>> senator whitehouse. >> senator enzi? >> no. >> senator gray? >> aye by proxy. >> senator bier? >> senator anderson? >> aye by proxy. >> senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator hatch? >> aye by proxy. >> senator coburn? >> aye by proxy. >> senator kennedy? >> aye by proxy. >> the vote is 13 ayes, 10 neys. >> the amendment is agreed to. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and, you know, you kint of sit back and listen to the colleagues on both sides and i think you said it senator enzi. we're all in agreement on it about 80% of what we're talking about is always in the details. but the goal is certainly there when we talk about prevention. we all recognize this will be integral to whatever plan we put forward. and the hope truly is that we'll see a reduction in costs. i appreciated your comments, senator dodd, about the differences that we see throughout the country and that in one part of the country thicks athic things are going to be a little bit different. this is where i have real heart burn when you talk about a public plan which is kind of a one size fits all approach to healt

in the senate -- in the senate, senator lieberman and senator graham offered an amendment. i believe it was accepted without dissent. there is an overwhelming view in the senate that these photographs should not be released. consequently, i'm perplexed that it appears as if there's some sentiment on the other side of the capitol, maybe even majority sentiment, given the nature of the markup to this point, that the amendment be deleted. i would like for you to have the opportunity to hear from the chairman of the senate intelligence committee, who also happens to be a member of this committee, and is sitting right down the table, to further underscore the bipartisan nature of support for the amendment guaranteing that our troops not be endangered by this sort of gratuitous act of releasing detainee photographs that none of the people leading our troops feel would do anything other than endanger the lives of our soldiers. i don't know if i have the ability to yield to the senator from california, but i'd like to suggest that she be called upon for a few moments. >> thank you.

senate. when tom daschle was up for confirmation as secretary of h.h.s., he said we should aim for 70 or 80 votes. 60 votes is the minimum, not 51. my colleagues are here to speak. i appreciate it for them to be here. we're trying to follow in the tradition we saw yesterday when former senate majority leaders, democrats and republicans, joined together to put forward a bill that covers every men and that is affordable. why don't i turn it over to mike castle from delaware. >> i agree with jim completely on the legality of the situation in the senate. i think they are going to need 60 votes. that means it is going to have to be a bipartisan piece of legislation. but that is exactly what the american people want. you often hear that disease does not choose whether you're a republican or a democrat and i think the solution to this does not choose either. we need to work together hard on getting this done. i see many good ideas. there are good ideas in what is introduced in the senate and what is

sorry, senator from north dakota. >> madame president, the senate is not in order. >> the senate will be in order. senator from north dakota. >> madame president i asked senator durbin be recognized following my presentation. >> without objection. >> madame president i just want to compliment senator don for his work on this bill and senator enzi and so many others. i want to make sure the record notes something we just agreed to today. symbol wondered what has happened to the legislation i indicated i would offer on this piece of -- on the bill of which we had a cloture vote. the real importation of prescription drugs. now, i intended to offer on this. i have received from the majority leader a commitment that put on the calendar under rule 14 and brought to the u.s. senate for a vote and he will do that very soon. on that basis, i voted for cloture. i know my colleague senator snowe, senator mccain and senator stabenow and many others feel very strongly about this, as to why. we've been at this eight or ten years. it's been a long, long time and the support allowing theory importati

we were still able to complete the senate consideration, and the senate confirmed john roberts as chief justice of the united states 72 days after he was initially designated to be the associate justice. we did this despite the fact that the initial nomination was withdrawn and only shortly before his hearing he was renominated to serve as the chief justice of the united states, and we did this despite the terrible aftermath of hurricane katrina, where everybody, republicans and democrats alike, agreed that we should hold back a week on the hearings so that we could all concentrate the nation's resources on hurricane katrina, and so that required a week's delay, and then 72 days after, we followed the same schedule, 72 days after judge sotomayor was designated to join the supreme court, and without the week we had with katrina. both republicans and democrats ask questions, raise concerns, evaluate the nominee. our republican colleagues say they intend to ask her about her judicial philosophy. now, it doesn't take four months to prepare to ask these questions. in fact, most have already

