>> senator byrd, do you want to do byrd number 3 right now? >> mr. chairman, i call up byrd number 3. >> byrd number 3, please. >> and i don't know how many members we have pending. i know there may be -- we took about 50 this morning. whatever number we've dealt with here. my intention is this evening to continue to work on title 3 with the hopes of completing it this evening if we can. so i'll put my colleagues on notice. >> good. >> mr. chairman, you have successfully chased off the cavalry, so, mr. chairman, amendment number 3. the kennedy bill does not explicitly require the school-based health senators to follow state laws requiring notification of the reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape or incest. this amendment clearly states that the school-based health clinics shall follow any such state law and that any provider of services found to be in violation of such state law shall not be eligible to receive additional funding under this section. now some might say why is this even needed? why is it necessary? children ar

jonathan byrd and jim furyk one off the lead.roup of players four shots off the pace. >> i hit it all right today. i had a lot of good putts that were just skirting the edge and then obviously mistake there at 17 three putting. i got myself back in the tournament and i have a shot going into tomorrow. i'm able to now get any ball count up when i'm at home practicing. i'm starting to feel good. i should go out and do some work and post rounds i can start practicing again so i can always fix things that went wrong on the golf course. >> the shell outside of the bettencourt household. a lot of folks wondering who he is. he's tied at the lead for the memorial. a rookie on the pga tour. two-time winner on the nationwide tour. made the cut in fewer than half the events he's entered on tour. a tie for 22 his best career finish at the quail hollow championship this years. >> super regional florida state facing elimination having lost the first game to arkansas. top ninth. two outs, two on florida state down 7-5 down to their last strike.

themes this morning in the newspapers, at a photograph of senator edward kennedy and senator robert byrd. senator kennedy is in massachusetts recovering from brain surgery, battling brain cancer, and robert byrd, who continues to battle a staph infection at an undisclosed hospital. also inside "the washinton post," "on the cusp of historic majority, senate democrats miss the pillars." and from inside "the new york times," "senate feels an absence of health bill." chris dodd is the number 2 democrat on the health committee and has taken on the role of health care with senator kennedy. he is supported by leaders of three working groups that mr. kennedy created in november. we are going to take a short break. when we come back, congressman phil gingrey will join us to give us his perspective on the health-care debate. senator bernie sanders. "washington journal" continues in a moment. >> how is c-span funded? >> private donations? >> taxpayers? >> i do not really know. >> i do not know where the money comes from. >> federally? >> helices been funded? 30 years ago america's cable companies c

read my chapters on george byrd grunell. he was the american authority on game. >> who tased for your travels to all these sites and all the research? is tha-- who pays? >> my publisher and gives me an advance. this book on theater roosevelt was very expensive for me. >> any idea? >> i rent the cheapest car i can and stay at a modest inn when i go to these places, but nevertheless, it adds up to the point where you're wondering from a lifestyle point of view, it probably does not add up to a dual nature. once you do a serious, heavily to unaided researched book like this, my next book i could do something i could do at home without so much travel. >> how did you know it was over? but this book was finished? what was the last moment? >> i ended the book -- i wrote the chapters on the ex- presidents' it, but i did not want to bring the focus on brazil. my book is subtitled about america. so i ended the book in march of 1909 when he is leaving the white house so the reader could see your is what this man accomplished on behalf

but roosevelt was -- and george byrd grenel, at a ohio university, he proofread my chapters on grenel, because he's the other important figure in my book. grenel was the american authority on game. >> last couple questions. who pays for all your travel, all these sites, and all this research done? is that part of what the publisher promises you? >> yeah, they give you an advance and then i squander it on my travel, so i make no money, therefore i have to stay as a professor. this book on theodore roosevelt was very expensive for me. >> do you have any idea what it cost you? >> i don't. i don't -- i fly economy. i rent the cheapest car i can and i stay at the modest inn when i go to these places. but nevertheless, since i've been really doing it since the 1990's, it adds up to the point where you're wondering from a lifestyle point of view, it probably doesn't add up to do a book of this nature. but once you do a big serious, heavyly footnoted researched book like this, my next book i can do something at home without so much travel. >> last question, how did you know that it was over?

