and glory of this day with your light you have provided us with a model of excellence with your sacrifice you have  love that never fades and with your guidance we have found dreams that lead to abundance lead on o great chain eternal what we follow not in fear guide the members of this body to new levels of excellen them robust help pay for their perplexities wisdom for their decision and the light for the path ahead make the clerk will read a communication to the senate washington d c october twenty fifth two thousand and seven to the senate and its provisions of rule one paragraph three of the standing rules of the senate i hereby appoint the honorable ken salazar a senator from the state of colorado to  of the chair so and robert c byrd president pro tempore present the majority leader is present we're going have an hour morning business the time is controlled by the two leaders republicans control the first half democrats the second half following the morning business senate will resume consideration amtrak last minute agreement was entered regarding consideration of the pending sununu amendment relating to rail subsidies are only two hours a date on that amendment well it's expected sometime around eleven th i would say that republican leader i just happened and i just had a conversation we have to check with a couple centers on each side where we might try to do to get out of the procedural problem we have now because we do have one with this is we may try to set up a couple of competing votes and won't try to do that we know that it's the issues pretty well formed we know what one side wants and we know what the other side wants and so probably appropriate that we set something up so you can vote on both of them when it's been suggested we have sixty vote margin the both home which of course is certainly done on occasion around here and so we're going to i'm going to soon as i finish here  there voted eleven thirty maybe two votes so i we were on top of that i think that it would be a way to move doubt moving on to this bill so they were actually debating the railroad as i am track issues rather than now this internet issue which is important and has to be decided within the next few days one way or the other because otherwise it expires so that's where we are we there should be amendments throughout the day i have i know i've had one senator asked me if there would be votes tonight i think it's very likely there would be  on anyone considering going to boston to watch world series might not be able to do that this president three five six four h r three five six hours at the desk can do for second reading the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time h r thirty five sixty four and act and then title five united states code and so forth and for other purposes this present i would now object any further proceedings if the abduction is heard the bill will be placed on the senate lost one of its hardest working most respected members here paul wellstone i can still remember very clearly a phone call i received from pete rouse who is the chief of staff for senator  and he said when i get from terrible news and it was an airplane crash and we think paul wellstone sign that well mr president hope springs eternal and i was hoping that that was wrong but it wasn't he was in a plane crash sheila who was his partner she was with him every place was killed in that plane crash one of his three children marshall was also killed and three campaigning took a typical for paul wellstone he had made a commitment to be someplace and he wanted to go the weather was bad the pilot said everything would be ok wasn't telling in the way it really was and i'm not going to get into how the action happened why it happened but certainly it was nothing out of paul wellstone did wrong it was paul wellstone wanted to fulfill a commitment he should have been up and that airplane the pilot should have taken that airplane into the area and he did but he did in his life mr president paul wellstone earned the title of doctor professor senator speak and new centers didn't like that we had a vent in no time to from the new senators and i'd never heard him speak before was dynamic twenty and said he was talking about why he is why he got involved in politics paul came here in one thousand ninety one he was a crusader that's what he was he was a crusader he was always out charging of charging ahead on some issue that he believed in but mostly mr president those issues were those that people needed help the left behind veterans environment those with mental illness were always a special concern to him he took pride in championing the fight for people needing helping hand you know a lot about growing up with adversity had a brother that he loved who suffered from mental illness and that's why he joined with center dimension work on mental health parity parents work hard they didn't have much paul told me how his father would sit at the table in the evening and talk about what was important in life he was a remarkable man very small in stature mr president physically silky cross and the constitution avenue that the police headquarters or hundreds and hundreds of police officers come and go out of that facility every day and over the years paul wellstone still conference wrestling championship managed graduate and just three years after college and a ph d in political science became a college professor the age of twenty four at a very very academically and known school carleton college in minnesota but even then years before service the set up paul wellstone was a true believer and a passion fighter for justice and that's an understatement you may not have agreed with what his definition of justice was but what his definition was was worth fighting and he fought hard all teaching at carleton college he led the charge to divest the university from apartheid in south africa he helped local farmers when banks came to foreclose on their farms that's paul wellstone he foster a new generation of active civic minded students by teaching specialized courses like with names like social movements  their work courses that he and then and i don't know textbooks for them there were some who said that for an on tenured professor teaching activism in lean campus protests wasn't for his career move that a person can make in fact when paul came up for tenure he was initially denying in effect he was in the process of being fired it took a groundswell of student support thousands thousands of students most of whom didn't go to that university rally and on his behalf he kept his job he got tenure at twenty eight he was the youngest tenured tenured professor in the history of carleton college it was done because the students wanted him more than did the administration and he was a great teacher so when he came to the senate and it was no surprise he brought a fearless progressive spirit with him i recall observers comparing him to jimmy smits character and mr smith goes to washington was idealistic he was determined and he was very effective he came here refusing to be fazed by the politics of division refusing to be fazed by business as usual i don't think the phase status quo was in his vocabulary wherever he saw injustice intolerance or simply ineffectiveness you could understand that paul wellstone would be around when he found injustice in the treatment of the mentally ill he stepped forward to ensure parity for sufferers of what were known as unspoken illnesses comes to insurance caps when he found him just the treatment of our veterans who stepped forward to help them especially those who are homeless when he found injustice the way our earth was treated he stepped forward attacked the alaska national wildlife refuge from drilling among other things he never hesitated with pondered the step for he was really a leader now and he was leading that didn't mean everybody agreed with him because much of the time in fact most of the time he was in the minority he didn't care if he had two people supporting our one or he was alone he never hesitated i repeat he never paused or pondered many wondered how this fire breathing progress was able to accomplish so much and his time now says that he believed in bipartisanship and he actively embraced it was never surprised to see paul team up with one or more of the senate's most conservative members to get something done for the people of the state of minnesota or our country during his time here in washington never change i'm really dead and he left this earth with the same idealism and passion he always had he wants said on this the court never separate the life you live from the words you speak and of quote he lived by that rule i recall that when he first arrived in the senate he kept wondering he would leave his office all messed up and come back  asked who does this is that people come in late at night and clear off the janitors of paul wellstone after learning that stayed that night they came after midnight he waited for them so he could tell them how much he appreciated their cleaning as office that's a kind of guy who was true to form he did that as he did many unusual things in the minds of many there's a man that still works here name is kerry i don't know gary's last name the big man who helps us here move all seen here he said people refer to him as tiny told me somehow thought that that was not the right thing to do he was really my friend i counseled with him and went to the doctor with him right before he was killed he had a terribly bad back oh ban refused to go to the doctor i will always always remember that phone call i got from pete rouse and i will always always remember paul wellstone his loss a presence here has been felt and missed every day because he added a new dimension to the senate you don't always have to when to be a winner so i say to his sons david and mark the entire wellstone family paul wellstone always be in my heart and anyone who knew him and their heart those good people in asia and kentucky from home she's back today is indeed a sad anniversary join the senate family and honoring the memory of senator paul wellstone and celebrating his distinguish senate career he was the most unlikely senator is an election in one thousand nine hundred was widely considered a kind of a fluke an accident but he was neither he was a genuine article an extraordinary man who came to work every day with enthusiasm he had a very upbeat outlook on life sometimes people who were either on the very left or the very right have a kind of grim view things paul would by his own admission say that he was on the very far left of things but he had no  t a graham nature about him at all it was always that kind of update and optimistic came to work every day every day ready to fight for what he believed it was a champion of mental health and other c volume you never had any uncertainty about where he stood it was absolutely clear having a hard time recalling a single matter upon which he and i agreed but paul was what i would call the conviction based politician public servant who never wavered from his believes even when the political winds shifted against them he and sheila kentucky and i was talking about were absolutely insufferable high school sweethearts they'd been married for thirty nine years when regretfully the plane that was carrying them their daughter marsha three staff members and two pilots went down in minnesota on the way to the debate and  the entire nation agree that day for this former wrestling champ and unlikely as i indicated earlier unforgettable senator we grieve on this anniversary with paul's two surviving son david and mark and the years later he plowed right through college at the university of north carolina both his undergraduate degree and his doctorate was a fab eight a kappa that's about as good as it gets for a student in  widely admired and loved by his colleagues here in the senate we will always remember under the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate will proceed to a period of mourning business for sixty minutes with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes with a time equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees with the majority controlling the first portion and the republicans controlling the final portion  and molly people they remember paul and how it come to their marketplaces and how he'd meet with the women they some of them the elders can hardly speak any english but they can say well still i know that i will forever be humbled by the that i took to be the senator from minnesota and i know that not i or anyone else can follow truly in paul's footsteps but he is an inspiration for us all as my friend and my mentor he taught me how to campaign on city bus we would get on a bus this is when i first ran for office mr president when i ran for county attorney we would get on a city bus and we would work the entire bus we would meet everyone on that bus and then when we get to the end of about eight blocks we'd say we gotta go we're at or stop we get off and then we get on a bus going the next and we would go around and around and around for hours and how we met everyone that had been on those buses on the nic minneapolis that afternoon paul wellstone bus by bus block by block precinct by precinct to touch people in a way that made people believe made people know that involvement in politics could make a real difference in their lives that was what he told the new immigrants of new citizens he told them that involvement in politics and make a difference in their lives and he not only by his words by how much but by how much he went out and touched them and were a part of their lives he was a christian crusader and a man with many passion but anyone who ever met or talked with him quickly with the safety and security and peace of mind i remember the last time that i saw paul it was just a few weeks before the tragic crash and i've been asked to speak to a group of new citizens immigrants from russia and it was a very small group i think there were about fifty people there and we talked about our own immigrant experiences she talked about her parents  and growing up in appalachian and i talked about relatives coming over and making their way saving money in a coffee can in the basement so that they could send my dad to college and we were in the middle of the stories and it's very small room and all of a sudden in walked paul and he wasn't supposed to be there he had gotten an early flight home from washington and he wasn't supposed to be there because he was just about a month out on one of the biggest but he did the right thing and he came into that room where there's no press no reporters a few weeks before the election and at the time i thought why did he do this when he's got to be out there campaigning and i knew then that there were two reasons that he did it first is that he loves and he wanted to surprise her and he wanted to be there by her side she gave her speech and gave her remarks but he was also there because he embraced the immigrant experience he like nothing more than talking about how you can come to this country with nothing and yourself up by your bootstraps you can be a guy working fifteen hundred feet underground in the mines in ealing minnesota and your granddaughter can be a united states senator you can be someone with mental illness like paul's brother and grow up to get a college degree and be a teacher you can be a victim of domestic found and get your life back together and have a home for your kids that's what paul and sheila stood for that was their legacy and today in our state of minnesota morning business without objection thank you very much mr president i'm delighted to come to the floor today i heard this morning then asked about the democratic leader mr reid that we probably will not bring the remaining five appropriations bills to the floor the senate for the years out quite frankly where the republicans or democrats have been in charge lately and saying we've gotten into this situation of going well past the beginning of the fiscal year without acting on all the appropriations act it seems to me like that this mine one thousand year in the united states congress my third year in the united states senate more often than not we end up with many buses are on the buses we roll in tremendous appropriations bills one into the other pass a min the end of night and find out weeks later what's really and that's not good regardless of your party it's certainly not good for the united states of america and i come to the fore this morning to talk for just a minute about some suggestions had been made by some very distinguished and learned members of this body on both sides of the aisle about really opening up our appropriations process diagnosing the problems with it and then fixing it statutorily after tickly called the attention of the body to senator domenici from new mexico one of the longest serving member of the united states senate he'll be retiring at the end of next year but he is introduced consistently for a number of years the biennial budget idea an idea where we appropriate in two year bites rather than in one year bites and we do oversight in the second you think about this bridges to second what if the united states congress did appropriations bills and i had numbered years meaning we spent the money in odd number years and then an even numbered years the same years we're up for reelection we do oversight so all of a sudden the debates in our races  not about what we're going to spend but how our money's being spent that's responsible it's smart and it makes sense those who object will jump up and sell them we'll just have a lot of emergency appropriations bills give me a break have you seen how many emergencies we've done in the last two years we have emergencies it come up all the talent course you're going to have those but the emergency that exists is not the fear of having an emergency but the fact that once again this year we've gone past the end of the fiscal year we we're operating under a continuing resolution united states of america has an untold number of issues that must be dealt with and we're on cruise control in terms of the appropriations of our country it's just not right that had voted for some appropriations bills i voted against some appropriations bills i'm glad we've gotten seven done but we have five out there that all of a sudden are going to probably get rolled in with about three or four others that get vetoed so they end up getting rolled into an  fly in here in the dead of night have a document on our death is probably as thick as five or six concrete blocks that the one on top of another in very fine print we're going to be asked to cast our vote and how we spend the money of the people of the united states of america is not right it's time that we looked at new creative ways to run the unite the states of america and its fiscal affairs i commend senator domenici for appropriations recommendation and the idea that by now a budget and i encourage this body to start looking at a constructive solution like that just a senator voinovich from all house said yesterday here's a man that's run the state of all have been a governor is as sound a fiscal person as you want to find in the senate he program point out as well yesterday that the whole situation is just broke we have entitlements on cruise cruise control discretionary spending on continuing resolutions and we in the congress fight over little tiny parts of the appropriations process when we ought to be considering it in it totality take each one of the twelve budget units bring them to the floor debate and pass them send in the president do them responsibly as we're expected to do so when the announcement was made this morning that we're just not going to get to five appropriations bills this year it was also an announcement what we're going to do is have an obama of us appropriations we're going to roll all the bills into one not debate them not make decisions based on their sound is not even for most of us have a say in certainly not have a say in primetime  amorously on the floor of the united states senate so mr president i come today to talk about responsibility on behalf of our body and responsibility will have behalf of the people united states of america and i urge the majority to join with us seek out recommendations like that of senator domenici say get out those sound advice that like that of senator voinovich and let's get our fiscal affairs in order because if we don't we're going to waste more and more tax dollars and we have more and more programs that go without oversight and spend dollar after dollar after dollar oh no problems why are new problems there new challenges go one med is not right for me not right for you mr president and most importantly it's not right for the people of the united states of america and now you go back  speed just from the heart on two matters one on my good friend paul wellstone who's five years ago has died in a plane crash and several speakers have spoken already eloquently about paul wellstone a wonderful man and i disagreed on many many issues in this body and yet just had a wonderful relationship because the nature of the person that he was and he practiced that art disagree without being disagreeable which is a tough art to do to claim legislative bodies can be very difficult but he did it and he did it very well and he had a number of friends on both sides of the aisle from wide across the political spectrum and because of that attitude and here's something i really want to say to my colleagues because of that attitude then paul and i could get together on what i deem to be the most important piece of legislation that i've been a part of here for so far as a primary sponsor and that's the human trafficking work that he started that actually his wife got him focused on and she was killed in a plane same plane crash where we started to see people trafficked into the united states in different places around the world and wondered what's going  on to this dark underside of the globalization is taking place in the way they saw it first started to see ukrainian women trafficked into minnesota and showing up at battered women shelters  they've been trafficked into prostitution into the united states and then they're showing up at battered women's shelters and they're saying well what how did you get here and then they started back tracking the trail through gang activities criminal activities organized crime activities that moved him from the ukraine into the united states and abroad fals and then then they were battered and as they started piece this together they were seeing organized crime which now we know is is in many cases involved in human trafficking around the world and that this is the third leading source of income for organized crime now is trafficking and much of it is women or young girls many cases if not most that they are trafficking in trafficking into prostitution paul's wife first observed paul got involved in it i got involved in it seen it from another angle and we were able to put together and reach out across the aisles and disagree on a lot of things but not be disagreeable and find common cause we're able to deal with something that is a scourge on this planet as we globalize as walls come down people are moved in many times illicitly and in many cases brutally and in a lot of cases are killed even in the process or seen as disposable people which is something that is a term of art that one of the  authors experts on this topic has written a book called disposable people people that have been trafficked then after they get disease or run down or just blown out in the straight as a disposable person it is a very thing paul heart gold sol this american complaining to me one day coming out on the senate floor and he came charging up to me and said you did this to me and i said what he said he was showing me the rankings and he was only the second most liberal member in the united states senate and the prior years he had been the first most liberal member of the united states senate he said you did this to me if i had been working with you i'd be the most liberal still and he had that kind of a sense of humor about him that he would would blame me he also meant coming up to me one day where i was talking about life is sacred and precious and i was and i believe that all life is sacred precious chat of a loving god and that includes paul wellstone and convictions and there's no problem having core convictions and it's a good thing to have core convictions and to stand by those it's also a good thing to recognize when it is that the topics we're talking about are not down your core