[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 167 (Wednesday, December 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14396-S14398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2005
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we have a lot to do in wrapup tonight. As
we get those papers ready and bring the year to a close, I want to look
back over what we have been able to accomplish and then look ahead at
what we can expect.
In a letter to John Adams in September 1817, Thomas Jefferson, our
third President, wrote:
A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be
always valuable.
This past year has presented far more than a morsel. We have been
witness to an abundance of extraordinary historic milestones, from the
Iraqi elections and Lebanon's cedar revolution, the selection of a new
Pope in Rome, and a new Chief Justice to lead the Supreme Court to the
outpouring of generosity for the American people, first for the tsunami
survivors, and then to their fellow citizens on the gulf coast.
Mr. President, 2005 has been a year of outsize events.
I commend to my colleagues an article that appeared in Sunday's
Washington Post. It was on the continuing success of the Army in
reenlisting our GIs. It appeared on A-27 entitled ``GIs in Iraq
Choosing to Re-up.''
Across Iraq, U.S. soldiers on the front lines are reenlisting by the
thousands. Since 2001, the Army has surpassed its retention targets by
wider and wider margins each year. Conjuring up vivid scenes of daring
and service, the Post reports that:
On palace rooftops and pockmarked streets, GIs are
reenlisting in rituals that range from dramatic to harrowing.
Soldiers have taken the oath in gaudy former residences of
Saddam Hussein and in the spider hole near Tikrit where the
gray-bearded fugitive was captured in December of 2003 . . .
Despite the risks and long months away from home, many
soldiers . . . say serving in Iraq gives them a powerful
sense of purpose.
So during this holiday season, I ask every American to offer their
prayers, to offer their thanks to these brave young men and women who
are risking their lives in far away lands to protect us and to provide
us security.
I am gratified by the passage of the Defense appropriations bill
tonight. This important legislation helps ensure that our armed
services will receive the resources and authorities they need to
protect America. From delivering advanced technologies to improving
personnel protection, this bill delivers crucial support for our
courageous men and women in uniform.
While our troops are protecting us abroad, the PATRIOT Act is
protecting us here at home. Tonight we passed a 6-month extension to
this critical legislation. By unanimously and in a bipartisan way
agreeing to a 6-month extension, the Senate reaffirmed that the PATRIOT
Act is one of our most important tools in the war on terror both now
and into the future.
Yes, we need to improve that act and, yes, no longer can we tolerate
obstruction to that improvement of the act, but in a bipartisan way we
came together tonight to say that despite a lot of passions and
statements that we could rise above it, put forth a 6-month extension,
and then hopefully be able to address and improve the PATRIOT Act.
It has been an intense and productive year for the Senate. We were
able to meet many of our goals to deliver meaningful solutions to the
needs, wants, and desires of the American people. Strength and security
throughout were our guiding principles. We rolled up our shirt sleeves
and tackled a number of fundamental structural issues that were driving
up gas prices, that were inhibiting and constricting innovation, and
that were threatening America's security.
To strengthen America's economic security, we passed a sweeping
deficit reduction bill today that for the first time in 8 years cuts
the growth of mandatory spending. This was a huge victory for the
American people. It was a huge victory for fiscal responsibility. It
was a victory for the American taxpayer. It shows that we are serious
as a body about fiscal restraint, about cutting out wasteful Washington
spending. Because of these critical reforms, America will be in a
stronger position to meet our obligations, especially to the baby
boomers who, as we all know, are just beginning to retire, especially
to that doubling of the seniors in our population today, especially to
the workforce who will be supporting those seniors in the years to
come.
This year, we also passed a tax cut extension. We also passed an
energy bill, a major highway bill. We addressed free trade through the
Central American Free Trade Act. We addressed pensions. Just today, we
passed SMART grants, which actually give up to $8,000 over 2 years to
disadvantaged or low-income students, to Pell-income students, to
encourage them to major in math, science, and engineering, those fields
which we know are important to job creation in the future.
By facing these issues head on, by responding to them, by
legislating, we are making America less dependent on foreign oil, more
prepared to compete with India and China in that global marketplace. We
helped rebuild that infrastructure to support and promote our economic
growth.
