the senate will come to order the chaplain dr barry black will lead the senate in prayer us pray god of our lives we confess that we have often been too distracted by dizziness to hear your words of truth keep us from being pressed by the end significant instead help us to take time to listen to the whisper of your spirit as the tender tug of time reminds us of our beginning and our end teach us to embrace your truth which transcends life and death on this first day returning from recess give our senators strength for all they will encounter today may day feel your power keeping them from stumbling and slipping remind them that you are the final judge of their leadership and the only one they ultimately need to please use them for your glory we pray senator from the state of rhode island to perform the duties of the chair so robert c byrd president pro tempore this president the majority leader today following any time utilized by the two leaders the senate will be in a period of mourning business till three o'clock p with the time equally divided and controlled between the two sides of three p m today the senate will proceed to h r fifteen eighty five the defense department authorization bill we all know help organise legislation is sent will carefully and thoughtfully and thoroughly debate issues associated with our military service men at home and abroad sir bill nelson will be here to manage the bill for chairman levin will be in the hearing until later this afternoon so i indicated part of the recess this period will be a member should be prepared for votes occurring whenever the senate in a session must i make announcement contrary mr president i ask and sent the senate proceed to meet in consideration of us rose to sixty three submitted earlier today the clerk will report to sixty three to authorize testimony and legal representation in state of iowa versus chester when at all that objection the senate will proceed to the measure i ask and set the resolution be agreed to preamble be agreed to the motion reconsider be laid on the table and the it wasn't too many years ago that sessions of the senate were much shorter than they are now and during the summertime the months of july and august people went home because the so hot and they simply couldn't handle the heat in this building and in this town but that is change now with air conditioning and with but we still traditionally take august as our break we don't for good reasons there's a lot of things that we have to do to catch up on work at home the senators have to travel throughout their states to catch up on things state in nevada for example is the seventh largest state area wise in the country and the have on seventy percent of the people live in las vegas twenty percent of the people live in reno but the other ten percent are entitled to representation senate like the two metropolitan areas in addition that was present we have porton obligations around the world and august is set aside as a time when members travel around the world to check out assets that our country towns and obligations we have through treaties and otherwise reason i mention that mr president is that we have a lot of work to do there's a work creative for sure yes and we hope it is four short weeks it wasn't but a month ago when members of this body and the house are criticizing the iraqi parliament for taking their summer vacation because they haven't done the work they were supposed to do now is running the american people are looking at us not the iraqi parliament the american congress to make sure we also do our work and we have a schedule that we have during this for we quick read that we have to make we don't do that august recess period is going to be shorter everyone should understand that i know i've come to the floor earlier in the year conking about the need for us to do different things and which worked out very well rarely we worked on only one weekend we've spent a few nights but not too many because members have on most occasions when it comes time to finish our work before a we're created and so we're able to complete that work and i hope that will continue we have a lot to do i think this could be one of the most if not the most important work period of the year it was reported in the press today that we the majority of we felt forty two cloture to sions the share already why because mr president everything that we've had to do motions to proceed basically everything the republicans have had us go that route procedurally to try to invoke cloture to move forward we haven't always been successful and most the time we have because it was simply stalling and when it came right down to it on many occasions the republicans voted with us but they still got the thirty hours to slow things down and spider that missed present we've been able to accomplish a lot and we of course passed minimum wage for the first time in ten years as a result of the supplemental appropriation bill that the president gave us we were we were forced into that legislation not only the minimum wage bill a disaster relief which is three years overdue for ranchers and farmers were able to for the first time over the presence objections get extra money for homeland security we got a billion dollars there were able to finally get money for the gulf seven billion dollars the president gone there twenty two times but the money had never been forthcoming we were able in the supplemental appropriation bill to force that and we're also mr president able t year to pass a budget good budget we think that will set the pattern for what needs to be done this year and we've had other accomplishments we also mr  president have things that we have to do and that's why this work creator so important in defense authorization bill is one thing this gives us a chance to support our troops with the readiness amendment it's going to be the first amendment up there requires active duty troops have at least the same amount of time at home as the link that their previous tour overseas is will also be our chance to force responsible action in iraq at the present up to this point has refused we've had during the week we've been gone a number of republicans of goodwill who have spoken out against the need to change policy in iraq and i appreciate very much they're stepping forward as does the american people democrats and republicans second mr president we're going to is important keeping children healthy we're also going to turn to the higher education access act a bill that will help americans afford college by addressing the law arming rising tuition costs it could be and will be the most significant change in higher education since the g i bill of rights is going to change programs it's going to take monies that are used to pay people who provide these loans who are getting in the minds of many outrageous profits and money they give young people to go to school to take that and put it in that's something that will really educate children fourth we're going to tackle appropriation bills the first bill that i want to do is homeland security this bill strengthens airport seaports border security supports our first responders and plug security gaps that have been ignored for far too long and finally mr president we're going to send the nine eleven ethics bills to conference as i said during the last day we were here no longer am i going to come here and hope that the goodwill of the republicans will allow us to go to conference this president we are going to finish these bills if it means that i have to file cloture to get conferences that's what we will do it's too bad because on the ethics bill it is important we do this it's so important we do this a culture of corruption this legislation is passed the house and pass the senate we've got minor differences we should complete them we almost got there last the last week we were here but the last minute somebody stepped in and wanted to stop us from going there's always some diversionary tactic nine eleven we've got another letter today from the nine eleven families saying do something about this so mr president we're here's our work schedule to make sure everybody understands that we need a complete during this work period defense authorization we're going to work hard at s chip we're going to finish the conference should ports on nine eleven and ethics and lobbying reform  also going to do the defense authorization bill as i talked about how we're going to do the reconciliation on the higher education act and we're going to do an appropriation bill or more if we can't  i repeat it's time that we start legislating for the american people the minority is certainly proven that they can slow things down here and forty two times we've had to file  cloture and i hope we don't have to continue doing that will address the issues that i've talked about before and the word create and break for the august recess recess is important i repeat give members the opportunity to travel home and abroad which is so important why is our understanding of the issues that we face two of our colleagues for example both former members of the united states military centers mccain and reid traveled to iraq during this fourth of july work and they'll have a lot report to i've already met with jack reed and i've had a wonderful conversation with him i don't i don't think there's anyone in the senate that's traveled there more than he has i'm quite sure that's true august recess is also a time as i've indicated meet with constituents that's also important and were sent here for one reason above all others mess to legislate and that's what we must do so i say as respectfully as i can to my friends democrats and republicans who are senators that you need to keep your august travel plans flexible i believe you can address each of these issues i've mentioned in the next four weeks and complete our work  the conference reports could go very quickly but it's not just up to me as we move this countered along at a pace allows for debate and not obstruction in recent weeks we been seeing some of our republican colleagues so the bus journeys even issues that it appears they support is hard to comprehend but that's what we've seen that's their right i don't think it's good for our country and  simply going to do what we can to move this body along so that we can complicate things president wilson said one occasion and i quote the commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities wide and generous it's compulsion is upon us so much present the compulsion is to get the job done now and for the very successful work created we're going to have to put in some long hours but certainly that shouldn't be a hindrance to our work here the republican leader i listened with interest to my good friend a majority leader let me just make a few random observations before making a couple of some remarks about a defense authorization bill indicated that they've been forty two cloture petitions file that is quite a lot no question about it the reason that was necessary of course is because the majority was trying to truncate the legislative process which in the senate unlike the house gives them up minority considerable opportunity to offer amendments that typically the way these things are done is to be worked out cloture petitions don't always produce the desired result of the majority and we look forward to having fewer cloture petitions not more as a better way to actually pass more legislation with regard to the august recess asked certainly would be prepared to stay here and work i can recall majority leader and i were here the last time that tried in one nine hundred ninety four when we stayed here two weeks into the august recess to try to pass the national health care plan supported by then president clinton and his first lady hillary clinton after two weeks of frustration senator mitchell gave up and the recess began sometimes that kind of device would be helpful other times it may not  be i worry a good bit about the fact that we've not done any appropriation bills yet the basic work of the government is to fund the agencies of government we do it through thirteen appropriation bills we've not passed and yet i do worry that we'll end up with a process that could lead us in the direction that we went last year under my party and in two thousand and two when the democrats were in the majority which led to kind of a total meltdown of the appropriations process i hope that can be avoided a lot of cooperation on this to prevent that from happening but we do need to schedule the bills and actually pass them if we're going to have a chance to have anywhere near a normal appropriations process with regard to the nine eleven bill is a good friend a majority leader knows we were prepared to go to conference on that bill prady before the recess no request to go for it go to  actually propounded on that day and i think if we can have our staff change some language there's no good reason why we can't go to conference on the nine eleven bill very shortly maybe even including today with regard to the lobbying bill it was my intention to go to conference on the lobbying bill we had an objection on this side of the aisle the objector came over here made the objection that's the way the senate works there is still  strong support for that bill on this side of the aisle it was the first bill the majority leader brought up with my concurrence and cooperation we passed it with only two dissenting votes and i'm very optimistic that we can get that to conference as well so there'll be a lot of cooperation on this side of the aisle the try to advance the issues that the majority leader feels we ought to address and that mr president let me make some observations about the defense  republicans would like to see is an open and comprehensive debate we know this debate is going to include a discussion of our policy in iraq and we welcome that variety of different proposals on both sides of the aisle about how we ought to go forward on that most important issue nobody has any doubt that's the number one issue in the country and we're certainly prepared to offer our suggestions as well as to react to the democrat suggestions about where we should go from from here but a couple of words of caution are in order as we proceed everyone should know from the outset that republicans will inspect expect and in on the freedom to improve this bill with with our own amendments we will be offering them and expect to have them voted on as well as democratic amendments democrats are continually try to block our efforts at improving legislation earlier in th as evidenced by the record pace of cloture petitions that we've just been discussing here on the floor that have been filed against your own you worry i know that there's been an effort to attempt to paint this record setting pace of cloture petitions as a reaction against alleged