and, obviously, the udal udall y has a great deal to be proud of. his father's great public srvetion his uncle's great public service and he's carrying on with that tradition, as is tom udall, my colleague from new mexico. we're very fortunate to have the udall family working hard to make this a best place, and i hope this legislation that we've introduced today can become law soon, and we will have that additional recognition for stewart udall and his contribution to the country. mr. president, let me also speak just for a moment about earth day. this is the 40th anniversary of earth day, the 40th earth day, in fact, 292nd of april. -- the 22nd of april. and i am speaking now because of mire great admiration for the work of senator gaylord nelson in establishing this earth day. i was reminded of it in two respects in the last week. one was getting to visit with his widow, carrie lee nelson, who is a great personage herself, made a great contribution to his career in public service and continues today to advocate for the same issues that he advocate

udall: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: i would ask to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection, the senator from new mexico is recognized. mr. udall: mr. president, i rise today to pay tribute to a man who served new mexico and the entire country with distinction for more than three decades in washington, a man who dedicated his life to being a champion for the least among us. that man is senator dennis chavez, the nation's longest serving hispanic u.s. senator. this month we mark the 122nd anniversary of his birth. in everything he did, senator chavez showed his concern for the underdog. he fought for public education because he knew what it could do to help the children of struggling families become successful adults. he supported farmers because he knew how difficult life can be in the small communities where the trains don't stop and the roads don't go. and he fought for civil rights because senator chavez believed that e

udall: madam president, i was the chairman on the house side of the space subcommittee and i know what space means to colorado. i know what it means to our nation. yesterday senator bennett and i had the opportunity to meet with nasa administrator, former general and now administrator charlie bolden to urge him to reevaluate the decision included in the president's budget request for nasa to terminate the constellation program. this program is developing the successor to the retiring space shuttle known as the orion capsule and the aries rocket. those two technologies will be teamed up in the planning that was brought together. now, we had a frank and productive discussion with administrator bolden. senator bennett and i discussed with him the importance of this program especially of the orion capsule to jobs in colorado and more importantly in space. general bolden assured us he wants to be flexible and work with congress on this nasa budget and that he's committed to human space flight. in other words, madam president, the president's budget request is the beginning of a long process

udall: thank you. mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that christina swallow, a fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for today. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. udall: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to introduce legislation that i believe will help improve the safety of automobile drivers and passengers. the legislation, the vehicle safety improvements act, would, among other things, require all automobiles sold in the united states be equipped with an event data recorder or e.d.r. they provide report of a vehicle's operating statistics. things like the throttle position and the speed of the vehicle. during the last seconds before and immediately after a crash. they serve a similar function as the black boxes that are in each airplane. by documenting critical information leading up to an incident. but unlike black boxes, an e.d.r. does not record the voices of the vehicle occupants. it simply preserves the vehicle's internal operating data. the information stored by an

udall: mr. president, i rise today along with many of my colleagues to speak about the critically important legislation before the senate, the bill to reform wall street and end the excesses that have sent our economy into a tailspin. having made the tough choice to fend off a collapse of our economic system, we must now look back and decide what actions are required to hold wall street accountable and put consumers back in control of their fns. -- of their finances. this congress has taken decisive action to stem the bleeding, actions that were not always comfortable but were necessary, and our economy is starting to heal. and yet, we remain at a seminal moment in our history. 1/10 of our population remains unemployed. the threat of foreclosure haunts far too many families, and american seniors are scrambling to replenish what they once considered their retirement accounts. the fault, mr. president, for this economic decline, however, does not lie at the feet of the working class or reflect the

and udall said mr. president, that's not -- this is pre-epa -- said of have jurisdiction to clean the leaks up. and johnson said god damnit, stuart, when i think of dirty water i think of you. now clean it up! [laughter] and they're began in the 60's with lady bird johnson as first lady much like michelle obama now is doing and you have secretary of an agriculture and interior during the johnson period was very proactive. i think it was quite helpful. but roosevelt's big concern is what he called what we call today nature deficiency disorder. it's a fancy term. it's the strenuous life. but the believe the all doors is part of what makes the space spirit theodore roosevelt climbed up the top of the mountain and solve no wild life and make sure we wanted to keep wild life in the appalachians and the rockies and the sierra and felt the bird life for the charming aspect of birds and because the way they help farmers eat insects so it to keep bird life and that wildlife didn't know artificial borders and i t

udall moved his cup. i would keep going. >> which is a pity.laughter] cynics senator pryor, senator mccaskill, senator brownback, senator soon and klobuchar. -- before mr. chairman and chairman genachowski good to have to be for the committee again and also want to thank you for coming to arkansas. it was a great trip and i appreciate you getting a sense of the lay of the land there. let me start with the universal service fund. i support the reform that you're talking about i'm concerned about the impact it may have on our small companies to offer land mine service because they do depend on the u.s. funding in order to provide the quality and affordable service that they do. can you walk me through quickly how the fcc plans to ensure the local carriers still get with the small local carriers get with the need to provide service in rural areas and still accomplish the goals for trying to play out speed there was an extraordinary team that worked on these issues as part of the plan to find a way where broadband communications, high-speed data co