president, senator from alabama. i want to thank senator mcconnell for his leadership in so many ways, but in particular his concern that he's shown repeatedly on the united states judiciary. he's from a member of the judiciary committee, and he takes these issues seriously, and i think it is important that we all do so. i have to say that i'm disappointed that this morning that we learned from media reports, i did, that the chairman of the judiciary committee, senator layly, announced we would begin the hearing on july 13th on judge sotomayor. i believe that's too early. i don't believe it's necessary. it is far more important that we do this matter right than we do it quick. when the announcement was made, president obama said that the time we sl look to was october 1, when the new supreme court term starts. and i think that always was an achieveable goal, and it is something i said we could achieve and do it in the right way. the question is, can we get all this consumer done in this rush-rush fashion. it will be

. >> senator jenkins. >> no. >> senator berkeley. >> no. >> senator whitehouse. >> no. >> senator encely. >> aye. >> senator greggg. >> no. >> senator alexander. >> [ inaudible ]. >> senator mccain. >> [ inaudible ]. >> senator hatch. >> no by proxy. >> senator mutuali in in ing -- >> no by proxy. >> test eign ayes, 13 nays. >> number 72. >> coburn amendment number 72. >> mr. chairman? since we decided we didn't like my idea of sending it all back to states, what this is is a compromise that says, perhaps we would allow hersa to contract in the states for states to put all -- funnel all their stuff into their three most areas of acute short aage. all we're saying with this is, whatever the title is that we've got, whatever we do, this allows hersa to form a contract with the state to funnel all these monies into their three or more acute shortages. we still get money into the state but we add some flexibility into the state based on differing state needs. i think this will give flexibility to accomplish what senator murray is trying to accomplish. it still has control. it allows hersa to

chairman, i was moved by both the senators, senator mcconnell and senator alexander's discussion of this issue, you described it as a house matter. i believe the house has made its own decision. i think we'll see by a vote that it's different than that which you are concluding. unless aisle mistaken that the second circuit has already acted, they've upheld the lower court's decision, i can't speak for the aclu, but i can speak for my members in the house we feel strongly that this bill was designed to be a bill to support the troops and without this amendment, i think we're going exactly the wrong direction. i urge that members at least on this side to support ms. granger's amendment. >> does the gentleman -- is the gentleman from california saying he'll vote for the bill if this amendment is in the bill? >>ville to see what else -- >> the greatest danger we face is not passing this bill. we have money for the shortfall, we have money for military pay shortfall stop-loss t.b.i. not passing the bill is the greatest danger. it has to be passed by july 1. we don't have the votes in the hous

under the previous order the president shall be notified of the senate's action and the senate will return to legislative session. the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 84, h.r. 2918, an act making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year if ending september 30, 2010 and for other purposes. mr. reid: madam president, there will be at least one more vote today. members are advised. senator nelson should be here momentarily to start managing the legislative branch appropriations bill. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. nelson: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be vitiated. i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. nelson: madam president, it is my understanding there is an amendment already at the desk. the presiding officer: that is correct. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nebraska, mr. nelson, proposes an am

>> aye. >> senator hagen? >> no. >> senator enzi? >> know. >> senator gregg? >> no. >> senator alexander? >> no by proxy. >> 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 dif

quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, what is the parliamentary situation? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. leahy: madam president, i ask consent that the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, for the sake of my colleagues, i want to talk about the time of the hearing of the sonia sotomayor nomination. i talked with the distinguished ranking member last week on this -- on this schedule and i would note the concerns he had raised. but i'm announcing today that the senate judiciary committee will hold the confirmation hearing on the nomination of judge sonia sotomayor to be associate justice of the united states supreme court on july 13th. that's a reasonable schedule. it will be the middle of next month. it's in line with past experience. it's going to allow several more weeks for committee members to prepare for the hearing. several more weeks that if i held the hearing this month, and there's no reason

a senator: will the senator yield? the presiding officer: the senator from california. [inaudible] mrs. boxer: i would wonder if she could expand her request and say upon finishing if i could have just about five minutes. mrs. shaheen: i'm delighted to do that for the -- my colleague from california. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. [inaudible] the presiding officer: the senator from california has requested five minutes. a senator: i've been waiting for awhile. [inaudible] a senator: go ahead. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: i would make an apology to my colleague. we're here quickly to speak about a very important issue, a murder of a doctor. i didn't want it to be interruptive. but can i make another u.c. that following my remarks, that senator carper be recognized for -- mr. gregg: well, madam president, reserving the right to object. as i understand it, we're supposed to be moving to the supplemental and that there's a unanimous consent agreement which

