most dangerous of america's enemies funding cuts have left them short staffed and short on beds at the prison the houses terrorists gang leaders and the most violent members of this society this is a dangerous game that we cannot afford and this legislation moves forward in a way to address those shortfalls madam president i'm not going to take time to go through all the other good things that are included in this bill but i would mention very briefly the three hundred forty million dollars that this bill provides to the juvenile justice programs and the investment this bill makes in all of our federal law enforcement agencies like the d a the f b i and the a t f and when you look at these investments you begin to understand how important this bill is to our nation's law enforcement priorities anyone who has worked or who works with law enforcement today and who takes the time to look at this bill will understand that this is a strong statement of support for peace officers and for protecting our public across the country that is why madam president plex that there is a veto threat by the president on this bill there should not be that  because this is a bill that takes a strong position to secure america here at the homeland and i hope that is this bill makes it through the congressional process and to the president that president bush will decide that he's going to stand up project a very good bipartisan product that senator murkowski and ranking member shelby has put together for the consideration of this chamber i'm proud to be a supporter of this bill and i urge my colleagues to support it  comments about our bill so complementary and i thank the senator for speaking as the former attorney general of the state of colorado one of the hallmarks was as essentially the top cop  is under a veto threat you know i understood that of the chair my friend from maryland that the president has said that he doesn't like the funding levels that are in this bill which to me i interpret to mean that he the elimination of the cops program i am also aware and respond to my friend from maryland that when i speak to the law enforcement community throughout this country and throughout my state of colorado the sheriffs and chiefs of police across the board stand up and say to me that the cops program is in fact working and that when we see what happened with the dip in violent crime in the one nine hundred ninety s that occurred precisely because we had programs like the cops program which were very think of no more important priority for all of us as you know we deal with issues of crime and violence and the role of law in places far away such as a rock in afghanistan it ought to be an important priority a high priority for us to make sure that we aren't forcing the rule of law and that we're providing security for americans here at home that we take care of the homeland first so i strongly agree with  the senator from maryland that in fact this bill moves us in that direction i thank the senator from colorado and i appreciate his comments and support madam president just by way of information for our colleagues  when we talk about the cops program one might recall was the senator from colorado who said filing crime just really skyrocketed in the mid ninety's president clinton working with are working then with their colleagues who continues to be in the senate senator joe biden leader in the judiciary committee came up with the cops program during the clinton administration from one nine three to one nine hundred ninety eight they put one hundred and eighteen thousand extra police officers one hundred and eighteen thousand police officers on the streets of america they were in thirteen thousand communities and guess what violent crime dropped ten percent cops do make a difference and we're concerned that by a lemonade ing the cops program the thin blue rhino the protects us in our communities is even getting smaller so working on a bipartisan basis within the senate we've added over five hundred million dollars to restore that cops program not that we micromanage from the national level but we empower the local communities to apply for these grants and to poise where they know best that would protect their citizens madam president we think we've got a great bill and we want to move it along so we thank the kind words and now our colleagues would help us not only with words but with deeds which is if you have an amendment offer  and send your staff to either see if we can modify or have it withdrawn thank you very much madam president if us order the senate will now resume consideration of amendment twenty three sixty offered by the senator from ohio mr brown and there will be thirty minutes of debate equally divided between the senator from ohio and the senator from maryland mr makovsky or their designees prior to a vote in relation to the amendment senator from officer senators byrd rockefeller eleven i know that the finance committee chair is drafted a bill to boost trade enforcement i look forward to working on this very important piece of legislation but i'm present this amendment will help america's manufacturers compete on even terms with foreign manufacturers for generations american manufacturing has been a tremendous source of pride and for work for our whole country and especially for working families it's been a ladder to the middle class american manufacturing fuels our economy and supplies our national defense and for structure it would be dangerous in many levels madam president for our country to ignore the anti competitive forces that are buffeting every day our manufacturing sector in your state of michigan in ohio across the midwest throughout the country it would be dangerous and it is dangerous to ignore that over the last several years u s manufacturing has falter millions of good jobs have been lost in my state of ohio from toledo to gallop police from ash to beulah to middletown well over two hundred thousand manufacturing jobs have disappeared just in the last six years american industry we know can compete with anyone in the world when it's a fair fight our international trade laws are intended to secure a