republican intransigence but frankly that's simply not the case it's an effort to try to truncate the legislative process and such a way that works to the disadvantage of the minority the senate's always we've improved we believe everything we've touched and will continue to insist on our rights to do that specifically on this bill the d o d authorization bill which will turn to at three o'clock will insist on amendments that respond aggressively and practically to the ongoing terrorist threat both here and abroad it's important to remember who we're fighting general petraeus has said that eighty to ninety percent of the suicide bombers in iraq are from outside the country outside of iraq or fat it fighting al qaida other terror terror groups and the states that support them we can't allow these terrorists again a new sanctuary even closer to the u s and afghanistan or to gain access to other ungoverned areas in the middle east that will give them a new stage to carry out their attacks it has always been in the u s interest and it remains in the u s interest to maintain stability in the persian gulf it's important not to forget that either we need to guard against an emboldened iran which is the silicate ng and capitalizing on the weakness of iraq for its own advantage on the world stage and we must your reassure our allies in iraq the middle east and the world that america remains committed to fighting terrorism wherever it is found but only as we proceed with must remember that we are at war and that our enemies will use any means at their disposal to harm us they intend to strike us at home and abroad they will exploit any opening we give them they will use every tool at their disposal everyone in this chamber has america's best interest at heart but it will fall on republicans and us but in this debate to be particularly awake  complexity of the terrorist threat now it's no accident mr president that we have been attacked at home in nearly six years we've kept terrorists at arm's length by bringing the fight to them republican amendments will build on the lessons we've learned over the past six years they will reflect our commitment to security and continued vigilance and will insist that they be hurt republicans will succeed in improving this bill in ways that improve our war fighting ability and our counterterrorism tools i yelled florus rosen to the majority leader i appreciate not only the comments of my distinguished counterpart senior senator from kentucky but the manner in which they were offered time i would hope that we can work together to get some of these things done starting with this bill defense authorization we have two senators that are the managers of that bill sir's levin and warner work together and that committee for twenty five years are both dedicated patriots and they bill no matter what happens here on the floor i would also say that coincidentally i had a meeting today with the president of the american medical association about came here to talk about the s chip bill and how important it is we get that passed and also mr president in speaking with physicians about the point health care plan that we did spend a lot of time here as everyone knows that legislation started out with eighty percent of american people supporting a change in health care policy in this country with a huge amounts of money spent by mainly the insurance and straight with their harry and louise ads that were reversed about when it was all over with was in half the people supported that legislation huge amounts of money were spent denigrating that legislation and right now as people met with me here today they were sure wish that legislation passed it would solve a lot of problems we deal with here medical malpracti insights twenty twenty mispresent that was accomplished and hopefully we can with this s chip set a tone for what we can do with legislation here as it relates to health care with the nine eleven and ethics and lobbying reform is present proof is in the putting are we going to have more delays that's why i'm not going to come here if as might think we find as indicated if republican staff comes to our staff and says we're ready to go to conference we'll go because like that and i'm not going to come out here anymore and have somebody come out and sideswipe it can't do it because of this or that always something standing in the way of it it  american people are watching us and we're going to finish those two pieces of legislation before we leave here in august it's not a threat it's just this is what i'm what we have to do the american people need us to do certain things and can't we certainly pass antics lobbying reform can't we certainly pass a nine eleven commission recommendations which are three years old the administration is not is not mr president on implementing those in fact as we know and which is fine i would say again we are prepared to go to conference on the nine eleven bill i would suggest that we have our floor staff here work out the language i don't think there's any reason why we couldn't do that today i think mr president i i am happy i am happy i so appreciate it very much i appreciate it and i think it's good we try to have the good work environment here the next few weeks we have a lot of things to do we went through one of the most difficult issues that is ever faced this body ever in the two hundred plus years we've been a country and that was immigration reform fran's against france it was a very very difficult issue and so i think it's time for up to ten minutes each and with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designated present majority leader not to have a quorum will call the rol the two houses the chair be authorized appoint conferees and part of the senate i further asked consent that it not be an order to consider the conference report if it contains collective bargain provisions which i have committed to drop as has the speaker objection without objection is present finally again on the record spread how much i appreciate this and i know the families of nine eleven appreciate democrats and republicans coming together and agreeing to complete this legislation which we will very quickly the senator from arizona was present most of the activity with regard to the terrorist plot in great britain occurred while we were on our breaks back home i wanted to briefly discuss that today because it seems to me that the terror plot in great britain must serve as a wake up call to those of us here in the united states who perhaps have been too complacent about the terrorist threat these plots remind us of the dangers that we really face each and every day and we need to employ all possible intelligence and follow up in order to stop attacks and roll back these terrorist groups the war against terrorists and the radical ideologies that drive terrorism are this war is going to go on for a long time and attacks will not occur every day so we've got to remain resolute in the face of this long term threat never allowing temporary respite from violence to tempt us into thinking that the terrorists have stopped recruiting and plotting abroad we must confront the challenge not just of the terrorist networks but of states like iran and syria that provide funds and equipment and training terrorists and at home we have to have adequate intelligence to find and monitor and disrupt terrorist cells that can strike at any time requires vigilance and cooperation among many in forstmann units into dee's and importantly the support of the american people against this threat the saying out of sight out of mind can have no place now the first point i'd like to make today mr president is that as the plot in great britain revealed this is not about grievances this is about ideology there are those at home who are members of what was called the blame america first crowd which is a term coined by my friend the late ambassador jeane kirkpatrick to say that the islamised hate us because of what we do they allegedly hate us because we don't do enough to fight poverty because of the israeli palestinian conflict because of iraq or because of the later danish cartoon or whatever of course this is nonsense the radical ideology that spawns this terrorism has nothing to do with such grievances or poverty the perpetrators of the plots in great britain were doctors not individuals radicalized by  employment or poverty stricken slums these plots certainly were not the result of british policy and they unfolded in the very day that gordon brown a critic of britain's role in the two thousand and three invasion of iraq took office nor did they have anything to do with american policy from what we know of the individuals involved it appears the motivation was the same as all of the other acts of terrorism in the name of militant islam this radical doctrine had its roots in the early twentieth century and gained momentum through the writings of radical islam and such thousand attack on the u s s cole september eleventh two thousand and one and all of the attacks since then invested in madrid london and elsewhere in every case the rationale was the same advancement of the radical ideology of militant islam a perversion of the faith to be sure but based on their concept of the faith nonetheless the share in evil of the acts and the perpetrators shocks our souls especially because it's allegedly grounded in religion people trained as doctors those who are supposed to value and preserve life were at the center of the plot in great britain to destroy innocent life we in the west who believe in right in reason and rationality have trouble comprehending the mentality of militant islam and those who subscribe to it but we need to and it to call it what it is and not to shrink from this honesty because the terrorists and their sympathizers hide behind a great religion importantly we must not seek to rationalize or explain the views in the behavior of our enemy through our values and experiences militant islam seeks not to change our policies but to destroy our very way of life and replace it with a taliban like society ruled by shari'a law and it's in force there's militant islam is declared war on the west be very clear about it it is fundamentally at odds with freedom with democracy with the inherent humanity of the individual with critical thinking and rational decision making not to mention all other religious beliefs and while it might be fueled by grievances it is not caused by the west but rather by the very backwardness and ideological rigidity that they would impose on others the second point mr president is this we should be clear that militant islam though bound together by common ideology comes in various stripes including al qaeda responsible for nine eleven which may have inspired the recent terror plots in great britain iran's radical regime whose leader vows to wipe israel off the map and invasions of world without america and which is speeding toward the development of nuclear weapons what does i'm of saudi arabia which is funding radical ideology in mosques and madrassas all over the world including here at home groups like the idea ideology in a new veneer of tolerance while its activities directly support terrorist groups like hamas and many others but state sponsored testing of the united states and the west is also in full force iran is testing our resolve in iraq where it's using its revolutionary guard and also its terrorist client has the law to train and arm those who are fighting our soldiers iran is testing the resolve of the u s and nato forces in afghanistan where it's providing support successful coup against the palestinian authority of mahmoud abbas third mr president successful american response depends on resolve and support of the american people we must understand the nature of our enemy and ideology confronting them head on with full confidence in the rightness of our cause this is not a matter of moral relativism we must not allow ourselves to be gagged by false political correctness we can say that these terrorists were bound together and motivated by a hateful ideology grounded in their interpretation of islam without condemning any other muslims we must not embrace groups who tell us they stand for peace without renouncing violence in the name of islam we must not reward evil with retreat from any of the battlefields where the fight is raging including iraq and afghanistan and we must be willing to support intelligence and enforcement activities including incarcerating those who have plotted against or attacked us mr president as we celebrate the success of protecting our homeland since nine eleven and preventing loss of life from the attempted attacks in great britain let our words and actions prove that we have not forgotten the resolve that we displayed six years ago today and let us not fall into the temptation of blaming ourselves for the actions of those who inspired by hatred have declared war on us it is not grievances which have spawn this hatred and these attacks but rather the hateful ideology president center from oregon president like all of those in the senate i've just come home from a great week in oregon we own the summer it's just wonderful to be home during these warm days and cool nights the other parts of the country may have a beautiful month other times of the year but nobody can be in oregon summer and want to talk a little bit about what i heard as i moved around the state but i heard again and again is that folks at home want the senate to change course in iraq and they want to fix health care and we're going to start on the first item today in a few minutes as we go to the defense authorization bill i believe very strongly that we don't support our courageous troops in iraq by forcing them to referee a civil war there and i think it will become clear this week that there is growing and bipartisan interest here in the united states senate to set a specific deadline to force the iraqis to make the decisions for themselves about how they will govern their nation so what i want to do is talk for a few minutes about health care something that i know the president of the senate has a great passion in as well and certainly folks are talking about today because the need to fix health care is so great and of course many have flocked to the michael moore movie as well generating additional debate about this issue the first matter on the health care agenda to come up is going to be the children's health program and in my view passing a strong program for kids is about a race thing a moral blot on our nation it is unconscionable that millions of kids youngsters in rhode island in oregon across the country go to bed at night without good quality affordable health care in a country as rich and strong as ours clearly as the majority leader senator reid noted  earlier this afternoon we can do this and we can do it in a bipartisan way the senate finance committee is not going to pass a children's health program that becomes a trojan horse for government run health care that's not going to happen in the senate finance committee the senate finance committee is going to work in a bipartisan way under the leadership of senator baucus working with senator grassley and senator rockefeller and senator hatch i'm very hopeful that there will be a bipartisan agreement over the next few days the target that desperately need need to youngsters in our country and is responsibly funded i'm hopeful that that will come together this week mr president and members of the senate finance committee will be working throughout the week on a bipartisan basis to bring that about but it is also very clear in my view mr president the children's health program was not created to solve our nation's health care crisis and in fact i think when we get on the floor debating the children's health program the senate will see the country will see that that debate illustrates how broken our health care system is we're clearly spending enough money we're just not spending it in the right places for example for the amount of money we're spending this year our country could go out and hire a doctor for every seven families in the united states and pay that dr two hundred thousand dollars a year to care for seven family whenever i bring this up with  physicians they always say ron where do i go to get my seven families so clearly we're spending enough money and we're going to use the dollars even more efficiently as the senator from out rhode island brings us his very constructive proposals as it relates to better use of health information technology second i believe that we have the possibility of a real ideological truce now in health care as the distinguished senator from rhode island knows from our hearing in the senate budget committee we saw a real consensus emerging just in the course of that hearing i think it's very clear that senators of both political parties understand that to fix health care you must cover everybody if you don't cover everybody people who are uninsured shift their bills to folks who are in short colleagues on life side of the aisle who made the point about getting everybody coverage in my view have been accurate and clearly the country and citizens of all political persuasions have come around to that point of view but as we saw in our hearing the senate budget committee just recently there's also strong support for something the republicans have felt strongly about and that's not having the government run everything in health care there ought to be a role for healthy private sector one where there is a fairer and more efficient market and there ought to be more choices facta system much like members of congress enjoy today i'm very pleased that i can join with senator bennett of utah a member of the republican leadership in offering a bill based on just those principle it is asked three three four the healthy americans ac and it is the first bipartisan universal coverage bill in more than thirteen year distinguished president of the senate might be interested in history the last bipartisan universal coverage he bill was offered by the late senator chafee not his son the late senator chafee and more than thirteen years ago so now we do have the opportunity for the senate to come together on a bipartisan basis and deal with the premier challenge here at home and that is fixing american health care now i and senator bennett also believe that there are some key challenges to bringing this country together to fix health care and we believe in our legislation we've been able to address them the first is how do you make sure that folks who do have coverage today and that is the majority of the people of our country have a system that works for them so often in the past they've said well we're not exactly pleased with what we have but the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know and those folks in washington well we don't know if they can organize a two car parade let alone fix american healthcare for the first thing that senator bennett and i said is for people who have insurance today in rhode island in oregon and elsewhere we're going to take several steps to assure them that as part of fixing health care we understand their needs the first is with the initial paychecks that are issued if the healthy americans act is adopted workers women and employers when workers win because they'll have more cash in their pockets they'll have more private choices in a fixed market place when insurance companies can't cherry pick and they'll have lifetime security where no one can ever take their coverage away employers will win with the first paychecks as well because they will get out from under the staggering rates of growth in american health care we all know that employers in rhode island in oregon elsewhere see their premiums go up more than thirteen percent annually far in excess of the rate of inflation and we cannot have our employers compete in tough global markets when they sustain those kinds of premium hikes and the competition they are up against internationally has the benefits of government run health care so i think that senator bennett and i have been able to make the kinds of changes in our bill that show that we've learned from some of the mistakes in the past most recently in hundred ninety four when the congress last tried to fix health care and one area that we focused on is to make sure that we can get the savings through cost containment right at the outset and a group called the lewin group considered the gold standard of health policy analysis has looked at our legislation and they found that we generated the savings for our legislation the cost containment needed to fix health care through siberia first we redirect the money that is spent in the federal tax code today mr president more than two hundred billion dollars is sent out through the federal tax code so that if you're a high flying c e o you can go out and get a designer smile plastered on your face and write off the cost of that operation on your taxes but if you're a hard working woman who works at the corner furniture store in rhode island and your company don't have a health plan you don't get anything that's not right senator bennett and i re money under the federal tax code to get the bulk of the really the people in the middle income and lower middle income brackets in the lewin organization found significant savings and are doing that they also found significant savings on the administrative side because we have a one stop sign up process and all of the essential transactions are done through technology transfers once you sign up you're in the system for ever and they found significant is ministration administrative savings through that the third area they found specific savings in is what is called the disproportionate share program where  hospitals have to pick up the bills for folks hospitals and the government have to pick up the bill for folks who come to hospital emergency rooms and have no coverage clearly it would be much better to have those folks having private coverage targeted it outpatient services so they can get their health care in a way that is better for them and better for their finances than to have them all flocking to hospital emergency rooms the fourth area in which we generate savings is by redirecting dollars that are now spent on the poor my guess is it's this way in rhode island but in oregon we have more than thirty categories of coverage for for people under medicaid so the poor people literally have to find a way to squeeze themselves into one box or another in order to find coverage wildly in a fish and frankly pretty dehumanizing to those who participate the better way to go is what senator bennett and i are talking about which is to make coverage for low income people automatic those who are of modest income would be  but it would be for private coverage and finally mr president we secure savings through significant reform in the private insurance sector today private insurance companies can cherry pick and take healthy people and send government and some sick people over to government programs more fragile than they are that would be barred under our legislation they would be guaranteed issue they'd have to take all comers couldn't discriminate against people with illnesses so that in the insurance sector under our bipartisan legislation private insurance companies would compete on the basis of price benefit and quality rather than who can find the healthiest people the president i i've talked with our colleague as well about health care and i know he has an interest in a bipartisan effort if the senate begins with the children's health program and we make it clear that this is not some kind of trojan horse for a government run health plan but something to really secure the needs for children i think we can do this in a bipartisan way and then in effect segue into a nother bipartisan effort to fix health care that would get all americans under the tent for quality affordable coverage senator bennett and i have brought before the senate a proposal particularly on the basis of the hearing in the senate budget committee two weeks ago that we think can bring the senate together go where no congress has been able to go since nine hundred forty five when harry truman made an effort to do it and that is a rational system so that all americans quality affordable coverage president yield the floor mr president then or from south carolina mr president i ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to speak as of and morning business for up to fifteen minutes objection without objection thank you mr president and i would like to before i begin my statement to commend senator wyde on his vision for health care and his passion for helping equalize our tax code in a way that would help every american to buy private health insurance but i rise today to speak about the senate earmark transparency rules that have not been implemented minute after so many months as my colleagues know we passed two new senate rules back in january that would shine some light on the earmarking process and we require us to be open and honest about how we spend american tax dollars unfortunately the senate rules which have nothing to do with the house of representatives have been held hostage so they can be gutted in secret when no one is looking that's right mr president there are some in this chamber who do not want to disclose their earmarks there are some who do not want to certify in writing that they will not benefit financially from the earmarks and there are some who don't who want to be able to continue the practice of adding secret earmarks to our bills in closed door conference committees mr president the earmark disclosure rule was originally off as an amendment to senate bill number one this year the lobbying and ethics reform bill i offered this amendment because of the disclosure requirements the majority leader included in his at the reform bill only covered five percent of earmarks that we passed every year i believe then as i do now that disclosure of only five percent of our earmarks is not reform and represents business as usual as my colleagues know the leadership on the other side of the aisle originally opposed my amendment and actually tried to kill it they said that it was too broad and that the language which came directly from speaker pelosi in the house was rushed and therefore flawed the majority leader said on january eleventh and i quote this distinguished senator from south carolina has said that this is exactly like the house provision i say to my friend that is one of the problems i have with it because i frankly do not think they spent the time we have on this and a quote the same day senator durbin said and i quote but the dement language is actually unworkable because it is so broad frankly it would make this a very burdensome responsibility in quote fortunately the senate refused to table the amendment in the democrat leadership was forced to support full earmark disclosure to save face the other side came up with a slightly modified version that they said was better than the house in it because it required forty eight hours notice on the internet of earmarks we all agreed to this language and passed the durban amendment ninety eight to nothing the democrat leadership of made at least change their tune once the bill was passed the majority leader s january sixth and i quote in effect we have combined the best ideas from both sides of the aisle democrat and republican to establish the strongest possible disclosure rules in this regard and senator durbin said and i quote i am pleased with this bipartisan solution i believe it reflects the intent of all on both sides of the aisle to make sure there is more disclosure later in the debate the senate also unanimously accepted an amendment prohibiting the practice of what we call air dropping earmarks in conference that is adding earmarks that were not included in either the house or the senate versions of the bill again we all agreed to this language and accepted it unanimously unfortunately mr president that is when the public turned away from this issue and when the bipartisan support for earmark reform end mr president i came to this floor on thursday march the twenty ninth seventy days after we passed the senate earmark transparency rules and i asked force a consent to enact them but a senator on the other side objected the reason for his objection according to several news reports was that the other side of the was caught off guard and was not properly notified well that sounded somewhat plausible so i came back on this f again on tuesday april seventeenth eighty nine days after we passed the senate earmark transparency rules which again have yet to be enacted a senator on the other side still objected but this time it was senator durbin the very senator who work with me to offer the new earmark disclosure rules he objected to his own amendment being enacted he said he did he did so because he did not believe we should enact ethics reform in a piecemeal way but then the majority made it lee announced that it would self and force some of the new earmark transparency rules in a piecemeal way they said they would allow each committee to decide if and how to disclose their earmarks mr president the congressional research service recently provided me with a review of all earmark rules being used in the senate committees the analysis shows  the rules have not been applied in many of our committees and even those that have been created have created informal rules that cannot be enforced on the senate floor so according to c r s only four out of eighteen committees have even created an informal rule this shows what we all know to be true that the rules are being