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 senators who were administered this oath that they must now sign the oath book which is at the desk before leaving the chamber. on behalf of myself and the distinguished republican leader, mr. mcconnell, i send to the desk a resolution that provides for the issuance of a summons to judge samuel b. kent, for judge kent's answer to the articles of impeachment against himself and for a replication by the house, and ask for its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: senate res. 202, to provide for issuance of a summons and for related procedures concerning the articles of impeachment against samuel b. kent. the presiding officer: the question is on agreeing to the resolution. all those in favor say aye. opposed nay. the ayes have it.

senator sanders? >> no by proxy. >> senator brown? senator casey? senator hagen? senator murkley?senator whitehouse? >> senator gregg? >> aye. >> senator also expander? >> aye by proxy. >> senator isakson? >> aye by proxy. >> senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator hatch. >> aye. >> senator roberts? >> aye by proxy. >> chairman kennedy? >> no by proxy. >> the vote is ten ayes, 13 nays. >> the amendment is defeated. senator murkley. >> thank you. i'm pleased to offer murkley amendment number one. this is po focussed on facilitating the ability of mothers to continue breast feeding after they go back to work. there are two fundamental reasons that this is very important. the first is that a very high percentage of mothers are working. and the second is breast feeding is of huge value to the health of our children. so let me address those points in just a little bit more detail. currently 72% of mothers work full time. the fastest growing segment of the u.s. workforce is women with children under 3 years of age. many women are in a situation where they need to return to work in a

i strongly agree with senator balk and senator grassley, we need a bipartisan bill. many democrats and republicans, we need a bipartisan bill. my fear is if we don't have a bipartisan bill we will not be successful. while there's -- most of the media coverage of the health care debate is focusing on the conflict, should we have a public plan or not? tax exclusion? what portion of our benefits should be excluded from taxation? should there be employer mandate? setting that aside, but there is huge agreement on a bunch of things that are important that are going to save money, save lives, reduce costs and provide better health care. make it possible for businesses, large and small, but especially small businesses, to get interest a purchasing pool to be able to take advantage of lower rates and better choices of benefits for their folks. moving toward chronic care. to make sure we're -- people who have diets do not have to wait until they are really sick and have to have arms, legs or feet amputated but take care early on. the purchasing pools that we will create under

>> snow. >> senator bingasman. >> no senator brown. >> no, senator casey? >> no. >> senator hagen? >> no by proxy. >> senator enzi. >> aye. >> senator gregg. >> aye. >> senator bird. >> aye by proxy. >> senator mccain. >> aye by proxy. >> senator coburn? >> aye by proxy. >> 13 nos and ten yays. >> 13-10 was

the senate, mr. president, functions on comity and cooperation, and the majority leader and i are a big part of that every day, trying to respect each other's needs and try to make the senate function appropriately. here the democratic majority is proceeding, in my view, in a heavy-handed fashion, completely unnecessary, and is basically being dismissive of the minority's legitimate concerns for a fair and thorough process. there's no point in this. it serves no purpose other than to run the risk of destroying the kind of comity and cooperation that we expect of each other here in the senate, all of which was granted in the case of chief justice roberts and justice alito. so let me be clear, mr. president, because of what our democratic colleagues are doing and the way they are doing it, it will now be much more difficult to achieve the kind of comity and cooperation on this and other matters that we need and expect around here as we try to deal with the nation's business. i would hope they'd reconsi

senate floor. passions that abolitionist senator charles sumner delivered a rousing speech on the senate floor called the crime against kansas accusing proslavery senators of siding with slavery and in retaliation congressman brooks attacked and beat charles sumner senseless with a cane, an issue of high memory on this floor, even still today. following on june 2, 1856, and there was retaliation, the battle of blackjack in my state ensued, it is widely believed is the first conflict between free state supporters led by john brown and proslavery supporters as well as one of the first battles of the civil war. these things continued until my state came on into the union. i do want to conclude at this point in time with noting just the importance of apologies. as i mentioned at the outset, they are difficult and they are important and they are hard to do, and they are significant. today we right that wrong of not offering an apology previously. today we move forward in the spirit of unity. today we mo