convictions or that you can reach out across the aisle i think maybe thirty percent of the topics around washington maybe more could be less our diversity ones where there are divisions on both sides but there's seventy percent that we can work on and the country is desperate to see us make washington work to see us reach across the aisle to c s make it work on core topics joe biden i held a press conference in iowa about a political solution in iraq and people were stunned saying that this is what we want to say we want to see our country work on tough topics we can do that on issues like cancer the war on iraq war on cancer there's no division between the parties on that and region across the aisle we can show the american p call a government that works  and that's something that that we need to do at something i think would be paul wellstone and his wife's legacy and i remember them today and i hope all of us will remember him in their prayer in our prayers about what they gave to us i often say you can't measure a tree very well until it's on the ground unfortunately that's the case with with paul wonderful guy wonderful hard i disagree with him on a number of political issues but i love his style and love the away live life  second topic mr president i'd like to talk about bravely just advise my colleagues on this is the situation in sudan the situation in darfur has been widely noted and known it is deteriorating it's deteriorating  slowly we want to get the factions back together to try to talk about what it is we can do to bring some stability something that's not widely followed right now is a terrier situation between the north and the south we've got a long term peace agreement that's been in place now for a couple of years between the north and the south end of the longest running civil war in africa have been going on for twenty years two million people killed and now the south is backed away somewhat from the government the north government isn't complying with the peace agreement going to be bringing out a more full statement to my colleagues about this this is a very dangerous first was a situation that now we could get back into problems between the north and the south again and have two fronts going south was a long term there's a genocide going on there before it took place in darfur and i think we've got to be vigilant as well towards the sudanese government which is the problem this is a genocidal government  khartoum i think we've got to get on top of that situation and make sure it doesn't deteriorate to the north and south along with what's taking place in the west in darfur and i get could well be that sudan in the future is a country of breaks out into three or four different countries because of the way the khartoum government is trying to force people into their ideological box it is a militant islamic government that was started by osama bin laden this iteration it is the problem but we have to deal with it is where it is in this situation i just don't want to take our eyes off the ball on the south where there's been a lot of work over a long period of time to get that it piece that we not lose that piece as well in the overall  situation vialli at the present the president of congo is in washington now met with him yesterday along with a number of my colleagues one of the issues that i want to bring up here and i'll be developing some legislation on this is that a number of radical militant groups are raiding in the eastern part of the congo they're dislocating nearly four hundred thousand people now and then these guerrilla movements what they do is they get control over an area then they give mineral rights to individuals or to groups to come in and to mine things like call tan it's a particular metal that's used in making cellphones and that's then how they finance the rebel movement we saw this in the blood diamond issue in western africa and what we did then was put a certification process together that you had to certify that the diamonds came through a legitimate means and that really shut the financing down my hope is that we can do something similar in the congo where we can we can have a certification process on minerals like a cult and if we can develop this and then shut the financing down for these groups that then  run civilian populations out of an area i think that's something we can do credibly our our markets and our economy is our key foreign policy tool and here's a place where you can use the u s market to really try to help bring stability to a president someone asked me once how i would describe my politics and i told them i believe in the gospel of st paul paul douglas paul simon and paul wellstone that started as a college student interning for us senator paul douglas met through him paul simon worked with paul for years and was honored to succeed him in the united states senate and then came to this body and served with paul wellstone of minnesota is to sit in a corner there paul sent right behind me in the last row they were in my opinion three of the best public servants i've ever come to know i had the privilege to know each of them to be and to be inspired by them not a w by that i don't throw in some lesson or some truth that they taught me i'm thinking today especially of paul wellstone it's five years ago today that paul and sheila his wife of thirty nine years died in a plane crash in heavy fog in the iron range of northern minnesota the information reached this in chicago a few hours later and i was asked to comment on local television station and i'm sure that the emotion in my voice betrayed my real feelings about this great man and sheila also lost in the crash for paul and she was daughter more sure their friends and campaign workers will mclaughlin tom laughed pick mary mcevoy in the plane's pilots richard conroe and michael guess to understand who paul wellstone was and what he meant to so many people listen to this story from john nichols washington correspond of the nation magazine two hours after the plane crash he had just finished delivering a keyno speech to about family to family farm activists in a small town in wisconsin when the conference organizer whispered the news to him these were people who knew paul wellstone as the college professor who was militant willing to march with them and even to be arrested with them to protest family farm foreclosures when he was elected to the senate the thought of paul wellstone as their senator whether or not they lived in minnesota was a reality when they learned die john nichols wrote and quote cries of no and my god my god filled the room as grown men fell for tables to keep their balance husbands and wives hugged one another and everyone began an unsuccessful struggle to choke back tears the group gathered in a large circle people wept in silence until finally a woman began to recite the lord's prayer for the son of russian jewish immigrants who touched the lives and hearts of so many solid midwestern catholics and lutheran farmers who don't think of themselves as having too many friends in congress he was our flag bearer one woman said there are plenty of people in congress who vote right but paul did everything right we didn't have to ask him we didn't have to lobby him he understood it was like having one of us in congress they said that was how paul so paul wellstone would have wanted it he once said people have to believe you're on their side that someone in the senate is listening if there's someone in congress maybe just one person it gives them a sense that change is possible paul wellstone was by some standards a very unlikely senator his first election in one nine hundred ninety remains one of the great upset victories in american history let alone minnesota history he was a college professor challenging an incumbent senator his campaign had very little money he bought his first three suits for one hundred dollars a piece mr president during that campaign and crisscrossed minnesota in an old green school bus that always seem to be breaking down no matter what he lacked money and consultancy made up for with ideas and passion politics he says is what we create by what we do what we hope for and what we dare to imagine minnesotans believed in him and sent him to the s senate the only challenger to defeat an incumbent that year even with new suits in the senate paul wellstone stood out during his first weeks here one reporter wrote that he projects an image of barely in control energy and he had a habit of going pie eyed with excitement pumping the air with his hands i can still remember him back in this back row here he used to like to get a long cord on his microphone and range all over that area just walking and talking and waving his arms with that kind of stumbling gait that was part of the back injury that had haunted him most of his adult life but when he got going people were listening always when paul wellstone was in junior high school his mother a ukrainian immigrant worked in the cafeteria the school that embarrassed paul greatly later in life when every business school he always introduce himself to the cafeteria workers did the same thing in the senate he knew every security guard every kitchen worker every elevator operator by name but this is what's different about paul wellstone he didn't just talk to  cafeteria workers he voted as a senator with them in mind and he said some people are here to fight for the rockefeller's i'm here to fight for the little fellers i'm sure jay rockefeller didn't take offense to that he felt for family farmers on the edge of foreclosure for workers facing layoffs for older people who had to decide between prescription and food each month he and sheila were great partners for thirty nine in years they fought for women and children threatened by violence we fought for teachers and coal miners for veterans for people who suffered the sting of discrimination and denial because of their race their gender their sexual orientation or their physical or mental disability he fought for immigrant parents who work at less than minimum wage jobs he listened to me look them in the eye and when he did used to say he saw his own parents he fought for good education good health care in good jobs he demanded fairness for those to whom life has been unfair he gave people hope and courage it didn't matter to him if he was wrong in the wrong end of the ninety nine to one vote he voted his conscience mr president i was in the senate one day when we had an issue come to force it was a defense related issue and i decided that i was going to vote against the amendment that was about to be called by one of the senators on the other side of the aisle and as is the custom in the senate they roll through the roll call and then recap how many of voted in the affirmative how many voted in the negative well when they list of the senators voting in negative mind was the only name they mentioned and i realized i was by myself and i looked up to the door and said where's wellstone and darned if you didn't walk through the door and vote no with me that's the kind of person he was he wasn't afraid to be the only one or the only one of two senators voting on an issue now paul wellstone was a wrestler not just with issues but literally a champion wrestler when he was in high school in the senate even with a bad back and hobbled by m s he was really strong he held the pushup record at the capitol police gym where he worked out ninety one pushups in one minute but it was strength of character that was more extraordinary than strength of body remember the night the senate voted on the iraq war resolution mr mr president there were twenty three of us who voted against the iraq war resolution three of remained on the floor afterwords the three of us had voted no chambers cleared it was late at night and i recall walking up to paul wellstone who was in a tight election contest back in minnesota and saying to him paul i hope this doesn't cost election and he said to me it's ok if it does this is what i believe and this is who i am people of minnesota would expect anything less that was it a handful of words summarizing who he was and what he believed in and what he thought politics was all about that was the last conversation that i had with paul wellstone before he lost his life in that plane crash five years ago today much was lost in that crash but a lot survives to keep their parents work alive paul and sheila son mark and david started a progressive advocacy organization called well stone action perfect in the last four years more than fourteen thousand three hundred people attended camp wellstone workshops to learn how to make politics more relevant and more effective if you want to know more about the good work well stone action i'm going to give them a plug well stone dot org go there and take a look at this  fortunate to still have a service of a talent passionate women and men who learn from paul wellstone himself i count myself as one of those lucky ones one thing i'll close with one of his real passions was to work on this issue of discrimination against the mentally ill it touched his life and his family and he knew it personally and he was determined to make sure that those suffering from mental illness would have a fair shake when it came to health insurance and medical services he didn't get that job done by the time that he passed and left us in the senate but that battle was carried on valiantly by senator ted kennedy and senator domenici who passed   lation and i hope that the house will pass a similar bill soon so that we can and honor of paul wellstone really do something important paul wellstone was always full of hope a reporter who knew him well recalled a conversation a ninety four election when democrats lost control of both houses of congress this is what he wrote while stone was upset but not down we don't have time for despair he said the fight doesn't change it just gets harder but it's the same fight i wish paul wellstone were here today of all of the thousands of men and women i've served with in the house and the senate he and congressman mike sign or of oklahoma are two that i always wish were around for a phone call for word of advice just to sit for a few moments and hear their brand of politics if paul wellstone were here to die day i know would tell us don't give up don't despair there are so many people counting on you you've got to keep fighting let's do report calendar number one fifty eight s two ninety four a bill to reauthorize amtrak and for other purposes the senator from texas is recognized thank you thank you mr president and i want to thank the senator from new jersey for giving me this time and for being a longtime advocate of amtrak but not just eastern corridor amtrak the senator from new jersey has worked diligently for a national system the reason that we have a need for a national system is because it's national that it connects other routes to each other if we had fun track in the same way that we have funded and helped other systems of transportation other modes of transportation we would have even a bigger ridership because we would have better on time delivery but the bad on time delivery has caused a drop off in ridership but this does not mean that we should abandon the national system i am pleased to be a co sponsor of this bill senator lott has been another champion a longtime champion of a national system there are thirty nine co sponsors of this bill and we have worked together to make sure that we don't just subsidize the eastern corridor because i have said all along it's national or nothing for me i believe in a national passenger rail system one that connects our country from coast to coast my vision is that we have a  track going across the northern part of our country from the atlantic to the pacific the southern part of our country from the a planet to the pacific and then from the top to the bottom of our country from the northernmost point down to the tip of florida and the tip of california duce is a national system it would have in and indeed a and tract it also splits the middle of the country from chicago down to texas from that we have the capability to have state systems that would emanate from that skeleton it is so important that we stay together it would be easy to say well northeastern corridor does own its own tracks and therefore it is more efficient and why don't we just cut off the rest of the country and subsidize that that is not a national system i could not in good conscience support just a northeastern line my constituents would be robbed of the texas eagle and the sunset limited and there are other states as well that have needs that are legitimate and if we actually had done better by track all these years i think we would have fewer subsidies required so i am pleased to support the bill but i do not want senator sununu amendment to go on it isn't that i don't think his heart is in the right place he's trying to save money because amtrak is subsidized but mr president we don't deny needed highways in the rural parts of our states all of our federal highway money is divided it goes into rural areas so why would we deny amtrak service to other parts of the country that don't have the ridership mainly because of the on time time service not being dependable in two thousand and three public opinion polls showed an overwhelming eighty five percent of four to support and supported amtrak two billion dollars worth of funding for amtrak  we need a better system we're working for a better system i think the bill before us is a huge will debated well adjusted  bill that isn't everything the senator from new jersey wants it's not everything the senator from mississippi wants is not everything this senator from texas wants but i know that if we have a national system is an important alternative mode of transportation for our country we need highways that is the bread and butter transportation system for our country we need air transportation and we do provide a an air traffic control system to support that but mr president a national rail passenger train is another mode that in the event of an emergency is a very helpful mode of transportation after nine eleven when our air traffic system was shut down people went to amtrak we needed that for that emergency i believe we would be able to have much more in amtrak if we funded it at a level where it would have a better service and if we could get the freight rail to work with us to actually help us alleviate some of the congestion that they cause that is on their freight lines we could work this out if we had a real support for amtrak i think it is important that we do that in two thousand and five safety lou spent more than forty billion dollars on our highways in two thousand and nine the senate will take up an f a a bill later this year that will invest seventeen billion dollars in aviation annually we just sent the president a water resources bill authoriz twenty three billion dollars over the next two years there's always a different standard for amtrak amtrak is asking for in this bill two point one billion dollars a year i don't know why drive is a step child if we have the resources necessary to make it a system that serves our whole country i believe it would be an environmentally effective  system that would operate to not only provide transportation needs in rural parts of our country where you can have buses that go into very small communities and feed into an amtrak station but the service would improve the on time delivery would improve and mr president i think for the kinds of subsidies that we need that we are authorizing in this bill it should be a national system not an eastern northeastern corridor system that is what is fair for our country it is right for our country and always in the senate since i've been here our amtrak supporters have been national or nothing and track supporters i've supported the northeastern corridor my friends on the northeastern corridor have supported a national system and even in the hardest times we have kept that system together and i think if we do that we will see that the states will will step in and do more as california and some of the western states have done to their credit that we will have more private line more mass transit lines such as we have coming into dallas feeding into the amtrak station making it more used two hundred fifty passengers just in texas or used the tex's eagle and the sunset limited last year so i do think is a very important mode of transportation i think the more we can do to make it more efficient and effective the better off we'll be but mr president the  amendment would wreck the national system and i hope that we would reject that even though i respect my colleague from new hampshire very much and i know that his heart is in the right place and i want to work with them to make amtrak more efficient but dropping national lines is not going to make it more efficient thank you mr president and i you know before the senator from new jersey i want to thank the sea was senator from the that would be eliminated under the proposal that is in front of us would be the crescent in the first year and that the writer should there is not quite what it of the them by themselves is not massive but it's all part of a national network and think about it when nine eleven came along and the aviation system was closed down in many cases the only way to get people to get to their destinations home or otherwise was rail service and this would be in my view a national security breach if we permitted this to be discontinued there is no country in the world where there is rail service that doesn't have some self subsidy contribution that rail service and we have to adjust ourselves to that and neither does our aviation system work if we didn't have contributions to that neither would our highway systems be operating if we did and they are  there so we have to make sure that our our infrastructure national transportation infrastructure is in place and trickle part of that of course is national with the gentleman yield for mr president i was so pleased that the gentleman from new jersey talked about the sunset limited because the sunset limited which is the first line that would be eliminated under sununu amendment connects california all the way through the southern part of our country all the way through tex's it goes through san antonio and houston then over to new orleans through mississippi alabama and it ends in florida and in florida is where you could neck to go all the way up the northeastern corridor if you take out the sunset limited that is our inner continental rail line all the way across our country on the southern side you're taking out a major part of the connection to our national system and i hope that the gentleman from new jersey is correct that  we will not have a national system if you take out the whole inner continental southern half of it i just applaud him for bringing that out and would just ask the question do you think if we took out that whole southern system the sunset limited that it would enhance amtrak but it enhanced the eastern seaboard would it enhanced all the investments that california has made up its nor all the way up through california would probably destroy the system because you can't escape the fact that the equipment is often moved around in different areas and that we have to have this as a back as i earlier said before just for security alone but also as we join the fight against pollution then and greenhouse gases and the essential and we want to work together and make sure that we include this as a one of the targets for improving our transportation the efficiency in the country momentarily and support his for them and let me say to his credit unlike some of our colleagues he has been involved in this for years as a member the commerce committee and when we were trying to get it up consideration last year he didn't just try to block it come to the floor he had two men lunch and we agreed to those amendment should be considered that's that's the way to do this one of the things i said last night is i want to expand on just a little bit when i said this bill is may not be perfect that we can we can perhaps have more improvements but here's a case where the people are hear from say well this is not a good bill because it doesn't do enough not that they're opposed to most of what is in it or what's in it they just one of the more but when you're so right what do you want to go silent so i think it's a major step in the right direction if we can find more things that   explain more about your member didn't speak and then i would follow you if you'd prefer or i can go without objection mr president if i can