[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 17 (Monday, January 29, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1255-S1256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate will be in a period for the 
transaction of morning business until 3:30 p.m. today. Senator Dorgan 
will be recognized for up to 45 minutes and Senator Specter for up to 
30 minutes. We will resume H.R. 2 at 3:30 p.m. for debate only until 
5:30 p.m. During this time, Senator Sessions will be recognized for an 
hour at 4 p.m. As a reminder to Members, cloture has been filed on the 
substitute amendment to H.R. 2. and the bill itself. Therefore, Members 
have until 3 p.m. today to file any additional first-degree amendments.
  Currently, there are 23 amendments pending. I am told that the vast 
majority of these amendments, after initial review by the 
Parliamentarians, will be ruled not germane or arguably not germane. 
The cloture vote on the substitute amendment will occur prior to the 
conference luncheons tomorrow at 12 noon.
  Mr. President, if I may say a few words in addition, today we are 
going to, hopefully, have a debate that will be meaningful to the 
American people on minimum wage. This debate will be completed tomorrow 
in many respects, with a cloture vote on the substitute occurring 
tomorrow. The other debate we may get to this week is that dealing with 
Iraq. Both are issues past Congresses have neglected and both are areas 
where Democrats and Republicans must work together to move America 
forward.


                              Minimum Wage

  It has been 10 years since the minimum wage was last raised. During 
that period of time, the cost of food has risen 23 percent, the cost of 
health care almost 45 percent, the cost of housing about 30 percent, 
the cost of gas 135 percent, and that is as of today. Of course, as we 
know, in the past, it has been much more than that. Congressional pay 
has risen during that period of time by $30,000 per year per Member of 
Congress. But the minimum wage has stayed the same, $5.15.
  Today, a full-time minimum wage worker earns $10,700 a year, working 
40 hours a week. That is $6,000 below the Federal poverty line for a 
family of three. This is wrong. It doesn't speak well of our country. 
At its heart, this debate is about fairness.
  In America, we believe--I think we should believe--a person working 
full time should be able to live a life that is not in poverty. A 
mother, a father who works hard and plays by the rules should be able 
to feed, clothe, and raise their children. Isn't it better that we have 
people who are engaged in work rather than welfare? The answer is yes.
  Mr. President, $7.25 might not seem like a lot of money in 
Washington, but it would mean almost $4,500 more a year for the 
Nation's working poor. That is enough money for a family of 3 to buy 15 
months of groceries, 19 months for their utility bills, 8 months of 
rent, 2 years of health care, 20 months of childcare, and even 30 
months of college tuition at some schools.
  Tomorrow we will have a cloture vote on the minimum wage, and I sure 
hope this will be a good bipartisan vote on cloture, so we can complete 
this legislation quickly.
  Senators have had time to offer amendments. As I said Friday, when is 
enough enough? After 10 years, it is

[[Page S1256]]

time to stop talking about this issue and finally give 
working Americans an overdue raise.


