, and we need to clear the deck and move on. the great thing about democracy is people get a chance to express their views and put their views to a vote, if they're lucky enough to be in a legislative body like all of us are. the great thing about democracy is also that ff p after we get a chance to express our first preferences and fight like hell for them, then we also have an opportunity and in fact an obligation to decide and then move on. so i would simply hope that all of us would do that. this product is not something that senator inouye or i is

especially pleased with, but it is our best judgment about the balance that needs to be achieved between various issues and various groups in order to finally complete action on this package and move on. .

despite all of my misgivings about what the president is planning to do in the middle east, for instance, and some of the other people's misgivings about what he is doing, this is a new president who deserves a chance to see whether or not he can produce a better situation than we have today. so irge people to look at this proposition in that light. and to sublimb yate our differences and our preferences. i can vote for lots of things that i disagree with if i think that it creates a greater good. an what we're trying to do is to enable this president to forge a new direction both on economic policy and on policy in the middle east. and i would ask that you give us as much help as you possibly

can. with that, i would simply ask the senator to proceed with whatever suggestions he might have. >> if i could ask the chairman, just before you make your statement on the detainee photograph issue, mr. chairman. i've had a chance to consult with senator lieberman and with senator graham, and they do not feel anything short of a signed scuteive order or the senate amendmentment would be sufficient. so i just wanted to say to the chairman that it is my intention to make the motion that i was planning to make earlier. would you like for me to do that now and have debate or how would you like to handle that? i would be happy to yield to the republican leader if he desires to go forward. >> would the chairman like me to make the motion?

i move the senate insist on its amendment, senate section 1305, which as we all know from previous discussions is related to the detainee photograph records protection. >> mr. chairman, of course i would like to thank you and through you the conferees for your patience. we tried our best to expedite it and i think we've done a pretty good job. mr. chairman, i have before me a letter from the white house dated june 11, e 2009 addressed to chairman obee and to me. and it says the following. i am writing to urge you to oppose the mcconnell amendment, which is being offered in the conference on the supplemental appropriations bill. as you know, i have no higher priority than ensuring the safety of our troops in

afghanistan and iraq. given the singular importance of providing funding for our troops, it is essential that congress pass the supplemental appropriations bill. passage of the mcconnell amendment would unnecessarily scompli kate the objective of supporting the troops and would accomplish no substantive purpose. on may 13, i announced i would resist the release of additional detainee photos because i did not believe it would add any additional benefit to our understanding of what happened in the past, and that the most direct consequence of releasing them would be to further inflame anti-american opinion and to put our troops in greater danger. earlier today, the second circuit granted the government's motion that will

stay the earlier court order to release the detainee photos, and we will now move forward with a petition to the supreme court to appeal the case. i deeply appreciate all you have done to help with the effort to secure funding for the troops and assure you that i will continue to take every legal and administrative remedy available to me to ensure the d.o.d. detainee photographs are not released. should a legislative solution prove necessary, i'm committed to working with the congress to enact legislation that acheeves the objective we share. i look forward to working with you on this and other issues affecting the security of our nation. sincerely, barack obama. i will proceed with the vote.

>> mr. chairman, let me just add very briefly one thing. i think we just have a difference of opinion between senator lindsey graham and senator joe lieberman who have been the leaders and i would not prolon it any further. i think we ought to go to a vote. >> the clerk will call the roll. [roll call. ] [clerk calling roll]

. >> will you read the roll again for proxy votes. [clerk reading]

>> why don't we zip list. >> i have a proxy. [reading list. ] >>

>> on this motion there are 13 yeas, 17 nays. the motion fails. now to the clunker amendment. >> thank you, mr. chairman. not to prolong the evening, but let me make six points why i think that this is the wrong six. i didn't know you had that many fingers. i'm glad i didn't ask for 11. >> i've got 11 points. >> first, obviously this is an emergency spurmtal for the purposes of funding the troops.

what do clunkers have to do with funding the troops? we're not buying clunkers in afghanistan, i presume. secondly, the president made it very clear on actually the same day that the clunker vote passed the house with $4 billion unfunded event that he wants us to live by paying. and yet, -- pay go. and yet, this is $1 billion that goes directly on the debt. we're essentially going to buy these cars and path the bill on to our children on the representation that that is good fiscal policy. well, it's obviously bad fiscal policy. pay-go makes sense, especially on this type of an issue. and we should not be immediately violating the president's position on pay-go by passing this bill. i note that the chairman said consistency is a problem or an issue on occasion.

