[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 129 (Thursday, July 31, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7888-S7890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             JOBS, ENERGY, FAMILIES AND DISASTER RELIEF ACT

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to discuss my 
vote on July 28 against cloture--to end debate--on the motion to 
proceed to S. 3297, the so-called Reid omnibus bill or ``Coburn 
package.'' As I stated on the Senate floor Monday, July 28, it is my 
inclination that the majority leader called for a vote on cloture on 
proceeding to this bill in order to dislodge the pending legislation on 
oil speculation. By using his position of power, he seeks to force the 
Senate to prematurely move away from the No. 1 issue facing the people 
from my State and the Nation namely energy legislation.
  I did not support cloture to move to the Reid omnibus bill not 
because I do not support many of its provisions, rather because I 
believe we should complete work on energy legislation before moving on 
to other matters. Further, I am seeking my right as a U.S. Senator to 
offer amendments to a bill in a fair and balanced legislative process.
  For instance, Senator Kohl and I had a bipartisan amendment prepared 
to offer to the speculation bill that would have brought OPEC nations 
under U.S. antitrust laws to prohibit them from meeting in a room, 
lowering production and supply, and thus raising prices. Unfortunately, 
this effort was denied by the majority leader's blocking of amendments 
by filling the so-called amendment tree, disallowing mine and a number 
of other amendments that ought to be considered.

