[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 43 (Thursday, April 6, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3199-S3201]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a 
period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 
10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we are about to close in a few moments. We 
have some business to do. But I want to comment briefly on the events 
of today with respect to what I think is tragic in the sense that we 
are, in all likelihood, not going to be able to address a problem that 
directly affects the American people.
  What the Senate does best is to identify a problem, to develop and 
take a solution through committee, and then bring that product to the 
floor of this body and allow 100 Senators--the body itself--to modify, 
to take away, or to add to that product and produce a bill. And it 
becomes especially important when you are addressing very complicated 
issues, tough issues, tough challenges that you produce a product that 
reflects the intent and the will of this entire body, the Senate.
  In this particular case, when we are discussing immigration, the 
problem has been clearly identified. Our borders are broken. Our 
immigration system does not work, Our laws that are on the books are 
not being enforced.
  Again and again, we have heard over the last 2 weeks that we are a 
nation of laws, a proud nation, a rich nation because of our immigrants 
and our history of immigrants. But with those laws not enforced, our 
workplace is not protected, and with employers not having the tools 
available to enforce those laws, with too many people living in the 
shadows, we have a set of problems that have to be addressed.
  This body has moved in the direction of addressing that in a 
comprehensive way. We developed a product in the committee, we took 
that product to the floor, but when we came to the point where the 
minority, using their rights, which I would argue is abusing those 
privileges, caused the system of deliberation and amendment to fail, 
that resulted in postponement, it resulted in blocking amendments, not 
having votes, obstruction.
  They did not allow amendments to be offered--the substantive 
amendments, the really important amendments--or to be voted on.
  Everybody watching this debate over the last week and a half asked--
we all have that telephone call or that question in town meetings: How 
in the world could the Senate possibly operate that way? How can a 
handful of Senators or a minority of Senators--fewer than 50 in this 
body--actually stop progress on an important bill?
  The American people are baffled by it, and appropriately so. The 
answer lies in that the rules of the Senate allow them to do that, and 
if those rules are used in that manner, then things can be stopped, 
postponed, and blocked.
  People call it tyranny of a minority. Is that an overstatement? Not 
really, because the tyranny means that you have something bad 
happening, and the strength is of the minority, and that has actually 
taken place. We have seen it play out over the course of the last 12 
hours, almost exactly 12 hours after a vote today to oppose a bill that 
gives illegal immigrants, undocumented people, a direct special path to 
citizenship. Many thought it would be a new day and, indeed, shortly 
thereafter, a large number, a bipartisan group of people, rallied in 
support of proceeding to an amendment put forth by Senators Hagel and 
Martinez, broadly supported with a number of cosponsors on both sides 
of the aisle.

  That amendment, coupled with the work that the committee had done to 
date, that the Senate had done, did everything pretty much in terms of 
tightening the borders, worksite enforcement, looking at 12 million 
undocumented, illegal immigrants here and saying it is not a monolithic 
group and has to be addressed in a certain way and developing a 
temporary worker program.
  However, at that point, the minority, having said the amendments 
could be

[[Page S3200]]

