[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 119 (Monday, July 21, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6949-S6952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PARTICIPATING IN THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

  Mr. REID. Madam President, we have a very busy week ahead of us. I 
have announced some of the work we are going to do, but we really do 
have a lot to do. I look forward to this being a very productive week. 
I hope things work out as well as I anticipate.
  Madam President--I am sorry that I referred to you as ``Mr. 
President.'' That is pretty standard when you just have--as I mentioned 
last week, we sure have a lot more women than when I first came here. 
When I came here, we had Senator Mikulski. Now, on this side alone, we 
have 11 Democratic women, which has made the Senate a much better 
place.
  Madam President, as Senators Obama, Reed, and Hagel travel through 
Iraq today, there is one conclusion they will undoubtedly all reach: 
our troops--about 150,000 strong--have done a remarkable, heroic job 
under nearly impossible circumstances.
  This war has been going on for a long time--more than 6 years--
approaching about $1 trillion having been spent. Today, we are spending 
$5,000 a second in Iraq. We have more than 3,000 double-amputees. We 
have a significant number of returning veterans who are blind, 
paralyzed, and, of course, the traumatic head injuries they have had 
have been significant. It will be a legacy of this country for a long 
time to pay for all that. But because of the valor of these troops and 
their sacrifice, a war that was irresponsibly planned and incompetently 
waged by President Bush has now shown signs of improvement, and that is 
good. Neither Democrats nor Republicans can take any credit for that. 
Every ounce of credit goes to our men and women in uniform, and we are 
grateful to them beyond words to describe.
  It would be impossible to fully repay our troops for the sacrifice 
they and their families have made. But this Congress took a historic 
step forward--over the President's objection and over Senator McCain's 
statement that the bill was too generous--and we passed, in spite of 
McCain's objection and the President's objection, a new GI bill of 
rights--the largest expansion of veterans' benefits since the original 
GI bill after World War II.
  As Senator Obama visits Iraq to listen to our troops and commanders 
and meet with Iraqi leaders, it is becoming clear that America, Iraq, 
and the world are coalescing around Senator Obama's plan to end the 
war.
  I spoke yesterday to someone I know very well. He has had three tours 
of duty in Iraq.
  I said: James, what do you think of Senator Obama going to Iraq?
  He said: The troops love him.
  For someone who has had three tours of duty in Iraq, I think he has 
the credentials to say that.
  That plan sets a responsible timeline for redeploying American combat 
brigades, transitions the responsibility for securing Iraq to the 
Iraqis--as Senator Levin has said for many years: Take the training 
wheels off and let them run their own country. It restores America's 
military readiness. Right now, because of this long war, our military 
is in very difficult shape. Estimates of bringing the military to what 
it was before the war started is now approaching at least $150 billion. 
Finally, it takes the fight to America's No. 1 enemy, Osama bin Laden.
  This weekend, Prime Minister Al-Maliki spoke in favor of the Obama 
plan. Today, despite pressure from the White House, Iraqi Government 
officials publicly reiterated their support. They want us out of their 
country. If you take a poll--and there have been many taken--80 percent 
of the Iraqis want us out of that country. They have suffered 
significantly during this war.
  We are all glad Saddam Hussein is gone. But they do not know 
definitely the number of Iraqis who have been killed. There are wide-
ranging estimates from 150,000 to 600,000. We know that millions have 
been displaced. There are 2 million out of the country. There are a 
million and a half wandering around inside of Iraq who are displaced.
  The American people have known for years that our national security 
interests require us to carefully bring our troops home and call on the 
Iraqi people to take the reins of their own sovereign nation. The vast 
majority of Iraqis, I repeat, are eager for the day to come when they 
control their own destiny. They are ready for the war to responsibly 
draw to a close.
  Even President Bush--even President Bush--who bears the primary 
responsibility for this incompetently managed war, is now belatedly and 
gradually moving toward some elements of key Democratic positions on 
Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The President has labeled his new position 
for Iraq a ``time horizon.'' Try to figure out what that means. We 
don't know. But at least he is recognizing there must be some timeline 
set. No one knows yet what a ``time horizon'' actually means, and it is 
clear that President Bush has no plans to draw down the war before he 
packs his bags in January. This critical national security decision 
will fall to the next President.