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  This procedure is nothing new for this majority leader who has filled 
the amendment tree on 15 occasions in the current 110th Congress, 
surpassing all other majority leaders in modern history. As a result of 
the majority leader's curtailing Senate procedure and amendments, I 
have been faced with voting against cloture on measures I would have 
ordinarily supported including this past Saturday's vote on LIHEAP. I 
have also opposed cloture in instances such as the Lieberman-Warner 
global warming bill which was considered the first week of June--2 to 
6. In that case, the majority leader filled the amendment tree at the 
first opportunity and filed cloture on the bill without ever allowing 
consideration of amendments. The 5-day debate culminated in a fait 
accompli cloture vote that failed on June 6.
  Most recently, I voted against cloture to move to the Reid omnibus 
bill that was a conglomeration of legislation that has been described 
as non-controversial and may benefit a wide variety of interests. As I 
stated on the Senate floor on Monday, July 28, I am supportive of most, 
if not all of the substance in this bill. In fact, I am a cosponsor of 
six of the items.
  I support and have worked to pass a number of the Judiciary 
Committee-related bills in the proposed omnibus. For example, I am an 
original cosponsor of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Protection Act, S. 
2982, which makes changes in the grant program for centers for runaway 
youths. I am also a cosponsor of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment 
and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2008, S. 
2304, which would provide grants for the improved mental health 
treatment and services provided to offenders with mental illness. In 
addition, I am a cosponsor of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights 
Crime Act, S. 535, which authorizes funding to solve pre-1970 civil 
rights crimes. Moreover, in committee, I supported a Federal commission 
to commemorate the bicentennial of the writing of the Star-Spangled 
Banner and the War of 1812, S. 1079.
  Additionally, I voted in favor of the following child protection 
bills which were passed by the Judiciary Committee: The Combating Child 
Exploitation Act of 2008, S. 1738, which authorizes grants to combat 
child exploitation; and the Drug Endangered Children Act of 2007, S. 
1210, which extends a grant program directed at drug-endangered 
children.
  I directed my staff to work to clear the child exploitation bills 
from the omnibus package in the same manner I worked to pass the Adam 
Walsh Act without extraneous add-ons during the 109th Congress. To that 
end, my staff worked with Senator Coburn's staff to draft a proposed 
compromise child exploitation bill that includes the key provisions of 
the child pornography and exploitation legislation in the proposed 
omnibus, as well as important legislation to strengthen the powers of 
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the SAFE Act, 
which was omitted from the omnibus bill.
  My support is also invested in efforts to maintain the natural beauty 
of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed while simultaneously preserving its 
resources for the communities it serves. S. 2707, The Chesapeake Bay 
Gateways and Water Trails Network Continuing Authorization Act, will 
permanently authorize appropriations for these vital programs. I 
cosponsored this legislation because I believe it is a critical 
organization whose mission to protect the bay is vital for the 
communities affected by this watershed.
  Another environmental act I have fervently supported and of which I 
am an original cosponsor, is S. 496, the Appalachian Regional 
Development Act Amendments of 2008. The bill renews the Appalachian 
Regional Commission for 5 years--2007-2011--and authorizes $510 million 
to be appropriated over that timeframe for the Commission's economic 
development activities in distressed rural counties.
  Numerous health care provisions I have worked hard for can also be 
found in this package, including S. 1382, which establishes a registry 
of those suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, better 
known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The registry will gather data about 
those who are diagnosed with the disease to better understand and 
research the illness. As Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human 
Services and Education--LHHS--Appropriations Subcommittee, I support 
research and an ALS registry. I worked to provide $39 million for NIH 
research of ALS in 2008 and $2.8 million to plan the ALS registry.
  I am also a cosponsor of S. 1183, the Christopher and Dana Reeve 
Paralysis Act, to expand paralysis research at the National Institutes 
of Health, NIH, and set up a network to allow patients and their 
families to quickly learn the result of clinical trials on paralysis 
rehabilitation drugs. The LHHS fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill 
provided $64 million for NIH spinal cord research.
  The package also included bills, H.R. 3112, S. 1810 intended to 
create a new Federal grant program to pay for information and support 
services regarding Down syndrome and other prenatally or postnatally 
diagnosed conditions. While awaiting these authorization bills, I have 
worked with Senator Harkin to get a jump start on these much-needed 
activities by including $1 million to establish the congenital 
disabilities program in the fiscal year 2009 Labor, HHS, and Education 
Appropriations bill. In addition, the Labor-HHS Subcommittee provided 
almost $1 million to the CDC in fiscal year 2009 for awareness 
activities related to Down syndrome.
  One of the bills, H.R. 477, would permit the issuing of grants to 
states for stroke care systems. As ranking member of the Labor-HHS 
Appropriations Subcommittee, I have worked to increase CDC funding for 
heart disease and stroke activities in the States to over $50 million 
and NIH funding for stroke research to over $340 million in fiscal year 
2008.
  Another bill, S 1375, would establish a grant program for services to 
mothers suffering from postpartum depression. As ranking member of the 
Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, I have worked with Chairman 
Harkin to include $4.9 million for a first-time motherhood initiative 
within the maternal and child health block grant.
  I also support S. 675, the Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2007. 
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires 100 percent closed 
captioning for all new English broadcast programming by January 1, 
2006. That deadline has come and gone. There are not enough real time 
writers and captioners to meet this unfunded mandate out in the 
workforce. Furthermore, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires 100 
percent closed captioning for all new Spanish broadcast programming by 
January 1, 2010. America is very far from achieving this goal. S. 675 
will assist with training the workforce to provide closed captioning 
for the 30 million Americans who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
  I support H.R. 3320, the Support for the Museum of the History of 
Polish Jews Act of 2007, which requires assistance from the Department 
of State to support the development of a permanent collection at the 
Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. It is in the 
national interest of the United States to encourage the preservation 
and protection of artifacts associated with the heritage of U.S. 
citizens who trace their forbearers to other countries and to encourage 
the collection and dissemination of knowledge about that heritage. Most 
recently, I traveled to Poland on August 27, 2007, and observed fist 
hand the importance of museums that examine Poland in WW II, 
specifically the Polish uprising and the Home Army. The Museum of the 
History of Polish Jews will complement the current museum facilities in 
Warsaw by preserving and presenting the history of the Jewish people in 
Poland, which had the largest Jewish population in Europe at the 
beginning of World War II.
  Having outlined a number of priorities and areas of support I have 
with this omnibus bill, let the record show that I support the package 
as a whole. However, as evidenced by my vote against cloture on the 
motion to proceed to the bill, I believe the energy situation is too 
important to set aside until we have completed or frankly even started 
our work on it by allowing amendments to be considered. It has been 
said on this floor that explaining opposition to this omnibus bill to 
our constituents will be difficult. While this premonition may have 
some merit,

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I trust that the people of Pennsylvania and the Nation will support 
efforts to deal with high energy prices and encouraging the kind of 
open and fair debate that leads to better policies across the board.
  I reinitiate my suggestion that the Senate stay in session during the 
month of August, if the majority leader would hold a legitimate session 
that provides the kind of deliberation that has led many to call the 
U.S. Senate ``the greatest deliberative body in the world.'' Members of 
this body should be prepared to work as long and hard as necessary in 
order to reach a solution to the energy crisis not based upon political 
appeasement, but results. It is time we allow debate and compromise to 
reverberate through this chamber as we find areas of agreement in the 
best tradition of the Senate.

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