We also addressed a problem that has been hanging over the small
business community and the courts for years--the litigation lottery
lawsuit abuse. We all know that frivolous litigation has been driving
up health care costs. It
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has been driving up consumer prices for everything from toothpaste to
blue jeans. It has been clogging our courts. It has been making our
health care more expensive, and that drives people to the ranks of the
uninsured. It generally wastes our taxpayer dollars, taxpayer dollars
that can be spent more productively.
For years, Republicans have fought for reform, have talked reform,
but in this Congress we have delivered on litigation reform, on lawsuit
abuse reform. We passed class action reform. We passed bankruptcy
reform. We passed gun manufacturing liability reform. That is three
reforms in terms of liability. Tonight, just a few hours ago, we passed
very targeted vaccine manufacturing protections in emergency situations
to make America safer, to help rebuild that manufacturing capacity
which has been decimated over the past 20 years. This brings fairness
to our system. This brings rationality to the system. This slows down
the litigation lottery that injects inequities into our system. As a
result, appropriate compensation will go to the people who really need
it. Those resources which are wasted and which are taken out of the
system are directed to those people who do deserve appropriately to be
compensated. These are the economic issues.
At the same time we were addressing those economic issues, we also
continued to focus on securing our homeland, focusing on our homeland
security, strengthening our national security.
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to travel in part as a
Senator but in larger part probably as a physician to Sri Lanka, where
I had the chance to witness the devastation that occurred as a result
of that natural tsunami disaster. In the wake of that particular
disaster, in this body we passed a generous relief package that helped
the victims recover and rebuild. This critical help paid immediate
dividends in lives saved and--we cannot dismiss this--it helped improve
the way others around the world look at us. They recognize America's
good will. They recognize America's compassion. I say this because I
think it particularly is important among Muslims in Southeast Asia.
Likewise, our outpouring of aid and assistance to Pakistan following
their earthquake disaster has significantly improved our standing in
that country.
Disaster, as we all know, unfortunately, was a dominant thing
throughout 2005, and here at home we were hit through Katrina and Rita
by the worst natural disaster in the history of this country. Hundreds
of thousands of residents across Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi
were flooded from their homes. Katrina devastated 90,000 square miles.
That is an area larger than the United Kingdom.
A few hours ago, on the Senate floor, Senator Stevens was recounting
his experiences having spent several days along that gulf coast. About
3 to 4 days after the levees broke in New Orleans, I, too, had the
opportunity to be in the airport as patients were being brought in and
people were being evacuated out of New Orleans. I had the opportunity
to talk to people on stretchers who 3 days before had homes that they
had been in for 30, 40, 50 years. Those homes were totally washed away
and destroyed with all of their belongings. Whole towns were washed
away.
We traveled also on the first trip, as well as the second trip, to
Alabama and to Mississippi, along that entire gulf coast. One can see
the utter catastrophe of that coast, inland for miles. The Senate
immediately set to work providing aid, relief, and support, and that
continued tonight.
We passed numerous measures to help people get up off the ground and
to get their boots back on the ground and be able to reestablish some
element of normalcy and also to support the rebuilding efforts that
have begun, that will result in renewal we all know will continue long
into the future.
Tonight, as part of the Defense appropriations bill, we passed $29
billion in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita relief. We will continue to work
hard to help the citizens of the gulf coast rebuild, renew, and restore
their communities in the days ahead, in the weeks and months ahead,
and, indeed, in the years ahead. The American people stand firmly
behind their neighbors in the gulf region.
We also took action tonight to prepare for another potential disaster
that is waiting to happen, and that is the threat of avian flu. We do
not know if avian flu is going to become transmissible from one person
to another person to another, but what we do know is that it is a novel
virus. It is a new virus. It is very similar to that virus of 1918
which we know killed about 50,000 people--actually killed about 30
million to 40 million people worldwide and half a million people in
this country.
We know that novel virus we do not have any immunity to. We don't
have any natural immunity to it. We know with that novel virus today,
that people who have been infected have a 50-percent mortality rate.