respond to what senator lott i'm happy to speak whenever he feels that he's made all the points that he needs to make at least in the current time frame i'd like to speak for ten or fifteen minutes or so on the amendment and we can move from there are now we've allotted i call in law hours but i hope and i think we want to take all the time well it is present in the interest of fairness we go back and forth we've had a couple people speak and against the amendment senator hutchison just to homeschool so if you'd like to speak now and i'd like to encourage you to do so and then we'll we'll see if we have some speakers on the other side after that the president a senator from new hampshire asked that the quorum call be dispensed with without objection mr president i rise to speak on the amendment that i offered last night and this is amendment that address the most basic question of fiscal responsibility fiscal responsibility fiscal responsibility we hear this phrase all the time from politicians whether you're inside the beltway in washington or odd side the beltway in washington and i'm sure at times people listening to the debate turn the other way because they see everyone using these phrases or this particular phrase and and it seems to mean something different to everyone else but i say it's the most basic question of responsibility because we're not talking about how high the tax burden should be or even how much or how large the federal budget should be and we're not talking about whether we should spend money in a particular area so much is we're asking how much we should subsidize a money losing proposition how much money should the taxpayers be asked to spend on a business that's losing money and amtrak is a business and amtrak is losing money and we're in a position to be able to look at different parts of that business and try to identify exactly how much money they're losing in particular areas and ask that simple question what's fair what's right how much funding should be used to subsidize a passenger on a particular train in the amtrak system i would like to think that my colleagues are willing to stand up and say that the amount of money that we should subsidize a passenger on a long distance train is less than a billion dollars per passenger i think we can get agreement on that sometimes i'm not sure if we could get agreement on that but i think we could get agreement we should not provide a subsidy of one billion dollars per passenger on every long distance train that amtrak runs that's a good starting point i'd like to think that we could get agreement that the subsidy for every passenger on every long distance train that amtrak runs shouldn't be a million dollars for passenger back let's say for the sake of discussion reasonable discussion we can at least at least agree that the maximum subsidy shouldn't be a thousand dollars for every single passenger is a basic question of fiscal responsibility how big should that subsidy be let's look at first at how big this subsidy is today there are fifteen long distance rou fifteen percent of amtrak's ridership consuming forty three percent of the total amtrak by just that is well in excess of a billion dollars their revenue generated less than four hundred billion dollars by the commerce committee estimates that means there's as much as nine hundred billion dollars in los for these fifteen routes average per passenger subsidies in excess of two hundred dollars for every one riding these trains now i say as much as nine hundred billion dollars because no one really knows how much is being lost today and we've heard about all of the reforms the fiscal reforms in this package and we hope they better unable us to understand how much money amtrak is losing but the last time any clear audit was done on these long distance trains was was two thousand and four by the inspector general and let's look at what the inspector general audit found in two thousand and four at that time the losses were four hundred seventy five million dollars they've only gone up since then and on the fifteen routes of course the losses vary on some routes they're higher than others i think the lowest was for the auto train that runs from orlando to washington d c the subsidy per passenger was about twenty six dollars and given the importance many plays on having a national route or a national or national system and recognizing that we provide different types of subsidies to aviation services or in even to our our highways in different ways and forms mass transit as well a subsidy level of fifteen or twenty or twenty five dollars may well be justified but that's the lowest subsidy level on any of the routes the highest subsidy levels in some cases the sunset limited two hundred eighty six dollars per passenger the chief hundred ninety eight dollars per passenger for every passenger running on that train this effort one hundred forty dollars per passenger where are we going to draw the line perhaps the those that will support any of these long distance trains no matter how much they're losing can stand up and say well look the good news is it's not a million dollars for a passenger that's not good enough it certainly isn't good enough when we're taxing working families across america to provide these subsidies it begs the question whether or not you could buy airline tickets for the amount that gets lost on any one of these routes and i think in many cases you could pay the airfare i had my staff look today at what they might be able to get an air air ticket that runs the route of the zephyr it's certainly lower than the cost of a ticket it's even lower than the cost of the subsidy on the chief the air ticket lower than the cost of the the train service and even lower than the subsidy th to taxpayers for every passenger running on this system and so on down the line now i understand that amtrak has improvements that they'd like to make at this budget has this bill has budget reforms and nodding reforms and cost management reforms that hopefully will improve these numbers but we have to draw the line somewhere and all my amendment says is draw the line at two hundred dollars two hundred dollars per passenger on any given train next year we lower that two hundred seventy five dollars the third year of the bill one hundred fifty dollars and i think if you ask any the train service that amtrak has great potential potential to be more successful more financially successful to attract a different ridership and this amendment would in effect any of the corridor routes that serve the southern part of the country's central part of the country west coast of the country northeast part of the country wouldn't affect any of those quarter routes and i think a quarter routes quarter services forty six percent of the  of the ridership in the country would in effect the northeast corridor that's nearly forty percent of the ridership in the country so the vast majority of anyone who enjoys or depends on service to amtrak would not be affected and fact the vast majority of the riders of the long distance routes wouldn't be affected because today at least according to the inspector general's audit there's only one  route that's in excess of the two hundred dollars subsidy level there are only two that are in excess of one hundred seventy five dollars level so if there's a real belief that this bill is going to address these concerns in this problem even the strongest supporters of long distance service should be willing to support this amendment because if nothing else it will provide a real incentive honest incentive to improve the performance of these routes and i would like to think it can be done i would like to think that it is not impossible to run these routes without losing one hundred fifty and two hundred dollars per  passenger maybe it's not but if it's not possible the american people should be told that it's not possible today not in three years or five years or in ten years that's all the amendment would do your subsidies and i hope that those that feel most strongly about this legislation about amtrak can recognize that this can only provide incentive for their performance improvements they argue they want so very much i encourage my colleagues to vote for the amendment and for no other reason because i think it's pretty hard to defend  a vote against it when we've got families across america working hard paying taxes every day that could certainly use the two hundred dollars and subsidy per passenger or the hundred fifty dollars or the hundred dollars to spend themselves that's tax those are taxes that we don't need to collect in for not running these routes at such incredible losses thank you very much and i reserve the bow balance of the label doesn't describe the product this label said cisco be fine but the product is let's get rid of rail passenger service in this country except for boston to florida the eastern corridor let me describe it in the context of the empire builder a wonderful train that goes up through my part of the country one hundred thousand north dakotans road the empire builder last year that trade has a storied past in history and also has a great future in my judgment but there are some who come to this chamber time after time after time and want to get rid of long distance train service in this country why because they believe the country is crowded on the east coast and they ought to have good train service on the east coast and the rest of it doesn't quite match up every country in the world virtually that has rail service rail passenger service has some subsidy for we subsidize most transportation services in this country i don't have a problem with doing that i think a national rail passenger system contributes to this country in a very significant way and somehow disagree jest that our rail passenger system in the future should look like this you have rail passenger opportunities from boston down to florida on the east coast and the rest of it you know don't need it to suggest that i think is to ignore a significant part of this country i support amtrak  work better sure and my colleague senator lott bergen senator lott have been great stewards in trying to put together legislation that accomplishes that but i would say this i think this country is strengthened and is a better country and has a transportation system that is a better system because we have a national rail passenger system this is not a new amendment i would say to my colleagues we've had this amendment around before it's had different titles but it's an amendment says let's get it got let's get rid of long distance train service because there are people who have never liked amtrak very much will we will probably have train service passenger rail service from boston to florida forever because that income stream of the large population center sustains that the question is should we have a national rail passenger system our country long ago answered that question said yes we should and that's why we have a national system of my colleagues as well that wouldn't be much consequence if we pass  there would most of the long distance rail systems would cease to exist that's really what this product is doesn't say that on the label but that's what the product is i don't disparage my colleague for suggesting that we come from different parts of the  country he apparently believes that only the eastern corridor should end up with a real pastor system i think it enriches our country our our country across the country from the east to west to have a national rail passenger system that works well works well for my state one hundred thousand people a year board that amtrak system they like that service and i would hope the united states senate will decide to weigh in in opposition to this amendment mr president you will the floor mr president  thank you mr president mr president first of for any senator to stand up and and and state that they know that i believe there should only be service on the northeast is wrong it's wrong in substance and i think it's wrong in the in the spirit of the debate on this floor because i certainly never suggested that in fact i suggested just the opposite number one that this amendment doesn't affect the quarter services on the gulf coast on the west coast on the northwestern part of the united states in any way shape or form to that there's only fact long distance line lines that lose more than two hundred dollars per passenger and three that the goal of having a national service is a good one provided that the level of cost and subsidy can be maintained suggestion was made earlier or previously in debate but i want to get rid of long distance trains again no holding those losing more than two hundred dollars per and in fact to the point of the line that was mentioned just previously in debate the empire builder according to statistics of the inspector general review in two thousand and four it wouldn't be affected by this amendment either the empire builder lost ninety four dollars per passenger in two thousand and four i hope the performance has been improved a little bit since then but even if it hasn't even if this is one part of our economy that seen no improvements in productivity since two thousand and four no reduction in costs in two thousand and four no improvements in marketing and ridership since two thousand and four the empire builder wouldn't be affected because it lost less than two hundred dollars per passenger in fact the empire builder wouldn't be affected the year two thousand  when that subsidy threshold drops two hundred seventy five dollars it wouldn't be effective in two thousand and nine two thousand and ten two thousand and eleven or two thousand and twelve because over the five year period we only bring the cap down to one hundred dollars in the empire builder would still be below that figure and what it loses per passenger and in fact in addition to the auto train which i mentioned earlier the starlight the city of new orleans the silver service all of those cost taxpayers less than one hundred dollars per passenger is a subsidy of eighty or ninety dollars per passenger a loss of eighty or ninety dollars per passenger good is that easy to justify to a family as they pay their taxes on april fifteenth i would be hard pressed to justify that of people in my state of new hampshire but regardless those routes are unaffected by this amendment and in fact there are many others several others whose cars for a passenger is i the range of one hundred to one hundred twenty five dollars according to the inspector general's report in two thousand and four i would hope and i would think that they could improve performance by ten percent or twelve percent or fifteen percent necessary to get below that hundred dollar cost per passenger as well maybe they can't i can't forecast the future but i think we can set an honest in a reasonable limit on what what subsidies where we're willing to provide again can't state it plainly enough this amendment doesn't affect eighty five percent of the routes and ridership of amtrak people that ride from all over the country north south east and west it doesn't affect any of those long distance routes and there are probably close to half of them that have a subsidy level of less than one hundred dollars today and for any of those that meet the performance benchmarks they would be unaffected as well i hope my colleagues can support the amendment thank mr president public policy should be and how we should think about it i would just noted that amtrak operates forty four routes over two hundred twenty thousand miles of track and ninety seven percent  tracks are freight company tracks but it runs a deficit each year and we have to have federal subsidies far and the crux of the public policy issue that all of us i think should think about for the overall public policy not just for one or two little not for just a few people and i visualize what we ought to do for the future but what really is a truthful situation that we are in can is made the department of transportation inspector general succinctly stated the situation this way quote the mismatch between the public resources made available to fund in a city passenger rail service the total cost of maintaining the system the amtrak continues to operate and the proposals to restructure the system comprise dysfunction that must be resolved in the dollars a year subsidy for the next six years and remember that the bill that was enacted in one thousand nine hundred seven to reform and have accountability for amtrak  contemplated they would be no more subsidies in two thousand and two the senate has been in a has studied this issue and and i believe we can rely on the things he's saying fundamentally and it's important and i'm glad somebody is committed the time an effort to point out some of the problems were just going forward is business as usual are just going to take a couple of minutes  and share some thoughts train that goes through alabama mobile alabama eastern where i'm not sure exactly what the situation is this year but when i checked last  year that train went through two or three days a week it's going east at two a m in the morning and when it goes where two or three days a week it was three a m in the morning and  likely to attract a lot of customers and and let me show this chart and just go through it and i believe we will come to understand that what we're talking about is trying to do something that basically impossible to do is just not going to work out which we could i mean as we used to say in the country i grew up on the railroad track we grew up my dad had a country store there were three countries dollars in a railroad depot in our little community the train went by we had apparel member when a passenger train went down there and when a passenger train on that road in fifty forty years  there's only one store left and no railroad depot time change things just happen but let's look at this chart what it would take from birmingham to washington d c well what are your options if you go a commercial airline there the one we checked here was a direct flight from us there last for the birmingham there were seven direct flights to washington d c from birmingham alabama a day if you take your personal vehicle you can leave any time you want to leave if you take the train there's only one a day that limits your options people when they're deciding how to make a trip think about these things what about the how long does it tight as asked them is three hours and twelve minutes the personal vehicle is a lab an hours approximately and the train is eighteen hours ok well what about how many stops you made if you take an airline it's just one stop it's a direct flight what fifty three sixty something like that that's what the commercial airline buyer is if you took your personal vehicle the gas lanes are eighty seven dollars an ounce at two dollars ninety cents a gallon is about what it would be today the amtrak take it is two hundred six dollars round trip i don't know if this is an accurate figure on the food but but on airfare you've got no cost of food figure showed him in the commercial airline our total cost for one why would be a hundred sixty dollars hundred seventy five dollars where the person vehicle is less than that and the train is more than double the number of trains a triple quadruple and then lose even more money i mean i just wish it weren't so i wish that we could make this system work but certain long routes are not feasible but congress being what it is just mandates when you say you've got to run these routes and it runs out billions of dollars in debt and if back in the us moving to a time when  mr president that at twelve fifteen today the senate proceed to vote in relation to the sununu men at a time until twelve fifteen be equally divided all provisions under the the previous order and don't think that the supporters of the present legislation have bad intent i think they have a vision for a national rail system and they will in the their leonids of dollars into it but i can't see it and haven't been able to lay my hand on the study this morning but there was a study that showed even in europe train routes within certain ranges will work i think the malibu is a light two hundred three hundred miles something like that it is much further than that people almost always used to flat it is much shorter than that they almost always used to drive americans more than anybody in the world have automobiles and we choose to drive freight only allows you to ride when you want to carry things you want to carry drive straight to the house that you intend to attend go to and i have to wait at the station and you don't have this on time problems of our fuel airlines own time eighty percent that may have dropped a little bit but amtrak as of last year was only on time sixty six percent of the tan so that's another factor you have to think about if you go on a regular use a long distance train now certainly in certain car doors where the traffic is heavy and it really works i'm not disputing that so i'm not here for shutting down a profitable routes are even routes that are close to profitable that we can justify subsidizing but i do think in all honesty the senate and in sununu is as right as a legitimate point how much can we support these routes that are losing money and they're unlikely to ever make money and driving at a heavy cost that the whole amtrak system mus carry in its effort to justify its existence if you could reduce some of these losses that are draining and tracks ability to be affected and gave gave them some free room to make business decisions rather than having political decisions made at think we'd be better off so after much thought in view i have concluded that this is a rational a it's hard for me to see how it can be opposed and therefore our would support it and thank the senator for offering during today's session of the senate i have the approval of the they have the approval of majority and minority leaders i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record without objection thank you sir you serve on the amtrak board of directors we have a lot of trains around up and down the northeast corners i ridden on trains since i was a little boy and the reason why a lot of people ride trains in the northeast corridor is because the trains run about every hour sometimes more frequently than that you catch a train out of boston to come down here to d c pretty much every hour between new york and d c the frequencies even more train start running early morning about five in the morning they run until well into the night the reason why a lot of people don't ride trays long distance trains across the country is about fifteen different long distance train routes but the reason why they don't write them is because in a lot of cases the train only runs every two or three days as the train may come through your head count at one am or two am or three am in the morning and it's not frankly not very convenient and it's hard to build much ridership i agree with sen sununu i don't i'm not interested in spending two hundred or one hundred fifty bucks per passenger to subsidize a long distance trains which you don't do that in northeast corridor but we have addressed this concern i think it may be a more thoughtful way and i just want to share that with our with our colleagues  midwest in terms of ridership they've done a lot of investment in the in the midwest and particularly in the illinois area but as a result ridership is up on the chicago st louis quarter by forty two percent in the last year ridership between chicago and carbondale is up by forty six percent for the chicago to some thirty three percent part of what they've done is they've actually added frequencies they provide better service on time service and they work for the freight railroads which control the tracks there to get better support from the freight so that they'll actually let the passenger over fifty percent of our population living within fifty miles of one of our coasts think about that fifty percent of our population today lives within fifty miles of one of our coasts what that means is we've got these densely populated quarters up and down the east coast on the gulf coast and on the west coast also exist and i said my suspicion is if we actually provide them the kind of service that we're providing on these coastal corridors that are densely populated we would see the kind of increases in rider set that you're seeing in in illinois and also in and in in  are writing trains or one every two or three days come through communities at all hours of the night as well as the day there's a smarter way to do this and it's actually in the in the legislation itself so i would encourage our colleagues to oppose this particular man however well in  years ago the reasons why among others congestion on roads and highways congestion airports bad the pollution in the in our air huge dependence on foreign oil and the passenger rail service can help reduce address all of those issues all of those issues they need to be addressed comprehension of what balance sheets and financial statements are like and and we recognizing that the state of new hampshire does have some a mtrak service but stayed in new hampshire also as one of the beneficiaries of something called the central air service where we the country takes great pains to make certain that communities are not so isolated that  have difficulty in travelling from there to there and that costs that are governed about fifty million dollars a year for essential air service but we're all in the same boat it's our country these are our communities they have to be part of the part of the functioning of our society so when i look at the amendment proposed by the senator from new hampshire this amendment would destroy our national passenger rail system based on two thousand and seven data the sununu amendment would immediately cut passion to rail service to the end tire southwestern united states for of amtrak long us train routes would be gone and if you look it's easy to see the lines that crisscross our country and years saying that almost everything in about a five year period would would be pretty much not in existence and we start with the or of them tracks long as train routes and most of those on the southwest next washington los angeles california the lake shore limited chicago and new york and these comprise something over a million dollars a million travelers a year  within five years and likely sooner the end sire national network of long distance trains would be gone because corporate overhead costs would be shared among the remaining routes increasing their costs these long distance  trains provide essential transportation services to millions of americans and their ridership and their revenue has been growing last year ridership increased on anthrax long distance trains two and a half percent and the revenue went up five percent for instance if we look at it and tracks palmetto train that's new york to miami its route extends south from northeast corridor and serves south carolina georgia florida north carolina and virginia it had seven and a half percent more riders than the year before total of two hundred fifty seven thousand riders the state's one amtrak service and they want to expand it all as well one governor and i have a letter here in one nine hundred ninety six wrote amtrak claiming and i quote him here many of us believe that amtrak finances and operations are a matter for the federal government the federal government created amtrak and this is the letter from governor texas then george w bush one nine hundred ninety six so he attributes responsibility to the federal  government mr president connect our rural areas with our urban commercial centers the federal government subsidizes all modes of transportation we have essential air service which nationally have federal subsidies for enter city bus transportation and since the federal government to go over the passion the rail service we have funded it as well and i want to make note of the fact that despite the fact that we are our airlines are for profit companies but we insist that we have to help them function and we give them about three billion dollars a year and subsidies these are for profit company we want them to keep flying there has been about twenty billion dollars put into the rail system so the aviation system since nine eleven so i want to remind  there is no passengers or rail service in the world that earns a profit countries pay for rail service because of the benefits and if you eliminate these trains it would mean millions of additional cars on the highways and even longer lives at the airport adding to our country's congestion problems we also in addition terminating these routes destroys and tracks interconnected system isolating different parts of the country from one another and reducing the utility and the value of all of amtrak's services present this bill our bill already cuts amtrak separating subsidy by forty percent and rather than micromanaging amtrak our bill man mandates this performance standard is the one the company must meet we also require amtrak to tell us how they plan to meet the standard they need to set up specific improvement goals and plans it will destroy america's national passion for rail network ironically it won't even save money because a sudden and massive reduction in trains that this amendment would force will leave amtrak with huge labor today in some way it would be nice to be able to agree with senator sununu on this and say ok they are a it would be nice if they could pay their own way but they can't do it  when you're operating on schedules that in many cases pay lots of attention to the key peak work hours and then don't have the traffic after that  sensation mr president i was unaware that this was a negotiation as opposed to it a foreign and act of sort of solidarity with my colleague from the other side of the aisle but mr president i would be happy to  and then i have a couple of minutes of comments here and then if if there are speakers on your side we may still have another couple of minutes for you to yield as well senator concerned that senator lott wanted to have a couple of words so  i do want to address senator lott and bergs some of the points that he made in his presentation mr president first it was suggested that hundred two thousand and seven data for routes would have to be shut down if my amendment were made the law of the land now i find that surprising and maybe a little prob matic for a couple of reasons first i'm not aware of any inspector general audit that was done for two thousand and seven which would be required under the amendment and the only i g audit that i'm aware of the most recent one was in two thousand and four and that indicated only one root didn't meet this threshold so first i don't think there's any data to make that assertion that four routes would be close second if that were the fact today that means the situation has gotten worse over the last three years that it's gotten worse and that the costs are trending in the wrong direction and that's something we should all be concerned about and in fact alarmed about second it was suggested  that closing four routes if that were the case would be a sudden and massive reduction in the capacity of the system all in fact even if forwards were affected you're talking about one to two per cent of ridership the phrase making people pay their own way was also used this this does nothing of the sort of kate and i think there is a an opportunity for providing some support or subsidy level certainly in the in the medium term and this would by no means require anyone to pay their own way because it would still allow in the first year subsidies up to two hundred dollars per passenger in the second year subsidies up to one hundred seventy five dollars per passenger and only in washington two hundred dollars subsidy be called paying your own way that's just not right america in this day and age given all the ways we have to travel to communicate and to reach out to one another is ridiculous this is a common sense amendment it is this is not the grim reaper for national train service this amendment only says if a route is losing more than two hundred dollars per passenger we should not continue should not continue to operate that service i suppose it's a little bit like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer maybe once you really get going here reluctant to stop because i think the next time you hit yourself in the head it might not feel quite as bad but at a certain point we need to draw the line i think two hundred dollars per passenger is a pretty reasonable line to draw and i charge my colleagues to support the amendment i reserve the balance of my  the senator may not be aware we had a unanimous consent agreement having consumed all the time on the opponent's side i offered to share an additional two minutes so that senator lott could conclude his remark typical generosity from the senator from new hampshire and let me say again i appreciate the fact that he's engaged thinking about this and try to do the right thing but i also think this is a classic chicken and egg deal we tell and we want to do better but yet we don't offer any reforms any challenges before us s twenty nine four two nine four already requires amtrak to reduce its total federal operating subsidy by forty percent over the life of the bill the bill gives amtrak management the flexibility to achieve this goal through cost savings route changes revenue growth or expanded service rather than through mandated route cuts additionally the bail requires improvement plans for each long distance route that will focus on strategies to increase revenues ridership efficienc and service quality these plans must be implemented and achieved in order for them to be able to continue to get federal routes i think some of these routes are going to be interleaved to be terminated but if we do what this limit would do it would basically  o this would force cuts at a time when we need more rail service not less we have ever increasing air and how a congestion environmental concerns the federal government provides operating  subsidies and all these other areas but we're saying that we want to terminate these loans and if we want a national rail passenger system we're going to have to keep some of these routes going at least until we make an effort to make them more efficient and made by the senator from mississippi first there is a mention of the crescent which is one of the fifteen longest in strains under the two thousand and four inspector general's audit audit the crescent lost one hundred  fourteen dollars per passenger in coach class at that rate they wouldn't be affected in two thousand and eight by this amendment they wouldn't be affected in two thousand and nine by this amendment or two thousand and ten or two thousand and eleven they might be affected in two thousand and twelve if they have failed to improve any performance on the basis of cost over a four year period i don't think that draconian i don't think that's too much to ask i  would hope that the senator from mississippi and others would support that kind of improvement in performance and and i think it can be achieved and to that point senator from mississippi said you know we need to do better we need to have a plan for doing better and from what i've heard and many others believe this bill is the plan to do better and i think in many parts  is a plan to do better i support that concept i support a blueprint for improving but and your reporting and standards of accounting and cost performance what my amendment simply does is tell people honestly and directly how much better do we expect you to do what's the minimum we expect you to do and we expect that ridership or ro not to lose a million dollars per passenger or five hundred thousand or one thousand or five hundred dollars per passenger and i think it's reasonable to say we expect you not to lose two hundred dollars per passenger that's what we're asking that's how much better we expect you to be for only those routes that aren't meeting that standard today it's a reasonable standard it's an understandable standard i under the two thousand and four data it would affect one of the fifteen routes it might affect more than one might affect two or three two or three years from now if they have failed to improve but we're asking families across america to fill out their tax forms every april fifteenth  resources to our country to fulfill important obligations i don't think we should be asking those families to subsidize passengers on amtrak at two hundred dollars per person it's reasonable and i hope my colleagues will support a common sense amendment to yield a balance of my time thank you all time is expired coleman ms collins mr pryor to read of rhode island to reid of nevada to robert to rockefeller just mr lugar no no mr craig no mr cornell no this is my cast gil no tell xander the mr warner no mr smith no mr by now mr kyle  no no call me mr coleman no mr nelson of nebraska no take your conversations outside the chamber please as the president center for west virginia no no no no does any senator wish to vote has any sense or wish to change his or her vote with twenty eight voting in the affirmative and sixty six voting in the negative member number three four three three four five three is not agreed to mr president a senator from without objection mr president from new hampshire i mr president i recognize that in prevail and that amendment but i appreciate the debate and for the managers let him speak mr president what's the pending business at this moment there is not a sufficient second copy if i could ask consent simply to speak on the topic of the amendment in order to provide a little bit of background  virginia i would be pleased to describe the amendment prior to it being offered mr president this is one of two amendments i offered in or filed in committee did not offer on the bill because i wanted to allow  vote in debate on the floor rather than delay us unnecessarily in committee this is an amendment that addresses the question of competing on different routes within the amtrak system under the legislation that's before us today there is an allowance to have two routes competitively bid and and the managers out i think that's a good idea i think that's a good idea but i don't understand i don't see why there needs to be a legal restriction on the number of routes that could be bid sent out to bid under competition this doesn't mandate that bids  e put out for competition but it certainly would allow that and that's what my amendment is intended to do and at this time i would yield await for the copies to be distributed and and in a timely way be happy to offer that  hampshire mr president at this time i believe copies have been distributed i believe i have an amendment at the desk i ask that the any pending amendments be set aside and ask for the immediate consideration of this man is or objection hearing in number thirty four fifty six on page thirty five strike line one and all that follows through a on line for an insert the following be implementation pursuant to any rules or regulations probably gaited u section on page thirty five strike lines eleven through sixteen mr president and senate from new hampshire mr president thank you for the recognition and again apologize to the build manager for not having a copy before him as it was clear from the reading of the amendment if nothing else was clear it's a brief amendment it strikes the line of the bill the section of the bill that would have placed a limit on the number of routes that could be allowed for a competitive bid and that means allowed for an operator to come and to offer to run that route at a at an effective cost with particular service goals in mind and then in order to provide service accor above the current quality of service at a lower cost i've i think it would be a mistake to place an arbitrary restriction on the number of routes that could be competitively bid certainly decisions about putting words out to bid or which routes are put out to bid how they are done so would still be in the hands of the management team at amtrak and i think that's as it should be so i appreciate the opportunity to offer the amendment and ask that my colleagues support it i yield the floor senator paul wellstone his wife sheila it was five years ago today that we suffered a terrible tragedy senator wellstone to death a tragedy for my state for the nation ordered chamber please take your conversations out of the chamber i thank my colleague from west virginia this president for as is senator wellstone and i had been engaged in a very hard fought and vigorous election contest in the center of west virginia the senate to come to order please take your conversations outside the chamber please senator from new hampshire i mean center for minnesota and i thank my colleague from west virginia president indicated that senator wellstone and i had been engaged in a very hard fought election contest where about ten days from the election i think everybody in our state reflects on where they were at the moment that they heard the news we were both senator well and myself we were on the way to a debate duluth  we heard the news with a great sense of disbelief we knelt down and said that our prayers for the senator for his wife but the others who died  think the news was met by disbelief shock and sadness and the hours that followed it was this as if the entire state of minnesota had just stopped for so many minnesotans regardless of where you stood politically whether you agreed or disagreed center while stone's politics you admired him and his unwavering commitment to things he cared about most he was so passionate about what he  believed that admiration is evidence and folks like mary oberg i was looking at a piece and it was on public radio today and she lives not far from a in st paul and a news story read that she acknowledged she didn't necessarily support all of paul's views but she likes the fact that there's still a memorial bench in her neighborhood in my neighborhood that ana senator wellstone to this day it shows respect mary said and that's what's lacking in that and that's what's lacking in the world today is a lot of respect for others this is a magnificent institution i see my colleague from west virginia's been here a long time this great sense of history i try to visit with him as often as i can great sense of collegiality and in a world that has become so divisive and so partisan and so angry whether in these chambers or the house chambers senator wellstone reflected the passion for the belief but politics wasn't a desk  at was something which you could agree to disagree and still shake your hand and ask how you doing and move on the kind of respect that mary over and reflected on was the hallmark of senator wellstone himself his passion enthusiasm and energy for public service is something that inspires me as inside so many folks that have followed his footsteps into public service and nowhere was that passion more clear than it is unyielding support  for those individuals who suffered the ravages of mental illness since he arrived in the senate he worked day in and day out to pass mental health parity legislation put an end to discrimination against people with mental illness and chemical addiction paul was also willing to put aside politics on this important issue and he were canned in hand with another champion for mental health issues senator pete domenici of individuals been around here for many many years and so passionate so passionate about that issue working together senator domenici and wellstone helped millions of americans overcome the stigma surrounding mental health disorders millions of americans are able to seek treatment again hope through their powerful commitment to this issue i can't imagine a better way to honor paul's legacy than sending a strong mental health parity bill to the desk of the president the united states and having signed into law i also want to comment about a unique living room or it's of the wellstone and that is the paul and sheila well stone center for the community which opened its doors a year ago it's truly appalling sheela well stone kind of place it stands literally where the east meets the west since paul came from the east as i did he probably felt much at home in our ethnic neighborhoods filled with middle class working families was constructed in large measure with the ten million dollars generously provided by this chamber of paul and sheila wellstone center's one hundred thousand square foot facility with meeting place for a variety of cultural social and civic activities of people of all backgrounds services an education and training center the westside is is kind of like our ellis island it's the place where the midwest immigrant groups came in in the old days it was the jews in the lebanese and then today it's the hmong and the somalians community center is a poor substitute for the real thing for paul and show themselves but it is a worth doing providing a safe place where kids can learn and play and families can receive training and support community members can be organizers to fight injustice and partake in the american dream these and so many other issues that toward paul cared about transcended partisan politics and idiology the greatest legacy to senator wellstone is his stay rooted in his belief that government has an obligation to do what it can to help those who need help the most five years later i certainly have a greater understanding and appreciation of the challenges that senator wellstone faced and others that came before him of serving in a congress that is too often govern by partisanship rather than a culture and a commitment to getting things done i have made a commitment to follow in that tradition of working hard and being a voter vocal advocate for our great state this anniversary should be an occasion to celebrate the well stones lives and to remember the commitment paul and his family made and continue to make using public service to improving the lives of all people on this anniversary of their death i hope anyone continues to hold paul shayla their family and the others who died in that terrible crash hold them close in your hearts hold them in your prayers i will mr president with that i yield the floor mr president in colorado what is our order of business objects or mr president by members very straightforward right now there's a provision in the law saying that amtrak is supposed to be financially self sufficient to be clear the provision doesn't even apply to amtrak as a whole it only requires an track to be operationally self sufficient presuming of course that the federal government will continue to provide capital subsidies i was surprised then even this heart to learn that senate bill two ninety four would repeal this provision in the law requiring amtrak to become operationally self sufficient i strongly believe that this goal should be maintained so my memo would strike the provision in the bill that repealed the self sufficiency go i'm quite puzzled that the commerce committee report noted that and this is what they stated this repeal is technical in nature and meant to indicate that amtrak should not strive to reduce his dependency on federal funds or improve the efficiency of has spent federal funds as elaborated through this bill this statement makes no sense if we repeal a provision calling on ad track to become so self sufficient we are saying we are saying that we have no need to reduce our dependency on the taxpayers there is no other way to interpret it we need to be crystal clear that we expect them to reduce their dependency on federal funds and the only way to do it is to maintain this provision in current law to be clear even with the per the provision in law on amtrak has made little progress towards becoming operationally self sufficient according to the department of transportation office of inspector general and track continues to incur substantial operating losses and over the last five years annual cash losses including exclusivity this excludes interest and depreciation have fallen only modest a little more than three percent a year but modern modest progress i believe is not a reason to eliminate the operational self sufficient provision but they are to me the goal is not reason to lower the bar sufficiently to redefine success rather it simply means that more work must go towards meeting their original goal the office of inspector general went on to say this and i quote the problem with the current model exists beyond sunday there are inadequate incentives for amtrak to provide cost effective service and track as the sole provider of intercity passenger r service has few incentives rather than the threat of budget cuts or elimination or cost control or delivery of service in a cost effective way amtrak has not achieved significant cost savings sensis last that's what the inspector general has to say in his report the question i have is given that we have so few incentives for cost controls why would we eliminate one of the few provisions in law call amtrak to control their costs passenger rail has a role in the fission modern transfer transportation infrastructure i'm concerned about how