daschle and senator dole, senator baker and senator mitchell.demise said at a breakfast meeting for members to meet with them to have a discussion about their various ids which could be helpful and do that maybe in the middle of next week and see how things are moving along and chat with mike enzi in terms of timing. but let me turn to senator mikulski and thank her immensely for the job that tom harkin and jeff bingaman and patty murray have done all along with others in developing these ideas and quality prevention coverage as well as workforce issues. i'm going to ask senator mikulski to lead the debate on this and we recognize her. >> thank you very much senator dodd and good morning to all of my colleagues here this morning we are taking up title to, the quality section. and after that i believe senator dodd it wants to proceed and prevention. these two titles go hand-in-hand and even interface with each other. once you hear the conversation we've had over the last several days has been related to the cost of health care. there is no doubt

. >> senator murray. >> no, by proxy. >> senator reed. >> no. >> senator sanders. >> no. >> senator brown. >> -- >> senator casey. >> no. >> senator higgens. >> no, by proxy. >> senator murphy. >> no. >> senator whitehouse. >> no. >> senator enzi? >> aye. >> senator greg. >> aye by proxy. >> senator alexander. >> aye by proxy. >> senator burress. >> aye by proxy. >> senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator mikowski. >> aye by proxy. >> senator roberts. >> aye. >> chairman kennedy. >> no, by proxy. >> the ayes are 10, nays are 15. i thank our colleagues. are there further amendments to title two? >> i think senator coburn. >> tom? >> could i inquire. senator mikulski was very straightforward and honest about what was really intended in the cer stuff. and when she was asked by senator greg in our kind of roundtable about what their intention were to really tell a difference between, you know, i just have some questions so i can understand. i think we use -- i can't remember the examples. maybe it was claritin and allegra. i think he used one of the other. let's say cer comes out and says

senators sar bain -- senator sanders, i think, answered that clearly. how well these programs are managed is very important. i authentic your analogy to use the suggestion where fraud and abuse is occurring is misplaced. department of labor is a key enforcement agent. as of may 2009, a month ago, they initiated 768 and 207 criminal investigations obtaining monetary penalties of more than $205 million. they currently have 73 civil and 60 criminal investigations that are ongoing. criminal activities often organized crime operations result in employers and individuals losing millions. organized crime is not employees of medicare or medicaid, it's the people taking advantage of the system and scamming it at the disadvantage of people who count on these programs. the criminal division to the extent i'm aware -- there may be exceptions of this and if there are, it's important for us to know it, are investigating employees of the department of health and human services or the medicare program itself. i suspect most of these cases are focusing on nongovernmenta

we're going to vote at 5:30 to say no senators, no senator corker, no senator alexander, no senator bennett. we're going to say no to the other senators. you can't continue to debate. you can't continue to offer your amendment. we're going to obstruct your right to do that. we're going to keep you from representing the people from tennessee, the people of utah, the other people you were sent to represent. we're going to is to be the the debate, stop the amendment. that's the tyranny of the majority that alexis de tocqueville envisioned. that's not the way the senate has been running this year. the senators made a good-faith example of saying we're going to have some amendments. that means we're going to have amendments some of us don't really want to vote on them. there have been some i didn't want to vote on, some offered by people on my side of the aisle, some over there. but that's what we do in the united states senate. so why are we doing this? why are we saying suddenly no amendments? so i would hope that the senators, all of us, would agree that at 5:30 we should vote "no" -- we shou

the senator from oklahoma, senator inhofe, has made some comments on the floor of the senate that are either wrong on facts or, i think, wrong in terms of the judgment politically. and i want to say up front, as my colleague has said, i enjoy my conversations and my relationship with the senator enormously. we're both pilots. he flies often, much more frequently than i do these days, but we both share a passion for flight and for different types of airplanes, and i love talking to him about them. i wish he were really up to state-of-the-art with respect to the science on global climate change. he made a number of comments on the floor of the senate which senator boxer and i just have to set the record straight on. number one, suggesting that the science is somehow divided -- that is -- that's myth. it's wishful thinking, perhaps, on the part of some people. and i suppose if your definition of "divided" is that you got 5,000 people over here and two people over here who want to put together a point of view that is usually encouraged and in fact paid for by a particular industry or some

