[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 13, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S4072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE COOPERATION ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO 
                            PROCEED--Resumed


                             Cloture Motion

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion to 
invoke cloture.

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 275, H.R. 980, the Public Safety 
     Employer-Employee Cooperation Act.
         Edward M. Kennedy, Robert Menendez, Russell D. Feingold, 
           Patty Murray, Daniel K. Inouye, Amy Klobuchar, Debbie 
           Stabenow, Ron Wyden, Barbara Boxer, Christopher J. 
           Dodd, John D. Rockefeller, IV, Jon Tester, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Frank R. Lautenberg, Sherrod Brown, Jeff 
           Bingaman, John F. Kerry.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. By unanimous consent, the mandatory 
quorum call is waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to H.R. 980, the Public Safety Employer-Employee 
Cooperation Act, shall be brought to a close?
  There is 2 minutes of debate, equally divided.
  The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this is the legislation to provide a 
voice for our public safety offices. We have spent a great deal of time 
in the Senate on homeland security, but the key to effective homeland 
security is having effective firefighters, police officials, and first 
responders. They are the individuals who are really protecting our 
homeland. They are the ones who should have a voice in decisions 
affecting the security of our country. This legislation provides them 
with that, to ensure greater safety and security for all Americans. I 
hope the Senate will support the cloture motion.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
  The Senator from Wyoming is recognized.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, once again, we have one of those bills that 
has never been to committee. I guess we are afraid to take labor issues 
to the Labor Committee. We ought to be able to review these things and 
work on them as we do on other kinds of bills, but that is not 
happening on the labor issues. We are just going to play ``gotcha'' 
politics.
  This bill will take longer than a minute or an hour or a day just to 
cover some of the flaws that are in this bill. Some of the things that 
have shown up in the substitute bill never got introduced on this one. 
So we can see how this doesn't work. This will affect all 50 States. 
This is an opportunity for you to impose the will of the Federal 
Government on your State. I don't think you really want to do that. We 
need to have a little bit more than a minute to discuss that.
  I think the leadership is asking for people to vote for this 
amendment. We have agreed that we would go to it right after lunch. 
This isn't a matter of stalling out in the Senate; it is a matter of 
trying to get the right decision made. I ask you to look at these 
things. It ought to go to the Labor Committee so that reasonable 
suggestions can be made.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The yeas and nays are mandatory 
under the rule. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Are there any other Senators in the 
Chamber desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 69, nays 29, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 126 Leg.]

                                YEAS--69

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Inouye
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Martinez
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Tester
     Thune
     Voinovich
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--29

     Alexander
     Allard
     Barrasso
     Bennett
     Bond
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burr
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Dole
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Graham
     Hutchison
     Isakson
     Kyl
     Lugar
     Roberts
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Vitter
     Warner
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Inhofe
     McCain
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. On this vote, the yeas are 69, the 
nays are 29. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having 
voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  Mr. REID. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that 
motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

                          ____________________