udall: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call.the presiding officer: without objection. yew yew i rise -- mr. udall -- i rise to discuss rica, first introduced in this body 21 years ago today, proposed by the senator from utah, orrin hatch, this original legislation was a monumental step in recognizing some of the unheralded victims of the cold war era. as the united states government built up its cold war nuclear arsenal during the mid20th century, many americans paid the price with their health. some were sickened through exposure to above-ground atomic weapons tests. others were exposed to heavy doses of radiation from working in the uranium mining industry. all the while the government was slow to implement federal protections. as a result, a generation of americans who worked in the mines or lived near testing sites became sick with serious diseases like lung cancer and kidney disease and many others. much of the united states uranium development occurred on the navajo nation. that's where jobs in the mines and mills drew wor

thought we had a great team put together, between yourself, myself, and senator brown and senator udall and congressman from the first district -- the first district of america he'd like to say -- but the first district of virginia, congressman whitman, who i did not know before the trip but was very impressed with. i came away -- my general impressions of what's going on in afghanistan, and i was very skeptical when i went over there. i thought we got an honest assessment. i thought they talked about the positives, the negatives, the challenges ahead. i agree with you that i i was vy impressed with the leadership, both civilian and military, that we have in the country; impressed with the plan that they put in place; and the keys to the plan, very similar to what we had in iraq, where you have to clear -- basically provide security. and you have to hold that security, not just go and clear and leave. you have to clear and then hold it. then you have to build -- you have to get people opportunities for, you know, they're not just -- they have economic opportunities, some reason to hope.

udall moved his cup. i would keep going. >> which is a pity.[laughter] cynics senator pryor, senator mccaskill, senator brownback, senator soon and klobuchar. -- before mr. chairman and chairman genachowski good to have to be for the committee again and also want to thank you for coming to arkansas. it was a great trip and i appreciate you getting a sense of the lay of the land there. let me start with the universal service fund. i support the reform that you're talking about i'm concerned about the impact it may have on our small companies to offer land mine service because they do depend on the u.s. funding in order to provide the quality and affordable service that they do. can you walk me through quickly how the fcc plans to ensure the local carriers still get with the small local carriers get with the need to provide service in rural areas and still accomplish the goals for trying to play out speed there was an extraordinary team that worked on these issues as part of the plan to find a way where broadband communications, high-speed data c

udall: i thank senator warner for his leadership and for convening for of us today.i did want to touch on the concerns of the people of colorado in respect to the discussion we're having today. look, whe one of the fundamental roles of the united states senate is to advise and consent the president of the united states. we don't have a chance because of the slow-down tactics that have been utilized when it comes to awful these important nominees. we ought to have a debat chanceo debate on the floor of the senate. we may find that some judges don't pass muster. but they deserve an up-or-down vote. theals not happening. i noted that some of my colleagues pointed out two cases where judge thompson from rhode island for months she was stalled on the executive calendar. there was no reason. when she was finally brought to the floor, a 98-0 vote, unanimous vote. what was the problem? why couldn't she be confirmed earlier? judge keenan from your state, we will to have a cloture vote in order to bring her to the floor. four months -- 99-0 she was approved. there was no objec

and as a man who held this important job as the nation's top environmental steward, stuart udall of new mexico once said,quote, over the long haul of this planet it is the ecologists, not the bookkeepers of business, who are the ultimate accountants. thank you very much. [applause] >> governor richardson, thank you for your presentation and your great ideas. we agree with most of them. [laughter] but you were never shy. all right. i'm going to introduce the rest of the panelists, and then what i've asked the panelists to do is very briefly give us a quick overview of what they see the greatest challenges that we face in conservation and how we're going to resolve them. the first of our panelists is bill cronin, he is professor of histy and geography and environmental studies as the university of wisconsin madison. next to him is sally jewel who is the chairman of the board and ceo of rei which operates in more than half of the nation with thousands and thousands of employees. and next to her is gary meyers. i--- gary is the former -- one of the people who spawned the whole nation of las

udall: i ask that the quorum call being vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. udall: i listened intently to the presiding officer's remarks just before i took the floor and i, too, want to add my congratulations to bill george and associate myself with your remarks. i was particularly moved by the comments you made about often organized labor in this country works on behalf of all americans, all working americans, and organized labor often doesn't receive acknowledgment, sometimes receives actually the opposite, the slings and arrows that are often sent towards organized labor. and there's much that organized labor has done in the last 100 years that we take for granted in the workplace, everything from workplace safety to pension protection to the 40-hour workweek. children don't work in our factories anymore because of what organized labor did for many, many decades. so i -- again, that was very moving for me to hear, and i salute mr. george. i also took note of the mention of the six-time world champi