i'm always fond of that quote from winston churchill who said consisssy is the hob knob of the small minds. but we ought to be consistent for, like, six hours. that was the time between when the president suggested that we use pay-go and you passed the $4 billion unfunded bill. secondly, the polls the lack wudge is not good. and it's a this amendment doesn't significantly impact the mileage of our fleet. and in fact, it may aggravate it. you can buy literally buy a hummer, now, a hum ser not a great car, i presume. but you can take this money and buy a hummer, which makes no sense at all, and you can take this money and buy a car from that's made in japan or germany or made in south korea. so what are we doing for our economy if the argument is that this is an economic initiative? this language should be free

standing or should come through the regular appropriation process. it should not have been stuck in this bill. there's plenty of time to do this language. there's no rush to do this language. you're going to have imnew mexico rable opportunities to bring it forward in regular order. and, therefore, it just makes no sense at all to put $1 billion of new debt on our children's back on a policy which isn't well thought out or excuted and is in contradiction to a really much stronger and more solid policy which has been proposed by the senator from maine and california. so i believe we should strike this. and i don't think it slows the bill down. i heard the chairman of the house committee say that he had reservations about this language. there's no reason that this language can't be dropped. and i believe it would be reasonable for the house to take another look at the language. so i would ask for another roll call vote unless there's

further debate. >> were those all six points? >> i was trying to not test the outer limits of your fingers. >> or my mind. let me just say that this is an issue very important to some members, more important to some than others. and among them are our colleagues from the state of michigan. that is a wonderful state that is in an embattled position because of the state of their economy with one out of every eight people on food stamps, dramatically high unemployment, and an automobile industry that has been the backbone of that state in disarray. it is an extraordinary situation. and i believe i speak for senator stab now and 11 when i say that this is an importance to them. in terms of the mileage issues, i have introduced amendments to increase mileage on automobiles long ago and i know senator feinstein and others have supported those. this is a slight improvement in mileage and i wish it were

more. in terms of foreign cars being eligible for purchase, it's a product of trade agreements that we can't undo or revise if we sit here all night. that is a reality. i think that this program, $1 billion, will result in perhaps 250,000 cars being traded in and sold in the united states and i hope it brings some light back into this industry, which many believe is important to our nation. i will make it clear to senator feinstein, if there is any attempt to return to this program in the future, in any way, shape, or form, that i am going to be on her side in terms of these mileage requirements. but i think that this is something thazz necessary at this point in our history and i will encourage my colleagues to do the same. >> we have pust $83 billion into the automobile industry in this country just in the last five months. that's a pretty big payment by the american taxpayer.

i don't think our children should be asked to put another $1 billion in unless it's paid for. which is the point you did not address the pay-go issue. >> i just want to remind my friend and my colleague of eight years of rule by a president who didn't pay for this war at one moment and didn't pay for his tax cuts. and saw the national debt double during his tenure, and i don't recall the howls of protest coming from senators from new hampshire. >> well, actually, i think you will look at my record and see that my votes on spending have been pretty aggressively in opposition to both administrations when they haven't been paid for. but are you arguing that because it was inappropriately handleed in the prior administration that you should inappropriately handle it now? >> this president has handled an economic disaster, doing his best, and i think this will help. i hope it will. >> i wish to speak now.

please. >> i have wrestled with this and i am going to vote for the greg amendment. this bill has had no hearings in either house, to the best of my knowledge. it is deeply flawed public policy, i believe. i just have a problem with people who put a bill together, representing the automobile industry, and then you buy pass everything. it passes on the floor of the house, it's put in a bill where you can't do anything with it. we were refused any ability to negotiate. and i just don't think that's the way to go. and i think as the bill gets carried out, people are going to see the flaws in the policy. so i mean, i said what i think

and i will vote for the greg amendment. >> i wish to associate myself with the remarks of chairman obey. this is a measure of compromises. we didn't get everything we wanted. but we must get the business proceeding the way it should. if we are going to keep the package together, i would strongly advise that we vote against the greg amendment. and the clerk will now call the roll. [clerk calling roll]

[roll call snfpltted]

