business organizations to labor to the sierra club are supporting this effort. not only are carmakers interested in this, as i've said already, but the people who work in the offices, the engineers, the designers, the clerks, the office managers, the sales people, the mechanics, the car washers, the printers, the advertisers, local newspapers, television and radio who all depend on their local dealer. this is a program that has been successful around the world. there's been a tremendous amount of effort that has gone into this. i want to thank the bill's sponsor on the house, congresswoman sutton, who introduced the first bill and worked so hard and introduced the bill that was finally

passed. i want to thank all of those who worked together on both sides of the aisle to put together something that passed overwhelmingly in the house. it comes to us now in a bill labeled emergency spending. and on behalf of the auto dealers, large and small, across this country, the people who depend upon these businesses, depend upon the making of these automobiles, selling of these automobiles, i would ask my colleagues to please give us the opportunity for a short-term stimulus. this is a matter of a few months. it's less than 1% of this entire bill, which is an important bill for our country, our defense, our troops. this is a small piece of what is in front of us. but for small business people and americans working hard every day across this country, it's a big deal.

and it's a chance to help. mr. president, i hope we will. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mr. gregg: how much sometime remaining? 1*6r 15 minutes and 36 seconds. mr. gregg: and on the other side? the presiding officer: two minutes. mr. gregg: did the chairman have a request, i was told? i thought the chairman had a request. mr. president, i am going to yield to the senator from oklahoma. but before die, i want to take just 30 seconds to respond quickly to the senator from michigan. the idea that we haven't done anything for the automobile industry is really hard to accept. $83 billion has been spent for the automobile industry. the idea that a billion dollars is just a small amount of money is also very hard to accept. a billion dollars in new debt is a billion dollars that our children are going to have to pay. and it's want a small amount of money. and it compounds. and the idea that we would fly

in the face of the procedures which the democratic leadership set up around here to have pay-go and to also have the open and honest leadership act, we fly in the face of that by putting in this bill, this special interest piece of legislation, unpaid for, is totally inexcuseability. this has nothing to do with funding the troops. nothing. and the fact that a billion dollars is being spent and not paid for is totally irresponsible. it's debt our children do not need to receive. at this point, i would yield to the senator from oklahoma ten minutes. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i ask you to let me know when i have one infinite remaining. the presiding officer: -- one minute remaining. the presiding officer: the chair will do so. mr. inhofe: mr. president, on the 15th of june, the house passed a bill that we've been talking about here. i have concerned that have not been discussed here in the last few minutes. although the senate voted 90-6 on a bipartisan amendment to prohibit funding for the

transfer of gitmo detainees to the united states, the supplemental appropriation conference deleted that language. now, that language came from an amendment that was authored by myself and my good friend fro from -- from hawaii, senator inouye. but they stripped that language out. the senate's bipartisan amendment would have effectively prevented the closing of the terrorist detention at gitmo. since president obama announced that he intended to close gitmo, it's become widely circulated that the -- these detainees could be transferred to american prisoners for prosecution in the u.s. criminal courts and potentially released in the united states. in february of this year, i led a delegation down -- i had been there several times -- the delegation had never been down to get exphoa they're in shock -- get mow, and they're in shock -- gitmo, and they're in shock with all the detainees they've got down there, and all the rumors of torture going on down there, and not one incident

of torture has ever been documented. now, after i returned, i introduced s. 370, to prevent the detainees at gitmo from being relocated anywhere on american soil. now, since that time it's been called to our attention that the administration is talking about maybe 17 locations in the united states to put these terrorists. all but one of those locations was fort sill in my state of oklahoma. i went down there and i found out that would not be at all workable. in fact, the sergeant-major carter, who was in charge of the prison at fort sill, said why in the world would they close a place like gitmo? it's an ideal place to keep these people. and currently, and even though they're talking about putting them in supermax prisons, the only supermax facilities -- facility located in colorado, florence, colorado. according to the bureau of prisons, as of may 21, only one bed has not been filled at supermax. obviously this isn't going to work. there are some -- the b.o.p.

