as our senators face today challenges help them to trust in your goodness made their faith in you prompt  to wait for the unfolding of your providence remind them that all things work together for good to bo's who love you and strive to do your will continue to be their refuge and ever present help for life's challenges renew their strength that will strengthen them to honor you with their thoughts and words when facing temptations enable them to keep themselves pure and lord we pause to remember today the supreme sacrifice of officer jacob chestnut and detective john gibson who died defending this capital against an armed intruder bless the families they left behind with your  we haven't done this and three years it's important that this be completed the good news i got walking into the chamber day it appears we only have a vote on final passage so that's really good work and further underscores my repeated compliments of centers cannon and sing for true bipartisanship the second billing role that they've managed on a tremendously important and good job of getting the bills done in regular order once we complete action on this education matter we'll move to the homeland security appropriations bill today in the senate chamber three forty p m the senate will observe a moment of silence in memory of centers of detective gibson and officer chestnut a wreath laying ceremony will take place in the memorial door three thirty i would encourage members to come to the floor at three forty a m service moment of silence i now ask consent of the senate observe a moment of silence at three forty p m today heard in the prayer offered by admiral black some will remember that day nine years ago that these two officers were killed i remember that for a number of reasons not the least of which i attended law school here i went to law school during the daytime and worked worked full time swing shift night shift as a capitol police officer now i was present nine nine years ago today two police officers did exemplify courage and valor these two capitol police officers special agent gibson and officer jacob chesney were station three forty in the afternoon a man with a gun tried to force his way pass them off her chest and walk this path the gunman shot him point blank in the chest and killed him special agent gibson then warned the nearby tourist and staff seek cover in fact he chased the gunman down the hallway they were headed for the house leadership says he was headed for the house leadership office when exchange gunfire one tourist was hit but officer gibson was hit and died from his wounds as did officer justin a plaque has been placed in the capitol building where the confrontation took place and their names are carson a national law enforcement officer on oil recognizing their sacrifice was present i knew officer gibson we had a retreat senate democrats during that retreat my wife became very ill and night and special agent gibson on the first one there he was carrying all that resuscitation equipment was sweating he had run from the office where he was this please for station to take care of my wife i remember how kind thoughtful enormous strength of character i think of the brave police officers who protect me every day mr president skill and hard work i see firsthand each day and i also think of all the law enforcement men and women who keep this building and those who serve within it safe and we should all be grateful beyond my words to express that song a song somber anniversary i will lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence for this to her like men we lost our hearts and certainly our thoughts are with the families of agent gibson off her chest and i've met them on a number of occasions we hope that this remembering them is some comfort that their loved ones the southwest they made will forever be remembered with our gratitude and at most respects his presence i want to i haven't had a chance to distinguished republican leader because i've an anti missile decision that was just made this morning but i want to go over the calendar for the remainder of this year we have course no we have to do this this week and next week just rendered indicating we do have to be vigilant here at home and we must complete the procreation bill dealing with homeland security before we leave here this work created we also need to do our work on s chip children's health care the finance committee on a very bipartisan vote seventeen to four passed that matter out of committee it was led by senators grassley baucus rockefeller and ha now mispresent that was what came out of that committee has been a compromise that's how bipartisanship works as reported in aggression daily yesterday that matter should have more than sixty votes so if there is in fact effort to slow that down it appears there on a bipartisan basis we can move that forward it's certainly an important piece of legislation we need to complete that we also as i just mentioned we need to do the nine eleven commission  recommendations at conference report we expect that to be passed in the house this week that committee basically is wrapped up all their work on that and has venning been very heartwarming mr president that conference has been led senators lieberman and collins and we've had actual can an actual conference like we used to have around here all the time the first conference committee meeting was mobbed with press working in that way things used to be a real conference report will come out of that and that's very important and then finally we're going to complete the ethics legislation and i want to tear up so that when we come back here in september and we have the ability to have some work to do when we get here without looking for something doing what i would like to do is move to the v a military construction appropriation bill and we'll do that one way or the other guy who would hope that on the most proceed i would have to file cloture if i do that's what i will do that so we g back here in september we will have something to work on so let's talk about september whenever we leave here mr president and as i've indicated i hope this next friday that may not be the case that we have to do  measure days to complete our work when we come back of course the third of september as a holiday so we will come back on the fourth the fourth will be treated as most of our mondays are treated we will have voted five fifteen or thereabouts that evening and we work that wake now mr president on september tenth everyone here is on notice that we will be in session that day and we will have votes before noon not going to be five fifteen everyone has that everyone knows that that's going to be an early vote day why because on the temp the eleventh and twelfth we have to really full work days we have to complete our work by six between will not have votes and then mr president we're going to work in major that we remain or the next week or a major the next week and mr president we could have and i will try to give the distinguished republican leader all senators on notice we may because of what we're working on have to have some monday votes earlier than five fifteen that will try to do it the week ahead of time so people can make arrangements and then mr president i'm not october eighth which is a holiday columbus day we're going to have that it home state work period and that whole week we're going to be out of session that is the ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth will we'll be out of session will come back on the fifteenth and work that they will have votes on the fifteenth i don't expect in the early votes but we'll have votes on the fifteenth and mispresent we're going to work up to we hope we can please complete the work