  While it is becoming increasingly clear that the American people and 
Iraqi leaders strongly support the Obama plan to bring our troops home, 
Senator McCain is stubbornly clinging to his open-ended commitment to 
endless war.
  Senator McCain has called upon Senator Obama to listen to our troops 
and commanders in Iraq. He criticizes Senator Obama for not going to 
Iraq again. And he criticized Senator Obama for going to Iraq. Senator 
Obama is, though, listening to our troops and commanders, and it is 
clearer than ever that his position was right from the beginning.
  Now it is time for Senator McCain to listen to the American people. 
If he does, he will discover a nation desperate for a responsible path 
out of Iraq. If Senator McCain fails to join the chorus of calls for a 
responsible path out of Iraq, the choice in November will be even more 
clear than it is now.
  Madam President, I want to talk about energy speculation, about 
energy generally.
  This weekend, Senator Murray delivered the weekly Democratic radio 
address. In her remarks, the Senator from Washington said that her last 
gas fill-up in the State of Washington was $4.35 a gallon. Nevada is 
not far behind.
  I have spoken on the floor about gas prices on countless occasions, 
and each time the crisis has grown worse. Last month, we heard from a 
public school teacher, who gave the Democratic response to President 
Bush, a teacher in Auburn, NY, who has had to spend all the money he 
and his wife used to save for their children's college tuition on 
gasoline. All across our country, billions and billions of dollars that 
rightfully belong in the pockets and savings of American families are 
being funneled instead to oil companies and oil-producing countries. 
That diversion of savings from American families to foreign governments 
and oil companies is nothing short of a national crisis.

[[Page S6950]]

  When our country is in a crisis, Congress must be ready to take 
action. We Democrats in Congress, working with Senator Obama, have 
tried to take action again and again. We have proposed both long- and 
short-term solutions--short-term solutions to bring down gas prices now 
and long-term solutions to attack the root of the problem: our growing 
addiction to oil.
  We had something called the Energy First Act. It would end the 
billions of dollars in tax breaks for big oil companies whose 
executives have been hauling in record profits while we pay record 
prices. Last year, the oil companies made $250 billion net.
  Second, in that piece of legislation, we would force the oil 
companies to do their part by investing some of their profits in clean 
and affordable alternative energy--the Sun, the wind, geothermal, 
biofuels.
  Third, we protect in that legislation the American people from price 
gougers and greedy oil traders who manipulate the market.
  We also, in that legislation, among others things, stand up to OPEC 
and countries that are colluding to keep oil prices high.
  One of my friends is a foremost antitrust lawyer in America. His name 
is Joe Alioto, Jr. He has painted the picture very clearly that there 
is a conspiracy going on. We have a bipartisan approach to that. 
Senator Kohl of Wisconsin and Senator Specter of Pennsylvania have 
joined to have OPEC subject to American antitrust laws.
  Of course, we have been blocked on all four of these issues by the 
Republicans.
  We have found with our efforts to do something about these energy 
prices that the Republicans have not been willing to participate in the 
legislative process. They have taken their cues from President Bush 
and, of course, from Senator McCain that the solution to gas and oil 
prices starts and ends with more offshore drilling. Democrats have made 
it clear that we support more domestic production.
  We have, counting ANWR and all the offshore potential that exists, 
less than 3 percent of the oil in the world. We use more than 25 
percent of the oil in the world every day. So there is no question 
domestic production is part of the answer, but it is only one part of 
the answer. The minority would like us to believe that the moment we 
open more of our coast to the oil companies, gas prices will come 
tumbling down.
  Less than 2 years ago, here in the Senate, we passed a bill that was 
signed by the President. We were told by the oil companies and others 
that if we opened the Gulf of Mexico to more drilling, it would really 
be good for our economy, good for oil production. But we allowed 8.3 
million more acres in the Gulf of Mexico to be drilled, and here it is, 
almost 2 years since we passed that legislation, and not a single drill 
bit has been placed in that water.
  So it seems to be kind of a hollow cry to say we need more places to 
drill when they have not used the places we gave them to drill. Sixty-
eight million acres they have, and they have 8.3 million acres we gave 
them less than 2 years ago that they have not touched.
  The truth is, it would take years--and even decades--for offshore oil 
to be explored, drilled, and distributed. Just to set up an oil rig 
would take more than 2 years. Equipment is not available. So in the 
short term, drilling would do absolutely nothing.
  We have expressed our willingness to consider more drilling as part 
of any comprehensive short- and long-term package, but Republicans so 
far have not been willing to entertain other solutions.
  We will begin this week by working on legislation that would have an 
immediate impact on gas prices. I heard my friend, the Republican 
leader, say: Well, speculation is not such a big deal. I do not think 
it is just fortuitous that once we started talking about doing 
something about speculation, the price of oil dropped. I think this 
speculation is way out of hand, and I am not the only one who feels 
that way.
  We need legislation to rein in Wall Street traders who are unfairly 
driving up oil prices. These traders have no regard for the well-being 
of American families. The only thing they care about are their own 
profits. Prior to 2000, you could not speculate in oil. It was not 
allowed. But a Republican Congress led the charge, and now you can 
speculate in oil even if you are not going to use that oil. The only 
thing, it seems to me, that these speculators care about is how much 
money they can make, which they secure by bidding up the price of oil, 
buying huge quantities just to sell it at an even higher price. They 
have no plan to actually use the oil they buy. All they want to do is 
buy, sell, and repeat, leaving American families to pay the bill.