offered, reversed course, and over the course of today we have not had 
any amendments offered. We have had them offered--in fact, 396 
amendments are at the desk--but we are not allowed to take any of those 
amendments out and debate and vote on them. And we did not do any 
amendments today. We all know a lot of people say they will file 
amendments, and they do not ultimately even want to debate them, but 
396 amendments reflect a lot of Members with interest, on both sides of 
the aisle, with an interest in modifying or attempting to modify or 
discussing how they might modify the underlying bill.
  I have been consistent in my remarks over the last several days, 
actually at the end of last week, as well, that it is important we 
begin debate and we begin that amendment process and get votes on some 
of those amendments. People say, well, you had three votes. There are 
396 amendments, and we did have three votes. They were fairly 
noncontroversial. The problem is that we have a lot more substantial 
amendments.
  The amendment that we talked about earlier tonight, the Kyl 
amendment, was offered Wednesday of last week; and another amendment, 
the Dorgan amendment, was offered last week; and the Isakson amendment 
was offered last week. These are amendments we have not been allowed to 
vote on.
  Earlier tonight, a couple of hours ago, when the Democratic leader 
and I were both on the floor, I suggested we go ahead and take up the 
Kyl amendment. Even if we could not come to all the agreements about 
what will happen weeks or months from now, let's go ahead and take up 
an amendment and maybe we could capture the good will of the Senate, 
show progress, and after that take up the Dorgan amendment and the 
Isakson amendment, and hopefully at some point--maybe it even could 
have been now--we could see how we could proceed with other amendments.
  That proposal was refused and, thus, we are here now a couple of 
hours later. A lot of other proposals have gone back and forth, and 
without talking too much about what the Democratic leader and I have 
talked about, we have tried to put together packages or groups of 
amendments that might be considered. I have been quite open. We would 
like to see about 20 amendments, out of 396, about 20 be considered at 
some point in the future, in a package, and ultimately have passage of 
the bill after those amendments. How they fall is important, but voting 
is important. And however they fall, if we can vote on the underlying 
bill, I think it would pass. But the response to that, again, was 
``no.''
  I mention that because we have seen this flow over the course of the 
day, a lot of optimism earlier today, but now, since we have had no 
amendments over the course of today, I don't see how cloture can be 
invoked tomorrow morning. We will have to wait and see how the votes 
go, but I would think all of the people who have been denied the 
opportunity to offer their amendments are not going to want to proceed 
where, in a process, they are being shut out, totally shut out. But we 
have to wait and see how that vote goes tomorrow morning.
  Now, where do we go from here? I always say that tomorrow is a new 
day, and we do not know what exactly will happen tomorrow morning. I do 
see little progress on this bill possible tomorrow because of the 
obstruction that we have run up against.
  What is disheartening to me is that we do have a huge problem along 
our borders today. As I have said many times before, when I was last at 
the Rio Grande border, 400 people were caught that night. That means 
400 people will probably be caught tonight in that one little sector. 
But in addition to those 400 people being gone, there are probably 
about 800 or 1,200 people who are going to get through that border 
tonight--just that little sector tonight--and tomorrow night and the 
next night and the next night because we did not act and because we are 
not acting and not moving forward. I think that is a disservice to the 
people living along those borders. It is a disservice to the people who 
are going in those hospitals along the borders in the border States, 
who have to wait hours, sometimes several hours, maybe even a whole 
day, because these waiting rooms are crowded with people who have come 
illegally across the border over the preceding days.
  But we will have to see how the vote goes tomorrow morning. If 
cloture is not invoked--and I don't see how it can be, the way the 
process has proceeded--we will have a cloture vote on a strong border 
security bill, a bill that does deserve to be passed. If we cannot pass 
the comprehensive bill, because of obstruction, we will have the 
opportunity after that to vote on a strong border security bill that 
also has interior enforcement and worksite enforcement tomorrow morning 
as well.
  I do hope we can turn the corner here at some point and address these 
problems which do affect the American people. We have to stay above 
partisanship. We have to work together and be able to debate in a civil 
way. I stressed that initially when we began the debate, saying we have 
to be civil and dignified, but then I found that we were not even 
really able to debate because we have not been allowed to vote on these 
amendments.
  Mr. President, does the Democratic leader want to have any comment? 
If not, I will proceed on with business. I do not want to cut off 
anything.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I will say a few words. I wasn't planning on 
saying anything, but I think I must say something.
  Mr. President, no matter how many times I call this lectern a car, it 
does not matter, this is not a car. This is a lectern, used here in the 
Senate for us to put our papers on and deliver a speech. This is not a 
car. If I come to the Senate floor and, day after day, hour after hour, 
call this a car, it is not a car. It is a lectern.
  If I come to this Senate floor day after day and say what the 
Democrats have done is unusual, unwarranted, unbelievable, it is wrong, 
it is as wrong as this lecturn being called a car.
  Now, we are in a unique situation. The distinguished majority leader 
and I have really tried to work something out. I indicated that I 
thought it would be appropriate that we agree on who would be on the 
conference--the Judiciary Committee. It sounds reasonable.
  I also thought we should have--not that I was rushing forward with 
this, but I would agree, on behalf of my caucus, to a reasonable number 
of amendments. Mr. President, 20 or so is not a reasonable number of 
amendments. That is filibuster by amendment. It appears here what they 
want is to filibuster. They, the Republicans, want to filibuster the 
Martinez bill.
  So I do not know how much more reasonable we could be. We are united. 
We have produced votes this morning to show we are serious about 
legislation. We will continue to fight for strong border enforcement, 
comprehensive immigration reform.
  What we have suggested is reasonable. It is fair. And the 
distinguished majority leader said we will see how the vote goes. I 
think that is really important, that we see how these votes go. I would 
hope that the night will bring the confidence that we can move forward 
and invoke cloture on the Martinez bill and finish this legislation. 
There are still votes that would be valid postcloture on that.
  I also make this commitment: If cloture is not invoked--and I think 
that would be a terrible disservice to this country--I will continue to 
work on immigration reform. This is something that has to be done. It 
has to be done. The leader and I have gone back and forth so many times 
today that we are beating paths to our offices.
  I hope this legislation will move forward tomorrow. I know people 
feel that this lecturn is a chair, but it is not. This is the Senate. 
This is how it works. The way to bring all this to a close is to invoke 
cloture. And then we can all walk out and declare victory for the 
American people. This isn't a question of who filed a cloture motion or 
who allowed amendments or didn't allow amendments. This is the Senate. 
That is how it has worked for almost 220 years.
  I hope the night will bring what I think is common sense and we can 
resolve this matter. It would sure be something I would like very much.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I want to, one more time, make it clear 
that we have tried to move to take up the Kyl amendment tonight, but 
the other side refused that opportunity, and the Dorgan amendment and 
the Isakson