amtrak is performed providing that service as my colleagues may know i'm a strong proponent of results and outcomes and track and other government funded entities should not be just based on how much they receive in federal funding but the rural results that they can demonstrate with those taxpayer dollars or the fees that they charge passion gers who ride their trains in the case of amtrak and i'm afraid these results are not very impressive the administration's part assessment that's their tool for  i want to be clear on what this rating means from the administrative description in effect the their programs receiving this rating are not using your taxpayer dollars affectively or the fees that they're charging the just to use their services i think that seems pretty clear to me and i hope this members of this body will agree with me and then say if amtrak is not being effective with the money they spend it would make make sense to reduce the money we spend them instead we are talking about increasing their subsidies and eliminating provisions calling on amtrak to be more careful in how they respond spend tax dollars again that makes no sense right now amtrak federal subsidy is nearly equal to a total ticket revenue per year to put it a different way for every dollar spent on the ticket the rail passenger receives another dollar from the taxpayers given the subsidies on some routes taxpayers would save money by actually paying passengers to take another mode of transportation s calling on amtrak to become operationally self sufficient isn't about being an r rail it isn't about it's about being for taxpayers and for those riders who use that service to hold down their costs is for efficiency and for common sense even after amtrak were to become operationally self sufficient it would continue to receive sufficient federal subsidies under my a member according to the us department of transportation amtrak is by far the most heavily subsidized mode of travel in the us even though it carries less than one percent less than one percent of the inner city passions your market amtrak cost two dollars and ten cents and two dollars to two dollars two hundred ten dollars and thirty one cents per passenger per thousand miles compared to four dollars and sixty cents sixty six cents for enter city buses and six dollars and eighteen cents for commercial airlines because motorists pay far more in federal user fees and they get back in federal transportation spending u s department of agriculture estimates that the federal government earns a profit of one dollar seventy nine per pack ash and your per thousand miles from automobiles this bill proposes to spend eleven point three billion dollars on amtrak i think it's entirely reasonable for congress and the american taxpayer and their passion gers to tell amtrak to change they should work to reduce those subsidies if we are too timid to even tell amtrak to reduce their need for operational subsidies remember this is operational subsidies not capitals investment how can we expect that they will ever do many of us are parents and we have we work to raise our children to become independent self sufficient people when my daughters graduated from college my wife and i expected them to get jobs support themselves if we had made we simply paid their rent bought their groceries and paid the utility bills and gave them spending money without any conditions or expectations of independency why would they want to work and make the tough choices necessary for change it's the same with amtrak unless we are clear that we expect them to change to become operationally independent of the federal government things will never change it is critical that we keep this goal in place for amtrak they must hear loud and clear from congress and from america that we need to make the tough choices necessary to get out on their own  if i can address the senator through the chair from west virginia the section that i'm repealing puts in some guidelines and it's not date specific but it says  that the goal of amtrak should be to become self sufficient in other words work towards less subsidies from the federal government and for some reason or that was taken out by the committee staff i think know that the congress expects them to work for efficiency and to repeal and i i recall when in boston for example we had a situation where amtrak runs through boston is part of their mass transit system so a committee that i chaired looked at a contract that they let out there for the boston fixed rail and it was the most expensive contract providing the less service to the passengers and so all this this kind of provision is an incentive to give the members of congress a way of expressing amtrak that we hope they work for an efficient effective system i don't think it's particularly draconian at least i don't view it that two grandchildren live in colorado and they talked about how nice it would be for train service to run denver to glenwood springs and and  provide that kind of service that would ease up the traffic on the highways and in colorado seventy and the others and it would be nice and honestly it would be nice if it was possible to reduce the subsidies but the problem is the world has proven country after country that you cannot operate passenger rail service at a profit you cannot carry the ast substantially the fact of the matter is the country desperately needs rather service we are airlines are busy beyond capacity highways are busy beyond capacity we're stuck in traffic all over and the railroad is finally beginning to find its way out and madam president what we've got in our bill for the edification of our friend from colorado is we have  a goal to reduce operating subsidies by forty percent in six years well that's that's a start and i would urge our colleagues to let this take place let it happen and let's see what what goes on there because we've made all kinds of conditions of reform for the for there are not ignoring the fact that there have been large subsidies but a that things deteriorated rapidly there were they weren't safe and they weren't efficient and we're now beginning to see that amtrak is traveling as attracting ridership as we've not seen it for twenty six million people so we're going through a whole review of things here now about what amtrak ought to be we know that our equipment isn't up to date we know that our trackage is not up to date we know that our signage is not up to date i had the opportunity kilometers hundred eighty miles an hour and rode hundred twenty miles in the two hundred miles i'm sorry in an hour and twenty minutes and it's that kind of service could be operate if we could invest enough in the brain amtrak up to date perhaps we could begin to see the results of work that would attract that kind of support revenue increases have been taking place and  we've got to be able to continue in that vein and if we said that we demand that there be a point in time when there are no more subsidies where we're just not being is i'd like to respond for just a moment if i might just to clarify number one is that i'm a strong proponent of fixed rate you know as chairman of the housing and transportation subcom banking worked hard for mass transit soon and obviously fix rail so i i have i agree that rail needs to be a vital part of our transportation says all this does it puts in the law a goal that we want self sufficiency for not capital investment so the signage that you talk about the rails on the ground that need to be laid by the new transit doesn't apply to that it applies to operational costs and so i don't think that this is particular and it's not a hard to lie we've been gone for several years here without without meeting this go i think that we've done some work in that direction but i don't think we want and i'm far as i'm concerned the amount of efficiency bross been pretty minimal and i think we can do more and even of us minimal if at least we can keep it in there so that continues to encourage them to be more efficient and  processes and procedures at the u n operation of the of amtrak that's not capital investment that's operational things that they can do to bring efficiency to the to their services i think  is to the advantage of the rider as well as to the advantage of the tax payer of this country i just want to clarify that for the senator from new jersey thank you a day that is this special is the mountain range that this day centers on and especially as the state for which this mountain range is named and madam president this is a day of which i am proud to be a part of joining with the strong majority of wyoming people who want the legislation that i'm introducing it is the wyoming range legacy act of two thousand and seven better president energy development is a proud part of wyoming and it's an important part of our nation but equal to that energy heritage is tourism and recreation also a proud part of wyoming and an important part of this nation wyoming a special reflecting both aspects of our economy our people want a special balance between two of our top industries energy and tourism and recreation some of wyoming's and significant and important energy contributions to this great nation encompass thousands of acres for our natural gas and our energy fields meanwhile independent and strong stands in isolated mountain range one hundred miles long and twelve thousand feet high and this range is named for our great state it is that independent and wild mountain range the wyoming range that i want to focus on today and well into the future for the best future for wyoming and for our people as leaders there are things that we do defining actions actions that go well beyond everyday issues they surmount the daily noise in the disagreement and they rise to the level of something else is to doing the right thing and today goes beyond the average day for wyoming as i said today is wyoming's day it's a great day because it is today that a bill is introduced that will keep this special place on the map for tourism for recreation and for sportsmen forever as we as a state as the governor and i come together cooperatively to join in the memory of our dear friend craig thomas to finish his work to keep and enhance the tourism the recreation the hunting and the sportsman economy of the wyoming range to preserve a key part of wyoming heritage this legislation this initiative that craig thomas was ready to introduce the week that he passed goes to the very heart and soul of the great state of wyoming indeed this is a place where the heart and the soul of wyoming run free and run wild one point two million acres for wyoming tourism sportsman and recreationists now this mill this will mean that new future leasing for oil and gas will be welcomed elsewhere in the state and the wyoming range will remain in the recreational based economy that now exists for those leases that have already been issued this legislation provides a process for groups or for individuals who are focused on conservation to buy back the values of those leases under a voluntary purchase and then retire them forever we all must recognize that the least that these issued leases do have a value because they are now legal property at the same time we can encourage all of the table leaders conservationists and the private sector to work toward doing the right thing that process is now appropriately outside of the legislation and is ongoing for the recently issued leases that amount to some forty four thousand acres i have great confidence that we'll be able to work out for rate of solutions with respect on all sides but let us look at the bigger picture of this bill with emphasis on an important central point what was the last bold move for wyoming tourism i proudly say one point two million acres for wyoming tourism for wyoming sportsman and for wyoming outfitters and guides all of who contribute millions to our economy this is not a bill that locks up land for the contrary it is a bill for economic prosperity for recreation and for tourism what we do in this important piece of legislation is to recognize an economic base and then to enhance it let me repeat because this is a very important point we are taking the existing economic base and enhancing it in the wyoming range the wyoming ranges  recreation based economic zone yes there are symbolic reasons for this initiative it is the wyoming range after all but there is hard math at the core of this legislation tourism and recreation in our wyoming economy matters and doing the right thing matters it matters for future generations of wyoming people who will someday hunt and fish and hike in these mountains it is also a place where wyoming's agriculture industry has thrived for years and with this legislation raising and wyoming's cowboy heritage will continue to thrive want to read you something from one thousand nine hundred sixty one that still applies very much today and it goes to the heart of maintaining proper balance and multiple use of our land quote another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time as we peer into society's future we you and i and our government must avoid the impulse to live only for today plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow we cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual spiritual heritage we want democracy to survive for all generations to come not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow those words were spoken by president white eisenhower in his final address as he left the presidency the children who were listening to his words back then are now grown and have grandchildren of their own the wyoming range the range named for our beloved state has symbolic meaning inherent values it is the heart and the soul of a great state a spiritual heritage now a physical reality mr president today is wyoming's day for the wyoming range and for parties are working in good faith to try to address this question of the internet tax moratorium and i simply want to take a few minutes this afternoon and bring to light a new development in the discussion i hope all senators will keep in mind the congressional research service our independent group that analyzes a policy matters inform me this morning that because the other body representatives changed the definition in the current internet tax moratorium it would be possible under the language that was adopted by the other body t attack various web services such as e mail i know no member of the united states senate who wishes to see that happen but certainly based on what the independent at the congressional research service have told me and mr president i would ask unanimous consent at this point to place into the record the memorandum that the lawyers that the congressional research service sent me about internet the president and i'll just reed here using the language is the language that came from the other body what i'm concerned about the congressional research service said and i quote if an internet user utilized one provider to connect to the internet and another paid provider for instance e mail services the connection provider would be covered by the moratorium but not the paid email provider under the current moratorium each would be covered mr president what that means is if you're an american for example who gets your internet access from varieties and under the house language that would continue to be protected but if you get your email from say another provider perhaps earthling or google or yahoo under the language that was passed by the other body that could be taxed according to the congressional research service i don't think any member of this body wants that to happen and i would also reading further from the congressional research service memorandum mr president they say that it would also allow the taxation quote of many more products and services than the existing exemption under the current moratorium so the reason i wanted to bring this to light this afternoon mr president is i know various  proposals will be voted on next week i will not be able to be here next week because of very exciting news in our household but i do want all senators to be aware of what the congressional research service has said we've had the internet tax moratorium now for a decade i wrote the origi the law with now f c c chairman christopher cox and it has worked well the internet has thrived and prospered it is of course a technology treasure trove that we use for business and health opportunities and education and a vast array of services we were told when the original proposal came out that it would for example be harmful to states that they would lose revenue that hasn't been the case states and gained in revenue for something like sixteen straight quarters we heard it would be harmful to main street to small businesses that hasn't been the case either fact most small businesses now look to something called bricks and clicks where they have a physical presence and an internet presence we're also told it would be harmful to malls practically is if our original proposal would empty the mall that hasn't happened either the moratorium has worked well  mr president i'd like to make it permanent but frankly the thing i'm most concerned about this afternoon is the change in these definitions the change in the definition from the original mor as outlined in this memo by the congressional research service oughta trouble every senator as this body considers the various alternatives that will be presented this upcoming week i think the current definitions mr president have served us well they have allowed the net to thrive and prosper and they haven't caused damage to the states or to small business long main street or to the shopping mall i see no reason for changing those current definition but i hope that senators will reflect on the a language certainly it's going to be hard to explain to folks at home making changes that would open up the prospect of the congressional research service has said here for taxing e mail but an awful lot of americans get their internet access one one provider and they get their e mail from somebody else and given that i wanted to make sure that the senate was aware of this and that as the senate considered this legislation the issue of whether the  moratorium should be made permanent is an important one but even more important is getting this question of the definition of what is covered in the moratorium right because i don't believe any senator wants to see happen what the congressional research service has indicated this morning could happen under the bill that was passed by the other body present a year before america's infrastructure the day americans this just three tenths of one percent of our gross domestic product in public buildings and roads and bridges ports and railroads this abysmal figure is the lowest rate in recent history of public investments dating back to at least the one nine hundred sixty s and maybe before that in minnesota earlier this year we saw some of the tragic consequences of the failure to invest in i'm glad to see that the sununu amendment was not agreed to that amendment would have put a cap on our subsidies to amtrak and utilized on its roots in truth however such an amendment would put an to all the amtrak long distance trains within five years and by limiting all these essential rail services the amendment would also lead to the slow but certain death of america's regional service as well the nation receives extraordinary public benefits from mass transportation systems they take thousands of cars off of our congested highways they take tons of pollutants out of the air we breathe they move people more efficiently into and out of our most congested areas such an amendment and the veto threat issued by the white house both are based on the on the wrong assumptions that we should be taking management flexibility and financial resources away from amtrak we should be doing exactly the opposite we need to invest in amtrak just as we need to invest in our bridges buildings ports and other transit systems amtrak operates approximately ninety trains daily a maryland mostly on the amtrak owned northeast corridor through baltimore penn station and new carrollton in addition to the northeast corridor service including the s l o express regional metroliner trains amtrak operates five long distance trains through maryland as well as two regional trains more than one point seven million passengers board and disembark and maryland's amtrak stations every year and those numbers mr president are increasing amtrak fiscal two thousand and seven ridership top twenty five point eight million that's the fifth year in the row that amtrak has seen the growth in passenger service so our constituents want the service they need the service it's in our national interest to promote a more efficient passenger rail system it also set a record for the highest ridership that amtrak has seen since the national railroad passenger corporation was inactive in one thousand nine hundred seventy one in track employs more than twenty five hundred marylanders brings good jobs that range from corporate executives and captains to trainmen and the men and women who operate maintain the tracks amtrak operates weekday mark commuter rail service on the northeast corridor washington baltimore the perry deal under contract with the maryland transit administration it has a shared capital agreement with the state both amtrak and the state of maryland invest jointly in the improvements the joint benefit program included in the estimate of twenty eight million dollars by the state in two thousand and six amtrak is part of the infrastructure backbone of maryland carries millions of passengers employs thousands of workers and benefits all of us both economically and environmentally let me just underscore that transit service important for quality of life so that people can get from one place to another it's certainly a lot easier trying to get from baltimore to new york to get on a train take the right downtown new york you know the worry about going through the security of an airport  it's easier for yourself to use the rail service but you're also helping our environment it's a friendlier way for energy and dealing with the environmental risk of transportation today to our environment a hearing with the president yesterday with regards to the global climate change will rail service will help us dealing with the challenges of our environment so it's in our environmental interests also in our economic interests helps us to become more energy efficient we import too much oil we're too dependent upon countries whose policies we disagree with the energy needs of this country well amtrak's part of the solution here by improving r service in this country we will be helping the security of america the economy of america and certainly the environmental issues as well mr president we need to rethink our approach to america's critical infrastructure we need to reinvest amtrak it's an investment in america and it's long overdue so i urge my colleagues to support the legislation that's moving forward i want to thank the the leadership here in the senate for bringing this issue forward it will have my improvement and investment act of two thousand and seven i want to thank my distinguished senior colleague from new jersey senator lott and burt who not only in this legislation but for some time has been probably a strongest advocate but beyond being an advocate for amtrak which certainly is worthy of advocacy it's the advocacy of over the course of a year the millions of riders who depend upon to send their sales force to work to promote their products along amtrak's routes those americans who use amtrak to get to some of the nation's leading hospitals and research centers to try to be cured so those individuals who come to visit for example the nation's capital and do so through amtrak and the truism that is spread throughout that process so those who do financial transactions and commerce effort for their efforts to guide this important legislation to the floor every year since two thousand and true to and track and had to continue operations on a yearly basis without adequate funds to maintain the rail system over the long term it's almost like a starvation diet just enough to be temporarily alive but working it in such a way cutting its funds in such a way that it can never i'd to be successful or fully survive right now that system is at a breaking point and trance equipment is aging and no amount of maintenance can keep cars built in the one nine hundred fifty s on the tracks tracks not just a passenger rail system that serves twenty five million people each year and track is also a