[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20366-20367]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 739

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 191, and 
I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendment be agreed to, the 
amendment to the title be agreed to, the bill be read a third time and 
passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any 
statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.
  This is the veterans homeless bill. This is a bill that provides 
support for homeless veterans.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on behalf of another Member on this 
side of the aisle and not myself, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, I very much appreciate the Senator 
from Kentucky saying that the objection is not on his behalf. I say to 
whoever is objecting that I am going to do this every day. I would like 
to know who objects. It is interesting. I am not going to mix the 
agenda. But in all due respect, it is hardly helpful to veterans to 
object to a piece of legislation that passed with unanimous support out 
of the veterans committee of Republicans and Democrats alike focusing 
on what is a national scandal.
  If you look at the number of men who are homeless--there are too many 
women and children--probably about 30 percent of them are veterans. 
Many of them are Vietnam veterans. Many of them struggle with 
addictions.
  This piece of legislation was a bipartisan piece of legislation 
coming out of committee. Lane Evans has done great work for veterans in 
the House of Representatives. He has taken the lead. It is legislation 
named after Katie Marie Harman, who is Miss America. Her dad is a 
disabled veteran. She has made it her priority.
  I say to whoever is objecting that I would like for them to come out 
on the floor of the Senate and object. Tomorrow I will spend as much 
time as I can finding out who is objecting to this piece of 
legislation. Pretty soon we will either find out, and we can work it 
out together, or I will figure out a way to come out on the floor with 
this legislation and take a long time talking about what is on for 
veterans and the health care needs in particular.
  The fact that I can't even move a piece of legislation that passed 
with unanimous support out of a committee that deals with providing a 
little bit of help to homeless veterans--I am not being histrionic; I 
am not trying to be melodramatic--is just plain maddening.
  My God, in order to have a piece of legislation that deals with 
universal health care coverage and national health insurance, there can 
be a debate about the role of the Government.
  Economic stimulus, I hope we will have that debate. There are many 
other issues. But when you take the most modest step that you can think 
of--I will start outlining the provisions of this bill tomorrow when I 
get a chance--and you have support among Republicans and Democrats in 
the committee and you believe you can move it and you have a lot of 
veterans who are hopeful about it--a number of them came from all 
around the country to testify for this legislation--then we have some 
anonymous objection.

[[Page 20367]]

  That is enough said for tonight. I hope tomorrow I can find out who 
is objecting and that we can pass this by unanimous consent.
  I was working on amendments for this foreign operations 
appropriations bill. I want to let Senator Reid, the whip, and other 
Senators know that the first thing tomorrow morning, or whatever best 
accommodates the Senate's schedule, I will come to the floor with 
amendments and be ready to go with time limits.
  I will be very anxious to get done tomorrow. I am glad we are in 
session. I am glad we are on this piece of legislation.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, that is very good. We want to finish this 
bill as quickly as we can. It is an important piece of legislation. We 
talked about it for a long time today. We are going to come in tomorrow 
at 10:30. If the Senator can be here at 10:30, as soon as we finish the 
business of the day, we will move right to his amendments. I would like 
to be able to tell the managers.
  How many amendments will the Senator have tomorrow?
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, if it is OK, I will ask unanimous 
consent when we come back on the floor that I be allowed to introduce 
the first amendment.
  Mr. REID. The managers are not here. I wouldn't like to do that 
without their being here. How many amendments is the Senator going to 
have?
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Three amendments. I will have one amendment that deals 
with the humanitarian crisis right now in Afghanistan. I am hoping the 
managers will accept it. I think it is a good statement. I think it is 
exactly what we are committed to as a nation.
  I will take 20 seconds tonight to say that the President--and he was 
eloquent--said our military effort is not aimed at the innocent people 
in Afghanistan; we are going after terrorists and those who harbor 
terrorists. I think one of the best ways we can show that we are good 
people who commit by way of deed is to make a serious effort on the 
humanitarian front. We are going to have hundreds of thousands of 
children who are going to starve to death. The first amendment is going 
to be a resolution that talks about the need to make this a priority.
  The second one is going to deal with the Andean plan, Colombia, and 
some of my concerns about human rights. The third one will be also a 
human rights amendment. I can do all of these with a time limit.
  Mr. REID. Senator Durbin and I spoke at some length on the floor this 
morning about the war in Afghanistan. It is certainly not against the 
people of Afghanistan. It is against the Taliban, which has treated 
people so brutally, especially women.
  There are some good provisions in this bill already that relate to 
aid generally for the people of Afghanistan. So I personally look 
forward to hearing the Senator tomorrow. I am sure the managers look 
forward to his amendments. I am sure they would look forward to some 
reasonable time agreement to move forward on those amendments as 
quickly as possible. Hopefully one, two, or three of them can be 
accepted tomorrow.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I thank the majority whip. I hope one, two, and three 
of them will be accepted as well. That would be a first for me, but I 
will certainly try.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator withhold that, please?
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I withhold and yield the floor.

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