[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 129 (Thursday, July 31, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7882-S7883]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S7882]]
                       UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUESTS

  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, at this time, I ask unanimous consent to 
call up and pass the modified Emmett Till Unresolved Civil Rights Crime 
Act, where it is paid for by taking money that is not appropriated. 
This is the problem everybody had, not offsetting. What this bill will 
do is, if we don't appropriate--and we won't this year, because we are 
going to have a continuing resolution--this will allow that money to be 
divided out in three categories in the Justice Department, which the 
Justice Department is accepting from both legal salaries, the FBI, and 
the U.S. Marshals--all the people working on these unresolved civil 
rights cases. I ask unanimous consent that it be called up and passed 
at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, earlier 
this week, on Tuesday or Wednesday, we considered a package of bills, 
some 35 bills that had been held for a lengthy period of time--for 
months--which could have been considered, amended, changed, and brought 
forward. They were held with no chance for any kind of movement. This 
was one of them.
  Sadly, this is a bill that has been considered and passed by the 
House of Representatives and has been out there for more than a year. I 
would like to see the bill passed--I would. But the fact that the 
Senator from Oklahoma worked out his differences with some person, as 
well intentioned as it may be, doesn't escape the reality that this 
bill has been the subject of hard work by a lot of Senators and 
Congressmen. Unfortunately, it was subjected to a hold by a Member on 
the Republican side. I hope that, in good faith, when we return, we can 
return to this bill. I would like to see this and all 35 bills in the 
package passed and taken as seriously as the Senator from Oklahoma is 
now taking this bill.
  Unfortunately, at this moment, I must object.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, it is sad to note that this could not pass 
tonight. We could accomplish what everybody claims to want. The fact 
that nobody was willing to work on this bill, but held it without 
compromise and without offsets, it is the same issue again. We are 
going to grow the Government and not get rid of waste. There is $2 
billion in waste a year in the Justice Department. Yet we are going to 
grow this program and not pay for it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. COBURN. I also note for the Record that I spoke with Senator Dodd 
about the bill tonight. He had no objection whatsoever and he agreed 
with the compromise. He is the chief sponsor on that side of the aisle.
  Mr. President, I call up and ask unanimous consent to pass a 
compromise bill on child exploitation. The bill, S. 3344, is the 
Protecting Children from Pornography and Internet Exploitation Act of 
2008.
  I had a conversation with Senator Biden this evening. He is in full 
agreement with this. He understands that others on his side of the 
aisle might not be in agreement. He is the chief sponsor of that bill. 
Our bill gives everything that was included, plus the SAFE Act, which 
everybody agrees needs to be a part of any approach we make. The 
authors on the other side of the aisle took a $1.3 billion 
authorization and compromised and lowered that. We compromised by 
accepting that spending on the basis that we would add the SAFE Act to 
it. This bill has been changed in substance in no way other than that.
  I ask unanimous consent that it be called up and passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object, This is another bill of 
the 35 that have been held for an indefinite period of time by the 
Republican side of the aisle. We offered a package which had included 
measures for medical research, which has been held for an indefinite 
period of time on the Republican side of the aisle.
  This bill which, ironically, was reported out of the Judiciary 
Committee, which Senator Coburn and I both serve on--I believe it was 
reported unanimously--is a bill that deals with child exploitation. I 
believe it is a bill that deals with Internet pornography, if I am not 
mistaken. It is something which should have not only gone out of 
committee unanimously, but it should not have been subject to the holds 
on the Republican side of the aisle for reasons that are not explicit. 
In desperation, an effort was made to bring these to the floor and ask 
for a bipartisan response and to pass them in a timely way. The Senator 
from Oklahoma voted against that, as did most of the Senators on his 
side.
  Many are now coming to the floor trying to revive the bills they 
voted against a couple days ago. I wish the same level of interest and 
effort would have been taken during the period when these bills 
languished subject to their hold. At the last minute, virtually right 
after the Senate has adjourned and left, it is not fair to bring these 
up. I hope we can do this as soon as we return.
  At this moment, I have to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for an extension 
of my time as I go through the rest of these. I will be as brief as 
possible.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. COBURN. I also note, again, there were hard efforts to work this 
out. The fact is, the majority has decided that all the bills will be 
in one package, regardless of the efforts we have worked on.
  I also make the statement that this came out by a voice vote from the 
Committee. I didn't vote ``yes'' on the bill in the committee. No. 2, 
there is no requirement that a Senator, even if he votes for a bill in 
committee and is assured he can work on the bill after the committee, 
is obligated to support a bill that comes out of his committee.
  The next unanimous consent request I have is on this same bill, S. 
3344, titles I and IV, which include the PROTECT Act and the SAFE Act.
  I ask unanimous consent that those two sections be called up and 
passed. They are identical; nothing has changed and there is nothing 
controversial. Again, I ask unanimous consent that they be passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object, I understand the 
embarrassment and pain the Senator feels having voted on these bills--
--
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will state it.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, shouldn't an objection to the bill be 
stated?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator object?
  Mr. DURBIN. I object.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, there is no embarrassment or any pain on 
my part to try to do this. I have worked on these bills to try to do 
what I thought was right. I reject any statement that I am embarrassed. 
I have no pain about this. I am proud of the work I have done in trying 
to stop excessive spending and when we have appropriate programs to 
favor that spending through offsets of other wasteful spending.

  I ask unanimous consent to call up and pass subtitle D of S. 3297, 
the Effective Child Pornography Prosecution Act. This was never held by 
anybody on our side. It was never objected to by anybody on our side. 
There was never a hold and never an objection.
  I ask unanimous consent right now that we pass that one bill. Even if 
you want to play politics, the point is, here is one we can do tonight. 
Nobody has ever objected to it in the Senate. We can pass and still 
have the 34 or 33 bills. Here is one we can make a difference with 
tonight.
  I ask unanimous consent to call up and pass this item.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object, this was part of the 34, 
35 bills in a package that was held. For reasons I cannot explain, some 
Member on the Republican side did hold it. That is why it was put in 
the package.
  The Senator voted against the package, and I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to call up and 
pass subtitle E of S. 3297, the Enhancing the

[[Page S7883]]

Effective Prosecution of Child Pornography Act. This is a bill that 
also was never held on our side of the aisle.
  Again, I make the same argument that, in fact, we can do something 
tonight. There is no controversy surrounding this bill, no controversy 
about what we should be doing. I ask unanimous consent that we pass 
this item.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object, same argument, same 
objection.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I thank the majority whip for his patience 
in dealing with this business tonight.
  I will end my remarks with the following: What we have had in the 
Senate this past week is an attempt to change the Senate to the House. 
The Senate's tradition is debate and amend. Every one of the bills I 
have had a hold on, I proudly hold those bills. I have notified 
everyone involved in the legislation on why I was holding those bills. 
The fact that we had no response to negotiate any sort of compromise 
whatsoever on those bills tells us there was no good intent in the 
first place to try to pass those bills.
  Let the record show that the Emmett Till bill could have been passed 
tonight, supported by the very people who started this bill in the 
first place, who started the effort to get it passed, who endorsed our 
efforts and, in fact, it was denied.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me just say I do respect the Senator 
from Oklahoma. He and I have worked together. I do respect the fact 
that when he puts a hold on a bill, he is public about it. There are 
many people who sneak around here who hold legislation and hope they 
will never be discovered. Senator Coburn from Oklahoma does not take 
that position. I respect him for that. I may disagree with him on many 
substantive issues, and we do disagree, but I do respect him for his 
approach.
  Let's be very honest about this situation. These 35 bills are bills 
we wanted to pass. They are bills passed out of committee. They are 
bills sponsored by Democrats and Republicans. They are bills we tried 
to bring up by unanimous consent that were held by the Republican side 
of the aisle. In our frustration over these holds, we packaged them 
together and asked Republicans to join us and pass them in a bipartisan 
way.
  Each and every one of these bills had virtual unanimous affirmation 
in the committees to which they were referred, and most of them had 
passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan votes in the House.
  But now we have a situation where individual Senators--and it is the 
right of every one of us as Senators--are deciding: I will just take a 
cluster of these bills and hang on to them. I will let my staffers look 
them over. We will get back to you in a few weeks, maybe a few months, 
maybe never. That abuses the process.
  I believe if someone has a serious problem with a bill, has a 
misgiving, they should announce their hold and the reason for the hold, 
and, I guess, out of respect for the sponsor, to go forward and explain 
what the problem is. If it can be resolved, fine, and if it cannot be, 
so be it.
  I also want to say this: What is wrong with calling up these bills 
and those who don't like them voting against them? That is their right 
to express their displeasure on the record. But to hold the bill--if I 
can't have it my way, no one gets a chance to vote--I think pushes it 
to the extreme. To do that occasionally in your senatorial career, I 
can understand. But to make that the business of the Senate is to 
guarantee total frustration.
  Today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, I couldn't help but 
interrupt the proceedings and ask what the point was of deliberating on 
bills if some of the same Senators who were going to vote for those 
bills out of committee were going to hold them once they came to the 
floor and really make sure they never had a chance to be passed into 
law. That is fact. That is what has happened.
  Because of the pain that has been caused by these earlier votes where 
Republicans have come to us privately and said: We are sorry we voted 
this way; some of these bills are bills we really wanted to vote for, 
now they have come to the floor and tried to pick them off one at a 
time and reduce the pain and--I will use the word ``embarrassment,'' 
although Senator Coburn says neither applies to him. I think for some 
of his colleagues there is embarrassment that they would vote against a 
bill to establish a national registry for victims of Lou Gehrig's 
disease, that they would put a hold on a bill that was designed to deal 
with paralysis, the Christopher Reeve bill, in an attempt to honor this 
man and all he did and try to help quadriplegics across the country; a 
bill cosponsored by Senator Cochran and Senator Kennedy to deal with 
stroke victims, that they would put a hold on that; a hold on a bill in 
which I have a great interest dealing with postpartum depression.
  The belief on that side of the aisle is, it is all right; we can hold 
them until they are exactly the way we want. That has gone on too long, 
for months and even longer.
  When it comes to some of these bills relating to criminal sections, 
some of these should be passed in a hurry. I don't know any one of us 
who does not want to deal with Internet pornography that threatens our 
children and grandchildren, kids in our communities. We had this bill 
ready to go. This bill should have been passed quickly, and it was held 
on the Republican side of the aisle until we had to bring it up in this 
package and then voted against, voted not to bring it forward.
  In their frustration, they have now tried to come out at the close of 
the week and have something to point to: I tried to come back on the 
floor, I tried to bring the bill up, but Democrats objected. The true 
story is those bills have been held up for months. They have been held 
up on the Republican side of the aisle.
  I sure hope my colleagues will understand they cannot run the Senate 
the way each one wants to run it. We cannot let every single Senator 
decide the agenda of this Senate or it will be dysfunctional and 
chaotic and many good pieces of legislation will never see the light of 
day.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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