program that reduces our greenhouse gas emissions reduces congestions on our roadways it fights brawl it creates jobs it forster's economic activity i know firsthand the benefits of and track to close over one hundred thousand new jersey commuters depend on amtrak infrastructure every day every day and there are many other commuter rail systems of states that depend upon and track infrastructure as well to move very large amounts of their state's residents over the amtrak lines now some critics want and tracks to be the only major transportation system in the world that operates without government only one of the word that operates without government subsidy this standard is simply impossible to me and a standard we do not hold any of the mode of transportation to over the past thirty five years we have spent less money on amtrak then we will on highways in this year alone three and a half decades less money on them track than we will spend on highways just this year alone when you factor in state and local subsidies for infrastructure and parking some studies just that up to eight percent of our gross national product is spent on subsidies for automobile use we have never committed the same support behind and track that we have for other modes of transportation this bill will finally give em track a stable amount of authorized funds it needs over the next six years to adequately fund its operations and finance capital improvements at the same time these funds aren't free to get these funds and track will be forced to tighten it belt while simultaneously improving service the bill reduces antrax annual appropriations need by requiring reforms that will be dues amtrak's operating costs by forty percent forty percent over the life of the bill in addition the bill provides for one point four billion dollars for states to provide new passenger rail service between cities in some instances the state operations will likely provide service th compliments existing amtrak service just as the recent light rail projects we've seen in new jersey have done but in other cases these funds may actually create competition for amtrak service between some cities the bill will also require amtrak to use a new financial accounting system so regulators and legislators can better monitor heim track uses its resources and this bill will require and track to use its resources to provide a new level of service by improving on on time performance upgrading onboard services providing easier access to other transportation systems and finally the bill will also require a system wide security review to ensure that rail remains a safe transportation alternative with record high gasoline prices good highways airports that are experiencing record delays we need all the alternative forms of transportation we can provide to a frustrated american traveler and mr president the as someone who represents a state that saw the consequences of what happened on september eleventh in which on that fateful day and since then we have come to fully appreciate the importance of multiple modes of transportation in a security cont talked about transportation in the context of getting people to work in jobs and economic opportunity we've talked about sending sales forces of small and mid sized businesses using rail services to go to different cities  travel so that they can promote their products and services we've talked about people who might get on a rail line to go to john hopkins university or some of the great hospitals in new jersey like robert johnson or akron sac university medical center or the great hospitals in new york to name one of the many rude lines which ultimately give people access to such opportunities we've talked about tourism and people being able to take and track to go to different parts of the country to see the greatness of america and that's always been the focus of which we've had as it relates to rail passenger service or for that fact really transportation modes in general but on september eleventh and there from we learned that multiple modes of transportation are critical to the nation's security well being because on that fateful day when we had the attacks in new york the plane that crashed in pennsylvania and the incident that took here and washington at the pentagon on that fateful day when in the metropolitan region where there are millions of people will americans living where the tunnels were closed down where the bridges were closed down where the subway systems were closed down it was a different mode of transportation they got people out of downtown manhattan on the world trade center site out of that area and two hospitals to be triaged in my state of new jersey and that particular mode of transportation happened to be various and the only way to get into intercity travel when all the airlines were shut down for that period of time was answer was and so we've learned a lesson that this is beyond economics we've learned a lesson that this is beyond tourism we've learned a lesson that is beyond getting people to great centers of research and medicine to be cured it's about security and if we do away with and track we do away with the ability to have a another mode of transportation that is critical to our security blanket we have to think about amtrak in that way as well finally mr president there are small communities in rural america in which the only entity that stops at their doorstep is amtrak the only entity that stops at their doorstep is and i imagine being cut from the rest of america other than through a car because no entity serves the opportunity to make your communities the destination and track as part of a national rail system creates opportunities for many parts of america to finally realize that they too will have access to the rest of the country so mr president for all of these regions i urge my colleagues to recognize that a strong well funded amtrak is an essential resource for our country and all that these dimensions and i urge my colleagues to have give us a strong vote for the passenger rail improvement and investment act of two thousand and seven make sure that we reject amendments that would seek to undermine this critical asset for our economy or our environment or our health care and yes in a post september eleventh world for our security let's make sure we send a strong message from the senate that we will take a second place to no one in the world in terms of having a strong passenger rail system and will unite our country by being able to give that opportunity for amtrak to travel across the landscape of america and be able to meet all of these challenges that mr president i yield the floor and observe the absence of a quorum the clerk will call the the amendment is so modified mr president on allowing multiple routes to be competitively bid under the amtrak system in the legislation there is a competitive bidding allowed but for only two routes i don't think we need to have such an arbitrary restriction but the technical modification just made sure that the right portions of the bill the right lines of the bill were referenced in the amendment it was not a substantive change mr president at this time i'd also like to address my amendment that deals with internet taxes that is also been offered in the senate i offered this amendment last night and i offered it on this legislation because we've been unable to get a vote anywhere in the united states senate on internet tax moratorium and what an internet tax moratorium does is to prevent states cities towns from placing taxes on the cost of internet access whether it's for consumers small businesses large businesses it doesn't matter that is a national and global system for communication as a national system for commerce and for business and it should be protected from multiple taxation from local taxation for a number of reasons first it's interstate commerce and frankly if they're going to be taxes levied that interstate commerce and interstate communication should be the responsibility of congress but second because those taxes would only discourage broadband deployment that raise costs for consumers and certainly have an impact on businesses that rely on internet access as as part of doing business we were supposed to have a markup in the commerce committee the bill was pulled from the market and this isn't something that just came up we implemented a ban on internet taxes in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight that lasted for five years we extended it in two thousand and three for another four years this is something that's received  bipartisan support in the house in the senate over two hundred forty members of the house of representatives democrats and republicans support making this ban on internet access taxes permanent given that we've seen no action and that the prohibition expires on november first less than a week from today i'm sure a lot of people across the country are wondering why is congress so dysfunctional why is congress not acted on something that has such broad bipartisan support that's going to expire unless in a week i can't answer that question but i can try to do something about it and that's why i offered an a mendment to this bill that would make that ban on in their internet access taxes permanent and the way it does that is by taking legislation that passed the house by a very strong bipartisan vote four hundred  to two and making their four year proposal a permanent proposal so we take the same language the same approach the technical definitions the same approach to the grandfathers that have existed for some states that may have tax the internet in the past and simply make that legislation permanent now there's also a second degree amendment that was offered to my amendment an amendment to my amendment that would say we shouldn't make this ban permanent we should only make it four years now i think that's a mistake given that we've already extended the ban on internet access twice given that it has bipartisan support given that we've been able to see how this law really works and has worked effectively over the last nine years i don't think we need to keep passing short term extensions and frankly short term extensions whether they're one year or two year or four years is something that the american public looks at and it's baffling why we can't find it within ourselves the discipline or the well whatever it takes to make a good idea the permanent law of the land and i think it's high time we do that when it comes to banning internet access taxes senator wyden spoke earlier about this issue and  suggested that the the technical language in the blank bill passed by the other body wasn't perfect well that should come as a surprise to no one there's no such thing as absolutely perfect legislation but it was certainly good enough to get all but two members of four hundred thirty five all but two members to vote for the legislation and it was issue that needed to be addressed it will have to be addressed whether we pass a four year extension or permanent extension so to use that as an excuse to oppose making the internet tax and permanent i think is it is a mistake it's simply wrong i would like to see the clearest possible language when it comes to service providers that are providing different kinds of internet services but night might not be for providing internet access as well and i even had an amendment ready to offer in committee to improve this language as i indicated mr president we didn't have any amendments in committee because we didn't have any votes in committee because we didn't have any bill offered before the committee for marco so that's where we find ourselves we have a proposal in front of us in the way of an amendment to make permanent the ban on  internet access taxes using language that has been supported in a very strong bipartisan way in the house of representatives and we have an amendment to my proposal that would say no let's not make  both amendments and i i am have no problem voting on alternatives and options and i've said this in different situations on different legislation in the past what is most frustrating as a member of the united states senate is when there are perceived your old maneuverings used to prevent us from our friggin amendment having a vote on any given alternative i don't i don't mind voting on bills  legislation that i don't support if you don't support something you vote now you explain to people why you don't support them and and so we have the both of these amendments before us a cloture vote that will occur to bring debate to a close and have the votes and i with that we have been listening to hear his comments i think we have a couple of options here and and i there may be a better path forward than the one we're assuming here today we're talking about offering i remember that you would offer to the the amtrak bill bring in internet tax i'd ask my my friend to consider and that would be a the chance for it i think all along you've wanted to set up or down vote on on your proposal which is fair game and you may want to consider our own leadership and i think in consultation with your leadership including with sen suggested maybe one day next week we just have an up or down vote your proposal and the alternative would be our proposal that's the sort of alexander nine others would offer which would provide for a six year extension of the moratorium on the on internet taxation for another six years would provide for a six year extension of the grandfathered reclaiming my time and i'm happy to view the statement that was made in the form of a question so that i can respond with that's what will happen if we invoke cloture tomorrow we'll have a vote on a four year extension and a vote on making the band permanent and i we can certainly have further discussions about procedures and proposals off the senate floor rather than negotiate a process or procedure and a colloquy format but sure the senator from delaware can appreciate the fust ration that has put us in this position given that no bill was offered in committee no bill was offered finance committee and in fact the legislation was pulled so i mean i'm pleased that we're in a position now where we will have tomorrow exactly what the senator from delaware describes when we get to conference there not to be in this bill when we come out and so i would just suggest to center sununu that that we consider the approach i just outlined that next week days in the middle of next week he would have the opportunity with  and if we and what it is is the ability to send tele communications telephone messages over the internet it's just a major change in the way we communicate on the telephone the problem with permanent this legislation making a permanent is we assume that you're not going to be more technological changes but we're learning how to put some cable t v movies all kinds of stuff over the internet traditionally our state and local governments have the the right to raise revenues as they see fit in fact we have a fundamental law that says state and local governments have the protection from us here in congress to tell them how to spend their money or to tell them how to raise their money we pass a law you're not a decision you can't do that i was governor actually ninety five as governor when we push for that sort of protection who are we in the federal government to tell states how they got to spend their money or how they can can raise it forward is that is we learn how to do so many more other things over the internet other than sit in emails and you know instant messaging and stuff if we allow the bundling of services including telephone services including cables are his television service is the sort of thing that the state local government has traditionally used to help pay for education pay for schools pay for fire pay for police pay for paramedics if we really aren't careful we're going to basically pre to raise revenues that they need for the programs in their states are important so we're not smart of i'm not smart of i don't even think any of us here are smart of to know we're going to kind of certainty what the technology is going to be in five years or four years or ten years and that's why we want to make the extension the moratorium to make sure people's access to the united not to be taxed but we don't want to do something permanently because of the changing nature of the technology so that's why i think it makes sense next week for us they have the opportunity better the better alternative for for now and i hope we'll have that opportunity and with that diageo the floor mr president from new hampshire mr president i appreciate the senator from delaware is interest in the issue and and i want to take an opportunity to respond to a couple of issues first on the substantive issues that the united states congress the federal government tells the states what they can or can't do on taxes all the time not in every area to be sure and we shouldn't in every area and if this permanent ban on internet taxes passes internet related businesses will still pay property taxes and payroll taxes and business income taxes but the network itself access to the global network itself will not be subject to taxes and this is not that this similar from the fact that we prevent states from levering their levying their own export taxes because effect affects international trade and global commerce and even interstate commerce we don't allow states to arbitrarily tax flights from their state to other states or across the country for the same reason because we view that as interstate commerce an interstate transportation system we even have restrictions on states ability to impose tolls on interstate highways all for the same reason to suggest that we should never tell states how to handle matters of taxation is incorrect we do it all the time and we should do it on matters of state commerce which is the responsibility a constitutional responsibility of the united states congress  second back to the issue of technology changing well of course technology changes things and we do have to modify legislation from time to time with regard to evolving technology regulations or laws affecting the federal communications commission the f c c laws regarding regulations of video phone  internet protocol services want to make sure that they keep pace but that doesn't mean that every law we pass in these areas should be temporary especially in matters of taxation because the way we tax goods and services of facts our entire economy anyone who has worked in the area of technology is familiar with the r and d tax credit in the united states congress continually passes one and two year extensions of the research and development tax credit even though it passes almost unanimously in both chambers every time the american public looks at that and they wonder if our goal is to just make a little bit of extra work for lobbyists it's wrong to deal with our tax code on such a short term basis whether it's research and development tax credit or internet access taxes and finally a couple of points about process it is to stand up on the senate floor and say well let's do the collegial thing and just take care of this next week we had the internet tax moratorium on the floor a few years ago it made the moratorium permanent and the opponents of making the internet moratorium permanent said we're not quite ready could we take care of this next week or maybe the week after and in good faith that bill was taken from the floor and then the opponents of making the band permanent prevented us from brain the bill to the floor for another nine months maybe it was even longer it was easy to come and say we should just take care of this next week but the fact also is that next week the moratorium expires on november first the moratorium expires and while we can't take care of it this week with the votes that are currently pending currently before us not just for my amendment but for an alternative an amendment to my proposal i think is more than fair again i'm happy to talk about alternatives and since we were first scheduled to have a debate and markup on this legislation in the commerce committee no one has come to me and proposed specific alternatives other than the  that's been offered to my proposal and and just now senator carper said well maybe not for years maybe six years and i know he means that in good faith but there are other leaders on the commerce committee and others who have an important role to play here that will also be have to be part of those discussions and none of them have approached me directly with an with an alternative and so on i hope we can resolve this i hope my colleagues will support support making the internet tax moratorium permanent and support me and voting for cloture tomorrow morning so we can have those votes thank you mr president and you'll decide mr president the senator the administration has kept all the facts from getting to the american people on tuesday the director of the center for did disease control and prevention dr julie  environment and public works committee on the health impacts of global warming the purpose of this hearing was to get all the facts about the health threats global warming poses to our communities and our family i would like to thank senator boxer for her leadership of that committee for her leadership climate change i'm proud to be a member of the environment and public works committee and we're doing some very good work in the climate change area we actually have some bigots size of greenland in arizona combined the greenland ice sheet and it is the canary in the call mine for climate change so there was a hearing this week and unfortunately the directors nissho testimony was not the testimony that was presented to the committee because her initial testimony did present the facts as a center for disease control's director she appears if you look at her initial testimony to have taken seriously the center for disease control's mission which pledges to quote base all public health decisions on the highest quality scientific data openly and objectively derived but the testimony she gave at the committee fell short of that way because as has been reported in the press the administration eliminated much of dr gardiner brings draft testimony which highlighted the threat stuff public health posed by global warming and i have a copy of the testimony here the redacted testimony and i ask that it be entered into the record without objection i will say for anyone that looks at this it's about six seven pages long it is only the latest incident in what has been a pattern of this administration in attempting to suppress science specifically this administration deleted her testimony and the center for disease control's views on several health impacts of global warming including explanations and descriptions of the links to heat stroke weather disasters worsening air pollution allergies food and water borne infectious diseases mosquito and tick borne infectious diseases food and water scarcity mental health problems and even chronic disease the center for disease control is an important agency that the american people trust to protect their health and safety and provide reliable health information mr president let me reiterate one of the central tenets of the center for disease control's mission to base our public house decision on the highest quality scientific data openly and objectively derived dr gerda brings original testimony included the following statement it said the united states is expected to see an increase in the severity duration frequency of extreme heat waves this coupled with an ageing population increases the likelihood of higher mortality as the elderly are more vulnerable to dying from exposure from excessive heat the president's spokesperson claims that they edited the c d c director's testimony because quote there were broad characterization about climate change science that didn't align with the un intergovernmental panel on climate change report and what did the intergovernmental panel on climate change report about the prospects of heat waves it is important to remember that the i p c c is a very cautious group of scientists with a very conservative process for meticulously reviewing the evidence and reaching their conclusions through consensus the reports are produced by some six hundred authors from forty countries over six hundred twenty expert reviewers and a large number of government reviewers also participated well the i p c c stated and this is the i p c c talking severe heat waves will intensify in magnitude and duration over the portions of the us where they already occur and local factors as the proportion