particularly to senator dodd. i boil this issue down to almost one sentence: i remember sitting in front of the "help" committee in the house of representatives many years ago and seeing the tobacco company executives stand in front of us, raise their right hand and swear to tell the truth and they didn't exactly tell the truth when they talked about nicotine not being an addiction but i learned one simple concept that we have known this number for years, 400,000 americans die every year from tobacco-related illness. that means on the average more than 1,000 americans die every single day from tobacco-related illnesses. no if you are a tobacco executive, mr. president, what you think about is this: you've lot 4 hundred dho 400,000 custou need to replenish your base much what do you do? you need to find 400,000 new customers every year. you don't go to people of senator dodd's and my generation. you don't go, even to my children's age group, they are in their late 20's. you aim your marketing campaign at the young

i've been working with senator blanch lincoln of arkansas, senator snowe of maine, senator klobuchar of minnesota, to come up with a plan so that the small business owners will be able to afford health insurance. and i'm happy to say that at least at this moment in time there's an indication the finance committee is considering our bill as part of their overall work product. just as important as keeping your health plan, if you like it, if you're a small business owner, you find your health premiums have increased 200% because you have one sick employee or one sick baby born to one of the families of your employees, we want to make sure you're no longer subject to those unfair practices of raising premiums for that kind of situation. in today's system at the end of the contract small businesses are really at the mercy of insurance companies who are in it for profit. earlier this week, i talked about a small business man in springfield, my hometown, who in the span of just a few years have seen his insurance premiums increase by 500% though he's never turned in a claim. he's been forc

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: i just want to confirm and agrgr with the majority leader and our chairman in terms of what they said. bottom line here: this is a nomination that should be easy to study up on. the record is public. the record has been ailable from the day her name was nominated. and there are not thousands and thousands of pages that we given to us at the end of the day, as i kno my colleague, the chairman, has said. i'd like to make one other point here. i know that my colleague, our ranking minority member, mr. sessions said, alito took some 90 days. that is true. but that included both the thanksgiving and christmas breaks. if you look at the actual working days, it was much shorter as it has been for every other justice. and let me just repeat, if we were to do what the minority ader asked and not vote on this nominatn until well after the september break, it would be the longest nomination proceeding that we've had for the most public, most available, most conci record. this is not som

senate. mr. voinovich: madam president, i rise today again to call attention to the irresponsible and reckless fiscal path we find ourselves as a nation and to urge my colleagues to act now to take the first step toward meaningful, comprehensive tax and entitlement reform through the enactment of the saving america's fiscal future commission act. and i introduced with senator joe lieberman. and i urge my colleagues to take the time to read a recent letter from senator lieberman and i urging their support of this legislation. the safe commission has broad bipartisan support outside of congress, including the peter j. peterson foundation, the business round-table, the concord coalition, the national federation of independent business, the brookings institution. i think if you can get concord coalition and brookings institution to support a piece of legislation, it's got to be pretty bipartisan and fair. and also the committee for a responsible federal budget. all of these back the safe commissi

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. a senator: mr. president, i thank the leader, for reading the letter i sent to him some time ago and i want to thank him for actually trying to bring forth an appropriations bill. i hope that we can figure out some resolve to this. i think it's very important to our country that we actually go through an appropriations process that's thoughtful and i thank you for attempting to do that today. mr. reid: will my friend yield for a brief moment? mr. corker: yes. mr. reid: i want to go to the bill. i want to follow regular order. that's what i was asked to do. and i'm happy to have my staff work through night to see if we can agree on a finite list of amendments. but senator nelson is the man to do that. he's a wonderful person, i've already said. i'm just disappointed that it is such a struggle to get things done. mr. corker: mr. president, if i could talk back to the respected leader. i thank you for bringing it forth. i do think it's important that we work through eight bills before the recess ends o

