we humbly acknowledge your power and gratefully accept your mercy and grace we need your mercy for we fall short of your glory we need your grace for we can do nothing to deserve your favor or gain your love today permit our senators to  your presence give them confidence to draw near to you and to find grace to help them meet national and global challenges help them to find joy in the companionship of your sovereign leading use them to promote the values of justice and peace the clerk will read it communication to the senate washington d c july twenty fourth two thousand and six to the senate under the provisions of rule one paragraph three of the standing rules of the senate i hereby appoint the honorable  calling a senator from the state of maine to perform the duties of the chair signed ted stevens president pro tempore under the previous order the leadership time is to read served under the previous order that will be a period for the transaction the routine morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each until the hour of three p m the holmes to be a u s circuit court judge for the tenth circuit we have an order in place allows for two hours of debate today and two hours of debate tomorrow morning therefore the vote on the confirmation of jerome holmes will occur tomorrow morning before the policy meeting i would also remind everyone that we have a consent agreement for the consideration of asked for zero three the child custody protection bill we will be returning to that bill tomorrow afternoon to dispose of the amendments and final passage of the child custody protection measure tomorrow i want to put all of my colleagues on notice that we do need to finish that bill tuesday and we have to work well into the evening will do so in order to finish that important bill another issue to consider this week is the energy security act of two thousand and six that bipartisan bill is on the calendar and we would like to proceed to its consideration as quickly as possible if there are objections to considering that bill it will be necessary to file cloture and we will be prepared to file that motion that would come as early as wednesday wednesday morning and i do also remind my colleagues that we have a joint meeting on wednesday morning at eleven o'clock on wednesday there will be a joint meeting with the house to hear the address by prime minister maliki of iraq given this address plug your vote would have or possibly around ten o'clock on wednesday in which case we could proceed directly to the house immediately following that vote sometime after ten thirty so it the case and i expect it will be that senator should stay in the chamber following that  and then we can proceed together to the hall of the house of representatives for that joint meeting at this point just discussing with a democratic leader we should also but our colleagues on notice that next week will be the last week fully expect a vote on monday july thirty first we were able to reach several agreements last week which allowed us to say no roll call votes for today's session but i expect a very important vote will occur each day next week including monday's session so everyone should plan their schedules to accommodate this final week finally i would remind everyone that today mar eighth anniversary of the fatal shootings of officer chestnut and detection as they protected the united states capitol this time i would ask consent that forty today this afternoon present majority leader i didn't mention this in our private conversation but we're going to do the defense hopefully before we leave and the one thing we haven't talked about is the intelligence authorization bill that's been reported out of committee and i think that we could have a real very very short time agreement i mean we're very very short years away that leader would try to work that into the schedule before we go because this would be the second year without a let's let's consider that i think that over the well eight years that's how long it's been since two capitol police officers gave their lives in the line of duty on july twenty fourth one nine hundred ninety eight a lone gunman entered this building the nation's capital he day when i was with given back to my days in emergency medicine emergency surgery and the reality that even your best efforts can always save alive because despite our best efforts we could say special agent john gibson or officer jacob chestnut it's a humbling experience realizing the debt of gratitude we owe these two fallen heroes for their sacrifice and recognizing it can never ever be fully repay but we can honor their sacrifice by remembering by offering solemn tribute to their courage in protecting the memory of these heroes that we must ensure that special agent gibson and officer just did not die in vain and that the america they died protecting is the america that we preserve today and in the future i pray that we are never faced with such tragedy again that three forty this afternoon i hope this body will join me in a moment of silence a moment to reflect on the courageous device of special agent there may be other members of the united states senate who are service police officers during their careers sitting members but i serve as capitol police officer when i was going to school back here were to swing shift and have a great affection and feel very affiliated with capitol police officer gibson who was killed along with officer  not long before this terrible act occurred the democrat democratic senate had a retreat in virginia my wife got sick during the night and we had to call the capitol police who are standing by and i can remember officer gibson running we had to run from where the headquarters was in a different part of the hotel to our room was spread out a long ways carrying all this mergence equipment he came he was perspiring so hard and he was so gentle and nice with my wife that every time i hear this and i've expressed to his family my personal precision as i try to do an ostrich that's not who i did not know except in passing but i felt some affinity toward off for gibson these two men were one of the entrances to this capital crazed man came in and kill if there could be a positive side and that is really hard to find the one place we would have to go is a visitor center because as a result of this tragic event station was finally made after years