implemented in a piecemeal way which is exactly what the other side said they wanted to avoid it's clear that we need a formal rule in place that applies to all committees that's what we voted for at the beginning of the year when we wanted to show americans that we were going to address the culture of corruption in washington and that's what we need to do now mr president came down to this force shortly before the july fourth recess to talk with the majority leader about these earmark rules he wanted to go to conference with the house senate bill number one the ethics and lobbying reform bill and i wanted to get his personal assurances that these earmark rules would not be watered down or eliminated behind closed doors unfortunately the majority leader told me that he could not give me those assurances which was a clear sign that the folks working on this bill have plans to weaken the earmark transparency rules that we adopted in january mr president tried again to get consent to enact these rules on thursday june the twenty eighth one hundred sixty one days after they had passed and again the other side objected the reason this time which was a complete departure from what they had said before was that the other side plan to work with the house to change the rules and that it was unreasonable for maid to demand that they be protected the majority leader said and i quote there will be some things that will wind up being a senate rule some things will wind up being a house rule that is part of what the conference is going to work out no one is trying to detract from anything that the distinguished senator from south carolina wants but just because you want something doesn't mean you necessarily are going to get it senator schumer echoed their desire to change the rules by saying maybe there are some things other people might add maybe there will be the kind of legislative trade offs that will make a stronger ethics bill we all have no way of knowing to get ninety or ninety five percent of what is a good package most people would say yes and senator durbin sought to belittle my effort to protect the year mark rules saying and i quote it would seem that the senator from south carolina is carping on a trifle here and i was carping on his bill there are three words to describe what's going on here mr president business as usual this is one of the worst flip flop reversals that i have ever seen even the senator from illinois the very person who had previously praised the new rules minute minimize their importance and supported efforts to change that mr president i realize the other side never liked these rules to begin with after all they did try to kill them but i thought they had come around and were now supported i thought we agreed that earmark transparency was a reasonable step to began changing the way we spend american tax dollars and to end business as usual it now appears that i was mistaken mr president a hundred and seventy two days have now gone by since we passed the senate earmark transparency rules and yet a few in the chamber still refused to enact them instead these objections were more excuses excuses that keep changing as time passes first they said the rules were too broad and the house wrote them incorrectly then after the senate leadership revised the rules to their liking they support them but now after six months have passed they're saying the rules need to be fixed again and this time by the house i'm sorry mr president i realize that this may seem like a joke but i'm not making it up the pres mr president what we have here is obstruction pure and simple it's been a hundred seventy two days since we passed these earmark transparency rules and the majority will still not allow them to be enacted several senators on the other side are determined to block these rules and prevent them from ever being implemented they now publicly acknowledged that they intend to change the rules behind closed doors and according to several media reports the majority leader is if even willing to cancel the entire august recess to force those of us who want earmark capitulate he wants us to stop fighting for the american taxpayers that's not going to happen so the quicker we end the obstruction of these earmark reform rules the quicker we can get on to other things mr president i intend to fight for these rules even if it means staying here every day in august in fact that might mean the best outcome of all we need to have a national dialogue in this country about how congress spends americans hard earned tax dollars i think it would be good for those in this chamber to explain to the american people why they don't to be transparent and how we spend their money that's a discussion we need to have here i'm now going to seek consent one more time to enact these important disclosure rules and i would just ask the majority that if they don't like the language that they develop then make suggestions of how they want to change them but in the meantime i think we should go to conference on this lobby and ethics reform bill so i would like to ask unanimous consent that the rules committee be discharged from further consideration in the senate now to proceed to s resolution one two three and as resolution two zero six the earmark disclosure resolutions all enbloc that the resolutions be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table i further asked that the senate then proceed to the immediate consideration of h r twenty three sixteen the house passed ethics and lobbying reform bill that after the enacting clause be stricken in the text of  one as passed by the senate be inserted there of that the bill be read a third time passed in the senate insist on its amendment request a conference with the house and the chair be authorized to appoint conferees at a ratio of four we understand what's happened here the senate passed an ethics reform bill it's a big bill with a lot of provisions in there that we felt were necessary because of some of the wrongdoing that occurred in washington over the last several years we went after the jack scandal remember that lobbyist he's in prison now he had a pretty sweetheart arrangement here he was sticking things in bills it went on and on i won't go into all the gruesome details but we really decided to break this kind of cozy relationship between the lobbyists and some members on capitol hill and then we would side of the take a look at some of the other aspects of things that were troubling people we went into the question of gifts how much can a senator receive we wanted a question about how about leaving the senate and picking up a big paying job on k street as a lobbyist within a few months making a lot of money happen too often we said let's let's slow down this revolving door we went after the disclosure of private employment goshi a sions that senators and congressmen were entering into while they were still sitting in the house of representatives and in the united states senate we expanded lobby disclosure requirements went to great lengths and said the lobbyists have to tell us a lot more about what they're doing with their money and their time then we went  prohibit the old k street project unless you're a real insider on capitol hill you may not remember that one but they used to have i'm not kidding now weekly meetings in the office of the united states senate are here where the lobbyists would come in and tell the amendments that they wanted and then the senators would tell them what fundraisers were coming up i don't know if there was any connection but some people thought there might be we put an end to that and that was part of it too then we talked about members who were convicted of certain crimes losing their pensions understandable if you're guilty of floating is conduct relating to your official duties that might follow the integrity of the process here so that members couldn't dump little things and at the last minute in the conference reports that hadn't been considered in the house and senate and of course we went to the question of earmarks now that was an important part of this but it sure wasn't the only part listen everything i read here so now we're trying to get this bill to conference we want to take this bill to a conference and work with the house and pass the most significant ethics reform bill in the history of congress long overdue i think most americans would say why haven't you done it already well i can tell you for twelve days why we haven't done it senator de mint of south carolina has objected senator de mint the man who took the floor and used my name a dozen times as a great ethics reform or has been the senator who objects to our going to conference to make these proposals which passed the senate similar measures passed the house the law of the land why because he's picked one paragraph out of here related to earmarks and he wants a guarantee that that's going to come out of the conference without a change i think it probably will you know what the final vote was when to pass the senate ninety eight to nothing it's pretty good indication he's going to see either the exact language he proposed or something very close to it but unless he gets a lockdown guaranteed to get every word of that he's going to stop all of these efforts of ethics reform he's going to stop the efforts to put it into the k street project he's going to stop the efforts more disclosure he's going to stop the effort to eliminate outrageous gifts between members of congress and lobbyists and he does this in the name of ethics i don't follow this at all for twelve days now senator de mint has held up our effort to take the ethics bill to conference for twelve days he's come to the floor and says it's because he really believes in ethics it doesn't track it doesn't follow it doesn't wash in illinois or in south carolina i wish he showed a little more humility in this process to think that he's going to stop the whole ethical reform because his section he's worried about his section i don't think that's right i think he should trust in the substance of his earmark reform trust in the fact that ninety eight senators supported trust in the fact that in the end it was in fact a bipartisan agreement i offered an amendment on the democratic side to his amendment on the republican side what i offered was an amendment calling for more disclosure put all the earmarks on the internet so the whole world can see a i think that's the way it should be i'm chairing a subcommittee mr president of the appropriations committee my stance been working long and hard of the last several weeks to get it together we're on the phone late last night putting all the finishing touches on it it's going to be the most transparent appropriations bill covering these agencies in the history the united states and that's the way it should be every member who is asked for anything in this bill whether it's in bill language or committee report language is going to be disclosed every member has to stand by every request that they make and it's printed right there for the world to see that's the way it ought to be that is enough for the senator from south carolina i'm not sure what he wants  d that we are already putting into practice what the senate has virtually accepted with some slight modifications but nothing of substance and yet he wants to stop the whole ethics process i suppose that  that is his idea of reform to stop reform but it is certainly not my idea of reform and so mr president i ask unanimous consent the rules committee be discharged from further consideration the senate now proceed to se resolution one twenty three and senate resolution two sixty the earmark disclosure resolution that the resolution be agreed to in the motion to reconsider i'm sorry that was the abject i'm sorry that was the unanimous consent that was made at this point mr president i would like to ask for unanimous consent that the ethics bill that is pending before us that is passed the senate and the house be sent conference for consideration senator from south carolina but if we're ever going to get to ethics reform we clearly have to move to the conference and the conference is going to require agreement on both sides of the aisle and the understanding incidentally the senator from south carolina characterized the conference committee as a secret conference committee he's caught up in the old way we did things around here the new way the door is going to be open he can come in fact i hope that the republican leader will appoint him as a member of that conference committee but regardless it's going to be open for him to come and at least observe if not participate in this process it's a new day for the conference committees and i certainly hope that the senator from south carolina will reconsider will stop his ethics filibuster the dement ethics filibuster which is now in its twelfth day and allow us to move to this ethics bill for its consideration as president  floor morning business is closed under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of h r fifteen eighty five which the clerk will report on a number one eighty nine h r fifteen eighty five and act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year two thousand and eight for military activities of the department of defense and so forth and for other purposes the president so route from nebraska on behalf of cent of eleven i called up a substitute amendment which is at the desk as president i want to begin my comments on this year's national defense authorization act by thanking the members of the personnel subcommittee and i would especially like to thank senator lindsey graham he and i have worked together for several years following your remarks i'd like to be recognized as a dyke and speak on behalf of the ranking member of the sent to mccain with regard to the bill which is now being brought up i senator graham and i have worked together over these past several years and he's been chairman and i've been the ranking member and i voiced found our time on the subcommittee to be decidedly nonpartisan a t all members of the personnel subcommittee strive to do what's right by the service members and their families were always focused on how best to serve those who serve us so i say to senator graham thank you very much this year as in past years the personnel subcommittee focused on improving the quality of life of the men and women in the armed services including active duty national guard and reserve personnel and their families there's  in the military that you recruit the soldier sailor airman or marine but you retain the family in the wake of the difficulties exposed at walter reed we felt especially compelled this year to focus not just on the service member but also on his or her family and i'm pleased with the bill and recommend it to my fellow senators the bill before us authorizes one hundred thirty five billion dollars