in the "help" committee, senator kennedy, senator dodd, senator enzi -- senator enzi serves on both committees -- are reflecting the same kind of good will. i've told the leaders of both of these committees, i'm going to do everything i can to bring to them the ideas that i've outlined today, that have strong bipartisan support, that have been scored by the congressional budget office as saving money and pushing the cost curve downward. i have great confidence in the leaders of those two committees because they are showing they want to spend the time to bring the united states senate together. a lot of us on this floor -- i see the distinguished senator from mai -- have worked together on health care over a lot of years and a lot of issues. this is a historic opportunity. this is the place, the united states senate, this is the time to get it done, and i believe democrats and republicans coming together can make it happen. mr. president, with that, i yield the floor. ms. snowe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. snowe: i ask unanimous consent to speak for 15 minu

page -- "senate g.o.p. still saying no." republican senators said this last week, one of the newspapers that covers capitol hill, roll call. and i quote, democrats need to know when they bring the bills up, we're going to extend debate as long as we can, even if we can't win it. end of quote. so i say to this republican senator and automatic republican senators, this isn't a game. i say to those watching and listening today, the next time republicans try out their stale, standard talking points about congressional approval ratings or the inefficiency of government, pay attention to see whether they also quote the fellow republican senator who admits they're not here to work. these partisan tactics have consequences. these consequences will be evident on every kitchen table, every family budget and every american's peace of mind. mr. president, i encourage republicans to finish this legislation. i've said if there are germane amendments they file under, we'll -- even though we have no obligation to do that,

and senator coburn and senator hatch is coming with one as senator wyden and senator bennett which has republican as well as democratic support which would be a better place from which to begin this discussion. as we have been sitting today what we hope our goals and i think the chairman is right, our goal sometimes sound pretty similar. if i ever listing them i would say as we go to work on health care these were the things i like to be able to say to the american people, we're interested in all 300 million of new, not just the 47 million who don't have health insurance. we want to make sure each has a health-care plan you can afford. we want to make sure is a plan in which you and your doctor made the decisions, not washington d.c.. we want to make sure is a plan that emphasizes prevention and wellness. we hear a lot of that here. we want to make sure it's a plan that gives low-income americans the same kind of health plan that most americans already have usually to their employer. we would like to make sure that it doesn't make it harder for american businesses to compete in the wor

i have said in the senate oftentimes on the floor of this great body, that we senators should be the conscience of the nation. as we were called upon to do. and there have been occasions when this senate, republicans and democrats alike, united have shown they can be the conscience of the nation. i would say this is one time we should rise above partisanship and be that conscience when i met with judge sotomayor last week, i asked her about her approach to the law. she answered that, of course, one's life experience shapes who you are. but ultimately and completely her words: as a judge you follow the law. there is not one law from -- for one race or another, there is not 1 color for one or another, there is not one law for those who belong to one political party or the other. there's one law for all americans. she made it very emphatic there's a judge -- as a judge you follow that one law. there is only one law. we all know that. she said ultimately and completely a judge has to follow the law no matter what their upbringing has been. that is the kind of fair and impartial judging t

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 t

brown. >> no. >> senator casey. >> no. >> senator occasikagen. >> no, by proxy. >> senator murphy. >> no. >> senator whitehouse? >> no. >> senator enzi. >> aye. >> senator staalexander. >> aye by proxy. >> senator bird. >> aye by proxy. >> senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator mikulski? >> aye by proxy. >> senator kennedy? >> no, by proxy. >> i thank the clerk. further amendments, senator robert, you had an amendment you wanted to raise or senator enzi. >> i have one i would like to discuss based on what we discussed over the weekend. that would be enzi amendment number 2. >> clerk will distribute that amendment list. >> this is something i've been working on with senator bachus for a long time and he and i have agreed on a bill and it gets into the same area of liability. we need to make sure that there's some reasonable about the for people that have been injured to get paid and to get paid quickly, but there also needs to be some protection for the doctors to make sure they stay in the field. so we've come up with an award of grants to the states development implementation a

the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. a senator: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. under the previous order the question occurs on the motion to waive all points of order under rule 44. the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