  Now, there are wide-ranging suggestions as to how much this is. 
Twenty to fifty percent of the cost of oil is in speculation. Not all 
speculation is bad. Sometimes it helps the market determine a fair 
price for a commodity. Speculation in the oil market has gone on 
throughout the Bush administration with virtually no oversight, and it 
truly has gotten out of hand. Experts say this speculation is 
responsible, as I have indicated, for 20 percent--up to as much as 50 
percent--of the price we pay at the pump. These are figures with actual 
people making those suggestions and those calculations: Academics, 
economists, and people who used to work for the Commodities Futures 
Trading Commission.
  Democrats have proposed legislation--the Stop Excessive Energy 
Speculation Act--that would set a fair amount of oversight on this out-
of-control trading. The Republicans have said in speeches and press 
conferences that they agree with us that speculation is a problem. They 
have kind of now backtracked and said it is a problem but not a big 
problem. I assume they have been getting a lot of calls from Wall 
Street, as have we, but we are not going to be intimidated by them. We 
believe they are part of the problem, and we need to do something to 
make them a part of the solution.
  To show that the Republicans believe that speculation is important, 
the bill they have before this body has a provision in it dealing with 
speculation. I would hope they would look at our speculation bill and 
join us. If there is something wrong with it, we are happy to take a 
look at any reasonable suggestion that would make it a better piece of 
legislation. It stands to reason this would be a chance for Democrats 
and Republicans to work together. So far, however, we have seen, sadly, 
more of the same from the Republican side: nice rhetoric, no action.
  We had to file cloture again. We are now up to 83 Republican 
filibusters--83. As I have said before, it has gotten so there are so 
many of them, we now have Velcro numbers here. We can peel them off and 
put the number four up here. Hopefully, we will not have to do that too 
soon. This breaks all records ever in the history of our Congress, more 
than doubling the number of filibusters. We have made it clear that we 
are willing to work with the Republicans on compromise. Legislation is 
the art of compromise. We want to work together on energy legislation 
that both sides feel good about.
  They keep talking about their drilling amendment. That has been their 
hue and cry for weeks now: We want to drill. We want the Governors to 
determine where you should drill off the coasts of their States. So we 
are saying we are willing to work with them. If they want to offer a 
drilling amendment, we will offer an alternative. Both measures would 
receive a vote. That is how the legislative process is supposed to 
work, but the latest Republican obstruction tactic has left us with no 
choice but to file cloture again on the speculation bill, and this 
chart is what that represents: 83. Otherwise, this important issue 
would fall off the legislative map. By forcing us to file cloture, 
Republicans, I believe, are wasting precious time when prompt action is 
necessary. So I hope in the morning we get cloture on this bill. I hope 
after we get cloture on the bill, the Republicans will work with us and 
say: OK, we want to offer our drilling amendment. That is fine. We are 
happy to work with them. What we have had in the past is that the 
rhetoric is not reality: Well, we really want to do the drilling 
amendment, but you are not letting us offer unlimited amendments, so we 
are not going to support you on anything.
  The American people will certainly be waiting to see whether 
Republicans are willing to take yes for an answer. They have said they 
wanted a vote on drilling; let's see if they will take yes

