[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 109 (Thursday, July 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S6190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MAKING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER
30, 2010
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
proceed to the House message to accompany H.R. 4899, which the clerk
will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Resolved that the House agree to the amendment of the
Senate to the title of the bill (H.R. 4899) entitled ``An Act
making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2010, and for other purposes,'' and be it
further resolved that the House agree to the amendment of the
Senate to the text of the aforesaid bill with an amendment.
Cloture Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the clerk will report
the motion to invoke cloture.
The 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 motion to
concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.
4899, an act making supplemental appropriations for the
fiscal year ending September 30, 2010.
Daniel K. Inouye, Tom Harkin, Christopher J. Dodd,
Patrick J. Leahy, Max Baucus, Richard J. Durbin,
Charles E. Schumer, Al Franken, Patty Murray, Benjamin
L. Cardin, Jack Reed, Roland W. Burris, Dianne
Feinstein, Mark Begich, Amy Klobuchar, Byron L. Dorgan,
Mark Udall.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.
4899, the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010, shall be brought to
a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy) is
necessarily absent.
Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint) and the Senator from Missouri (Mr.
Bond).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
DeMint) would have voted ``nay.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 46, nays 51, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 219 Leg.]
YEAS--46
Akaka
Baucus
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown (OH)
Burris
Cantwell
Cardin
Casey
Conrad
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Goodwin
Hagan
Harkin
Inouye
Johnson
Kaufman
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Lautenberg
Levin
Lincoln
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (NE)
Nelson (FL)
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Udall (NM)
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--51
Alexander
Barrasso
Bayh
Begich
Bennet
Bennett
Brown (MA)
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Carper
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Johanns
Kyl
Landrieu
LeMieux
Lieberman
Lugar
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Pryor
Risch
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Specter
Thune
Udall (CO)
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Wicker
NOT VOTING--3
Bond
DeMint
Leahy
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 46, the nays are
51. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
Under the previous order, the motion to concur is withdrawn.
The motion to disagree to the House amendment to the Senate amendment
to H.R. 4899 is considered made; the motion to disagree is agreed to;
and the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the
table.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, tomorrow and the next day
marines and soldiers will patrol the streets of places like Marja and
Garmsir and assist Afghan policemen in the areas around Kandahar.
They are well trained, they are intent on accomplishing the mission
they have been given, and they are supported by loving families here at
home.
For their sacrifice, they ask little. They ask that they be well led,
prepared, and to have clear-cut missions and guidance. They ask that
their families be cared for.
We have become so used to their sacrifice in the days, months, and
years since September 11, 2001, that it may become easy to take the
extraordinary service rendered by this All-Volunteer Force for granted.
So easy, it seems, that the funding request submitted by Secretary
Gates in February to fund combat operations has languished here in the
Congress for months.
As a Senate, we should not take this sacrifice for granted.
Secretary Gates spoke to my Republican colleagues and me about the
need to pass the defense supplemental so the training and pay of our
military would not be at risk.
He has also written to the majority leader and asked that we finish
this supplemental before the August recess so that he will not be
forced to furlough thousands of civilian employees at the Department of
Defense.
It has taken until this late date to now vote once again on funding
for our All-Volunteer Force. With each passing day we approach the end
of the fiscal year and Secretary Gates loses the ability to shift
funding from other activities in the Defense Department to the training
of our forces scheduled to deploy.
I am afraid we are losing sight of the purpose of these war
supplemental bills. These bills are not for forward-funding domestic
programs. They are not for funding projects that won't pass elsewhere.
It would be irresponsible to give the House any further reason to
shirk the responsibility of getting this funding to our fighting
forces.
We need to pass this supplemental tonight, send it back to the House
and reject any delaying tactic or additional matters that can wait for
future consideration in this session.
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I voted to end debate on the House
amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill because that
amendment addresses important domestic priorities for Wisconsin and
this country without adding a penny to the deficit. The amendment
provides $10 billion to help school districts around the country facing
funding shortfalls due to the ongoing recession, all of it paid for. It
also provides almost $5 billion in fully offset funding to help ensure
that the millions of low income students who receive Pell grants do not
see reductions in their awards.
The House amendment also includes a provision to give public safety
employees, like firefighters and police officers, collective bargaining
rights. While Wisconsin and other States already protect public safety
employees' collective bargaining rights, there are still several States
that do not. Police officers, firefighters, and other public safety
officers are on the front lines of protecting our communities and we
should ensure that these hard working professionals have the ability to
bargain for better wages and working conditions.
However, I continue to oppose funding for a massive, open-ended war
in Afghanistan. This war funding will add tens of billions to our
deficit without contributing to our national security.
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