of elderly people are important determining the underlying temperature mortality relationship in a population i ask you mr president how does this align how does a limb and this from the nation's leading public health officials testimony benefit americans let me cite another example that was deleted from her testimony dr gerberding original testimony  the president his administration is censoring testimony in the east global warming does not cause these fires but they certainly intensify the three main causes of wildfires high temperatures summer dryness and long term drought southern california has experienced all three and is now suffering the consequences then we g to what the president's spokesperson said yesterday when asked about this she said well they had a look at that testimony and make sure that it was consistent with what the i p c c had said and in fact that was the reason for why them senator boxer's leadership longer talking about whether or not climate change exists a talking about how to solve it we will continue to investigate the reasons that this was deleted we'll continue to request and get to the bottom of the truth but the main thing that i would like to say today and to say to my colleagues is that the american people know that something is wrong here they want us to solve it you can't hide the facts anymore you can't bury em  forest fires are raging and sea levels are rising and temperatures are rising you can't bury the facts you just have to get to the solution thank you mr president and i  invests in our country's transportation economy health and safety needs funding these priorities will make our country safer our communities healthier and our economy stronger unfortunately it seems the president doesn't share these priorities he has proposed to this congress harmful budget cuts and now he says he's going to veto several of these vital bills because we are asking for twenty two billion dollars more than he requested he says our domestic spending is and i quote you're responsible and excessive unquote well mr president i personally find that hard to understand when at the same time as he's saying that he wants one hundred and ninety six billion dollars in emergency spending for the wars in iraq and afghanistan and by the way that does not include any money for our veterans in fact the twenty two billion we want to invest at home represents less than what the president spends in iraq in three months mr president that not these bills is what i think is irresponsible and excessive we have got to make sure that we are not ignoring our needs here at home the appropriation bills have the support of both parties they ensure that our roads and our bridges our airports our railways are in good condition they ensure that our workers and families are healthy and that our children have a chance to succeed and they ensure that we have enough long foresman officers to keep our communities safe these bills simply restore some of the money that the president cut and take a modest step forward after years of going in the wrong direction mr president a healthy transportation system is vital to a healthy community we need to ensure that our families can get to school or get to work and that goods move from place to place but when he says no to our bill that provides money for transportation and housing and urban development what the president is saying no to is the investments that ensure that our communities are strong and that prevent disasters like the bridge collapse in minneapolis from happening in this country again so mr president i'm frankly baffled that the president's request for the war includes about two hundred million dollars for the construction of secondary roads in afghanistan and he wants to spend two hundred million dollars on roads in afghanistan but he's upset about our amendment to fix bridges here in the united states mr president clearly this is ministration thinks that these projects are already for iraq and a priority for afghanistan otherwise the president wouldn't of included them in his emergency spending bill for the war so i ask why doesn't the president think the roads and bridges are a priority here in our country in the united states mr president at the same time the president is waging war overseas we are are here trying to make sure that our employers have workers that our families have access to health care that our children get a good education tuesday night and overwhelming majority of this senate voted to spend eleven billion dollars over the president's request on labor health and human services and education programs so that we could do just that that bill that we passed here would invest in cutting edge medical research for diseases like all timers and diabetes and cancer research that brings hope to millions of americans in taking that vote the other evening a bipartisan group of senators agreed to reste or funds for education for job training for health systems when president bush would have left them to cope with yet another year of unfunded banton it mandates an empty promises now the children's health insurance bill that we approved earlier this year also is intended and hope to help millions of our children that bill to receive a majority of support in the house and in the senate and not from the president those bills that would make americans healthier and the economy more competitive but the president disagrees he says these programs are quote irresponsible and excessive unquote but guess what he proposes in is a hundred and ninety six billion dollars request for iraq and afghanistan he asked for twenty five million dollars for economic development projects to foster job creation in irak and sixty million dollars to fund economic projects to sustain development in the tribal areas of pakistan so mr president let me say it another way he plans to veto job creation and economic development right here at home but he's asking us to spend millions of dollars in emergency funding on similar programs in iraq and afghanistan as the president president says the hundred and ninety six billion dollars that he's requesting for the war is necessary to make our world safer well mr president we believe we also need to invest more in safety here at home our bill funding commerce and justice and science program work hard to ensure that our communities have enough f b i agents and police on our streets here at home and like the other programs we want to fund that bill restore the cuts that the president had proposed mr president few bills arce important to the safety of our communities about one but i'm especially concerned that the president is threatening to veto that bill because of how it affects my home state and the nation six years after nine eleven the administration still has not replaced two thousand four hundred law enforcement agents across the country that it reassigned to counterterrorism after nine eleven in my home state of washington we were hit very hard by that according to an investigation by the seattle post intelligencer our seattle newspaper we have a critical shortage of f b i agents two point one agents for every one hundred thousand residents or about half the national average the shift to counterterrorism has left our law enforcement shorthanded local police and sheriff told me that the f b i was and i quote virtually disappeared unquote from white collar collar crime investigations they told me that the f b i does not have the resources today to adequately staff anti gang task forces as president criminals have not stopped robbing our banks or dealing drugs or stealing identities and amendment that i included in that bill would take steps to get more f b i agents into my community and wherever they are needed but the president said he's going to veto that bill and in so doing he's going to veto armament mr president if we can spend ten billion dollars a month for the war in iraq we should be willing to spend a fraction of that to ensure the security of our citizens at home clearly the president is the one who's being quote excessive and irresponsible mr president this might be an abstract debate about federal funding for the president but i think all of us know here it's about real people it's about hardworking parents who are searching for a way to get health care for their own families when it hasn't been provided by their employers it's about getting citizens out of those traffic jams  ensuring that our roads and our bridges are safe to drive on and it's about making sure that the people we represent can trust that not enough law enforcement officers will be there to fight crime in their neighborhoods you know when i travel around washington state people tell me they want hope and they want change whether it's the war in iraq or gas prices or access to health insurance people today feel a real weight on their shoulders they're looking for a light at the end of the tunnel and by vetoing these important bills and failing to invest in the safety hell and economic future of all americans the president keeps putting out that light mr president we are investing twenty two billion dollars over the last year and the future of our country i urge all my colleagues to support these bills as we move forward on behalf of the millions of american children and families who  the amtrak operation which serves illinois and most of our our nation very well it's one of the most successful modes of transportation in terms of growth in our country in the last year the writer ship on amtrak in illinois has doubled doubled it's an indication of a commitment not only from the state of illinois to make that happen but also with the price of gasoline a lot of people are discovering the trains again they're back on those trains traveling between st louis and chicago and quincy in chicago and carbondale in chicago students families business people that's a good thing and i want to salute senators lautenberg and and lot for bringing this authorization bill to the floor and i definitely want to see a pass as quickly as possible and i hope that we will really show the support for amtrak which has been lacking at some times in the past but in the future needs to be there i want to discuss a memo which i might offer which has nothing to do with amtrak and perhaps it will not be allowed at this moment in time in the debate but i offer it because i think it is timely and i offer it because if it is not allowed in this bill at this time i hope that we will have a chance to bring it up in the very near future mr president i can recall a little over five years ago on the floor of the united states senate when we debated the invasion of iraq those votes are historic and very purse members who are called on to make those decisions seldom forget the anguish they face when they have to decide whether to send our nation to war we know that it's the most important vote that can be cast and we know that even under the best of circumstances americans will die if we go to war we hope that our enemy enemy will be vanquished but we know that innocent people also die as well well a little over five years ago that decision was made on the floor of the united states senate to go forward with the invasion of iraq there were many of us who had serious misgivings about that decision i was one of twenty three senators twenty two on the democratic side and one on the republican side who voted against the authorization of military force i felt the president had not a strong case for that invasion i felt that he didn't have a sound plan for an invasion and a victory and i felt that the american people had been misled misled about saddam hussein misled about weapons of mass destruction misled about the impact of this almost unilateral invasion by the united states into iraq well here we are four and a half years later over thirty eight hundred americans have been killed thirty thousand injured more than ten thousand and serious burns and traumatic brain injury with the president's latest request the spending on the war in iraq will reach three quarters of a trillion dollars in five years three quarters of a trillion dollars seven hundred and fifty billion dollars money which i've spent in the united states on amtrak on medical research on health care on education would have had a dramatic historic impact a positive impact on america but no it was spent in the course of a war that has no end in sight our men and women in uniform have shown extraordinary bravery and courage under amazing trying sir stance is a civil war that we never bargained for when we went to war in iraq the president said the reasons were clear first to depose saddam hussein second to rid our world of his weapons of mass destruction and third to protect america's threats against america security well here we are almost five years later with saddam hussein long gone no weapons of mass destruction and the only threat to america's security being the threat to our own soldiers an occupational force in iraq now mr president the debate seems to have moved from iraq to another neighboring country at least in the eyes of the white house and that is the country of iran we continue to hear the most bellicose warlike statements coming from the president and vice president leaders of the samyn stray ssion about the potential for the invasion of iran make no mistake iran cannot be ignored it is false to a foreign policy that supports some of the worst actors in the middle east from hezbollah to hamas it is pursuing a nuclear program despite international condemnation it is threatened to wipe our strong ally israel off the map and there's plenty of evidence to suggest a run is complicitous in some for in supplying training and materials for attacks against our soldiers in iraq senator gordon smith of oregon and i have introduced a bipartisan resolution the act of two thousand and seven it would tighten sanctions against iran if it doesn't halt its nuclear programs it stopped short clearly stopped short of calling for military action and that's the reason i come today mr president i continue to be concerned that this administration is going to move too far too fast toward an invasion of iran the positioning of some of our battle forces the statements from vice president cheney and president bush trouble me they trouble me because the vice president in august in mcclatchy newspapers reported that he proposed u airstrikes inside iran earlier this month president bush said that if we are interested in avoiding world war three those are his words world war three we ought to be concerned about preventing iran from gaining the knowledge needed to produce nuclear weapons this week vice president cheney said during an event in lynchburg virginia that the u s and others are quote prepared to impose serious consequences close quote on iran well mr president this troubles me if this is ministration believes that it has some of the already for congress in the invasion of iran i challenge him to show us what that authority is they certainly didn't receive them thorough the with their authorization to use military force in iraq that was never even considered and there's been no action i'm aware of since which would give them that authority if they think they have some inherent power to launch an invasion of another country like iran they're clearly wrong wrong because of this document our constitution constitution makes clear in article one section eight that the part of clear war is vested in the american people through their elected representatives in congress in the house and in the senate and i come to the floor today to remind not only my colleagues but the administration that they have a solemn constitutional responsibility before they initiate any offensive action in iran to come to the congress for the authority to do so to do otherwise is in my mind not only reckless but clearly unconstitutional mr president i want to take a moment to read this resolution that i have those because it's very short it's two sentences the senate hereby affirms that article one section eight of the customers the united states vests in congress of all power to declare war and paragraph to any offensive military action taken by the united states against iran must be explicitly approved by congress before such action may be initiated the wording is concise and limited and i hope makes a clear point and that point is the constitution counts this president no president has the authority for a unilateral invasion of a country in a of an offensive nature every president has the power to defend america and americans but to initiate an invasion of iran at this point in our history would be not only a terrible foreign policy mistake but violate the constitutional process that we have set in place a constitution we have all sworn to uphold i understand that this bill this amtrak authorization bill is hardly a bill to debate the constitutional authority to go to war or foreign policy or run but i continue to be troubled mr president day in day out with statements by the president and vice president to suggest that we are somehow preparing or in any way shape or form an offensive military action in iran i know my time is limited i think the sponsor of the legislation that's now pending and the republican minority leader on this committee i am going to ask unanimous consent that pending amendments be set aside so that this amendment might be called up with the understanding that it is not likely to be allowed but to let my colleagues know that i am going to introduce this is separate legislation and i hope they'll join me in co sponsoring it and join me as well  finding the first available venue and forum to raise us important constitutional issue reserving the right to object for a couple of thank the senator for his comments about our efforts on the amtrak legislation but this is the amtrak jersey i ask unanimous consent that three fifteen today the senate proceed devoted relation to the amendment with no amendments in order to the amendment prior to the vote and modify the bill's competitive or competition program to allow an a number one limited number of existing amtrak routes to be open to compare competition from  maybe for the freight lines to provide this passenger starts but this is a major change and what is currently done so rather than just leaping into this in a certain way and an unknown way in terms of the impact the results what would happen to amtrak what would damp act on the service i think the alternative is to go of what we worked out a couple of years ago and that is a competitive pilot program that would allow  think it's two routes a year now that's so that's not just two total is two a year to get into this competitive program area see how it works will have this for the life of the bill which is a number of years so it could be up to ten and twelve routes that could be involved eventually but this is a new concept and we think that what we have outlined amtrak to give them more authority and also by the way could lead to some of these routes been shut down and we had the earlier sununu amendment that we think could have led to a pretty precipitous quick shutting down of six or eight these long distance routes in other parts of the country i think that would be a mistake but i do think that more than likely over a period of two or three years some of these routes are not going to be can't defend  individual subsidy per passenger of five or six hundred dollars but more and more as we make this a more attractive entity deal with the capital needs improve the track operations as well as flight plans so again i understand the goal of senator sununu operation at the fact that he's not one has just been critical he's engaged he's thinking about it he's got some ideas but i would urge the defeat of this remember let's see how the private companies to do what amtrak does with no additional contract oversight and we saw something with the british experience that there is potential for disaster when you fully for privatized a national now our bill does not allow a complete sell off of our entire national river it does however provide a controlled procedure for competitive bidding on a limited number of r this competition will be allowed only under strongs supervision by federal regulators the federal railroad administration was also oversees rail safety will start by setting the us from other railroads interested in running passenger trains for one to two train routes and this is an experiment to see if the government can really save any money by letting someone else other than amtrak try to run past present railroading in america is a complex operation most railroads currently in service can trace their roots back some to some one hundred  fifty years they are cons there are constant comprehensive safety standards that must be met there are laws it apply only to the railroad industry and you have to share limited infrastructure with other railroads wholesale privatization of amtrak is not in our country's best interest traveling public relies on the expertise of american heroes or say in a station service and under our bill a limited experiment can be attempted for competitive bidding with proper oversight now expanding it by further including the sununu amendment frankly could be disastrous and that i'm president it's hard to imagine that we would permit residence in a hospital or medical learning experience to go ahead and just start doing you don't just throw the whole thing together and take a chance that you're right so what we've done is we've included as we heard from senator lott an opportunity for two of these competitive bids to take place in a year and see what the results are and then decide whether or not we go further instead of throwing the whole the whole works in there one time so for obvious reasons i oppose this amendment and i colleagues to vote against it we're just now doing a whole reform of amtrak we're reducing operating costs as a as a rich requisite and doing all kinds of things to improve just spoke a little bit about that amendment and i certainly want to clarify for the record what the intention of the amendment is and i think what that the practical impact would be as well this is not a wholesale privatization of of amtrak far from it the provision in the legislation allows two routes under supervision oversight as described by senator to be put out for competitive bid to see if there's another service provider that can run the trains on those routes delivering better service at a better cost that makes good sense good sense for the riders good sense for the taxpayers as well not a wholesale privatization by any stretch especially considering the supervision and oversight that would have to be in place for this competitive bidding process going on a lot of berg use the phrase  description about this being a learning experience and you don't want to have people in a medical environment in a learning experience and then suddenly they're asked to do major surgery now i think i understand what he was trying to suggest but i listen to that phrase and it implies we're certainly agreed that the management team at amtrak are a bunch of amateurs that can't be trusted and that is not the case at all they understand these routes the operation the nature of the service they're providing and i think they're in the best position to help determine how rude should be put out for a competitive bid my amendment simply says there's no reason to limit the number to two why would we do that because we don't trust them we don't think they're going to do a good job we don't think they want to deliver good service at a competitive cost why would we limit them to two my management would allow competition in more than two routes it would mandate it wouldn't require it wouldn't force anyone's hand but simply remove a very arbitrary limit on the number of routes that can be put out doesn't destroy the system it doesn't throw when he went out of work it doesn't undermine the integrity of the reforms that are already in the bill by any stretch i think it simply allows us to get an even better idea of whether or not those reforms have an impact senator lott and berg describe a process again that's in the bill that two routes up to two routes as allowed for in the bill would be competitively bid and then the managers that amtrak would look to see how successful it was and be able to go from there well that isn't true and in fact that's just what i'm trying to deal with they wouldn't be able to go from there because there's a limitation that they could only do two and so if they decided that this was very effective they wouldn't be empowered to use this tool to even greater advantage without congress coming back and changing