[[Page S6951]]

for an answer and legislate on the energy crisis.
  In the near future, we are going to turn to the Low-Income Home 
Energy Assistance Program--LIHEAP. This is one of the best programs we 
have ever done in Washington. It is a great program. This energy crisis 
is difficult. If you are a man or a woman, a mother, a father and you 
have a job and you have to drive to work, there are ways, as difficult 
as it might be, that you can alleviate some of the burdens of high gas 
prices. You can take public transportation, in some instances. You can 
carpool. There are things that can be done. If you are a soccer mom or 
dad, you can carpool the kids. There are things that can be done to 
work with this high price of gasoline: Change the time of the practices 
and do all kinds of things such as that.
  However, if you are a senior citizen--and here we are with August 
fast approaching and cold weather hitting parts of our country in 
October--it must be stark recognizing the limitations of being able to 
heat your home. It is significant. If you are old and on a fixed 
income, this is very scary, and that is what LIHEAP is all about.
  This legislation would provide immediate relief to millions of senior 
citizens, families with children, and the disabled, who are struggling 
to pay their home energy bills, a crisis that will only worsen in the 
winter months ahead. LIHEAP has been highly successful, but the 
breathtaking rise in energy prices is making the program far less able 
to help those in need. That is why this legislation is supported by 
AARP, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Alliance for 
Rural America, and dozens and dozens of different farmers groups and 
consumer groups and other organizations.
  I was approached by one of my Republican colleagues the other day who 
said: I hope you will bring this up. We are going to bring this up. It 
is a bill we should pass. I hope we don't have to jump through all the 
hoops, all the steps procedurally. I hope we can get this bill passed. 
The high price of oil and gas is making headlines. This LIHEAP 
legislation addresses those energy problems as well as the rising 
prices of propane, kerosene, natural gas, and electricity.
  This legislation is important now, when high temperatures are 
creating health risks for the elderly and people with disabilities. It 
is interesting. I have been told there are more homeless dying in the 
summertime than the wintertime because of exposure. We talk about the 
cold winters--and that is very important to talk about--but for those 
of us who live in the West, these hot summers are very difficult. Old 
people need their homes cooled. So this LIHEAP legislation is important 
now. It is important now as we plan to prevent a major crisis that may 
come if gas prices do not fall significantly before winter.
  We are going to introduce another package of critical bills that have 
been blocked by mostly one Senator. As the Presiding Officer knows, one 
Senator can have tremendous power in the Senate. We are going to turn 
to a package of critical bills that have passed the House of 
Representatives, have cleared the committees in the Senate, enjoy 
overwhelming bipartisan support, and have been blocked by one Senator 
on occasion--sometimes two.
  A few examples of the kinds of bills that this one individual, or a 
couple of his friends joining with him, have prevented us from passing 
and becoming law are, for example, the Emmett Till Unsolved Crimes 
bill. For people who lived through that era, they believe there is 
something that needs to be done to help heal old wounds and provide the 
Department of Justice and the FBI tools needed to effectively 
investigate and prosecute unsolved civil rights era murders.
  So I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, this is 
important legislation, and it should not be held up as this has been 
held up. This is authorizing legislation. There is no reason in the 
world to hold this up.
  The Runaway and Homeless Youth bill would provide grants for health 
care, education and workforce programs and housing programs for 
runaways and homeless youth. Why wouldn't we pass this? It has passed 
the House. It has been reported out of the committee overwhelmingly.