[no. call the roll for absentees. [clerk calling roll]

>> i've been advised that senator nelson has called in to change his vote. he votes aye by proxy. on this vote the yeas are 13, the nays are 17. the amendment fails. the chairman, may i suggest that we adjourn, smiling. >> i think that's a great suggestion. if there's no other business before us. >> mr. chairman, before we do adjourn, you and i discussed this before but we've done a certain amount of business this evening and i presume that there will not be additional

changes to that which we've done already as we go forward. that is, the bill will be the bill we have dealt with tonight and not something else? >> as far as i'm concerned, the conference sheets are ready for signature and this package is this package. period. with that, thank you all for your cooperation. >> congress is expected to take up the war supplemental bill this coming week. we talked to a capitol hill reporter about their agenda.

joining us, bna news. how did house and senate negotiators work out their key differences on this war spending bill? >> well, in the house congressman dave obey, the chairman, said that this conference report wasn't going to pass in the house if it went forward with the senate amendment that would ban the release of photographs dealing with prisoner abuse. they needed democratic support to make up for the loss of republicans in the house, so in the end it was agreed that the senate amendment that blocked the photos would not be in the final conference report. and to get there, president obama had to get involved. and he said he is still going to do everything he can to block the release of those photographs, but it's likely that that will happen by an executive order that lawmakers will be looking for next week. >> and in this case with the

president getting directly involved, he actually got into the conversation the other night. correct? >> last night. that's right. talking with senate democrats who were very concerned about whether this bill could survive on the senate floor if it didn't have that language in there when it came back from the house. >> do you think his compromise hurt or helped the process? >> i think it's going to help, because in the house then speaker pelosi will have the democratic support. the votes that she needs to pass it there. and in the senate, the primary sponsor of the photo amendment, senator lieberman and senator graham, seem as though now they may not try to block the bill. senator lieberman is really looking for obama to sign the executive order. and what that would do is that would classify the photographs so that they couldn't be released. >> on another item, the $5

billion for the international monetary fund, did that make the fible cut? >> that's still in there. and that's why house republicans now are not as likely to vote for the bill as before. when this bill first passed in the house in may it had overwhelming republican support. but after conferees were said willing to take this i.m.f. amendment from the senate, that's when house republican leader boehner and others said they weren't going to vote for this supplemental any more. >> when it first passed the house it also was at $84 billion. it's now at nearly $106 billion. >> that's what congressman lewis, the ranking member of house propes said. he said it's $106 billion. and that's a lot more money than obama requested and it's far above the house level. and where did it all go? among other things, they've

doubled the funding for pandemic flu preparations. they've directed a lot more money to defense. and there are other things along the way. and they have added out of the blue almost a $1 billion program cash for clunkers to encourage people to give up their gas guzzlers and buy more fuel efficient vehicles. and that provision also is creating problems in the senate. so when you add up all of this tweaking, then you get to a much higher number, $106 billion. does speaker pelosi have the votes to make this appealing to the anti-war democrats and get their votes to get it to the house next week? >> from what congressman obey says, that minus that amendment on photo abuse, they will have the votes. >> we've been talking to nancy ognanovic of bna news. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me.

>> america and the courts today at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.

>> in his weekly online address, president obama proposed $315 billion if savings to pay for his health care initiative, including reducing government spending on prescription drugs, he's followed by indiana representative mike pence, chair of the republican conference who talks about his party's energy plan that calls for more oil and gas drilling and investments in alternative and renewable energy sources. >> last week i spoke to you about my commitment to work with congress to pass health care reform. today, i would like to talk about how that effort is essential to restoring fiscal responsibility. this much is clear, the status quo is unsustainable for families, businesses, and

government. america spends nearly 50% more per person on health care than any other country. health care premiums have doubled over the last decade. deductibles and out of pocket costs have sky rocketed and many with preexisting conditions are denied coverage. more and more americans are being priced out of the care they need. these are also hurting business, and some big businesses are at a competitive disadvantage and some small are forced to drop coverage or lay off workers. meanwhile, medicare and medicaid pose one of the greatest threats to our federal deficit and could leave our children with a mountain of debt that they cannot pay. we cannot continue down this path. i don't accept a future where americans forego health care because they can't pay for it. and more and more families g without coverage at all. and i don't accept a future where american business is hurt and our government goes broke. we have a