[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 33 (Tuesday, February 27, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2237-S2238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today the Senate will be in a period of 
morning business until 12:30 p.m. During the period of morning 
business, Senators will be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes 
each. The first 30 minutes will be controlled by the Republicans and 
the second 30 minutes will be controlled by the majority.
  At 12:30, the Senate will recess until the hour of 2:15. Upon 
reconvening at 2:15, the Senate will resume debate on the motion to 
proceed to S. 184. The cloture vote will occur at 2:30, with the time 
until then equally divided and controlled between the two leaders and 
their designees.
  As I indicated yesterday prior to the Senate adjourning, the 
Republican leader and I have had discussions about the 9/11 Commission 
recommendations legislation, and while the time has been set for the 
cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 184, we will continue our 
discussions to ascertain whether we can vitiate that cloture vote. If 
we are able to do that, we would switch to S. 4, which is the Homeland 
Security-reported matter reported by Chairman Lieberman and Ranking 
Member Collins.
  I would say, as I said last night, whichever vehicle comes to the 
floor--I would hope we could speed things up by 30 hours by doing S. 
4--we need to get to this legislation. I had indicated prior to the 
recess, and indicate today, it is open to amendment. I, in fact, even 
have the first Democratic Senator who wants to offer an amendment. I am 
sure the minority has a lot of amendments they want to offer.


                    9/11 commission recommendations

  Mr. President, I want to bring to the attention of the body letters 
Senator McConnell and I received. They are dated yesterday. The letter 
to me states:

       It has been exactly 14 years since the first attack on the 
     World Trade Center; over 5 years since the terrorist attacks 
     of 9/11; and over 2 years since the 9/11 Commission released 
     a blueprint for strengthening America's security. The pace of 
     Congressional response to these wake-up calls has been 
     glacial.

  Now, I am not going to read the other three paragraphs of this letter 
other than to say this letter is signed by different groups--widows and 
orphans--Carol Ashley, representing a group called VOICES of September 
11th, who is the mother of Janice, who was killed in that 9/11 
occurrence; Beverly Eckert, representing a group called Families of 
September 11, and who is the widow of Sean Rooney, who was 50; Mary 
Fetchet, the founding director and president of VOICES of September 
11th, who is the mother of Brad, who was 24, who was killed in the 
incident; and Carie Lemack, the cofounder and president of Families of 
September 11, who is the daughter of Judy Larocque, who was 50 years 
old, who died in that terrorist attack.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:


[[Page S2238]]


                                                February 26, 2007.
     Hon. Harry Reid,
     Senate Majority Leader U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Reid: It has been exactly 14 years since the 
     first attack on the World Trade Center; over 5 years since 
     the terrorist attacks of 9/11; and over 2 years since the 9/
     11 Commission released a blueprint for strengthening 
     America's security. The pace of Congressional response to 
     these wake-up calls has been glacial.
       The House of Representatives has validated its commitment 
     to improving national security by passing H.R.1. When S. 4 
     goes to conference, its provisions must match or surpass the 
     strength and comprehensiveness of H.R.l. Failure to act 
     ratchets up the danger for America. The longer critical 
     security issues remain unresolved, the more time and options 
     the terrorists have.
       S. 4 should be a clean bill, limited to implementing the 
     remaining 9/11 Commission recommendations. This legislation 
     is far too important to be politicized by the introduction of 
     non-germane, controversial amendments and debate, 
     particularly those relating to Iraq. Attention to both issues 
     is critically important. As such, each deserves separate 
     deliberation.
       We urge you to act now to protect America by passing stand-
     alone, comprehensive security legislation under S. 4 based on 
     the 9/11 Commission blueprint without complications regarding 
     Iraq. The legacy of those whose lives have been taken by 
     terrorists on American soil is in your hands. Prove to the 
     families of those killed in 1993 and 2001, and to all 
     Americans, that this is a new day in Washington, and that 
     safety and security will finally take precedence over special 
     interest groups and politics.
           Respectfully,
     Carol Ashley,
       Mother of Janice, 25, VOICES of September 11th.
     Beverly Eckert,
       Widow of Sean Rooney, 50, Families of September 11.
     Mary Fetchet,
       Mother of Brad, 24, Founding Director and President, VOICES 
     of September 11th.
     Carie Lemack,
       Daughter of Judy Larocque, 50, Co-founder and President, 
     Families of September 11.

  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, the distinguished Republican leader and 
people on his side of the aisle, if people are concerned about going to 
S. 4 because of not being allowed to offer amendments, I have stated 
publicly--and I understand because there were no amendments on the 
continuing resolution--and I will state again, I appreciate very much 
the cooperation of the Republicans. Even though there were no 
amendments, this was an issue this Congress, this Senate had to 
complete. None of the Members of the body here are responsible for what 
took place prior to this Congress. The 110th Congress is our 
responsibility, and that is why I am very happy the Democrats and 
Republicans joined together and got the continuing resolution passed. 
We were able to work our way through the contentious matters we had 
dealing with the Iraq war. I stated at the time we were doing that the 
9/11 legislation will be subject to amendments.
  Senator McConnell and I are working our way through this issue to 
determine when the next debate will take place regarding Iraq. I hope 
it can be done on an agreement between the two of us. We are working on 
that. But I do say, don't anyone suggest the 9/11 legislation will not 
be open to amendment; it will be. We are going to work our way through 
that. There will not be cloture filed on this legislation until--
hopefully, it won't have to be done. I think this is a piece of 
legislation for which it would not be necessary. There certainly will 
not be anything in the next 10 days. We will take a look at it.
  I will work in conjunction with the distinguished Republican leader 
to find out if cloture ever has to be filed on the 9/11 bill. But I 
would hope we could gain this extra 30 hours and move to it right away. 
We could get the opening statements out of the way and some amendments 
offered today.
  I had a leadership meeting at 9 o'clock this morning. I told the 
Senators there they better be ready for some votes Friday, that we are 
not going to be finished by 10 o'clock Friday morning. We have to 
finish this bill and finish it in a way that is appropriate.
  So we have a lot of work to do. When we finish the 9/11 legislation, 
we have stem cells, we have the budget, we have the supplemental during 
this work period. We have a lot to do. We will need the cooperation of 
both sides.
  I spoke out here last night, and I did my utmost to lay out the 
facts. We have been able to get a lot done this last work period. It 
was a long work period. We were able to do some good things. We were 
able to pass the most comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform in the 
history of the country. We passed minimum wage legislation for the 
first time in 10 years. We got the country's financial house in order 
by completing that. We have done some good work. As I said last night, 
it has been done on a bipartisan basis. We have worked together. So I 
hope we can continue to do that.

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