for the session by november sixteenth if we can't and we and we have to come back we will come back on december third and complete our work and that would give us three weeks before christmas i hope we don't have to do that i would i think it would be good for everybody if we could complete our work here on november sixteenth and i say to my friend that i think wish republican leader if he has any questions about this and i'll be happy to answer those i i have by apologize for not being able to give this to him first but the decision on was whole waiting and decide what to do on the seventeenth as to whether or not that would be a vote and we decide it wasn't so i'm now in position to state just publicly mr president before i leave the podium here i want your say a couple words about another important piece of legislation earlier this year americans were shocked by reports of a crisis at walter reed and other armed services medical cell these wasn't just walter reed but that was the picture that everyone saw we learned that many courageous men and women who had been wounded in service to our nation were receiving an acceptably poor treatment and care upon their return to our shores and i just learned this morning's news there's been a big lawsuit filed by afghan and iraqi veterans returning hundreds of thousand them have joined together and a lawsuit against a veterans administration i don't proceed really understand how that was going to go forward but it was in the morning news headline news because there they are and there is now according to this news report about a half a million backlog in requests for iraqi veterans to get care we learned that not only during the early look at walter reed and other facilities we learned not only was the veterans care system rife with bureaucratic failures but even the physical facilities fail to meet even a minimal level of septa acceptable quality the american people were outraged by these facts and i'm glad to say that the senate took prompt action and i'm service and veterans affairs committee held a rare joint hearing to identify the best ways to make right the existing failures and brant summer injustices from ever happening again members these committees work together  visited like walter reed the lack of seamless transition when medical care for troops is transferred from the department defense to the veterans administration would often leads to diminish care legislation also looks at the adequacy of severance pay to help those who have sacrificed so much already to support their families while they recover and the need to improve sharing of medical records between the part of the defense and the part of veteran affairs with care and treatment for traumatic brain injury  traumatic stress syndrome by authorizing fifty million dollars from prove diagnosis treatment or rehabilitation we saw this problem highlighted as i've indicated in the morning news or a number of stories about that but the main story is in the l times which cited a report by a special pentagon task for showing that thirty eight percent of soldiers and fifty percent of national guard members come home from iraq and afghanistan with mental health problems yet only twenty seven in the vs fourteen hundred hospitals  inpatient post traumatic stress disorder programs and finally the war wounded warrior legislation provides support for the wounded troops whose health insurance programs like the tri care program for retired veterans allowed gaps in coverage and medical treatment so mr president in the next few days i intend to take the wounded warriors amendment from the defense authorization bill there were dishes made of that from this time at left committee and i will seek unanimous consent that we pass it  now the rest is stuff with rare exception the defense authorization bill if we passed it yesterday wouldn't kick in until beginning of the fiscal year but the wondered where amendment legislation becomes a law upon passage in approval so i hope we can do that this this would make its provisions immediately effective on the president signs this given and made it clear that these people need an immediate need to act on the one who worries amendment is overwhelming bipartisan support and hope that we can all work together to pass it before we leave here but have to do it by unanimous consent i hope we can do  that the republican leaders recognized picking up on some of the observations of the majority leader we would bipartisan accomplishments but altogether too rare this year but we do have an opportunity here in the next two weeks as he  indicated to do some good work on a bipartisan basis and a good example of that will be later this morning and i want to commend senator kennedy and kennedy in particular senator enzi for their leadership on this our education bill that's a classic example of how we ought to operate more often in the senate i hope we will reach that hashed and heard more frequently for the balance of the year on another subject mr president from america's earliest days bravery has been the essential thing a group of courageous farmers were the first to stand against the british declaration of independence was a death warrant for anyone who signed the constitutional convention took place in a shuttered room the founders were brave and they knew bravery would be needed to maintain what they had built as washington wrote when the veterans of seventeen seventy six began to pass away thus some of the pillars of the revolution all they our country never want props to support the glorious fabric we remember today two men who supported the glorious fabric of our country joseph chestnut and john gibson their labs on a friday afternoon while standing sentry at the gates of this great saturday all of liberty the chambers had fallen silent for the week staffers were celebrating the passage of the law tourists were studying old plaques and the president was getting ready for a weekend trip to his camp when a madman pierced the calm routine of daily life in washington and a brave grandfather and young father stood strong against him there was the most duplicated by the senator sergeant who tried to keep the killer and his victims alive by the british tourist who rushed to one of the victims sad to hear his last words about a horde of officers who rushed the gunman when the flags fell thousands of americans call the capitol to greet thousands more showed up here to mourn the fallen off her and to honor the ideals they died for an act of savagery had roused the nation to mercy and compassion it was an inch think we would see again on an even darker day three years later we are grateful for the lab's of these good man and for their sacrifice they were not sunshine patriots they were brave americans who stood their ground as americans so often do to ensure that the ceremony of freedom would go on it does it will and they will not be forgotten by you or under the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of as ones six four to which the clerk will report council member to sixty four f sixteen forty two a bill to extend the authorization of programs under the higher education act one hundred sixty five and  front mr president the senior senator from massachusetts is recognized for ten minutes mr president i have a modification to my amendment that's at the desk and i asked that the amendment be  and to work and take a new considerations of his considerations to do it in a way which i think is consistent with our our legislation this and i'm very pleased that the senator from oklahoma nice and ends he were able to come up to an agreement on this amendment we all agree that universities should not be using federal money for lobby that's why our amendment bans it we all agree that federal student aid should not be used to secure and earmark that's why our amendment bans it and we all agree that there should be a mechanism to ensure that these rules are being followed and that's why our amendment requires colleges to certify that they are following the rules so this amendment will keep the federal funds from being used for lobbying while maintaining the ability of colleges to engage in appropriate communications with government officials allow preeminent research scientists communicate with the n i m h about cancer research or will out radiologist to advise homeland security on ways to better predict and prepare for imminent natural disasters allowed scientists to convey that to the department defense the latest advances in armor and other protections for our troops so this amendment strikes a good balance between for hitting the inappropriate use of federal student  dollars while keeping the door open to colleges and employees and officials to communicate with governments in other important matters and that is what our amendment and i please we could come up with an agreement and i think the senator  final passage and that will be in approximately fifteen or seventeen minutes out how much time do i have the senator from massachusetts has seven minutes remaining and they are from wyoming town some concluding comment that we promote the general welfare of the words carved above the entrance of the supreme court our equal justice under law there is nothing more basic to who we are as americans than those immortal that lie at the foundation of our democracy that everyone counts everyone matters everyone has a role to play in our society from our earliest days as a nation education has been the mainstay of our society and the engine of the american dream our nation's founders knew that an educated citizenry would strengthen our land build up the values and character that makes us americans they invested in education because they look to the future and soar an even greater america glow over the glowing arise we look forward when we passed the g i bill and allowed servicemen and women coming back from the second world war to get a college education they became the greatest generation the g i bill produced sixty seven thousand doctors ninety one thousand scientists two hundred thirty eight thousand teachers and four hundred fifty thousand engineers it funded the education  three presidents three supreme court justices and about a dozen senators who served in this chamber that is the kind of vision we have had in america when it comes to education and it is our vision today as we reclaim our destiny and invest once again in the next generation in these past few days we have made a new promise to american students and family a promise to invest more as a nation to ensure that all of our young people and we mean all regardless of background get the education they deserve and the training they need to succeed in today's global economy we have pledge here in the united state senate but it doesn't matter where you're from what matt is is where you're going and no american should be denied the right to go to college because of money last week we show this commitment again when we made another new promise to students providing them with the largest new investment in student aid since the g i bill we increased the pell grants we provided relief for student loans by saying your monthly payments will never exceed fifteen percent of your monthly income we said if you become a teacher or a firefighter and or other public service jobs your loans will be forgiven after ten years the bill before us brings about other key reforms that will make college more affordable to young americans our legislation will take steps to ensure that the student loan system is working in the best interest of students by pursuing needed ethics reforms in the student loan industry it will simplify the federal financial aid application and delivery process to ensure that a complex system does not work as a barrier to access for low income students it demands that college do their part to keep college costs down if we do our part to provide needed student aid they must do their part to keep their to which and n p s reasonable and it will reap for me and improve our teacher preparation system teachers are the backbone of our case through twelve education system and  high quality teacher preparation programs and help recruit and retain high quality teaches in i need schools i would like to thank all of my colleagues and all of particular all the colleagues on the committee for the work put in this legislation i especially thank mike enzi our ranking member for all of his leadership on this bipartisan legislation this has been in the works for two to three years over two years close to three years and i i like to thank all of the staff who worked so hard over the past month to make this happen this legislation received unanimous you're not amisse five partisan support in the committee and i hope it to see the same broad support today we know education is the real key to opportunity this legislation reflects that knowledge it is a commitment i believe that we must make to ensure educational opportunity to each and every young person in this country i urge the senate to approve this important legislation our students deserve nothing less mr president i will include since the time is running short the names of my outstanding staff that i'm enormously grateful for that have worked so hard and long a president a senior senator from wyoming is recognized for ten minutes thank you mr president it's always exciting when we get down to the end of a bill particularly a bill where there has been good bipartisan participation and achievement and this is one of those this reauthorization bill that we've been considering was reported out of the help committee by a vote of twenty to nothing it's the result of three years of bipartisan negotiations and we can point to things in the bill that both the republican and the democrat members of the committee and people outside the committee have participated in proposed and have wound up in the bill so in the end it is a product with strong bipartisan support i would mention it it's not going to be a perfect bill i'd be willing to say that about any bill that we've passed out of here it's always a work in progress until it finally gets signed by the president and quite often when they get signed by the president they're not a perfect bill either but they are a perfect compromise when they get signed that means that both sides give a little bit and we concentrate on those areas where there can be agreement there are a lot of things that both sides would like to have in this bill but they're divisive rather than inclusive and we've left out those divisive things for the most part and in conference committee we will take care of some of the other things that are slightly dave dyson divisive yet to make them more inclusive so that the final bill will help as many students as possible when i say students i'm not just talking about college students one of the one of the things i hear back and in wyoming is what about the kids that want to go to tech school well we cood that sort of thing in here too and that's a that's a program where they can get a certification that's recognized throughout the united states and my wife was just at the national apprenticeship conference it was the seventy fifth anniversary of certification for apprenticeships and the theme song there was done by a friend of mine from alaska who's the balladeer of alaska and i'm sure many of you have heard the song it's i'm an educated man and it talks about a person who has a little bit of trouble with the book learning stuff but you can give him a problem that he can solve with his hands and he's an educated man and there are still a lot of jobs out there and there always will be a lot of jobs out there that you have to have hands on work with and we cannot exclude those people from the education system they're absolutely essential to our lives and this bill does some things for the ones that want to go to tech school to sen warner mentioned in a speech the other day that when he first went into the military that there were people about a third of the people that he went through basic training with couldn't read or write and when they were assigned to a ship there were jobs on those ships but those people could do without being able to read or write but today the battleships are bigger and there are technical and it's a whole different level of education that has to be done for the people to run those battleships and to do the jobs that are needed on the battleships and that's what's happened with jobs throughout this country jobs change and it's very important that people that are in high school now realize that when they enter the job market they are probably going to have fourteen different careers not fourteen different jobs fourteen different employers fourteen different careers and of those fourteen ten haven't even been invented yet so it's very important to get a good education so that a person can think well enough learn well enough throughout their life that they can transition to the new jobs that are happening because they will be happening and those that don't get the knowledge and the capability to make the mental transfer to new careers will be left behind we do not want that to happen this committee is in charge of education from birth to death we have a head start bill we've already passed that this year through the senate and it's in conference now that takes care preschool course we have sixty four other programs besides that that deal with preschool and we probably need to do something about the proliferation of programs that have a lot of overlap in that area but we have the head start one already going through the process the next bill we've been told it will work on in committee as no child left behind at dick's care of kindergarten through twelfth grade and there's been a commission that's been formed that's presented us with a lot of ideas on what needs to be done it was a bipartisan commission and i'm sure a lot of that will be incorporated in the bill there's been good bipartisan work in committee on the ideas that ought to be incorporated this time some of the tweaks that need to be done in no child left behind to make it work even better and there's quite a bit of an agreement that it has worked but that it can work better so we'll be working on that next and of course this is the higher education act we did it in two pieces i have some more comments about that in just a moment but there's another piece that's missing and i'm hoping our committee will work on that soon and that's the workforce investment act we have passed that through the senate twice unanimously each of the previous two congresses but it has never been conferenced we need to get that done the it could train one hundred thousand people a year to higher skilled jobs we don't need to keep exploiting those jobs because we lack people with the skills we need to get people with the skills and that's a bill that will do it and i think we have a good basis to work from on that and again a way to do a bipartisan event i know that some of the fear in the past has been what might happen in conference while the ones who had the fear of what might happen in conference will now be in charge of the conference so that's not an excuse we have to education in america is a right well actually it's a privilege and we have to get people to recognize the value of that privilege as we make sure that all of them can have the education that we've promised and we have made some very significant promises in those areas and have been some very significant fulfillment and this bill that we're working on today is one of those i'm pleased that we've been able to  reconciliation bill and the reauthorization bill considered within five days of one another by considering the entirety of the higher education act we're ensuring continued quality in the federal student loan programs while providing disclosure and information that students and their families need to make informed financial decisions and those informed financial decisions or uninformed ones will have a significant impact on their future this is the second time in as many congresses that we've been on the brink of systemic reform of the federal higher education programs however this time we will cross the brink and make these programs more efficient as well as more effective will be allowed to meet the challenge  making higher education more accessible more affordable and particularly more accountable the american system of higher education is renowned throughout the world american students will now be provided with the tools and  contained in both bills to complete their higher education and training and to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful in the twenty first century economy mr president i supported reporting both bills out of committee and i did so  with the expectation that they would be considered together as a whole by the senate i'm very pleased that the senate democratic leadership worked with me and my colleagues to provide this opportunity to have an open and full debate on all aspects of the higher education  i look forward to moving both these bills together and ensuring comprehensive reauthorization of the higher education act and there's no reason that they can't be combined at this point in time mr president as debate on this legislation comes to a close it's necessary to thank those who have worked long and hard on this bill so first and foremost i'd like to think chairman kennedy i'd like to thank him for his commitment to keeping this process bipartisan and working with me and my republican colleagues on the health committee throughout this entire process for maintaining an open position on ideas and following through with those with focus that we could actually wind up with the bill for his  approach to the committee process so that we use the market to see what the intensity is and the number of improvements that are being suggested and not make those just a straight up or down approach so that we can modify them so that they fit so that we get the kind of bipartisanship that we've got at this point in time that's that's a that's a tremendous task and he covers a wide variety i think our committee must handle about forty percent of the things that come before the united states senate so it's a wide range of tasks and a lot of things to keep track of and he does a marvelous job with that and has been very inclusive and i congratulate him for that and thank you for that i don't feel like thank everyone on my staff who has worked tire y to get us to this point when i say tirelessly i mean both sides have worked through weekends evenings and reached great compromises and i later will mention more specifically some of those people i think and i've is recognized i think mr president i think the senator from massachusetts the american people should be grateful to senator kennedy and senator enzi in the committee and i believe the senate for increasing the opportunity for americans of all ages to continue their education and second for continuing what arguably is our our strongest asset in competition worldwide our system of higher education i can recall the former president of brazil saying to a number of us before he went back to brazil what we remember about the