level playing field unfortunately some of our trading power partners have repeatedly found ways to circumvent these laws to gain an unfair advantage against our workers and our companies this is led to record breaking trade deficits some eight hundred billion dollars in two thousand and six which threaten the long term health of our economy and massive job losses which have wreaked havoc on the middle class some foreign governments for example of unfairly illegally doled out massive subsidies to their own companies and others willing to reestablish offshore contributing to the migration of manufacturing jobs overseas and artificial price advance as for imported products despite ample evidence that something is very very wrong when i first ran for congress in  two the us multilateral trade deficit was thirty eight billion dollars last year it was literally more than twenty times that despite ample evidence that something is very wrong you can look at job loss figures you can look at the trade deficit you can look at outsourcing figures you can look at offshoring figures the bush administration needs to aggressively enforce american trade laws recent w t o decisions threaten to create enormous loopholes in trade law enforcement this affects industries and local economies throughout the country we know about steel we know about paper but it affects all american manufacturing that's why we need to be more aggressive in there and for the enforcement of these trade laws if the o continues to target us trade remedy laws we needed to in this chamber fight back this amendments of modest reminder to the administration that we need to vigorously enforce our trade laws i thank the chair and the ranking member of the subcommittee for their support i ask my colleagues for their support and madam president i ask for the eighty's and ninety's is there sufficient second madam president distinguished senator from maryland madam president i asked the call the quorum vacated without objection and then i'm president i stand here with my colleague from alabama to tell all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle it is the intention of senator shelby united finished this bill tomorrow we have some amendments that have been filed and yet we do not know what the intent of the the senators are who have filed such an amendment now we're going to be voting very shortly a matter of minutes and we would like every senator that's filed an amendment to come in tell us what their intent is do they intend to offer it when do they intend on africa or do they wish or seek another accommodation we would like to present to the leaders on both sides of the aisle the majority leader the republican leader a finite list tonight before senator shelby and i go oh so that we can have the finite list for tomorrow and earnest thorough work through these amendments but we must know the intent of the senators i believe there's an old fashioned saying it's now time to fish or cut bait we would prefer that senators actually cut their bait as she pointed out we need to know if people are going to insist on the amendments or some way we can accommodate the senators if they would come to the floor and meet with us because in just a few minutes we're going to vote  and the leadership will be on the floor and they're going to want to report from us what's pending because tomorrow we want to move this bill this is very important bill as the president knows and we need to move on with it and not just  small we're back now in a new week and i think we can make some progress and if my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will meet with us and tell us if they they want to vote debated and vote if they want to see if we can work something out with them we will do this with this our intention again to move this bill tomorrow thank you m baucus mr by mr bennett mr biden mr bingham and mr bond mrs boxer mr brown mrs clinton mr coburn mr cochran mr coleman ms collins mr conrad mr corker mr cornyn mr cragg mr mr leahy mr leaven mr lieberman mrs lincoln mr lott mr lugar mr martinez is mr mccain mr menendez mr roberts mr rockefeller mr salazar mr sanders mr schumer mr sessions mr shelby mr warner mr warner i mr martinez mr martinez quorum call without objection will  objection thank you mr president this is president amendment thirty two seventy seven and it is very simple and straightforward and i believe very needed the amendment would simply prohibit top funding which is governed under this bill from going to so called sanctuary cities as president doing so it would do nothing more than to inforce current federal legislation which is current law there is a very clear section on sanctuary city policy it's section six forty two a and it states in clear unmistak terms quote federal state or local government entity or officials may not prohibit or in any way restrict any government entity or official from sending to or receiving from the immigration and naturalization service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status lawful or unlawful of any individual close quote as president the idea behind that policy is very simple law enforcement around the country should be free to cooperate with federal authorities regarding immigration regarding immigration enforcement and no state or local government should be able to contradict federal law last stablish ing state or local law which bars this sort of commonsense cooperation local ordinance so called sanctuary policies absolutely prohibiting law enforcement and other public personnel in their jurisdiction from working with cooperating with federal authorities with regard to immigration enforcement this is by no means the majority policy of jurisdictions around the country far from it as president as i think a clear overwhelming majority of the american people and their state and local elected officials support commonsense cooperation with the federal government in forcing our laws but it is a very significant trend a very significant happening around the country many local jurisdictions and of least two states have adopted this very touches and very boldly proclaim policy calling themselves sanctuary