the law and changing the statute and that's not going to happen any time senator you time is expired because we've already seen how difficult it is to pass this bill as written i encourage my colleagues to support  believe that today marks five years since an extraordinarily frigid and rainy tough day in october when we were stunned to hear the reports of a missing plane and then of reports that it carried our friend senator wellstone had just been with them in minnesota hours earlier with his wife and you can paint and i have some comments i wanted to make but time will not allow it right now so i'd ask unanimous consent that those comments be placed in the record as of re no they have not senator from mississippi has their sufficient second there appears to be a sufficient second there is a sufficient second your white house senators voting in the affirmative senators voting in the negative durbin kerry closed the char lautenberg lott prior devens and white house no to read this to read over an island no this collins ms collins no strong xander i no this is  for warner mr warner no mr alexander the senate is continuing work on a bill to reauthorize amtrak funding it's eleven point six billion dollars over the next sixty six years including four point nine billion for states to improve rail infrastructure this would be the first reauthorization of amtrak since two thousand and three a few moments ago the latest amendment offered by senator john sununu this one allowing several amtrak routes to be put up for competitive bids was rejected on a twenty seven to sixty four vote this one of several members offered by senator sununu today the senate agriculture committee cleared the farm bill earlier today the senate is expected to move on to that bill sometime next week the two hundred eighty eight billion dollars program renews farm supports nutrition programs land conservation initiatives and alternative energy initiatives over on the other side of the capitol the house is working today on a revised children's health insurance bill getting set for a vote in the house in just a few minutes you can follow that debate and vote live on our companion network c span our live senate coverage continues here on c span t five minutes for the objection this president was five years ago today that our colleague paul wellstone and his wife sheila whilst on were killed in a plane crash in northern minnesota it hardly seems like it has been five years i remember the morning that i was on a road driving to grand forks north dakota in a van going to a meeting in grand forks when i received a call that an airplane had gone down in northern minnesota and that it was the airplane that paul wellstone his wife sheila and some staff were on and they fear that that crash had taken their lives thinking coming over today the day that paul and sheila were killed is very much like the day today here in washington d c a gre moisture and paul and his wife were on to an airplane flying to a funeral in northern minnesota and they lost their lives they were in the final stages of a very aggressive senate campaign one i believe that paul would have won here i believe he would have retained a seat in the united states senate he cared very deeply about his opportunities his privilege and his obligations as a united states senator a couple of weeks ago i was on the campus of university of north carolina at chapel hill and i was walking across the commons of the campus and look to my left and i saw a small memorial garden to paul and sheila wellstone i didn't know it but i asked someone why that garden existed on the campus of the university of north carolina and they said because it was where paul wellstone had earned his ph d it was where paul wellstone had been a college wrestler i believe a college champion wrestler and i had not known that previously but nonetheless there is a tribute to paul and sheila well stone on the campus of the university of north carolina chapel hill last week i was visited in my office by about eight people to present me with a framed plaque of sorts because of paul wellstone i was thinking of that as i was coming over to the floor as well this was  a group of people that represented the major automobile industry in this country the large auto producers and the independent shops around the country that do automobile repair and  had nearly forgotten about what had gone on as a result of this but they asked to come and see me and they came in and they said you and senator paul wellstone about six years ago did something that made a big difference and we wanted to recognize that work and i said well i'm happy you've done that but let me make sure you recognize it and let me recognize it for paul wellstone in the memory of paul wellstone it was on the floor of the senate here and paul said in that desk right back there on the edge it was on the floor of the senate that he came to me breathless and paul was usually breathless because he had so much energy and so much passion about things he said i went to an automobile repair shop in minnesota a small family owned auto repair shop and they told me they can't get the codes for the new automobiles in order to be able to repair them because the automobile manufacturers have these codes their computers and so on and they won't provide the codes to the independent auto repair shops which means you buy a car at a dealership you've got to go back to the dealership to get it fixed or something's haywire in the computer system and so on in order to get a diagnostic and so on you got to have codes and they won't give the independent automobile repair shops these codes he said byron that's an outrage as paul would do any punch the that's an outrage i want you to hold a hearing on that and i chaired the appropriate subcommittee over the commerce committee i said i'll hold a hearing a big lad to do that and i said why don't you come and be a part of the hearing you sit on the day s he was not on the commerce committee but i invited him to sit in and make a statement and ask questions so we held a hearing over in the commerce committee and the room was plumb full it was full of people representing the independent  auto repair shops around the country we had a lot of them travel to washington d c and there was testimony by the automobile manufacturers and by the folks all running these independent little auto repair shops around the country and they had a big disagreement and i felt and paul wellstone felt that it was just unfair to the independent out of repair dealers the small shops not to be able to get the codes so they could fix these automobiles that were were in disrepair and as a result of that hearing and i remember paul statement the hearing sticking up for the little guy saying these these folks that are running these little automobile independent repair stations they shouldn't be disadvantaged like this they shouldn't lose this business they ought to have an opportunity to do this as well well as a result of that hearing the automobile manufacturers and the independent repair shops decided they would work together and find a way to solve the problem well last week a group of them came to my office and presented me with something they said you know what what you and senator wellstone did required us to sit down negotiate we negotiated we solved the problem and now we provide the codes of the independent automobile repair shops the folks from the independent shops were there and said we have a good relationship with the auto manufacturers and that issue got solved it got solved because paul wellstone was standing up for the little guy he went to a repair shop someplace in minnesota and found out that the independent owner of that repair shop was not being treated fairly in his mind and in my judgment the repair shop was not being treated fairly and so paul wellstone brought it to the united states congress we got the sides together held a hearing and the result is this was solved it was negotiated in a way that was good for the consumer good for the folks that own their little automobile repair businesses and frankly good for the automobile manufacturers they have admitted that as well and i thank all of them for negotiating that in the right way but mostly i think paul wellstone for the energy that he had here in the united states senate to always stand up for the little guy the interesting thing about senator wellstone however is that he stood in the back seat over there and every single issue paul wellstone stood up and want to know how it would affect kids how does this affect children especially poor children in this country many of whom feel hopeless and helpless many of them feel they don't have the same opportunities he was just under resenting him trying to make certain that we pass legislation that gave america's kids a good opportunity to be successful and the other issue that all of us will remember paul wellstone for and my colleague sen surely will because he was senator domenici partner and that is parity for mental health care parity for mental health care because mental health care has not been treated the same way and most insurance policies and still is and in many insurance policies as the other health care you might get a break an arm or a leg or have a disease you get health care treatment and it gets covered by your insurance policy but mental health has been treated differently and paul devoted much of his time here in the united states senate to saying we ought to be fair and have parity for how mental health is treated in the health insurance policies in this country i only came to the floor to observe as others have today that it's five years today that we lost a good friend he was one of those who said here's what i am here's who i am i'm not trim and my sales to make things sound better for anybody i'm just to fight as hard as i can fight for things i care about and things that i believe are right for minnesota and for our country i always admired that spirit and those of us who were privileged to be paul's friend also know that paul wellstone was a team it was paul and sheila was stone and most of us here in the senate that had the privilege of serving with paul and knowing sheila and well as a team most of us that continue to miss them a great deal and i wanted to simply today celebrate the memory of paul wellstone and see the well stone and talk about the contributions they made made here in this country and the contributions to public service to their country mr president i yield the floor and i make a point of order the  the quorum call continues on the floor of the senate we're waiting for a senator to come to the floor and speak the main piece of legislation today in the senate is a bill to reauthorize amtrak funding it's eleven point six billion dollars over the next six years including four point nine billion for states to improve rail infrastructure this would be the first reauthorization of amtrak since two thousand and three also a few senators said taking time today to pay tribute to the late senator paul wellstone who died in a plane crash five years ago today also today the senate agriculture committee cleared the farm bill the senate is expected to move on to that bill sometime next week the two hundred eighty eight billion dollars program renews farm supports nutrition programs land conservation an issue divs and alternative energy and the shivs over in the house today the issue has been s chip the house working on a revised children's health insurance bill today and they were expecting a debate or rather a vote on final passage of that that measure in just a few minutes over on the house side you can watch that on our companion network c span also today the u s placing new sanctions on iran's defense ministry the associated press says that that step is taking place the new sanctions on iran's defense ministry its revolutionary guard corps and a number of banks the bush administration says the moves are in retaliation for tehran's support for terrorist organizations in iraq and the middle east missile sales and nuclear activities again that from the a p today our live coverage of the senate continues here on c span to forward corum call continuing on the floor of the senate waiting for a member to come to the floor and speak on the amtrak bill the senate working on amtrak reauthorization eleven point six billion dollars over the next six years and includes four point nine billion dollars for states to improve rail infrastructure and this would be the first reauthorization of amtrak since back in two thousand and three a couple of amendments offered by senator john sununu failed today a one of them would have allowed several amtrak routes to be put up for competitive bids we are hearing that a vote on final passage is expected tomorrow on the amtrak reauthorization measure also today a few tributes to senator paul wellstone  he died in a plane crash five years ago today in the house members are moving forward with the revised children's health insurance bill the s chip bill today a vote on final passage of that revise measure is expected in just a few minutes you can follow that live over on c span also in the news today laurie kellman of the associated press is writing that the white house offered today to let leaders of the senate judiciary committee view classified documents that they have demanded on president bush's eavesdropping program the offer was an attempt to speed progress on legislation that would legalize the program white house legal counsel fred fielding offered to let the committee chairman patrick leahy and the top republican arlen specter see documents that might persuade them to include liability protection for telephone companies in a broader rewrite of the foreign intelligence surveillance act white house spokesman tony fratto said but l democrat of vermont once all committee members to have access to the documents before he considers giving immunity to telecommunications companies that may have tapped americans telephones and computers without court approval according to his spokeswoman again that from laurie kellman an a p writer the saf to noon our live senate coverage continues here on c span to a quorum call underway waiting for senator to come to the floor paul's when i was in the house and on some of the important social and economic issues that i worked on there he was the person that i went to to work with a member of the senate and i think that history will remember paul wellstone as one of the great senators of our time not just because of his accomplishments but more important because of the extraordinary vision that he had all believe very much that we could create a very different kind of world than the world that we're living in right now and he was prepared and did stand up day after day on the floor of this senate taking on virtually every powerful special interest that exploited working people and low income people and who led us to was that we should not be fighting he was a man who believe passionately in a world of peace in a world of economic and social justice and that vision that he brought forth is a vision that i hope nobody in the senate nobody in this country ever forgets and one of the major characteristics of paul wellstone is that he understood that the way we succeed politically in this country is not simply by going out to the wealthy and the powerful begging for more and more campaign contributions which is what happened so often in congress but he understood that the way you can win elections is by rallying ordinary people at the grassroots level and perhaps that achievement from a political perspective will be what he will most be remembered for i know that in minnesota what he did is organize at the grassroots and brought thousands and thousands of people who had not been involved in the political process together the stand off on their progressive program for economic justice and for a world of peace and he understood profoundly something  here do not address that real change takes place from the bottom not from the top that when millions of people stand up and say it's imperative that we have economic justice in this country that we have a livable wage that we have a health care program which guarantees health care to all of our people that we protect our environment when that comes from the grassroots then we will succeed he was a tire advocate of grassroots politics so i just want to say as somebody who worked with paul was very fond of both he working with us senator murray on a couple amendments and we have a couple amendments sponsored by the met that we have cleared and we're hoping that we'll have a chance to visit with senator de mint or some of his stuff representatives here momentarily maybe can clear up some other amendments i want to thank senator de mint for coming over he actually came over with a box of nine amendments and we're working through those i think some of them we can certainly accept and we'll work through the rest of them but i  as late as tuesday morning provided they were germane otherwise we could finish that bill this bill this afternoon now we have another issue that's been interjected here of course and that's the entire internet tax issue and i know that members both sides of leadership are working out when and how we would get to vote on that important issue because next thursday if we don't come up with something the internet moratorium on taxes will afternoon i don't know what the leadership is going to decide with what guard to vote later on this afternoon or even tomorrow but there will not be any votes on monday as was previously announced by the leadership so we they're going to have to deal with these other amendments that might come up this afternoon or tomorrow or tuesday and i want to say that actually dispose of the internet tax everybody needs to know that this bill  an and should and will be finished before sundown tuesday that's what the leader reid wants that's what i think senator mcconnell wishes to accommodate and it would be my intent to work with  we are on the edge of progress and we ought to move ahead with it meanwhile mr president i would like to yield the floor to senator mary for a statement that she wants to make this special individual who is no longer with us here in the senate he was a friend to me he was a tremendous united states senator and he was an advocate for thousands and thousands of human beings across this country who may never have met him but who he spoke out for so eloquently and that was senator paul wellstone five years ago today we lost that friend that senator that passionate advocate and still every day i come to this floor i can just see him here raising his for ease throwing his arms out speaking to everyone to see if they're right in front of him about the issues he cared about i think every one of us have special memories of senator wellstone whether it was his speeches here on the floor of the senate as he wandered back and forth and put his tremendous voice to such great use for me personally it was listening him to him talk about the issues of mental health it was standing beside him when we introduced the bill to ban a spece to six years ago and we looked around and we were a pretty lonely crowd here trying to make that happen and i know he would be so proud of wherever he is up there today looking down and knowing that the senate six years later passed that ban on pestis it was issues like the war where senator wellstone who even though i was up in a very tight election race at the time stood his ground and said that  felt so strongly that he could not vote for for this country to go to war in iraq and he feared no one in making that decision even the election that he was facing he was a friend and a partner and someone i know so well and i think my best memory of him was going to his state and he invited me there as we all do our other colleagues here when we're out campaigning and asking them to help us out senator paul wellstone didn't ask me to come and do a fundraiser for him he didn't come and ask me to do a speech to some dignified crowd in some ballroom he didn't ask me to come and worst food he asked me to come to his state weeks before his election and to what he called a people raiser and he just did it in a little gymnasium and he invited people to come and donate their time because he said he wanted with what he cared about in the issues he fought for to bring people into politics and he did it that day in such a tremendous way and i think all of us who knew him knew he was never comfortable talking to a crowd that was sitting down he had to inspire them and have them all standing in front of him and applauding he did it every time he spoke it's a i miss him so much here in the united states senate it's hard to believe it was five years ago that we lost such a tremendous advocate but i think he would be proud in the legacy that he's left in his own family  the issues that he's left many of us here behind him passionately and as we move forward and i know that if he were here today he would be back here saying oh don't talk about me but he'd be in a back room someplace making sure that we never forgot the people who sent us here and the tremendous issues they face at home and he'd be inspiring somebody to stand up and speak out i hope that we continue to do that in his memory for many years to come thank you mr president i  but i'm reminded for just a couple of minutes if i may my colleague and that is we just heard from senator murray and other people about their  s reminiscence about and thoughts about paul welsh dom and for those who served with him his death just five years ago was such a shock because not only paul represent intellect and vigor a but he also because of his enthusiasm and his high energy level represented a very youthful picture he look everybody would hear him or less of them if you didn't hear him he'd make sure you heard him because he was never bashful about sticking up about talking about things that he really believed in and there's very little that he did believe in served only a short time was on his way for another term but his impact was enormous and i think in many ways he created a picture of courage unable to talk to people on the republican side of the or otherwise they matter how they gross his arguments were no matter how energetic his presentation was fact is that he would dismiss any difference as part of a normal process and he could continue on with his insistence that what he does is right but it was never right just about it and we will the pending amendment be set aside and i call up and block the mary amendments number three four five seven and number three four five nine and ask that the amendments the modified with the changes at the desk that the amendments mr president our country lost a good man i am mindful of what the scriptures say and that there is no man who is good mind but this is a statement i am making and in the context of the thoughts that i wish to express i'm going to say fag years ago today are currently lost a good man it last an out standing senator it was five years ago today that united states senator paul wellstone and his wife sheila and their daughter daughter marcy perished in a tragic plane all well known was priceless paul wellstone was heir replaceable paul wellstone was a united states senator of remarkable integrity and remarkable only a few days before his tragic death i witnessed firsthand the integrity and the courage that senator senator paul wellstone paul wellstone was in the late stages of a close campaign for reelection oh well stone had been targeted for defeat by the george bush karl rove political machine and this united states senate was about to vote on the iraq war resolution at that time for an invasion of iraq was the political thing to do the white house had convinced most of the country that iraq processed weapons of mass destruction and that saddam hussein poised to use those weapons many americans had been frightened by a steady drumbeat of white house rhetoric about mushroom clouds had been convinced that the war would be brief and that our troops in iraq would be welcomed with open arms despite the then prevailing view that voting against the iraq war was political serious ad senator u senator paul wellstone god rest his soul he did not let that sway him he stood against the white house paul wellstone stood against the easy popular winds of the time paul wellstone good that was paul wellstone we needed more senators like paul wellstone paul well known exemplified the courage of his conviction he was passionate true to his conscience and to the people he represented despite the pain and the difficulty multiple sclerosis paul wellstone