byrd, president pro tempore. ^ mr. reid: mr. president, following the remarks of the leaders the senate will be in morning business for one hour with senators allowed to speak for up to ten minutes and the majority controls the first 30 minutes and the republicans control the second 30 minutes. then the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 1256, family smoking prevention and tobacco control act. last night, cloture was invoked on that matter and we also agreed last night that we would have a vote in relation to the burr substitute amendment at 4:30 p.m. today and i hope we can reach an agreement to consider other amendments prior to the vote in relation to the burr amendment. senators will be notified if any other votes are scheduled. staff is working now trying to come up with a list of amendments we can vote on. the senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 for caucus luncheons. mr. president, h.r. 31 is at the desk and it is my understanding it is due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the bil

byrd, president pro tempore. reid plap? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in period of morning business. senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. there will be no roll call votes today. senators dorgan and martinez, the managers of the travel bill that's before the senate, have indicated that they're ready to move forward on amendments being laid down. we'll have a series of votes monday night. and we'll move toward completing that legislation as quickly as possible. important legislation it is. we look forward to completion of that legislation. as the debate escalates over the best way to ease the crushing burden of health care, it is easy to become sidetracked by misrepresentations or attemp teo point fingers. when we do those things, we lose sight of what is at the heart of this debate: this reform. i want to remind all of us what this is all about -- the health care debate. it's about hard-working americans. they deserve better than to be casualties of misleading politics. the millio

and i'm going to ask senator byrd the next time i see him if he knows of anybody who has a resume which is this extensive and this impressive. when you characterize the best and the brightest, harold koh would be at the top of the list. hard to find anybody who has a better record than -- than dean harold koh. his experience in international law is extensive in human righ rights, is an ideal legal advisor to the department of state with his background and his experience. and he has judgment and he has balance. and for my personal knowledge, i have total confidence that he would apply his legal knowledge and his background in a wise and iissedacious way. he testified before the judiciary committee when i chaired the committee and in every way is exemplary. it is a little surprising to me that it's necessary to have a cloture vote, to have 60 votes to take up the nomination of dean koh. but considering the politics of washington and considering the politics of the united states senate, perhaps i shouldn't be surprised at anything. but having a very, very high surprise threshold, i say tha

. >> senator byrd? >> no by proxy. >> senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator coburn? senator roberts? >> no. >> aye by proxy. >> did senator coburn vote? has he voted? >> no . >> senator bingham votes no by proxy. >> senator sanders, did you get that? >> yes. >> did you get that? all right. >> vote is ten ayes. >> it is not agreed to. all i can say is my nose counting was correct. >> it sure was. where are we here at this point now? are there any additional amendments? >> mr. chairman? >> senator casey. >> i just wanted to get back to the fraud and abuse section for a couple of moments. i know senator enzi had some comments before. we were dealing with senator mccain's amendment so i wanted to just respond to a couple of things. first of all, i wanted to commend the way senator enzi, along with our chairman has conducted himself in this whole process over these many days and weeks, and grateful for the way he approached this bill, as difficult as it is. and as much as there is conflict on a lot of major elements. with regard to the fraud and abuse section, i wanted to

