mr. chambliss: how were time do you need? mr. hatch: probably seven minutes. mr. hambliss: happy to yield seven minutes to the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i'll try to conserve if i can. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: madam president, i think a good deal of senator gates myself. during the july 16 address the secretary of defense, rob gates, said the military needed maximum versatility to bring to bear in a wide range of armed conflicts. in january he argued that "our military must be prepared for a full spectrum of operations including type of combat we face in iraq and afghanistan and large-scale threats we face from places like north korea and iran." i cannot agree more with secretary gates. however, just as our nation disregarded the hard-earned lessons of fighting counterinsurgency prayings aftes after vietnam we are limiting our capability to defeat the air threat of today and tomorrow, the integritied air defense system. this advanced system is compared of extended range russian surface-to-air missiles as the s-300 and advance figh

mr. chambliss: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. channel lis: mr. president, i understand we're -- mr. chambliss: mr. president, i understand we're in morning business. i'm going to talk on two different subjects. i'll make some brief comments relative to the f-22, which i would ask unanimous consent those comments be inserted in the record regarding -- at the appropriate spot relevant to the debate on the f-22. and my other comments relative to a nominee go at the appropriate place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. chambliss: mr. president, i have listened to the debate here all day with regard to the national defense authorization bill and, frankly, it's one of the frustrating aspects of serving in this great body. to sit here and debate an issue like we have debated over the last couple of days and think that you're going to come to the floor of the senate today and to cast a vote on a very important measure that's been characterized by sen

mr. chambliss: mr. president, reserving the right to object. i'm sorry, i missed was there an agreement -- the presiding officer: the senator from georgia is recognized. mr. chambliss: was there a time agreement on the schumer amendment? mr. levin: 15 minutes was what i specified. mr. chambliss: thank you. i do not object. the presiding officer: is there any further objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so we can call up amendment 1764. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from new york, mr. schumer, proposes an amendment numbered 1764. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask that i be yielded 5 minutes of the 15 minutes, senator bennett, the ranking member o

mr. chambliss: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: i rise in support of the isakson amendment. there is a waiver to the very amendment in place which allows companies to import the fire-resistant rayon from foreign countries. let me be very clear that the jobs that go with the manufacture of these uniforms are u.s. jobs. all of these uniforms are made in the united states. but this fabric is used by the company to make its defender-m fabric to produce fire-resistant uniforms for both the army and marines much the material is not made in the united states due to e.p.a. standards and this is a classic example of where e.p.a. standards can be too stringent to allow u.s. manufacturers to operate. and the reason is that it's cost-prohibitive to do so. the current waiver, which includes a five h.r. year sunset clause, was included in the 2008 defense authorization bill after tremendous effort by my colleague, senator isakson, and of course is set to expire. the army soldier expressed very strongly that f.r. rayon is the superior f

mr. chambliss: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: mr.se this evening to speak on the nomination of judge sonia sotomayor to be the next associate justice of the united states supreme court. mr. president, we all know that elections have consequences, and because of this, i have tried to give deference to the various nominees submitted by president obama. i have not voted for all of his nominees, but i have voted for some even though i didn't necessarily believe that they were the best people that he might have nominated. the case of supreme court is unique. this is not a cabinet member who will rotate out or leave at the end of the president's term. supreme court justices are there for life and decide case that will affect present and future generations of americans. with this in mind, i reviewed opinions written or concurred in by judge sotomayor. reviewed speeches and writings of judge sotomayor. talked with lawyers who practiced in new york, lawyers who have tried or argued cases before judge sotomayor and others who know her by reput

mr. chambliss: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: mr.dent, i rise today to concur with my good friend from arkansas with respect to h. con. res. 135 which acknowledges the role that slave raib played in constructing the u.s. capitol and say to her that i thank her for her leadership on this issue. she and i have had an opportunity to work on an issue that is very important to america and to americans. and senator lincoln has been a true champion for the common man as well as -- as for -- as for all americans on any number of issues, and she and i have -- it's been a great pleasure to work with her on any number of issues over the years and i do thank her for her great leadership here. mr. president, the story of america -- the story of the very building in which we're standing is a story of free do. it's a story of how people from every corner of the globe arrived here and had a chance to steer their own lives, shape their own destinies and toil a task at their own choosing. not those dictated by birth -- by birth. that shot at freedom w

