[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 83 (Thursday, June 4, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6170-S6171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of H.R. 1256, which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 1256) to protect the public health by 
     providing the Food and Drug Administration with certain 
     authority to regulate tobacco products, to amend title 5, 
     United States Code, to make certain modifications in the 
     Thrift Savings Plan, the Civil Service Retirement System, and 
     the Federal Employees' Retirement System, and for other 
     purposes.

  Pending:

       Dodd amendment No. 1247, in the nature of a substitute.
       Burr/Hagan amendment No. 1246 to amendment No. 1247, in the 
     nature of a substitute.
       Schumer for Lieberman amendment No. 1256 to amendment No. 
     1247, to modify provisions relating to Federal employees 
     retirement.

[[Page S6171]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I send a cloture motion on the Dodd 
substitute amendment to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The closure motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             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 Dodd substitute 
     amendment No. 1247 to Calendar No. 47, H.R. 1256, Family 
     Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
         Harry Reid, Christopher J. Dodd, Robert P. Casey, Jr., 
           Benjamin L. Cardin, Blanche L. Lincoln, Patty Murray, 
           Ron Wyden, Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Maria 
           Cantwell, Roland W. Burris, Tom Harkin, Sherrod Brown, 
           Debbie Stabenow, Richard Durbin, Mark Udall, Edward E. 
           Kaufman.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk. This 
is on the bill itself.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             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 Calendar No. 47, 
     H.R. 1256, Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
         Harry Reid, Christopher J. Dodd, Robert P. Casey, Jr., 
           Debbie Stabenow, Blanche L. Lincoln, Patty Murray, Ron 
           Wyden, Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Maria Cantwell, 
           Roland W. Burris, Richard Durbin, Mark Udall, Edward E. 
           Kaufman, Tom Harkin, Benjamin L. Cardin, Bill Nelson.

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I now ask unanimous consent that the 
mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to go into a 
period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 
10 minutes each.
  Mr. McCAIN. Reserving the right to object, what did we do?
  Mr. REID. We just went into morning business. We would like to go 
into morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I have an amendment that I have been 
trying to get a vote on, I would say to the distinguished majority 
leader, and it certainly is important to the American people.
  It is certainly important on this bill and the function of the FDA 
concerning the importation of prescription drugs into this country. I 
believe the Senator from North Dakota has an amendment. I would agree 
to a time agreement of an hour to be equally divided, or half hour, and 
then vote on it.
  I think the American people ought to know whether we are going to be 
able to import prescription drugs into this country so we can save them 
billions of dollars every year, rather than taking so much of their 
hard-earned money, especially retirees.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I am happy to respond to my friend. We 
have been trying for 2 days to move forward on germane amendments. I 
have had several conversations with Senator Dorgan. I know how 
important it is to him. I voted with him, and I do every time this 
matter comes up. As I indicated earlier, I would be happy to work out 
some kind of agreement.
  At this time, until we get some ability to vote on the germane 
amendments, it doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I am willing, 
as I have indicated to my friend, Senator Dorgan, to work out an 
arrangement for him to offer this amendment. This is something that 
should have been done, I am sorry to say, years ago, not weeks ago. I 
will work with the Senator from Arizona on this drug reimportation 
issue, which is important. At this stage, we simply cannot do it; I 
know of no way to get from here to there.
  As I said--and the manager of the bill is here--if we can work 
something out by Monday, I will be happy to try to work something out. 
Nobody is trying to stop the Senator from offering that amendment. We 
have to have an agreement to move forward on the other stuff first 
because it is germane.
  Mr. McCAIN. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REID. Yes, without losing my right to the floor.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am very appreciative of the difficulties 
the majority leader faces on a bill of this nature, the challenges of 
amendments being nongermane, and also the difficulties he faces in 
managing legislation. This issue has been around for a long time, I say 
to my friend from Nevada. We should address it. It is important to the 
American people. It does have a lot to do with pharmaceuticals in this 
country and the availability.
  Again, I point out to the majority leader that there should not be a 
lot of debate on this. People have taken their positions.
  I have an e-mail that was sent to us by mistake by the lobby for 
PhRMA, regarding how important it is to stop this amendment and not 
have a vote on it. If my friend will indulge me, this is urgent. This 
is from, as I understand it, one of the lobbyists for PhRMA:

       The Senate is on the tobacco bill today. Unless we get some 
     significant movement, the full-blown Dorgan or Vitter bill 
     will pass as an amendment and a Cochran or Brownback safety 
     amendment will fail.
       (1) We need to locate a Democratic lead cosponsor for the 
     second degree amendment--which will be either Brownback or 
     Cochran. Can the J&J, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and the other 
     New Jersey companies coordinate and contact Senator 
     Menendez's office and ask him to take the lead?
       (2) We are trying to get Senator Dorgan to back down--
     calling the White House and Senator Reid. Our understanding 
     is that at least Senator McCain has said he will offer 
     regardless, so even if Dorgan withdraws, he may still go 
     forward.
       We believe we have 39 `yes' votes for a safety second 
     degree amendment and 25 members in the `undecided' column. 
     Kennedy--who whipped this for us last time--is not here.
       We are scheduling a call for later this morning to follow 
     up on our targets from yesterday's whip call. Please make 
     sure your staff is fully engaged in this process. This is 
     real. We only had six companies participate in the last call.

  My friends, that is a little insight as to how the special interests 
in Washington work. I would like to have a vote on this amendment, I 
say to my friend from Nevada, with a full appreciation of the 
difficulties he has in getting this legislation through--a very 
important piece of legislation.
  I thank my friend from Nevada for his indulgence and allowing me to 
read that e-mail.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, that is kind of an insight--I don't know 
who is on first, but that is pretty interesting.
  I 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. REID. Madam 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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