>> senator byrd made sure that we had the funding. but the clinton and bush administrations requested the funds for the project. >> how many buildings? >> we have 17 buildings. >> how many years? >> it took about three years. >> what can a book like doug wrote can do for you? >> it can do a lot, for the employees to realize their own heritage, and like any other artifact, these parks and resources are heritage. and explains to others what we do, to give talks that last an hour, it's useful to turn them over to a history book like dougs. >> your background, you graduated from harvard in what year? >> in 1989 with a degree in science. >> how long have you been here? >> i have worked here for years and i feel like i am doing history in the field. >> steve chase, your background? >> i have background from the bernie school in hartford and worked in outside business and department government and came in the fish and wildlife service in 1990. and started in d.c., and this project came along, and i was able to jump along at the very start of

byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to one hour. senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes eesm the majority will control the first 30 minutes and the republicans will control the final 30 minutes. following that morning business, the senate will proceed to consideration of the concurrent resolution relating to an apology for slavery. there will be up to an hour for debate equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees prior to a vote. we do expect that vote to be a voice vote. upon disposition of the concurrent resolution, the senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany 2346, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. we hope to reach an agreement that would allow us to vote on motions to waive points of order. a time for a vote on adoption of the conference report. but if we're unable to reef an agreement, there would be a cloture vote on the conference r

committee held nomination hearings on that -- joining us to talk about that this week, and refined byrd of broadbandcensus.org. before review the hearing itself, give us a little background on julius. >> the guy has been everywhere. he has been at the sec, and the private sector, -- fcc, the private sector, he has been a venture capitalist right here in washington which was a d.c. based startup. he is a tech and ciliary to the obama campaign. -- consider the very -- consigliari. >> given his background, what we know about him now? where do you think he will take the fcc?

everyone $1,000 as a credit -- that is the biggest problem with big companies and -- they're going byrdwhy give it to them? give it to everyone with a social security number. host: take a look at this story concerning president nixon -- he showed ambivalence on abortion, not where do. it talks about how he weighs in on the question of abortion. it reveals he was relatively ambivalent about what the decision and the supreme court would mean about the abortion issue. also, the house is set to vote on the crime bill. that might come on friday. this article is from "the washington post," where the house rules committee unveiled the latest version of the bill. it features new items such as $7.5 billion in the green bonds for the clean energy deployment administration, a new financing agency. so, before congress goes on its recess next week for the fourth of july it looks they're planning to tackle in the house the climate change legislation. the next call is from west virginia on the democrats' line. george, how do you feel about a public option in health care? caller: i absolutely feel we s

this area, with this is called the byrd negative cover this is the area of the country where every atvarious we have found since 2000 is june they should genetically linked we put in place a number tactical shifts and is in the beginning of 2000 and eight we got a full 12,000 months without polio in that area. it was reinfected and we are still trying to clear out of the research generated solutions very late in the game to solving the problem. two or three other big lessons we learned along the way, the sixth self-evident is the need to have a lot of money to reach kids, the last 20% in particular but what minority as obvious is it this fund raising, advocacy. not just the money or some supporters but a robust and innovative diverse funding stream. will look at the polio program financing that shows a breakdown of for the $7 billion that were spent on polio come from new can see 49% from g aid to the multilateral sector 12 were 15%, a of little higher now, private-sector 20, domestic resources, actual casts -- negative 14% and others about 5% so quite a diverse mix and if you look at

there's a reference to senator robert byrd. there is a quote from mitch mcconnell in the peice. and also in "the new york times" -- will he be part of this debate? guest: i do not know. he was part of a conference call a week ago. he sounded good. we will be meeting today and my understanding is that he will not be there. it is not just a personal issue with people uninsured, underinsured, or paying close to $8,000, it is an economic situation. everyone is talking about general motors going bankrupt. general motors spends more money per automobile on health care than they do on steel. small businesses cannot afford to put more money into an escalating health-care costs when they would like to reinvest in their business. as the president appropriately pointed out, it is not just a crisis of the individual level, it is a major economic crisis that we have got to address. host: john webster who agrees with you sent us this tweet. guest: let me also say this. the concept of single payer is not a friendlngey idea. 15,000 doctors in this country support the single payer system. they a

>> senator robert byrd to make sure -- made sure we had the funding to build it. the first bush administration and the clinton administration requested funding for the project in support of it. >> how many buildings? >> 17, on five the hundred 40 acres. >> how long did it take? >> three years. >> what can a book like douglas brinkley poe's writing about conservation and about the roosevelt to do for your work? >> a lot. it can help our employees, for them to recognize their own heritage. it helped the american public realize that this like melecio or any other historic artifacts, parks and refuges are precious heritage items. it helped us explain to the public what we do. a lot of us give stocks at parks or schools. it's useful if we can turn them over to a substantive history book like that of douglas brinkley if they want to know more about the history. >> your background, and graduated from harvard? >> in 1989 with a ph.d. in history science. >> how long have you been here? >> 10 years. this is my 10th anniversary. the best place i've ever worked. i was a profe

. >> this place, this place would not be here without robert byrd, $150 million came to build this place. do you think roosevelt would be surprised if he saw this? >> he would love it. >> would be surprised? >> i don't think he would, because of his sense of grandeur was so large. he was creating conservationist book folders. a cartoonist join his crusade. what he was doing was creating a movement. like martin luther king created a civil rights movement. roosevelt spearheaded the conservation movement with perpetuity. for example, many of our for strangers in the west were rough riders who had served with him. he wanted to protect wild areas, to protect against poaching. he was doing law-enforcement, saying we are going to protect our air loans. he called all these places like wind cave or yosemite or mesa verde our air loans that were going to protect and police. we're training people to be conservationists in west virginia. >> if you look at the banners in this room, you have locations that was involved in. >> he saved them. >> he left when he was 51 years old. he did not live beyond 6

several dozen i think one of the major reform bills up there right now that's been written by senator byrd includes if not a complete ending of the exclusion sama cap of it so maybe they -- >> the united states was suggesting some of these are going to break the president's pledge of not taxing the middle class. >> i think the president was clear on that in an interview earlier this week relating to financial regulation and i think the president believes as he sat in the interview that he has put forward a course of action that he thinks is best able at this point to put this game in the game. the bulk of that is changing the way that we pay for health care. it is injecting -- it is taking subsidies out of for medicare middlemen and it's going back to the charitable deduction rates of the reagan era was a i think the president feels confident about what he has put on the table. i do believe something has happened in iran where there is a questioning of the kind of antagonistic postures toward the international community that have taken place in the past and there are people who want to see

. >> you see some of the guys in that picture, damien jackson, marlon byrd, seems like a lifetime ago ago, doesn't it, fans? that someone a little bit inside to nick who has hit five homers this year. if the rays have a kangaroo court, matt garza should be convicted for walking cristian guzman. that's almost impossible to do. >> rob: he still is a young guy, with adrenaline. he still has a lot left in that tank even though he had a 30- plus 1st inning. >> bob: let's see if the nats can make him do some more work here. this has not been a quick inning either here. he has 16 pitches. >> rob: 46 pitches already. >> bob: garza, as rob mentioned, is a big kid, 6'5", 214. nick is johnson gets jammed and an easily flyball to right for gabe gross. the nats have had a bunch of base runners already, five hits and lead it 3-0, middle of the 2nd. at 155 miles per hour, andy roddick has the fastest serve in the history of professional tennis. so i've come to this court to challenge his speed. ...on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't so i can book travel plans fast

byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following morning business, the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to 10 minutes each. tomorrow senators should expect a cloture vote prior to our weekly caucus luncheons. this week we're going to do the best we can to complete the travel promotion act and the supplemental appropriations bill. we should be able to do that and hopefully get some nominations done and inequity week we have some other things we need to do including the homeland security appropriations bill. i've spoken to the minority leader on a number of occasions to do that. to get to this next week we need a consent agreement because the house will not act on it until probably probably wednesday next week or something like that. and that doesn't give us enough time. we need to start on it a little earlier. we'll see what we can come up with. we have announced before that five weeks after we get back after we get back from the 4th of july will be very busy with a lot of work. i have -- the

byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to one hour. then we will resume the consideration of s. 1023, the travel promotion act. the time from 4:30 until 5:30 is equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. at 5:30 the senate will proceed to a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the dorgan amendment to the travel bill. filing deadline for first-degree amendments is today at 3:30. mr. president, later today democrats will try to move forward on a bill sponsored by democrats and -- the presiding officer: if the leader will suspend? mr. reid: of course. the presiding officer: so the senate may receive a message from the house of representatives. >> mr. president, a message from the house of representatives. the clerk: mr. president, i've been directed by the house of representatives to inform the senate of the appointment and the managers on the part of the house may exhibit the articles of i

normal process of the bill, that's very difficult to do, so i want to accommodate members as senator byrd has raised to give adequate time next week for people to respond, john, to whatever the product is we put out so you can have amendments ready if you're not happy with the product that we put out with the cbo numbers that have been provided. >> let me just add with the comment, even with the 12:00 accommodation, i can't get here. the airline schedule, i have no effect over, and i've been cut out. i understand we can't all make it, but let me just make this plea. if the legislation is not released to us today or at some point over the weekend where we can actually read it, i'm not sure that having the o come in and brief us on how they scored a product that we have yet to look at and disseminate the information is valuable to those of us who have not seen it. so if, in fact, we don't have the legislation before monday, i would ask the chair delay the cbo briefing until we've had an opportunity to review the legislation and better understand what cbo would then describe us to. >> thank

byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: at 10:00 or thereabouts we'll proceed with the impeachment matter. quorum call:

byrd, president pro tempore. ^ mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks there will be a period of morning business for up to one hour with senators allowed to speak for ten minutes each and the republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the second 30 minutes. following that the senate resumes consideration of tobacco legislation. there's up to one hour of debate only with time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. we do hope, however, we can reach an agreement to dispose of the pending lieberman amendment and several additional amendments upon the use or yielding back of the debate time on the bill -- that's one hour -- and disposition of the lieberman amendment the substitute amendment will be agreed to, the senate will vote on a cloture vote on the underlying tobacco bill so there will be a vote around 11:30. we have about 25 nominations that the republicans have held up. they're important. i was visited yesterday by secretary salazar regarding hill

byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, we'll be in a period of morning business for an hour, senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the republicans will control the first half, the majority will control the second 30 minutes. following morning business, the senate will resume the motion to proceed to the travel promotion act, postcloture. following adoption of that motion to proceed to travel bill later this afternoon we'll turn to the consideration of the emergency supplemental appropriations conference report. mr. president, i'm disappointed that we are again wasting time on a heavily bipartisan bill, the travel promotion act. wide support by both the democrats and republicans. but the republicans forced us to have a vote on cloture to allow us to get on the bill. all the republicans voted for it. they're filibustering things that they even agree with, just to stall for time. now, mr. president, this is 30 hours we could use on a lot of good things. i don't know w

the statement from senator be robert byrd said the rapid and easy accumulation of power by white house staff can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances. at the, white house staff has taken direction and control of problematic areas that are the statutory responsibility of senate confirmed officials. he's raising the same issue i was raising a few minutes ago. that is these people don't go through the confirmation process. there's no senators looking and seeing what kind of reputation these people have, what they are doing-with a -- doing -- what they have done in the past. where their area of expertise is. whether or not this is the most qualified person. whether it's a person who would meet the constitutional requirements of serving our nation. i know these are hired by the president. we don't -- it's like there's this alternate universe we are creating. we've got the cabinet. i guess you leave the cabinet and you go over to the czardoms and meet with them. maybe they all get in one room and battle it out. i don't know how it works. we'll see. but this is sizably mo

signed senator byrd. reid the senate will be in morning business until 10 p.m. with senators allowed to speak four ten minutes each, and the time will be equally controlled with the republican controlling the first half and the majority the next half. following morning business the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 1256, family smoking prevention tobacco criminal act. time until 2:30 will be divided and controlled as indicated, that is, from 2:00 to 2:30 between senators dodd and enzi and at 2:30 we will vote on passage of the bill. madam president, there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the titles of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 12312 to amend the federal food, drug and cosmetic act with respect to the importation of prescription drugs and for other purposes. 2751, an act to accelerate motor fuel savings nationwide and so forth. mr. reid: madam president, these are the drug reimportation legislation that has been around for a number of years and we're trying to move forward on t

in other words, what can we learn as we write up this bill from what steve byrd did at safeway or what they did at pitney bowes. the elimination of the hiipa variance for getting people incentivized for getting people to do the right things for their health and we've eliminated the 20% in the base bail, i don't know when that's coming. >> we just fixed it. >> oh, you did while i was out of the room? i stand corrected. they tell us we need more room on it. so i hope you will consider it if you look at the background on it, this isn't my idea or richard's ideas or the others, this comes from all around the country. this also comes from what we've seen happen in other countries, especially switzerland, where they have coordinated all of this to where they have a real sharp focus and it's about the people that know about health care so you get information coming in, you filter it with experts, and you merge that with the government programs and then send it back out. what that means is we'll get much more effective utilization and much more value for the dollars that we end up sending out

byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: madam president, with the senate chaplain, admiral black, standing by, we all listened to the prayer of one of our jewish brethren from las vegas, rabbi harlig. the chaplain, i'm sure, was pleased with the prayer. those of us here were pleased with the prayer. it was a wonderful, meaningful prayer. i want to welcome rabbi harlig for helping us open the senate and for the beautiful prayer that he uttered. rabbi harlig and his wife dina opened a center in their living room in 1990. it was -- it has grown dramatically since then, and successfully grown. there are now five such community centers in southern nevada. the organizing rabbi harlig and his friends -- i'm sorry. the organization rabbi harlig founded has taught many children and many adults and done so many good deeds for so many people. as rabbi harlig mentioned in his invocation, the day is significant. it's significant because it's the day of the chabad community -- important in the day of the chabad community. it is

byrd, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: i ask that the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. senators will be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the majority will control the first 30 minutes and the republicans will control the next 30 minutes. following that morning business, senate the senate will resume the motion to proceed to s. 1023, the travel promotion afnlgt there will be within hour for debate prior to the cloture on that motion to proceed. senators should expect a vote to begin as early as 11:45 today. the senate will recess, as we do on every tuesday, from 12:30 to 2:15 for our wkly caucus luncheons. mr. president, every day, like every senator, i get mail from men and women across my state. people

byrd president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks the senate will be in phorbg with -- will be in morning business. following morning business the senate will resume consideration of the tobacco legislation. and immediately proceed to a cloture vote on the dodd substitute amendment. senators should expect the first vote to occur at 5:30 p.m. today. the filing deadline for first-degree amendments is 3:00 today. filing deadline for second-degree amendments is 4:30 p.m. today. i ask consent that the time from 5:00 until 5:30 be equally divided and controlled between senators dodd and enzi or their designees. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, at 5:30 today we're going to have an extremely important vote. it's on whether or not this body will invoke cloture on the tobacco legislation. sunday -- yesterday -- 3,500 children who never smoked before tried their first cigarette. today another 3,500 will do the same and tuesday will be the same and wednesday will be the same.

i couldn't byrd and my mother with that. she would worry too much and i really didn't feel like there was anything i could talk to about just these kind of overwhelming issue is haunting me. so i called a suicide hotline because i thought i could be anonymous and just vent and cry and be angry at all those things and then be done with it and when the gal on the line realized you mean you're not going to hurt yourself and i thought ghosh no i would never do that. >> host: ayaan in the middle of a campaign people. [laughter] >> guest: and i felt like couldn't say who i was because i would be on the news or the papers and i just wanted to be anonymous and and and she was a little weight with me like why are you not wasting my time if you're not going to kill yourself but why are you calling? i said i just needed someone to talk to, so she was a little annoyed with me. she did do a good thing. i just needed to be anonymous and get it off my chest. >> host: after being very public in the campaign. here's a low point. perhaps for

byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: mr. majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators to be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the next 30 minutes. the senate will be in recess from 12:30 to 2:15 today to allow for weekly caucus luncheons, to continue work on an agreement to continue the legislative branch appropriations bill, to be able to reach an agreement senators could expect votes in relation to that bill during today's session. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the "help" committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 1777. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1777, an act to make technical corrections to the higher education act of 1965, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate proceeds to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that a substitut

byrd made sure that we had the funding necessary to build the place. but both the first bush administration and the clinton administration requested funds for the project and supported the project. >> and how many buildings are here? >> we have about 17 buildings on about 540 acres. >> how long did it take for it to be built? >> took us about three years. >> what can i book like douglas brinkley's writing about conservation and about theodore roosevelt do for the kind of work you do? >> it can do a lot. first, it can help our employees enjoy more and recognize their own heritage. it helps the american public realed that just like mona lisa or any other historic art fact, these parks and refuges are really historic items and it helps a lot of people realize what we do. a lot of us gives talks at schools that last for an hour or so. really useful if we can turn it into a substantive history book like doug's. >> your background. i know you graduated from harvard -- what year? >> i graduated from harvard? 199 with a ph.d. in history and science. >> how lon

i couldn't byrd and my mother with that, she would worry too much and i didn't feel like there was anyone i could talk to about these overwhelming issues that were haunting me so i called a suicide hotline because i thought i could be anonymous and just dent and cry and be angry and all those things and then be done with it and when the gal on the other line realized you mean you're not going to hurt yourself and i thought ghosh no i would never do that. >> host: not me, not in the middle of the campaign, people. [laughter] >> guest: i felt i couldn't say who i was because that would be in the news or the papers. i just wanted to be anonymous and and and she was a little in light with me like why are you, not wasting my time if you are not going to kill yourself, but why are you calling? i said i just needed someone to talk to, so she was a little annoyed with me. i just needed the anonymous and get it off my chest and move forward. >> host: after being very public in the campaign. here is a low point for you but i want everybody to listen to this low point because it is a low point for t

. >> this place, tell me if i'm wrong, it wouldn't be here without robert c byrd, a west virginia place, $150 million came into build this place, all done specific to this requirement here. do you think roosevelt would be surprised if he saw this? >> he would love it. >> would he be surprised, though? >> no, i don't think he would because his sense of grandeur was so large. i mean, he was creating conservationist foot soldiers. i talk about the cartoonist who joined his crusade. what he was doing was creating a movement, roosevelt. it would be like martin luther king creating a civil rights movement. roosevelt was spearheading the conservation movement for perpetuity. many of the first rangers in the west were rough riders who served with him. he wanted to militarize areas because he was able about poaching, people stealing petrified wood. he was doing law enforcement and saying we were going to protect our heirlooms. he would call these places like wind cave or yosemite or mesa verde national club which he created. they're training people how to be conservationists in west virginia. >>

but us deciding how to fix prevention is a whole lot different than what a steve byrd has done at safeway and we will mess it up because we don't have all of the knowledge an we don't have the right motivation, which is healthier, happier, longer living employees paying less money. what we'll have is a program. so senator harkin's intention, his heart is pure. but will it be efficient? name me one efficient, effective federal government pral thograme set up you. name one that's efficient and effective. a pilot is effective when we put him if an f-18. but is the pentagon efficient? no. and we have that all across the federal government. so if our answer is we've got the answer and we're going to tell everybody else how to do it, ki promise you right now we're goinging to fail it. of and i don't think we should fail. it's too important. we have big problems in health care, and we immediate to come together based on what the real facts are out ñç?ñ well, guess who ends up you caring for most of the -- out the 4,000 babies i delivered, 2,500 of them have been medicaid. but what happens is tha

i happen to be quite enamored of what steve byrd is doing and mr. patelli at pitney-bowes. this looks great. let's just expand it to 50% or 75% or whatever. but then as i began to get more information on it it's not quite as clear cut as it looks. mr. chairman, you raised the point and that is, what's a wellness program? safeway happens to have a darn good one. so does pitney-bowes. but that's a matter of taste. but not all companies do. so we don't have a definition. now one of the things we tried to do in the underlying bill is to give the secretary the power, the authority to start to set up some metrics on this. what would meet the criteria of a good wellness program. and that might be different for a big company like safeway and maybe a little different for a company that's got 100 or 200 employees. >> if i could just suggest one thing. we have a tendancy to say in the same sentence, prevention, wellness and chronic disease management. and from a policy standpoint we bring that all together. they are three distinct different buckets. prevention is that piece where we'r

so i think that the byrd-hagel commands strong support in the united states senate. any treaty that the obama administration submits must meet the resolution criteria or it will be easily defeated. remember what that criteria is. if it submits something that says we in the united states have to do something that the rest of the world -- or the developing world doesn't have to do, then it's not going to pass. secondly, it inflicts economic harm on this country. proponents of securing an international treaty or vowelly acknowledging that the gulf is widening between the united states and what the other industrialized nations are willing to do and what countries like china want them to do. i suggest that the gulf has always been wide, but will continue to widen. recent actions by the united states and china continue to confirm my chief. take china's initial reaction to the waxman-markie bill, it was hailed on capitol hill as a historic breakthrough woarcht like a thud during the international negotiations. get this waxman-markie which will be economically ruinist to the

subjects in the washington post by paul mccain on the cusp is senator democrats also referenced robert byrd who is 91 years old but senator kennedy was battling brain cancer and a quote from your colleague in the piecing it's hard to imagine a senate without them. also a story this morning inside "the new york times" and a quote from senator jack reed of rhode island saying i think we would all like to see senator kennedy here for many, many reasons, but we are going to move forward, forward without them. will he be at all part of this debate? >> i don't know. we heard he was part of a telephone conference call a week ago and he sounded good. we're going to be meeting today. my understanding is he probably will not be there. the other point that i want to make and we will talk about health care, it's not just a personal issue with people uninsured, underinsured or paying close to $8000 is what we are paying per person right now which is unsustainable. it's an economic issue and everyone is talking about general motors going bankrupt. general motors today spend more money per automobile on h

. >> senator byrd? >> aye by proxy. >> senator isaacson? >> aye by approximatey? >> senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator hatch? >> aye by proxy. >> senator coburn? >> aye. >> senator roberts. >> aye. >> senator kennedy? >> no by proxy. >> ten ayes. it appears to be nay. the amendment is not agreed to. here's where we are and senator coburn is leaving. i was hoping to get done by tomorrow midday, but we're going to finish, so i -- i don't want to keep people in the evenings if we can't consider amendments, but i don't know -- we have the fraud and abuse section now to go to and about -- >> there are eight people here, mr. chairman? we have eight, i know, and i think we ought to keep working at the thing. >> do it. >> i don't have amendments. do we have amendments? >> mr. chairman, i just want to thank all of the senators as we finish our first title, many across the aisle working with us to get this done and i appreciate all the work. >> we thank you immensely and thank you staff as well and, first of all, for taking the number of amendments and getting agreements on as many.

and they know that the history of the senate, as senator byrd has so often said, is distinguished really by only a couple things. one is virtually unlimited right to amend and virtually unlimited right to debate. and so what is going to happen at 5:30 is, we're going to be asked to vote to cut off amendments and to cut off debate. a vote "yes" will be a vote to obstruct, to obstruct our right to amend, to obstruct our right to debate, and to make it impossible really for me to represent the people of tennessee, who voted for me with the idea that i might be able to do that. let me explain what little -- a little bit more what i mean by that. there are a great many people who write books about america, but unquestionablely i think the best -- best-record such book is alexis de tocqueville's book about democracy in america, when the young frenchman came to this country and wandered across this running into davie rocket, all sorts of people. when he wrote about what he thought might be long-term the greatest danger to the american democracy, he said he thought it might be the tyranny of the