facilities at the end of this month was 13,414 inmates while the total prison population of those facilities was far more than that, 20 -- exceeding 20,000. now, despite claims by senator durbin for the supermax prisons in the united states are ready to receive detainees, the supermax prisons in the united states are at or above their maximum capacity. additionally, the -- these civilian prisoners do not meet the same standard as currently exists at gitmo. in 2002, an entire wing of a jail in alexandria, virginia, was cleared out for the 9/11 20th hijacker, zac zacarias moussaoui, to be housed in the jail. that was just one detainee. for one detainee, they're talking about clearing out the entire wing to move those. so moving detapeees to the united states -- so moving detainees to the united states would not be

reasonable. it would also place american citizens at risk and inevitably creating a new set of targets. this is the problem you have. you have 17 places in the united states where you're putting these people. we have 17 magnets to draw in terrorists located around the country. three weeks ago -- or three weeks after i called for president obama and the senate colleagues to go see firsthand the facility at gitmo, attorney general eric holder -- he's our new attorney general, appointed by president obama -- went down there. he came back with a glowing report and the facility is well-run by its current military officers. this affirms what i've been saying all along and that is gitmo is a state-of-the-art facility that provides humane treatment for all detainees. it is fully compliant with the geneva convention. now, when the war supplemental came to the floor in the senate, i was extremely pleased that democrats and republicans in the senate joined together and announced that they would not include the $80 million in the war supplemental to close gitmo.

sadly, this bipartisan initiative has fallen victim to partisan politics without any regard for our national security or the wishes of the american people. senator reid, harry reid, declared -- and i agreed with him -- in a press conference after my bipartisan senate amendment was passed that -- quote -- "we will never allow terrorists to be released into the united states." i think that's a good statement. i agree with it. he went on to say -- and i'm quoting now -- "we don't want them around the united states. i can't make any -- make it any clearer than the statement i have given you. we will never allow terrorists to be released in the united states." well, that sounds real good and i agree with him and i hope that he's right. however, the problem is, if you try to try these people in our federal court system when the rules of evidence are different in terms of admissibility of evidence, many times you would not be able to get a prosecution and they would be turned loose. finally, senator durbin said the feeling was at this point we were defending the unknown.

we were being asked to defend a plan that hasn't been announced. well, i have to say, it still hasn't been announced. now, two weeks ago, the obama administration again went against the will of congress and the american people by transferring the first gitmo detainee to the united states for his trial in new york city. this was ahmed ghailani. this is a guy, if you remember, that was the terrorist who was responsible for the bombing of the american embassies in tanzania and in kenya. he was later captured in pakistan in 2004 while working for al qaeda preparing false documents facilitating a transfer -- transport of arms to insurgents across the afghan-pakistan border. intelligence shows that ghailani met both bin laden and khalid sheikh mohammed in afghanistan and remained in close association with al qaeda until his capture in 2004. now, this bona fide terrorist will have the privilege of a united states civilian court

trial in the united states. ahmed ghailani was just one of 239 detainees housed in the state-of-the-art facility at gitmo. according to the "wall street journal" today, the government official has said that well over 50 detainees have been approved for transfer to other countries and that negotiations were continuing with saudi arabia to take a large group of yemen detainees. attorney general eric holder estimated yesterday that more than 50 detainees may end up on trial by u.s. authorities. this news comes as more and more americans are growing opposed to the closure of gitmo. in fact, i would have to say this, mr. president, recently we've had more and more polls taken and it's now a 3-1 ratio that people don't want these people tried in the united states, they don't want to have them housed in the united stat states. so we have a real serious problem. not only are we talking about the 400 -- or the 245 detainees

down there, we're also talking about an increase in the surge in afghanistan. and even though afghanistan does have two prisons, they won't take any detainees unless they're afghans. so if they're from yemen, they're from djibouti, they won't take them. so this is the problem we have right now. and the news -- the views of congress haven't changed. in 2007, the senate vote of 94-3 on a nonbinding resolution to block detainees from being transferred to the united stat states, declaring -- quote -- "detain eased housed at guantanamo -- detainees housed at guantanamo should not be transferred stateside into facilities in american communities and neighborhoods." in 2009, the senate voted 90-6 to again keep detainees out of america. the views of the american people have not changed. i mentioned the polls. the polls are all conclusive that they, the american people do not want to have these people

turned loose in the united states, which is exactly what could happen. well, the quality of facility of gitmo has not changed, it's the only facility of its kind that is -- is currently taking -- has six levels of security for the different levels of security. it has two -- one doctor for each two detainees. and as everyone agrees, it's the ideal place. one of the few good things -- good deals that we have in government, i might add, and that is it only costs us $4,000 a year. we've had this place since 1903. it's something we can't get rid of. now, the only reason i mention this now is i have the bill that's filed. that is the s. 370 that meets the will -- the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma has one minute remaining. mr. inhofe: i thank the chair. and so this bill -- this bill that i have, s. 370, will give people in this chamber an opportunity to vote to keep the detainees, to keep the terrorists out of the united