cities or sanctuary jurisdictions as president my amendment would simply prohibit cops funding from going to these jurisdictions it would say this is our federal law that states that localities you cooperate with federal immigration officials and if you're not going to do that if you're going to pass laws clearly one hundred eighty degrees opposed to federal law then you are not going to get cops funding under this bill again mr president it couldn't be simpler it couldn't be more straightforward money top funds will not go to sanctuary cities so called sanctuary jurisdictions if my amendment passes again mr president this is doing nothing more than enforcing present federal law policy law that has been on the books over ten years so why shouldn't we put some meaningful he's in that federal law and prevent these local and state jurisdictions from simply flaunting federal law and not abiding by federal law as president i would note that the house of representatives has already acted this and in the companion bill to this c j s appropriations bill the house bill a similar amendment to mine passed by voice vote having said this mr president i would hope that a huge majority of the senate similarly votes to pass this veteran memon to adopt it to put it on the c j s appropriations bill it's common sense it does nothing more than and force current federal policy and federal law it's clearly the sort of commonsense straightforward legislation that a huge majority of the american people support i know they'll be a vote on this sometime tomorrow mispresent i urge all of my colleagues republican and democrat to join with the huge majority of the american people behind this reasonable and reasonable and i want to lay out the reasons why this this body has during the immigration debate actually acted on very similar amendments and defeated and the reason that this body was wise enough to defeat it is because they understood that some of the toughest law enforcement officials in our country from sheriffs to prosecutors and the whole host of  enforcement officials in between understand that the cooperation of a community is essential for police and law enforcement entities to do their job now states represented by people on both sides of the aisle here we would have a set of circumstances under which you have a crime committed and the witness to that crime happens to be someone who is in an undocumented fashion do you want the witness to be able to come forth and provide essential crucial eyewitness testimony about the crime or do you want them to hide in the darkness not talk to the police because they are afraid of their immigration status i want to solve the crime mr president i want to get the perpetrator i want to put that person convict them and put them behind jail but i don't want the opportunity to do that to go wasted because of some political statement some political statement that has nothing to do with the core issue of security in our community i want to make sure that a witness comes forth and testifies against a perpetrator and has no fear to do so senator vitter is amendment would undermine that ability senator vitter his amendment would undermine the ability of someone who is a victim of the crime who happens to be an undocumented capacity to come forward because they might very well be concerned that their status is such that my create a problem for them and so victims of crime would not come forward which not only is a human as it relates to me towards that victim of that crime and that crime could be of all types and manner i was committed against the individual but the unwillingness of that person to come forward because of fear fear may lead to another crime committed against someone else by that same individual in that same community to a child who might be molested to a person who might be assaulted to a family that might get robbed and so instead of catching the perpetrator the criminal element and being able to prosecute them either through the witness or through the victim no we prefer to deny monies to that community because they have a view that in their own interests and i hear so many times here in the debates that states the minister polities no pets but when it comes to this they know nothing they know nothing about how to best secure their communities well they've made decisions across the landscape of the country urban suburban and rural to say we care more about prosecuting the crime and having witnesses come forward to tell us about the crime and we care about the person's status and we're not going to put a chilling effect across the landscape of our community to being able to achieve those goals and that's what tough law enforcement will tell you sheriff will tell your prosecutors will tell you police chiefs will tell you they tell you that they want the community to participate now when secretary chertoff was before the committee recently testifying at a house hearing he responded to the question about this issue he said i'm not aware of any city that actually interferes with our ability to enforce the law so let's not mix apples and oranges the suggestion is that these cities interfere with the department of homeland security and ice is the ability to go head and pursue someone to be deported that is not the case but that is the argument that is trying to be made in pursuit of an amendment that is all about immigration and nothing about security we need to be about security in our communities we need to be able to have victims come forward now local governments have taken the initiative to reassure these communities in order to deliver services vital to the public health and safety if immigrant families and they may be immigrant families or also in fact have perfect status in this country but the message being sent out is don't talk to the local police we've had incidences of people who in fact have totally legal status who because they came forward as witnesses to a crime and a feeling more like the criminal themselves in the person that they were trying to testify against and that sends a chilling effect across immigrant communities to say do not participate it would be not in our security