December 11, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10931 

makes no sense. People of good will 

know better. 

I would ask my colleagues to join 

with us in voting for the future and the 

economy of this country. 

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CONCLUSION OF MORNING 

BUSINESS 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning 

business is closed. 

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ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2008—MOTION TO 

PROCEED 

CLOTURE MOTION

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under 

the previous order, the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. 

The legislative clerk read as follows: 

CLOTURE MOTION

We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the 

Standing Rules of the Senate, hereby move 

to bring to a close debate on the motion to 

proceed to Calendar No. 1128, H.R. 7005, the 

Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act. 

Harry Reid, Debbie Stabenow, Byron L. 

Dorgan, Robert P. Casey, Jr., E. Benjamin Nelson, Joseph Lieberman, 

Sherrod Brown, Claire McCaskill, Carl 

Levin, Daniel K. Akaka, Barbara A. 

Mikulski, Charles E. Schumer, Christopher J. Dodd, Patty Murray, John D. 

Rockefeller, IV, Richard Durbin, Frank 

R. Lautenberg. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 

call is waived. 

The question, Is it the sense of the 

Senate that debate on the motion to 

proceed to H.R. 7005, an act to amend 

the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 

provide alternative minimum tax relief 

for individuals for 2008, shall be 

brought to a close? 

The yeas and nays are mandatory 

under the rule. 

The clerk will call the roll. 

The assistant legislative clerk called 

the roll. 

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the 

Senator from Delaware (Mr. BIDEN), 

the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 

KENNEDY), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. KERRY), and the Senator 

from Oregon (Mr. WYDEN) are necessarily absent. 

I further announce that, if present 

and voting, the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. KERRY) would vote 

‘‘yea.’’ 

Mr. KYL. The following Senators are 

necessarily absent: the Senator from 

Tennessee (Mr. ALEXANDER), the Senator from Texas (Mr. CORNYN), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. CRAIG), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 

GRAHAM), the Senator from Nebraska 

(Mr. HAGEL), the Senator from Oregon 

(Mr. SMITH), the Senator from Alaska 

(Mr. STEVENS), and the Senator from 

New Hampshire (Mr. SUNUNU). 

Further, if present and voting, the 

Senator from Texas (Mr. CORNYN), the 

Senator from Tennessee (Mr. ALEXANDER), and the Senator from South 

Carolina (Mr. GRAHAM), would have 

voted ‘‘no.’’ 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. 

KLOBUCHAR.) Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? 

The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 52, 

nays 35, as follows: 

[Rollcall Vote No. 215 Leg.] 

YEAS—52 

Akaka 

Bayh 

Bingaman 

Bond 

Boxer 

Brown 

Brownback 

Byrd 

Cantwell 

Cardin 

Carper 

Casey 

Clinton 

Collins 

Conrad 

Dodd 

Dole 

Domenici 

Dorgan 

Durbin 

Feingold 

Feinstein 

Harkin 

Inouye 

Johnson 

Klobuchar 

Kohl 

Landrieu 

Lautenberg 

Leahy 

Levin 

Lieberman 

Lugar 

McCaskill 

Menendez 

Mikulski 

Murray 

Nelson (FL) 

Nelson (NE) 

Pryor 

Reed 

Rockefeller 

Salazar 

Sanders 

Schumer 

Snowe 

Specter 

Stabenow 

Voinovich 

Warner 

Webb 

Whitehouse 

NAYS—35 

Allard 

Barrasso 

Baucus 

Bennett 

Bunning 

Burr 

Chambliss 

Coburn 

Cochran 

Coleman 

Corker 

Crapo 

DeMint 

Ensign 

Enzi 

Grassley 

Gregg 

Hatch 

Hutchison 

Inhofe 

Isakson 

Kyl 

Lincoln 

Martinez 

McCain 

McConnell 

Murkowski 

Reid 

Roberts 

Sessions 

Shelby 

Tester 

Thune 

Vitter 

Wicker 

NOT VOTING—12 

Alexander 

Biden 

Cornyn 

Craig 

Graham 

Hagel 

Kennedy 

Kerry 

Smith 

Stevens 

Sununu 

Wyden 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this 

vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 35. 

Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the 

affirmative, the motion is rejected. 

The majority leader is recognized. 

Mr. REID. Madam President, I enter 

a motion to reconsider the vote by 

which cloture was not invoked on the 

motion to proceed to H.R. 7005. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered. 

Mr. REID. Madam President, the 

night is late. Morning is fast approaching. I appreciate everyone’s cooperation. We are going to be in a series of 

pro forma sessions and likely we will 

be doing no more work until we come 

back after the reconvening of the new 

Congress. 

I appreciate everyone’s work over the 

past many hours. I have already given 

my remarks. I only say that I would 

hope the President, who has worked so 

well with us the past few weeks on this 

legislation, would now consider using 

TARP money to help the auto industry 

and the workers of this country. Any 

conditions that were proposed by all 

Senators—Senator CORKER, Senator 

DODD; anything they wanted to put in 

there, they could do anything they 

wanted. I would hope they would consider that and do it as early as tomorrow. 

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MORNING BUSINESS 

Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask 

unanimous consent that the Senate 

now proceed to a period of morning 

business, with Senators permitted to 

speak for up to 10 minutes each. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without 

objection, it is so ordered. 

The Senator from Connecticut. 

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THANKING STAFF 

Mr. DODD. Madam President, as 

Members are leaving, I would be remiss 

if I did not express my very deep and 

sincere gratitude to some remarkable 

people who, like all of us, have staff 

members who do incredible jobs who 

never get the recognition they deserve. 

They worked over these past 8 or 9 days 

literally until 2 and 3 and 4 in the 

morning—night after night after 

night—in an effort to put together a 

package here that would win the approval of our colleagues. These remarkable young men and women have 

just served our country. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Could 

people take their conversations outside 

the Chamber while the Senator from 

Connecticut thanks the staff. 

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I 

thank you. 

I want to begin by thanking the staff 

director of the Banking Committee, 

Shawn Maher. He is the father of a 

young 11-year-old boy, and I don’t 

think he has probably seen Aidan much 

over the last number of months, let 

alone the last week or so, because he 

has dedicated himself to the work of 

this Chamber, this body. So I begin by 

thanking Shawn Maher. 

I also thank Aaron Klein, Amy 

Friend, Dean Shahinian, Neal Orringer, 

and Deborah Katz; from Senator REID’s 

staff, Mark Wetjen; from Senator DURBIN’s staff, Brad McConnell; from Legislative Counsel, Laura Ayoud, who 

does a remarkable job for all of us. 

There are many others, but these are 

the ones who principally did the work 

night after night, day after day, nonstop through the weekends, to try to 

package here a proposal that would win 

our support. And I apologize to them. 

We were not able to do it. I feel badly 

myself that maybe their Members did 

not probably work as hard as maybe we 

should have after all the effort they 

put in. But I want them to know, as we 

come into this holiday season, there 

are many people who in this country 

owe a great debt of gratitude to these 

people who worked so tirelessly on 

their behalf but never get the credit 

and the recognition they deserve. 

So this evening I thank them immensely for what they have done, and 

we will be back another day to fight 

again, and my hope is to make a difference for people in our country. But 

we all owe them a debt of gratitude, 

and I am particularly grateful to each 

and every one of them. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized. 

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THANKING MEMBERS AND STAFF 

Mr. REID. Madam President, I will be 

very quick.