for military personnel including pay allowances bonuses death benefits and permanent change of station mus the bill contains many important provisions that will improve the quality of life of our men and women in uniform and their families first and foremost the vilest arises a three and a half percent across the board pay raise which is half a percent higher than the average pay raise in the private sector as measured by the employment cost index is also a half a percent higher than the administration's proposal for a three percent increase in pay this increased pay raise recognizes the outstanding service and the sacrifice of the men and women of the armed services and their families the bill also addresses the administration's request to increase the end strength of the army and the marine corps the committee supports the requested increases in end strength for the coming fiscal year that funds the entire authorized end strength in the base budget rather than a combination of the base budget and the war related supplemental the sub the subcommittee believes that the increases in end strength are no longer uniquely tied to the war effort the authorizes fiscal year two thousand and eight and strength of five hundred twenty five thousand four hundred for the army and one hundred eighty nine thousand for the marine corps the veil would expand combat related special compensation to all service members eligible for retirement pay who have a combat related disability this special camp and sation is currently denied in are denied is currently denied to our wounded warriors who are medically retired with less than twenty years of service the bill would also reduce below age sixty the age at which reservists may begin to receive their retired pay by three months for every aggregate of ninety days of active duty performed under certain mobilization authorities the bill authorizes all service members to carry up to ninety days of leave from one fiscal year to the next and allow certain service members to sell back up to thirty days of leave under special leave accrual provisions affecting deployed service members the bill would change the death gratuity and survivor benefit plan to allow service members to choose to have to leave death benefits to a guardian or caretaker of their minor child or children the bill also a man's the immigration and nationality act to make it easier for spouses and children accompanying service members assigned overseas to qualify for service the bill includes provisions that would allow the department of defense to continue to provide top quality health care to service members and their dependents the bill authorizes twenty four point six billion dollars for the defense health program and take steps to ensure that tri care is available to beneficiaries who desire to use it the bill enhanced is the ability of the services to attract critically short health care personnel by authorizing a new bonus for referring to military recruiters an individual who is commissioned in a health profession rising an increase from fifty thousand dollars to seventy five thousand dollars in the maximum incentives special pay multi year attention bonus for medical officers and by authorizing the secretary of defense to pay an accession bonus of up to twenty thousand dollars to participate in the armed forces health professional scholarship and financial assistance program this assistance program the committee rejected the administration's proposal to give broad authority to increase the cost of tri care for military retirees and their families and authorize the use of federal pricing to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals dispensed through the tri care retail pharmacy program and finally the veil authorizes fifty million dollars in impact aid to local school districts including five million for educational services to severely disabled children and ten million for districts experiencing rapid increases in the number of students due to rebasing activation of new military units or base realignment and closure before closing mr president i would like to say a few words about the didna fide treatment of wounded warriors that the committee unanimously reported out this legislation on the fourteenth day of june as a standalone bill it's very important to ensure that our wounded heroes and their families are provided the very best and medical care and transition services that the government can provide i understand that they did not fide treatment of wounded warriors bill will be offered as an amendment to this bill all of my colleagues to support this extremely important and timely piece of legislation again mr president i would like to thank senator graham and all the members of the personnel subcommittee i look forward to working with our colleagues to floor on the occasion of the twenty ninth authorization bill that i've been privileged to join other colleagues on the floor to submitting to the senate and by earlier today had  thousand meeting with senator levin our distinguished chairman and i've also had the benefit of the report of the distinguished ranking member mr mccain who has just returned from a trip to iraq so  behalf of our two principals that we are here today to initiate consideration of this all important bill is a very critical juncture in the history of our great nation so  president i predict a rise in support of this piece of legislation bill was voted out of our committee unanimously and that's usually been the case and i say that with a sense of pride to the many years that i have served on the committee and over half of that time as either chairman or ranking member of the committee our committee is very proud of the fact that the members of the comm well as our respective professional staff work together to try and achieve the highest possible degree of bipartisanship given that we're interested with under the constitution the senate and the senate is interested our committee was bringing forth east years the recommendations on behalf of the men and women the armed forces and i commend our distinguished chairman mr leaven mr mccain the ranking member for the markup session which my colleague and i were in attendance i think throughout it was done expeditiously fairly openly in terms of all senators being given every possible option to present their views in preventing for the bill that is now on each senator's desk so i think again i join my colleague from nebraska and thanking the chairman and ranking member in our staffs because i think we've achieved a truly bipartisan and debra on behalf of the committee to forward to the senate as the ranking member mr mccain and i work with our subcommittees and indeed mr levin i had tended a number of sub committee meetings we were fortunate to have strong chairman of the subcommittees and ranking memories that my colleague from nebraska have mentioned in his opening statement together with strong professional staff and their reports by and large were incorporated in the bill so therefore most  present the committee has met its responsibility fully funded i repeat fully funded the president's six hundred forty eight billion dollars budget request for national defense and members of the congress funding our nation's defense is a fundamental responsibility we must ensure that our military is prepared well trained well equipped to defend us and our allies in today's very very complex world of threats we must provide the best resources at the best value for our armed forces we owe that to our servicemen and women and to their families and indeed to the taxpayers i'm proud to say that in my judgment this bill meets those criteria the bill of proust's two point seven billion for items on the army chief of staff unfunded requirement including seven hundred seventy five billion for reactive armor and other striker requirements two hundred seven million for aviation survivability equipment one hundred two million for combat training centers and funding explosive ordinance disposal equipment night vision devices and other weapons these are critical items in our fight against al qaeda the taleban and other threats throughout the world given the dangers we face as a nation our men and women in uniform should want for nothing in our battle against terror i selected the army to start with because i am very admiring of the chief of naval operations who is  have said recently that while he is proud to be chief of the navy his biggest concern today is that of the needs of the united states army and indeed the president has recently indicated that all goes well here in the course of the hearings of the senate in our committee and the senate confirms admiral mullen's to be the next chairman of the joint chiefs he truly inherits that mantle of heavy responsibility showing equal regard for our services but i did single out the army as an institution at this time badly in need of the attention not only of the chairman of the joint chiefs office but indeed of the congress in the united states and i feel with the increase in the end strength of the army that we have met to plaisance request to do what we can at this critical time to keep our army strong and particularly those families who at this very moment thousands and thousands of families who have their loved ones serving abroad in iraq and afghanistan mike wise a committee approved for the navy first generation that is the first ship the next generation of our carriers proudly named in large measure by the urging of the united states senate named for s gerald ford former president in one state's former republican leader in the house of representatives in is also restructured the littoral combat ship program to achieve maximum value  accountability more we'll prove four point one billion of mine resistant ambush protected that's the m rap vehicles for all the services and the committee to also decide to sign fixed wing into theater aircraft functions and missions to the air force and ships army aircraft and funding of all weight to the air force which is unusual but it was necessary to improve the efficiency in a synergy in our air lift capability while weapons and equipment are critical in any conflict is the support we give our soldiers sailors airmen and marines to determine success of the future as president i'll ask to put the balance of my statement into the record because in large measure follows that of the distinguished colleague from nebraska i'd like the direction i thank the presiding officer i'd like to turn the attention of the senate this time  to the following we today start this bill amidst of grave concern  we start this very important piece of legislation at a time in our history unlike any i have ever witnessed before and i share the privilege of being among the elder statesmen or maybe the elder senators got the word statesman in this chamber the conflict in iraq in particular posing a drawdown right challenges both to our present commander in chief of the armed forces and to the congress which must provide the needed response and indeed we owe no less than the greatest obligation to the many people of our united states of america whose families one way or another are involved in these conflicts largely by virtue of proudly wearing the uniform of one of our services but there are lit tens of thousands of other americans who are taking risks in these conflicts to give support to the men and women of our armed forces many colleagues over the recess period that have expressed their concerns quite properly about certain directions that our nations could be taking our now taking an otherwise to address the conflicts primarily in iraq i anticipate a number of amendments that will be brought forward in the coming days and weeks perhaps as the senate debates this bill and i encourage that i've thoroughly believe that the the depth of the complexity of the iraq situation deserves the attention of each and every senator and i hope that they will avail themselves of such opportunities as they can to address their fellow senators and convey their thoughts several of recent have spoken out very strongly on this issue and i have i personally have commended each and every one even though i don't fully may not fully agree with all of their statements this is a critical time in america's history and that's the purpose of this united states senate recognizing perhaps the one forum throughout the legislative branches of the world where there's literally almost total freedom for any member of this body to come forward and address his or her fellow senators and express their views so i look forward to the coming days and weeks into engaging in debates a number of us i don't single myself out but quite a few have been asked of the press that do we have views at variance with the president with some of our collar exe and i've speaking just for myself we decided to withhold some of the views that i'm currently looking at and i spent a good deal of time in the recess period personally at the various agencies and departments of our federal government and trusted with intelligence responsibilities security as ponce abilities and other responsibilities with regard to these conflicts and i profited greatly and i was left each time while i may not agree with everything that was related to me i certainly was impressed by the quality of people and the professionalism throughout the civil service ranks of our federal government with regard to with their discharging their individual responsibilities at this point in time in our history on issues which are extremely complex to resolve i also briefly  responded to press inquiries as morning about the timing of what thoughts i may have and when i might share them with my colleagues i am frequently and today as being example of speaking privately with a number of colleagues in this body on their views but publicly i've decided to withhold the some ideas that i may have that which may be incorporated in in one or more amendments until such time as the president has had the opportunity to address the nation and i'd like to go back in a very respectful way and remind the senate of the legislation the appropriation bill passed some six or seven weeks ago and that bill included a bill that i and others brought to the senate floor received i think over a majority of votes and that final version of the appropriation bill which became the law of the land and in that bill the provisions that we discussed and debated here in the senate and even passed by a majority vote required as follows and i would like to read it reports quar the president shall submit an initial report in classified and unclassified format to the congress not later than july fifteenth two thousand and seven assessing the status of each of the specific benchmarks established to bug and declaring in his judgment whether a satisfactory toward meeting these benchmarks is or is not being achieved