as communities to have that be the message if ever good families are afraid to access the opportunities for local law enforcement to have their participation as the eyes and ears of what's happening it would only send a ripple effect that would be negative in a wave of what would happen because if that's the message if you're a perpetrator of a crime series you want to do breakings an entry you want to do robberies in a community god forbid you might want to raise your say you know this community won't go to the police let's do it in that sector but then the crime continues and the perpetrator continues to be free and the process gets worse and worse so it seems to me that all americans are at higher risk of prevented a preventable crimes when the population fears coming forward to give information this is also about how they  to ensure communities have the wherewithal to combat the crime raise that we've seen over the last two years according to recent reports a way to do that is to have citizens come forward and participants in communities come forward and tell the police about what is happening it is not to put a chilling effect on this the senate has in the past largely already rejected these amendments in good judgment so let's listen to the cops let's listen to the prosecutors let's listen to the sheriff let's listen to the top law enforcement people let's listen to the communities that have elected officials that have these communities in their midst and who say that when it comes to a den crime and victims of crime we want them to come forward that is in the public interest and nothing nothing in these cities is used in a way as chertoff said himself secretary chertoff said in south to impede the opportunity for ice to do what they need to do should they be wanting to deport someone or all those reasons i urge my colleagues to reject the vitter amendment when it comes up for a vote and to preserve the security of our communities  from maryland mr president i too rise to oppose the vitter amendment for the benefit of our colleagues they should know a similar amendment was defeated on the immigration bill this year i amendment then and i oppose it now i oppose it on substantive grounds and i opposed it also one the grounds related to states rights and home rule mr president just to refresh everyone what the vitter amendment would do it would ban vocal governments from receiving federal law enforcement funds if a city or a vocality has passed a law prohibiting police from asking and immigrations status now why is this bad well first of all local gallen foresman officers all across america are opposed to this amendment their opposition has been very well articulated by our colleague from new jersey what has been articulated in by the local law enforcement communities is they feel they should not be held responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws that federal laws should be when immigration should be done by federal immigration authorities it will also make it harder for local police to do this it would foster great mistrust in our immigrant communities many democrats who are here legally you know there are many immigrants that are here illegally just because your name is grass they might have a name like sanchez doesn't mean you're an illegal immigrant you might be the owner of an id business in silver spring maryland one of the things we're concerned about is that immigrants then will not report crimes where will not give information to those who could go after serious crimes like the gang effort we're also concerned when people will not come forward particularly related to domestic violence if there's domestic violence it's a batter ballsed why not call the police because it could trigger some type of raid in their own community this is not a good way to go now let's go to the consequences of local communities deciding what they want to do what we're talking about here is where a city or a locality has passed a law prohibiting police from asking an immigration status that's their right that's their right to say what they want to do in their own community and then to deny federal funds for law enforcement fines for all of the other thing that they might be applying for fines for i think is outrageous what happens if they're applying for interopera communication equipment so that they can fight firemen crime they can have it what happens for when they have applied for funds and the violence against women act to deal with battered spouses abuse children oh no they won't be able to get their federal funds what happens then in the issue of sexual predators we have a robust effort here to go after communities it will stifle shackle and already impede local law enforcement from applying for federal fines that they would otherwise be entitled to i think this is misguided i think it's misdirected and for those of us who are very concerned about the issues of protecting our borders we understand we need to protect our borders but we also need to protect our communities and one of the ways we protect our communities is to let wall enforcement apply for federal fines for a variety of things from cops going to be which they wouldn't be able to get burned grant money for like technology or bulletproof vest they wouldn't be able to get it violence against women finds they wouldn't be able to get that i think the that or amendment is misguided and this directed and we should defeat it mr president i note the thirty two fifty six as modified by senators biden and k c and ask for its immediate consideration the amendment is pending and will have it the amendment is agreed to move requests after going on the table without objection mr president i now call up amendments thirty two thirty nine by senator kennedy and great progress our staffs are going to be working through the night we have about thirty six amendments pending can on the democratic side about twenty six and when the republican side we know that the staffs are working well after seven this is a good time to come over work with us we hope that tomorrow morning we'll be able to have some votes in the morning and also further progress it is the