united states he said the american university there's nothing like it anywhere in the world and we have a responsibility to continue to keep it excellent and to provide access to it thank you mitchell told me this of course i didn't believe him but i do now that one of my most difficult jobs is trying to determine when votes take place and when a schedule ends and i i haven't had a chance speak to my friend the co manager this bill but i believe that it would be to the best interest of the body i have conferred with my now for  mcconnell and we have these votes starting we have two votes is my understanding all debate has been completed there right that the senator is correct we have one procedural matter that we have to address but then we'll just have t vote in the procedural matter won't take any time at no time and i miss present i would ask consent and i can i'm doing this because i'm one every one of you happy i don't need to ask consent time and ask consent that the first vote a current twelve twenty five the second one occur and then the second vote will be a ten minute vote and that happen ask senator cochran's and the bird come and give their opening statements on homeland security during that interim period the senior senator from wyoming i'd like about two minutes to finish up the thank you's on this this bill i say to my friend we have lots amendment is that correct and the following will be on the final passage first amendment will be the kennedy amendment at twelve twenty followed immediately by final passage  senior senator from wyoming mr president thank you i ran out of time before i could thank members of my staff and other staff that they have participated in this bipartisan effort to get the higher education act re authorized and so i would like to do that at this time because this this bill is proof that a bipartisan effort can get a bill done in particular i'd like to think catherine mcguire who's my committee staff director she and focus that says let's get things done let's see how we can do it and she's able to work with the other side and history has proven that she's trustworthy and also knowledgeable on the issues and that goes a long ways in making sure that there can be a bipartisan effort that willingness to work again within parameters of principles that helps us to get all of these things done this special to thank that bill men whose my education policy director beth has devoted her career to improving educational opportunities for all americans from her work as a math teacher to her devotion to workforce training beth really knows what she's doing and brings extraordinary strength to the issue every day her knowledge and leadership has shaped education policy in our country for over the last thirty years and she provides that same kind of focus and direction within the area of education that katherine does for the entire committee i also want to thank the rest of the education team who greatly contributed to the bill and clowe adam bella lindsey hunsaker and kelly hastings  they worked diligently and as i've mentioned through weekends and evenings i also want to thank god the shoeman in her fantastic knowledge of working a bill through the senate floor she's one of the few lawyers that i have on my my budget expert in doing that for several years and i know the rules and the requirements and the capabilities and the budget process and keep us all on our toes and ensure start work meets the budget requirements and finally greg dean who did a great job of organizing the amendment process he's a little nervous he scurries around and make sure that every little detail is plugged in that we're all knowledgeable on every one of those little details  i'd also like to thank members of senator kennedy's staff for their hard work michael meyers is a great job of coordinating with us and providing the leadership on the issues that's there in the leadership now senator kennedy's staff director does that kind of work and is very cooperative with with our side and sensitive to the needs that we bring up i want to thank carmel martin  people and their knowledge of education which you don't get to see you get to see the result of their work as we present it and sometimes we don't do justice to all of the effort that they've they've put in and find that like to thank all the members of the help committee and their staffs for their hard work throughout this process this is one of the most demanding committees we cover as i mentioned i think about forty percent of the issues that come before the united states senate and that requires a lot of time a lot of knowledge such a wide variety of issues that the the members i think get a college education about every month college course of education about every month as we cover these different issues and i appreciate them especially working on this college education bill so it's an interesting road and about three years worth the work and all of it on a bipartisan basis and i thank all of those that have have mr president the senator from wyoming is typically a thoughtful and gracious about his staff and and mine as well and i i want to just personally mention those that work so hard on my staff and and as we mentioned this is been a bipartisan effort and sent to n c i won't mention the senate is earlier but i want to mention their their names michael meyers who does a great job is as we have seen over the course of the years this is a major undertaking and to be able to get the kind of a joint effort on it as been a great great tribute to all of those who've worked so hard senator from wyoming is recognized i'm sorry senator from utah is recognized i was looking at senator from wyoming i polish close enough where neighbor mr president today is the twenty fourth of july which people in this chamber but in my home state the twenty fourth of july is close to the biggest day of the year the twenty fourth of july is the day that brigham young and the first group of mormon pioneers came down the canyon outside of salt like valley and decided that this was the place where they would stop they had been coming across the plains for months looking for a place to settle and as brigham young rose up out of his wagon at the mouth of the canyon looked down over the valley he stared for a few minutes and then turned to his associates and said it is enough this is the right place and they decided that this is where they would settle this date therefore became enshrined as the founding date of the state of utah and it was been celebrated with a parade ever since i remember as a young child being taken by my parents to sit in the upper window of a department store or overlooking main street in salt lake city and watching as the floats and the cars went down the street and i remember as a little boy that there was always one float that had a big banner on it that said pioneers that is these were people who had actually come across the plains before the railroad either walking or in covered wagons or primarily a combination of both and it arrived in the valley and they were still alive when i was a little boy to watch them one of them was my grandfather who had been born in birmingham england been carried as a two and three year old across the plains by his father and mother and landed in salt lake city in the eight hundred sixty s prior to the coming of the railroad i watched every parade group of pioneers kept getting smaller and smaller each year and finally there was a parade where there were no pioneers there was no one who had been part of that trek but the parade lives on and senator hatch and i were both scheduled to be in it today as i have been in virtually every twenty fourth of july parade since i've been elected but the votes here on the