ms. klobuchar: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. ms. klobuchar: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: i'm here today to speak about senator coleman who was my colleague for my first two years in the united states senate. as everyone knows, the minnesota supreme court issued its ruling on the outcome of last november's senate election. i, as i did this week, want to congratulate al franken for his hard-earned and long-awaited election victory. he has had a good first week in the senate and we all welcome him. but i did want to take this time to talk about norm coleman. first of all, after six months without having a second senator, senator coleman made a very difficult decision, and he did it with such grace. he could have appealed that decision. he could have gone to federal court. it was his right. but he made a decision which he felt was best for the state of minnesota,

ms. klobuchar: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: madam president, i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: madam president, health care reform is a very personal matter for me, a personal matter for so many people in my state. i first got interested in this issue, as i think many of us did, after something happened to me when my daughter was born. she was born, she was very sick, she couldn't swallow. and back then the insurance companies had a rule that new moms ant and their babies were kicked out after it 4 hours. so after she was in intensive care, i was kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours. as my husband wheeled me out in the wheelchair, i remember thinking, this wouldn't have happened to the wife of the head of the insurance company. but it happened to me. and i went to the legislature along with others to say we have to change this to ensure mot

ms. klobuchar: mr.dent, i ask to speak for five minutes to be followed by the senator from new hampshire, senator gregg, who wishes to speak for ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today to voice my support for the levin-mccain amendment to strike $1.75 billion added to the bill that is on the floor to purchase additional f-22 aircraft that have not been requested by the pentagon. i believe this amendment present us with an important choice of what our national security priorities will be going forward. will we continue to pour billions and billions of dollars into weapons systems despite the fact that they are not request requested, despite cost overruns, program delays? will we make the hard choices necessary to ensure that our troops in the field have what they need to fight present and future conflicts? i believe the choice is clear. now, i'm aware that this means for some states that are making this plane or subcontracts -- we hav

ms. klobuchar: mr. president, first i wanted to commend my colleague from arizona, senator mccain, for his great leadership and for his important words about burma. no one would know better than senator mccain would about the human rights violations, of someone held in a prison like that. as he's aware on a bipartisan basis the woman senators have come together to support aung san suu kyi and her plight in burma. i recently met with the burmese community in my state, and they're concerned about their relatives there and everything that's happening in that country. we have someone in our office whose relatives are in burma. and so i thank you for your words and also, senator mccain, for your leadership on the amendment, the levin-mccain amendment to strike the $1.75 billion added to the bill that's on the floor to purchase additional f-22 aircraft that have not been requested by the pentagon. this is a very difficult issue for many people in this chamber, including the senator from arizona. but we all kn

ms. klobuchar: madam president, it is my honor today along with former vice president mondale to escortal al franken as the new senator from our state. al told me the third year of his campaign would be the best. and he was right. i did want to thank my staff, first of all, some of them and many of them are here, for the hard work they did in the past six months double double duty. they never complained and did it without extra resources and are as happy as can be this is revolved and something about norm coleman. last week he made a difficult decision. he had a right to pursue a legal challenge but he did what was right for minnesota. norm was my senate colleague for two years. we often worked together for should for minnesota and we wish him and his family the best. despite just a little delay, to be exact, 246 days since the election day and 183 days since the senate convened, why would i know that, al franken now joins me in representing the state of minnesota. i've gotten to know al very well the past few years and i know that he will be getting acquainted with his fellow senators in

i'm going to turn the gavel over to senator klobuchar. >> ms. wells, ms. campbell had described, individuals, murderers, who had previous records that she rightly believes should have been in jail and not able to commit these kind of crimes again. let's pursue that a little bit. you're a professional and you've been at this a long time. and i've come to believe that mathematics is a factor in all of this. that there are just not many people that sexually assault women. there are a certain number of those are repeat offenders who are exceedingly dangerous. just from a purely public safety point of view, is it important we identify those persons early and that they be incarcerated in order to protect the people of this country from this kind of violence? >> well, senator, you said it as well as i could say it, yes, that is critical. and there are a lot of studies already that are helping us to identify those persons. and as soon as we can identify them, then our goal should be to incarcerate them for as long as possible. >> now, you represent a very sophisti