intention of the majority leader in the republican leader to finish this bill tomorrow even if we have to work through the night the best way not to work through the night more night is to work through the night tonight could come over and help clear up to labor and health and human services spending while we wait for senators to come to the floor a look at this morning's washington journal about some pending trade agreements with latin america our guest now peter hagen president of the interim american dialogue our topic is u s trade agreements with latin america there are several that are out pending first question mr hickam what are the benefits of free trade between the u s and more latin american countries well well so the u s has some direct benefits for specific business is it opens up markets sort of opens up prospects for investment and well overall given the size of the u s economy maybe a few countries like mexico and brazil have a very important impact economically but overall it's not enormous most important benefits of the u s is growing prosperity in latin america overall and other words growing prosperity generally means a little bit speculative but greater stability more democracy is a relationship with the united states we have in the past provided up to fifty billion dollars in loan to mexico to help it overcome a particular problem area we give a trade as a way that we that's that sort of the most direct and probably the best way of getting because graphic on the air there this is a free trade agreement that's very much pending right this would put eighty percent of consumer and industrial products duty free immediately according to the u s trade rep also increase market access to s goods services and agricultural products this would also provide says the u s trade representative for quality labor and environmental standards for where is the u s peru free trade agreement and it said  this will up in the next couple of weeks and they probably will get through not by a huge margin but it will pass through the only difficulty might be in the house but even there there's a there's a feeling that this is going to be approved what it what does it mean for peru well basically that means we're through these are some of the benefits that you just mentioned but the fact is proved gets most of those benefits through special trade preferences already what it does is it provides continued secure access to a huge almost unlimited market for some approves products this gives peru the ability to invest to take one particular product that just grown leaps and bounds  economy that's thirty forty fifty times that amount just to you huge market and that's what peru want and it also wants u s investment dollars we invite our viewers to phone in with their questions and comments for our guest is peter president of the interim american dialogue it's a center here in the u s for policy analysis exchange and western hemisphere affairs we have lines for republicans democrats and independents will get to your calls in just a moment but first mr wanted to send a number your way there's a pew research center study came out recently showing americans actually less positive these days about the benefits of trade than the citizens of nearly fifty other countries it found that fifty nine percent here view commerce is good for the economy a steep people are getting a little tired of globalization international issues generally i mean i think they're warning iraq has tired a lot of americans out about cities breaking new ground overseas there's issues of outsourcing the sense that the middle class isn't doing as well as it should there's an immigration issues the whole debate over immigration the united states seems to want to do more things itself now it's less interested in converting the world to democracy now it's less it to open markets i think it's more interested in sort of looking internally now i think there's just a loss of confidence in our ability to sort of deal overseas also made it difficult for the administration to open up investment opportunities for foreigners in this country there's a lot of pressure to sort of put some restraints on chinese exports in this country and the democrats in congress have been particularly anxious to incorporate labor rights labor standards into trade agreements this is been a longstanding debate that republicans win the cedar consideration estrus three point five a clerk will report senate resolution three forty five supporting the work of firefighters to educate and protect the nation's communities in the goals and ideals of fire  let me just take a we have on this bill that's now before the senate commerce state appropriations bill we have about eight amendments that democrats have pending oh we sh offer and we have twenty six republican amendments everyone should understand we're going to finish this bill tomorrow doesn't matter what events are going on around town we're going to work and finish this bill if it takes tell eight o'clock tomorrow night find there be no windows we're going to work right through this and if people try to hold this up we'll have a bunch of votes well i have the sarge i'm instructed we're going to move through this i've been told that we want to finish appropriation bills this is our second week on this bill and we're going to finish this bill tomorrow or sometime early wednesday morning we're going to continue working on this until it's completed or until we find that there's such and transient by the republicans that they don't want to finish this bill i hope that's not the case we've had on appropriation bills some decent cooperation republicans for which i'm appreciative and we have other bills we have to do if we finish this legislation we will still have seven appropriation bills to do i'm as president i am aware that we've had to file closure forty nine different times this year to defeat republican filibusters or just turn them around and we'll have to file if it's necessary to file fifty will do that i think that would be a shame to have to do that we have a finite number of amendments now and we need to try to work through them what we could do of