states of america. and i would say this, if there are some people who would be voting for the supplemental as it is right now, at least they would have another opportunity to express their will as they've expressed on two other occasions, that we don't want the detainees, we don't want the terrorists tried in america or to be detained in -- within the united states of america. so with this, it's my hope that the majority will allow an immediate vote on the bill that i have filed, s. 3706789 i yield the balance of my -- i have filed, s. 370. i yield the balance of my time. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mr. gregg: i understand the chairman wishes to close and so i'll just use -- speak and then yield back the balance of our time and yield to the chairman for his closing comments here. i -- i just have to reemphasize again how much of an affront to the the process which we set up at the beginning of this congress to try to have fiscal

discipline. if we do not support this point of order. this point of order was specifically put in to address this type of situation, where there is an extraneous piece of legislation air-dropped into a conference report by one house or the other house, and in this case it's a billion dollars of spending which will go directly to the debt of this country. we have heard from the chinese that they're getting worried about buying our debt. they're the ones who are financing us. we have heard from our own experts and economists that the american debt rating, which is triple-a plus, may be at risk. we know that we're running up debt at such an extraordinary rate right now -- $2 trillion this year, over a trillion dollars next year, a trillion dollars a year on average for the next ten years -- that our debt is going to double in five years and triple in ten years. where do we start to discipline snowrsz well -- ourselves?

well, one would hope we'd start to discipline ourselves with something that's that so obviously violates the rules we set up here for fiscal discipline. it violates pay-go. it's not paid for even though the president calls for pay go. this is a new program unpaid for and it violates the new rule put in under the openness in government and honesty in leadership act authored by senator reid and senator durbin and senator stabenow is a cosponsor of it, which said "don't put into conference reports things that are extraneous and aren't paid for." yet this does exactly that. will it affect the troops in the field? no. this bill will pass, now, if this point of order is sustained, this bill will pass this house and fully fund the troops. and then it will go back to the

house of representatives and i cannot believe under any scenario that the house of representatives is not going to vote to fund the troops in the field; that they're going to hold funding of the troops in the field hostage to spending $1 billion and adding $1 billion of new debt on a extraneous bill that is about buying old cars. that doesn't even pass the smell test being credible. the bill will pass the house and be sent to the president probably before the day is out. that's the way it should be. that's why this rule, this point of order, was put in place. that's why the senator from illinois, working with the senator from nevada, the leaders on the other side of the aisle, created this very good and appropriate rule so that things like this could be addressed in a surgical way and so they would not lead to adding $1 billion in this case which is a lot of

money, by the way. i know a couple of members came to the floor and said, it is just a little bit. in the state of new hampshire it will pretty much run or state government for a lot of time. it's a lot of money. there's no reason to pass on to these young people here who are pages that debt. if we think the cash for clunker is a good idea, pay for it. pay for it. there are lots of places we can find $1 billion in a $2 trillion-plus budget. so let's do that. let's pay for this and budget correctly around here. remember the words of the chairman of the budget committee, remember the words because they are prophetic: the debt is the threat. it's a threat to this nation. and we have a chance to do a little bit -- $1 billion worth -- to try to address that debt problem by supporting this point of order.

i yield back the rest of my time. thank you, mr. president. the senator from hawaii. mr. inouye: mr. president, before i proceed i ask unanimous consent that henry williams and jessica martinez of senator bingaman's office be granted privileges of the floor during the debate of travel promotion bill. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. inouye: mr. president, i find it very difficult to be on the opposing side to my dear friend from new hampshire. there's been a lot of discussion on the premise that the conferees did not pay for the cash for clunkers bill. mr. president, technically, that is correct. but i believe my colleagues should be advised that under the congressional budget office, the c.b.o. scoring, the conferees

are scored with a savings of $1.47 billion in discretionary spending in this bill. in title 14 of the bill, the conferees included a provision which mandates that more than $1 billion in discretionary spending in rescissions shall be allocated as savings to the bill not used as an offset. while the conferees were required to designate the cash for clunkers title as an emergency for technical reasons, it is also true that we included $1 billion offset in discretionary spending for all practical purpose offsets the spending for cash for clunkers. so while much of the debate about this matter involves the fact the condition frees did not pay for this provision, that is not completely cut, mr.

president. i ask unanimous consent to include in the record the last page of the score-keeping document of the appropriations committee on the supplemental which shows $1.47 billion in spending. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. inouye: how much time do i have? the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. a senator: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. under the previous order the question occurs on the motion to waive all points of order under rule 44. the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: