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 f

mr. inouye: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. inouye: mr. president, i rise in support of the conference agreement on the bill h.r. 2346, the supplemental appropriations bill. the compromise agreement which has been worked out in a full and open conferences between the two houses represents the hard work of our conferees. as has long been the tradition of the appropriations committee, the compromise package before the senate reflects the deliberations of our 12 subcommittees. each subcommittee has items in this measure and i'm pleased to note that all of our subcommittees were able to reach agreement with their house counterparts. the house has agreed -- as such, the bill before us represents a balanced compromise between the issues and funding recommended by the house and by the senate. as in any compromise, neither body nor individual member received everything he or she sought. the house has agreed support funding for the international monetary fund and the senate has agreed compromise language on how we deal with the detainees at guantan

mr. inouye: i do. mr. reid: the oath shall now be administered by the presiding officer to all senators. is it an appropriate time for all senator who has cause to be excused. 6 the presiding officer: is there objection? the chair hears none. it is so ordered. senators shall now be sworn. do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of samuel b. kent, judge of the united states district court for the southern district of texas, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws, so help you god? senators: i do. mr. reid: any senator who was not in the senate chamber at the time the oath was administered to the other senators will make the fact known to the chair so that the oath may be administered as soon as possible to the senator. the secretary will note the names of the senators who have been sworn and will present to them for signing a book which will be the senate's permanent record of the administration of oath. i remind all sen

mr. inouye: i'll speak after you. mr. gregg: i'm happy to yield to the chairman if he wishes to go before me. first off, this is a very important piece of legislation. i congratulate the chairman and ranking member, senator cochran and senator inouye for bringing it forward. it is critical that we adequately fund our troops in the field. this is the first responsibility yeas a government when we have troops in the field in harm's way to give them the resources they need in order to protect themselves and defend our liberties. and so this is a very, very important piece of legislation. it must pass. it simply must pass. however, ironically, the hedges legislation that occurs around here, this legislation had air dropped into it by the house of representatives something that has no -- nothing to did with our troops fighting in the field. and that is a bill called the cash for chunker bill. now, -- clunker bill. i have -- purchasing automobiles that are high-mileage vehicles that use a lot of gas and exchanging them for lowe

mr. inouye: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. inouye: madam president, today the senate begins its consideration of our annual spending bills, and we start with the legislative branch appropriations bill. madam president, i'm pleased to announce to my colleagues that, as of this moment, the appropriations committee has reported out four appropriations bills. it may please you to know, madam president, that all of these bills -- legislative, homeland security, commerce, and interior -- passed the committee unanimously, and all of the bills represent a bipartisan approach. and the bill before this body deserves the support of every member of this body. it provides for the essential services to fulfill the functions of our legislative branch. it is a clean, free bill of unnecessary dividers. it is $300 million below the amount requested and within the funding allocation provided to the supplement. madam president, i strongly recommend its approval, and may request unanimous consent that my whole statement be made a part of the record

mr. inouye, the senate chairman of the appropriations committee, from president obama. . he says, on may 13, i announced i would resist the release of additional detainee photos because i did not believe it would add anything to the past, and the only thing it would do is further inflame opinion. the second circuit granted the government's motion that will stay the court order to release the detainees' photos and we will move forward to the supreme court to appeal the case he goes on to say, i deeply appreciate the effort you have shown to support the troops, i will continue to take every legal and administrative remedy to ensure the photographs are not released. should a legislative solution prove necessary, i am committed to working with the congress to enact legislation that achieves the objectives we share. with respect, lastly, mr. whip, to the detainees, as you know, one detainee was in fact transferred to the united states, to new york, for the purposes of trial. that is not unusual, as the gentleman knows. many terrorists have been tried in the new york district c

reid, pryor, whitehouse, inouye, feingold, dodd, burris, durbin, murray, tester, udall of colorado, klobuchar, reed of rhode island, baucus, merkley, lincoln, cantwell, dorgan. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i ask the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask now that we proceed to a period of monk business, senators allowed to speak -- of morning business, senators allowed to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, let me just say a brief word on the cloture that was not invoked on the travel bill. i hope that everyone understands what obstructionism is. this is obstructionism at its best, and it goes along with what the republicans said they wanted to do and that is stop everything. as indicated in "roll call" newspaper last week. this is a bill that saves the government money, almost a half a billion dollars over ten years. it would create in the first year of the -- after passage of the bill 40,000 jobs. the republicans just killed th this. over

inouye, a senator from the state of hawaii, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: at 10:00 or thereabouts we'll proceed with the impeachment matter. quorum call:

mr. inouye: i wish to associate myself with the remarks made by the senator from michigan. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will call the roll.