and i had the opportunity morning it to join his senior staff at the white house and discussed my views with them and we discussed this report and i left that meeting this morning with the doctor an impression that the white house and other elements of our government are approaching this legislative requirement which originated in the chamber adopted by this chamber and eventually became law there protesting that responsibility with a absolute sincere depth of commitment i was asked by the press whether they thought they would they brush it off and i was down being reported i don't know as a matter of fact i have reason to believe that the secretaries of state defense a very active duty working with senior white house staff and others the director of our intelligence a director of the cia are all actively working in preparation of that report so i read the next  president having consulted with the secretary of state secretary of defense to commanded the multinational forces iraq in the united states ambassador to iraq the commander of u s central command will compare the report and submitted to the  congress graph three at the present assessment of any of the specific benchmarks established above isn't satisfactory the president include in that report a description of such revisions to the political economic regional and military complements of the strategy as announced by the president on january the tenth two thousand and seven in addition to present shall include in the report that vies ability of implementing such aspects of the bipartisan iraq study group commonly referred to or hamilton as he deems appropriate paragraph for the present submit a second report to the congress not later than september fifteenth two thousand and seven following the same procedures and criteria outlined bug by the reporting requirement detailed in section one two two seven of the national defense authorization act for fiscal year two thousand and six is way given that these reports are going to be put in now  just for myself i'm going to withhold any comments i have specifically in large measure out of deference to exactly what we asked the president to do and exactly which i feel the president is a bug to do it and i have reason to believe it oh my hope is it is done possibly a little earlier than the fifteenth since the fifteenth falls on a day this weekend thereby giving members the opportunity to see exactly forward to the week working with my colleagues and i mr president the junior senator from virginia this present i'd like to call up a bipartisan amendment with twenty nine of my colleagues that is focused squarely on supporting our troops who are fighting in iraq and minimum periods between deployment for units and members of the armed forces for operation iraqi freedom and operation enduring freedom a as present as of the reading be dispensed with without objection troops who are fighting in iraq and afghanistan it speaks directly to their welfare and to the needs of their families by establishing minimum periods between deployments for both our regular and reserve component mr president i would say that i offer this amendment having grown up as a military family member having watched a father deployed as one who has served as a marine and been deployed and as one who has had a family member deployed in this war and also as someone who for three years was privileged to oversee our national guard and reserve programs as assistant secretary of defense during which time i also spent a good bit of energy looking at mobilization issues including how manpower flow issues were predicted to have occurred if we went to war the manpower policies that are feeding the situations in iraq and afghanistan presently are unprecedented in our history this not only involves the repeated use of a small pool of active army and marine corps forces it also regards the use of the national guard and reserves at a tempo that we never could have anticipated when we were designing the total force concept and it also involves the use of contractors doing so called security work performing missions that historically have been the responsibility of american military men and women now in the fifth year of ground operations in iraq this deck of cards has come crashing down on the backs of our soldiers and marines who have been deployed again and again while the rest of the country sets back and debates an intellectual or emotional exercise these men and women are doing a wonderful job and they are also paying a heavy price that price became clear in a wide variety of statistics which i will address momentarily as well as in the personal stories that we who have positions of authority are hearing on a daily basis and other supporters of this amendment believe that no matter what of america's involvement in iraq the time has come for the congress to place reasonable restrictions on how america's finest military men and women are being stated simply after more than four years of ground operations in iraq we've reached the point where we can no longer allow the ever changing nature of this administration's operational policies to drive the way our troops are being deployed in fact the reverse is true with the availability of our troops should be the main determinant of how ground operations should be conducted other amendments will be debated during the days ahead relating to the withdrawal of our forces from iraq proposed timetables and the future course of the war but there is one area where we all as democrats and republicans should be able to come together and this relates in some measure to what the distinguished senior senior senator from virginia was talking about a few minutes ago whether or not there's a report coming out in a week whether or not there is an evaluation taking place in september and no matter what any of us believe about the future conduct of the war or about this timetable or that timetable we owe it to our troops and to their families to establish a minimum floor for their combat deployments if we're serious about supporting our troops there's no better place to start to correct the current troop rotation policy by requiring a minimum amount of time between deployments i said in this chamber in march the motivation behind this amendment is simple it's the same motivation that imp me more than thirty years ago when i first started working on veterans issues how do we support our troops what does that mean who speaks for the troops like you i listen to what they're saying mr president here's what a constituent in virginia wrote to me recently her husband is an active duty infantry officer who has presently deployed in iraq she wrote as an army wife i braced myself with the possibility that he may be extended for a few months based on the recent troop surge and of course he was this morning on the news i heard that president bush is extending the army troops again enough is enough he wrote i am a patriotic american and an army wife but even we have our limits my husband has lost numerous soldiers we have dozens of amputees at walter reed and elsewhere and morale is dropping these men need to come home please speak out against another extension please bring our overextended soldiers home after four years of combat we must provide our troops and our families with predictable operational tempo that has adequate dwell time between deployments and we owe this to our active participants but also we owe those to the participants in the national guard and reserves why is this bipartisan amendment so important iraq the statistics that we have been shown indicate fifty four percent of the west point class of two thousand left the army by the end of last year and at forty six percent of the class of two thousand and confirmation as the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff he was recently asked what was the thing about which he was most concerned and he said the army and we're not talking about equipment we're talking about the army service members after their deployment found thirty eight percent of our soldiers thirty one percent of our marines and forty nine percent of the national guard report psychological problems following their combat deployments the failure of current rotation policies to protect the welfare of our troops and their families in both regular and reserve components is well documented this is an example mr president drawn from the pages of our service members own newspaper the stars and stripes last week the paper described army sergeant troy tweed newly assigned to the second brigade of the first armored division is slated to deploy to iraq before a full year of dwell time at home sergeant returned home five months ago from his last deployment to iraq is one of many former members of his old brigade who are slated to deploy three to four months early because they got a new assignment this will be sergeant plummet to iraq or afghanistan he says to the stars and stripes it feels like the individual situation of soldiers isn't taken into account you're just like a number and the newspaper said it best soldiers like fall through the cracks closer to home with the virginia army national guard roughly one hundred members of the one hundred sixteen infantry brigade combat team this is the famous stonewall brigade have been mobilized i would point out as an aside the this is a brigade with a long history that dates back to the civil war and in fact one of my deploying with this brigade are seven hundred members of the third battalion which returned only two years ago from a deployment in afghanistan forty percent of this battalion will be making its second combat deployment and less than three years as members of the national guard one colonel a brigade commander stationed in iraq recently described his soldiers this way they've spent the last four years in a continuous cycle of fighting training deploying and fighting and they see no wind in sight they have seen their closest friends killed and mai leaving young spouses and children and single parent kids they want time for themselves and time to raise families for a while when they look forward to a fifteen month deployment what twelve months in between they see their home station time is being compressed with intensified training which means more time away from families and personal pursuits i know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have heard similar stories for minimum periods between deployments for both units and members it says that if a unit or member of a regular compliance component deployed to iraq or afghanistan they'll have the same time at home while time before they're deployed and for guard and reserves they will have three times the amount of time that they were deployed this isn't a grand scheme to achieve an ideal troop rotation scenario the ideal rotation scenarios are two to one for active and five to one for the guard and reserve which put into this amendment as a goal what we are attempting to do is to put a floor under this and state what would be optimal i would like to point out mr president that the adjutant general of my state of virginia major general robert neumann told us today that it's important to consider alternatives like this like a minimum dwell time that will provide the sort of predictability active army units now deployed for fifteen months with a twelve month period between deployments many active marine corps units are also below this one to one rotation cycle individual soldiers and marines who have recently returned from deployment are also reassigned as backfills to new units marked for  dwell time is not downtime it entails frequent absences as units retain refurbish requip and assimilate new members after the first month at home for example a marine generally spends up to forty eight days in the field away from family training on the rifle range or and we can do this amendment provides for a fair and reasonable waiver it gives the president waiver authority in the event of an operational emergency that poses a vital threat to our national security interests this is a low threshold it would allow the president to respond to any emergency operational requirements including those in iraq and afghanistan by certifying a need to waive the amendments limitations it provides military part departments the authority to waive individual volunteers in other words if you want to go back sooner you can contrary to some critics the amendment does not micromanage the president in his role as commander in chief nor does it tie the hands of our operational commanders in theater and more predictable dwell time will be transparent to our forward deployed commanders military departments have long experience managing people as individuals we fought the vietnam war on an individual rotational policy before the widespread use of today's information technology systems that make it far easier to monitor when an individual there was some comment about constitutional authority the constitutional authority of this amendment is clear article one section eight of the constitution empowers the congress to make rules for the government and regulation of land and naval forces as acting secretary of the army gerund stated during his confirmation hearing last month article one of the constitution makes congress and the army full partners there  precedents for this action congress has acted in a similar way in the past recent example as in one thousand nine hundred fifty one during the height of the korean war when congress intervened to ensure our service members were not sent to war before they were properly trained the selective service act was amended to provide that every person inducted into the armed forces would receive adequate training for a period not less than four months  allowed the department of defense or operational commanders or the president as commander in chief to send military people outside of the country before they had one hundred twenty days of training  congress intervened and said no one hundred twenty days is essential for the well being of our troops just as this amendment today says that while time time back home is essential for the well being of our troops this chamber has a clear duty to assert our authority to prevent further damage to our military the current strategy the current operational policy does not justify the way that we are deploying our urge my colleagues to recognize this common interest and the interest that we share in addressing the welfare of our troops and our families i've been encouraged to hear the sentiments echoed recently by some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are equally interested in forging a new road to the future including senators lugar domenici one of the columns and even my senior colleague from virginia senator warner they've studied the course of the war in iraq they ask the same questions that trouble us all how can we