January 11, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S271 

even authorize it in a time when nobody will disagree we are going to be 

close to a $1.8 trillion deficit when we 

finish up in September 2009. Nobody is 

going to disagree with that point. We 

know the structural deficit is $1.2 billion. We know we are going to spend 

$400 billion of stimulus. And we know 

we are going to steal $167 million from 

Social Security. Instead of us working 

on Social Security and trying to 

straighten it out, we are sitting here 

passing a parochial-based bill that in 

the long run for the country as a whole 

does not solve the major problems it 

faces. That is what it comes down to. 

I know I won’t come anywhere close 

to winning this vote, but every time in 

the future, as long as I am a Senator, 

we are going to take the time to debate. It is going to be painful, but we 

are going to debate it because the 

American people deserve to know what 

we are doing. And if it continues that 

the minority party in the greatest deliberative body in the world gets no 

amendments, then we are probably not 

going to do anything. There has been 

one amendment since July 16 in this 

body for a member of the minority that 

represents over half of the population 

in this country. This is not the greatest deliberative body in the world. This 

is the greatest chokehold body in the 

world. 

We ought to have the right to offer 

amendments. If they are defeated, fine. 

What are we afraid of? We could have 

had the amendments done. We could 

have voted this bill on Friday. We 

could have had a time agreement and 

we wouldn’t be here today or we could 

have been here actually doing something that is of massive importance to 

our long-term future. But we chose the 

politically expedient route, the politically expedient direction to the detriment of the future of this country. 

There is a difference in thinking 

about the short term and the long 

term. We cannot ignore the short term, 

but it cannot be a priority anymore. It 

cannot be a priority. The long term has 

to be the priority. Our survival has to 

be the priority, not a political survival, 

not a parochial survival, but the very 

survival of this country. 

So when we talk about what we are 

going to spend and how we are going to 

do it and we ignore the big issues that 

are in front of us because we are going 

to spend the time on the small issues, 

the country is getting the Senate it deserves. 

It is time for us to refocus on the important issues in this country, and that 

is not our next election. 

I yield back my time. 

CLOTURE MOTION

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. 

SANDERS). By unanimous consent, pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture 

motion, which the clerk will report. 

The assistant 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 S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land 

Management Act of 2009. 

Harry Reid, Jon Tester, Daniel K. 

Inouye, Robert Menendez, Ken Salazar, 

Jeff Bingaman, Robert P. Casey Jr., 

Mark L. Pryor, John F. Kerry, Richard 

Durbin, Ron Wyden, Dianne Feinstein, 

Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Thomas R. 

Carper, Carl Levin, Patrick J. Leahy. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 

call is waived. 

The question is, Is it the sense of the 

Senate that debate on the motion to 

proceed to S. 22, a bill to designate certain land as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, to authorize certain programs and 

activities in the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes, shall 

be brought to a close? 

The yeas and nays are mandatory 

under the rule. The clerk will call the 

roll. 

The legislative clerk called the roll. 

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the 

Senator from Delaware (Mr. BIDEN), 

the Senator from Ohio (Mr. BROWN), 

and the Senator from Massachusetts 

(Mr. KENNEDY) are necessarily absent. 

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators 

are necessarily absent: the Senator 

from Tennessee (Mr. ALEXANDER), the 

Senator from Missouri (Mr. BOND), the 

Senator from Kentucky (Mr. BUNNING), 

the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. 

BURR), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. 

CHAMBLISS), the Senator from Texas 

(Mr. CORNYN), the Senator from Nevada 

(Mr. ENSIGN), the Senator from South 

Carolina (Mr. GRAHAM), the Senator 

from New Hampshire (Mr. GREGG), the 

Senator from Texas (Mrs. HUTCHISON), 

the Senator from Arizona (Mr. KYL), 

the Senator from Florida (Mr. MARTINEZ), the Senator from Kentucky 

(Mr. MCCONNELL), the Senator from 

Kansas (Mr. ROBERTS), the Senator 

from Pennsylvania (Mr. SPECTER), the 

Senator from Louisiana (Mr. VITTER), 

and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. 

VOINOVICH). 

Further, if present and voting, the 

Senator from Tennessee (Mr. ALEXANDER), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. GRAHAM), the Senator from 

Texas (Mr. CORNYN), and the Senator 

from Kentucky (Mr. BUNNING) would 

have voted ‘‘nay.’’ 

The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 66, 

nays 12, as follows: 

[Rollcall Vote No. 1 Leg.] 

YEAS—66 

Akaka 

Barrasso 

Baucus 

Bayh 

Begich 

Bennett 

Bingaman 

Boxer 

Byrd 

Cantwell 

Cardin 

Carper 

Casey 

Clinton 

Cochran 

Collins 

Conrad 

Crapo 

Dodd 

Dorgan 

Durbin 

Enzi 

Feingold 

Feinstein 

Hagan 

Harkin 

Hatch 

Inouye 

Johnson 

Kerry 

Klobuchar 

Kohl 

Landrieu 

Lautenberg 

Leahy 

Levin 

Lieberman 

Lincoln 

Lugar 

McCaskill 

Menendez 

Merkley 

Mikulski 

Murkowski 

Murray 

Nelson (FL) 

Nelson (NE) 

Pryor 

Reed 

Reid 

Risch 

Rockefeller 

Salazar 

Sanders 

Schumer 

Shaheen 

Snowe 

Stabenow 

Tester 

Udall (CO) 

Udall (NM) 

Warner 

Webb 

Whitehouse 

Wicker 

Wyden 

NAYS—12 

Brownback 

Coburn 

Corker 

DeMint 

Grassley 

Inhofe 

Isakson 

Johanns 

McCain 

Sessions 

Shelby 

Thune 

NOT VOTING—20 

Alexander 

Biden 

Bond 

Brown 

Bunning 

Burr 

Chambliss 

Cornyn 

Ensign 

Graham 

Gregg 

Hutchison 

Kennedy 

Kyl 

Martinez 

McConnell 

Roberts 

Specter 

Vitter 

Voinovich 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this 

vote, the yeas are 66, the nays are 12. 

Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. 

The majority leader is recognized. 

f 

PROGRAM 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, there will 

be no votes today and likely not tomorrow. We are waiting for President 

Bush and/or President-elect Obama as 

to what, if anything, they are going to 

do on TARP, and that is occurring as 

we speak. We are going to have a 

Democratic caucus at 2:45. I ask Democratic Senators to attend. That will be 

in the LBJ Room, S–207. 

We are going to work with Senator 

COBURN to see if we have to be in all 

night. He has indicated—to staff, at 

least—that may not be the case, so we 

will work out a convenient time tomorrow. If Senator COBURN or others demand a simple majority vote, we can 

do that. We will work out a convenient 

time for everyone. That likely will 

occur tomorrow, but we hope people 

will not require that vote to take 

place. We will keep everyone advised as 

we proceed through the next 24 hours. I 

appreciate everyone’s cooperation. 

I am sorry about the Sunday schedule. We have a lot to do. We already are 

looking to moving toward the next 

matter, which is Lilly Ledbetter. We 

have SCHIP, and then, of course, we 

move to the big one, and that is the 

economic recovery package. We look 

forward to having all the input the 

Democrats and Republicans have 

asked. 

Senator INOUYE has been working on 

the appropriations part. There will be 

input from the committee and others. 

Senator BAUCUS has been working, as 

have other committee chairs, with the 

committees. 

I think we are in decent shape now to 

move forward on other things. 

f 

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT 

The following message from the 

President of the United States was 

transmitted to the Senate by one of his 

secretaries: 


wwoods2 on PRODPC68 with SENATE