floor of the senate have made it impossible for us to do that and at the same time discharge our duties so i simply want to take note here on the twenty fourth of july of the importance of that event and make this comment about it that i think may have some relevance to what we are doing today those people came to utah because they had no other choice they came to utah because they were the first group of them they were physically driven out of every other place in the united states where they had tried to settle they had created a settlement in ohio and they were driven out they created a settlement in missouri and they were driven out they created a settlement in illinois and they were driven out and there were many in their group who decided we've had enough and they decided to stay in the midwest give up their religion give up their commitment  that held them together and settle down in the hopes that they would have peace with their neighbors but that hardly a group that decided they were not going to give up that they were going to move someplace where everyone would leave them alone they deliberately chose salt lake valley because nothing had been ever raised there before it was part of the great american desert and john c fremont the great front terrace man offered a thousand dollars for the first verse full of corn that could be raised in salt lake valley they faced enormous adversity to do what they did to demonstrate their commitment to their religion and their convictions just after nine eleven president bush spoke to us in the national cathedral and he talked about adversity and quoting an unknown source he said adversity introduces us to ourselves as the descendant some of those pioneers i think that's a lesson worth reminding ourselves of at least once a year adversity introduces us to ourselves and those people as they went through adversity discovered who they were and determined that they would not linger on the past in their adversity but they would be confident about their future and they built there in that forsaken valley not only trees and props and houses but the foundation of a movement that now moves around the world i am grateful to them for what they did and i am grateful to them for the legacy reminding us that the future is more important than the past that our opportunities are more important than our grievances and that when adversity has told us who we are we should in the words of a hymn they sang as they moved across the plains guard up our loins fresh courage today and move forward in the conviction that our god will never forsake on this twenty fourth of july i share that with my fellow senators here in the belief that it is still good advice for our future senator from wyoming is from idaho is recognized mr president let me join the center from utah in his comments of course so many of the citizens of my bloom and they built a culture rammed and a religious base that serves my state so very well today present i've come to the floor this morning to speak about something that is going on in the west as we speak that is a tragedy in reality and something that certainly we all ought to be aware of as i got on the plane friday morning in minneapolis in my commute to idaho a group of young men and women got on my plane and it said firefighters of the state of missouri and they were flying to idaho to help idahoans distinguish the wildfires that are burning there so i would like to thank them and all of the brave firefighters that have been battling these immense wildfires in a season that is growing matic as we speak i got on the plane yesterday morning in boise to return here another group of young men and women be draggle tired and smelling of smoke got on the plane to fly back to minneapolis that was a group another group of firefighters who had fallen in from the eastern united states to help out in idaho and the great basin west and they were simply tired and returning home we are in idaho and in the west at this moment experiencing one of the most dramatic wild fire seasons in our history and i say that because the season in reality has just started from a historic perspective it's late july august and september that the fire season that we think of on our public lands both forested and grasslands usually began last year we went through the worst fire season in history based on total acreage is burned as i speak at this moment we are now ahead of last year and burning even greater headlines in the local largest daily in idaho yesterday was more fires burning in idaho than any other state in the nation well over six hundred thousand acres burned and many burning yesterday morning five counties in the state of idaho were declare it is state of emergency due to those wildfires burning currently the largest fire burning in the united states is the murphy complex estimated be five hundred and seventy thousand acres seventy five hundred people were evacuated from the area evacuations are being ordered across the state due to the number of fires and the extreme of the fire behavior hundred degree temperatures in an area that finds that extraordinarily hot every duce the dew point to such a situation that anything that grows becomes  for a wildfire of the seventy two large fires in the united states half of those burning today are in the state of nevada and in my state of idaho and the weather outlook has gone from bad horrible as these temperatures continue and as the great basin of the united states progress the valley dries out more hot and dry weather is expected along with dry lightning fires and wind storms and as these lightning storms sweep through literally thousands of strikes occur and hundreds of fires can be set in one evening across the public lands of the west as i mentioned the six thousand fire season the old six excuse me the zero six fire season broke serval records including acreage and by the end of this week we will have surpassed that  increase as it relates to time and place of the fire season we've obviously not yet burned the ten million acres of last year but by measurement this fire season is now worse almost one hundred years ago the forest service started something and they started with a commitment and a philosophy to full fire suppressant so now i take you to a little bit of history as to what may be producing the very dramatic fire season that we experienced last year and the year before and we are now experiencing today during the time of the forest service agencies aim laws to extinguish every fire manmade or lightning caused with the exception of the last fifteen years the timber industry on our public lands enjoyed booming success during the same period of time so while mother nature was not allowed to burn the forest man was allowed to come in over the one last one hundred years and thin and clean and we called it logging and that produced the timber for the home industry in the building industries of our country as a result of that it is arguable that wildfires were kept somewhat under control not only did we put the fires out but we were taking the fuels off the land in the one nine hundred ninety s during the clinton years as a result of the impact of a variety of public policies from the endangered species act to the new forest management act to the clean water act and the clean air act and a lot of other combinations things we began to progressive really reduce the overall cut of timber on our public lands in the eight years of bill clinton we reduced the allowable cut and here are the figures right here because it's patterned by revenue flow we reduce the allowable cut of timber on our public lands by eighty percent no not eight percent by well over eighty percent and so if you follow the green line on this chart you follow