[[Page S3201]]

amendment, to proceed with debate. The Democratic leader and I have had 
the discussion. I want to make it clear that not supporting cloture 
tomorrow is the only way we can support our right to be able to offer 
amendments and to debate them. It is important for everybody to 
understand that because it comes on the heels of broad support for the 
underlying amendment.
  Mr. REID. If I could ask a question--pardon the interruption--that 
would be in addition to at least 17 other amendments at some time in 
the future; is that right?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the intent is to start down the path of 
amendments and allow the debate and then to allow the votes. We have 
stopped short because I have said that our side, since 396 amendments 
have been offered, needs about 20 amendments--and this doesn't have to 
be right now; this could be at some point in the future--that we could 
put into a package and then debate the bill. With that, we have not 
been able to reach agreement. That is where we are. But this 
willingness to debate and vote, I want to make it crystal clear we have 
attempted again to do that. I keep mentioning it because with cloture 
in all likelihood not being invoked tomorrow, it is solely because we 
have not been given that opportunity to offer amendments to improve the 
bill. Some of them would win; some would lose.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the majority leader yield for a question?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to.
  Mr. DURBIN. If we fail to invoke cloture tomorrow, is the majority 
leader saying we then cannot amend the Martinez substitute that is 
before us?
  Mr. FRIST. I believe that following the cloture, if cloture is not 
invoked on the Martinez amendment tomorrow, we will follow that 
immediately with a cloture vote on the bill itself, the border security 
bill.
  Mr. DURBIN. If I might ask the majority leader, if I understand it, 
it is a cloture vote on the motion to commit which would make the 
Martinez substitute the bill before us. If that cloture vote prevails, 
there is ample opportunity then to amend that substitute that is before 
us. Why does the majority leader argue that Republicans would withhold 
their votes and stop the process? The process can still go forward. 
Amendments can still be offered at that point. We have not filed 
cloture on the underlying substitute. It is only on the motion to 
commit.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the problem with tomorrow is, we will be in 
the exact same situation. If cloture is not invoked, we will have one 
amendment up. We will be exactly where we are now, with your ability to 
do what you have done, what the Democratic side has done, for the last 
week and a half, and that is not to allow amendments to come forward 
and continue to block and obstruct. That is the problem, that we can't 
come to an agreement on a package. And we have tried to bring it up 
with a group of amendments, say 20 amendments. We have tried to say 
let's take one amendment at a time. And the problem is that process is 
being thwarted, whatever technique we try.
  I will not support cloture tomorrow and I don't think our side of the 
aisle will support cloture tomorrow because it denies our Members the 
right to offer their amendments and debate them.
  Mr. REID. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will state it.
  Mr. REID. If cloture is invoked tomorrow, there would still be an 
opportunity to offer amendments postcloture, germane amendments?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If a slot were available on the amendment 
tree, they could be offered. Currently, there are no slots. The tree is 
full.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask the distinguished Chair, those slots 
were not filled by the minority, were they?
  I think the point is made.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On the motion to commit, the amendments were 
offered by the majority leader.
  Mr. REID. I have no further questions.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the leader is aware that one amendment 
could be pending during that entire 30 hours. The minority could deny 
Members the right for votes on their germane amendments.
  I guess I would ask, would the minority leader agree to allow 
amendments be given 30 minutes of debate, equally divided, so we can be 
assured that we can debate and vote on that and other important 
amendments?
  Mr. REID. Is that postcloture?
  Mr. FRIST. Yes.
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to consider that. I think we would have to 
see what amendments were offered. But I think something such as that is 
within reason. I am happy to see what we can do. I cannot say until I 
know what the amendments are, which ones are germane or not.
  My point is that there is a way we can have amendments offered 
postcloture. All we have to do is have cloture invoked tomorrow.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to votes in relation to the following amendments: The Kyl 
amendment, the Dorgan amendment, and the Isakson amendment.
  I further ask that before each vote there be 30 minutes of debate 
equally divided in the usual form.
  Before the Chair rules, I note that two Republican amendments in this 
agreement have been pending for over a week.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. REID. Reserving the right to object, of course, Mr. President, 
until we have an agreement, as has been indicated, on what is going to 
happen postcloture, and we have talked about this, and a conference--
these things sound very procedural in nature, but they are important to 
what this body does. So I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

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