course  here there are more democrats and republicans and we can move to table all the republican amendments would take a lot of time to do that and i hope we don't have to do that i hope that we can work through these and some of them will be accepted some of the leave voted for and i want to be as  i have the nation's business to be concerned about and we have to work through this we've now off work now doing other things in our district we've all worked hard now we're back to legislating and as part of that legislation is this bill that's before the senate now and we're going to work on it and complete it i was hopeful that with a two thirty deadline we would come back with a reasonable number of amendments but that's not in fact the case we have on republican side mr president we have a number of senators who are offering multiple amendments you know there are important and i understand that but i would hope that we can as i've said work our way through these we will one way or the other through these because we i i do not want and don't intend to file cloture on this i intend to work until we finish this bill i don't know how i can be more clear than that we have to move after this to another appropriation bill one that's extremely important the labor h h s bills extremely important piece of legislation involving so many different important issues which the presiding officer for example is now well the vitter amendment is the pending question president this is these appropriation bills like all appropriation bills this one like all appropriation bills really comes down to a matter of priorities we have a limited amount of resources we have to figure out where to put those the limited resources to the most effective use for the the tax payers by them it is very simple it takes twenty million dollars from an authorized program that has problems with wasteful spending and it spends that twenty million dollars instead to give federal prosecutors badly needed additional funding to fight violent crime in indian country violent crime has become a serious problem on reservations in south dakota and elsewhere and i determined to put an end to it if our tribal communities are to have a chance to be prosperous they must first have strong public safety a few weeks ago i co sponsored an amendment with senator dorgan to provide more law enforcement presence in indian country i strongly support this effort the other part of the equation th president is to ensure that those who have been arrested for violent crimes are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because the federal government has a trust responsibility to the tribes the task for prosecuting violent crimes in indian country lies with our united states attorneys however our u s attorneys often cannot prosecute crimes because of a lack of resources an article published last june in the wall street journal by gary fields about crime in indian country pointed out that federal prosecutors often do not intervene in cases involving serious crimes due to the long distances involved distances involved lack of resources and the cost of hauling witnesses and defendants to federal court the same article goes on to say that in the past two decades only thirty percent of tribal land crimes referred to u s attorneys were prosecuted according to justice department data compiled by syracuse university that compares with fifty six percent for all other cases and mispresent i would ask at the june twelfth two thousand and seven wall street journal article headlined tatar justice on u s indian reservations criminals slip through gaps be included in the record at the conclusion of my remarks without objection thank you mr president i hasten to add mr president that the u s attorney in south dakota is doing a fantastic job prosecuting violent crime and white collar crime on south dakota's indian reservations however i am certain he could put more funding to good use in his office as good every u attorney prosecuting violent crime in indian country the rate of violent crime in indian country is disproportionately high the department of justice reported that from one thousand nine hundred two to two thousand and one the average rate of violent crime among american indians was two and a half times the national rate according to one report in the indian country today newspaper native american women are seven times more likely to be victims of domestic violence than all other women are and more than sixty percent of the indian women will be victims of violent assault during their lifetimes according to the same report more than one third of all native american women will be raped as president this is unacceptable the f b i estimates that forty to fifty percent of indian country violent crime is now methamphetamine related in fact we know that meth traffickers and dealers target indian country jurisdictions because they believe they will not be prosecuted even if they are apprehended according to chris office of justice services meth distribution on tribal lands often occurs due to the belief that it is easier to get away with such a crime in indian country that is why we must dramatically ramp up prosecutions of violent crime and meth related violent crime in indian country i offer my mema today to help provide more resources to u s attorneys in indian country to prosecute more crimes referred to them specifically by men that would provide an additional twenty million dollars to u attorneys that can only be spent to prosecute crimes under the major crimes act of eight hundred eighty five and the indian country trip crimes act of eight hundred thirty four the amount would be paid for by subtracting twenty million dollars and the amount appropriate under this the legal services corporation this bill provides three hundred ninety million dollars to the legal services corporation a program that has not been author reauthorize i should say since one nine hundred eighty this is a twelve percent increase over the amount appropriated to the l thousand thousand and seven in a thirty percent increase above the administration's recommendation this instantiated increase comes at a time when