the revenue flow that was coming from our public lands through the u s forest service and of course it was during that time that the first service had money and as a result they had the money to fight the fires and then you see the decline on the chart as we discontinued timber harvest on our public lands the revenue no longer was produced but something else was happening we were leaving on our public lands dramatic increases in timber and bryce and in today's situation fuel for the fire so impart the west is burning today because of public policy because of attitude not because of mother nature mother nature has ebbed and flowed over time but when mother nature is taken out of balance by man's practices and policies dramatic results can occur and as the revenues declined and they parallel human activity on the public lands dramatic increases in fire resulted in what do we do about it for the last several years i have stood on the floor of the senate and participated in the inner jew natural resources committee and chaired the forestry sub committee on many of these years and have said very openly and very publicly we buy our public policy have destroyed the u s forest service we bankrupt it no longer has any money and in so doing we keep putting greater burden on it and we won't fund it we were not in the habit of funding it because timber sales historically funded the u s forest service it not only funded all of their practices both logging and trail clearing and wildlife management and habitat control it did something else it put money into the u s treasury and we created a unique balance over the one last one hundred years because you can't predict a fire season you have the revenue flow coming in so we've simply borrowed the money to fight fires from the different accounts of the u s forest service and at the end of the year when the fire season was over and all the bills were paid we simply replenish all of the accounts of the u s forest service that it used to manage the different components of the forest service itself it no longer happens today we're still borrowing money from accounts to fight fires but there's no money in the accounts and at the end of the year because of tight budgets we don't replenish the money from the general fund of the s government there is no money there timber receipts used to fund the money used to create the balance used to do a lot of things it no longer exists in large part because of public policy what is happening in idaho and across the west at this moment when you see the valleys full of smoke and the mountains full of smoke and the skies with dark bands of carbon filled the air across the west our natural resources are literally going up in smoke what's burning out there are trees it's also watershed and water quality and wildlife habitat and all of that is appearing in a ball of fire and it shouldn't be that way what are the solutions throwing more money on fire suppression well we've been doing that by ever increasing amounts every year for the last five or six years to the tune of billions of dollars annually i'm on i'm a ranking member of the interior appropriations subcommittee we just stuck i just put in another half million dollars to fight fire and it will quickly go up in smoke at the rate the fires are burning in the west what is the solution more active management yes more active management on our public lands will help the fire situation because active management if you look at the healthy forest act that we passed several years ago mean you're in there thinning you're in there cleaning the underbrush you're doing the kind of things that fire would have done naturally one hundred years ago but we changed the circumstance and we changed the environment fire is unique in that it can be beneficial if it's handled appropriately if you have one hundred trees per acre and fire is allowed to amble through and burn out all of the underbrush it doesn't kill the tree in many instances but if you have four hundred trees per acre of the kind that we've allowed to happen over the last good number of decades then it burns everything because the fire is so intense by the volume of fuel on the forest floor and that is the circumstance that the west is experiencing as we speak fire is a unique natural disaster because humankind  found a way to fight it it can change the situation that breeds how do you fight a tornado where you can and yet it's called a natural disaster how do you fight a hurricane where you can you can predict them and you just get out of their way because it's a natural disaster how do you fight a wildfire give me a shovel give me the tools give me a better environment a managed environment if you will and i can fight a wildfire don't allow federal judges to be land managers allow foresters to be land managers in the right context of public policy and you can fight a wildfire give me the tools necessary in the local communities to do so and you can fight a wildfire allow me to use a chainsaw selectively in the forest to thin them and clean them and you can fight a wildfire but all in the name of the environment we've decided to do none of these we have decided to simply preserve and allow it to be natural and let me conclude with these thoughts the fires that are burning in the west today are not natural they are hotter  are more intense they are more destructive than any forest fires we have seen in our forests literally within a century and the reason is quite simple the one hundred trees per acre that i talked about that lewis might have ambled through two hundred years ago are the same acres in which there are now four hundred trees and because of the heat and the drought they are dead or died and they have created a fuel load on our forest floor that is unprecedented and yet we buy public policy they have tied the hands of our land managers and as a result literally millions of acres are now burning annually and for what reason i believe it's because we as a as a manager of public and natural resources have failed and there are reasonable ways to do so there is an alternative besides simply locking it up and letting it burn yes the skies of idaho in the great basin west are full of smoke at this moment that smoke are our natural resources going up in smoke literally if we're right about climate change and we're worried about the carbon that we're putting into the atmosphere the fires on the  public lands of this nation this year will put more carbon in the atmosphere than any one year of automobile driving and yet somehow there are those who are willing to ignore it only in the reality that it is nature and uncontrollable i would argue that is not true because thirty years ago we didn't have these kinds of fires and twenty years ago we didn't have them even though we had peaks of drought and dryness and heat and our professionals told us some time ago that if we didn't become once again active managers of our public land resource that it would go up in smoke of the union address since the terrorist attacks zero nine eleven the president has raised the specter of another attack  as past january the president say and i every success against the terrorists is a reminder of the shore less animations of this enemy i wish i could report to you that the dangers had ended they have despite his warning the president's warning and his promises the president's promises the president's budget failed to commit significant resources to address these dangers too often the department of homeland security is settled for security that looks good on favor but leave serious gaps in the defense of our homeland still don't have proven technology to do detect liquid explosive on an average day seventy five hundred tons of cargo is placed in the holds of