[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 1 (Thursday, January 4, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S22-S23]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            A NEW BEGINNING

  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, first let me congratulate the Presiding 
Officer for having assumed that position today for the first time. This 
Senator has a long-time admiration for the Senator from Illinois, for 
the great work he has done, and for his contributions to this body.
  Let me also say that I come here today to congratulate both our 
majority leader, Senator Reid, for his leadership, and Senator 
McConnell for his leadership as the minority leader, and for them 
having brought the Members of this body together to start a new 
beginning, which is based on a sense that we as America will do better 
by working together, and that the politics of division of the past are 
politics that we will be able to transcend and move forward with a 
positive and strong agenda that will make our country and the world a 
stronger and safer place.
  I also congratulate Senator Reid and the leadership for the 10 bills 
introduced here today. I believe those bills create a good framework 
for issues that urgently need to be addressed by the Congress and by 
this President. I am hopeful that in the days and weeks and months 
ahead we will, in fact, be the kind of Senate and Congress that gets 
results on these important initiatives.
  I don't want to comment on all 10 pieces of legislation today, but I 
will make reference to a couple of them. First, with respect to energy, 
I think all of us in this body recognize that it is time for us to 
embrace a true ethic of energy independence. For a long time, we have 
given rhetoric to the issue of energy and our overdependence on oil 
from the Middle East and other places. I think today Republicans and 
Democrats, conservatives and progressives, have come together to say we 
know what the answer is to this. It is not as difficult as other areas 
we have to deal with, such as health care. The national renewable 
energy lab in my home State will tell us all if we put our minds 
together, we can produce 30 to 40 percent of our energy from renewable 
energy sources. We can use the new technologies that are out there to 
get to energy independence.
  The only thing lacking, really, has been the will of the leadership 
of America to move forward to get us to that energy independence. In my 
view, it is important that we do so, first, because our national 
security is dependent upon our being energy independent. We ought not 
to be in a position where the national sovereignty and security of this 
Nation is held hostage to the whims of the Middle East and those who 
happen to have oil wealth under their sands.
  Secondly, it is important for the economic security of our country 
that we move forward with energy independence. As we move forward, we 
will find economic opportunity, including economic opportunity for 
rural America, to help us grow our way to energy independence.
  Finally, we will be able to deal with the environmental security 
issues that are very much at stake in this energy debate.
  I want to comment on the importance of education and the College 
Affordability Act, which has been presented today by Senator Reid. For 
many of us who know the promise of America, we know that promise of 
America has come about through the educational opportunities we 
receive. For many of us in this Chamber, including Senator Murray, who 
spoke a few minutes ago--she talked about the promise of America 
delivered through the educational opportunities which she had. Even 
though she was one of seven children and had a father who had multiple 
sclerosis, she achieved the highest level of the American dream because 
that educational opportunity was given to her. I and others have gone 
through similar circumstances. In my own case, in Colorado, my father 
and mother never had an opportunity to get a college degree. We were 
poor, raised in a place that didn't have electricity and a telephone. 
Yet the promise of America and the promise of education was something 
that was constantly talked about to us by our parents. I often remember 
my father going around the table at our ranch and making sure all eight 
of his children were doing their homework because he knew that 
education would allow them to seek horizons and get to places he had 
not been able to reach. Over time, all eight of his children became 
first-generation college graduates.
  Today, I stand here as a Senator from that family, born in that 
place. Without education, I would not be here, and those in my family 
would not have had the opportunities they have had. It has been the 
leaders in the Senate, including people such as former Senator 
Claiborne Pell from Rhode Island, who stood for the proposition that 
that educational opportunity should be afforded to all Americans, no 
matter what your background, no matter your economic condition; that 
you should be allowed to have an educational opportunity in America, 
because there was a recognition that with educational opportunity, 
anything is possible for a child in America.
  So that piece of legislation Senator Reid introduced today is 
something I hope we can embrace electively as a Senate moving forward 
in a comprehensive way.
  Finally, let me make a quick remark on the issue of immigration 
reform. We spent a lot of time on immigration here in the Senate. A few 
months ago, we were successful in passing a bipartisan compromise to 
move forward. I am hopeful that as we look at the months ahead, we will 
be able to work with President Bush and our Democratic and Republican 
colleagues to fashion a comprehensive immigration reform package that 
will deliver an effective immigration law for our country.
  In my view, that immigration reform package has to have three 
principles at its center. First, we have to secure our borders. I 
believe the legislation introduced today will, in fact, help us make 
sure our borders are secure. We as a sovereign Nation have to make sure 
we are securing our borders.
  Secondly, we need to enforce our laws within our country. For far too 
long we have looked the other way and the laws of immigration in our 
country simply have not been enforced. The measure we passed last year 
put together the pieces to allow us to enforce our immigration laws.
  Finally, from both a human and a moral and economic perspective, we 
need to find ways of bringing the 12

[[Page S23]]

million people who now live in the shadows of America out into the 
sunlight of America. Those people are here working today, as they have 
been for many years. Their reality has in fact been recognized but 
somehow ignored. We need to find a way to make sure that we bring those 
people from the shadows into the sunlight, and the only way we will be 
able to do that is with a comprehensive immigration reform package that 
we pushed forward last year and, hopefully, we will have another 
opportunity to push forward in the manner of the bill introduced today 
by Senator Reid.
  I very much look forward to working with my colleagues, both 
Democrats and Republicans, in this body as we address the major issues 
facing our Nation and our world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
recognized for such time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized.

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