mr. chambliss: no more than ten minutes. mr. levin: i would ask, madam president, that after that ten-minute time is used that then senator kerry be recognized for a period up to ten minutes of senator bayh's time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. chambliss: madam president, i thank the senator from connecticut for yielding time on this critically important issue. you know, as we have been here debating on the floor for the last two weeks now, the respective issues relative to the priorities from a defense authorization standpoint, we've done everything other than going from increase in pay for our military personnel to the termination of what i argued on the floor last week and this week, the latest, most technologically advanced war-fighting machine that's ever been produced by mankind. but the decision was made to terminate the f-22. the f-22, not only from a technology standpoint, was providing valuable test material for the follow-on fighter, but it also is powered by two engines, one of whi

mr. chambliss: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. chambliss: madam president, i rise to speak this morning for a few minutes about my dear friend, now former senator norm coleman from the great state of minnesota. norm was a very unique individual in the united states senate. he grew up in new york, was educated in iowa and wound up living in minnesota. he was a student leader in undergrad school as well as in law school. so his leadership qualities were certainly recognized early on. norm grew up in an era right behind me, which was the era of big rock bands, and norm was right in with the majority of the crowd of young folks back then and was a roadie with a rock band for awhile and spent his 20th birthday at woodstock. we used to joke about that a lot in some of our conversations. after law school norm obviously settled down in the state of minnesota where he joined the attorney general's office and eventually became the state solicitor general. and he prosecuted any number of cases in both those offices. he became the mayor o

mr. chambliss: mr. president, i rise today to honor the life and self-less commitment of lieutenant brian bradshaw of the united states army and to our nation. lieutenant bradshaw died as the result of an improvised explosive device on june 25 in afghanistan. he was 24 years old. coincidentally, mr. president, lieutenant bradshaw's life was taken the same day that pop star michael jackson died. the gogel news search reveals the number of new stories in the past month filed about michael jackson is 142,929. the number filed about lieutenant bradshaw, 26. it's time the american people know a bit more about this young man who sacrificed for his country, his life, his family, and all of his potential, giving all that he would have and all that he was going to be. in his youth lieutenant bradshaw served his community in stilacomb, washington, as a search and rescue volunteer, as an altar boy and summer camp counselor. he was described as a man with a rye sense of humor. he graduated from lutheran university

mr. chambliss: could i -- mr. isakson: could i ask unanimous consent i be recognized for five minutes and that senator thune be recognized immediately thereafter. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. isakson: thank you very much, madam president. i want the senator from connecticut for just a second, i rose -- i am rising to affirm everything the senator said. he made an articulate, detailed case for the f-22 in opposition to the amendment, and i commend him on it. and i want to just add three thoughts, three good reasons for the f-22 and not to adopt the amendment. number one, when the united states air force wrote the r.f.p. for the weapons system of the 21st century to replace three existing aging aircraft, the f-22 met and exceeded in every single point of the r.f.p., number one. number two, for those that say the cost is some $2,000 an hour more for maintenance? you know, you have to quantify that. look what you're buying. you're buying stealth technology that exists nobody in the

mr. chambliss: would you say again how much time we have remaining. the presiding officer: 45 seconds. mr. mccain: i would be glad to yield a couple more minutes, i think, to the senator from connecticut. do you want to go ahead now? madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i'll be fairly brief here. this argument has been made, and we pretty well covered most of the issue. i would remind my colleagues that all the things we do are a matter of choices because we don't have unlimited amounts of funds obviously. and if you spend money on one project, then obviously you may have to spend less on another. and that is the case of the f-35 if we don't eliminate this $1.75 billion. most importantly, i want to point out again this amendment is more than just about a weapons system. this amendment is about whether we will stop doing business as usual, and that is continuing to fund weapons systems that are no longer needed and unnecessary. we are not saying the f-22 isn't a good aircraft. we are saying it's time to end the production of the f-22. the presiden

mr. president, is in the markup we increased the number by seven aircraft. and i was - the chief -- the chr was senator saxby chambliss. i said, this really is not enough. i agreed. it was the most we could do. i believe when the time comes for an amendment to cut that number down, we need to give serious consideration to that amendment and not allow it to pass. you know, we -- there's an expectation of the american people -- and i've gone through this before with other airframes, other platforms, other ground platforms. the american people think -- they think -- that we give our kids who go out into battle the very best of everything. i can tell you that's not triewvment i give the paladin example. there are five countries, including south africa, that make a better nonline-of-sight canon than we do today. our kids are out there competing with this. to me that's unacceptable. and it is unaccept to believe the american people when you explain that that's the situation. the f-15, the f-16, the f-18, the f-14's. they've done a great job. but we need to move on to the fourth-plus and fifth generation and the only way to