passenger aircraft at our nation's airports of which is screened for explosives and virtually none is screened for radiation our seaports remain vulnerable our polies firefighters emergency medical teams and emergency managers remain understaffed and under prepared its budget proposes an eight percent increase for the department of homeland security however after sifting through the gimmicks however after  do better and this legislation meets that responsibility for border security the build vaz the funds to hire three thousand new border patrol agents the bill also includes one billion dollars for border fencing infrastructure and technology commit the funds that are essential for a coordinated comprehensive border security everitt real security cannot be done on the cheap real security cannot be done on the cheap for aviation security the bill invests funds that will help to save lives and it may be your life it may be your life and maybe your li but it cannot be done on the cheap despite a documented need for three point six billion dollars to purchase and install explosive detection systems the president get this the  the president of the united states proposes to cut cut cut the explosive detection program by seventeen percent the bill provides a nine point four million dollars above the president's request to purchase and install explosives detection equipment at airports we take on the challenge of greening cargo before it is loaded on to aircraft which you the people of this country the passengers will the building clued six to six million dollars ten million above the request ten million above the president's request jeremy to deploy a seven day additional  more screening technology at airports nationwide at airports at airports was the people of this country we fund are also provided to establish twenty radiation screening teams at key u s international airports to inspect aircraft and cargo the people out there will be boarding these aircraft funmi said again fun are also provided to establish twenty is well spent all this money is well spent and our craft in this legislation we also speed up the work on disaster preparations two years ago how soon we forget two years ago just two years ago hurricane katrina demonstrated our does and those failure in dealing with a major a major a major disaster hurricane rita showed that we do not know how to organize an effective mass evacuation as me we do not know how to organize an effective mass evacuation report is the white house after i can report on the hurricane here's what it concluded less we this is the white house isn't robert c byrd dogging the white house every action report on the hurricanes concluded we are not as prepared as we need to be at all levels within this country yet the president's budget proposes a one point two billion dollars cut cut and viral homeland security grant programs including funds for disaster preparations and first responder training where oh where oh where is the sense in that sense in that according to the department of homeland security zone estimates two thirds of the states and urban areas do not have adequate plans to respond to a catastrophic event two thirds of the states and urban areas do not not not do not have adequate plans to respond to a catastrophic event but this legislation rejects the proposed budget and yet nine months later his budget the president's budget includes no no no no no no addition of funds for the new security rick wire murs contained in a lull that the president of united states sign united states every year the bill commits funds directed to our ports to tighten security a that again the bill commits fun and commits funds directly to our ports to tighten security going to say it again we double double double we double the frequency of under an out coast guard inspection at our port facilities bomb say that again we've funded the installation of radiation detection equipment at our ports to guard against nuclear weapons and dirty bomb is food dish to delay in your lungs in order to restore the ill considered cut for opposed by the equipping and training our first responders and to fund the increases that i have described for border board and aviation security the bill exceeds the president's request by two point twenty five bagan dollar he the president labeled as excessive spending excessive spending excessive spending as what president bush incredible president bush has threatened to veto the homeland security funding bill because of what he the president labeled as excessive spending the two point one to five billion dollars that two and a quarter billion dollar increase in this bill is about what we spend in one week one week one week in iraq feeling as pretty deep is good feeling that the united states as our country faces an increased threat of attack this people of this country on the heels of the secretary's warnings did ministration this administration our administration the bush administration has released its latest national intelligence estimate concerning the terrorist threat to the u s homeland where is that here the u s homeland and i will quote from t terrorist threat over the next three years the main threat comes from islamic terrorists groups and sales especially al qaeda driven by their undiminished intent to attack the homeland that's by own that your homeland and a continued effort by these terrorist groups to adapt and improve their capabilities  is everywhere in our home and as a result we judge that the united states currently is in a heightened threat environment we s f that all cases homeland plotting is likely to continue destruction significant economic aftershocks and or fear fear among the u s population that is the end of the quotation there those are the words those are the words written by the best best intelligence analysts in our government those are words of should force our government both in the executive and in the legislative branches to really evaluate the priority that we are giving to funding to stop terrorist attacks against this country our country my country your country our country i call on the president yes i call on the president of the united states to reconsider is itoh threat in light of the concerns raised by his own administration  department of homeland security is critical to the safety of our citizens a potential threat are enormous congress and to strike a balance that freedom and provides for enhanced security we need to stop squabbling and pass the homeland security bill for the president's speedy signature this is no time jockey for political points or to argue over minor differences if procreates is committed by a vote of twenty nine to nothing twenty nine to  legislation the president with the senator yield for just one moment you mr president i and i miss him please this afternoon to join senator byrd in presenting the appropriations bill for the department of homeland security for the fiscal year and i might say having said here and listen to all the comments of the distinguished chairman there is another side to story on some of the issues that he raised and i sure the senate that they will have an opportunity to hear the other side yes i think by colleague and i use a floor under the previous order the question occurs on amendment number two three eight one as modified offered by the senator from massachusetts mr by mr bennett mr biden mr bingham and mr bond mrs boxer mr brown mr brownback mr bunning mr burr mr byrd needs can't well mr cardin mr carper mr casey mr chambliss mrs clinton mr coburn mr cochran mr cole mr kyle mr martinez mr nelson of nebraska mr sessions feingold i so nelson of nebraska i this is boxer mrs boxer i mr schumer mr schumer  don't there are any senators wishing to vote or change their