continue to ask our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the iraqi government is not making measurable progress many many other questions but the bottom line in all of this is that as we move forward responsibly to relocate our military from iraq over a period of time we cannot continue to do what we are doing to the troops that we are sending over and over again we seek a conclusion at the end of this engagement that will enable us to withdraw our combat forces from iraq that will lead to progressively greater regional stability that will allow us to fight international terrorism more effectively and that will enable us to more fully address our broader strategic this ins around the world  american people expect us to do that to move our country forward in a collaborative way but they also expect us to use our troops in a way that addresses their welfare  uses them in a way that is more properly related to the tasks at hand in iraq and afghanistan so we can no longer continue to place such a disproportionately large burden on the shoulders of so few people we need a balance it's up to the congress to establish that balance and as the young army wife wrote to me recently anough is enough i thank my colleagues who have signed on as original co sponsors and i urge all of my seeks recognition senator from florida mr president i ask unanimous consent that it four thirty the senate proceed to executive session that there be one hour for debate equally divided between senators leahy   specter or their designates that it five thirty p m the senate vote on calendar number one three eight followed by twenty minutes for debate on calendar number one four zero equally divided between senators leahy and brownback that at the conclusion or the yielding back of that time the senate vote on calendar number one four zero that if calendar number one four zero is confirmed the senate then vote on calendar numbers one thirty nine and one fifty four that the motions to reconsider be laid on the table the president be immediately notified of the thousand to the two thousand and eight national defense authorization act out objection mr president i have one unanimous consent request for a committee to meet during today's session of the senate it has the approval of the majority and minority leaders i ask unanimous consent that this request be agreed to and that this request be printed in the record without objection sort of mr president i said to the a distinguished junior senator from virginia has taken once again an important leadership role on an issue that is it important to our country and to our military and their families as any one issue and that is ready because mr president it is the men and women who we ask to fight and die for this country that must always be our highest priority and the men and women who serve this country in uniform and their families deserve a policy worthy of their sacrifices and so i appreciate very much my friend from virginia's leadership on this issue this is part of an amendment that senator webb and i had introduced a couple of months ago mr president in february of this year general peter pace the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff reported to congress that there is now way in his words significant risk that our military will not be able to respond to an emergency crisis in another part of the world and general pace's quote since that time the united states has sent more of our soldiers and more of our military equipment to iraq the war in iraq is pushing the united states military to the breaking point  i like most of my colleagues have been told by military leaders both on active duty and those who are retired that we are doing tremendous damage to our army and to our marine corps as well as our army national guard our troops are being deployed longer than they should be more frequently than they should be and without full training and equipment we are roading our military power at a time when our country faces an increasing arc of challenges and threats across the globe we are abusing our all voluntary force in a facts as to what is happening to our military today because of the burden that we are placing on our military in iraq our fifth year our fifth year in iraq our sixth year in afghanistan this amendment goes to the heart of been sure the readiness of our military and the time between deployments ensure that all active units that have deployed to iraq or afghanistan have time at home that is at least least equal to the length of the previous deployment now if we can't commit at least that to our forces then what can we commit to for the national guard or reserve our men meant stablish has a minimum three years between deployments longer and more predictable dwell time will allow soldiers to rest reequip retrain return to their families our amendment has waiver authority because there can be can be extraordinary circumstances that require extraordinary use of our military and we have used that over and over and over in iraq today mr president in our fifth year in iraq in the middle of a civil war in iraq we must return to the standards that allowed us to create the finest military force that the world has ever known the best lead the best educated the best trained the best equipped and the most committed military the world has ever known you can't make those kinds of militaries you can't build those kinds of militaries overnight or even over five years it took some of this country's greatest military leaders post world war two more importantly post vietnam a general powell and all schwarzkopf and many others to commit their lives thirty five years of their lives to rebuild a broken military after we broke it in vietnam we are headed in the same direction mr president unless we get control of this disaster now nothing is more important to our country to our society and our people so mr president i urge my colleagues to support this important men meant and i appreciate the leadership of the junior senator from virginia who know something about the military who know something about  s leadership on this issue and his support for this amendment and it's my firm hope that people on the other side of the aisle will understand this amendment for what it is and people who no matter what their  views of the propriety of the war in iraq or the direction of the president's strategy will understand at this is that this is a minimum bottom line in terms of how the united states military is use around the world and what record i would like to point out that senator hagel and i to my knowledge are the only veterans of ground combat in vietnam in this body and it is a privilege and a pleasure to have a lieutenant and a captain in the united states army during vietnam i was not sent to be but clearly dealt with all of its aftermath and the duties that i did carry having to do with widows and orphans a longtime supporter of the effort to repeal this offset to the survivors benefit plan by the dependent's indemnity indemnity compensation now what we have is we have active duty service members who pay for a an insurance plan called their survivor's benefit plan and if they are killed in their active duty our families have some subsistence to carry out which they provided for because they did that additional paying for what is in effect an insurance plan in another part of the law under the veterans administration there is something known as the dependen compensation takes care of survivors and the families the problem is that the two offset privates and corporals who have provided for their families and when they are deceased those young widows are having difficulty making financial in need and we have to correct this and isn't it interesting that all of this goes back to statements made by president abraham lincoln during the civil war in his second  said that one of the greatest obligations of war was to take care of the widow in the orphan if we look at the cost of war guns ammunition tanks trucks airplanes body armor all of that is a cost of war transportation logistics all of that's a cost to war well there's another cost  war and it is the cost of war of taking care of the survivors and the united states government ought to plan as a cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan of taking care of our veterans and their widows widowers and all our friends and so as we get into this defense authorization bill we're going to have the privilege of honoring the men and women and families who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to this nation we're going to have the opportunity to remove the injustice facing our veterans and that injustice is this offset that offsets the indemnity compensation a benefit from the veteran's administration with the survivors benefit plan which is paid for by our veterans so when a veteran as an active duty military member has paid for out of their own pay check into the survivors benefit plan like an insurance program but they don't get the full benefits because of their surviving spouses and the children's eligibility under the veterans administration program the dependents indemnity compensation now to offset those two it's just not right and so this amendment number two thousand is going to end that injustice senator hagel and i will be offering it later as we get on in this next two weeks down the road on this defense authorization bill but for seven years this senator has been trying to pass this legislation that will remove this offset and last year we passed it here in the senate b whopping vote of ninety two to six only the leadership in the conference down in the house was acted out last year and we're going to try to prevent that from occurring the objection to it is it cost eight point two billion dollars over ten years but isn't it an obligation of the u s government to take care of the families of their loved ones i believe it is and when the senate passed this amendment that left out some beneficiaries and required repayment of funds in the past it was even more it was nine point six billion well that is but now been calculated right at eight billion dollars so mr president that is coming down the road and i'm looking forward to getting into it and i'm looking forward to getting a lot sided wapping vote again in the senate that will send a strong message in the conference committee  in reconciling the house passed and the senate passed versions now mr president i rise in my capacity as chairman of the strategic subcommittee of the senate armed services committee this overall bill is a good balance bill and it works to ensure that the troops are trained of quipped and supported the bill was reported favorably to the senate on a unanimous vote of are committed to good indicator of the bipartisan support for the bill in a reflection on the manner in which this committee has been led by senator levin the chairman senator mccain the ranking member and senator warman warner the immediate past chairman who  stepped in so often for senator mccain as he is right now but seven or eight feet from me and overlooking and managing this legislation i want to discuss the work of the subcommittee the strategic subcommittee had a good year and it's been a considerable pleasure for me to work very closely with senator sessions of alabama as the ranking member and it was just last year it was reversed senator sessions was the chairman and i was the writing member so we worked together for several years with very difficult issues some time contentious but they didn't become contentious this year we worked almost all of them out we held five hearings and several briefings on a lot rott wide range of issues and these issues cover everything from space and intelligence strategic systems such as bombers submarine ground launch ballistic missiles the nucular weapons programs the missile defense program and the bulk of the defense funded activities of the department of energy  the last several days i've had the privilege of visiting our three major national defense labs that concentrate on department of energy nucular weapons programs for say india and then los alamos both of them in new mexico and then on to lawrence livermore in california and i would just i would just come in to all of the senators  to go and see the work and be briefed on the extraordinarily important stuff that is going on in these national labs being done by extraordinary people in the area of missile defense this is this committee our subcommittee has continued implementing a policy that we established last year placing a priority all in the development testing fielding and improvement of affective near term missile defense capabilities particularly to protect forward deployed u s forces and allies against existing threats from short range and medium range ballistic missiles where the threats the threats that the ballistic missile defense is being developed for now is different than what was announced twenty years ago by president reagan after president reagan and i guess gorbachev was well then he was the head of the communist party and i don't remember of his title was president or not but he was in effect the leader of the soviet union after their meeting at reykjavik iceland in which they started to bring down numbers of the strategic systems such as the missiles and the warheads later president reagan offered to  mikhail gorbachev well we'll develop this system of national missile defense and we'll give it to you in and we can both then have in effect two systems that assure mutually assured destruction because of so many thermo nuclear warheads that we can have it to blunt each other well things changed along the way the soviet union crumbled but the bulk of all of that capability in the soviet union is retained by russia and happily there has been the continued progress on the dismantling of the warheads in both the united states and russia but as the ballistic missile defense program which had fits and starts the technical requirements are exceptional and it's been very difficult to achieve the requirements of using it changed and so in effect it's being developed now to protect against missiles that may be launched by north korea against us or against any allies and a rant and looking down the future iran doesn't have this real capability today but we are concerned that they will in the future particularly if their nuclear program continues as they are threatening that it will so the ballistic missile defense program has considerably shifted over the last two decades into a different kind of program now it is facing a crucial test coming up this next month and we'll see if all that it's been advertised to be able to do in fact is done through this test that's going to try to calibrate if in kinetic energy that with an incoming missile warhead if we have a ballistic missile missile defense system that can hit an outer space that