Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 111th

 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

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

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S319 

Vol. 155 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009 No. 7 

Senate 

The Senate met at 10 a.m. and was 

called to order by the Honorable JON

TESTER, a Senator from the State of 

Montana. 

PRAYER

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

Let us pray. 

Lord God Almighty, You have made 

all the people of the Earth for Your 

glory, to serve You in freedom and 

peace. Today, as our lawmakers seek to 

serve, give them a zeal for justice and 

the strength of forbearance, that they 

may accomplish Your purposes. Let 

them feel the constancy of Your presence, as You guide them with a higher 

wisdom. May each success prompt 

them to greater undertakings for 

human betterment. Lord, renew their 

commitment to pray not only for those 

with whom they agree but also for 

those with whom they disagree. Bring 

our Senators to the end of this day 

with their hearts at peace with You. 

We pray in Your strong Name. Amen. 

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PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 

The Honorable JON TESTER 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. BYRD). 

The legislative clerk read the following letter: 

U.S. SENATE, 

PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, 

Washington, DC, January 13, 2009. 

To the Senate: 

Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, 

of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby 

appoint the Honorable JON TESTER, a Senator from the State of Montana, to perform 

the duties of the Chair. 

ROBERT C. BYRD, 

President pro tempore. 

Mr. TESTER thereupon assumed the 

chair as Acting President pro tempore. 

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RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY 

LEADER 

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

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SCHEDULE 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, following 

leader remarks, there will be a period 

of morning business for up to 1 hour, 

with Senators permitted to speak for 

up to 10 minutes each. The majority 

will control the first 30 minutes, and 

the Republicans will control the final 

30 minutes. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 22, the wilderness bill. Yesterday, I filed cloture on the bill. The 

cloture vote is expected to occur an 

hour after the Senate convenes tomorrow. We will be in recess today from 

12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. for our weekly 

caucus luncheons. The filing deadline 

for first-degree amendments is at 2:30 

p.m. today. 

Mr. President, I have had a discussion with Senator BINGAMAN this morning. He is going to see if there is something that can be worked out to have a 

limited number of amendments on the 

wilderness bill. He will proceed to work 

on that. If, in fact, he can work something out with those interested on the 

other side, then we will have a number 

of votes on that. If they cannot work 

that out, then, as has been indicated in 

the past, we will go to cloture tomorrow. If we can work something out 

there, we can have those votes today 

and final passage of the bill this afternoon. 

We are going to move to the 

Ledbetter issue dealing with pay equity, the statute of limitations—call it 

whatever we wish. That is something 

we will move to this week. The Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, is 

now here with us, and there is a very 

strict deadline when we must finish 

that. We must have a vote on that by 

this Sunday. So we have our work cut 

out for us. We have a lot to do. 

These are very exciting times, as we 

know, for our country. We have a new 

Congress. We have a new President. 

Senator MCCONNELL and I have done 

our utmost during these past many 

weeks to try to work together to get 

some things done here. We are now at 

a point where we have resolved, we believe, the issue relating to how committees are funded and what the ratios 

are going to be on the various committees, and it is easy for me to say that 

or Senator MCCONNELL to say that, but 

it has taken weeks of work to get that 

done. But we are moving forward. We 

hope the work of this next week will be 

in keeping with how we intend to 

maintain a degree of bipartisanship in 

the Senate during this Congress. We 

hope that, in fact, is the case. We will 

do our utmost to comply with that. 

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RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY 

LEADER 

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

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WORK OF THE SENATE 

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, a 

couple brief observations with reference to what the Democratic leader 

just indicated. I want to say I appreciate the way in which we are going 

forward here. When he and I first came 

to the Senate, the notion that you 

would pass bills without amendment 

was foreign to everyone. I think we are 

getting off to a good start here with a 

kind of reestablishment of the Senate 

as it used to operate with amendments 


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