One out of every two people we know were infected with that virus died.
We know that virus has jumped to other species. It jumped from avian or
birds that it starts in, to cats, and from cats we know that it has
jumped to humans. We know that 5 million--20 million birds died, and
100 million, now 200 million birds died, and it started in southeast
Asia and is now moving across to eastern Europe. We do not know if it
is going to become a pandemic, but what we do know is we are
unprepared. We know it is fast moving.
The Congressional Budget Office study the other day said if that
virus does become transmissible, and if it has the same fatality rate
and prevalence rate as that virus in 1918, the so-called Spanish flu,
the economic impact on this country could be as high as $675 billion.
The good news is we know if we become prepared, we can reduce that
markedly, and we can save lives. But we are unprepared today. How do we
respond? Again, about 2 hours ago we put in money, additional
resources, and we put in appropriate targeted liability protections to
help build our manufacturing base, and we added an element of
compensation in the event that somebody was inadvertently hurt in some
way by a vaccine or a countermeasure that was necessary in emergency
situations, they could seek and receive compensation.
We are going to be better prepared as a product of this. Whether it
is in the next 5 weeks, 5 months, or 5 years, we will be able to look
our constituents in the eye and tell them that we did the right thing
on December 21, 2005, and that help, indeed, is on the way.
Our Nation is a large nation. It is a diverse and a vibrant nation.
To meet all of these challenges before us, we need a sound government,
a strong government, an efficient government that meets its basic
obligations. Here, too, we have acted this year. We made progress. We
need a government that is smart, that is efficient, that is effective;
a government that works for the people and respects the taxpayers'
hard-earned dollar. To that end, this year we passed a budget
resolution. What is remarkable--but I am sure doesn't sound remarkable
to people across America who are viewing tonight--is the fact that we
passed all 12 appropriations bills, our spending bills, one by one,
individually, across the floor of the Senate.
It is almost embarrassing that we have to say that is a great
achievement, but indeed in this body it is a tremendous achievement
that has not been achieved in years. We passed the Health and Human
Services bill a couple of hours ago, the 12th of those bills. These are
the bills that ensure that Government is carrying out its most basic
function: to protect and serve the American people and to do so in a
fiscally responsible way.
This year we were also able to overcome partisan obstruction, which
was very frustrating, which continued for about 2\1/2\, almost 3 years.
We were able to overcome the judicial obstruction, this partisan
obstruction, and indeed successfully confirm eight Federal judges who
had previously been obstructed, who had previously been filibustered.
These judges now are serving America proudly. They allow our courts to
be able to function at full capacity and thus provide the justice that
had been lacking because of not being able to fill those seats.
Of course, this fall we had the privilege of confirming a new Chief
Justice to the Supreme Court; a man all of us have gotten to know, the
eminently qualified and highly respected Justice John Roberts.
All of this is just a partial accounting of the work that we were
able to do
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this year to strengthen America, to move us forward, to strengthen our
economic security, to strengthen our national security. In the new
year, we are going to have a lot of challenges. We have a lot to
accomplish over the next year. But I am absolutely confident that by
keeping our eye on the ball, by staying focused, by working together in
a bipartisan way we will be able to continue to cut bureaucratic
redtape, to have more efficient Government, to demonstrate more fiscal
restraint, to lower Government spending, to support our troops in the
field, and to promote policies that will make America safer and more
prosperous and healthier and stronger.
I extend my warm wishes to my colleagues for a joyous holiday season.
The holidays also are an opportunity to gather with loved ones, to
cherish achievements, and to recommit ourselves to the challenges that
lay ahead. May we all find strength and renewal in this season, and may
we all allow the good will which warms our homes during the holidays to
be shared with others--our families, our friends, our neighbors--
throughout the year to come.
To our colleagues, to our staff, to the pages who are here tonight,
the colleagues who hopefully are at home and in bed now, to the press
corps who has been so actively covering us up until about 15 or 20
minutes ago and are probably writing their stories right now, I wish
you all happy holidays, and to all a very Merry Fristmas.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the
quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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