the legal services corporation has faced serious questions about its management and expenditure of taxpayer dollars in august the o published a report in titled legal services corporation governance and accountability practices need to be monitored eyes and strengthened in the report the g a o noted that a dozen officers and employees of the legal services corporation had received compensation in excess of the statutory compensation limitation according to the g a o an outside legal counsel issued an opinion last may concluding that the legal services corporation had not complied with the statutory limitation on the rate of compensation the g a o agreed with that conclusion and went on to state that without a properly designed and implemented process for overseeing compensation the legal services corporation remains at risk of not complying with the related laws and regulations and engaging in imprudent management practices the g a o also noted in the report that quote in recent years l s e management has engaged in practices that may have prevented thorough effective through effective implementation of strong ethics policies and i end quote these practices were reported by the l a c's inspector general the inspector general found that food cost at meetings exceeded per diem allotments by two hundred percent and that l s e funds used funds to pay travel expenses for its president for business related to her positions with outside organizations the inspector general also found that alice e hired acting special counsels from grant recipient organizations causing potential conflicts of interest and could not complete an investigation into this practice because of a failure to provide documentation required by federal law and l s e grand agreements the g a o concluded that without the presence of a strong ethics committee providing effective oversight and development implementation updating and training for the code of ethics the aleksey l s e is it at increased risk of fraud or other mis ethical misconduct mr president i asked that the executive summary of the alice the office of inspector general report on certain physical practices at the legal services corporation dated september the twenty fifth two thousand and six and the g a o report entitled legal services corp governance and accountability practices need to be modernized and strengthened dated august of two thousand and seven appear in the record at the end of my remarks thank you mr president as president i do not believe that an organization has received such stinging criticism from the g a o about management practices and its handling of taxpayer dollars should be receiving a substantial increase in funding that is reflected in the underlying bill my amendment simply reduces a forty million dollar increase to a twenty million dollar increase for the legal services corporation for fiscal year two thousand and eight the legal services corporation would still receive an increase under my m m it just not nearly as substantial as originally reflected in the underlying bill mr president said earlier we must begin to choose priorities should we provide more badly needed funding to fight violent crime in indian country or should we reward an organization that is engaged in wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars by providing a massive increase over the president's recommendation of three hundred million and a massive increase even compared the amount of funding it received in the last fiscal year of three hundred forty eight million dollars this present i would urge the senate to join me in voting for more funding to help reduce violent crime in indian country to address what is a very desperate need across indian reservations in south dakota and to into into do it in a way that is consistent i believe with what the priorities in this bill this underlying bill ought to be by paying for it with a twenty million dollars decrease in the increase actually that is going to be allocated this year the legal services corporation in my judgment i view that makes sense it is as it is an issue that needs to be addressed and my memory would take us down that road coupled down that road coupled  with the agreement that was earlier raised on the dorgan amendment divide more of a law enforcement presence on indian reservations and so mr president i hope that we can accomplish both as object those objectives through the appropriations process this year and it starts right here with adopting this amendment so i  we need to get to and i really want to do it before we leave here november sixteenth is indian health something that is long overdue if we talk about people who need health care everybody would stand in line as second to need indians around this country and we have a bill the finance committee has is no process of being us no money to get it done it's not everything they need but it's are something that is important and is long overdue so i say to my friend who has one of the most needy reservations in the entire if i always say the most needy reservation entire country pine ridge we need to move have the time to get rid of some of the do something about indian health we went and i made a commitment that we are going to do that some way before we leave this legislative year we have to do that one piece of legislation and i know my friend from south dakota i understand the need in indian country of health care as i said it's great we want to take care of children's health initiative that's important when you have fifty million people no health insurance all those problems are really in the shadows of how sixteenth and on tuesday following the pern pledge journal proceedings be approved morning i'll be deemed expired the time for two leaders be reserved for the use later in the day and then be a predefined business for sixty minutes centers primitive speak up to ten minutes each time equally divided control between the majority minority with the republicans controlling the first half and majority controlling final portion the close morning business senate resume consideration h r three zero nine three and on tuesday the senate stand recess from twelve thirty t