                                  Iraq

  When the Senate completes its work on the minimum wage--whether it is 
tomorrow, the next day, next day, the next day or next week--we are 
going to move to Iraq, and that is a debate regarding the proposed plan 
by the President to escalate the conflict. We owe it to our troops who 
serve bravely to have a real debate about the way forward in that war.
  We are approaching 3,100 dead American soldiers. I was watching the 
Lehrer ``NewsHour.'' They show, in silence, pictures of the soldiers 
who have died in Iraq. They do it every few days. I watched this Friday 
and was struck by the number of women in this most recent reporting of 
deaths who are pictured there, who have been killed. They were not 
combat troops. They were doing activities important to the cause, such 
as driving vehicles. It is hard to determine what is combat and what is 
not combat. A helicopter went down and women were in that helicopter. A 
helicopter went down yesterday. I don't know who was in it, but we know 
two Americans were killed. So we have to have a debate about the way 
forward in the war in Iraq.
  In Washington, we hear a lot of rhetoric about how the upcoming 
congressional debate emboldens our enemies. To quote a headline that 
appeared in a lot of newspapers, this particular one was the Las Vegas 
Sun newspaper, it said: Those who peddle such deceitful, political 
talking points ``need a lesson in civics.''
  As Mr. Warner, the gentleman Senator from Virginia, has said in this 
debate, Senators are ``trying to exercise the fundamental 
responsibilities of our democracy.''
  Critics of the war also need a lesson in history. If history has 
taught us anything, it is that our country is strongest when all three 
branches of Government function. Our country is strongest when this 
legislative branch is more than a rubberstamp. And, finally, our 
country is strongest when we have real, meaningful debate on issues of 
consequence on behalf of the American people.
  There is no issue greater in consequence than what is going on in 
Iraq. To suggest that the former chairman of the Armed Services 
Committee, a former Secretary of the Navy, a former marine, Senator 
John Warner, or highly decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel, who on 
the battlefields of Vietnam saved his own brother's life, would take 
any action to undermine our troops and embolden the enemy--of course 
not--to suggest such is beneath any administration official or Member 
of Congress, even though they both tried it. I think they should 
reexamine what they have said. It is dangerous rhetoric, motivated more 
by politics than events in Iraq.
  These two men are examples of this not emboldening the enemy but our 
doing, as the legislative branch of Government, what we are obligated 
to do: to talk about this conflict in Iraq.
  We are in a hole in Iraq. Escalating the war is deepening that hole. 
We need to find a way out of that hole. Our troops, most of all, need 
our help. They need a policy that is worthy of their heroic sacrifices. 
They don't need hollow speeches or inflammatory rhetoric. They don't 
need a rubberstamp. They need someone to ask the tough questions. They 
need a legislative branch that will finally exercise its constitutional 
responsibilities.
  I, for one, am glad we have finally arrived at this point where 
Congress is exercising its power. We arrived here because the American 
people demanded we exercise our power.
  In his State of the Union Address, the President asked Members of 
Congress to give escalation a chance. But the truth is, escalation is 
the same failed President Bush policy that has already run out of 
chances. The President has escalated the war before, only to see the 
same results: increasing chaos, innumerable costs, and a civil war that 
is spinning out of control.
  Is there a war in Iraq that is civil in nature? Of course. A 
marketplace where people came to buy pets, to sell pets was blown to 
smithereens, snakes crawling away from their cages. Children taking 
tests were hit with a mortar round over the weekend. And 600 insurgents 
were gathered in an orchard where a battle that took 15 hours ensued 
over the weekend. Is there a civil war? Of course, there is a civil 
war. Is there chaos in Iraq? Of course, there is chaos in Iraq.
  The President knows how the American people feel. Generals Abizaid 
and Casey, when asked whether this escalation would be a good idea, 
told the President ``no.'' They were relieved of duty. Prime Minister 
Maliki, speaking face to face with the President, said: Mr. President, 
get American troops out of Baghdad. That is what the democratically 
elected Prime Minister of Iraq told the President of the United States. 
The Iraq Study Group has so told the President. And now we are going to 
have a bipartisan vote that will tell the President the same.
  There is no military solution in Iraq; there are only political 
solutions in Iraq. With the vote, which will eventually come, we will 
give the President another chance to listen, listen to the generals, 
listen to the Iraq Study Group, listen to the American people, and 
listen to a bipartisan Congress.
  The stunning part of this is the people of Iraq don't want us there. 
Polls show that 70 percent of the Iraqis believe Iraq would be better 
off if we were out of there. So it is another chance to listen and 
change course. That is what we hope will be the outcome of our debate. 
That will be the right result for the Nation, for our strategic 
interests, and for the troops.
  We will work with my distinguished friend, the Republican leader, to 
try to have something that is more understandable. The way things now 
stand, if cloture is invoked tomorrow, this matter can be played out, 
as I understand the procedures here, until about 1 o'clock Friday 
morning and, if necessary, we will do that. But hopefully we can agree 
on a way to proceed through this without those many votes and arrive at 
a point where we can come to some agreement as to how we should proceed 
in a reasonable, logical way, so everyone has their opportunity to 
express views on Iraq. We have a number of competing legislative 
matters we can vote on. It would seem to me very likely it will take 60 
votes to pass anything, but at least if we set up a responsible way to 
go forward, I think it would be more meaningful to the body and to the 
American people.
  I know my friend, the Republican leader, will work with me. We will 
try to do the best we can for the body itself; otherwise, we will work 
through the rules of the Senate, which will get us there but maybe not 
as quickly and as conveniently.

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