and years of treading water to go ahead and take care of a new visitor center for this capitol complex now be completed in less than one year and it's going to be a wonderful addition to the capitol for people who are visiting the capital we have millions of people come here the capitol every year and right now they come through these doors just like chestnut and gibson were guarding there'd been improvements made but really hard to do because of the doorways being right in as you come into the capitol itself with the new visitor center there will be an entry supreme court people will come in they will be able to be screened for weapons and other dangerous material there will be two beautiful lot of torrens where they can watch a twelve minute film acquaint them with what's in the capital there will be rest rooms which are in such lacking are so lacking here in the present situation of the places for them to get snacks buy souvenirs you know be a wonderful experience for them to come to the capital it's good experience now but the new situation will make the experience much much better so after eight years we still remember these two fine man we do it not only because of their personal sacrifice but the fact that every day in this capital i look around they're in this plain clothes officers a lot of people don't know who they are they're here and would give their lives presiding officer majority leader in the sicily to the back room a or any other senator that's their job and they know it and while we take them sometimes for granted i hope we don't these are some of the finest trained police officers in the world and so when we stand for just gives in a moment of silence our our thoughts also are with the valiant men and women who protect this beautiful facility and the people who are in it and senator staff and visitors june twenty second the senate health debate about the raging intractable war in iraq and that debate democrats led by senators levin and jack reed gave voice to the concerns of the american people and advocated that the bush administration change course in iraq we argued that the administration follow the law of the land the law of the land is that the year two thousand and six will be significant t and their own government so that americans could be redeployed by the end of this year would have given the iraqi people their best chance for success also giving america the best chance to confront the growing war and fell in line with his failed policies one month later after the debate on the consequences of staying the course in iraq more evidence every place in the last month in iraq more than three thousand iraqis have been killed an average of one hundred a day more than a hundred again killed just yesterday pick up any newspaper here's today killed at least sixty six in iraq yeah and if you read the article it's a lot more than sixty six intense violence made last week one of the deadliest in iraq read the article forty people killed six of them police officers read the article thirty four did read the article sixty killed read the article twenty four civilians killed doesn't talk about the hundreds and hundreds who have been wounded injured many of them for life not present this is a civil war as i said last week i tepidly talked about civil war but i decided that there was no reason to be tepid about it that there is a civil war going on in iraq places you can go to find the same thing it's official there is now a civil war in iraq it's official there is now a civil war in iraq and this isn't written by somebody that's just passing by deciding to write an op ed piece and they stick the the question of whether a country has fallen into civil war is often deliberately muddled for political reasons why we've had some muddling here he goes on to say but if the term civil war seeks to convey the condition of a divided society engage in destructive armed conflict then iraq sadly fits the bill consequences of staying the course in iraq a full blown civil war nearly three thousand additional iraqis have been killed fifty american soldiers have been killed two hundred fifty have been wounded thirteen billion dollars of taxpayer money has been spent since that debate the price of gasoline is now as reported in this morning's news the highest ever  more than three dollars a gallon staying the course we have north korea on the fourth of july tested new long range missiles in the last month mistake the less safe america becomes democrats have asked for another debate before the august recess i hope we have that opportunity because repub leader said here today that we're going to take up the defense appropriation bill i would hope that we would have an opportunity to do it there we want to give rubber stamping republicans another chance to demand president bush change course in iraq not because of any political point scoring but because our national security clearly demands we live in a dangerous world but nearly everywhere from the middle east asia america's enemies have been embolden administration's mismanagement of this conflict and they're taking advantage of our damage reputation in the world and the fact that iraq is tied to redouble their efforts and threaten us and our allies the middle east as we know for decades every american president since world war two has struggled to bring freedom stability and prosperity this region the president washed his hands of what was the longer we go without a strategy for success in iraq the stronger around and the more confident it is in supporting terrorist organizations like hezbollah which is now terrorizing lebanon reputation the bush administration has had to sit on the sidelines the president in effect finding any solution during the g eight summit and he went nearly two weeks without dispatching his secretary of state to the region mission accomplished bring em on i hope it's not a photo op again but a serious effort calls for american leadership the bush administration has reported on the face of major full time special envoy someone who can work around the clock with egypt jordan saudi arabia and yes russia and israel together we can bring some good out of this terrible situation by finding ways to support the lebanese government continue our support for israel disarm hezbollah and contain power the challenge will be for this administration and its republican rubber stamp congress