incoming warhead and or warheads and you can imagine what kind of accuracy that's got to be in the midcourse phase in outer space or in the reentry face as it is coming back through the in order to provide protection against these existing or near term missile threats our committee in the bill has authorized an additional three hundred fifteen million dollars to increase or accelerate work on the near term missile defense capabilities and that includes two hundred fifty five million for the aegis b m de the patriot pac three and the thanh systems which i will describe them in a minute it also authorizes an additional sixty million dollars for joint israeli us work on the arrow missile defense system and on the short range missile defense these increases are offset by reductions in far term and lower priority programs with respect to the overall funding our committee authorized a total of ten point one billion dollars for the ballistic missile defense programs that is a net reduction of two hundred and thirty one million below the budget requests for the missile defense agency that's a two percent reduction well let me summarize what's in the bill the bill's going to authorize the entire army funding request for the patriot pac three program including funding for its pure fleet an issue to the committee also authorized an additional seventy five million to put to our twenty five additional pac three missiles the patriot pac three system is our only ballistic missile defense system that is already proven to be effective in combat and we do not have enough pac three units or missiles to provide the capabilities that our combatant commanders need today the committee authorized and addition of seventy five million for the aegis ballistic missile defense program to increase the production rate of standard missile three interceptors for q or fifteen a mission additional s m three missiles and accelerate the work on the aegis b m d signal processor and open architecture program now mr president let me ask you sent in a unanimous consent request that i previously asked that at four thirty we go into executive session i am not through with my statement in the record what is the pleasure of the presiding officer it is up to the senator to ask for unanimous consent at this point if he nominations which will be voted on it five thirty now there were two senators that were to come to the floor and disappointing time and i suggest to the senator that i just continue with my statement until the senators arrive  i wish to speak to one of the judicial nominees if i might i tell you what to do to accommodate to the senate today he would just give me a few minutes and now put this into the record you better take your instructions over here  mr president the aegis b m d program provides an important improving missile defense capability and then for thad we have him approved an increase of one hundred  five million and that is to produce to increase the mis soul production rate that bad system has shown good success in its testing program thus far the bill offers twenty five million new for the coproduction of the arrow system and added ten million to study the suitability of the fat missile to serve as a follow on to israel's arrow system we also have an increase of twenty five million for the accelerated joint development of short range ballistic missile defense and that's for israel now in our bill we had a budget request in and it included three hundred ten million for the proposed development of long range missile defenses in europe that was ten interceptors in poland and a large radar in the czech republic the us is just starting negotiations with those nation and it appears unlikely that there's going to be any final agreements before two thousand and nine the proposed interceptor has not yet been developed and it's not planned to be tested until two thousand and ten and as a result the proposed construction and deployment activities are premature so what we do in the bill is we reduce the request eighty five million for construction activities and we fans the remaining two thousand and eight funds requested for deployment until two things happen number one that the host nations have approved any missile defense deployment agreements and number two that the congress receives an independent assessment examining the for range of options for missile defense in europe well let me tell you about the airborne laser this is a program that's been in some difficult and what we did was reduce the funding technology demonstration program of a chemical lice are and you've got to take huge quantities of chemicals and put them in a seven four seven there is excellent technology that is being developed on a solid state laser system which would fill the volume only from a to senator warner could easily be put into a an airplane but we think that this program that the cost of it is exceptionally high it's going to be costing five billion dollars three and a half billion have already been spent and we fell to hold back on this development by only two hundred million out of five hundred forty eight million was was and i will go into more detail on that at a later time we also authorize provisions to improve acquisition and oversight of ballistic missile defense programs and i won't go into the details on that i'll tell you in conclusion on our strategic forces with regard to the b fifty two bomber modernization program we had unanimity on that with regard to the space program grants where there has been a difficulty of a number of programs we had unanimity on that in the committee and we bring that forth in the report and i will provide those issues later and then on nuclear weapons issues the reliable replacement warhead we continue unanimously through the next year in what is called the phase two activities and then an evaluation can be made as to whether or not to go forward in phase three but there is a great deal of promise that is shown in the reliable replacement warhead which is has a great deal of promise of being safer and more secure and less explosive power more geared to today's targets so that's a report from our committee and i yield the floor let me before the senator from virginia proceeds let me make the following and unless the senator from virginia wants to modify the pending unanimous consent to make certain that the judge to this nomination is cold at five thirty there is now one hour equally divided for under the pending unanimous consent request the debate was to begin at four thirty the vote of five thirty on the judicial nomination senator nelson asked man's consent received it to speak and spoke until just a moment ago so if we project one hour from now and debate over this judicial nominee that the vote is likely to occur near five forty and the distinguished senior senator from virginia which is to take time from the republican side of the well actually he i had hoped to do it on a time of the defense bill but i yielded to the request of my colleagues i'm not going to but anyway we'll work the time i'm a president i'll need three minutes of the senator from virginia we do on many things in a very cooperative spirit to provide nominations to the president with respect to the judicial vacancies as a exist in our united states if a court in virginia and to the fore circuit which virginia is one of the states served by that distinguished judicial panel which largely resides in virginia and i thank my distinguished colleague webb because he's come and he's been a very fast learner about the judicial process and we work together and we now have nominations pending before the president and with regard to the vacancies on the fourth been nominated to fill the seat that was vacated by judge claude hale for more than twenty years judge hilton served with distinction is an active judge in the eastern district of virginia we are fortunate he's continued to service in the court in senior status in my view are equally fortunate to have a nominee likely a mcgrady who is willing to continue his public service on the bench since joining the virginia bar nin seventy eight quite a few years ago imo gravy has worked as a solo practitioner as an assistant commonwealth's attorney as an assistant united states attorney as a partner in an international law firm and for the last four years he's worked with the eastern district of virginia as a magistrate judge magistrate judges perform a very valuable function for our district courts his career has provided him with a wide array of experience as a solo practitioner he worked as a court appointed criminal defense lawyer as an assistant commonwealth's attorney tried upwards of one hundred jury trials as an assistant united states attorney he focused on narcotics and is seen firsthand the extraordinary a lot in volume of cases they've come through that of a district judge not only in virginia but elsewhere in america equally impressive is that fight the rigors of his career always found time to give back to his community help shape young legal minds to the instruction of law at both george washington university and george mason university moreover while in private practice he set up a pro bono legal planning in his law firm and took court appointed cases serving those in need spasming is clear to me that this side standing nominee now to be voted on shortly by the united states senate is eminently qualified to serve on this prestigious court in addition to having the support of his home state senators judge and grady received the highest i repeat highest recommendation to the american bar association and was equally recommended by a number of the bar association to the commonwealth of virginia i thank the distinguished chairman sent to delay here and sent to specter for providing the virginia senators an opportunity worried but we would anyway and i think that they this is an example mr president how quickly we can move judges when the senators work together on this case  responded with a blanket assertion of executive privilege i hold that they issue a committee subpoenas of ynet when compliance not a confrontation but instead they've other co equal branches of government sorry for this senator raises the question what is the white house trying to hide by refuse in turn over this evidence from the outset of this scandal and nothing improper was done now this president and the attorney general have both from time to time expressed confidence of the congress we get to the bottom of this because apparently they themselves had no idea what had transpired so are we now do understand from the white house claims or executive privilege is that contrary to what the president said attorney general testify under oath you did not know where did us attorneys the list of those be fired for the reasons they read it somehow they mysteriously rides on the attorney general mysterious lives sounds like something you'd see the hoggart not the white house or the attorney general's office in fact the bottom line of the involved in the decision making the lead to the president firings of several well performing prosecutors these people aren't responsible either so i asked w made these decisions was it the political operatives of the white house set out to the dearly damage the careers of well performing u s attorneys this white house even this white house can't dispute the evidence we've gathered today join the white house officials were heavily involved in these firings none of them have been involved these improper occurred there was they're just saying trust us we did nothing wrong trust us with the revelation to come out almost every single day things to tell the american people don't trust them what the white house heidi was the president involved in this is making now a claim executive privilege as if he was their words earlier statements in american people misleading and not accurate or is it simply an effort by the white house legal team to protect white house political operatives whose partisan machinations have been i asked the white house provide why this information so they can substantiate its claim for months not going to pursue they have very carefully have been given the white house every opportunity to work with us voluntarily to provide the information wayside and for months go on the answer we get is the same unacceptable take it or leave it offer i tried to give the white house every opportunity to explain its claims serious assertion when they honestly believed it would include an effort to demonstrate to the committee which documents and which parts of those documents are covered by privileges and raises even more questions what is it the white house is so intent on hiding what is it there so are prey to becoming public they can't even identify the documents the date the authors the recipients would we see the early inconsistent valving of white house political operatives and what should be independent and neutral law enforcement decisions we see early inconsistent valvano white house political operatives who are trying to manipulate law enforcement is sought as some of the facts everybody right down to the cop on the beat nor is the white house contemp blanket assertions of privilege regarding matters that it's control is reach outside the white house sixty thousand of her e mails or the forty thousand her e mails sixty thousand of car rolls whatever it is but of course we were all in a race so we office out to tell the american people this is a ridiculous claim we now have six senators pretending to be computer experts i  let's talk about the facts is clear evidence that sara taylor is one of several white house officials have played a key role in these firings and the ministrations response to cover up the reasons behind them been kept hidden from the public as part of a white house effort to avoid oversight by ignoring the laws mentors sure a public record of official government good basically they're saying the law applies to everybody out there but the law now i'm wind is because the matter in good faith with the white house i've been trying to engage the white house for months and discussions to come to some sort of found ways this administration unlike all those other scenes only to obstruct in office kate we shouldn't lose sight this is a serious matter this is about improper political influence of our justice system it's about the white house manipulating the justice department into its own political arm it is about manipulating our justice system to pursue a partisan political agenda it is about in direct violation of their own justice department guidelines and then it's about high ranking officials misleading congress and misleading the american people about their political manipulation of justice is about the empress of the improper reach of politics and to there's a problem for professional ranks such as the admission when she was forced to testify under oath