  The Combating Child Exploitation bill would provide grants to train 
law enforcement to use technology to track individuals who trade in 
child pornography.
  On the Senate floor, we may not think pornography is a big issue. We 
should. Years ago, when I was a practicing attorney, one of my clients 
was Dr. O'Gorman. Dr. O'Gorman was a psychiatrist in Las Vegas. He was 
a prominent physician. He became president of the State Medical 
Society. I was preparing a contract for him. We were waiting while the 
secretary typed the final part of it. I said to him: Doc, what is the 
biggest problem people come to see you about? Remember, we are in Las 
Vegas more than 25 years ago. What is the biggest problem people have 
who come to see you? He said pornography. I was stunned. Pornography? 
Yes, he said, pornography. He went on in some detail to tell me how 
pornography ruins people's lives, breaks up marriages, and is so 
destructive. We have a bill dealing with grown men, mostly, who trade 
in child pornography. Now, shouldn't we be able to pass that 
legislation? It establishes an Internet Crimes Against Children Task 
Force within the office of Justice Programs. This is something that 
should be matter of fact. It is being held up. We should pass this.
  I don't know how many have had the experience--I think every Senator 
has had a friend or a relative or a neighbor who has been struck with 
Lou Gehrig's disease. It is devastating. From the time this disease is 
discovered until you die is about an average of 18 months. The ALS 
Registry bill would create a centralized database to help doctors and 
scientists better understand, and hopefully find a cure, for Lou 
Gehrig's disease. It afflicts 5,600 Americans every year.
  Why is a registry important? When I first came to the Senate, I had 
three women come to visit me in my Las Vegas office. Those three women 
wanted to be someplace else, but they swallowed their pride and their 
embarrassment to come and visit with me. Why did they come to see me? 
Because all three of these women had a disease called interstitial 
cystitis. Ninety percent or more of the people who get this disease are 
women. The pain is best described as shoving slivers of glass up and 
down someone's bladder--excruciating pain. When these women came to see 
me, most all doctors thought it was psychosomatic.
  Well, the first thing we did with this disease is we worked to 
establish within the National Institutes of Health a registry so people 
could gather information and have it set up so people who are 
physicians in one part of the country could look and see what was going 
on in other parts of the country and the scientists could go to work on 
it. Tremendous progress has been made with interstitial cystitis. 
Doctors can now more easily diagnosis this. There is now a medicine so 
that 40 percent of the people who have this disease have no pain--they 
are symptom-free.
  One of the people who worked hard on this with us was a woman who was 
a professional golfer. To show you how difficult this disease is, this 
was a professional golfer who had been a great athlete her whole life. 
She was stricken with this disease before she was 30 years old. For her 
to try to complete a round of golf, she would have to go to the 
bathroom 25 or 30 times during 18 holes of golf. Well, she is one of 
the lucky people. The medicine helped her. She went on to win a number 
of tournaments. She is a success story. So why shouldn't we be able to 
start with Lou Gehrig's disease, as we did with this dread disease, 
interstitial cystitis, which now people clearly recognize is not 
psychosomatic.
  Another piece of legislation in this package is the Christopher and 
Dana Reeve Paralysis Act. We all know ``Superman'' was in a horse 
accident and was paralyzed. This legislation would enhance the 
cooperation of research, rehabilitation, and quality of life for people 
who suffer from paralysis. Not only would this bill accelerate the 
discovery of better treatments and cures, but it would help improve the 
daily lives of 2 million Americans who are awaiting a cure.
  So I would hope that we, moving forward on this legislation, will get 
support from colleagues on this side of the aisle. We should not have 
one or two Senators stop everything from moving forward. People say: 
Well, why don't you do something about it? Madam

[[Page S6952]]

President, this is why we don't do anything about it: 83 filibusters. 
As to each one of these, when we finish and get the vote on a motion to 
proceed, it takes 30 hours; once we get on the bill and file cloture 
again, into cloture invocation, another 30 hours. We can't do this. We 
have about 40 bills in this package, every one of them similar to the 5 
I have mentioned.
  So I hope people will work with me so we can give the American people 
some recognition that the Senate isn't going to be a graveyard for 
important pieces of legislation. Emmett Till, runaway homeless youth, 
pornography, Lou Gehrig registry, and the Christopher and Dana Reeve 
Paralysis Act.
  I think the Republicans are going to have a choice. They can join the 
side of the American people or they can continue to stand beside a 
colleague intent on blocking virtually everything.
  I hope we can work together as Democrats and Republicans to make this 
a week of progress, so the American people can recognize we are trying 
to do something to alleviate some of the problems facing this country. 
There are a lot of them.

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