to step up and do the shared six i'd like to ask the democratic leader as he joins with me each morning reading about how iraq is descending into a civil war the number of innocent civilians who are being killed in iraq and the to this question and then this year when the defense authorization bill came forward is it not true that the democratic side offered another amendment in an attempt to strike a bipartisan position on foreign policy in iraq an amendment which was sponsored by senator levin of michigan senator reed of rhode island who is a graduate of west point served in the united states army and that this amendment which we offered to our friends on the republican side to join us with this year said that we would start the transition this year before the end of the calendar calendar year by redeploying american troops outside of iraq this amendment that we offered thirty nine out of forty five democratic senators supporting it and no republican support i'd like to ask the senator from nevada at the end of that defense authorization bill just a few weeks ago was any position taken by the republican side of the aisle that suggested any chang policy in iraq i say to my friend that is what is so concerning to me is that they are following the republican senators are following president bush stay the course stay the course in have moved out of there and they're afraid they move out of their neighborhood neighborhoods they're afraid so that we have probably now estimated two hundred thousand people since the first have had to move their homes they have no place to go they just want to try to stay alive that the turmoil the civil strife in that country is unbelievable and to think this this country to stay the course is not sensible senator from nevada with as you watch the disintegration of the foreign policy under this administration we find ourselves relying on the chinese to try to negotiate some peaceful resolution in north korea we are relying on the russians to try to find some way to approach the iranians on their nuclear power but we have no one to turn to when it comes to iraq this was our own creation with the british help and the help of some other countries but primarily american soldiers and american resources and i would like to ask the senator from nevada at this point in the floor today is that the bipartisan united states senate should not go home before the august resource recess without taking up this issue we have spent weeks the republican leadership has spent weeks in the senate on meaningless constitution amendments and issues that bear little relevance to the daily lives of americans but the senator from nevada has to feel as i do that these soldiers and their families we have an obligation to them before we leave in august to have a meaningful debate on this floor about how to make certain that we end up in iraq with our mission truly accomplished i asked the senator from nevada is that raging civil war going on and our troops are right in the middle of it how can we leave here without changing course in iraq i mean i am here i just it's a cry for help we need our republican i've come to the senate floor today to discuss what i believe are necessary steps to bring an end to the current crisis in israel and lebanon and to set us back on a course toward stability in the middle east president i condemn the killing in the kidnapping of israeli soldiers by hamas and hezbollah i believe that that was a deliberate act of provocation it was intended to further rupture and our efforts at leading stability in the region and it was carried out by groups who seek no last than the destruction of the nation of israel and i am sure along with my colleagues support israel's right to defend itself however i also believe that the israeli response has been excessive and that the current crisis of escalating violence on both sides must be brought to an end so that we can resume efforts at creating a lasting peace my first point is that i believe u s interests and israeli interests will be furthered if we support the effort of the secretary general of the united nations to bring about a cease fire at the earliest possible date secretary general kofi annan has called for an immediate into fighting between israel and hezbollah he's pointed out the obvious which is that as long as fighting continues the number of civilian deaths both in israel and in lebanon will increase i also believe that this may be the best way to ensure the safe return of kidnapped soldiers of course the further destruction of some civilian infrastructure in lebanon on is putting the future economic and political viability of that nation at serious risk and i think it's obvious to all that what is occurring in israel in lebanon is a disaster for many innocent civilians our own administration has chosen not to support secretary general  for an end to hostilities as i understand them basket or bolton's position it is that allowing a continuation of hostilities will provide israel the opportunity to eliminate has blahs ability to israel and that this degrading of hezbollah's military capability will provide a better possibility for long term peace i support the goal of long term peace but i disagree with his view that continued combat is the best way to achieve that whatever additional military advantage might be achieved by delaying a ceasefire comes at a very high cost first there is the cost in the loss of additional civilian lives second there is the additional support for hezbollah in the arab world which the continued attacks on lebanon will almost certainly generate third there is the increase in anti israeli and anti american sentiment throughout the middle east and more broadly which will result if the military conflict continues while i understand that the goal of these continued attacks is to bring an end to terror in the middle east i strong and i strongly support that goal i believe that the result will be just the opposite unwillingness to join other nations in calling for a cessation of hostilities reinforces the belief in arab countries that our middle east policy is based on a double standard the perception is that we have one level of when innocent israeli civilians are being killed and injured and much less concern when the injured or killed civilians live in arab countries support by the u s for an immediate cease fire would save lives on both sides and