[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 195 (Wednesday, December 19, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ORDER OF BUSINESS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, when we come back in January--we are coming 
back on the 22nd--we are going to immediately move to the Indian Health 
Care Reauthorization Act. I have spoken to the chairman of the 
committee, Senator Dorgan. We are going to do everything we can to 
finish that legislation on January 22. If we can't finish it January 22 
or early on January 23, we are going to move immediately to FISA. I 
have had a meeting today, for example, with General Hayden and Admiral 
McConnell, to talk about FISA. I have told them it is going to be very 
difficult to get this done. It expires on February 1. It is something 
we need to do. It would be in the interests of everyone to have that 
legislation extended for a year. I offered to do that earlier 
yesterday, and the White House said, no, that wasn't a good idea.
  We are going to do everything we can to complete that legislation 
quickly when we get back, after we do the Indian Health Care 
Reauthorization Act.
  Also, one of the things we are going to do is, there is one Senator 
who has held up scores of pieces of legislation that have already 
passed the House. These bills have all been reported out of the 
committee by Senators Bingaman and Domenici. They are very important 
pieces of legislation dealing with the jurisdiction of that committee. 
What we are going to do, and what we have done, is all those bills that 
have passed the House of Representatives, we put them into one vehicle 
over here so we will have one vote.
  I have offered to Senator Coburn, who is holding these up--I said, I 
am willing to let you have two or three votes on these. We have been 
more than reasonable waiting to work through this, in my opinion. I 
think it is unreasonable that he has held these up. We are going to 
complete this legislation one way or the other as soon as we complete 
these other items I mentioned.
  I will have more to say about this in a little while, but I spoke to 
the Republican leader today, and we both have a good feeling about how 
we have ended the session. Both of us didn't get exactly what we 
wanted, but there was a feeling of cooperation and bipartisanship. I 
hope that spills over into next year--I certainly hope so, and I know 
Senator McConnell feels that way.
  I would like to spend a minute on nominations.
  My staff, Ron Weich, who does such a wonderful job for me, indicates 
I said FISA should be extended for 1 year. It should be extended for 30 
days, so we have an opportunity to legislate that during that period of 
time. I appreciate my staff correcting that statement I made.
  We have been working with the White House for the last several days 
in an effort to reach an agreement that works for both sides regarding 
nominations. We were unable to reach such an agreement before the 
Thanksgiving holiday. That led to my calling the Senate into pro forma 
sessions to avoid the President's very objectionable recess 
appointments. My hope was I could avoid that prospect for the coming 
holiday. I tried very hard to work with the President. But he indicated 
he would still use the period of time that we would be in recess to 
appoint objectionable nominees.
  I said go ahead--here are some. We will give you these--for example, 
the head of the Federal Aviation Agency, somebody on the Board of 
Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the Chemical Safety Board. Go 
ahead and do those recess appointments.
  He wanted a person who cannot get through the Judiciary Committee to 
be Assistant Counsel to the Attorney General, a man by the name of 
Bradbury. I talked to various members of the Judiciary Committee 
yesterday. They don't think the man is somebody who should be confirmed 
by the Senate. I would say, without a lot of hesitation, there is no 
chance he would be confirmed. It is my understanding he has already 
been recess appointed. I can't understand why the President wouldn't do 
what we have suggested.
  My only solution is to prevent this and call a pro forma session 
again. I thought these jobs--there are more than 50 of them, career-
ending opportunities for a lot of these people. These are very 
important jobs. All of them have to be confirmed by the Senate. I could 
be a Grinch. I could tell the President I will not move any nominations 
given his demand to make controversial recess appointments. That would 
mean more than 50 Republican nominees would not move forward today. So 
during the holidays it would be: Well, maybe when we come back in a 
month we can do something.
  The Republicans would get about 60 nominations. We would get eight.
  But I am not going to do that. I am not going to be the Grinch. We 
are going to go into pro forma sessions so the President cannot appoint 
people we think are objectionable, but I am not going to meet 
stubbornness with stubbornness. It is not good for the body politic; 
just because someone is being unreasonable means we have to be 
unreasonable.
  Think about this. Because the President wants one person whom we 
cannot get out of the Judiciary Committee, he is willing to hold 
everything up. It doesn't sound like much of a compromise to me. I 
can't understand the rationale behind this.
  I have spoken with Josh Bolton. Josh Bolton is a very pleasant person 
to deal with. He has a boss, and that is the President of the United 
States. So I called Josh Bolton and told him, as unreasonable as I 
think our President is being, I am not going to be unreasonable. We are 
going to confirm these appointments this evening; as I said, about 60 
for the Republicans, 8 for the Democrats. And I will keep the Senate in 
pro forma session to block the President from doing an end run around 
the Senate and the Constitution with his controversial nominations.
  I hope this is a Christmas present for these people. These are 
important jobs, and I wish them well in their jobs. I wish them all a 
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year with their new positions.

                          ____________________