officer: senator nelson, the senate is currently in a quorum call. mr. nelson: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed. .the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. nelson: thank you. i rise to discuss a sense-of-the-senate resolution that i proposed with several colleagues to address the government's recent move to take significant ownership stakes in two icons of american business: chrysler and general motors. joining me as cosponsors are senators collins, landrieu, klobuchar, and mil and mccaskild makes clear the federal government is a temporary shareholder in g.m. and chrysler. and that it should divest its shareholder position as expeditiously as possible. no one ever wanted the government to be in the car business but the alternative was worse and the turmoil in the auto industry extends far beyond detroit as most machines know. dealerships -- as most americans know. dealerships across my state alone are feeling the impact of decisions made by auto dealer somes. chrysler is terminating franchise dealerships wi

much, senator rockefeller.r position ss chairman of the -- as chairman of this committee is one that gives us encouragement that we can achieve the goal of ours of having a more important rail leg tour transportation system. we thank you for your encouragement. senator hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

i'm worried about think the senat senator, senator mikulski said well established principles and i'm talking about cer, obviously. and nobody could be opposed to that. and the senator, she and i have worked on nurse legislation and ever since i've had the privilege of being on this committee. and on other committees, i have nothing but the highest regard for her and who could be opposed to well established principles? who sets these principles? who does the research to basically come up with best practices? that defines what's in that pasture of accepted practices and what is not? as senator henrik stensonsenato why i said pasture because he's from wyoming. if the cer well established principles are within this framework. that provider knows if he or she strays into the next pasture in which he or she thinks that the patient and because of that person's experience and medical profession, should be done, they're not going to do it for fear of several things. i don't know what cms is going to do to them that if fact, well, number one, you don't get paid, but number two, i hadn't though

enzi, senator bunning, senator coburn, senator hagan. in fact, an amendment offered by senator enzi and i reached an agreement on that, and regrettably -- hopefully we can fix it another time. that's an example of what happened when we weren't able to get the unanimous consent to go forward. nonetheless, i would hope the substitute would be adopted, cloture would be invoked and we could schedule a vote for final passage, as i believe we will, in the next day. this is important. a lot of work has been done on this bill. senator durbin, our friend from illinois, just pointed out, this is work that has gone on for a decade between republicans and democrats. it is a bipartisan bill. we spent two days on markup, despite the efforts of over the last seven or eight years in the "help" committee, considering amendments, adopting some, accepting some that brought us to the position we are in today with this legislation. as i've said over and over again over the last number of weeks, as we've considered this bill this is an unprecedented action th

-- and the senate proceed to s. res. 142. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 142, designating july 25, 2009, as national day of the american cowboy. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to s. res. 171. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 171, commending the people who have sacrificed their personal freedoms to bring about democratic change in the people's republic of china and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask that a resolution be a a-- agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i a

by proxy. >> senator reed? senator brown? senator casey?>> aye. >> senator haguen. >> senator murkley. senator enzi? >> aye by proxy. >> senator alexander? >> aye. >> senator burr? senator isakson? senator mccain? >> aye by proxy. >> senator coburn? >> no. >> senator roberts? >> aye by proxy. >> chairman kennedy? >> aye by proxy. i want to recommend that all future amendments be offered by senator sanders. very good, senator. lamar alexander, you're up. >> thanks, mr. chairman. i have an amendment to title three, section 311. the purpose of it is to make sure that the right choices program which is in that title doesn't require the states to spend any money on it, and this is a relatively small item, probably, but i would like to make a larger point in making my proposal, if i could say just a word about it. >> certainly. >> we have talked a lot here about cost and usually the cost is described in terms of cost to the federal government, and the cbo, congressional budget office, score has said that the kennedy bill even without three of its

that's where this senator stands on the issue. senator brown. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i support mccain amendment and oppose any second degree amendment. i've been through this as john as 1 1/2 decades working with john on these and patent issues, too, that pharma seems to, even when we went to battle they seem to win the war. any weakening language does two things. one, it denies these cost savings to consumers and second, it's got something about public safety as john points out. it denies savings to consumers and only doesn't save us the money it would save if we were to do this right. for years, several years when what is in the house of representatives, i represented a district in northern ohio about four hours from windsor, ontario. i used to take bus loads of ohio consumers, mostly elderly, but not all, to canada to buy drugs. it was a peculiar thing for a federal official in one country to take people to another country to buy prescription drugs, the same prescription drugs they could have bought in a local drug store, same brand names, same box even, the same -

senator corker? >> i'll let him ask his first question and come back. >> he thinks so highly of you. very smart of you, senator warner. >> i'm learning, mr. chairman. i'm learning. but we pressed -- we were very concerned and i think a lot of folks were very concerned about the whole aig situation. we were concerned about the fact that 100% payoffs with the counterparties with aig, and no haircut taking and secretary geithner said he didn't have authority and now there's a precedent set and consequently even if we tried to give him authority perhaps it couldn't be fully utilized. that brings me to what senator schumer raised earlier, which is as we think about a repayment pattern from the financial institutions that received t.a.r.p. funds, we know they want to pay back these dollars. we know many of them want to pay them back as soon as possible. secretary geithner said as these banks start paying back, at least initially was his attempt to take back not only -- let them repay but also kind of wash

the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i renew my that that request to speak in morning business for 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. durbin: for the last month the republican leader from kentucky has come to the floor and argued that we should not move detainees currently in guantanamo, into the united states, even for trial. luckily, the president and the attorney general have the head of the joint military chiefs of staff have come to the conclusion that it's in the best interests of the united states' safety and security that one of these notorious terrorists be brought to the united states for trial. and so it has been announced today that mr. ahmaz ghalani is being brought to the united states, to new york, for trial. luckily this administration is not following the advice and counsel of senator mcconnell and some on his side. it is time for this man to face a trial. what is he being charged with? he's being charged as one of those involved in the 1998 embassy attacks in a

jeff sessions, a ranking member of the senate judiciary committee and democratic senator , dick durbin. later, charles evans, the president of the chicago federal reserve on the economy. >> today on american and the courts, a few commencement addresses at this year's graduation ceremonies given by supreme court justice, anthony kennedy. and georgia supreme court justice -- that is on 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> people do not want to think as the conservation as a policy as much as a passion. he put aside 240 million acres of wild america. now as people are talking about environmentalism and green movements, roosevelt is becoming the key figure to understand because he was the only politician of his day to absorb dar went and who understood biology and birds migratory patterns. -- to understand darwin and biology. and he actually did something. >> the first of two hours with douglas brinkley on wilbert s. warriors. sunday night at 8:00 p.m. on c- span, for download the c-span podcast. >> senate judiciary committee chairman, patrick leahy on supreme court nominee, judge sonia sotomay

the president sent a letter to senator baucus and senator kennedy saying that health care reform must not add to our deficits of the next few years. he said we should only spend a dollar we say. are we to assume that pay go should apply to the health care reform bill? >> the estimates over a 10 year time frame are a bit difficult . ongoing concerns and it's something i think the chair man shares is currently there is no scoring for instance for any prevention and wellness strategy. i am not sure there is an expert who believes it won't save money, and yet it is small scored. so whether or not the kind of transformational health reform will actually have a dollar for dollar set off on day 1i can't tell you -- >> so paygo doesn't apply to the bill we are considering? >> senator, i think it does. i haven't seen the outlines exactly what the president is proposing. i know there was discussion of whether or not what is the year ten for instance for the health reform bill? is it ten years from today it starts or the date passes? and if it is there's lively debate about strategies whether th

you, senator bennett. i want to thank senator bennett and senator bunting for their leadership on nuclear power. this is a hearing of the republican conference. we actually unanimously agree that we want clean air and that the sensible way to deal with that is through 100 new nuclear power plants, but we hope that a growing number of our democratic colleagues will agree with us and that the president will pick up the challenge as well. because the best way for us to be able to build 100 new nuclear power plants in 20 years is presidential leadership, is to ask the nuclear regulatory commission and to ask the department of energy to give him a plan, the president, and say, what would it take to do it, begin to knock the obstacles out of the way. it was encouraging that sext chou said something the other day about moving ahead with loan financing for four nuclear power plants. i'll be interested in what the panelists have to say about. that but that's just the beginning. we need a great deal more. one of the

the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 1350 to amendment numbered 1349. mr. reid: i send a cloture petition to the desk. does the chair have it? thank you. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on s. 1023, the travel promotion act of 2009. signed by 17 senators as follo follows -- mr. reid: i would ask further reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now have a motion to recommit with instructions that are -- that motion is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, news of recommit the bill to the committee on commerce, science, and transportation to report back forthwith with an amendment numbered 1351. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays on that motion. the