would help to counter that perception it was an article in the washington post last week by michael abramowitz in titles in mideast strife bush sees a step to peace in the article he states and i quote in the administration's view the new conflict is not just a crisis to be managed it is also an opportunity to seriously degrade a big threat in the region just as bush believes he is doing in iraq in the quote if this administration thinks that it can succeed here in lebanon with the same strategy that has brought us success in iraq then our foreign policy in washington is even more out of touch with reality than i thought my second point is that as part of our effort to bring about this cease fire we need to talk directly with the syrians and with others with whom we have disagreed robert malley who was president clinton's special assistant for arab israeli affairs has written an article in the july two thousand and four issue of time magazine making this case persuasively his article isn't titled time to start talking the thrust of his argument is that this administration's policy of not talking to those with whom we disagree has not served us well and the same arguments made by john mclaughlin the former deputy director of the cia in yesterday's washington post in my view both of these former officials are giving good advice and i urge the president and the secretary of state to heed that advice my final point is that this current crisis should be a wake up call to this is ministration that the united states needs to reengage diplomatically in the region for the for the past several decades u s administrations have seen our role in the middle east as supporting the security of israel but also as help to resolve conflicts between israel and its neighbors and supporting moderate governments in the region there are many chapters in that history among the most remembered our secretary of state kissinger's efforts  shuttle diplomacy president carter's efforts at camp david president clinton's efforts bringing rabin and arafat's both to the white house for a handshake and his later efforts trying to broker a peace agreement at camp david this current administration has chosen a different course it has chosen to disengage from that conflict resolution role as evidence of this secretary powell did not appoint a special middle east envoy as his predecessor had secretary rice also has not appointed a special envoy and her statement was quote not every effort has to be an american effort it is extremely important that the parties themselves are taking responsibility and my strong view is that this policy of disengagement has not served the interests of the united states the interests of israel or the interests of other countries in the region we are by far the biggest provider of aid to the countries of the middle east and if any outside nation is to play an effective and a constructive role it needs to be the united states i'm glad that the secretary of state is in beirut today but progress on the diplomatic front cannot be postponed awaiting fly ins by our secretary of state secretary rice should appoint a special envoy to work full time at resolving disputes and tensions in the region again john mclaughlin states the point well quote the chances of the texting and heading off eminent disaster are enhanced when there is intense unrelenting and daily attention by a senior and respected u s figure who wakes up every morning worrying about nothing else the role dennis ross played so effectively in the one nine hundred ninety s and continuing with this quotation without constant tending to the concerns of all the regional parties the rapid flagging of issues the sport of cision in washington and the continuity of focus by one individual with access we will learn from crisis to crisis in court it's ironic that the president and secretary of state acknowledge the need for an undersecretary of state for public diplomacy this is the job that karen hughes was given to burnish the u s image abroad particularly in the muslim world yet at the same time they refused to appoint a special envoy to the middle east which in my view would do far more with regard to perceptions in that part of the world you ministration to reassert the historic role of the united states as a force for resolution of conflict in the middle east i believe that that must begin by engaging in direct talks with the parties in the region and i urge the president that our secretary of state to help bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities this president i would ask consent that the two articles i have referred to one by robert waiting for senators to come back to the floor and continue as their morning business that's there in the morning business right now we expect later on this afternoon the senate to take up the nomination have a role in the whole drama almost to be a u s circuit judge for the ten couple more hours tomorrow with a vote on that nomination tomorrow tomorrow also in the senate we expect the senate to take up legislation that would make it a federal crime to circumvent state parental notification laws by taking a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion and later in the wake of a measure dealing with offshore drilling offshore drilling and that roll tension was also scheduled to come up in the senate working on a number of suspension bills we expect roll call votes in the house about six thirty this afternoon middle east will help stop the violence between israel and hezbollah you can log on the capital news or cast your vote see real time results and keep up with the latest on congress the white house for the national security agency's warrantless surveillance program sound another thing to keep our eye on this week we expect the senate to take up the nomination of jerome holmes to be a u s circuit judge with tenth circuit today tomorrow we expect  the senate to work on s four o three a bill that would make it a federal crime to circumvent state parental notification laws by taking minors across state lines to obtain abortions and then for the remainder of the week big energy bill as thirty seven eleven an offshore drilling measure we expect the senate to get to that senate in this week and next before the august recess the house wrapping up their work this week and they will not be in the week of the thirty first system of checks and balances