Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112th

 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.

.

S5901 

Vol. 158 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012 No. 117 

Senate 

The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was 

called to order by the Honorable TOM

UDALL, a Senator from the State of 

New Mexico. 

PRAYER

The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, offered the following prayer: 

Let us pray. 

Lord, You have given us a world full 

of rich resources. Make us responsible 

stewards of Your generous gifts. Help 

us to remember that to whom much is 

given, much is expected. 

May our accountability to You guide 

the choices our lawmakers make as 

they seek to serve You and country 

today. Lord, fill their minds with wisdom and their hearts with hope so they 

will believe all things are possible with 

You. Open their minds to the inflow of 

Your spirit to prepare them for the decisions they must make this day. 

We pray in Your great Name. Amen. 

f 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 

The Honorable TOM UDALL led the 

Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: 

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the 

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

f 

APPOINTMENT OF ACTING 

PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 

clerk will please read a communication 

to the Senate from the President pro 

tempore (Mr. INOUYE). 

The assistant legislative clerk read 

as follows: 

U.S. SENATE, 

PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, 

Washington, DC, August 2, 2012. 

To the Senate: 

Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, 

of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby 

appoint the Honorable TOM UDALL, a Senator 

from the State of New Mexico, to perform 

the duties of the Chair. 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, 

President pro tempore. 

Mr. UDALL of New Mexico thereupon 

assumed the chair as Acting President 

pro tempore. 

RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY LEADER

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized. 

f 

VETERANS JOBS CORPS ACT OF 

2012—MOTION TO PROCEED 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move 

to proceed to Calendar No. 476, S. 3457, 

which is the Veterans Jobs Corps Act. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion. 

The assistant legislative clerk read 

as follows: 

Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 476, S. 

3457, a bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a Veterans Jobs 

Corps, and for other purposes. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader. 

SCHEDULE

Mr. REID. Mr. President, the next 

half hour will be for debate on the 

Coburn amendment on the AGOABurma sanctions bill. Following that 

debate, the time until 11 a.m. will be 

equally divided and controlled between 

the two leaders or their designees. At 

11 a.m. there will be two votes. The 

first vote will be a cloture vote on the 

cyber security bill, followed by a vote 

in relation to the Coburn amendment 

to the AGOA-Burma sanctions bill. The 

filing deadline for second-degree 

amendments to the cyber security bill 

is 10 a.m. today. Additional votes are 

possible today, and we will notify Senators when and if they are scheduled. 

We will vote at 11 o’clock, so those people debating the cloture motion may 

not get the full hour. They should understand that. 

RECOGNITION OF THE REPUBLICAN LEADER

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is recognized. 

CYBER SECURITY

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I 

would like to start this morning with a 

word about cyber security. No one 

doubts the need to strengthen our Nation’s cyber security defenses. Open 

source reporting clearly shows that our 

defense industrial base, financial sector, and government networks are all 

under attack by nation states as well 

as independent hackers. The U.S. Cyber 

Command, the NSA, and the FBI are 

working hard to counter these threats. 

So we all recognize the problem. That 

is really not the issue. The issue is the 

manner in which the Democratic leadership has tried to steamroll a bill that 

would address it. 

Members on both sides of the aisle 

have recommendations for improving 

our cyber defenses, and some of them 

thought this bill would provide an opportunity to propose those ideas 

through amendments, especially since 

Democrats did not allow for an opportunity to do so in committee. Yet, despite preventing Members from amending the bill in committee, the anticipated open amendment process, once 

this new bill got to the Senate floor, 

never happened. It just never happened. 

Despite being on the bill now for the 

third day, no Senator from either party 

has been allowed to vote on any 

amendment. 

Look, this is a big, complicated, farreaching bill that involves several 

committees of jurisdiction. Democratic 

leaders have not allowed any of those 

committees to improve the bill or even 

vote on it. Frankly, I was a little surprised the majority leader decided to 

file cloture and end debate before it 

even started. An issue of this importance deserves serious consideration 

and open debate. Instead, the majority 


bjneal on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE