[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 28346-28395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, THE JUDICIARY AND RELATED 
                   AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to the consideration of H.R. 2799, which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 2799) making appropriations for the 
     Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, 
     and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
     2004, and for other purposes.

  The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allard). The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this is a most important bill. I understand 
how important it is. I also understand it is normal procedure to have 
the chairman of the subcommittee speak first and the ranking member 
speak second. But I feel it is appropriate, in talking about this bill, 
to respond very briefly to my friend from Kentucky.
  It is obvious to anyone who understands Senate procedure why things 
did not go well last year. It is because the minority stopped us from 
doing our work. We worked very hard to allow these pieces of 
legislation to pass. We have been partners with them. The Senator from 
Kentucky can talk all he wants about leadership, but everyone knows 
that the situation where we now have, toward the last few days of this 
Congress, a time set aside--30 hours--to talk about judges, and the 
comments in that regard upstairs by Senator Daschle and by me indicated 
that was something we thought was amateurish.
  Mr. President, one of the chief aims of the Commerce-State-Justice 
appropriations bill is to articulate the priorities of the United 
States on matters related to business and the economy.
  This legislation contains funding for the Small Business 
Administration, U.S. Trade Representative, the National Trade 
Administration, the Bureau of Industry, the Economic Development 
Agency, the Minority Development Business Agency, and a lot more.
  I think everyone today should understand we are not going to have any 
votes for a while. Maybe by 6 o'clock, if people still want to vote 
they can vote, but I am going to be talking until 6 o'clock today and, 
if necessary, talk longer than that.
  I, of course, understand the rules relating to the Senate. I 
understand there is a rule that for the first 3 hours, a Senator has to 
be talking about issues relating to this bill. I can certainly do that. 
But I say to my friend--and I have the deepest respect and regard for 
the chairman of this subcommittee, a former Governor of New Hampshire, 
a former Member of the House of Representatives, and now a Senator--
that I am going to be talking for a while. If he wants to hang around 
and listen to me, he can do that. But this has certainly nothing to do 
with my friend from New Hampshire. It has everything to do with the way 
that I, speaking for myself, believe the Senate is being run.
  I think it is inappropriate that we are not going to be able to work 
through this week; that we are going to take 2 days to talk about 
judges. I don't know the exact count anymore but I think it is about 
168, 169 to 4, but yet we are going to take valuable time to deliver a 
message--I have been told the reason it is being done is to deliver a 
message to the base. I don't know what that means, except it is being 
done for reasons that I don't think are appropriate for the Senate.
  The legislation that is now before the Senate is important. These 
entities that I have talked about serve one key mission, and that is to 
promote the development of American business and the American economy. 
As we think about how these agencies should carry

[[Page 28347]]

out this important mission, it is appropriate to spend some time 
reviewing where the economy stands.
  Certainly, one of the most important indicators of how the economy is 
faring is the unemployment rate. On Friday morning, the Department of 
Labor issued its report on the October 2003 unemployment figures. The 
unemployment rate was essentially unchanged, from 6.1 percent last 
month to 6 percent this month. We heard a lot about the fact that the 
economy grew by 126,000 new jobs in October. Sounds like a lot of jobs, 
until we understand it is catchup time and the 126,000 does not even 
keep up with the current population growth in the United States.
  The administration lost no time putting out a series of press 
releases that said: Stronger growth; 126,000 new jobs in October show 
President's jobs and growth plan is working, but there is still more to 
do.
  This bill, S. 1585, making appropriations for the Department of 
Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and related agencies for the 
fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, is important legislation. One 
reason it is important is to talk about how--
  Mr. GREGG. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. No. I will in half an hour or so.
  Mr. GREGG. My question was going to be as to how much time the 
Senator is going to take?
  Mr. REID. When the Senator was off the floor--and I will repeat--I 
indicated my great respect and admiration for someone with a record of 
accomplishment that certainly is significant--Governor, Member of the 
House of Representatives, Senator, and I indicated publicly, and I will 
say again, my speaking today for an extended period of time has nothing 
to do with my regard for the Senator from New Hampshire. I am going to 
talk for probably 4 or 5 hours today.
  Mr. GREGG. Will the Senator yield for a question? That is not a 
problem for myself. I would just like to know the approximate time.
  Mr. REID. I have answered the Senator's questions, and I would 
appreciate it if he would not interrupt.
  I do not think the President's plan is working for 9 million 
Americans who are unemployed. I do not think it is working for 2 
million of those people who have been out of work for longer than 6 
months. Gaining 126,000 new jobs is certainly better than losing an 
average of 85,000 jobs a month, which is what the country did for the 
entire first half of the year, but it does not mean their plan is 
working, and it does not mean it is getting easier to find a job.
  In fact, it is not. October job growth does not even keep up with the 
population growth. October is the best month we have had in a long time 
in terms of job growth. Even October's job creation does not keep up 
with the population growth. So that means for the average person who 
wants a job, it is getting more difficult to land a position, not less 
difficult. Let me say why.
  The number of young people entering the workforce is greater than the 
number of people retiring out of the workforce. The population of 
people who want to work rises every month, so there must be some level 
of increase in the number of jobs every month just to keep pace with 
this growth. Put another way, between the beginning of the Bush 
recession in March 2001 and last month, the U.S. working age population 
increased by almost 8 million people. Since March 2001, the U.S. 
working-age population has grown by 3.4 percent. Because of this influx 
of working-age people, it is not enough just to keep employment level; 
we need to be adding jobs every month just to keep our heads above 
water. Most economists say we need to create about 150,000 new jobs 
every month just to hold steady with population growth. That is 150,000 
just to remain static. October numbers do not get us that far.
  One of the chief aims of the Commerce-State-Justice appropriations 
bill is to articulate the priorities of the U.S. Congress and the 
American people in matters related to business and the economy.
  My distinguished friend, the majority whip, indicated the great 
accomplishments of the Senate this year, and I think we have had some, 
but we have been complicit. We have been partners in passing that 
legislation. Just so everyone understands that compromise is important 
in the Senate, not in the House of Representatives. In the House of 
Representatives, the majority party can run right over the minority 
party, but in the Senate it cannot be done.
  Senator Daschle and I agreed the week before last and last week that 
we would work today and tomorrow, full-time, even though tomorrow is a 
legal holiday, and then out of the blue we learned there is going to be 
30 hours spent on judges all Wednesday night and all day Thursday until 
12 midnight Thursday night. This is a one-man show to indicate that the 
Senate cannot necessarily be run unless we work together. So there can 
be votes, but they will be tonight sometime. They are not going to be 
early this afternoon, as the majority has indicated to some of its 
Members.
  The Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill is an important bill. 
As I indicated, we need 150,000 new jobs every month just to remain 
static. October numbers do not get us even that far. That is why this 
bill is so important.
  The Departments of Commerce, State, and Justice have wide-ranging 
jurisdiction, and the 126,000 jobs that the economy generated in 
October will not even absorb the new entrants into the labor market 
last month. Given how bad things are, and that seems to be a pretty 
modest goal, keeping up with population growth, should we not please 
try to keep up with job growth? We cannot even grow enough jobs to make 
that happen, let alone make up for 3 million private sector jobs that 
we lost since the recession began.
  How many jobs should have been created by now? The difference between 
the number of jobs--and I will get some charts in a minute when the 
floor staff brings them to me. They will show in very significant 
detail the difference between the number of jobs we actually had in 
October and the number of jobs we have had if we had merely kept up 
with the population growth since the beginning of the recession is over 
7 million.
  Not only did we lose 2.6 million jobs, but we also never created the 
4.5 million jobs necessary to keep pace with the population growth. So 
we are over 7 million jobs in the hole since the beginning of the Bush 
recession, and the White House declares that their plan is working. If 
it is working, we are in deep trouble.
  October job growth is less than the President promised in February. 
The administration continues to make promises it cannot keep when it 
comes to job creation. In February, when the President was trying to 
win votes for his latest tax cut, the White House predicted that his 
so-called jobs and growth plan would create an additional 1.4 million 
jobs. That was 1.4 million jobs over and above the 4.1 million jobs 
that it was projected would be created even if no new taxes were 
passed. So we are supposed to get a total of 5.5 million jobs before 
the end of the next year. So this bill we are talking about that helps 
create job growth is something that has to be looked at very closely. 
This bill making appropriations for the Department of Commerce provided 
for funding for responding to the threat of terrorism. That has had a 
tremendous negative impact on job creation, but the President has not 
responded appropriately, and we will talk about this later, as well as 
the unfunded mandates that he has passed on to the States.
  This bill deals with drug enforcement, judicial process, conducting 
commerce within the United States--and I want to make sure the 
Parliamentarian hears that, conducting commerce within the United 
States. It would seem to me that a discussion about jobs would 
certainly deal with commerce within the United States. In February, the 
President was trying to obviously win votes for his latest tax plan, 
which was a tax cut, and predicted at that time that his so-called jobs 
and growth plan would create an additional 1.4 million jobs. He said 
it. I did not. That was 1.4 million jobs over

[[Page 28348]]

and above the 4.1 million jobs that were projected would be created 
even if there were no new tax cuts.
  We were supposed to get a total of 5.5 million jobs before the end of 
next year. That is a job creation pace of over 300,000 a month. That 
would represent some strong growth. I think that would be tremendous. 
If the U.S. economy was adding jobs at that rate over a long period of 
time, we would be in much better shape.
  In fact, if the economy added 300,000 jobs per month starting today, 
by next summer we would be approaching the levels we were at when 
President Clinton was in office, before the Bush recession began. But 
of course we have not approached that level of growth in any month 
since the plan was adopted. We have not even come close.
  As I said before, most months we have slid further and further into 
the hole. Mr. President, 126,000 jobs is better than no jobs, and that 
is what we have had in the past; it is better than negative jobs, but 
it is not good enough.
  The failure of this administration's latest plan should come as no 
surprise. We all remember the White House promising that the 2001 tax 
cut would create 800,000 new jobs by the end of last year. It didn't 
work. Instead of creating the 800,000 new jobs, we lost 1.2 million 
jobs. That is a net change of 3.2 million jobs. October job growth was 
less than the Secretary promised. Last month, John Snow, Secretary of 
the Treasury, told the New York Times he thought the economy would 
create about 200,000 new jobs per month.
  I think the reason he said that was there were signs that even the 
Republicans were beginning to realize the plan was not a success. That 
is 100,000 fewer jobs than Snow promised, than he had even predicted a 
few months before when they were trying to get the plan passed.
  Revising their estimates down by a third is a pretty surprising 
admission that they know their policy isn't working. Then they failed 
to even meet their lowered expectations.
  On Friday, the White House issued a statement saying:

       The President's jobs and growth agenda is working. The 
     economy created 126,000 jobs in October. Employment has now 
     grown 3 months in a row for a total jobs gain of over a 
     quarter of a million. The President's jobs and growth agenda 
     is working.

  That is what the administration says. That is not the reality. The 
administration promised us this plan would create 918,000 jobs over the 
past 3 months. Then the Treasury Secretary assured us it would create 
600,000 in just 3 months.
  This bill that talks about conducting commerce within the United 
States--jobs is commerce. I think it is very important we realize this 
legislation is dealing with commerce. Jobs is commerce. I think it is 
very important we spend some time talking about jobs.
  The administration's Treasury Secretary assured us it would create 
600,000 jobs in 3 months when we just heard previously it would be over 
900,000 jobs. Now the administration is claiming its plan is working 
because it created over 250,000 jobs. Again, the math doesn't add up. 
We need 300,000 jobs just to keep up with the normal population growth. 
In fact, that is not keeping up with the pace the administration said 
the economy would achieve without the tax cut.
  If this is a plan that is working, then it is sure not the same plan 
the administration told to Congress 6 months ago. That sounds like a 
plan the Enron accountants were involved in.
  Let's not forget this was not an inexpensive proposal. We spent $350 
billion on this scheme. Is the $350 billion plan a success? No, not 
because it created 250,000 jobs. It is a failure. They acknowledge, 
themselves, that without the tax cut, more jobs than that would be 
created. If my math is right, that works out to be $1.4 million per 
job.
  We are here talking about the Commerce-State-Justice bill. It is an 
important piece of legislation. One of the things this bill talks about 
in some detail is security and cooperation in Europe. It talks about 
judges, it talks about general administration, asset forfeiture, Office 
of Justice Programs. It talks about the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology. There are other matters, of course, that take up a 
significant amount of space in this dealing with Alaskan fisheries. It 
deals with noncredit business assistance. It is an important piece of 
legislation dealing with an automated biometric identification system. 
It deals with a joint automated booking system. It deals with detention 
trustees, administration reviews, counterterrorism fund, Office of 
Inspector General. It deals with the U.S. Parole Commission, Antitrust 
Division, National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, salaries and expenses 
of the U.S. attorneys, U.S. Marshals Service, Foreign Claims Settlement 
Commission. It deals with courthouse security equipment all over the 
United States. It deals with the U.S. military construction programs 
all over the country, Marshals Service programs all over the country, 
interagency law enforcement, interagency crime and drug enforcement. It 
deals with programs with the FBI.
  There are many programs there that we will come back and talk about 
later dealing with the FBI, including a polygraph program. They 
polygraph themselves, but of course it has been declared it doesn't 
work very well for others. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, 
and Explosives; activation of new prison facilities in Hazelton, WV; 
Canaan, PA; Terre Haute, IN; Victorville, CA; Forrest City, AR; 
Herlong/Sierra, CA; Williamsburg, SC; Bennettsville, SC. There is a 
total of almost 10,000 beds for a prison facility.
  So there is certainly a lot of meat in this bill, items to talk about 
other than the job loss that has been created in this country.
  There are other things we could do to create jobs in this country. 
The President has talked about tax cuts. It has resulted in a few jobs, 
but in reality this President is headed for the worst record of job 
growth in more than 50 years. This goes back to the days probably of 
Herbert Hoover. All other Presidents created jobs. There was net job 
growth even in the 2 Eisenhower years--one term of his Presidency lost 
jobs overall, the other gained jobs.
  In no other time have we had a President who has lost jobs--as you 
can see here, lots and lots of jobs. It is now over 3 million. Every 
other President has created jobs.
  If things continue--and it appears they will--this will be ``George 
W. Hoover Bush's Presidency,'' creating no jobs, losing jobs. When they 
issue a press release saying, ``Boy, we are doing well; we created 
126,000 jobs,'' understand that doesn't keep up with the 300,000 
necessary to keep up with the population growth.
  What are some of the other things we can do? Prior to September 11, I 
had a plan that was accepted by cities, counties, and States all over 
America. The National Council of Mayors met here in Washington and 
passed a resolution approving my suggested legislation. It would be a 
jobs program for sure. It would be the Federal Government spending 
money to create jobs in infrastructure development: highways, bridges, 
water systems, sewer plants. These are things that are in such 
desperate need of repair, renovation, and construction.
  All over America there are blueprints stacked up gathering dust. They 
are ready to be effectuated, but there is no money. Why is this 
important? It is important that we do this to effect commerce in this 
country because for every $1 billion we spent, we would create 47,000 
high-paying jobs. Those are direct jobs. And the spinoff from those 
jobs would certainly be more. People who work at those infrastructure 
development jobs would need more fuel for their cars, they would need 
more cars, they would need refrigerators, carpets, clothing--on and on. 
And every one of those products they buy, someone has to produce them, 
and it would create jobs in America.
  The spinoff would be very significant.
  That is how this administration should create jobs, but it has shown 
little interest in investing in our country.
  This year's Transportation bill is one of the largest bills we have. 
Up until now--hopefully, they will join with us in producing a highway 
bill--we have

[[Page 28349]]

fought for months to get a high enough number so we could have a 
highway bill. We hope to be able to mark something up on that maybe 
even this Wednesday if the judges issue doesn't get in the way of that.
  But the highway bill, home building, highway construction--those are 
jobs that are created. I remember when I first came to Washington how 
important those two areas of commerce were--building houses and 
building roads.
  We need to move beyond that and do something about the bridges. A 
significant number of bridges we have are in a state of disrepair. They 
won't allow school buses to drive over some of them because they are in 
such bad shape.
  We know how important it is to do something about our water systems 
throughout the country. Sewer systems--we could have been much further 
down that line today and looking at significant job creation if the 
administration had focused on measures which we know work rather than 
squandering the surplus on tax cuts for the wealthy--for the elite. 
There is nothing wrong with being wealthy--for the elite.
  The administration's $350 billion tax was supposed to be a jobs and 
growth act. Where are the jobs? If we spent $10 billion for needed road 
construction, for sewer systems which need to be repaired, and for 
water systems which are in need of renovation and repair in Colorado 
and Nevada, and the other 48 States, we would be creating thousands of 
jobs. If we spent $10 billion directly, we would create 470,000 jobs. 
Of course, $20 billion would create 920,000 jobs. The spinoff from 
those would be so absolutely, unbelievably powerful for this economy. 
But we are not doing that.
  The jobs I am talking about can't be shipped overseas. If you are 
going to build a road, it will be built here in America. If you fix a 
sewer plant, it will be done here in America. If you repair a water 
system, it will be done here in America. If you fix a bridge, it will 
be an American bridge. You can't ship those overseas to the lowest 
bidder.
  Where have all the jobs gone? What has happened to the jobs? They are 
going to different places. I have a few charts, and we have a lot of 
time today. We will spend a little time talking about that.
  Goodyear Tire lost 1,100 jobs; Levi Strauss, San Antonio, TX, lost 
800 jobs just this past month; Sumco in the State of Oregon, 190 jobs 
just last month; John Harland, Decatur, GA, 3,500 jobs last month; 
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ, almost 100 jobs in September of 
this year; DSM Pharma, Greenville, NC, 2,000 jobs in October--a month 
ago; TRW, Greenville, NC, 229 jobs, September 2003; Bluebird--you have 
seen Bluebird, the big, beautiful buses which I am told are the 
Cadillac of recreational vehicles--Fort Valley, GA, 400 jobs lost just 
last month; Dan River, Fort Valley, GA, 447 jobs last month; YKK, 
Macon, GA, 36 jobs the month before last; Timken, Torrington, CT, 
almost 200 jobs last month; Spring Industries, Lancaster, SC, 330 jobs 
the month before last; and, Bronx, NY, 100 jobs this month. Bronx, NY, 
is where the company that makes Everlast equipment is located. Boxers 
have Everlast on all of their boxing equipment, such as Everlast boxing 
gloves. They do not have many jobs left in Bronx, NY, anymore. They are 
checking out. They lost 100 jobs.
  Brylane, Indianapolis, IN, 415 jobs; Olin Brass, Indianapolis, IN, 
310 jobs gone; Inland Paperboard, 287; General Electric, Schenectady, 
NY, 400 jobs last month; Tysons, Hope, AR, birthplace of President 
Clinton, lost 500 jobs--I can imagine how significant that was in that 
little community--just the month before last; Kelly Springfield, Tyler, 
TX, lost 200 jobs in October of 2003; Bristol Compressors, Bristol, VA, 
300 jobs; Internet, Radford, VA, 348 jobs the month before last; and 
Alcoa, Bellingham, WA, 200 jobs.
  Throughout the afternoon we will refer to some of these. You can kind 
of get the picture of why jobs are leaving.
  I am worried about my constituents. I am confident that every Member 
of this Senate is worried.
  What am I supposed to tell the people in Nevada who are unemployed? 
Should I tell them that the $350 billion which was used to help mostly 
the wealthy is going to help put them back to work when we have waited 
this long for two huge tax cuts to create new jobs? It only lost jobs. 
I voted against the plan because I didn't think it would create jobs. 
But once it passed, it was the only game in town. I hoped it would 
succeed, but it hasn't.
  I am not in favor of higher taxes, not at all. I wish taxes were much 
lower. But we have to be realistic. We have to see that people are 
happier with jobs--not tax cuts for the elite of this country. I want 
to see my unemployed constituents have the opportunity to go back to 
work. Too many of them are still anxious and hurting and waiting. They 
have waited for a long time. It really tears at your heartstrings.
  I don't see all of the letters. I wish I could. But I see a lot of 
them. I don't see all of the letters and the e-mails pouring in these 
days. But my staff picks out those that are representative of a large 
group of letters.
  I have been hearing from large groups of people in Nevada who have 
never been unemployed in their whole lives. They have never been 
unemployed. These aren't people who are holding out for cushy, high-
paying jobs. They are proud people with a strong work ethic who are 
willing to do whatever amount of hard work it takes to keep a roof over 
their heads and food on their tables, people who never thought they 
would be in this position. They are still having no luck finding work.
  I received a letter a few weeks ago from a woman who lives in Spring 
Creek, NV. Spring Creek is a place in northeastern Nevada. It is a 
community that has grown up over the past 25 years. It is a beautiful 
community. She said she wrote to me and she wrote to the President and 
to Congressman Gibbons who is the Member of Congress who represents 
that part of the State of Nevada. She said:

       I really do not expect any of you will actually read this 
     letter. It will probably go to an aide, and if I am lucky I 
     may get a response. But why am I writing this letter?

  She answers her own question:

       Because there are many other people in this country who are 
     unemployed and have run out of unemployment benefits. Many 
     people like me feel that writing a letter like this is a 
     waste of time. Many have no hope but I believe that one 
     person's voice can make a difference. I live in a small 
     community in northern Nevada. There are at least 50 people 
     applying for every job opening. We have thought about moving 
     to other cities but the job market is tight everywhere. My 
     husband is disabled and receives a small Social Security 
     check every month, but it pays all but $15 for our first 
     mortgage on our house. I have to supply the money to pay a 
     second mortgage and all of our living expenses. The company 
     that I was working for updated their computer system to make 
     it easier to purchase items over the Internet web site. As a 
     result, they laid off some people, including me. Since then I 
     have sent out hundreds of resumes with little response. I am 
     not writing this letter to get a handout or for sympathy. I 
     have faith in God that he has a perfect job for me that he 
     will provide for us. There are many thousands of people who 
     do not have hope. They have been laid off multiple times and 
     are eligible for little or no unemployment benefits. I have 
     friends that were laid off over a year ago and are still 
     trying to find work. Unemployment should not be a free ride. 
     All I'm asking is that people who are truly trying to find 
     work, get a fair chance to provide for their families while 
     they seek employment. I would work a part-time job or two 
     part-time jobs in lieu of a full time job if I could find 
     one. So the solution is to get the economy going so the 
     people like me can find a decent job or jobs. Gentlemen, this 
     is the greatest country in the world. The middle class needs 
     a break. I don't want a free ride, I just want a job or jobs 
     to supply the basic needs of our family.

  Mr. President, she is right. It is our job to get the economy going 
so she can get on with her life. It is astounding we spent $350 billion 
on a jobs proposal and it did not make a bit of difference in the 
circumstances she and many millions of people face.
  We have job losses all over America. Bradford, WA, we talked about, 
348 jobs; Alcoas Intelco in Bellingham, WA, 200 jobs lost last month.
  My friend, Ron Wyden, the distinguished senior Senator from Oregon, 
said Oregon has the highest unemployment of any State in the Union--the

[[Page 28350]]

beautiful State of Oregon, the highest unemployment of any place in 
America. That is too bad for Ron Wyden and Senator Gordon Smith and the 
people who live in Oregon.
  Graphic Packaging, West Monroe, LA, 30 jobs. Think of that, 30 people 
who have a job one day and do not have a job the next day. What does 
this do to their families? Thirty people, that is what people say. 
Remember, are the 30 people going to be able to continue to make their 
house payments? The average person in America is out of work 5 months. 
The people who work at Graphic Packaging in West Monroe, LA, how will 
they handle bills for 5 months? Some get a job in 8 months, some in 4 
months, unless things get worse. It averages 5 months. What do they do 
for car payments? Or the payments due when they bought the refrigerator 
they had to buy because the old one broke down? What about the house 
payments, the rental payments? What are those 30 people going to do? 
What are they going to do for Christmas? Remember, these people in West 
Monroe, LA, were laid off just the month before last. What are they 
going to tell their children come Christmastime? Is it a single-parent 
family that is taking care of the children and lost her job in West 
Monroe, LA? Is it a two-parent family with both working? We can 
envision the circumstances of those 30 people. It is scary. It is 
frightening. Only 30 people, some would say, but remember, every one of 
the 30 is a human being, with a job they no longer have.
  Trane, Lacrosse, WI, 350 jobs last month; Bob's Candles, Albany, GA, 
54 jobs. I have purchased Bob's Candles. There are 54 less people who 
are working at Bob's Candles. That happened last month. Parker 
Hamilton, 100 jobs, Akron, OH; Delphi Packard, Warren, OH, 214. I am 
confident this company is making parts of automobiles. Brach's Candy, 
based in Chicago, 1,000 jobs gone a month before last; Hussman in 
Bridgeton, MO, 250 jobs; Waterbury Plastics, Randolph, Vermont, 29 
jobs--only 29 jobs--the month before last. Vermont is a sparsely 
populated State that has gotten a lot of attention in recent months 
because of a Presidential candidate, former Governor Dean of Vermont. 
Kodak, Rochester, NY. Many years ago when I was there I visited the man 
who ran the company then and went to his home in Rochester; 800 jobs; 
ConStar Plastics, Reserve, LA, 69 jobs; Kosa Textiles, Cleveland 
County, North Carolina, 150 jobs; Cone Mills, Rutherford County, North 
Carolina, 600 jobs.
  I heard Senator Hollings from South Carolina talking about the 
textile industry being so devastated. North Carolina has a lot of new 
things happening and it is certainly good, but they are losing a lot of 
jobs--600 jobs at Cone Mills.
  Radio Shack, Swannanoa, NC, 140 jobs; American Uniform, Robbinsville, 
NC, 34 jobs; Hewlett-Packard, Nashua, NH, 50 jobs; Delco Remy, Bay 
Springs, MI. They are losing jobs because of the auto industry. 
Trellborg Automotive, Logansport, IN, 454 jobs; Coca-Cola, Highstown, 
NJ, 900 jobs; Thompson Consumer Electric, Marion, IA, 820 jobs; Lear, 
Traverse City, MI, 300 jobs; Gateway, Hampton, VA, 450 jobs; Hamilton 
Beach, Washington, NC, 1,400 jobs. They all went to Mexico. Pfizer, 
Kalamazoo, MI, 615 jobs; Ramtex, Ramseur, NC, 90 jobs; Boeing, Seattle, 
WA, 710 jobs just last month; Outokampu, Buffalo, NY, 26 jobs; 
Motorola, Elma, NC, 60 jobs.
  This is happening all over America; thousands and thousands of jobs 
are lost, and I have only talked about a few of them. I will talk about 
more later.
  We could have done a better job to spend part of the $350 billion on 
infrastructure and investments which meet our basic needs. They are an 
amazing job stimulus, as I have spoken. All over the country we have an 
infrastructure need--roads that have been on the drawing board for 
years with no money to pay for them; airports in need of renovation, 
but there is no money to pay for them; sewer systems that need repairs, 
but there is no money to pay for them.
  I held a hearing shortly before September 11 and I invited the mayors 
of Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, I think maybe Denver, CO, Las Vegas, 
NV, and we talked about what was going on around their cities with the 
need for renovating and repairing sewer systems. I can remember very 
clearly the mayor of Atlanta, GA, said he was looking forward to 
getting out of office and the reason he was so anxious to get out of 
office is because he is sure, in the foreseeable future, the whole 
water system in Atlanta will collapse. It is old and needs huge amounts 
of money to bring it up to a condition that is not one that will fail. 
That is basically what all the mayors say.
  The mayor from Las Vegas had a different situation. There the growth 
is so tremendous--even though in Atlanta the growth is tremendous, 
their concern is in old Atlanta--in Las Vegas, with the new people 
moving in, just last month, 8,500 people moved to Las Vegas. They need 
help with the infrastructure.
  Schools are crumbling. The average school in America is about 50 
years old and in a state of disrepair.
  In Las Vegas, the Clark County School District has a little different 
situation. We cannot keep up with the growth, even though we are 
dedicating one new school a month. We held the record 2 separate years. 
We built and dedicated and opened 18 new schools. We need some help.
  But that is the way it is all over America. Other places need the 
money to renovate schools. It is something that is badly needed, but it 
is so important to not only creating jobs but giving kids a decent 
place to work on their school studies. With a lot of the old schools, 
we can get them all the new computer equipment you want, but they are 
not wired to handle the new computer equipment. They need to be 
rewired. They need to be fixed so they can use modern technology, which 
they cannot do now.
  For every $1 billion, 47,000 direct high-quality new jobs are 
created. These new jobs create thousands of additional jobs through the 
ripple effect that I talked about. When someone gets a job as a 
surveyor for a new road, a bricklayer for a new school, one engineer 
for a water project, or a crew member on a road construction project, 
these jobs help all layers of our society--the educated, the people who 
are not educated in books but know how to run heavy equipment, as I 
indicated, those who lay brick; those who can do work in a house, 
carpenters.
  These are the kinds of things that are important. This is the ripple 
effect I am talking about. As I said, someone gets a job as a surveyor 
for a new road. What follows that? Then you have to have someone come 
and do the engineering after the survey. That creates jobs. After that 
is done, you put it out to bid, and then the people come in.
  As an example, in my little town of Searchlight, NV, we had--it is no 
longer the case--the busiest two-lane road in all of Nevada. It was a 
death trap: 36 miles of it from Railroad Pass to Searchlight, a two-
lane road, traffic would back up for 4 or 5 miles. Big trucks would 
slow down traffic to 40, 45 miles an hour. People would get anxious and 
try to pass, and there would be head-on collisions, with many people 
killed.
  We were able to get 18--or half that distance--put out to bid, and 
now that is completed. I was home this past weekend; I drove that 18 
miles. It was so nice, so safe. Then the other 18 miles--which is put 
out to bid as we speak--it was not as bad as it used to be because 
there the congestion was not as much because people knew within 18 
miles they would be out of the traffic jam. They were a little more 
patient.
  But on that road to Searchlight, as I just indicated--with the heavy 
equipment there, graders and bulldozers, and those carryalls, those 
huge things that have to level the place where the road is going to be; 
and this is not a very hilly area, in fact, not hilly at all--people 
were there doing cement work for the culverts, and hundreds of people 
were put to work as a result of that job. I really do not know what the 
bid was on that, but I am sure it was $25-$30 million, and it created 
lots of jobs, as you can see.
  These people who do this work--the people who built the road to 
Searchlight--every one of those people with

[[Page 28351]]

these high-paying, good jobs were able to go out and have dinner more 
often than they had in the past. They were able to buy that coat for 
winter. They were able to take a little weekend trip, maybe to LA, or 
visit relatives someplace else, maybe in Salt Lake City, and spend a 
few dollars along the way.
  That is what this is all about. They have money to spend on a car or 
a dishwasher. As I indicated, all over America we will have more people 
coming to Las Vegas. Multiply that person, that one person who is 
working on that road to Searchlight, by 47,000, and you suddenly have 
the business of the auto dealers, the hotels, and the airlines picking 
up. Soon they decide it is time to bring on more sales people, more 
hotel workers, more pilots. That is the ripple effect we need.
  That is why this bill we are debating today from the Committee on 
Appropriations, making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, 
Justice, and State, the Judiciary, is an important bill. It is a bill 
that I have talked about before that does a lot of things that are 
important for this country.
  This bill provides for conducting commerce within the United States--
conducting commerce within the United States--among other things. That 
is a part of the bill I am talking about now: conducting commerce, 
jobs. There is no more important commerce in all of America, all the 
world, than jobs.
  What is it like to have a job? What is it like not to have a job? I 
come from one of the smallest States, population-wise, although 
certainly for many generations we, population-wise, were the smallest 
State in the Union. We are now about 35th, 36th. There are a 
significant number of States smaller than we are but a lot of them 
bigger.
  On the Senate floor, just the other day, I was having a dialog with 
my friend from the State of Michigan, the junior Senator from Michigan, 
Ms. Stabenow. She indicated that the State of Michigan has 9 million 
people in it. That same day, a few minutes later, I asked the Senator 
from Illinois how many people live in the State of Illinois. The senior 
Senator from Illinois indicated that 12.5 million people live in the 
State of Illinois.
  Nevada, Mr. President, is approaching 2.5 million people, so it is 
significantly smaller than those States, but we still have tens of 
thousands of people who are not employed. We do not know the exact 
figures. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people are unemployed who are 
officially counted as unemployed. There are many more, of course, who 
are unemployed. The official classification undercounts the number of 
people who are interested in jobs and available for work. So the true 
number of unemployed people is significantly higher than the 60,000 or 
80,000 I talked about.
  These are tens of thousands of people anxious to find work but unable 
to do so. Think about that. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by statistics. 
But think about that piece of information for just a minute.
  Let's take the lower figure. Let's say 60,000 people. I think it is 
higher than that, but let's say there are 60,000 people without a job. 
Each represents a family struggling or going without, the American 
dream deferred, sometimes disappearing forever.
  I have already talked about people being concerned about losing a 
job. People are worried about how to make their next mortgage or rent 
payment. They are worried about what will happen if they encounter 
unexpected medical bills. They worry about buying clothes for their 
kids. They worry about how long this jobless recovery is going to last 
and what will become of them when it is over.
  In America today, there are 44 million people with no health 
insurance. There are millions of others who are underinsured--people 
who have insurance, but it is not very good.
  I would hope that we would spend some time on that. Wouldn't it be 
good if we spent 30 hours of the Senate's time debating health care for 
all Americans--health care for all Americans? But we are going to spend 
30 hours talking about judges.
  As Senator Trent Lott said when he was majority leader, every time he 
went back to Mississippi, no one ever asked him about judges. He said--
and I am paraphrasing--it is a nonissue. That is true, especially when 
you have what is taking place during the present President's tenure in 
office: 168 judges approved, 4 disapproved; 168 to 4. We are going to 
spend 30 hours nonstop of the Senate's time talking about a ratio of 
168 to 4. I wonder if they would move to 30 hours if instead of having 
a 98-percent track record, it was 99 percent. Maybe that would only 
require 15 hours. If it was a 99.5-percent track record, maybe they 
would only spend 10 hours talking about judges.
  And I see constantly--I see constantly, Mr. President--statements 
being made that there has never been a filibuster before of a judge. In 
fact, there was a statement issued today. I have it here on my 
Blackberry. Here it is right here. I am sorry to hold up the Senate. 
Here it is right here. This is a statement from Senator Frist. He says:

       What we are doing to move our judicial nominations forward. 
     This year the Senate has suffered unprecedented obstruction 
     of a Presidential judicial nominee by filibuster. In the 
     history of our Nation, this has never been done before.

  (Mr. Chambliss assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. REID. Whoever prepared this for Senator Frist had better revise 
it. During the time I have been in the Senate, there have been 
filibusters. I can think of a couple. I can think of three filibusters 
that had to be ended by a vote of the Senate. Of course, previously 
there were all kinds of filibusters. We know that. So this is simply 
untrue: ``in the history of our Nation, this has never been done 
before.'' That is simply untrue.
  Rather than spend this time on the 168-to-4 record this President 
has, the country would be well served if we spent 30 nonstop hours 
talking about the lack of health insurance in America. Forty-four 
million people have no health insurance. Many millions of others have a 
lack of health insurance. There are millions of people who have no 
jobs. We are going to spend 30 hours talking about four people who want 
a new job. They already have a job. They want a new job.
  Thirty hours should be spent talking about the need for health care 
reform in America. The doctors would appreciate it. The patients would 
appreciate it. All over America, we see doctors making less money, we 
see patients getting less care. Where is the money going? It is going 
to the middlemen, HMOs, insurance companies. Why don't we spend the 30 
hours talking about health care, have a real debate on that subject? We 
have no legislation dealing with health care. We have a Medicare bill 
through which we are trying to get prescription drug benefits to 
seniors. In fact, at 1 o'clock today, I understand, there was a meeting 
going on, a very important laydown of that legislation.
  There is not now a bill dealing with prescription drugs for senior 
citizens, as all senior citizens in America know. It spilled over into 
Medicare in an attempt to revise Medicare, to privatize Medicare. The 
chairman of the House conferees has said that that is one of the most 
important issues, to develop ``privatization.'' They have a fancy new 
name for it, but that is all it means. The American people aren't going 
to stand for that. Why don't we have a debate for 30 hours dealing with 
health care?
  These people in Nevada who are out of a job, they really understand 
how important it is to do something to create jobs. It is a bleak 
picture and can drag on and on for families in this situation. These 
people who used to get up every morning and go to work all day, who 
used to feel the sense of purpose and pride that comes with holding a 
job, now that security is gone.
  Why don't we spend 30 hours talking about why we haven't increased 
the minimum wage? That would help commerce in this country. That would 
work within the confines of this legislation. The minimum wage is now 
$5.15 an hour. Take that math and figure out how tough it is. That is 
why two people are working two jobs, just like the woman whose letter I 
read into the Record saying she would work two minimum-wage jobs 
gladly.

[[Page 28352]]

  Who are the people who have these minimum-wage jobs? Are they kids in 
high school at McDonald's flipping hamburgers? No. Sixty percent of the 
people who draw the minimum wage are women. For the majority of those 
women, that is the only job they have for their families. Why don't we 
talk about the minimum wage? Let's spend 30 hours talking about people 
who are working two jobs at $5.15 an hour, who have no benefits, no 
medical benefits, no retirement benefits. We should spend a little time 
on them, on the minimum wage. I think that would be something that 
would be very beneficial.
  San Francisco just passed a citywide minimum-wage bill. It has been 
done in other places in the country. But in the Federal Government we 
can't do that. We are going to spend 30 hours talking about four people 
who already have jobs who want a new job. They want to be an appellate 
judge.
  Estrada is not unemployed. Owens is not unemployed. Pryor is not 
unemployed. Pickering is not unemployed. In fact, Judge Pickering is 
already a Federal judge. Pryor is attorney general of the State of 
Alabama. Owens is a supreme court justice of California. Miguel Estrada 
is one of the highest paid lawyers in the community. But we are going 
to spend 30 hours talking about four judges or wannabe judges who 
already have jobs. But no time do we spend on the minimum wage. No way 
let's back away from that, because all that affects is a bunch of kids 
flipping hamburgers.
  Why don't we talk about the majority of the people who draw the 
minimum wage who are women, desperate for work for themselves and their 
families. We are going to spend 30 hours, starting Wednesday at 6 
o'clock, until midnight Thursday, talking about four people who already 
have jobs. We are not going to talk about the people who are unemployed 
in my State or about the minimum wage or about health care reform.
  It is a bleak picture. Today, the average unemployed worker is out of 
work for up to 5 months. That is the average. The number of people 
unemployed for greater than 6 months is at a 20-year high.
  It is time we look at some of the places we are losing jobs again. 
These are jobs that have been lost in the last few months. Just to talk 
about some of them: Central Textiles, Pickens, SC, 140 jobs, the month 
before last. I am not familiar with this company: Leica, Depew, NY, 55 
jobs; a company called Tecumseh--that is an Indian name--Douglas, GA, 
535 jobs last month; General Electric--we have heard that before; they 
must be cutting jobs all over the country--General Electric, 
Greensville, SC, 600 jobs just last month; Albany International, 
Greenville, again, South Carolina, 120 jobs, the month before last; 
Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, IA, 155 jobs; General Electric again, 
Shreveport, LA, 200 jobs--that is 800 jobs; if you add all those on the 
other charts, it is well over 1,000--Carrier Corporation, 1,200 jobs, 
Syracuse, NY; Tolcheim, Washington, IN, I don't know how many jobs. 
That is off my chart so I am sorry about that; Nestles USA, Fulton, NY, 
400 jobs; Sonoco Flexible Packaging, Fulton, NY, 1,300 jobs; Black 
Clawson, Fulton, NY, 322 jobs; Tyco, that has made a little bit of news 
lately; the guy had a birthday or anniversary party that cost $6 
million--one of the bosses--Argyle, NY, 335 jobs. New management 
decided how to handle things: Just move the jobs to Mexico. That is 
what they decided to do.
  Back to the chart: Maytag, Galesburg, IL, 380 jobs; Gates 
Corporation, Galesburg, IL, 76 jobs; Mettler-Toledo, Inman, OH, 150 
jobs; Paper Converting, Green Bay, WI, 115 jobs; Slater Steel, Fort 
Wayne, IN, 418 jobs; Cognotti Industries, 100 jobs; Tolcheim, Fort 
Wayne, Freemont, IN, 454 jobs; International Paper, Sartell, MN, 542 
jobs; R.J. Ray, Buffalo Grove, IL, 56 jobs;
  These jobs were all lost within the last couple of months--some last 
month.
  Playtex Products, Dover, DE, 94 jobs; Parker Hannifin, Marion, OH, 
165 jobs; from Greencamp, OH, again, Parker Hannifin, 165 jobs; Amcast, 
Richmond, IN, 133 jobs; Delco Remy, 349 jobs, Anderson, IN; Dana 
Perfect Circle, Richmond, IN, 182 jobs; Royal Precision, Torrington, 
CT, 110 jobs, the month before last.
  It is going on as we speak. We have this administration boasting they 
created 126,000 jobs, which doesn't keep up with growth. Although I was 
immensely relieved to see the economy stop losing jobs, I have been 
more than a little concerned about the administration's promise. It 
doesn't seem to know whether the current unemployment rate of 6 percent 
is a problem or not. I think it probably is.
  During the last full month President Clinton was in office, the 
unemployment rate was 3.9 percent. The reversal has been enormous. On 
February 4, the President's Council of Economic Advisers published a 
report entitled ``Strengthening America's Economy: The President's Jobs 
and Growth Proposals.'' In that report, the President's economic 
advisers laid out the case for a new tax cut, saying:

       Thus far in the recovery, the labor market remains a weak 
     spot, with the unemployment rate reaching 6 percent in 
     November and December.

  This past Friday, the White House issued a statement claiming, again:

       The President's jobs and growth agenda is working.

  The unemployment rate is 6 percent. How can this jobs plan be working 
now when the unemployment rate is exactly the same as when the 
President's smartest economic advisers called the labor market a ``weak 
spot.'' In February they considered 6 percent such an urgent problem 
that it was a justification for a $300 billion tax cut. Now 6 percent 
unemployment is reason to celebrate and claim credit for its successful 
economic plan.
  We have a situation here where the distinguished majority whip came 
to the floor and criticized statements where we on this side talked 
about this 30 hours being something that was not very smart--for lack 
of a better word--to do. Then they talked about the one-vote majority. 
We had a one-vote majority, and now they have a one-vote majority. Now 
things are ``so much better.''
  Well, I hope today people understand why they are so much better. We 
can help a lot, as we have this past year, in passing the legislation 
and the shortness of time on the appropriations bills we were unable to 
accomplish. We did not have the luxury of the cooperation of the 
minority. We have been cooperating. As you can see, today isn't the 
most cooperative day. I think the majority should learn the lesson they 
need to work with us, not against us. We can work together. We have 
worked together in the past. We will work together in the future. But 
everyone understands the Senate is a body created more than 200 years 
ago and it was created to protect the minority, not the majority. The 
majority can always protect itself. The minority needs help. What gives 
us that help is the Constitution. The majority should understand it 
just cannot run over us, say we are going to work Monday and Tuesday, 
then have 30 hours for judges, votes in the afternoon on Monday, and 
then we will decide what we are going to do Tuesday later. We need to 
be part of the plan, part of the program.
  The Senate is an interesting place. Everything has to be done here by 
unanimous consent. If there is no unanimous consent, not much happens. 
Today, not much is happening because there is no unanimous consent. It 
is normal on a bill like this appropriations bill for the subcommittee 
chair to give a nice little statement, the ranking member gives a nice 
little statement, and then you go to amendments. We have been so 
cooperative. The reason the majority today has been able to pass these 
appropriations bills is because we have cooperated. We have not tried 
to stall them. We did not speak at extended lengths of time on 
amendments. I worked to get amendments taken off the list so we could 
move forward to the next appropriations bill. That is the way the 
Senate should work. We have set an example as a minority on how it 
should work. There should be an example set by the majority as to how 
things should work.

[[Page 28353]]

  You just cannot run over us. The Senate is set up to protect one 
Senator. There are 49 of us. We need some protection, some help, some 
cooperation, some partnership. I hope everybody understands that when 
the majority decided to move along, we were whipping through these 
appropriations bills. I had many conversations with the Appropriations 
Committee chair, Senator Ted Stevens--a wonderful, fine friend and a 
great Senator--and we had a plan to finish these bills. We could have 
finished them. I don't expect anybody in the majority to publicly 
criticize their leader, but I believe there is criticism in the hearts 
of some of the people in the majority.
  What a ridiculous thing to have 30 hours--a week before trying to get 
out of here--spent on the jobs of 4 people, when there are over 3 
million people who have lost their jobs and more than that are 
unemployed. We are going to spend 30 hours on the lives of four judges. 
That just doesn't seem right to me. If people are wondering why we are 
not moving along, you can do all the name calling you want, but I think 
the history books will reflect how the leadership has been--at least 
during the past few days when you interrupt the ending days of a 
session to spend 30 hours on a wasteful exercise.
  I agreed with the administration back in February when it believed 
the 6 percent unemployment indicated the economy was weak. That is why 
I look forward to this bill being done--this bill dealing with the 
legislation that is led by the senior Senator from New Hampshire and 
the senior Senator from South Carolina. It is important legislation. It 
is just not the number of people out of work that is disturbing; it is 
also the fact it is taking people so long to find something new. In 
fact, wages and salaries are falling precipitously. There is an 
increasing amount of slack in the labor supply.
  It is impossible to truly understand how bad the job market is now 
without being aware of a couple factors:
  First, the record length of time jobs have been declining; second, 
the growth in the working-age population since the recession began in 
2001; third, the fact that many people have stopped looking for a job 
out of hopelessness, not because they no longer want to work, and they 
are no longer counted as unemployed. Until this job slump, the number 
of jobs had never fallen steadily for 2\1/2\ years. These numbers go 
back to 1939. As of November 2003, payroll jobs had fallen by 2.6 
million below the level of March 2001. Unfortunately, at the same time 
that job market shrank 2 percent, the working-age population grew by 
2.4 percent. Had job growth kept up with working-age population instead 
of falling, we would have 7.2 million more jobs right now.
  I watched on TV--it may have been last night. I got home from Nevada 
last evening. It could have been last night. It could have been the day 
before. They did an interview about a young woman who had gotten her 
first job. She was so excited. She had graduated from college and for 
almost 2 years she was unable to find a job. She had finally gotten a 
job.
  The picture I want to paint here is the fact that the people who are 
out of work are not just a bunch of people who are looking to dig 
ditches. They are people from a wide spectrum of our society, people 
like the woman I saw on TV, who is highly educated, and not just people 
who have no education. Everyone in between is out of work and needs a 
job.
  This job deficit hits everybody. We should recognize that we have not 
only the problem of creating new jobs to fill the jobless market 
created by those people who lost work but also the new jobs that need 
to be created because of new people moving into the workforce. But, sad 
to say, job creation has occurred mostly in low-quality jobs.
  As glad as we should be that any new jobs are actually springing up, 
it is still worth examining what kinds of jobs are growing in today's 
economy. The firm of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas analyzed the 
October job growth figures and determined that job creation was the 
heaviest in some of the sectors where the pay was the lowest--retail, 
temporary help service firms, bars, and restaurants.
  Jobs, commerce--Commerce-Justice-State, it is a very important topic. 
I am going to talk about some of the other things in the bill later on 
dealing with the State Department and the Justice Department, but now I 
am just talking about the Department of Commerce--jobs, commerce for 
this country. Most of the jobs that have been created are low-quality 
jobs.
  As I look back over my work career, I remember some of the jobs I 
have held. I have been very fortunate, I understand, to have the job I 
have now, a contract with the people of the State of Nevada. I have a 
little over a year left to run on that contract.
  I have done a lot of jobs. I have worked with my hands. I dug ditches 
and got paid for doing that. I remember one job I had digging holes to 
put up wooden telephone poles for power to the top of a mountain, some 
kind of microwave relay station. The man I worked with didn't speak 
English. I was a young boy, maybe 16 years old. Oh, it was such hard 
work. We had a bar, and it was hard getting the dirt out of that hole. 
We spent all day together and we couldn't talk to each other, except by 
facial expressions. When it was time to eat, we kind of got that idea. 
That was one job. I was happy to have that job.
  I drove a truck for two summers. I worked as a warehouseman. For many 
years--they were special summers--I worked in service stations where I 
pumped gas and tried to sell lubes, carburetors, greasing the 
bearings--doing minor mechanical work.
  I was a janitor part time in college. I was a radio dispatcher for 
the city of Las Vegas building department. I was a Capitol policeman 
right here. I worked in a post office. I had lots of different jobs 
before I graduated from law school, but they were all jobs.
  I was so fortunate. I never had to look for a job. I always had a 
job. I am very fortunate because for a lot of people that is not the 
case. There are lots of people who have never had a job.
  We have a wonderful program in Nevada. We have given Federal 
appropriations to this program. It was originally started because of 
the largess, the generosity of Kirk Kerkorian, a very wealthy man, a 
former client of mine who is one of America's entrepreneurs. He wanted 
to set up a job-creating program in a high unemployment area in west 
Las Vegas. Now it is run by a conglomerate. Kerkorian got it started 
and has since given it up. Now the Federal Government is involved in 
it. Labor unions are involved in it.
  What it did was create jobs, teach people how to work who had never 
worked before. It is an amazing program. We have lots of service jobs 
in Las Vegas. Las Vegas, as you know, has about 140,000 hotel rooms. We 
have more hotel rooms on the four corners of Tropicana and the strip 
than the entire city of San Francisco. We have lots of hotel rooms, and 
we need people to make beds in those rooms, to clean those rooms. We 
need people to be waiters and waitresses in those large hotels.
  What we do at that facility that I just toured again a few weeks ago 
is teach people who have never worked before to work. We teach them the 
meaning of a job; why they have to be on time; why they are not 
supposed to take time off unless it is absolutely critical they take 
time off. It has worked well.
  We place over 80 percent of these people. Those who are not placed we 
really would have trouble placing them anyplace because the jobs are 
not there.
  We need to create jobs. We need to be involved in the creation of 
jobs. Even though we are creating many low--what is the word, not low 
quality because they are important jobs--jobs in the lower sector 
because they don't pay enough. We need to create jobs, like I got a job 
digging post holes. It was a very important job for me. It helped me 
get through school. It was important I had that job.
  In these jobs where job creation has been the heaviest in recent 
years, including this group that is paid the lowest--that is the word I 
was thinking of--the firm of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found 
weekly earnings in these work places--temporary service,

[[Page 28354]]

bars, restaurants--average $336, $318, and $225 respectfully. Each of 
these sectors pays wages well below the average of $521 per week for 
all these industries.
  This firm found that nearly one out of four unemployed Americans has 
been out of work for 6 months or more. The largest percentage, 47 
percent of those experiencing extended unemployment, are white-collar 
workers in management, professional, sales, and office occupations. Of 
those unemployed, 1.4 million said they were able to find only part-
time work. That figure represents a 27-percent increase from just a 
year ago when only 1.1 million workers were trapped involuntarily in 
part-time jobs. Now it is up another 200,000.
  Mr. President, 7.5 million Americans worked two or more jobs in 
October, up from 7.3 million just a year ago. That is an increase of 
200,000. The percentage of people for part-time jobs increased from 1.7 
million to 1.8 million over the same course of the year.
  I want to look at where some more of these jobs have been lost.
  Hedstrom, Ashland, OH, 60 jobs, just last month; Laurel Hills, NC, 
Spring Industries, 120 jobs, month before last; Wolverine Tube, 
Bonneville, MS, 300 jobs, month before last; Rome Cable in Rome, NY, 
240 jobs, month before last; Union Tools, Frankfort, NY, 80 jobs, month 
before last; Arvin Industries, Franklin, IN, 850 jobs, month before 
last; Alpine Electric, Greenwood, IN, 195 jobs; Standard Motor 
Products, Argos, IN, 150 jobs; Cavalier Specialty Yarn, Gaston County, 
SC, again Senator Hollings' home State, 120 jobs; Bowling Green Mill, 
Gastonia, NC, 160 jobs; Parkdale Mills, Belmont, NC, another 161 jobs.
  In Wichita, KS, we have a situation where Boeing just laid off 4,800 
people in the last year or so.
  Tecumseh--we have seen that name before. Now we see it in New 
Holstein, WI, 300 jobs; Sheboygan, WI, 292; Perry Judd, Waterloo, WI, 
372 jobs; Gateway, Sioux City, SD, 700 jobs in a small State such as 
South Dakota. They must feel that very significantly. International 
Polymers, Hamblen County, TN, 450 jobs; Lea Industries, North Carolina, 
120 jobs; Chiquola, Kingsport, TN, 200 jobs; Modine Manufacturing, 
Clinton, TN, 200 jobs; Lucent, Genoa, IL.
  These are the issues I have focus on today. There are more. This is 
not from the Bureau of Vital Statistics or the Department of Commerce. 
These are jobs that have been lost, that we have had staff pick up 
reading different news articles around the country. It is demonstrative 
of what is happening to jobs in America. They are leaving us.
  The New York Times, I agree with it on occasion; I disagree with it 
on occasion. It is a newspaper that is a very substantial part of the 
American political body. People certainly view it as an important 
newspaper. The editorial section is probably one of the best in the 
world, if not the best. I was struck by a column written by Bob Herbert 
just a few days ago, on October 27. This article is so good, and the 
subject matter of it is so important that I thought I should read it.
  I want to read what Bob Herbert said in the New York Times because, 
trying to paraphrase what he says does not capture all of his arguments 
in this October 27 column. It is entitled: ``There is a Catch: Jobs.''
  He is, of course, referring to the economic growth announcement last 
week. Here is what he said:

       The President tells us the economy is accelerating, and the 
     statistics seem to bear him out. But don't hold your breath 
     waiting for your standard of living to improve. Bush country 
     is not a good environment for working families.
       In the real world, which is the world of families trying to 
     pay their mortgages and get their children off to college, 
     the economy remains troubled. While the analysts and 
     commentators of the comfortable class are assuring us that 
     the President's tax cuts and the billions being spent on Iraq 
     have been good for the gross domestic product, the workaday 
     folks are locked in a less sanguine reality.
       It's a reality in which: The number of Americans living in 
     poverty has increased by three million in the past two years. 
     The median household income has fallen in the past two years. 
     The number of dual-income families, particularly those with 
     children under 18, has declined sharply.
       The administration can spin its ``recovery'' any way it 
     wants. But working families can't pay their bills with data 
     about the gross domestic product. They need the income from 
     steady employment. And when it comes to employment, the Bush 
     administration's has compiled the worst record since the 
     Great Depression.
       The jobs picture is far more harrowing than it is usually 
     presented by the media. Despite modest wage increases for 
     those who are working, the unemployment rate is 6.1 percent, 
     which represents almost nine million people. Millions more 
     have become discouraged and left the labor market. And there 
     are millions of men and women who are employed but working 
     significantly fewer hours than they'd like.
       Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy 
     Institute, has taken a look at the hours being worked by 
     families, rather than individuals. It's a calculation that 
     gets to the heart of a family's standard of living.
       The declines he found were ``of a magnitude that's 
     historically been commensurate with double-digit unemployment 
     rates. It is not just that there were fewer family members 
     working. The ones who are employed were working fewer 
     hours.''
       According to government statistics, there are nearly 4.5 
     million people working part-time because they have been 
     unable to find full-time work. In many cases, as the 
     outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas noted in a 
     recent report, the part-time worker is ``earning far less 
     money than his or her background and experience warrant--i.e. 
     a computer programmer working at a coffee shop.''
       Economists expect some modest job creation to occur over 
     the next several months. But there is a ``just in time for 
     the election'' quality to the current economic surge, and 
     even Republicans are worried that the momentum may not last. 
     The President has played his tax-cut card. The spending on 
     Iraq, most Americans fervently hope, will not go on 
     indefinitely. And President Bush's own Treasury secretary is 
     talking about an inevitable return to higher interest rates.
       Where's the jobs creation miracle in this dismal mix? 
     Meanwhile, these are some of the things working (and jobless) 
     Americans continue to face: Sharply increasing local taxes, 
     including property taxes; steep annual increases in health 
     care costs; soaring tuition costs at public and private 
     universities. Families are living very close to the edge 
     economically, and this situation is compounded, made even 
     more precarious, by the mountains of debt American families 
     are carrying--mortgages, overloaded credit cards, college 
     loans, et cetera.
       The Bush administration has made absolutely no secret of 
     the fact that it is committed to the interests of the very 
     wealthy. Leona Helmsley is supposed to have said that only 
     little people pay taxes. The Bush crowd has turned that into 
     a national fiat.
       A cornerstone of post-Depression policy in this country has 
     been a commitment to policies aimed at raising the standard 
     of living of the poor and the middle class. That's over.
       When it comes to jobs, taxes, education and middle-class 
     entitlement programs like Social Security, the message from 
     the Bush administration couldn't be clearer. You're on your 
     own.

  Now, what did he say in this column? What did he say? He said that 
what is going on in this administration is not good for working men and 
women. He said, among other things, Bush country is not a good 
environment for working families. He said the administration can spin 
its recovery any way it wants, but working families cannot pay their 
bills with data about the gross domestic product.
  As I said, people in America are more concerned about J-O-B, not GDP. 
They are more concerned about jobs than the gross domestic product.
  I think it is interesting to note that Herbert also says that in 
addition to the gross domestic product not being something that people 
are concerned about--they are more concerned about jobs--economists 
expect some modest job creation to occur over the next several months. 
Remember, we need 300,000 jobs just to keep up with normal growth in 
this country. Meanwhile, those things that American families, the 
jobless Americans, continue to face, sharply increasing local taxes, 
sharply increased local taxes--Nevada was one of about 41 States during 
this year's legislative sessions that were in deep financial trouble. 
Nevada had three or four special sessions of the legislature called in 
an attempt to try to right the ship, to try to figure out some way that 
they could afford to handle this rapidly growing State.
  As I indicated earlier, talk about commerce, this bill in Commerce-
State-Justice, commerce in Nevada is very difficult because just last 
month, in September, we had 8,500 new people

[[Page 28355]]

move into the Las Vegas area. I think we have to understand that the 
legislature had to keep up with the demand for services that we had 
throughout the State of Nevada, but they were faced with some unfunded 
mandates, such as Leave No Child Behind.
  Clark County School District, I think, is the sixth largest school 
district, maybe the fifth now, 270,000 students or thereabouts, a 
difficult time because of what we passed on to them with Leave No Child 
Behind. We are leaving lots of children behind because we have not 
funded the Leave No Child Behind Act.
  Homeland security, I had a conversation with Tom Ridge last week. Tom 
Ridge is a wonderful man. He is my friend. We came to Congress together 
in 1982. He was a good Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, one of 
our very highly populated States. I was happy to see the President 
select him as head of the Department of Homeland Security and now the 
Secretary of Homeland Security. He has a difficult job, and in Nevada 
we are faced with significant problems. We have huge responsibilities. 
We have responsibilities for people visiting Nevada from the State of 
Georgia. We have to take care of the people from the State of Georgia 
just like we have to take care of the people of the State of Nevada if 
there is some kind of emergency. There is no separation. But when we 
have, on any given day, 300,000 to 500,000 tourists in Las Vegas, it 
makes it really tough. We have had lots of added responsibilities 
because of the legislation we have passed dealing with homeland 
security.
  I spoke with the Secretary about the need to try to do something to 
help an area where we have so many tourists on any given day. We need 
help. I am confident the Secretary understood and listened and will try 
to do his very best to help. But we have unfunded mandates because of 
that.
  I heard my friend, the distinguished junior Senator from Tennessee, 
the former Governor of Tennessee, and he should understand what 
unfunded mandates are about. Lamar Alexander spoke in the Chamber last 
week on several occasions about an unfunded mandate dealing with the 
Internet tax debate we brought up last week. He said that is an 
unfunded mandate.
  I don't know as much about that as I know about education and police 
work, but they are unfunded mandates. That is why there have been 
sharply increased local taxes all over America.
  Mr. Herbert also says there are steep annual increases in health care 
costs. We have talked about that. Not only are there 44 million people 
with no health insurance, but we have 44 million people who have not 
only no health care insurance but those health care costs are 
increasing. I think that is very significant. Health care costs are 
going up, as Mr. Herbert said.
  There are soaring tuition costs at public and private universities. 
There was an article in one of the weekly magazines--I don't remember 
whether it was Time, Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report this 
week--that reported the most expensive private school in America, just 
for tuition, is $41,000 a year. State universities, which you would 
think would be significantly cheaper--some are cheaper; they are almost 
half as much. The highest State tuition, according to this weekly 
magazine, is almost $20,000 a year--soaring tuition costs at public and 
private universities. Why? They have to do that because there is no 
money coming from State governments. It is as simple as that. They have 
to do that.
  But I think the most telling thing Mr. Herbert wrote about is when he 
said Leona Helmsley is supposed to have said only little people pay 
taxes. The Bush crowd has turned it into a national fiat.
  Are unemployment benefits important? Of course they are important. 
During the first thousand days under Bush, unemployment is up, the rate 
of impoverished is up, debt is up, and judicial vacancies are the 
lowest in some 15 years. So what are we going to spend 30 hours on? We 
are not going to spend 30 hours on unemployment. We are not going to 
spend 30 hours on the impoverished of America. We are not going to 
spend 30 hours on the deficit. When the President took office, the 
surplus over 10 years was about $7 trillion. That is gone. We are now 
spending in the hole.
  Is that important to commerce? I think so. But we are not going to 
spend 30 hours talking about the debt. This year we will have the 
largest debt in the history of this country. But we are not going to 
spend 30 hours talking about that. We are going to spend 30 hours 
talking about judges.
  Judicial vacancies--are they up? They are down. They are the lowest 
in some 15 years. We are going to take 30 hours talking about the 
lowest judicial vacancy rate in 15 years. We are going to take 30 hours 
not talking about the things that should be down--unemployment should 
be down, impoverishment should be down, deficits should be down, debt 
should be down. We are going to talk about the thing that is up. We 
have no vacancies to speak of--the lowest in well more than a decade.
  I think this administration has things turned around. Doesn't common 
sense dictate we should be spending 30 hours talking about 
unemployment? Talking about impoverishment? Deficit? Debt? They were up 
during the first thousand days of this President's administration. But 
no, we are going to talk about judicial vacancies, which have been the 
lowest in many years.
  Later today I will have a few things to say about judicial pay and 
about the Justice Department. We can talk about Clinton judges being 
denied hearings, let alone votes. We can talk about the names. We have 
a judicial scoreboard chart. We can compare the Bush record and the 
Clinton record. We have a lot to talk about here.
  I want the American people to understand what we are doing. We have 
said we believe it would be better if the Senate spent its time--30 
hours, going from 6 o'clock Wednesday night to midnight on Thursday--
talking about issues we need to complete. I begged--well, that is a 
little strong. I certainly pleaded with the majority last week on at 
least five occasions to pass a military construction bill. I thought 
that was very important, that we pass the military construction 
conference report. It was important to do. I believe it was a partisan 
attempt to hold up the bill for reasons I don't understand because it 
should be nonpartisan, because it deals with supporting our forces on 
military missions all over the world.
  For Nevada, it would have a devastating result. While we delay, there 
will be no vehicle maintenance facility for Nellis Air Force Base, the 
premium aviator training facility in this country; no water treatment 
facility in Hawthorne, where we have the Army depot to store 
ammunition, a depot supplying munitions for our war effort in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. There will be no telecommunications security force 
building for the Reno Air National Guard, a Guard unit fully deployed 
on many fronts in the war on terrorism; no new hydrant fuel system for 
our planes and pilots in Nellis. We could go on.
  The military has critical needs across the country and every Senator 
here knows how crucial these facilities are. I haven't mentioned the 
barracks and additional security measures this bill includes for our 
military around the world. Certainly they need the funding more than 
anyone, but apparently there has been a decision on the other side of 
the aisle not to turn to this bill and not to turn to the Syria 
Accountability Act, both of which have a direct connection for our 
national security and the security of our forces.
  This bill we are now debating, the conference report on Commerce-
State-Justice, is extremely important, dealing with jobs, and we spent 
a lot of time talking about jobs and we need to talk about jobs.
  We have people dying every day. There is a global war on terror. And 
we are going to waste 30 hours so one side can try to secure some 
political points. What has happened to the urgency?
  This bill we are now taking up, Calendar No. 274, from the Committee 
on Appropriations chaired by Senator Gregg, is an important piece of 
legislation. It covers a lot of different areas that are so important 
to our country.
  We have this bill, which is H.R. 2799. We would like to complete 
this, as we

[[Page 28356]]

have a number of our other appropriations bills, and go to conference. 
But we have been unable to do that for reasons that are quite obvious 
to everyone here.
  I cannot understand why we cannot spend 30 hours of the people's time 
working on things the people care about, and not on things we should 
not be spending time on, like four people who want to get better jobs--
well, only three now, because Miguel Estrada has withdrawn his name--
Owen, Pickering, and Pryor. They want jobs, so we are down to three 
now. We are going to spend 30 hours--I guess 10 hours per judge.
  (Mr. COLEMAN assumed the chair.)
  Mr. REID. Unemployment benefits--and certainly this legislation we 
deal with here is concerned about unemployment, as I indicated. We 
talked about this on previous occasions, about the people who have been 
unemployed, even within the confines of this legislation right here. 
People about whom I have talked, people on these charts, certainly are 
included within this bill. There are many people affected when this 
bill cuts back on a number of programs, people who have lost their 
jobs.
  As I indicated here, we have unemployment that has gone up. Actually 
it was 3.89 percent. The number of impoverished has gone up, the number 
of uninsured has gone up, the budget deficit has gone up, the national 
debt has certainly gone up, and judicial vacancies have gone down. 
Rather than talk about these things in red--impoverishment, uninsured, 
budget deficit, national debt--we are going to spend 30 hours talking 
about the three who want a better job, not the over 3 million who are 
unemployed.
  Last month I got a letter from a woman who lives in Las Vegas. She 
writes:

       Dear Senator Reid: On July 2, 2003, I became a displaced 
     airline worker

--in fact, maybe I will read that letter a little bit later.
  If I could have the people up front keep their voices down a little 
bit, please; sorry about that. It is a little distracting.
  The report on the bill that is now before us goes through a number of 
issues. It talks about the purpose of the bill. It talks about the 
hearings that were held dealing with this legislation. Then it has a 
summary of the bill. The summary of the bill states:

       The budget estimates for the departments and agencies 
     included in the accompanying bill are contained in the budget 
     of the United States for fiscal year 2004 submitted on 
     February 3, 2003. The total amount of new budget authority 
     recommended by the committee for fiscal year 2004 is 
     $37,637,536,000. This amount is a decrease of $362,290,000 
     below the appropriations for fiscal year 2003 for these 
     departments and agencies. The committee's recommendation is 
     $770,699,000 below the budget estimates.

  The following paragraphs highlight major themes contained in this 
bill: terrorism, protecting America's children, information technology 
enhancement, reprogramming, reorganizations, and relocations.
  This is an important bill. The two people who have operated the 
subcommittee for the last several Congresses are extremely good. I 
already earlier today complimented the senior Senator from New 
Hampshire about his stalwart public service. The senior Senator from 
South Carolina, Mr. Hollings, will go down in history as one of 
America's truly great Senators. He is the longest serving junior 
Senator in the history of this country as a result of the longtime 
service of then-senior Senator Strom Thurmond. Senator Hollings, to my 
disappointment, decided not to run for reelection. But he has not lost 
an ounce of his vigor, and he is a great Senator. He and Senator Gregg 
have done a wonderful job on this bill over the years. I look forward 
to completing this legislation when we have an opportune time to do 
that.
  Some may ask, Why is the Senator taking so much time on the floor? I 
don't speak often on the floor. I speak often but not very long. The 
reason I am speaking today is because I think it is important people 
understand that the 100 Senators here have to get along. The majority 
has to be aware of the minority.
  The Presiding Officer is a new Senator but he is someone who has been 
involved in government for a number of years. He will come to 
understand better than he does now that for the Senate to work well, we 
have to work together.
  Just to repeat for those people within the sound of my voice, Senator 
Daschle and I have worked very hard. I have spent days of my life here 
on the Senate floor--not all of the time pleasing Democratic Senators. 
I have tried my best to make the trains run on time, as one Senator 
told me when he criticized me.
  But I don't regret anything that I have done to help the Senate 
schedule. I think it is important the trains run on time in the Senate. 
That is why I have worked personally very hard with the Democratic 
Senators to move legislation. If a Senator has four amendments, can he 
get by with two? You ask for 45 minutes; can you squeeze your time down 
and take half an hour? As a result of that, we have been able to do 
some really good things. It is not because of me. It is because of the 
cooperation of the 48 others on this side of the aisle.
  That is why Senator Daschle and I decided that it would be in the 
best interests of the Senate to go along with working on Monday 
starting early in the day, and work all day on a legal holiday, 
Veterans Day. I told the majority leader here on the floor publicly on 
more than one occasion that the veterans of America will understand 
that. They will understand why we have to work on Veterans Day because 
the work we do here is for them directly.
  We are moving along well, even when we are, in effect, jabbed in the 
eye by being told, you can go ahead and have your Senators jam this 
time because what we have to do is allow 30 hours of time during 
supposedly the next to the last week we are in session to talk about 
four judges. For four failed judgeships, we are going to spend 30 hours 
beginning at 6 o'clock on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday.
  I personally thought that wasn't the way to run the Senate. I think 
as history judges, history will agree with me. What is there that would 
create the desire to use our time to talk about judges? Senator Lott 
has said that there are more important issues. When he was majority 
leader, he said when he went home no one ever asked him about judges.
  Rather than have the majority run the Senate today, as they want, I 
want everyone to understand that we have a voice in what goes on around 
here. We are in the minority--51 to 49. We are not too far behind the 
show here. Had it not been for the untimely death of the Senator from 
Minnesota, Paul Wellstone, it probably would have been 50 to 50. But it 
isn't. Paul Wellstone was killed. His death was untimely, and I grieve 
for him often. But the fact is that we also have a say in how this 
place is run.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question 
without losing his right to the floor?
  Mr. REID. I will yield for a question for up to 1 minute without 
losing my right to the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I heard the Senator's question about 
delaying on this question of judges. Could it be that our friends on 
the other side, having blocked 61 of the President's nominees usually 
because of one Republican's objection, are concerned that Democrats 
have helped confirm a record number of President Bush's nominees, has 
stopped less than any President in recent history, and that maybe they 
want to obscure their own record and not be in the position to praise 
ours?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, on this floor, I have defended, advocated, 
and commended my friend, the senior Senator from Vermont, for his 
handling of the Judiciary Committee. It is a very difficult committee. 
But he has handled it masterfully. He has been fair.
  As indicated by the record of accomplishments of President Bush, who 
is now in office, to look at the accomplishments of the Senator from 
Vermont, one need only look at what President Bush has accomplished 
with his judiciary. Mr. President, 168 of his

[[Page 28357]]

judges are now serving lifetime appointments. Four were turned down. 
That is 168 to 4.
  I would like you to put that chart back up.
  I want my friend to understand what I just said. What I said is that 
the unemployment rate has gone way up; impoverished rate, way up; 
uninsured, way up; budget deficit, way up; national debt, way up; and, 
judicial vacancies, down.
  Why are we going to spend 30 hours--not on the national debt, not on 
the budget deficit, not on unemployment, not on the impoverished, not 
on the uninsured--on 4 judges who have been turned down--4 of the 168? 
We are going to spend 30 hours of the Senate's time with the lowest 
judicial vacancy rate in about 15 years.
  I say, through the Chair to my friend from Vermont, that I hope he 
holds his head high, as he knows he does, in working his way through 
these judges. Frankly, some of these judges I have not been wild about 
voting for, but I believe the President of the United States has a lot 
of latitude. But I also believe in the Constitution of the United 
States. This little document says Senators have the role of advising 
and consenting to the President's actions in certain cases, and judges 
is one of them. We have taken our constitutional prerogative and on 
four occasions said no, these are not people who should serve in the 
U.S. court at a level they are seeking.
  I say to my friend, rather than spending our time on the unemployed, 
on impoverished people, on uninsured people, on the budget deficit, on 
the national debt, all of which are skyrocketing--this is not a close 
call. We had a surplus of $7 trillion. We now have debt of $5.6 
trillion. Figure that out. Does this deserve a few minutes talk? What 
about the deficit? We will have the largest deficit in the history of 
our country this year. People are out there underinsured, uninsured, 
and poor. What is happening in America today, I am sad to report, is 
the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
  I spent time talking about the unemployed today. It would be nice to 
spend a little time talking about the unemployed. But no, we are going 
to take 30 hours, from 6 p.m. on Wednesday until midnight on Thursday, 
talking about how badly Miguel Estrada was treated; it was awful what 
we did to that man; We asked him to fill out a form; We asked him to 
give us his memo that he prepared at the Department in the Solicitor 
General's Office. No, he could not do that--no way. We picked on that 
man so badly. What a shame. It seems, if he wants the job, he should 
fill out the application. People are saying this guy is something, he 
is great. Well, if he is so great, let's see what he said in his 
memoranda in the Solicitor's Office. It is not as if he is out of work. 
He is a man with one of the best jobs in Washington. I don't know how 
much money he is making, but it's lots.
  Then we had Priscilla Owen. The President's own lawyer, Judge 
Gonzales, who served on the Texas Supreme Court with Priscilla Owen, 
said she should not be there, basically. That was an opinion he wrote. 
Now they are trying to remedy that situation. She also has a job.
  Then a man by the name of William Pryor wants to be a Federal judge. 
One problem: He has a record that is embarrassing. I don't know why 
they put him in. That was an easy vote because his record is so bad.
  Then Judge Pickering. I wish we could have done something to help 
Judge Pickering because of my high regard for Trent Lott. I think the 
world of Trent Lott, and Judge Pickering is from Mississippi. Judge 
Pickering is from Mississippi. His son came to speak to me--a wonderful 
young man. But his father has a bad record. He is a Federal district 
judge. He should stay there and be happy. But he wants to be a Federal 
circuit court judge. Every civil rights group in America opposed that--
every one--because of what he had done while he was a judge.
  I say to my friend, through the Chair, the distinguished Senator from 
Vermont--my friend--I compliment him, I applaud the job the Senator has 
done in representing not only the State of Vermont but the State of 
Nevada and the rest of the country in a dignified way. The Senator 
knows he has an obligation, even when he gets the worst of the worst. 
We have been very careful.
  We make sure there has to be a unanimous vote out of the Judiciary 
Committee. We follow that almost perfectly. We look for certain things 
to do, a unanimous vote by our people that serve on our committees. The 
Senator has done a wonderful job.
  I ask my staff to put on the board the chart about judges. I am not 
on the Judiciary Committee, but I have learned a lot about the judicial 
committee. This bill, of course, deals with the Federal Judiciary. One 
section of this bill deals with that, and we will get to that in more 
detail.
  I failed to mention something important earlier. According to 
Estrada's financial disclosure forms, he makes about half a million a 
year where he now works. So we are going to spend 30 hours dealing with 
how poorly this man, who makes half a million a year, is treated--not 
talk about Americans making $50,000 a year; and not, as I talked about 
earlier today, about the jobs.
  There are a few jobs being created in certain areas. From the 
Challenger firm, job creation was heaviest in the sectors where the pay 
was lowest: Retail, temporary, bars and restaurants, making weekly 
earnings of $366. So they work 10 weeks and they make not much money. 
That is $3,066; about $15,000 a year. That is the highest paid--in 
retail. The bars and restaurants make $225 a week.
  I don't think there should be a lot of tears shed on Miguel Estrada 
because he makes $500,000 a year. I don't know the salaries of Pryor, 
Pickering, and Owen, but it makes these jobs that are being created 
look pretty bleak.
  Before I get off the subject, I will point out some Clinton circuit 
nominees who were ``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association, 
who were blocked from being confirmed or delayed by Republicans who 
voted against them. Allen Snyder, never given a vote; Elena Kagan, 
never given a vote; Merrick Garland waited 559 days; Sonia Sotomayer, 
Second Circuit, 494 days; Robert Cindrich, never given a vote. Stephen 
Oaslofsky, never given a vote; James Beatty, never given a vote; Andre 
Davis, never given a vote; Elizabeth Gibson, never given a vote; Alston 
Johnson, never given a vote; Enrique Moreno, never given a vote; Jorge 
Rangel, never given a vote; Kathleen McCree Lewis, never given a vote. 
We had cloture votes with Berzon and Paez; there were other filibusters 
previous to that.
  As Senator Daschle said when we took over the Senate, it was not 
payback time; we would work to get judges approved. We have done that. 
It is the lowest vacancy rate in many years. We have turned down 4 and 
approved 168.
  Some time ago, within the past hour or so, I said I got a letter from 
a woman who lives in Las Vegas. She wrote to me:

       Dear Senator Reid: On July 2nd, 2003, I became a displaced 
     airline worker after 38 years as a TWA, now American 
     Airlines, flight attendant. I received no severance pay. My 
     unemployment benefits will expire January 2nd, 2004. Congress 
     has passed new legislation which made December 28, 2003, the 
     cut off date for temporary extended unemployment 
     compensation. After that day, there will be no more extended 
     unemployment compensation extensions. I'll miss the deadline 
     for extended unemployment benefits by five days. I'm a single 
     woman and sole supporter. I have no skills applicable to this 
     difficult job market, and my age makes an already bad job 
     market even more limited. It will take time to learn skills 
     to find a suitable job. Extended unemployment benefits will 
     be needed for my very survival. I ask you to please support 
     Senate bill 1708 which will extend temporary unemployment 
     compensation benefits and provide additional unemployment 
     benefits for those of us who can't find jobs.
       Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

  It is important to be straight with the American people. The 
administration may be able to put out press releases declaring a dismal 
record a successful one, but the people know better. They know the 
administration's plan is not working. They know it from their own 
experience or from a friend,

[[Page 28358]]

neighbor, or spouse who is unemployed and unable to work, from the 
overcrowded or rundown school their children attend, from the hours 
they spend in traffic every day.
  Mr. President, $355 billion is a lot of money to invest in a plan--
any plan--to create jobs, but it is a plan that has failed. Instead of 
trying to turn a failure into a success by press release, and nothing 
more, this administration owes the American people a new course, a new 
plan that will actually put them back to work.
  I have spent time going over the job creation of other 
administrations and what has happened in this administration. It is not 
a pretty picture, and that is an understatement. It is not a pretty 
picture. In this administration, for the first time, there has been job 
loss going back to the Hoover years. That is not good. That certainly 
is not good.
  This bill is something that is important. It is important. It is also 
important to recognize we have an obligation as a Senate to work to try 
to get things done. But there have been efforts made in recent days to 
show how little we can get done. Does the majority think they are 
dictators as to what happens around here? They can say: We are going to 
have votes. Come on in, we are going to have votes. They can have 
votes, but not when they want them, if that is what they want to do.
  As the Presiding Officer has learned in his short tenure in the 
Senate, one Senator can really mess things up around here. We need 
cooperation. We need people to work together. We do not need to be 
told, ``Come on in Monday, we will vote.'' ``What time?'' ``We don't 
know.'' ``What time can people go to their events, if at all?'' ``Well, 
we will find out later.''
  I hope the ensuing days will include us a little more in what is 
going on around here. It may not be something the majority wants to do, 
but I am saying it is something the majority has to do. The majority 
has to work with us or nothing gets done.
  I can say from experience the majority, which was the minority, 
pretty well understands that because they were able to stop us from 
doing lots of things. As the Senator from Kentucky pointed out this 
morning, when they, the Republicans, were in the minority, they did a 
good job of stopping us from doing things. We had difficulty passing 
appropriations bills. We got three passed. We have cooperated, and 
there have been 10 completed. That is because we have cooperated.
  Because of us, the minority worked with the majority, and we will 
continue to do that at a subsequent time. But we want to be involved in 
what is going on around here. As I said, it is easier to be a dictator, 
to be a tyrant, to just tell us what we are going to do. That is not 
how the Senate works. You need to work with us. That is what this is 
all about today. You need to work with us. Because if you think you can 
just march down any road you want to go, you are going to find 
roadblocks in that road.
  We have worked to pass important legislation, and we will continue to 
do that. Bills have been done and the budget was done this year because 
we worked to help them get done.
  I want, before we leave this judges thing, and talking about why I 
think it is important to talk about unemployment, about jobs, to 
mention Judge Pickering now makes about $155,000 a year as a district 
court judge. Supreme Court Justice Owen makes $113,000. William Pryor, 
as attorney general of Alabama, makes $125,000. That pales in 
comparison to Miguel Estrada.
  These are the four, the ``Big Four.'' We are going to spend 30 hours 
on the Big Four. The Big Four make a total of about a million dollars a 
year, and we are going to spend 30 hours lamenting how poorly these 
people have been treated, and we will not spend 30 seconds talking 
about the unemployed of this country, people who are out of work for an 
average of 5 months.
  We have this administration, after years of job losses, coming 
forward and saying: Oh, we finally got it. Everything is in shape. We 
have had two huge tax decreases, and we were supposed to create 
millions and millions of jobs. We need 150,000 just to keep up with 
population growth. But we are not going to talk about that. We are not 
going to talk about the economy. We are going to spend 30 important 
hours of this body talking about judges--four judges--and how poorly 
they have been treated: Pickering, Estrada, Pryor, and, of course, 
Owen; 30 hours. It does not seem fair to me.
  I repeat, more poor people, more unemployment, more deficit, more 
uninsured, and we are going to spend 30 hours telling how sad it is a 
man making $155,000 a year did not get a promotion, that a woman making 
$113,000 a year, whom the President's own lawyer does not think is very 
good, and an attorney general who makes $125,000 a year, plus the star 
of the lot, Estrada, who makes half a million dollars a year--we are 
going to spend 30 hours on them.
  We do not have time to talk about the minimum wage because they make 
$5.15 an hour--$5.15 an hour. Why, if they work real hard, they will 
make over $40 a day. If they are lucky enough to work all week, they 
will get $200--$200--in a week.
  Well, if that is not enough for them, let them find another part-time 
job; let them find another minimum-wage job. There are lots of them. 
Well, not as many as you would think. They are kind of hard to find, 
especially if you do not have a car or you can't pay the bus fare to 
get there. But we are going to spend 30 hours talking about 4 people 
who make a total of a million dollars a year, and we are not going to 
spend 5 minutes on the approximately 9 million people who are out of 
work in America today. Some people have been unemployed so long they do 
not even count them on the unemployment rolls anymore.
  I wonder if it is important that we spend a little bit of time back 
here talking about education. We know how difficult it is for parents 
to send their kids to college. I have talked about that a little today. 
For one school, tuition is $41,000 a year.
  Public education. I think the highest is about $18,000 a year. But it 
is very expensive. In Alabama, I think they are raising the tuition 
there by 30 or 40 percent to help pay for some of the shortages they 
have in the State budgets. I wonder if we should spend a little time 
talking about education. I think it would be a good idea.
  I have a little school named after me in Nevada. It is a small school 
in Searchlight. I am proud to have that school named after me. It is a 
better school than the one I went to, at least physically. Where I went 
to school, it was a little different than now. But that little school 
needs a lot of additional things they do not have there. It is part of 
the very large Clark County School District. The Clark County School 
District, as I said, has about 270,000 students. They are fighting to 
build new schools, hire new teachers. Last year, they had to hire about 
3,000 teachers just to keep up with growth.
  Figure that out: Hire 3,000 new teachers. That is very hard to do. 
That is only 1 county out of the 17 counties in Nevada. Shouldn't we 
spend a little time talking about school, about education? Shouldn't we 
talk about what helps our public educational system instead of tearing 
down our public educational system?
  I don't know about how other people feel. But for me personally, 
other than my immediate family, the most important people in my life 
have been my teachers. They have altered the way that I think. They 
have changed who I am. Why did I go to law school? There was no lawyer 
in Searchlight, of course; none in Henderson where I graduated high 
school. I went to law school because of Mrs. Robinson, a part-time 
counselor and part-time government teacher who pulled me out of class 
when I was in junior high school. She said: We have looked over all 
your grades and all your aptitude tests. You should go to law school.
  That was it for me. Mrs. Robinson told me I should go to law school, 
and I was headed for law school. That was it. I was going to become a 
lawyer. I had never been to a courthouse, never met a lawyer. But she 
told me I should go to law school.
  I feel very strongly about the positive nature of our public 
educational

[[Page 28359]]

system. I think we belittle teachers far too much. Teachers are so 
important. We have to give them better tools with which to teach. We 
need to build smaller schools. I called Bill Gates about a month ago. 
Bill Gates gave a very large grant to New York's public school system. 
The reason I called him is because he is getting it right. His money is 
only going for the development of small schools.
  The problem in America today is not large school districts; it is 
large schools. Clark County is an example. We have several high schools 
that are about 5,000 students large. Why do they build large schools? 
Because they are cheaper to build.
  We know the learning environment in a very large school is extremely 
difficult. We need to come up with some way of having school districts 
build smaller schools. It has worked before. One of the leading 
advocates of small schools in America is a woman named Deborah Meyer. 
She did wonderful things in New York. Bill Gates, as I said, is a very 
generous man, and he is spending some of his great wealth in making 
kids' lives better. He will do that with the smaller schools he is 
helping to build, to develop. That is so important.
  There are areas in this bill that deal with education in many 
different ways, grants to different educational institutions, things of 
that nature, that certainly help what we do with education in America 
today. As a result, it is important we talk about that.
  This bill probably needs to be talked about a little more anyway. It 
has wonderful people on the committee, the subcommittee. There is 
tremendous work that is done. As I indicated, the bill covers many 
different areas. I talked about some of them.
  When we talk about education, one of things this bill deals with is 
the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which is so important. The 
whole section we have been dealing with in the Justice Department is 
extremely important in this bill. I haven't talked about it, but the 
Antitrust Division is so important.
  I know my friends in the insurance industry won't like this, but 
talking about antitrust, I think one of the areas that needs to be 
changed and we need to deal with in legislation is to have the 
insurance industry subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act. Most people 
don't realize that the only area other than professional major league 
baseball that is not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act is insurance. 
That came about during the Depression by Nevada Senator McCarran and a 
man from Alabama, Ferguson. They said that things were bad during the 
Depression and that insurance companies should be able to meet and--
this is my word, not theirs--conspire, be able to fix prices and not be 
subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  That has been the law for almost 70 years. It is not a good law. 
Insurance should be no different than any other business. They should 
be subject to antitrust laws. They could live within the confines of 
that law just like other businesses do. There is no reason the 
insurance industry is not part of regular American commerce. They 
should be subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act. That is why in this 
bill, in the Antitrust Division, there is a huge amount of money spent 
there. This year it will be about $142 million. That is a ton of money. 
It is for a good cause. But I wish that the insurance industry was 
subject to the antitrust laws of the country.
  This bill funds, for example, the national census. The census is 
critical to assuring taxpayer dollars are distributed fairly in Federal 
programs. This is so important to Nevada because, as I have already 
discussed, it is a rapidly growing State. Because we are a rapidly 
growing State, if you don't change the numbers that you base Federal 
program assistance on, you don't do it until 10 years has gone by, we 
suffer greatly. The State of Nevada is the fastest growing State in the 
Union. The census figures are important to us. But we wish they would 
be reviewed more often than what they are.
  The condition of many public schools is dismal. We have a high 
dropout rate in Nevada, one of the highest in the country, one of the 
lowest graduation rates. This is nothing I am proud of, but it is a 
fact of life. We need to be working on this. And we don't do well in 
national reading, writing, and math tests. Per pupil, Nevada spends 
less money on students than all other programs. Why? Because we spend 
so much money building schools.
  The former superintendent of schools, a wonderful man who was 
superintendent of schools for many years, said he was more of a 
construction superintendent than an education superintendent. That is 
the way the new superintendent is. Carlos Garcia, the new 
superintendent of schools, spends far more time in construction-related 
problems than he does in education because he has to build more than a 
new school every month.
  So there is no easy way to fix the problems facing Nevada schools, 
except help us with school construction. We need it and other States 
do. Schools are primarily the responsibility of individual States. We 
know that. There is only so much the Federal Government can do to help, 
but the education of our children must remain one of our top priorities 
because they are the future of this country. We have to give them the 
tools they need to succeed. We have tried to do that with Leave No 
Child Behind.
  I believe many of Nevada's problems stem from the fact its high 
growth rates prevent it from receiving its fair share of Federal 
education funding.
  Nevada, and Las Vegas in particular, has the fastest growing 
population in the entire Nation. As a result, we find ourselves in a 
never-ending race to fund the growing demands for education. That is 
why the legislation this bill deals with, the census, is so important 
to us. Our schools struggle each year to make room for new students. 
Despite all this, Nevada is last in Federal per-pupil funding. It is 
because of the cost of building new buildings.
  A recent Las Vegas Review Journal article makes a comparison between 
Las Vegas and Buffalo, NY.
  According to the article, Buffalo received about $716 in low-income 
title I funding per child, while Las Vegas received $454. Why? It was 
distributed, despite the fact that Buffalo loses about 2,000 students 
per year, while Las Vegas had to build more than a dozen new schools 
last year to make up for growth. Those schools are too big, as I have 
already indicated.
  I want to reiterate that the high growth problem is unique to Nevada. 
But it is interesting, schools in other States also face budget 
restraints for high population rates. Despite the rapid growth, the 
Census Bureau does not use statistics to reflect that expansion. The 
formulas that allocate Federal education dollars usually don't factor 
high growth rates into the calculations. So schools in Nevada and 
elsewhere are challenged even under the best fiscal conditions.
  One can imagine how difficult the situation is in a time of record 
Federal and State budget deficits like we have experienced. All States 
deserve their fair share of Federal education dollars. It is an issue 
of fundamental fairness. I hope we will address the problem of 
proportional funding in a comprehensive manner the next time we revisit 
the No Child Left Behind Act, and I hope that is soon.
  In the meantime, I hope we can correct a similar flaw in the way we 
fund Head Start. Throughout its 38-year history, Head Start has helped 
put millions of at-risk children on a path to success, giving them the 
social and academic skills they need to succeed in elementary school. 
It is a text book example of a Federal program that has worked. Really, 
Mr. President, it is a holistic approach. This holistic approach 
addresses many of the underlying causes of poor academic performance by 
providing medical services and guidance for parents of at-risk 
children. But State budget crises have placed Head Start programs under 
siege, along with all other aspects of public education, and programs 
in high growth States are among the hardest hit.
  That is why I introduced the High-Growth Head Start Assistance Act 
along with Senator Ensign. That bill would reward high-growth States, 
such as Nevada, for the commitment to

[[Page 28360]]

Head Start by ensuring that programs in their State receive their fair 
share of Federal funds. Congresswoman Berkley introduced a similar bill 
in the House. I applaud her for her leadership on this issue.
  This bill would make a difference in the lives of thousands of at-
risk children in Nevada and across the country, and it would address 
the problem of inadequate census data. Most important, it represents a 
small but significant step forward, fulfilling the promise we made 2 
years ago to leave no child behind; and in those 2 years, we have left 
lots of them behind.
  As we continue consideration of the Commerce-State-Justice bill, the 
bill which funds our census, it is critically important to keep in mind 
the impact this small program has on the fundamental fairness of other 
important programs like education.
  Mr. President, one of the things that I want to talk about is what 
has not been done in this legislation as it represents tribal trust 
fund litigation. This bill provides $3.06 million for tribal trust fund 
litigation. But it also directs the Department of Justice to seek 
reimbursement of these funds from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  As we consider this bill, it is important to remember how and why 
these litigation expenses have been incurred--and the injustice done to 
Native Americans.
  Filed over 10 years ago was Cobell v. Norton, a class action lawsuit 
in the district court in Washington, DC, to require the Federal 
Government to account for billions of dollars that belong to 
approximately 300,000 American Indians that has been held in trust 
since 1887.
  On September 25, 2003, the U.S. district court, Judge Royce Lambert, 
ruled that the Government breached its trust obligations and has 
directed the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a full accounting of 
the trust money.
  The U.S. has spent nearly $1 billion on this case.
  There is no argument that the U.S. Government failed the Indian 
people in managing this trust in a debacle that has spanned more than 
100 years.
  Nobody disagrees that at least $13 billion has been generated from 
Indian lands for the life of these trusts--without interest. That is a 
huge number. At least $13 billion has been generated from Indian lands 
for the life of these trusts--with no interest.
  Yet none of this money has ever been accounted for by the Department 
of the Interior.
  We don't know how much of this money has reached the beneficiaries. 
We don't know how much money shall be allocated to each beneficiary. 
But we do know that we have obtained this extraordinary resource from 
the Nation's American Indians, without an accounting.
  Moreover, in the Department of the Interior appropriations bill, 
language has been attached that will stop the accounting of these 
funds.
  As Senator Daschle stated on the floor during consideration of the 
Interior appropriations bill, the rider in place tells the court how it 
must construe existing law and denies account holders a full accounting 
of their trust fund moneys and other assets.
  I don't understand how, in one appropriations bill, our Government 
can block all litigation of this matter and, in another appropriations 
bill, fund the litigation of this matter. They fund it not within the 
Justice Department, but out of the poor Bureau of Indian Affairs, which 
is broke to begin with.
  Rather than enacting legislation that is not only unconstitutional, 
but also will serve to delay an accounting of these trust funds, we 
should address this in a fair manner. I do believe there are some who 
are doing this only to delay the accounting of these trust funds, and 
for that reason only.
  Once tribes have a full accounting of their own trust funds, they 
should be permitted access to those funds. I have tried to do this for 
the Western Shoshone people of Nevada in the Western Shoshone 
distribution bill, which passed out of the Senate earlier last month. 
This will distribute almost $150 million to the Western Shoshone 
people.
  Last year, the Senate unanimously passed this bill that will, at 
last, release the funds that the U.S. has held in trust for the Western 
Shoshone people for almost a quarter century. But the House was unable 
to complete its consideration of the bill before Congress adjourned.
  Historically, the Western Shoshone people have resided on land within 
the central portion of Nevada and parts of California, Idaho, and Utah. 
For more than a hundred years, they have not received fair compensation 
for the loss to their tribal land and resources.
  In 1946, the Indian Claims Commission was established to compensate 
Indians for lands and resources taken from them by the United States
  In 1962, the Commission determined that the Western Shoshone land had 
been taken through ``gradual encroachment.''
  In 1977, the Commission awarded the tribe in excess of $26 million. 
The United States Supreme Court has upheld the Commission's award. It 
was not until 1979 that the U.S. appropriated over $26 million to 
reimburse the descendants of these tribes for their loss.
  Like the hundreds of thousands of American Indians who are entangled 
in this accounting mess, the Western Shoshone are not a wealthy people. 
That is an understatement. A third of the tribal members are 
unemployed--a third. For many of those who have jobs, it is a struggle 
from one paycheck to the next. Wood stoves often provide the only 
source of heat in their aging homes.
  Like other American Indians, the Western Shoshone continue to be 
disproportionately affected by poverty and low educational attainment. 
The high school completion rate of Indian people between the ages of 20 
and 24 is dismal.
  The American Indians have a dropout rate of 12.5 percent higher than 
other Americans.
  For the Western Shoshone, the money contained in the settlement funds 
could lead to drastic lifestyle improvements.
  After 24 years, the judgment funds still remained in the U.S. 
Treasury. The Western Shoshone have not received a single penny of the 
money--their money. In those 24 years, the original trust fund has 
grown to well over $144 million.
  It is long past time that this money should be delivered into the 
hands of its owners. The distribution bill will provide payments to 
eligible Western Shoshone tribal members and ensure that future 
generations of Western Shoshone will be able to enjoy the benefit of 
the distribution in perpetuity.
  Through the establishment of a tribally controlled grant trust fund, 
individual members of the Western Shoshone will be able to apply for 
money for education and other needs within the limits set by a self-
appointed committee of tribal members.
  I will continue my ongoing work with the members of the Western 
Shoshone and the Department of the Interior to help resolve any current 
land issues.
  The Western Shoshone have affirmed and reaffirmed their choice to 
have these funds from their claim distributed without further delay.
  They have voted twice--and we have voted unanimously twice--they 
voted 94 percent twice to decisively distribute this money. Members of 
the Western Shoshone gathered in Fallon and Elko, NV, in May of 1998. 
They cast a vote overwhelmingly in favor of distributing the funds. 
Again, about 4 years later they cast a vote overwhelmingly in support 
of the distribution of the judgment funds at a rate of 100 percent per 
capita--again, only a handful.
  The final distribution of this fund has been lingering for many 
years. I have been assured by the House Members from Nevada that they 
will do everything within their power to push this bill through the 
House. We need it out of the House.
  The Western Shoshone distribution bill is an example of legislation 
that--unlike the Indian trust rider that was attached to the Interior 
appropriations bill--will actually benefit American Indians across the 
whole Nation.

[[Page 28361]]

  Mr. President, the legislation that is before this body is important. 
Why is the Senator from Nevada spending now about 2\1/2\ hours, or 
thereabouts--what time was the bill laid down, by way of parliamentary 
inquiry?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. At 1:16 p.m.
  Mr. REID. It has been 2 hours and 35 minutes or 36 minutes. Mr. 
President, in about 25 more minutes we will be past the so-called 
Pastore rule. After that, I don't have to talk about the bill. I can 
talk about the color of the ties. I can talk about the ties in this 
room. I can talk about the color of people's hair. I can tell how good 
these court reporters are. I can talk about anything I want. For the 
next 25 minutes or so, I have to stick with this bill. I am happy to do 
that.
  One of the provisions in this bill is global warming. One of the 
agencies funded in this bill is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, or NOAA, as it is called. The bill funds critical 
research into climate change or global warming. As we consider this 
bill today, I would like to say a few words about global warming and 
this administration's stewardship of the environment over the past 2\1/
2\ years.
  This administration's environmental record has gone from bad to 
worse. The latest bad decision is the rollback of the Clean Air Act 
which was enacted under a Republican administration more than 30 years 
ago and has improved the air we all breathe. EPA announced several 
months ago it is relaxing Clean Air Act requirements to apply to some 
of our aging powerplants. This will result in more pollution and more 
greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.
  Then when we thought it couldn't get any worse, just last week we 
learned that the Environmental Protection Agency is likely to drop a 
number of lawsuits in cases involving powerplants that are polluting 
our air and contributing to global warming. Global warming is real.
  I so admire the senior Senator from Arizona, Mr. McCain. Senator 
McCain and I came to Washington together in 1982. We were freshmen 
Members of the House of Representatives. I go to the congressional 
prayer breakfast--not all the time; my schedule is as difficult as 
everyone's. I have been to the prayer breakfast in the House and the 
Senate on a number of occasions. I will never forget the prayer 
breakfast I went to in the House of Representatives which was led by 
John McCain. I will never forget the power of that morning.
  John McCain talked about the first time they were able to get 
together and sing Christmas carols. This man spent--I don't know the 
exact time--about 7 years in a concentration camp. The vast majority of 
that time was in solitary confinement. This is a man who could have 
gotten out early. His father was the commander of the naval operations 
in the area of Vietnam, Admiral McCain.
  John McCain could have gone early because of his father. They said to 
him: You can go. He wouldn't leave without the rest of them.
  He was hurt when his airplane went down. His shoulders were broken 
and a lot of other damage. He was tortured unmercifully. When his 
shoulders healed, they broke them again.
  I only lay this foundation to show that John McCain is a courageous 
man. As we know, he can be a pain in our side because he doesn't always 
do what we want him to do, Democrats or Republicans. It doesn't matter 
to me. It does not take away from my admiration of this American hero. 
He may do things that I think are wrong, but he does things that he 
thinks are right. He never does things that he doesn't believe in, as 
difficult as they are for the Members of the Senate to sometimes 
understand.
  This is a man of great courage and, I have come to learn, of 
intellect. A demonstration to me of the strength of his convictions is 
what he has done on global warming. But for John McCain, we would not 
have debated for 2 days global warming. He forced us to do that. I, of 
course, would love to do it. I am on the environment committee. I have 
been chairman of that full committee twice.
  Because of John McCain's leadership, the senior Senator from Arizona 
forced the leadership of this Senate--by the way, he is a Republican--
he forced his own leadership to bring this bill to the floor. It 
wouldn't have come to the floor otherwise.
  John McCain knew that the lobbyists, the big powers--the automobile 
manufacturers and oil companies--he knew he wouldn't win, but he wasn't 
afraid of a fight because he knows, as I know and the vast majority of 
Americans know, that global warming is upon us. We saw that with the 
graphs, charts, and pictures of the icecap shrinking before our eyes. 
We know. We talked about global warming.
  I hope the issue is big enough that we should be talking about global 
warming. I would like to start this coming Wednesday, the day after 
tomorrow, at 6 o'clock and go until midnight on Thursday. The people of 
America would appreciate that more than talking about three judges who 
didn't get promotions, who are making about $1 million a year, one of 
whom is making half a million dollars a year. That would not be a bad 
thing to do with our time.
  John McCain said a few weeks ago when he displayed the dramatic 
photographs of our planet that all we have to do is believe what we see 
with our own eyes. As the administration made a bad decision to weaken 
the Clean Air Act, it has made a disastrous decision to ignore the 
problems of global warming.
  I spread all over the record of this Senate my appreciation for the 
work of Senator John McCain on this issue alone. He is one rung ahead 
of me on seniority. Why? We came at the same time. We had the same 
service in the House. Why? Because the State of Arizona has more people 
in it than Nevada. That is why he is one notch ahead of me.
  I have already made very clear how much I admire John McCain and how 
much I appreciate his bringing global warming before our eyes. Ignoring 
global warming isn't merely a bad decision; it is also a broken promise 
to the other nations of the world and a broken campaign promise to the 
Americans.
  The administration talks about the difficulty of reducing greenhouse 
gases, but it isn't even willing to take the easy step of requiring our 
vehicles to be more fuel efficient. We need leadership from the White 
House. Reducing fuel efficiency is important. Requiring greater fuel 
efficiency would not only reduce the gases that cause global warming 
but also help us break our dependence on foreign oil which threatens to 
undermine our national security.
  When it comes to producing electricity, we need to encourage the 
development of renewable resources, such as geothermal power, solar 
power, and wind power.
  After I finished law school and moved back to Nevada, my wife and I 
decided to take a vacation. It was a wonderful trip. We had our little 
Valiant station wagon. We put our two little children in the back seat. 
I am sorry to say in those days there may have been seatbelts there but 
people did not use them. The kids laid down in the back of the station 
wagon and played around. We would never do that now but we did it then.
  It was a wonderful, pleasurable trip we took to Yellowstone. I can 
remember lots of it, but what was most impressive to me about 
Yellowstone National Park was Old Faithful. A magnificent national 
treasure is the geyser we call Old Faithful. It was only a few months 
ago that I had a chance to go back. It had been many decades--I should 
not say many decades but it had been decades since I had been there. I 
had a chance to return to Yellowstone.
  I only had a part of a day. I was doing something in the Big Sky area 
for Senator Max Baucus and we had a little downtime. We had a few 
hours. I was asked: Where do you want to go? I want to go see Old 
Faithful.
  So we went to the geyser farm, as I call it, and it was tremendously 
interesting again. The geyser erupted a few times while I was there, 
spewing thousands of tons of boiling water, 18 stories into the air, as 
high as an 18-story building. It is power. It is awesome. But even more 
impressive than this

[[Page 28362]]

power is its reliability. Since man first set eyes upon Old Faithful, 
it has erupted without fail every 90 minutes or so, give or take a few 
minutes but very close to that. It is a marvel of nature, but it is not 
an isolated phenomenon because it sits among the largest concentration 
of geysers in the world.
  When we went there this last trip, we took a little stroll. They have 
a little wooden path people can walk around in the geyser farm, and it 
was interesting because the buffalo would come and lay right near one 
of the geysers. We asked the guide who was taking us around, why would 
a buffalo walk through these people and lay down by a geyser? The 
reason was it kept the bugs off of him. Whatever insects bother the 
buffalo, they do not do it around all of that steam and stuff. So it is 
a marvel of nature, and they are studying it all the time.
  Out west, though, we are surrounded by sources of reliable power--
mighty rivers, the brilliance of the Sun, the force of the wind and the 
heat within the Earth itself. These renewable resources can free us 
forever from energy shortages and unexpected price increases.
  More importantly, they can produce reliable electricity without 
pumping more carbon into the atmosphere, carbon that contributes to 
global warming. As Nevada and other States begin to harness their 
power, we are forging a path that the Nation should follow.
  The geysers that we saw at Yellowstone come from deep within the 
bowels of the Earth. In Nevada, we are fortunate to have not geysers 
but we have a lot of very hot water that is under the surface of the 
ground. During the times of the pioneers, these really became a problem 
until people understood what was going on. For example, on one of the 
immigrant trails that was traversed often, they would leave what is now 
Utah and come across an awfully difficult desert and they would get up 
around the place we now call Gerlach and they would see this beautiful 
water, big pools of water. The early travelers would rush to that 
little pond, that pool of water as big as this circle here that covers 
the members, the staff and the Presiding Officer, and they would die. 
It was boiling. It was hot. They were dying of thirst. They would rush 
in and they could not drink it. So they learned, as they had to, as 
Senator McConnell said earlier today; they would have to drain the 
water from the big pool and let it cool before the animals could drink 
it and the people could drink it.
  We have hot water that goes from Gerlach clear down below Reno to the 
Carson City area and beyond, and we have geothermal power that has 
already been developed. We are known in Nevada as the Saudi Arabia of 
geothermal, but the problem is that the tax incentives for geothermal 
and solar simply are not there. It is for wind. Wind is as cheap now to 
produce as using standard fossil fuels. We hope in this Energy bill 
that is being worked on that the tax section will allow geothermal and 
solar to have the tax credit that wind has. If we did that, it could 
change things dramatically.
  The President is talking about hydrogen. Hydrogen means nothing if we 
cannot produce it by alternative energy. We have to produce our 
hydrogen fuel by either wind, the Sun, or geothermal. Otherwise, we are 
just burning huge amounts of fossil fuel to take care of a problem that 
will only create more problems. So in Nevada we are looking forward to 
the tax incentives so we can cheaply produce electricity.
  Senator Ensign and I have worked hard to stop the dangerous nuclear 
waste coming to Nevada, Yucca Mountain. We want the State to be a 
proving ground for renewable energy. Renewable energy is good for 
Nevada because it will create jobs and help our consumers. It is good 
for America because it will slow global warming. The work that is being 
funded in this appropriations bill includes convincing evidence that 
global warming is real. What more is needed is hard for me to 
comprehend. We have studied too much.
  We have all heard the story about the frog that is placed in a pot of 
water. So far, so good. When the water is brought to a boil, the frog 
does not know it, so the water keeps getting hot until it scalds him. I 
hope, unlike the frog, we take notice of global warming before it is 
too late.
  Global warming is here. It is not only like the frog, it is like the 
ostrich that hides its head in the ground not seeing what is going on 
around it.
  Before I start another section talking about this bill, I want to 
again remind everyone what is going on today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Talent). If the Senator would suspend for 
a minute, the Senator asked before at what point the bill was laid 
down. The Chair can now inform the Senator the bill was laid down at 
1:16 p.m.
  Mr. REID. I appreciate that very much.
  One of the things I have been concerned about for many years is the 
pay of judges in the Federal judiciary. I have had the good fortune of 
sending to Presidents the names of attorneys who are now Federal 
judges--very proud of every one of them. I have worked with Senator 
Ensign, during the time that President Bush has been President, in 
sending judges that Senator Ensign has had me take a look at.
  We have a fine Federal judiciary in the State of Nevada, those who 
Senator Ensign and I have worked on and those who have come before. I 
think the thing that concerns me, though, about those judges, they 
should be paid for. To get the high quality of people we want to be 
Federal judges is not easy. Many people who I went to, Senator Ensign 
went to, who we thought would be good Federal judges, could not do it 
simply because they could not afford to do it.
  This bill provided for the funding for the judiciary. I am pleased 
that the bill provides a 16\1/2\ percent pay increase for judges. That 
helps make up for the fact that judges have not received and do not 
receive annual cost-of-living adjustments. The 16.5 percent increase 
helps to right this wrong.
  I would like to take a few minutes during our consideration of the 
bill to discuss the important issue of judicial pay. Before I came to 
work in the Congress, I practiced law. I am proud to be a lawyer. I 
have great respect and appreciation for the law and those involved in 
the judicial process. The very reason there has been such a great deal 
of debate on Federal judicial nominations is precisely that these 
positions are so important to the administration of a fair and 
effective legal system.
  The individuals chosen to serve on our Federal bench make lifetime 
commitments to public service. Increasingly, however, that commitment 
comes at a fiscal price. In fact, the real pay for these jobs has 
declined drastically. The compensation for Federal judges has declined 
by 25 percent in the last three decades.
  In testimony before the National Commission on the Public Service, 
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer stated that while the real pay for 
Federal trial court and appellate court judges has declined by about 25 
percent, there has been a 12.4 percent increase in real pay that the 
average American worker has enjoyed.
  Justice Breyer also drew attention to the fact that since 1993, when 
Congress last comprehensively revised Federal salary statutes, real 
judicial pay has declined by approximately 10 percent.
  How can we continue to attract the best of the best when low salaries 
are offered for lifetime tenures? The answer is simple. In order to 
continue to attract and retain the most talented men and women to the 
Federal bench, the salaries must be raised. The Founders recognized 
that Federal judicial compensation was integrally tied to judicial 
independence.
  In 1989, Congress linked the salaries of its own Members to senior 
executives and to Federal judges. As a result, Federal judges did not 
receive cost-of-living increases for several years in the 1990s. Some 
of my colleagues may say there is no need to maintain ``inter-branch 
pay parity.'' However, there are fundamental differences between our 
respective branches.
  While a judge and Congressman may each make the same salary, they do 
not each face the same financial future. In fact, the Federal bench is

[[Page 28363]]

threatened by some of the best and brightest choosing to take early 
retirement as they are wooed away by the private sector.
  Even the Justices of our highest court, the U.S. Supreme Court, make 
far less than leaders of educational institutions and not-for-profit 
organizations. Salaries of Federal district court judges and deans of 
prestigious law schools used to be competitive with one another. Not 
today. Today, according to a survey conducted by U.S. News and World 
Report, the average salary for law school deans is $301,639, about 
twice as much as we pay our Federal district court judges.
  I believe the deans of our schools are important but no school--
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, none of the big name schools, none of the 
small schools--less prestigious schools, I should say--none of them has 
a dean who is more important than any Federal district court judge, 
none of them.
  We pay our judges substantially less than either England or Canada. 
Our Constitution creates lifetime appointments to the Federal bench. 
Many men and women who accept these positions are giving up far more 
lucrative careers. Some suggest we may rely upon our judges' devotion 
to public service to keep them at their posts while we allow their 
purchasing power to dwindle. However, we should rely on their public-
spiritedness only so far. Although they are aware the salaries are not 
of the level these individuals could demand in the private sector, it 
is only fair that they be adequately compensated.
  Legislation to increase their salaries and sever them from yearly 
congressional authorization restores both fairness and the appeal of 
public service to the Federal judiciary by improving compensation. 
Better compensation means better quality judges, and quality judges 
instill greater public confidence in the Federal courts. Raising 
Federal judicial salaries by 16.5 percent and limiting the annual 
congressional authorization of cost-of-living adjustments for Federal 
judges helps to secure judicial independence.
  Those who support the increase in compensation for Federal judges 
include the American College of Trial Lawyers, the United States 
Judicial Conference, the American Bar Association, the National 
Commission for Public Service, and many others.
  In an editorial on May 5 of this year, the New York Times wrote:

       The increase is warranted to make up for the erosion in 
     judicial pay caused by inflation and Congress's repeated 
     withholding of cost-of-living adjustments that are supposed 
     to be routine. A report in January by the National Commission 
     on the Public Service, a study group led by Paul Volcker, the 
     former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that the 
     purchasing power of federal judicial salaries had dropped 24 
     percent since 1969. It said the decline was ``arguably 
     inconsistent with the Constitutional provision that judicial 
     salaries may not be reduced by Congress.'' A year ago, the 
     Supreme Court declined to accept a case raising that issue. 
     But it should not take a lawsuit to persuade members of 
     Congress to treat the judiciary fairly. The government cannot 
     match the salaries offered by big-time law firms. But to 
     recruit and retain quality judges--and for the sake of 
     fairness--Congress needs to provide salaries that bear a 
     reasonable relationship to other professional opportunities. 
     As part of the package, judges should be required to forgo 
     privately financed junkets that cast an ethical cloud on the 
     courts, as Senator Leahy has previously proposed. These are 
     matters that transcend the ongoing partisan battle over 
     President Bush's hard-right judicial nominees.

  As we consider the funding bill for our Judiciary here today, I think 
it is important to highlight the issue of judicial pay.
  This bill takes an important first step of providing a pay increase 
to make up for the many years that judges received no cost of living 
adjustment.
  Going the extra step of delinking COLAs from congressional pay would 
benefit the administration of justice for the judges that serve our 
country.
  Mr. President, the 3 hours are up. We are no longer bound by the 
Pastore rule. I can talk about anything I want to talk about now, but 
the first thing I want to talk about is the Senate schedule.
  I participated in a press conference on Friday right upstairs. I 
thought we laid out our case pretty well--Senator Daschle and I and 
Senator Stabenow.
  We were very concerned about what was going on in the Senate. I 
repeated, and I will continue to repeat, it seems so unfair that we 
would work so hard and cooperate so much to make sure that, at this 
stage, 10 of the 13 appropriations bills would pass. That couldn't have 
been done without us.
  We were willing to work to complete the other three within the matter 
of the next few days, and suddenly we are struck with the 30-hour 
performance that will begin Wednesday at 6 o'clock where we will spend 
30 hours on four people we have turned down; lamenting to you how bad 
things are in America today because Estrada, Owen, Pickering, and Pryor 
have been turned down. Isn't that just awful?
  I was concerned about talking about unemployment, the impoverished, 
the uninsured, the budget deficit, the national debt, and so we, among 
other things, demanded we be given half of that 30 hours.
  Since that press conference and the unanimous consent agreement that 
was entered while I was here in the Chamber, we get half of the 30 
hours.
  I think it is foolish that we are spending 30 hours, but we will take 
our half and talk about whatever we feel is appropriate.
  During the press conference, I said I thought this was the most 
amateurish leadership I had seen in my years in Congress. I think name 
calling does not serve the Senate well. Perhaps this Senator could have 
used terms more descriptive. I didn't want anyone to think we have to 
resort to name calling. I spend a lot of time on this floor, and I 
don't want anyone to think less of me for name calling. If I offended 
the Republican leadership--that is, Senator Frist and Senator 
McConnell--by calling them the most amateurish leadership I have seen 
since I have been in Congress, I apologize for that. I apologize. They 
know and I know why I was upset. I try never to let my emotions 
override my mind, but perhaps it did that day. I have read the news 
articles from all over the country. The press loved ``amateurish,'' the 
word I used. I apologize in front of the Senate and millions of people 
by saying I shouldn't have used that word. I don't want to have to 
resort to name calling.
  As I have said, I think it is absolutely wrong that Senator Frist 
allows this to go forward. He has his reasons for doing it. I have 
talked to him. I disagree with those reasons. But please strike from 
everyone's mind the fact that I used the words ``the most amateurish 
leadership'' since I have been in the Congress. I may have thought so 
for those few minutes I was up there, but it probably wasn't a very 
good thought.
  Again, I apologize. I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings. I don't 
think I can say any more than that. I strike that, but everything else 
I said up there was just fine.
  We have a lot of work to do here.
  Why am I on the Senate floor today? I repeat I am here to show the 
Senate is a body where we have to work together. We have to work 
together. No one can demand that we be here to vote when no one tells 
us when the votes are going to take place or what the votes are going 
to be on. You can't do that. Everything done in the Senate, with rare 
exception, is done by unanimous consent. It means all 100 Senators have 
to say, That is OK, let us go ahead and do that. We spend a lot of time 
here dealing with individual Senators who do not like when we are going 
to vote, do not like when we begin debates, do not like the makeup of 
committees--all kinds of things. Everything has to be done by unanimous 
consent.
  I hope when we finish here today people will better understand that 
Members over here want to work together. We want to be part of good 
things to happen in the Congress of the United States. But don't take 
us for granted. Don't think we are unimportant. Don't think we can be 
pushed around with no say in what goes on around here, because we have 
a say in what goes on around here. We can do things like I am doing 
today.
  Some of my friends on the other side of the aisle said, Well, we have 
been

[[Page 28364]]

told we will have a vote or two early and we can go back to our parade. 
People who serve in the western part of the United States can't do 
that. They can't go home today. Right now, if I left to go back to 
Nevada, if I were lucky enough to get a plane--there is one that leaves 
at 5:30--if everything left on time, I could get out there by 7:30 or 
7:45 tonight. Remember, that is a 3-hour time difference. Coming back 
this way, it is almost impossible. Coming back this way, if you leave 
at noon, it is 3 o'clock back here, and you get back here at 8 o'clock 
at night.
  We need to be a part of what is going to go on. If we are going to 
have votes on Monday, tell us what the votes are. Somebody can make a 
choice about whether they want to make that vote or not.
  Tomorrow is a holiday. It is a legal holiday. We originally thought 
we were going to work from early in the morning to late at night and 
get our work done around here. But now we don't know. We don't know. We 
have to debate 30 hours--we have to rest up for that--starting day 
after tomorrow at 6 o'clock and spend many hours--30, to be exact--
talking about the 4 judges who didn't get the job they wanted.
  There are a few more things we need to talk about. One of the things 
which is important is that on Friday, August 29, as most Americans 
started a 3-day Labor Day weekend, President George Bush announced he 
was expanding the United States policy known as the global gag rule 
which denies United States family planning funds for foreign 
governmental organizations that use their own funds to counsel, 
perform, and advocate abortion. Apparently, the President didn't care 
the Senate voted just 2 months earlier to overturn this rule.
  Remember that this wasn't to do abortions but just to educate about 
abortion. The President didn't realize or didn't care the Senate had 
voted just 2 months earlier to overturn this rule. Despite that vote, 
the President decided to expand a policy that violates free speech and 
endangers the lives of women around the world.
  Just days after the President acted to expand this policy, the Senate 
Appropriations Committee reported my amendment to the Commerce-Justice-
State bill and voted to block the expansion of the global gag rule. 
Prior to the President's action to expand this policy, the gag rule 
applied only to groups that received grants from the United States 
Agency for International Development; that is, their family planning 
program.
  During consideration of the State Department's authorization bill in 
July, the Senate debated this policy and determined it is inconsistent 
with American values of free speech, and we adopted an amendment 
offered by Senator Boxer to rescind the rule. The President acted to 
expand this policy so it would apply to not just one program at the 
Department of State but to all population programs at the State 
Department. It is impossible to determine the impact of expansion of 
the global gag rule at this point in time, but the consequences of the 
original policy are well documented. Here are some examples.
  No. 1, the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia is the largest 
reproductive provider in Ethiopia. It operates 18 clinics, 24 youth 
service centers, 671 community-based reproductive care sites, and 
hundreds of other sites for health care services. The global gag rule 
has cost this group more than half a million dollars and has cut off 
the supply of condoms and other contraceptives even though abortion is 
illegal in Ethiopia. This group doesn't provide abortion services, but 
because the organization does not seek to educate policymakers in the 
country about the role unsafe abortion plays in Ethiopia's staggering 
mortality rate, it is unable to agree to the gag rule.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, could I ask my colleague from Nevada to 
yield for the purpose of a question?
  Mr. REID. I will yield to my friend for a question as long as the 
question doesn't take more than 1 minute and without losing my right to 
the floor.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I want to first tell my colleague I have been watching 
him in the other room, and he has been doing a masterful job on the CJS 
bill, and now on what has happened in the first 1,000 days of the Bush 
Presidency.
  An area of particular concern to me, which I know my colleague has 
touched on, has been the judges. I simply ask my colleague if he says 
the judicial vacancies--it is on the chart. I can't read it, but I 
think it is down from 9 percent to 4.7 percent. He has been around here 
a lot longer time than I have. But does my colleague recall a time when 
we moved so many--knowing his knowledge of the history of the Senate--
judges so quickly and when any President could have gotten such a high 
percentage of the judges which he has asked for? Does my colleague 
agree with this? He might want to talk about this at some point. He was 
talking about the gag rule, but I was so interested in what he said on 
judges I wanted to come to the floor.
  It is ridiculous, when 168 of 172 judges have been approved, to call 
the minority ``obstructionists'' given the record they have. I am 
hearing from many people in New York that we are letting too many 
judges through.
  Mr. REID. I am happy to respond to my friend. I will answer my 
friend, the distinguished Senator from New York, who is the ranking 
member of the subcommittee that has the burdensome job of weighing the 
merits and demerits of each of these judges. It is a difficult job.
  The Senator has sifted pretty hard. There have been 168 judges come 
through your subcommittee of the full committee that have been 
approved. I say to my friend, the mystery as far as I am concerned is 
we are going to spend 30 hours starting Wednesday night and going until 
Thursday at midnight on 4 judges who have not been approved by the 
ranking member's subcommittee and the full committee.
  I cannot imagine how we could do better. We have the lowest vacancy 
rate in some 15 years. We have approved, I repeat, 168 judges.
  My friend is absolutely right. This side of the aisle is being 
criticized because too many bad judges are getting through. We have 
made a decision to only take the worst of the worst. That is why we 
stick together on these so well. We do not turn down everybody. We 
turned down less than 2 percent.
  As I said earlier today, rather than turning down 2 percent, if we 
turn down 1.5 percent of the judges, would that cut the time down for 
taking away from valuable Senate time to maybe 25 hours? If we cut the 
rate down to 99 percent, maybe they would cut it down to 15 hours. Does 
this mean the Constitution of the United States says we should approve 
every judge they give to us? We are the minority. There are 49 of us. 
It does not take a mathematical scientist to tell you they vote en 
bloc. Once in a while we get a courageous Senator who joins in judges, 
but that is a rarity.
  We have under the rules of this body something called cloture. It is 
used all the time. It has been used with judges before. We have used 
very discriminately, rarely, our ability to block judges. We have done 
it four times. That does not prevent them from getting a vote on the 
judge. They just have to get 60 votes. They have to get 60 votes. They 
have not been able to do that. That is why they are lamenting these 
four.
  I don't know if the Senator from New York was here earlier today when 
I talked about the huge number of unemployed we have in America today, 
approaching 10 million. Wouldn't it be nice if we spent that 30 hours, 
or part of it, talking about the unemployed in America today instead of 
the 4 people who have good jobs? Miguel Estrada makes over half a 
million yearly, the others make about half a million a year. They are 
judges and have jobs. None of them are out of work. Rather than spend 
30 hours on people who have jobs, shouldn't we spend time on people who 
do not have jobs? Would it not be better that we spend some time 
talking about minimum wage? I have talked about it a little bit today. 
I had to be careful what I talked about the first 3 hours; it had to be 
directly on the bill. As I told the staff earlier, later I may want to 
talk about the color of the ties and the color of her pretty shoes. We

[[Page 28365]]

can talk about all kinds of things. Now the rules are that I can talk 
about anything.
  One of the things that is not just anything is minimum wage. Wouldn't 
it be nice if people who went to work in interstate commerce in 
America, which covers it all, got at least $5.30 an hour, $5.50 an 
hour, or $6 an hour? The rate now is $5.15. They will not give us a 
vote on that. I would hope we could spend part of that 30 hours on 
minimum wage.
  My friend from Michigan is here. The Senate is a much better place 
now that we have women in the Senate. I speak from experience. It is a 
much better place.
  Minimum wage is not just employment for a kid flipping hamburgers at 
McDonald's. Sixty percent of the workers who draw minimum wage are 
women, and a majority of the women need that money for their families. 
Would it not be nice if we spent time doing some work for our hard-
working people who are doing everything they can to make a living? Most 
of these minimum-wage jobs certainly have no benefits, no pension 
benefits, they have no medical benefits. They are bad jobs, but they 
are jobs. They are jobs the American people need.
  It is important we do something that is worth the dignity of the 
Senate. I don't know how the history books will report this. Here we 
are, a country that is staggering in debt. We started off with a 
national surplus when Clinton left office of over $7 trillion. We have 
now a debt of $5 trillion. When President Clinton was President the 
last 3 or 4 years, we were actually spending less money than we were 
taking in. We were paying down the debt. Now we are building the debt. 
We will have the largest debt in the history of this country this year, 
the largest deficit.
  The percentage of unemployed is going up; poor people, going up; 
uninsured, going up. Everything we should be working on is going up, 
and we should be trying to get these percentages down. But we will not 
talk about that. We are going to talk about judicial vacancies, which 
are going down. How in the world can people take the Senate seriously 
when we have a world that is overcome with pollution, crime, kids 
cannot go to school, public schools are beaten down, old, decrepit, 
teachers need help, we have a war going on in Iraq--I don't know how 
many were killed over the weekend--and we are going to spend 30 hours 
talking about 4 people the dastardly Democrats turned down. How could 
they vote against these people? We are going to spend 30 hours. How is 
history going to account for the time we spent on this?
  Mr. SCHUMER. Will my colleague yield for the purpose of one 
additional question.
  Mr. REID. I will yield for a question without losing the floor, and 
if the question exceeds more than 3 minutes I will retake the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Even on the issue of judges, and my colleague is exactly 
on point, with all these other problems we have, to talk about four 
judges sounds like a totally misplaced priority. No one puts it better 
than he.
  I ask one other question about another point. To solve the problem of 
the judges, when we are not able to come together, it would seem to me, 
and I ask my good friend from Nevada to comment, it is not that we need 
more talking. The other side will spend 30 hours talking about this, or 
now maybe 15 because of my friend from Nevada and his astute 
parliamentary request. Do you think they will say anything new? We have 
heard the arguments over and over and over and over and over and over 
again. No one is going to be educated about this. We all know their 
viewpoint.
  It seems to me, and I ask my colleague this question, what we need on 
judges is not more speeches telling us what our colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle think--Lord knows we know that. We do not agree, but 
we know--but, rather, the President and the leaders of the Senate and 
the Judiciary Committee, sitting down with our side, and asking, Could 
we come to some agreement on who the judges ought to be? There is the 
constitutional role of advice and consent which has existed in this 
country for a very long time, and I tell the Senator as the ranking 
Democrat, I am never consulted about judges in New York. By the way, in 
New York we are filling all the vacancies because we have come to an 
agreement. I do not get every judge I want or even judges who are 
philosophically exactly like me, but there is some comity and some 
agreement.
  So my question to my colleague is, Doesn't it seem that if they 
really want to solve the problem on the judges, instead of spending 30 
hours repeating, ad nauseam, the same arguments we have heard over and 
over and over again, that, rather, they would sit down with us and, in 
good faith, say: How can we come to some kind of agreement instead of 
what they do say: My way or the highway. If you don't give us all 172, 
we're mad. I ask my colleague that question and yield the floor back to 
him.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, we take an oath right over here, each 
one of us. We raise our hand and swear to uphold the Constitution of 
the United States. I think one of the requirements I have is to advise 
and give consent to the President, as outlined in the Constitution of 
the United States. I think it would be better for him, but I do not 
understand this administration. They just want to jam us on everything.
  Now, as I said to the ranking member of the committee the Senator 
from Vermont, earlier today, I do not like all the judges you guys have 
put out, quite frankly. I do not like some of them, I say through the 
Chair to my friend from New York. But I understand it is a winnowing 
process, and we have only been asked to respond to the worst of the 
worst.
  Now, Miguel Estrada, I do not say he is a bad person. All I say is, 
if he wants a job, fill out the job application and give us the 
information so we know for whom we are voting. He could be the nicest 
guy in the world. I never met him. I have nothing against him 
personally. But he would have set a very bad standard for this country 
by just saying: I don't have to answer anything. I don't have to fill 
out this application. Those papers you wanted, no deal. President Bush 
said I don't have to answer them. I'm not going to answer them. He 
said: I don't have to give you that information--even though they have 
been given before, by Bork and others, Civiletti.
  So I say to my friend, we, in turning down Estrada, Owen, Pryor, and 
Pickering, did our constitutional duty in and what we believed were bad 
people for good jobs. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why we 
should spend 30 hours talking about those people. As my friend from New 
York has said, I have heard the speeches--I have been here--about how 
they have been maltreated, they want an up-or-down vote--even though we 
had our own judges, and they did not give us up-or-down votes.
  I read something from the majority leader today--he sends out to a 
lot of people e-mail that I get here, among others--that never has 
there been a filibuster of a Federal judge before. Absolutely false. 
Whoever gives the majority leader that information should be 
embarrassed because it is simply not true. I have been on the Senate 
floor when there have been filibusters. We had cloture motions filed, 
and we voted on them.
  So we are going to go through this deal on Wednesday and into 
Thursday--a waste of valuable time that we could be spending on these 
things that are going up that should have been going down, such as the 
uninsured.
  In my first elective job--I was first a city attorney, and that was 
an appointed job. Many years ago, my first elected job, in 1966, was to 
be on the board of trustees of the then-largest hospital district in 
Nevada, Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. Now it is a teaching 
hospital. It was not then.
  At that time I learned a lot about people who had no insurance. It 
was difficult. It is so much worse today. Forty-four million people 
have no health insurance, and we are not spending time talking about 
that. It is a serious problem.
  Ms. STABENOW. Will my friend yield?

[[Page 28366]]


  Mr. REID. I will yield in just 1 minute.
  The poor: America should not be proud of the fact that, as we speak, 
the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. I have 
nothing against rich people. Before I came back here some would say I 
was rich. I have spent all my money. I don't have much anymore. But I 
have nothing against rich people. I think it is fine to be rich. But we 
also have an obligation, as a nation, to do something to take care of 
people who are poor through no reason of their own.
  The homeless: I left my home today in downtown Washington, and I went 
out for my morning run. Every morning I go by there, and here are these 
men, and sometimes women. They are asleep--and they are not asleep, I 
am sure; they are just waiting for the day to go by as quickly as it 
can. They are poor people. They have no place to sleep. On occasion I 
see them roll up their sleeping bags and climb into a car and drive 
off.
  Shouldn't we have some time spent on the Senate floor dealing with 
those people who are sleeping in the Nation's Capital? There are poor 
people who are unemployed.
  I spent a lot of time here today talking about the unemployed. I 
talked about a program called Nevada Partners, where they work with 
people who have never had a job--never had a job. There are lots of 
people who are not kids who are in their thirties and their forties who 
have never had a job. They can be trained to work. This organization 
has had over an 80-percent success rate. They train them, they put them 
out on the Strip where they have good jobs. They have benefits.
  But shouldn't we be spending some time dealing with the unemployed, 
how we can have more programs like Nevada Partners? It would never have 
started but for the largess of Kirk Kerkorian, a very wealthy man who 
wanted to start a program. Then the Government took it over.
  Wouldn't it be nice if we spent some time on the budget deficit or 
the national debt and everything that is shown going up on this chart 
that we should be talking about? But we are going to talk about 
something that is going down, judicial vacancies.
  So I would be happy to yield to my friend from Michigan for a 
question only, without losing my right to the floor.
  Ms. STABENOW. Thank you very much, I say to my friend and colleague 
and our leader from Nevada.
  Before asking a question, I first want to rise on behalf of the 
people of Michigan to thank you today for coming to this floor and 
speaking about what is most important to the people I represent.
  As you have said so eloquently, this 30 hours we are going to be 
doing is about four people who already have jobs who want to be 
promoted.
  Well, in Michigan, we, right now, have over 263,000 people without 
jobs. They are not up for promotions. They do not have work at all 
because of, primarily, the loss of manufacturing jobs. They are 
grateful, as I am, that you have come to the floor to speak about this.
  I want to just share with you today a few headlines from the papers. 
I have been traveling around northern Michigan this last weekend, and 
everywhere I go--Baldwin, MI, Reed City, Lake City--all around the 
State I hear the same thing about the loss of furniture makers, the 
loss of tool and die makers, the loss of other auto suppliers.
  Here we have a headline from the Grand Rapids Press: ``2,700 Jobs in 
Danger as Electrolux Considers Closing Greenville Refrigerator Plant.'' 
The Holland Sentinel: ``Ford Sets Timetable for Plant Closings.'' Also, 
GM is laying off one shift in Lansing, my hometown.
  Here is another headline: ``Straits Steel Closing Sad News for 
Plant's 180 Employees.'' From the Ann Arbor news: ``Eaton Plant to 
Become Condos.'' From the Lansing State Journal: ``Jobless Rate Could 
Rise in Winter.''
  I ask my friend, as we look at what is happening, and as they talk 
about the change in the growth and the positive indicators in the 
economy, isn't it true that we are not seeing new jobs created? In many 
States, such as mine, we are seeing the best paying jobs, manufacturing 
jobs, evaporating for many different reasons? And isn't that something 
we should be talking about on the floor of the Senate, the loss of 
manufacturing jobs?
  They cannot just all be in the service industry. We need to make 
things in this country.
  That is what I do. That is what people in my State do very well, and 
they want to continue. Wouldn't my friend say we should be talking 
about the loss of manufacturing jobs and the people and the families?
  Mr. REID. The Senator is absolutely right. I talked about the State 
of Michigan earlier today. I talked about my having asked you a 
question last week, and you responded that 9 million people live in the 
great State of Michigan. A quarter of 1 million people are out of work 
that we know of. Those are the people who are still carried on the 
unemployment rolls. There are probably 150,000 more who have been on so 
long they are not even counted on the rolls. The Senator is absolutely 
right.
  I finalize my answer to the Senator's question by referring to a 
letter I received from a woman today from Elko County, NV, a place 
called Spring Creek.
  She wrote that she would work a part-time job or two part-time jobs. 
She would do anything she could. She has a desperate situation at home. 
She has a husband who is disabled. He can't move. For every job that 
opens, 50 people apply for the job. She ends her letter to the 
President and me by saying:

       Gentleman. This is the greatest country in the world. The 
     middle class needs a break. I don't want a free ride. I just 
     want a job or jobs that will supply the basic needs of our 
     family.

  That is all that people are asking. They want a job to take care of 
their families. I am at a loss. I am concerned. What are we doing here, 
spending 30 hours talking about four people who have jobs, when we have 
millions, we are approaching 10 million people who don't have jobs? We 
have millions of people who are not even counted on the rolls anymore 
because they have been out of work so long.
  As I established earlier today, the average person is out of work in 
America today 5 months. If you lose a job, unless you are real lucky, 
you are not going to find another job until December, January, 
February, March, April--if you are lucky. That is the average. But you 
may have to wait until August or, if you get lucky, you might get one 
in February.
  The point is, why can't we spend time on jobs for people who count, 
not the four, the big four, so to speak, we are going to spend 30 hours 
on?
  The Senator from Michigan has read the press just as I have: This is 
something we have to do. We have to have the Senate be the Senate.
  What does that mean? Does that mean we have to approve every judge 
who comes through? If we do that, if we are good boys and girls over 
here, they will let us go home at night or maybe let us spend a little 
bit of time talking about the environment. Do you ever think we might 
want to talk about the environment?
  You know the Clean Water Act came to be not because somebody got a 
bright idea: Wouldn't it be great to have a Clean Water Act. It came to 
be because the Cayuga River in Ohio kept catching fire, a river kept 
burning. It was so polluted, it burned. President Nixon and others 
said: Well, you know--I don't know if he said this, but I am sure they 
thought it--I don't think that is a good idea to have rivers on fire. 
Maybe there is something wrong. And we passed the Clean Water Act. A 
Republican President, Democratic Congress, we passed the Clean Water 
Act. Why? Because rivers were on fire.
  Wouldn't it be nice if we spent a little time on the environment? 
Pollution is causing kids all across America to have respiratory 
problems. Asthma is something that kids get. It is something that was 
rarely heard of in children. Now a lot of them have asthma and all 
kinds of respiratory problems. I would like to talk about the 
environment. Maybe not for 30 hours but a few

[[Page 28367]]

hours would be nice if we had a debate here on that.
  Of course unemployment, we need to talk about that. I appreciate very 
much the Senator from Michigan being as diligent as she is. I have 
talked a lot today about the minimum wage. Let me give you a few facts 
about that.
  Three million more Americans are in poverty today than when President 
Bush took office. We are not talking about a few people; 3 million more 
people have gone into poverty than live in the State of Nevada in the 
last 3 years. The State of Nevada, if you stretch it, could get up to 
maybe 2.4 or 2.5 million people. More people than live in the State of 
Nevada have gone into poverty in the last 3 years. Is that something on 
which we should spend a few minutes?
  Why is there so much poverty? What is going on? Why is the middle 
class shrinking? And the rich, that class is getting bigger and bigger 
and the poor are growing bigger and bigger. The middle class is going 
away. Today more than 34 million people live in poverty. Of that, 12 
million are children, babies.
  I remember, I wasn't raised with a lot of material things, but I was 
never hungry. I always had plenty to eat. I can remember in the little 
town of Searchlight, one of my friends--I don't know how old we were, 
maybe 11, I think that is about right--was hungry. I never had seen 
anything like this before. There was a refrigerator. He went into the 
refrigerator and there was nothing there except a bottle of syrup. And 
there was hardly anything in the bottle. So he went to the sink and 
shook that up and drank that. That kid was hungry. There was nothing in 
the refrigerator. He shook up that little bit of syrup and he drank it. 
And I am sure it gave him a little bit of energy.
  But 34 million people live in poverty, 12 million children. Some of 
those kids are like my friend was, who had nothing to eat and drank a 
bottle of weakened syrup. It was not Vermont pure maple, I will tell 
you that.
  Among full-time, year-round workers, poverty has doubled since the 
1970s, from about 1.3 million, and now we have an unacceptably low 
minimum wage as part of the problem. The minimum-wage employees work 40 
hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earn $10,700 a year--more than $4,500 
below the poverty line for a family of three. And we can't get on this 
floor even to debate the minimum wage. They won't let us. They stop us.
  No, we are not going to talk about the minimum wage. We are more 
worried about tax cuts for the elite of this country. We can spend a 
lot of time talking about tax cuts for the elite, what we can do to 
make things better for rich people.
  But poor people, people who live on the minimum wage--if a person 
works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year of course, they are not getting 
any vacation time--they make less than $11,000 a year. It is below the 
poverty line, $4,500 below the poverty line. The current minimum wage 
fails to provide enough income to enable minimum-wage workers to afford 
adequate housing any place in the country. Every day the minimum wage 
is not increased, it continues to lose value and workers fall further 
and further and further behind.
  Minimum-wage workers have already lost all the gains of the 1997 
increase. When we raised it, we didn't raise it enough to keep up with 
past problems. I think it is interesting to note the real value of the 
minimum wage is more than $3 below what it was in 1968. So whatever the 
minimum wage was in 1968, we are $3 below that.
  The minimum wage today should be $8.15 to have the purchasing power 
it had in 1968. It is $5.15. Nearly 7 million workers would directly 
benefit from our proposed minimum-wage increase. And listen to who 
these workers are: 35 percent are their family's sole earner; 62 
percent are women; one-third of these women, that is the money they get 
for the kids and them, that is all they have; 16 percent are African 
Americans; 19 percent are Hispanic Americans. A $1.15 increase for a 
full-time, year-round worker would add $3,000 to their income.
  A gain of $3,000 would have an enormous impact on minimum-wage 
workers and families, even though it still wouldn't give them the 
buying power they had in 1968. It would be enough money for a low-
income family of three to buy 11 months of groceries, 7 months of rent, 
14\1/2\ months of utilities, and maybe, maybe send one of the kids to 
school at a community college.
  Ms. STABENOW. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I will without my losing my right to the floor.
  Ms. STABENOW. Just one more question for my friend. I thank the 
Senator again very much for laying out what we ought to be doing, our 
priorities, all of our debates about values and priorities. The Senator 
has certainly laid out what the values and priorities should be for our 
focus of time. As you were reading the list of items, I was thinking 
about that mom on minimum wage who is caring for her children. She 
probably has sleepless nights hoping they won't get sick because she is 
probably not covered for health insurance either.
  As we look at the number of people in the country and in my State who 
have lost their jobs, and the number of people on minimum wage, they 
are not just losing a job; in most cases, they are losing their health 
care as well.
  In Michigan now, one out of four people under the age of 65 has no 
health care. Many, as the Senator has talked about, are low-income 
people; but many of them are high-income manufacturing workers who have 
lost their jobs.
  Would the Senator not agree that what we are seeing now, when people 
lose their jobs, is not just the loss of the income but a loss of the 
stability of the families and the ability to care for the health of the 
family because their health insurance is gone as well? Should we not be 
talking about what is happening in this country in terms of those who 
have no health insurance or the businesses that are trying to pay for 
the health insurance?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I tell my friend that I read the list of 
hundreds of companies today that, in the last few months, have laid off 
people. With rare exception, every one of those jobs is a job where 
they had health insurance. They are thrown off the rolls because 
COBRA--that means you can buy the insurance, but they don't have the 
money to do that. So what happens is they go to an emergency room, 
which is the highest cost of care in America. That is where they are 
forced to go. It is a scandal and an embarrassment that we don't do 
more to help solve the health insurance crisis we have in America.
  Wouldn't it be nice, I say to anybody within the sound of my voice, 
if we had a debate on the Senate floor about health insurance? Why do 
we have 44 million people with no health insurance? That number is 
going up. Every day, that number is going up. The first thousand days 
of the Bush administration should not be days he looks at proudly.
  One of the very important issues we have to deal with--I have not 
talked about it at all today--is, What are we going to do about 
prescription drugs?
  I am very fortunate. We in the Senate have a good health insurance 
plan. My wife asked me today, when I came to work, if I would call 
Grubbs Pharmacy--which is on the Hill, and they are very good to work 
with--if I would call her Las Vegas physician and have him call Grubbs 
for a couple of prescriptions she needs. We have the money to do that. 
There wasn't a question of whether we could afford it. I am in a 
position where we have health insurance.
  Most people in America don't have that luxury. Prescription drugs for 
the elderly and for working-class Americans is very difficult. I want 
to say before my friend leaves, no one out of the 535 Members of 
Congress--I hope everybody in Michigan knows this--leadership or 
nonleadership, has worked as hard and been more devoted to trying to 
find a solution to the problem of prescription drugs than the junior 
Senator from Michigan, Ms. Stabenow. She understands the issue. She 
works hard on the issue. Wouldn't it be nice if, next Wednesday at 6 
o'clock, we had a debate between the junior Senator

[[Page 28368]]

from Michigan and anybody who wants on the other side? You would win 
the debate hands down. This is an issue we would be happy to debate. 
Let's take that time and start talking about prescription drugs. Why 
can we not do that--not only for seniors within the confines of 
Medicare but do something for everybody?
  So we should be, as an institution, somewhat concerned--as busy as we 
are--with the issues about which we have talked. We have so many 
different things about which to talk. We have veterans. I have not 
spent time today talking about veterans. Tomorrow I will spend some 
time talking about veterans because they deserve some attention, too.
  Are we going to talk about veterans on Wednesday at 6 o'clock? Not 
one word. In fact, Miguel Estrada--and it would not make any 
difference--is not a veteran. I don't see Pryor's service record, and 
the two women have not been in the military. So we are talking about 
four people, as far as I know, with no military experience. We are not 
going to spend any of the time talking about them from 6 o'clock on 
Wednesday until 12 o'clock Thursday.
  Maybe we should talk about veterans a little bit or about emergency 
disaster assistance or about homeland security or education for at-risk 
children. We have not talked about pensions. We need to talk about the 
Equal Rights and Equal Dignity for Americans Act. That is important. It 
affects millions of people. There is plenty we need to talk about that 
will not be allowed to proceed, and we should not be bogged down by 30 
hours, covering Wednesday night and all day Thursday into Thursday 
night, talking about Estrada, who was treated so badly--oh, out of the 
30 hours, we will give him 25 percent of the time; we will spend 25 
percent of the 30 hours on Owen from Texas; and then we will spend some 
time on Pickering because we should do that--he is entitled to 25 
percent of the 30 hours-- and then, of course, we can wrap it up by 
spending the rest of the time on the attorney general of Alabama, 
recognizing that every one of these people has a good job.
  So we are going to talk for 30 hours about people who have jobs--four 
people. We are not spending 30 seconds on the 9 million-plus Americans 
who have no jobs. We are not spending 30 seconds on the 44 million 
Americans who have no health insurance. We are not talking about the 
millions who are going into poverty as we speak, about the people I 
read about on the charts who are losing jobs now, as we speak. As we 
speak, decisions are being made to lay people off in America. And then 
we have the budget deficit and the national debt. That is what we 
should be doing. But no, we are not going to do that.
  Finally, Mr. President, completing my statement for minimum wage, I 
indicated that if we gave a $1.50 an hour increase, we could give a 
family of three 11 months of groceries, 7 months of rent, 14\1/2\ 
months of utilities, and they could even pay tuition for most community 
colleges.
  History shows that raising the minimum wage has not had any negative 
impact on jobs, employment, or inflation. In the 4 years after the last 
minimum-wage increase was passed, the economy experienced the strongest 
growth in more than 30 years. Nearly 11 million new jobs were added at 
a pace of 218,000 a month. There were 6 million new service and 
industrial jobs and a half a million retail jobs.
  A fair increase is long overdue. Congress should act quickly to pass 
a minimum-wage increase to reflect the losses suffered as a result of 
the shameful inaction of the past. No one who works for a living should 
have to live in poverty.
  Mr. President, we, as Members of the Senate, are always concerned 
about the schedule.
  (Mr. CORNYN assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. REID. I am sure the Senator from Texas, in the few years he has 
been in the Senate, has asked his leadership a hundred times: When are 
we going to vote? What is the vote going to be on? People who have been 
here longer have asked thousands of times.
  It is very important that Senators have some idea of what their 
schedule is going to be. It is very important that the minority be part 
of setting that schedule. There are certain rules of courtesy and 
fairness that need to be followed in the Senate. When we learn over 
here that out of nowhere--we read it in the paper, that is where we 
first read it, that they, the majority, were going to spend 30 hours--
30 hours talking about four people who haven't gotten their jobs. It 
couldn't be anything else. They are the ones who didn't get their jobs. 
We approved everyone else. They say: We want to talk about other 
things. I don't know what else they can ask for. We have four people 
who didn't get their jobs--four people.
  I assume tonight before we go out they will file cloture on a couple 
more judges. We can vote on a couple more on Wednesday. I assume that 
is possible also, if we want to spend more time on judges and not on 
appropriations bills. Maybe by the time Wednesday comes, instead of 4, 
it will be 5 out of 168, or 6 out of 168.
  I really am at a loss to understand why things have to go the way 
they are. Why we are going to spend all this valuable time talking 
about people who are fully employed?
  There are many important provisions in this Commerce-Justice-State 
legislation. It is an important bill. I know how important 
appropriations bills are. I have worked very hard on them in the past. 
One of the items in this bill is the National Endowment for Democracy. 
It is a great organization. We fund it and its affiliate institutions. 
It is about the promotion of democracy. I am glad it is funded in this 
bill. They have been growing very well, very strong for 20 years now, 
conducting important work to support fledgling democracies across the 
world.
  As many people know--I refer to the National Endowment for Democracy 
as NED--NED has four affiliate institutions: the Free Trade Union 
Institute, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the 
National Republican Institute, and the National Democratic Institute. I 
am most familiar with the National Democratic Institute for 
International Affairs, or NDI. NDI's president, Ken Wollack, and board 
member, the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, have done a 
remarkable job in dozens of countries throughout the world. This 
doesn't take away from the other three institutes, but I just know more 
about this institute.
  I have met with field representatives in Africa, Asia, and the former 
Soviet Union. These individuals are on the front line of a ditch of 
sorts. They are on the front line in the battle of ideas for freedom 
and justice. They generally arrive on scene in the midst of conflict or 
just following some internal revolution, without any kind of fanfare. 
They go about their important business of providing assistance to civic 
and political leaders helping build political and civic organizations, 
safeguarding elections, promoting citizen participation, openness and 
accountability in government.
  There is no doubt the work they carry out on behalf of the American 
people is absolutely critical to ensuring peace, security, and 
democracy, and making sure they are sustainable in some of the toughest 
places in strategic hotspots in the world.
  Democracy promotion, whether carried out by NDI, NRI, NED, Peace 
Corps, or any other American, is incredibly important to advancing our 
interests of freedom and justice across the globe. People deserve to 
live in freedom. It is an inherent right, but, unfortunately, it is not 
a right enjoyed by all. Much work still remains.
  With this background, I was pleased to hear the President speak last 
week about the importance of promoting democracy in the Middle East. I 
am sorry, however, his comments came 3 years too late. I am sorry the 
words of the President are just that, words, because they have not been 
supported by actions.
  Indeed, with regard to Iraq, for those of us who voted to support the 
President to use force in Iraq--I was one of them--I note I not only 
voted to support the President last fall, but I voted to support the 
President's father in 1990 and 1991. So I am certainly no dove, as you 
would see, when it comes to military action.

[[Page 28369]]

  One thing we pleaded with the President to do was come up with a plan 
for postwar Iraq. How would we win this most difficult peace? I always 
said we could win the war, but can we win the peace? We were pushed 
aside. We were told we would be thrown bouquets as victors, but we have 
been thrown bombs as invaders.
  We were told the Iraq oil revenues would pay for reconstruction. We 
were told occupation would be short and Iraqis would take over quickly. 
We were told costing dollars and U.S. lives would not be great. But the 
price Americans have paid in their national treasure--the sons and 
daughters--has been huge. Obviously, the financial cost is into the 
hundreds of billions of dollars. I suspect next year we will be asked 
to appropriate even more to rebuild this shattered country.
  Why would the administration launch the attack without sufficient 
planning, without regard to development of a civil society, without 
regard to democracy promotion, without regard to our allies? Why do it, 
and then 3 years after the President takes office, 6 months after the 
war begins, talk about the importance of democracy promotion in the 
Middle East? If the cart was ever before the horse, this was it.
  I suppose some would say it is consistent with the view of foreign 
policy adopted by this administration. In foreign policy, I think it is 
fair to say, you reap what you sow. I am sorry to say that for 3 years, 
this administration has sown some bad weather.
  Let's talk about some specifics. Upon taking office, the 
administration pulled the plug on the Kyoto Treaty, pulled out of the 
ABM Treaty, disavowed the International Criminal Court, and cut off the 
engagement the Clinton administration had begun with the Iranians and 
North Koreans. Now, of course, we are back to talking with the North 
Koreans, and I am glad. I suspect we will even reverse course and soon 
be talking again to those young Iranians so interested in democracy. I 
hope so.
  The President promised to get out of the conflict between the 
Israelis and the Palestinians, and he did just that. Predictably, 
spiraling violence ensued. It has been the worst that part of the world 
has ever seen, except when they were in actual war.
  Something else happened, too, over these last 3 years. Our State 
Department, led by one of America's heroes--I really do mean that 
sincerely. Colin Powell is one of the great Americans of our time. But 
his Department took a back seat to Secretary Rumsfeld and Under 
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.
  Democracy, public diplomacy, and other so-called soft aspects of our 
foreign policy took a back seat to Pentagon planners. National security 
was unilaterally, singly, viewed in the prism of the five walls of the 
Pentagon. I am sorry Colin Powell, Aid for International Development, 
and nongovernmental organizations, such as the National Endowment for 
Democracy and others, were not factored into our national security 
equation.
  Don't get me wrong, I am and have been one of the most vocal 
supporters of our troops fighting the ongoing war on terror. Sadly, we 
live in a world where we have to strike at the enemy before they strike 
us. This is not preemption as the administration calls it. This is our 
right and long-understood concepts of self-defense.
  Nevadans understand this. They are leading the fight on terrorism in 
every corner of the globe. Our predator fleet, for example, which is 
based at Indian Springs Air Force Base, which is part of Nellis Air 
Force Base, is one of the most effective tools in the arsenal in the 
war on terror. Our fighter pilots who are trained at Nellis and Fallon 
are also on the front line of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our National Guard 
is fighting in every major theater of operation.
  I am proud of what they have done for the freedom and defense of this 
country. I couldn't be more proud of our troops, but I have stated I 
also couldn't be more disappointed with our policymakers.
  For me, fighting terrorism should have always been a two track 
approach. Track one, of course, is the military track. We need the most 
lethal, agile, sophisticated, well-trained military anyplace in the 
world, because of the threats we face each day. We have that military 
force in place. We cannot sit back and wait for the terrorists to hit 
us. When we know where they are and where they are training, we need to 
go after these terror groups with speed and force.
  Track two, however, is a nonmilitary approach. It is a track focused 
on diplomacy, engagement, leadership, and democratic values. These two 
tracks must run parallel to each other. Concurrently, they must run.
  Track one deals with the current threats. Track two ensures that new 
threats do not emerge. It focuses on education, a civil society, 
democratic institutions, the rule of law, health care, and other 
factors that make society strong, so they can reject the extremism of 
today; strong so ideals of freedom, equality, and justice becomes the 
fuel that drives the engines of their societies, not hate, not fear, 
and not violence.
  In the well-reported leak of the Rumsfeld memo a couple of weeks ago, 
he asked just that question. Secretary Rumsfeld asked: What are we 
doing to address the input side of the terrorist equation? It is a 
question he should have asked. I am glad he asked it. Again, I am sorry 
he asked it a few years late. But the short answer, Secretary Rumsfeld, 
is that we are doing nothing to address the input side because there is 
no second track to our approach to national security.
  Young, uneducated, poverty stricken youth continue to flock to the 
madrassas where they learn to hate and become attracted to violence. So 
when the President shows up at the National Endowment for Democracy and 
talks about the importance of democracy, about the importance of 
democracy promotion and democracy development, I say, Mr. President, 
where have you been? Why have you waited so long? Why has this not been 
a priority of your administration and why was the power of American 
ideas not projected as loudly as the power of our military during the 
course of this administration? Why has your administration been 
controlled by bureaucrats at the Pentagon?
  Speaking of bureaucrats, we learned last week that Richard Perle, a 
Defense Department adviser, was out in the Middle East last year 
conducting negotiations on behalf of the United States. Under what 
authority, I do not know. But he was rejecting offers from Iraqi 
authorities to head off the war.
  I do not know how serious these offers were but that really is not 
the issue. The incident reflects the enormous authority played by the 
Defense Department and not the State Department in conducting our 
foreign policy. I hope to be able to ask Secretary Rumsfeld for a full 
accounting of the Perle negotiations and under what authority he was 
acting.
  Others have already asked that question. I am not sure how a so-
called adviser to the Defense Department, who apparently holds a very 
lucrative consulting contract with defense companies, was negotiating 
major foreign policy decisions for the American people. It is 
mysterious and preposterous. At the same time, I hope the Secretary of 
Defense has an explanation.
  Back to the issue at hand, I do hope the President's speech at the 
National Endowment of Democracy will be more than just words. He does 
have 1 year left to prove that there will be action to follow up on 
sweeping rhetoric. No. 1, will he renew the commitment to Afghanistan, 
a country teetering on the edge of failure? No. 2, will he become 
engaged at the highest level in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? No. 
3, will he give up some degree of political control in Iraq so NATO can 
take some of the burden off our troops who are already stretched so 
thin and so the U.N. can come back in and take over some of the 
reconstruction efforts? No. 4, will democracy promotion and civil 
society develop? Will it become a central plank of our foreign policy? 
Will we put in the necessary resources in order to make our effort 
successful? Will the President engage our allies again as President 
Reagan did, as President Bush, Sr., did?

[[Page 28370]]

  This engagement and leadership substantially helped the efforts at 
democratization in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. It should 
not be forgotten that the western Europeans, the European Union, NATO, 
and others played such a huge role in these democratization efforts, 
and we did not do it by ourselves. We should not do it by ourselves in 
Iraq, either. We cannot. It will not work.
  So I wait anxiously to see whether there will be action by this 
administration, action to make democracy a reality, action to make 
peace and security a reality, action that will make Afghanistan, Iraq, 
and other nations teetering on the edge a reality, make them more 
secure. Talking about democracy will not be enough.
  Although you have discovered the National Endowment of Democracy 3 
years in your administration, Mr. President, I say, better late than 
never. Let's now see what your administration can do. On this front, 
you have my full support. I will do everything I can to make this 
President's initiative a success.
  I mention just briefly again how important minimum wage is. People 
who seek a higher minimum wage, they do not have lobbyists bringing and 
dropping them off in limousines. They do not have the $1,500 suits like 
lobbyists trying to help them. Nobody is trying to help them. The 
people who seek minimum wage have no lobbyists. They are on their own. 
No one is paying the huge fees we read about in the newspaper. Some 
lobbyists, on one account, receive hundreds of thousands of dollars a 
month. Regardless of how much is being paid, the people on minimum wage 
are paid, who are lobbyists for people on minimum wage? Nobody is a 
lobbyist for them. We are their lobbyists. The 535 Members of Congress 
are their lobbyists. We have to try to help them. We have to try to 
help these desperate people who want to work, and we need to make work 
better than welfare.
  I watched a very interesting piece the other evening on 60 Minutes, I 
think that is what it was--no, it was not. No, it was not. I take that 
back. It was in a movie. It was a movie ``Bowling for Columbine.'' I 
watched that, and they had the story there about this woman who--a 
number of people who were on welfare and they got a job. They had to 
drive 50 miles one way, 100 miles every day, and how difficult it was 
for them. Of course, they are minimum-wage jobs. It would be nice if 
those people I saw depicted in that movie got a little bit of an 
increase.
  I have indicated that in Nevada we have about 65,000 people who work 
for minimum wage. More would work for minimum wage if there were more 
jobs. If we increase the minimum wage to $6.65, that will raise it 
$1.50 an hour. This raise would help the economic security of thousands 
of Nevada's low-wage workers.
  A worker earning the minimum wage must work 125 hours per week in 
order to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Nevada. Eight percent of 
Nevadans live in poverty. The last raise in the minimum wage did not 
have a negative effect on Nevada's economy. In fact, after the last 
raise of the minimum wage, Nevada experienced a great economic growth. 
Over 180,000 new jobs were created.
  While retail is often cited as the industry hit hardest by an 
increase in the minimum wage, 39,700 new retail jobs were created in 
Nevada after we last passed an increase.
  Additionally, unemployment dropped for 4 years, after we passed an 
increase, from 5.5 to 4.2. So it is time to set aside the old 
misconceptions about increasing the minimum wage. Congress should act 
now to give thousands of Nevadans the raise they deserve.
  Some people will disagree. They will say, we cannot do that because 
if we do that people will have to be laid off. The facts do not bear 
that out, but that is what they say. What I say to that is those people 
who were talking about that have lobbyists. They have lobbyists who are 
pushing hard against minimum wage. They are paid large amounts of money 
every month to make sure nothing pops up on minimum wage.
  On the other hand, these people who are seeking minimum-wage 
increases have nobody to help them, other than us, and we need to do 
something. We really need to do something to increase minimum wage.
  Wouldn't it be nice if we had some time to talk about that, to talk 
about health care? I think it would be worth it to devote a little bit 
of our time to something that is certainly important.
  We are going to spend our time for the next little bit talking about 
judges, starting, as I said, Wednesday, and then until Thursday night 
at midnight. I think it would be good if we talked a little bit about 
Afghanistan.
  I read a book by James Michener. I read a lot of his books. He wrote 
a book called ``Caravans,'' which was about Afghanistan. That was the 
name of the book, ``Caravans.'' It was a very good book, written in the 
typical fashion of Michener, where he worked through the different 
generations until modern times in Afghanistan. I was struck by what a 
difficult time that country had always had. It is a country that 
doesn't have very much in the way of natural resources. Very unlike 
Iraq, they don't have oil; very limited amounts of water; it is 
extremely cold; their farm season is short. I would like to spend some 
time debating this, what more could we do to help?
  We know the President has made a decision, basically, to protect just 
Kabul, the capital. We haven't done much to bring peace to the rest of 
that country. We should. It could be done. The rest of the country is 
being run by warlords. We can't leave Afghanistan again. We did it once 
and that brought about the Taliban. We need to do more than what we 
have done.
  I want to talk about a problem that we have in Afghanistan, a serious 
problem. The CJS bill affects not only the Department of Justice but 
also the State Department. There is one problem that concerns me 
greatly that affects both of these Departments, the Department of 
Justice and the State Department. It is a problem that not only has 
serious implications for drug abuse and crime, but also on our 
relations with other nations in the world. That is the problem of 
cultivating poppies, which are used to produce heroin that finds it way 
into our cities and poisons our neighborhoods.
  Heroin is an awful product. I mentioned before on occasion, and I 
will do it again, when I started practicing law in Nevada we did not 
have a public defender anyplace in the State--not a Federal public 
defender, nor any of the counties. As a young lawyer, I was appointed 
by the then-chief justice, David Zenoff, to represent a man by the name 
of Humbert Gregory Torus. He was known as Greg Torus.
  When I went to see him in the old Clark County jail and looked 
through those bars, I was excited because it was my first criminal 
appointment. But as I looked through those bars, I saw a handsome young 
man, about 21, 22 years old--stunningly handsome. He was there on a 
couple of burglary charges. Why? He was addicted to heroin. He had been 
a heroin addict. He came from New York. He had been a heroin addict 
since he was 16 years old. His IQ was off the charts. It benefited him 
only in his ability to scheme deviously to get more heroin.
  As my first criminal appointment, I spent many days of my life 
working with him. We were able to work out a deal. He got out of jail. 
He married a beautiful showgirl from Las Vegas, a girl from Ireland 
with beautiful red hair named Maurine. I haven't talked to her in a 
number of years, a beautiful woman. She didn't know what she was 
getting herself into. But she was forced to deal with a man she loved 
who was addicted to a poison, a substance called heroin. He would lie, 
he would cheat, he would steal his own family's money to satisfy his 
craving for this substance.
  His wife had a baby while he was in prison. He got out of prison; he 
stole from his family again. I could go on for a long time about this 
tragedy of this man who could have been anything he wanted but for 
heroin as a 16-year-old boy. The last I heard from him, he was in 
prison someplace up in the Northwest. His wife had left, finally 
divorced him. She even traveled, lived in Carson

[[Page 28371]]

City so she could be near her husband at the prison up there.
  Heroin is bad. It is a poison. Is poisons our neighborhoods, and 
there are thousands and thousands of Gregory Torus's in the world. I 
hope he is OK now. I hope he is leading a good life someplace and has 
been able to kick that habit. The problem with heroin is very few 
people can kick the habit. The recidivism for heroin is upwards of 90 
percent. They cannot kick it. It is a craving they can't overcome. 
There aren't many old heroin addicts. They are either in prison or 
dead.
  But heroin comes from a lot of places. One of the places it is coming 
from in large quantities now is Afghanistan. The Washington Post ran a 
story today headlined, ``Afghan Poppies Sprout Again. Production Nears 
Record Levels, Worrying Anti-Drug Officials.''

       Two years ago, Afghanistan was virtually poppy free. . . . 
     But in recent months . . . opium poppies have made a 
     spectacular comeback, nearly reaching the record-high 
     production levels of the 1990s.
       According to a crime report released last month by the U.N. 
     Office of Drugs and Crime, Afghan poppies--whose sap was the 
     basis of three-fourths of the opium and heroin consumed 
     illegally abroad--are being grown on 197,000 acres across 28 
     of the country's 32 provinces. This year the country is 
     expected to produce [almost 4,000 tons] of opium worth about 
     $2.3 billion, which is equal to half of Afghanistan's gross 
     domestic product.

  Afghanistan is not the only place where the cultivation of poppies is 
a problem for us. The same thing goes for our southern neighbor with 
whom we share a 2,000-mile border where economic conditions are 
particularly bad right now. Desperate people take desperate measures. 
Many people in Mexico are desperate.
  A few years ago, Mexico seemed on the verge of an economic 
breakthrough. But today, Mexico's growth rate is half of what it was in 
the 1990s. More than half of all Mexicans, more than 50 million people, 
have an annual income of less than $1,400. Almost one-fourth of all 
Mexicans have an annual income of about $720, less than $2 a day.
  There is little hope for these people in the Mexican countryside 
where coffee prices have plummeted, where homes and land values are 
falling because of the badly broken system of private property 
ownership. So these desperate people take desperate measures. Maybe 
they flee to Mexico City for a while, but there is not much hope there, 
either.
  There is a debate going on in the world of which city is the most 
polluted, Cairo, Egypt, or Mexico City, Mexico. Our Foreign Service 
officers who serve there are given extra pay because the health 
conditions are so bad in those two cities. Most refugees from the 
countryside wind up in crowded shanty towns, breathing horrible air, 
living in filth. Or maybe they remain on the land, but instead of 
growing coffee, turn to illegal crop production, growing either poppies 
or marijuana, or perhaps they put their lives in the hands of 
unscrupulous coyotes who promise to lead them across the desert to the 
land of plenty. If they don't die trying, they reach the United States 
where they place an added burden on our security officials and social 
services.
  I don't condone illegal immigration. I certainly don't condone 
farmers growing illegal crops. But I understand desperate people doing 
desperate things in desperate conditions in Mexico affecting the United 
States. That is why I sponsored an amendment recently to the State 
Department authorization bill that extends a helping hand to our 
neighbor Mexico. It provides $10 million for microcredit lending to 
small businesses and for entrepreneurial development aid to small 
farmers and persons who have been affected by the collapse of coffee 
prices. It calls for programs to support Mexico's private coffee 
ownership system which is in dire need of repair.
  My friend, Senator Ensign, supports this. He says this is what the 
free enterprise system is all about. I am grateful to all of my 
colleagues who voted for this amendment. It won't solve these problems 
overnight, but we have to start somewhere. Our neighbor needs help. We 
can't turn a blind eye to our friends in Mexico. This is not a handout; 
it is a commitment to a free-market-based program that will support 
long-term development and growth in rural areas of Mexico.
  By extending a hand to our neighbor, we are also keeping our own 
Nation strong and keeping it secure. That is what our State Department 
should be looking at. That is what we need to do.
  I remind everyone why we are here today. We have been doing very well 
this year, in spite of the very close makeup of the Senate. We have 51 
Republicans and 49 Democrats. Senator Daschle and I said this is not 
payback time. We want to work for the good of this country. These 
aren't just words. Look at our record. Our record was recited by the 
majority whip today, Senator McConnell. We have passed 10 
appropriations bills this year. As the Presiding Officer knows, in his 
limited time here--and he is a person who is certainly versed in the 
way we govern. He had a very impressive record before coming here as a 
Senator. As the Senator knows, in the Senate nothing happens unless 
there is unanimous consent. We all have to agree. On an appropriations 
bill, it is even more than that; you have to have a will to pass these 
bills. People love to offer amendments. They have been stopped from 
offering amendments in which they believe.
  We have had to work on this side with Senators saying: We need to 
move these appropriations bills. It is for the good of the country. Let 
us work to move these appropriations bills. What can we do to help move 
this along?
  We have worked. There have been many things we could do and many 
things that we have done to move these appropriations bills along. As a 
result, we have a great record. We passed 10 appropriations bills. 
Senator Daschle decided--and even though people didn't like it over 
here--OK, we are going to work on these appropriations bills, and we 
are even going to agree to work today, November 10, and on a national 
legal holiday. We are going to work Veterans Day. He said and I said 
that the veterans will understand that. We have the business of the 
country to do. Veterans, above all, will understand that.
  With a little bit of lamenting on our side from some Members saying, 
How can you do this, it is a national holiday, they followed the 
leadership of Senator Daschle: OK, we will work Monday and Tuesday. 
Then, talk about a sucker punch.
  The great Houdini got himself out of a lot of binds. He was a small 
man but would let the biggest man in the world hit him right in the 
stomach. No matter how big that man was, Houdini would let him hit him. 
But Houdini one time stood up and was not prepared to be hit. He was 
hit and it killed him. That was a sucker punch. He didn't know it was 
coming. That is what happened to us--a sucker punch.
  We didn't know there was a plan to take up the sad plight of four 
people who are making a half million dollars a year. We are going to 
spend 30 hours of the Senate's time dealing with that. Well, that is 
enough. As I said here on the Senate floor, we turned the other cheek 
and maybe we should have turned it another time, but you can only be 
slapped around so many times. We thought that was a little much after 
how we have cooperated in an effort to do the business of this country. 
We agreed to work on November 10, and we even agreed to work on a 
national holiday, and they are going to spend--the leadership--30 hours 
on Estrada, Owen, Pickering, and Pryor when we have, as I have talked 
about today, approaching 9 million people out of work.
  Everybody else has heard it. I see my friend from Illinois in the 
Chamber. Everything is going up--unemployment, poverty, uninsured, 
deficit, national debt. Everything is going up. We don't talk about 
that. We are going to spend 30 hours talking about what is going down--
the lowest vacancies in almost 15 years with Federal judges. And we are 
going to spend 30 hours talking about four people who have good jobs. 
One of them makes over half a million dollars. The rest make half a 
million dollars. And we are going to spend time

[[Page 28372]]

on those judges? I don't think that is really fair.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REID. I will yield to my friend from Illinois, without losing the 
floor, for a question.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator for bringing this to the attention of 
the Senate and those who are following this proceeding.
  Can the Senator from Nevada tell us--apparently there is a belief on 
the Republican side of the aisle that there is a disproportionate 
number of judicial nominees suggested by President Bush who have not 
been approved--the number of judges approved for President Bush and how 
many have been held up here in the Senate as of this time?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, that is something that is easy to answer. We 
have approved 168 judges, and we have turned down 4. I gave you their 
names: Estrada, Pickering, Owen, and Pryor. We have turned them down. 
Maybe the magic number is not 98 percent. Whether it is his way or no 
way, maybe we should have approved all of them. Maybe we should have 
swallowed very hard and approved people who the American people I am 
sure, if they understood what this is all about, wouldn't like very 
much. But they want to spend 30 hours on four judges.
  My friend from Illinois came here in 1982. He is someone for whom I 
have great affection. I say to him through the Chair, when we were told 
we would be in on Monday: What is going to happen? I do not know. Well, 
we will have some votes. When? We will decide later when those votes 
will be. Maybe somebody knew. We didn't know. And Tuesday? Well, we 
don't know. Maybe some people on the east coast can go back to the 
festivities and the parades on Veterans Day.
  We aren't a part of what is going on here. What this is all about 
today is the Senate is a partnership between the majority and the 
minority, especially when you have a difference of one--49 to 51. That 
is why the Republican majority must understand that we have to be part 
of what is going on around here. We cannot be taken for granted. We 
cannot be thought of as nothing. We cannot be treated as if we were 
Members of the House of Representatives. I have been in the House. I 
understand how the majority works. I have been there. If you are in the 
minority in the House of Representatives, you can be pushed around 
pretty hard. But in the Senate, the Constitution of the United States 
protects the minority. The Constitution was written not to protect the 
majority. The majority can always take care of themselves.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for another 
question?
  Mr. REID. I will yield for a question without losing the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. I would like to go back to this point. Since President 
Bush was elected to be President, he has had 168 of his judicial 
nominees approved by this Senate, and 4 have not been approved--the 4 
the Senator from Nevada mentioned earlier.
  I would like to ask the Senator from Nevada, am I mistaken that in 
this Constitution which we are all sworn to uphold, article II, section 
2, it says that the President shall have the power to make his 
appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate? I would like to 
ask the Senator what that phrase could possibly mean--advice and 
consent--if it is the position of the Republicans that every nominee 
has to be approved. If they believe that approving 98 percent is not 
adequate, that we have to approve 100 percent, I would like to ask the 
Senator from Nevada what the phrase ``advice and consent'' means. 
Shouldn't it just be ``consent''?
  Mr. REID. I respond to my friend from Illinois, who I know is not 
only a lawyer but my recollection is that he was a parliamentarian of 
the Illinois State Senate and certainly understands parliamentary 
procedure. He certainly understands parliamentary procedure. I believe 
the words ``advice and consent'' mean just what they say. It means we 
have the obligation as a Senate to work with the President, to give him 
advice as to what we think should be done on some appointments set 
forth in the Constitution, and others not so directly defined, to give 
advice, and once we work with him, give him consent to select whoever 
he wants.
  I say to my friend, I am not overjoyed with all 168, but the minority 
of the Judiciary Committee has done an extremely good job in sifting 
out people who just do not meet basic standards. I appreciate the work 
done by the Judiciary Committee. I have not served on the Judiciary 
Committee either in the House or the Senate, but I served in the 
Judiciary Committee when I was in the State legislature in Nevada.
  Why bring in the Judiciary Committee? There are so many things you 
can work on and many things we need to work on here that we are not 
spending time on because of the time we are spending on judges. We have 
done a good job of getting rid of the backlog. It is the lowest in 
approximately 13 years.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for another question without 
losing the floor?
  Clearly, the Constitution gives the Senate the authority to say no to 
a judicial nominee. Is this a question of fairness? Are the Democrats 
in the Senate treating this Republican President unfairly by only 
giving him 98 percent of the people he has nominated? Is it fair to 
conclude when there was a Democratic President, the Republicans in 
control gave that President 100 percent of his judicial nominees? Does 
the Senator feel the Republicans are going through a display for 30 
hours because we are fundamentally unfair in treating them in a fashion 
that they did not treat President Clinton?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, when we talked about this early in the 
day, Senator Daschle made a decision there is no payback time. We are 
not trying in any way to get even with the Republicans for holding up 
judges. If we did that, if we were trying to get even, there would not 
be 168 judges agreed to.
  Here is a partial list of some of the difficulties we had when 
President Clinton was President. People are saying there has been no 
need to file cloture. Berzon, Paez, Barkett, you can say whatever you 
want, these were not serious cloture votes--and I don't know the 
difference between a serious and nonserious cloture--the only way these 
people could become judges is by filing cloture. For people to say we 
are not treating the judges fairly is simply wrong. We are treating the 
judges fairly. We are treating President Bush fairly. He has gotten 168 
judges and we have turned down 4.
  We are going to spend the valuable time of this Senate, 30 hours, on 
4 people who already have jobs, when we have almost 10 million 
unemployed people, and we have done nothing about the minimum wage. We 
are doing nothing about the environment. We are doing nothing on 
appropriations bills. We have conference reports we have not taken up. 
We have pending a conference report on the Armed Services Committee 
that could be acted on at any time, Military Construction. We have the 
Syria Accountability Act. The defense authorization was not completed. 
I did not ask unanimous consent on that. I did on Military Construction 
and the Syria Accountability Act. I agreed that instead of taking 90 
minutes we would take 30 minutes each and debate it just for an hour. 
No, they are more interested in these 4 people who already have jobs 
than the approximately 10 million people who do not have jobs. People 
are being driven into poverty, the deficit is going up, the debt is 
increasing.
  Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator will yield for another question without 
yielding the floor.
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. DURBIN. If I understand this correctly, there is no 
constitutional basis for the Republicans to argue that we cannot turn 
down a nominee from the President. In fact, the Constitution is 
explicit that we have the power of advice and consent. The facts show 
us that 98 percent of the nominees sent by the President have been 
approved; 168 have been approved, and only 4 have been held back.
  The Republicans cannot argue they treated President Clinton any 
better.

[[Page 28373]]

In fact, the record reflects there were 60 nominees sent to the Senate 
by President Clinton who were never even given a hearing before the 
Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.
  It leads me to a question of the Senator from Nevada, through the 
Chair, Why then are we going to take 30 hours to debate the obvious? If 
we have the constitutional right to say no to a nominee, if we have 
said yes to 98 percent of the President's nominees, if the Republicans, 
when they were in control, turned down an even greater percentage of 
President Clinton's nominees, why then wouldn't we get about the 
business of the people of this country, pass the important 
appropriations bills, try to do something to help the economy, instead 
of wasting 30 hours debating the obvious?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, through the Chair, I don't know. I am 
at a loss. I am not at a loss that when the Senate is in action, it 
takes both sides. You cannot do both things as a dictator. The majority 
leader of this Senate is not the Speaker of House of Representatives. 
He is the majority leader and leads under very delicate rules. To think 
we were just going to say, OK, we have worked like dogs, we have gotten 
a great record here, passing 10 appropriations bills and 3 other bills 
we could do, and we will take 30 valuable hours of the Senate time. We 
could debate the many things I talked about here, beginning with the 
environment. We could talk about minimum wage. We could talk about 
people who have lost their jobs in America today. We could talk about 
the need for a transportation bill. We could talk about the need for 
infrastructure development in this country. We could talk about farm 
programs we need to look at. The Senator from Nebraska talked about 
droughts all over the Midwest. We need to spend some time on that. But 
we do not have time to do that. No, because we are going to spend 30 
nonstop hours on an agenda dealing with four people.
  Let me go over this again. This is over four people. We do not want 
to lose track of what we are doing. The fact of the matter is, we as 
Democrats determined that under our rules, our advise and consent 
obligations, there were four people we thought should not have the 
support of the Senate Democrats.
  Why did we have some concern about Miguel Estrada? Miguel Estrada 
could be the nicest person in the world. I don't know. But the fact is 
he was either given bad advice or had made some very bad decisions. We 
thought it would be important that Miguel Estrada fill out all the 
questions we asked him in his application. He would not do that. He was 
vague. He appeared to think he was smarter than anyone else and he did 
not have to answer those questions. When we said, OK, we want you to do 
that and we also want you to give us the memos when you were at the 
Solicitor's Office, what did he say? Drop dead; I will not give that to 
you. Some say, that would violate the attorney-client privilege. Come 
on. I know about attorney-client privilege. I know it has been done in 
the past. Other people who wanted to get Senate approval gave us those 
memos. I don't know if he did not give us those memos because he did 
not want to or he was afraid of what we would find. There is more, but 
basically that is why we did not approve Miguel Estrada.
  Why didn't we approve Charles Pickering? As I have said before, I 
think the world of Thad Cochran. I think the world of Trent Lott. I 
work with them on the Senate floor. Just because of having worked with 
them so many years, and their close feelings toward Pickering, it would 
have been nice if we could have done that; but we could not.
  We could not because the man had created a record that was so in 
opposition to what fairness calls for in this country, that every human 
rights, civil rights group in America said: Please don't approve this 
guy.
  Some of the most dynamic speeches I ever heard was when a group of 
civil rights people came to this Capitol and talked about why they did 
not want Charles Pickering. One of the fine speeches that day was given 
by Representative John Lewis, an American hero who has been beaten many 
times as a civil rights advocate at the left arm of Martin Luther King. 
He told us: You can't do that. He does not deserve it.
  Then Priscilla Owen, we turned her down. She is a judge on the Texas 
Supreme Court. Her opinions are out of the mainstream of American 
jurisprudence. Even the President's own attorney said so.
  Then we go to William Pryor, the attorney general of Alabama. His 
record is not very good, and that is an understatement.
  So we turned them down. We turned all four of them down.
  Now, I say to people who are watching this debate, that is 168 
approved, 4 disapproved. Complain about it. Say we were wrong, we made 
bad decisions over here, but do not take 30 hours of the Senate's time 
and think you can just run over us and say: We're going to do that. If 
you don't like it, what can you do about it?
  Well, we are showing you a little bit what we can do about it. The 
Senate only works if there is cooperation, if there is teamwork. So I 
say, Mr. President, this teamwork is going to have to be reenergized, 
reinvigorated, started over again.
  The Senate is a body where one person can throw a monkey wrench into 
almost everything, and that monkey wrench has been thrown into it today 
by the Senator from Nevada simply because I thought it was fair to take 
care of people on this side of the aisle who did not know when votes 
were going to occur--we could not be told when they would occur--and 
just basically to show that there are 49 of us over here. You have to 
listen to us. You just cannot do things that we are not talked with, 
counseled with.
  We know the powers the majority has. They can bring legislation to 
the floor. But as far as setting schedule, we have a lot to say about 
that. We are going to continue to have a lot to say about it. We cannot 
be treated the way we have been treated.
  I know there are some who say we should be doing other things here 
today, and I would like to be doing other things today. I guess 
everybody is locked into the 30-hour debate, and it is too bad we are 
going to find ourselves in that position.
  We could have finished last week--had this thing not occurred--we 
could have finished the Agriculture appropriations bill in 1 day 
instead of 2. This bill could have already been completed, and we would 
be going to the other appropriations bills. We could be doing Foreign 
Operations. We could be doing VA-HUD. I think that would just about 
complete all of our work. We could be doing that. But we are not doing 
that today.
  We certainly could have completed, by Thursday, at midnight, all our 
appropriations bills--by Thursday, at midnight.
  (Mr. ENSIGN assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we hear a lot about the ``special 
interests'' and how the general public lacks the lobbyists to look out 
for the public interests here in Washington, DC.
  In fact, I talked about the people who get minimum wage, how they 
have no lobbyists to help them. But I rise today to draw attention to 
the exception to what does often seem the rule. This week, the 
Environmental Working Group, called EWG, will celebrate its 10-year 
anniversary of shaping the public debate on issues ranging from farm 
policy to the many other issues dealing with the environment.
  The EWG was founded by Ken Cook 10 years ago to fill a void in the 
public interest community. While there were groups out there doing 
research and making policy proposals in the environmental arena, very 
few had the mission to readily translate that research and policy to 
the national stage and to the media.
  Using the Internet and other Web-based tools, the Environmental 
Working Group has effectively taken those debates to the people, arming 
them with the information necessary to communicate with their elected 
Representatives. As important, EWG's work has helped to transform those 
debates in the media.

[[Page 28374]]

  I extend my appreciation for the work they have done. They are an 
outstanding organization that gets facts to people who have never 
gotten facts before, such as through the Internet. I applaud and 
commend them on their very good work.
  There are a number of other issues we need to talk about. One of the 
issues I wish to talk about is the Energy bill that is in conference. 
Some say that could come back any day. I traveled with the ranking 
Democrat on that committee who is involved in the Energy bill and the 
Medicare bill. Over the weekend, I traveled with him, and he thought 
the Energy bill would be worked out today. But as we flew into Dulles 
Airport last night, we got a Blackberry that said, no, it was not going 
to happen. I hope something like that does happen soon.
  I know the conference report is not going to look like the bill we 
passed out of the Senate in July. I wish it did. I have not seen it 
yet, but I understand one of the terrible provisions negotiators intend 
to slip into the conference report will let the oil companies off the 
hook for cleaning up the mess they made with the MTBE. I don't know if 
that is the case, but I hope that is not the case.
  MTBE is a human carcinogen and when leaked into water, even in small 
amounts, it causes water to take on the taste and smell of turpentine, 
rendering it undrinkable. We have had this problem in the Lake Tahoe 
area.
  MTBE leaking from underground storage tanks, recreational watercraft, 
and abandoned automobiles has led to growing detections of MTBE in 
drinking water. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the 
MTBE may contaminate roughly one-third of drinking water supplies 
nationwide.
  MTBE poses a different threat to drinking water relative to the other 
harmful constituents of gasoline because MTBE is more soluble, more 
mobile, and degrades slower than those other constituents.
  Oil companies began adding MTBE to gasoline at least as early as 
1979, using 215,000 tons in that year alone. By 1986, oil companies 
were adding 54,000 barrels of MTBE to gasoline each day. By 1991, 1 
year before the Clean Air Act oxygenate requirement went into effect, 
oil companies were using more than 100,000 barrels of MTBE each day. By 
1997, the volume of MTBE production was the second highest of any 
chemical in the United States.
  These basic facts underscore two extremely important points about the 
committee's consideration of solutions to the MTBE contamination 
problem.
  First, proposals that simply remove the Clean Air Act oxygenate--I 
have been here a little too long today maybe. At any rate, first, 
proposals that simply remove the CAA oxygenate requirement from the law 
without affirmatively banning MTBE will simply not end MTBE use. As 
noted above, MTBE was used for octane enhancement long before the Clean 
Air Act amendments of 1990. There is no reason to believe it would not 
be continued to be used if the Clean Air Act oxygenate requirement were 
removed from the law but no ban put in place.
  In another example, in May 1999, two oil companies in the San 
Francisco area were found to have been adding substantial volumes of 
MTBE to gasoline. At the time, that area complied with air standards 
and, therefore, the Clean Air Act did not require the addition of an 
oxygenate. Again, companies were adding MTBE to gasoline for reasons 
wholly independent of the Clean Air Act amendments.
  Second, these facts belie the oil companies' arguments that Congress 
made oil companies use MTBE and, therefore, lawsuits against oil 
companies should be terminated by Congress and taxpayers should pay to 
clean up MTBE contamination. MTBE was in use well before the passage of 
the Clean Air Act amendments.
  The CAA does not mandate the use of MTBE. And the fact that there was 
any oxygenate requirement in those amendments at all was due, in part, 
to oil industry lobbying.
  For example, in 1989 testimony before the Senate Committee on 
Environment and Public Works, an ARCO official strongly recommended 
that the committee include a mandate for MTBE in the Clean Air Act 
Amendments of 1990, touting MTBE's benefits but not disclosing its 
devastating impact on drinking water. Hearings Before the Subcommittee 
on Environmental Protection of the Committee on Environment and Public 
Works on S. 1630, S. Hrg. 101-331 at 458, Sept. 28, 1989. Despite such 
lobbying, Congress did not adopt an MTBE mandate, but rather prescribed 
that reformulated gasoline contain an oxygenate without specifying a 
particular product.
  At the time of such lobbying, oil companies knew they were 
recommending a product that would have a devastating impact on drinking 
water. Indeed, where courts have heard oil industry claims that they 
should not be held liable for MTBE contaminated drinking water 
supplies, they have not only rejected those claims but have found that 
companies acted with malice in not disclosing the risks of using MTBE.
  In fact, over a dozen communities have sued oil companies for 
knowingly introducing a defective product into the marketplace. Several 
oil companies recently settled one such suit, South Tahoe Public 
Utility District v. Atlantic Richfield Company, et al., for $60 
million. In South Tahoe, it was determined that oil companies were 
guilty of irresponsibly manufacturing and distributing MTBE because 
these companies knew it would contaminate drinking water.
  It was also found by clear and convincing evidence that two companies 
had acted with ``malice'' by failing to warn of the environmental 
dangers of MTBE.
  Together, documents and sworn testimony in South Tahoe demonstrated 
that several oil companies knew as early as 1980 that MTBE posed a 
significant threat to the Nation's drinking water, that they promoted 
MTBE to the State and Federal Governments without disclosing internal 
information demonstrating that threat, and that they attempted to 
discredit public scientific studies that began to demonstrate that 
threat.
  Documents and sworn testimony in South Tahoe also revealed that oil 
company officials, showing a callous disregard for our environment, 
even gave MTBE telling nicknames such as ``Most Things Biodegrade 
Easier,'' ``Menace Threatening Our Environment'' and ``Major Threat to 
Better Earnings.'' Further the case also revealed that Shell and ARCO, 
the first refiners to add MTBE to gasoline, estimated that 20 percent 
of all underground storage tanks--tanks likely containing MTBE--were 
leaking. Several oil companies were shown to have both developed and 
promoted the concept of using reformulated gasoline to reduce air 
emissions.
  For example, ARCO officials testified that ``EPA did not initiate . . 
. reformulated gasoline'' and that ``[T]he oil industry brought 
[reformulated gasoline] forward as an alternative to what the EPA had 
initially proposed.'' Documents and sworn testimony also revealed that 
in 1987 an ARCO representative testified before the Colorado Air 
Quality Control Commission that MTBE would aid in reducing air 
emissions but did not warn of the drinking water contamination threat. 
This representative testified that he also assisted Arizona and Nevada 
develop oxygenate programs that relied upon MTBE without disclosing the 
danger.
  In 1986, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued a 
scientific report describing the threat posed by MTBE. Documents and 
sworn testimony in South Tahoe revealed a concerted strategy by the oil 
industry to discredit the article at the same time that internal 
industry documents admitted the soundness of the Maine warning. When 
the Maine paper prompted EPA to issue a notice to oil companies for 
more information regarding MTBE, ARCO responded in 1987 that there was 
little information to suggest MTBE was a threat despite internal ARCO 
documents showing the contrary.
  As South Tahoe demonstrates, terminating the right of communities to 
seek legal redress against oil companies for MTBE contamination would 
be

[[Page 28375]]

a grave injustice. It has not been embraced by the committee, it should 
not be embraced by the Senate, and it should not become law.
  The first hearing of this committee on MTBE was chaired by Senator 
Boxer in December 1997, after Santa Monica lost the majority of its 
drinking water to contamination caused by a then little known fuel 
additive. Since Senator Boxer's first call to ban MTBE now over 5 years 
ago, this committee has conducted scores of hearings, considered 
alternate legislative approaches and ultimately approved various 
versions of legislation similar to S. 791.
  Such legislation approved by this committee has consistently called 
for MTBE's phaseout. It has also consistently rejected terminating the 
right of communities affected by MTBE to seek redress against oil 
companies in court. As consideration of S. 791 moves to the full 
Senate, these two principles that have guided committee consideration 
of the MTBE issue must remain intact if the MTBE problem is to be truly 
and equitably solved.
  We have in this bill dealing with Commerce-State-Justice 
appropriations a provision that funds the Board of Immigration Appeals. 
I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the board, immigration 
policy, and the importance of the Dream Act. In the past year, the Bush 
administration has attempted to dismantle the only judicial review 
process we have for our Nation's immigrants. The board is responsible 
for applying the immigration nationality laws uniformly throughout the 
United States. Accordingly, the board has given nationwide jurisdiction 
to review the orders of immigration judges and other immigration-
related decisions. Decisions of the board are subject to judicial 
review in the Federal courts.
  In September 2002, the Bush administration consolidated the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs appellate procedures by turning its three-judge panel 
process to a single judge. Review by three judges is only required 
where the BIA must correct clear errors of fact, interpret the law, or 
provide guidance regarding the exercise of discretion. The 2002 rule 
permits a single-judge decision-only brief. No written opinion is 
necessary. The purpose of this legislation was to enable the board to 
resolve simple cases quickly. The effect, however, has been anything 
but efficient.
  In a 12-month period, the number of immigration administrative agency 
appeals filed in Federal court has tripled. The American Immigration 
Lawyers Association, or AILA, which represents over 8,000 of our 
Nation's immigration lawyers and law professors who practice and teach 
immigration law, has been a long-time human rights advocacy 
organization and has stated that in a 1-year period, the rate of 
rejected appeals has skyrocketed from 59 percent to 86 percent. The 
independence and impartiality of our immigration court system must be 
safeguarded. The Supreme Court, in Plyer v. Doe, stated that:

       Whatever his status under immigration laws, an alien is 
     surely a person. Aliens, even aliens whose presence in this 
     country is unlawful, have long been recognized as persons 
     guaranteed due process of law by the 5th and 14th amendments 
     to our Constitution.

  In October of 2003, the American Bar Association called upon the 
Board of Immigration Appeals to discard its new procedures and set 
forth suggested reforms to the backlog of cases. And we have the 
American Bar Association report, which we will get to at a later time. 
Streamlining the Board of Immigration Appeals process is just one 
example of an ongoing effort by this administration to shortchange our 
Nation's hard-working immigrants. While our Nation's immigration laws 
must be enforced to the fullest extent, I can't help but wonder why our 
Government is attacking the very people who help us build up our 
Nation. I think this is just an example of an ongoing effort by the 
administration to shortchange our Nation's hard-working immigrants.
  I think our Nation's immigration laws must be enforced to the fullest 
extent. I cannot help but wonder why our Government is attacking the 
very people who help us build up our Nation. I think this is just an 
example of the ongoing efforts by the administration to shortchange our 
Nation's hard-working people. Our Nation's immigration laws must be 
enforced to the fullest extent. I cannot help but wonder why our 
Government is attacking the very people who help us build up our Nation 
rather than targeting those who tear it down.
  For example, in October 2003, Federal agents detained about 300 
suspected illegal immigrants in a nationwide investigation of cleaning 
crews at Wal-Mart stores. The authorities took the immigrants into 
custody as they finished the night shift in 61 stores in 21 States.
  Certainly, they would not want to interfere with Wal-Mart and arrest 
them before their shift was completed. The store might be dirty. We 
need the immigration policy along the lines of the DREAM Act that was 
introduced by Senators Hatch and Durbin, and I also cosponsored that. 
The DREAM Act gives States the discretion to grant State residency to 
certain youth and authorizes the Federal Government to grant 
undocumented students who are hoping to enter an institution of higher 
education conditional legal permanent resident status.
  Currently, unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for Federal 
financial aid, are not legally allowed to work, and are vulnerable to 
removal from the country, regardless of the number of years they have 
lived there. The DREAM Act would allow college-bound, undocumented 
students to apply for Federal financial aid if they meet certain 
criteria, including continuous residency for the previous 5 years, a 
high school diploma or its equivalent, and good moral character.
  This is the kind of immigration policy we should be enacting. I 
welcome the CGS committee report language for 2004, which states funds 
saved in this streamlined process are being spent three times over by 
the civil division, which must defend BIA's decisions in Federal court. 
Accordingly, the committee directed BIA to submit a report to the 
Committees on Appropriations no later than March 21, 2004, listing the 
single-judge decisions that have been appealed to the Federal courts 
and the civil division's cost to defend these decisions over the past 3 
years.
  I hope this body will enact the necessary immigration laws in this 
Congress.
  Mr. President, I want to read a story that appeared in the newspaper 
on October 25:

       Every night for months, Victor Zavala, Jr., who was 
     arrested on Thursday in a 21-State immigration raid, said he 
     showed up at the Wal-Mart store in New Jersey to clean 
     floors. As the store's regular employees left at 11 p.m., he 
     said, they often asked him whether he ever got a night off. 
     Zavala, identified by Federal agents as a cleaning immigrant 
     from Mexico, told the Wal-Mart workers that he and 4 others 
     employed by a cleaning contractor worked at the Wal-Mart in 
     Old Bridge every night of the year, except Christmas and New 
     Years.
       Now Mr. Zavala feels cheated, saying he worked as hard as 
     he could pursuing the American dream, only to face an 
     immigration hearing that could lead to deportation for 
     himself, his wife, Eunice, and their 3 children, 10, 7, and 5 
     years old. He is one of 250 janitors employed by Wal-Mart 
     contractors who were arrested at 60 Wal-Mart stores before 
     dawn on Thursday.

  Again, I think it is interesting that they waited until the stores 
were clean before they picked them up. They would not even consider 
offending Wal-Mart by having a dirty store for their workers. Maybe, 
you know, if these illegal immigrants were not hired and Wal-Mart gave 
these people workable wages, maybe they would hire other people--maybe 
people who were legal immigrants. But Wal-Mart can sell stuff pretty 
cheap because they don't pay them anything; they have no health care 
benefits, no retirement benefits. So they get by pretty cheaply.
  I think it was nice of Immigration and Naturalization to wait until 
they cleaned the stores before they picked them up. That would give the 
contractor time to go find some other cheap labor. Maybe for a while 
they will have to pay a little more than what they were paying. Wal-
Mart is great for low prices but the low prices are also given to their 
employees.

[[Page 28376]]

  Most Wal-Mart employees--we have seen things written about this 
recently--have no health benefits, no retirement benefits, and no 
vacation benefits. They work for very low wages and most of the time 
not for 40 hours. They make sure they don't because they might be 
allowed some kind of benefits.

       ``My family is not happy about this,'' Mr. Zavala said. He 
     said he paid $2,000 to smuggle him into the U.S. 3 years ago. 
     ``My children don't want to leave and go back to Mexico.''

  I am sure that is true.

       A Federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition 
     of anonymity, said yesterday that several current and 
     contract cleaning contractors for Wal-Mart, the Nation's 
     biggest retailer, were cooperating with the Government in its 
     investigation. On Thursday, Federal officials acknowledged 
     that they had wiretaps and recordings of conversations in 
     meetings among Wal-Mart executives and contractors. Federal 
     officials said as part of the Thursday raid, they searched 
     the office of midlevel management at Wal-Mart headquarters in 
     Bentonville, AR. Officials said the Government believed that 
     Wal-Mart executives knew the cleaning contractors were using 
     illegal immigrants.

  Of course they did.

       Federal officials noted that 102 illegal immigrants working 
     for Wal-Mart cleaning contractors had been arrested in 1998, 
     2001, and 13 Wal-Mart cleaning contractors had pleaded guilty 
     after those arrests. Those pleas remain under court seal. 
     Wal-Mart said yesterday it had begun an internal 
     investigation and would dismiss anybody who did not have 
     proper immigration papers. Wal-Mart also told its officials 
     to preserve any documents that might be relevant to the 
     Federal inquiry.

  Isn't that nice?

       Wal-Mart officials said the raid surprised them.

  I'll bet.

       They acknowledged yesterday that 10 immigrants arrested on 
     Thursday in Arizona and Kentucky were employed directly by 
     Wal-Mart. The company officials said they brought these 
     workers in-house after certain stores phased out the use of 
     contractors for whom the immigrants had worked. Wal-Mart 
     officials also said the company required contractors to hire 
     legal workers only.

  Well, I say that Wal-Mart is involved in this, and I think it is an 
indication of why they can sell stuff so cheaply. They do it under the 
auspices of low prices.
  I spent a lot of time here today. I thought I would do a little 
reading from my book. I wrote a book and not everybody has heard of it. 
I didn't sell too many, to be honest with you. I was hoping it would be 
a best seller. The only place it is a best seller is in Searchlight. Of 
course, Searchlight is not very big, so that doesn't mean too much. But 
I am going to skip the introduction and get right to the meat of the 
book.

       Searchlight is like many Nevada towns and cities: it would 
     never have come to be had gold not been discovered. Situated 
     on rocky, windy, and arid terrain without artesian wells or 
     surface water of any kind, the place we call Searchlight was 
     not a gathering spot for Indian or animal.
       Only fourteen miles to the east is the Colorado River. Ten 
     miles to the west is a modest mountain range, with fragrant 
     cedars, stately pines, and a few sheltered meadows, home to 
     an ancient Indian camp referred to as Crescent.

  Mr. President, I am doing this because I have been talking for 5\1/2\ 
hours, or so, on a lot of substance. I think at least during the time I 
am going to talk, I should at least teach a little bit about 
Searchlight. I know the Presiding Officer is an expert on Searchlight 
and need not hear this. I am sorry he got the luck of the draw. I hope 
he will bear with me.

       To the northeast lies the canyon called Eldorado. In the 
     eighteenth century the Spaniards explored and then mined this 
     area. The same location was exploited by Brigham Young, who 
     directed some of his Mormon followers to present-day Nevada 
     in search of minerals for his Utah civilization. To the 
     southwest, about fifteen miles distant, is the site of a U.S. 
     military frontier outpost, Fort Piute or Piute Springs.

  Also, reading here, I might drum up some sales for my book. I hadn't 
thought of that. That would be something--although I don't directly 
benefit from that. I have a separate foundation and the proceeds go to 
Searchlight.
  Anyone who wants to buy this book can get it on the Internet: 
``Searchlight, The Camp the Didn't Fail.'' Proceeds go to the little 
town of Searchlight.

       The mighty Colorado River was used for various routes along 
     the navigable portion of its course. The main impediment to 
     through passage from the north was the Grand Canyon, but the 
     river was usable for about a hundred miles above Searchlight 
     to as far south as the border of present-day Mexico.
       During the Civil War the U.S. military tried to find better 
     routes for moving men and supplies. Captain George Price, who 
     had been commissioned by his superiors to find an easier 
     route from the area of Salt Lake City to the southern part of 
     the Utah Territory, led one such effort. He left Camp 
     Douglas, near Salt Lake, on May 9, 1864, and worked his way 
     south to Fort Mojave, near what is now Laughlin, Nevada. The 
     trip was uneventful until he reached present-day Cedar City, 
     Utah. The route over the desert from there to Las Vegas was 
     extremely harsh and inhospitable. From Las Vegas to Eldorado 
     was easier, but the journey from Eldorado to Fort Mojave was 
     particularly brutal. The route then proceeded to Lewis Holes, 
     an area west of Piute Springs named after Nat Lewis, and 
     early Eldorado Canyon miner. After arriving at Fort Mojave, 
     Captain Price declared that the route was unsafe and 
     unsuitable for military use.
       As an interesting note, during Price's journey his company 
     came upon a stray cow at a watering spot near Lewis Holes and 
     a place called Government Wells. Price's men killed and ate 
     the cow, and the watering hole was formally named Stray Cow 
     Wells in recognition of the event.
       The accepted route that Captain Price and others traveled 
     was called the Eldorado Canyon Road, which went from Eldorado 
     Canyon to the Lanfair Valley and wound its way through the 
     Castle Mountains, ending at Lewis Holes. Many prospectors 
     traveled over the road, but written accounts have focused on 
     the condition of travel rather than describing the trail 
     itself.
       This pioneer route came very close to present-day 
     Searchlight. As Dennis Casebier points out in his Mojave Road 
     Guide, ``Eldorado Canyon is usually a dry side canyon coming 
     in to the Colorado River from the west about 25 miles below 
     Hoover Dam. The route to the mines in the Canyon from Los 
     Angeles took the Mojave Road to this point. From here the 
     road angled off to the northeast via Lewis Holes toward the 
     present Searchlight, then turned northward to Eldorado 
     Canyon. Connections were developed from the Eldorado Canyon 
     to Las Vegas and the main Salt Lake Trail. This point was a 
     major road junction of the day. Here travelers had to decide 
     whether to go northeast toward Utah or continue directly east 
     on the Mojave Road toward Arizona and New Mexico. This 
     intersection fulfilled the same purpose as the present 
     junction of I-15 and I-40 in Barstow, California.''
       Eldorado Canyon was the object of Anglo exploration long 
     before Brigham Young's forays and the U.S. Army's 
     expeditions, however. Clearly, the first white man to pass 
     through or near Searchlight was Father Francisco Garces in 
     1776. He left no physical sign of his passing, but his 
     journals are sufficiently detailed to indicate that he came 
     near the town.
       Several of the mines in Eldorado Canyon have a long 
     unwritten history that some believe goes back two centuries. 
     Even though there is no written account of any Spanish or 
     Mexican mining enterprise in the canyon, it is clear that 
     such activity did take place. John Townley reports that 
     mining likely went on there between 1750 and 1850. The mining 
     operations never spilled over into Searchlight, but the 
     explorations came very close.
       From its earliest days, Searchlight had significant 
     interaction with Eldorado Canyon. By the time Searchlight was 
     founded, Eldorado had long been in operation. The contact was 
     closest before the railroad came to Searchlight, when the 
     mines and the people depended more on the river. The landing 
     at the mouth of Eldorado Canyon was more important to the 
     mines, however, than the river at Cottonwood was to 
     Searchlight.
       Reports like the following from a conversation with John 
     Riggs contrast the operations in Eldorado and Searchlight: 
     ``John Powers, who is still living and who at one time owned 
     the Wall Street Mine, told me one evening about 1882 that an 
     outfit of Mexicans of the better class rode up to his camp at 
     the Wall Street, and asked him if he owned he mine. He 
     replied that he did. They then said that they had a very old 
     map of this country and that the Wall Street was marked on 
     the map. The map was evidently correct as they had come 
     straight to the mine. They stated that the map had been made 
     very long ago, probably by early Spaniards.'' The Wall Street 
     was one of the big producers of gold in Eldorado Canyon for 
     many years. Conversely, no mine in Searchlight, with perhaps 
     the exception of the Quartet, was worked successfully for 
     more than ten years.
       Though we do not know when the activity in Eldorado Canyon 
     actually began, we do know that the mining district had a 
     hectic and eventful history in the latter part of the 
     nineteenth century. One account puts as many as 1,500 people 
     there during the Civil War.
       The first documented records of contemporary mining in the 
     Searchlight area were provided by a mining company called 
     Piute,

[[Page 28377]]

     which was formed in 1870. This company owned 130 mines in 
     California and in southeastern Nevada. The most prominent of 
     the Nevada mines was the Crescent, located about ten miles 
     west of Searchlight. The company's promotional documents 
     described a road that passed near present-day Searchlight and 
     went to Cottonwood Island, below Searchlight on the Colorado 
     River. The road was said to be favorable, with a broad, 
     smooth path, much of it along a dry ravine.
       In the early 1870s, a promoter named Johnny Moss attempted 
     to develop a city just off Cottonwood Island. The town, which 
     would be called Piute, was to be the freight head for the 
     mines headquartered at Ivanpah, some forty miles to the west. 
     The project never went beyond an artist's rendering, however. 
     The proposed mines were later developed, but San Bernardino 
     rather than Ivanpah emerged as the shipping terminus.
       Indians traveled from the mountains above Searchlight to 
     the river, creating relatively extensive foot traffic near 
     the town's present location, and miners passed through the 
     area in their never-ending quest for the gold and silver of 
     their dreams.
       When Searchlight was established at the end of the 
     nineteenth century, the mining camp with the unusual name had 
     a very primitive infrastructure, but it swiftly became 
     modern. Within a few years Searchlight was as fashionable as 
     any western town of its day. Its amenities were noticeably 
     contemporary. A modern water system was quickly created, 
     incorporating pumping facilities, a new storage tank, piping, 
     fire hydrants, and meters. The town even had a telephone 
     system, which for the time was very advanced, and a telegraph 
     system. An outdated railroad was soon replaced by a more 
     modern line that included passenger travel. Surprisingly, 
     early Searchlight had a modern system of electricity and its 
     own power plant.
       The places of business in town were many and varied, 
     including a barbershop, several saloons and hotels, a 
     lumberyard, clothing stores, sundry shops, cafes, union 
     halls, boardinghouses, schools, garages, and stables. The 
     town even boasted a hospital with doctors and, of course, a 
     newspaper or two.
       When the mines' production waned after 1908, the businesses 
     slowly began to cut back and in many instances simply failed. 
     The decline, though sporadic, was technologically regressive. 
     By the late 1940s and 1950s there was very little left of the 
     modern Searchlight. Fires and a lack of prosperity had 
     ravaged the once thriving community, and now there were no 
     barbershops, no hotel, no lumberyard, no clothing store, no 
     sundry shops, no union hall, and not even the trace of a 
     union. Of course, the need for a hospital had long since 
     ceased. There was no doctor, not even on a part-time basis.
       In the town's early days, especially with the coming of the 
     railroad, the grocery stores carried a full line of food and 
     merchandise. Fresh produce came from the farms around the 
     area, including the river and Lanfair Valley, and beef came 
     by rail, stage, and truck, as well as from the nearby 
     ranches. Near its beginning, Searchlight had its own dairy, 
     but the dairy and the farms didn't survive for long. A 
     handful of ranches operated until the early 1990s, when 
     arrangements were made to ban all cattle grazing from the 
     area in order to comply with the federal Endangered Species 
     Act.
       Searchlight may have not been favored by nature, but in the 
     years after gold was discovered, this desert place developed 
     into a microcosm of a frontier settlement worthy of 
     historical study.

  Chapter 2, ``Money from Massachusetts''--what was the title of my 
first chapter? ``The Beginning.''
  Chapter 2, ``Money from Massachusetts.''

       The first accounts of the area around present-day 
     Searchlight came from nearby Summit Springs, which, except 
     for the workings at Eldorado Canyon twenty miles north, was 
     the main center of habitation. The site was believed to be 
     about three miles east of Searchlight, probably at what is 
     now known as Red Well, which is just off the blacktop road to 
     Cottonwood Cove, part of the new Lake Mohave formed after the 
     construction of Davis Dam.
       More than a century before the discovery of gold at 
     Searchlight, prospectors combed the entire desert west of the 
     Colorado River for numerous minerals and hard metals, 
     including gold, virtually without success. They found float 
     (loose rocks that when panned showed some value) in some of 
     the washes, but no outcroppings of ore surfaced.
       The discovery in Searchlight did not result from this 
     initial investigation. The area had been closely prospected 
     for many years; in Eldorado Canyon mineral exploration had 
     been routinely conducted since the days of Spanish rule. The 
     Colorado River, relatively close to Searchlight, had been 
     freely navigated during the nineteenth century. The 
     intercontinental railroad (the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 
     Fe) was built only twenty-eight miles to the south, and the 
     U.S. Army and the U.S. mail were moved over the pass near 
     Piute Springs even before the Civil War. So the geography of 
     searchlight was not unexplored territory.
       Some dispute exists as to whether the mining camp that 
     would become Searchlight was discovered in 1896 or 1897. The 
     latter date has been commonly used for almost a hundred 
     years, principally because all federal government 
     publications used it. The pioneers who settled Searchlight 
     and their descendants later disputed that claim and have 
     advocated the earlier date.
       It seems clear that Fred Dunn, of Needles, California, 
     about fifty miles south of Searchlight, had for many years 
     corresponded with various eastern capitalists to secure 
     investments in his mining properties. One of those with whom 
     he communicated was a Boston investor named Colonel C.A. 
     Hopkins. In one of Dunn's letters, Hopkins read a description 
     of the Sheep Trail Mine, near Needles. The colonel replied to 
     Dunn, expressing interest in the claim, but by the time the 
     mail was delivered to Dunn, the Sheep Trail Mine was no 
     longer available for purchase.
       Dunn again wrote to Hopkins in Boston and told him that 
     although he had been unable to secure an option on the 
     property Hopkins originally desired, other mining claims were 
     available. When he wrote the letter, however, Dunn actually 
     had no properties to offer, so he hired John C. Swickard to 
     locate claims for the consideration of $1 per claim. Swickard 
     began work immediately, concentrating his efforts in the 
     Crescent and present-day Searchlight areas. At that time the 
     Crescent Mountains, ten miles west of Searchlight, were the 
     site of vigorous mining activity because of significant 
     recent discoveries of turquoise. So the general Searchlight 
     area was being investigated with some success before 1896.
       When Dunn believed he had enough claims to interest 
     Hopkins, he invited him to come for a visit to inspect the 
     property. Hopkins came to the prospected area but purchased 
     nothing, though he did retain Dunn to look for other 
     properties.
       Hopkins exhibited interest in the area around Searchlight 
     because of the preponderance of low-grade ore, which was more 
     than enough to intrigue him. Unfortunately for Hopkins, 
     although Dunn had retained Swickard, the latter owned almost 
     all the property that would eventually make up the claims 
     that became the famous Quartette Mine. The only claims that 
     Swickard did not own were two small fractions of 49.5 feet at 
     either end of the vein that he first saw when he began his 
     work for Dunn. These fractions were claimed by Fred Colton 
     and Gus Moore in 1897. In order to obtain sole ownership of 
     the entire outcropping of the vein, Swickard traded the soon-
     to-be-duplex mining claim to Colton and Moore in exchange for 
     the fractional claims he wanted.
       It seems clear that prospecting in the Searchlight area was 
     inspired not only by Hopkins's investment interest but also 
     the long-standing interest on the part of Dunn, Swickard, and 
     others in the triangle area where Nevada, Arizona, and 
     California met, near the Colorado River. By 1897 successful 
     mineral exploration activities had already been undertaken in 
     the Eldorado Canyon, Goodsprings, and Crescent areas.
       Swickard was proud of his Quartette, and the meticulous 
     work he performed for Dunn was evident many years later. His 
     location monuments were unique. A Searchlight Bulletin more 
     than ten years after the association carries a description of 
     the monuments, which resembled a pawnbroker's sign consisting 
     of two stones and a pebble. To locate a claim, a prospector 
     would usually put in place a small post and attach a tobacco 
     can to it with the claim notice inside. Because he was being 
     paid $1 for each claim he located, Swickard moved forward in 
     a rapid and wide-ranging fashion, claiming outcropping after 
     outcropping.
       Swickard decorated the Quartette property with large signs 
     that carried this message: ``Any sheepherding sons of bitches 
     that I catch digging in these here claims I will work 
     buttonholes in their pock-marked skins.'' Since Swickard was 
     always heavily armed, his threats were heeded.
       Even though Swickard was extremely protective of his 
     claims, he shortly sold them to the trio of Benjamin 
     Macready, a Mr. Hubbard, and C. C. Fisher for a team of 
     mules, camping equipment, and $1,100. Though proud of his 
     effort in locating the Quartette claim, he sold because he 
     had no faith in the property; he believed the outcroppings 
     were a blowout of the vein and would have no depth. By 
     today's standards the consideration he received for his claim 
     seems paltry, but by the standards of 1898 and 1899 the 
     payoff was significant. It had been known since 1896 that 
     low-grade ore existed in the area that became Searchlight, 
     yet no exploration of more than a hundred feet in depth had 
     taken place, not even by 1899, when Macready sold the 
     Quartette to Hopkins. There is some evidence that Macready 
     obtained the interests of Hubbard and then combined his 
     holdings with Dunn's before selling to Hopkins and 
     Associates. The selling price this time was $150. Before 
     Hopkins could accept the deal, the price was raised to $200. 
     Highly insulted, Hopkins felt he should not consider the new 
     price. His mining engineer, Leo Wilson, intervened and for an 
     additional $50 Hopkins increased his fortune.
       Dunn and Macready were forced to sell the Quartette 
     property because they had been unable to raise the capital 
     for an ongoing mining operation. After the sale, however, 
     they remained involved in the new operation. Dunn served as 
     the resident agent of

[[Page 28378]]

     the corporation, and Macready acted as Hopkins's 
     superintendent. Each maintained a minor ownership, but the 
     real financial force was the Bostonian, Colonel Hopkins.
       Money from Massachusetts had a similar impact on another 
     mining venture, in 1904, in the Robinson mining district of 
     White Pine County, Nevada. James Phillips Jr., a New York 
     financier, and Mark Requa, one of the owners of claims in the 
     Comstock Lode, persuaded the Loring brothers of Boston to 
     capitalize the Nevada Consolidated Copper company, which 
     later led to Kennecott's massive copper mine and processing 
     facilities near Ely. Some say that without Massachusetts 
     money, that important Nevada operation could never have been 
     developed. In fact, a look back through history shows that 
     nearly all of Nevada's mining enterprises were funded from 
     outside the state, except for a few operations developed 
     later in the century by Nevadans like George Wingfield.

  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator from Nevada yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I will yield to the Senator, without losing my right to 
retain the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. I hate to interrupt the Senator's history of Searchlight, 
NV, because it is something I would like to know a little bit more 
about. I think the Senator from Searchlight is going to fill me in 
about the history of his hometown, but I would like to ask the Senator, 
for those who may have just joined in this debate, if he could bring me 
up to speed as to where we are in terms of the business of the Senate 
with pending appropriation bills.
  I ask, through the Chair, are there still appropriations bills that 
need to be worked on and resolved before this Senate will have finished 
its work? If so, could the Senator tell me if the schedule announced by 
the Republican majority leader this week is conducive to finishing that 
schedule?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, through the Chair, we have worked very 
hard to complete a schedule the country could be proud of. The 
distinguished majority whip came to the floor today and talked about 
the accomplishments of this Senate. He talked about the 10 
appropriations bills we have passed. Well, what he did not mention--and 
I am sure it was an oversight--is that that could not have been done 
without the absolute, total cooperation of the Senate Democrats. Those 
bills passed because we worked to help them be passed.
  I say to my friend, we called our floor leader, who does a wonderful 
job, and he worked with me to make sure we worked with the majority to 
pass the appropriations bills. The Senator from Illinois is a 
distinguished member of the Appropriations Committee. We worked hard to 
get that done.
  In fact, I repeat--and repetition is part of the answer--we had 
agreed, the minority agreed, with what the majority leader wanted: Let 
us work November 10, let us even work November 11, so we can complete 
these appropriations bills. We said, okay. We went back to our 
Senators. They were not happy about that, but they understand Senator 
Daschle is our leader and we follow the leader, with rare exception.
  The decision was made almost 2 weeks ago to work on November 10 and 
11, and we worked so hard. We wanted to get out of this place. We have 
people at home to take care of. Our responsibilities are more than in 
Washington, DC. We have hearings we need to conduct at home. We have 
events we need to go to, constituents to take care of, offices to 
oversee. So, I say to my friend, we worked so hard.
  All of a sudden, we turn around and there is a hot poker that sticks 
me right in the eye. What is this hot poker? There is a decision made, 
in spite of all our hard work, we are going to spend 30 hours, starting 
Wednesday at 6 o'clock until 12 o'clock Thursday night, to talk about 
how poorly the majority has been treated about judges, even though the 
judicial vacancies in our Federal courts are at a decade-and-a-half 
low, although we have approved 168 judges for this President. We have 
turned down four judges--well, not judges. We have turned down two 
judges who want to become different kinds of judges. We turned down 
another man who works downtown and makes a lot of money, and we turned 
down the attorney general of Alabama--4 out of 168.
  The Senator from Illinois works on the Appropriations Committee. OK, 
so we learned that is going to happen. Some questions come up:

       What are we going to do Monday?
       I don't know.
       Are there going to be votes?
       I think so.
       When?
       I don't know.
       What are we going to do Tuesday?
       Well, we'll decide later.

  Tuesday is a legal holiday, by the way.
  What is going on here today is an effort to show the world that the 
Senate is unlike any other institution in the world. In the U.S. 
Senate, one person has a lot of things he can do to be involved in what 
is going on here. I am here today representing my Democratic Senators. 
There may be one or two who disagree with me, but not more than that. 
They know that I am here speaking for them. They know they are not 
Members of the House of Representatives, which works like the British 
Parliament. If you are in the minority, tough; you are going to get run 
over. Not the Senate.
  So the majority leader, who is new at his job--I like him a lot. He 
is a fine man, dedicating his life to public service. I appreciate it 
very much. He is a distinguished surgeon. He is a man who devotes 
whatever little off time he has to helping those in countries far away 
less privileged than he. I have a great deal of respect and admiration 
for the majority leader.
  But he has to learn, as I am sure he is, that the Senate is a 
partnership, a partnership between the majority and the minority. We 
want to be treated fairly in this partnership. To have 30 hours spent 
on an issue that involves four people, who have jobs--they are working, 
they have jobs--30 hours for four people is not fair.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I will yield to my friend from Illinois without my losing 
the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask the Senator from Nevada, is he representing that 
the Democrats in the Senate are prepared to work with the Republicans 
in the Senate to pass the remaining appropriations bills so we meet our 
obligation under the Constitution in a timely fashion? Is this a 
filibuster to stop taking up the appropriations bills?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, we not only can say what we will do, 
but we can talk about what we have done. We have a record of 
accomplishment of working with the majority. We worked very hard, not 
only on appropriations bills but other important pieces of legislation. 
The Fair Credit Reporting Act, that was difficult to get up from our 
side. We got it up. We had a very fine debate. That bill is now on its 
way, we hear, to becoming law.
  The Healthy Forests initiative--that was a hard piece of legislation 
to get passed out of this Senate, but we did it. We did it because we 
cooperated. Either one of those two bills I mentioned, Fair Credit 
Reporting and the Healthy Forests initiatives--it would have been easy 
to spend a week on each one of those. We didn't do that.
  We have a record of accomplishment. We share the accomplishments that 
were laid out by the Senator from Kentucky today. And I say also, 
respectfully, the only reason we did not pass more appropriations bills 
last year is we didn't get the same cooperation that the majority has 
gotten from us. But that has happened in the past, and we are now here 
where we are today.
  We are part of the process. When the history books are written--and 
they will be written--I think they will look back on this decision made 
to address, out of the very important things focused in the eye on the 
American people--a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, a war on 
terrorism globally. It is difficult to comprehend why that alone, 
together with the economy which is in such desperate shape, and 
problems dealing with health care, those who are medically uninsured, 
people who are desperately poor and need to be helped, our educational 
system--we could talk about any one of those and historians would think 
that is something we should do.
  No, we are going to take 30 hours. When is the last time this 
Congress has spent 30 straight hours doing anything?

[[Page 28379]]

Anything? What are we going to spend 30 hours doing? Thirty straight 
hours we are going to spend talking about four judges who, combined, 
make $1 million a year, one of whom makes a half a million dollars a 
year, all of whom have jobs. I think our priorities are a little out of 
kilter here--as I go back to my book.
  Mr. President, Chapter 3:

       One of the real difficulties facing early prospectors in 
     southern Nevada was that to file a claim, they had to travel 
     more than 200 miles to Pioche, a trip that took at least ten 
     days. This presented great hardship, especially in the winter 
     months, when the weather conditions around Pioche could be 
     severely inclement.
       As early as 1898, articles appeared in periodicals touting 
     the discoveries made in the Searchlight area. The references 
     were actually to Summit Springs, with directions to the 
     specific site, for Searchlight had not yet been named. The 
     most definitive citation observed the following: ``At this 
     point, fifty miles north of Needles, California and some ten 
     miles west of the Colorado River, there is some excitement 
     caused by a promising gold strike made by a Mr. Colton. His 
     first shipment of the selected ore yielded at the rate of 72 
     ounces per ton. He is now shipping a carload that is expected 
     to produce some 200 dollars per ton. Conservative miners who 
     have recently visited the locality are pleased with the 
     outlook in this vicinity.''
       On July 20, 1898, the mining district of Searchlight was 
     formed. The place chosen for the undertaking was the only 
     frame or wooden building in the whole camp, a little shack 
     located near the present-day Cyrus Noble Mine, not far from 
     where the Santa Fe Railroad depot would later be situated. 
     The founders were described nine years later as a ``small 
     bunch of adventuresome spirits who had undertaken the task of 
     unbuckling the girdling of the gold that encompasses this 
     immediate mineralized section, and [took] advantage of the 
     privileges allowed them under the United States mining 
     laws.''
       The group of miners and prospectors involved in forming the 
     district drew up a set of bylaws and regulations. Rather than 
     drafting a list of crude, misspelled rules, they put into 
     effect a concise, systematic, and businesslike set of 
     standards covering every point necessary for the filing of a 
     mine claim.
       The formation of the mining district did not obviate the 
     need for the ultimate filing with the county recorder in 
     Pioche, the seat of Lincoln County. Because Pioche was so far 
     away and winter weather often made travel impossible, 
     principals were allowed to establish the priority of the 
     claim by filing it initially with the district recorder, then 
     transfer the documentation to Pioche at a convenient time. 
     This arrangement prevented many claim disputes. The original 
     papers of formation were written on ordinary notebook paper 
     in handwriting and then pasted in a rusty book, which as of 
     July 19, 1907, was still preserved in the recorder's office.
       Those who signed the formative papers were E.J. Coleman, 
     who acted as chairman; G.F. Colton, who acted as recorder; 
     Samuel Foreman; S. Baker; F.C. Perew; F.W. Dunn; H.P. 
     Livingston; C.C. Fisher; T.B. Bassett; J.F. Dellitt; W.O. 
     Camp; W.G. Lewis; G.B. Smith; and E.R. Bowman. It is 
     interesting that the two accounts of the formation of the 
     district agree on everything except one of the signatories of 
     the handwritten document establishing the mining district. 
     The Searchlight Bulletin of July 14, 1911, lists a woman by 
     the name of Mrs. Hattie Cook as one of the signers, but an 
     earlier account in the same paper on July 19, 1907, does not 
     mention her name. It may have been merely an oversight that 
     the name of the only woman who signed was left out, or it 
     might have been a subtle denial of a woman's role in the 
     founding of the town. Hattie Cook did, however, subsequently 
     locate her own mining claim, the Flat Iron.
       Many claims had been recorded in Pioche before the 
     formation of the Searchlight district, including Fred 
     Colton's initial discovery, which started the rush to the 
     Searchlight area. But the first claim actually recorded as 
     ``Searchlight,'' called the Happy Jack, was located on May 3, 
     1898, just a few days before the formation of the new 
     Searchlight district. This initial claim was located by J.F. 
     Dellitt, one of the people who formed the district. The 
     discovery of the big claim by G.F. (Fred) Colton on May 6, 
     1897, was not actually recorded in Pioche until the next 
     January. From this example alone it is clear why it was 
     necessary to form the district.
       By October the mining camp had its own post office. That 
     same winter many more claims were filed, with the 
     accompanying speculation that all of them would yield riches. 
     These reports sparked an increase in the flow of people to 
     the new camp.
       The development of Searchlight came at an opportune time in 
     the history of Nevada, since the Comstrock Lode was all but 
     exhausted by the time Colton struck gold in 1897. The 
     shipment of ore from the Searchlight district followed a 
     twenty-year slump in Nevada mining and gave the state 
     increased visibility nationwide.
       It later became apparent that any ore of significant value 
     in Searchlight would be found at depths of more than 200 
     feet. Extracting ore at that depth was usually prohibitively 
     expensive for individual prospectors; consequently, many 
     operations followed the example of the Quartette and 
     consolidated their efforts.
       The Engineering and Mining Journal often reported on such 
     consolidations. Among the transactions recorded there was the 
     New Era Mining Company, which incorporated in 1900 with 
     $300,000 in capital, a significantly large amount of money at 
     the time. The Duplex claim was developed with financing out 
     of Riverside, California, allowing the construction of a mill 
     and extensive underground development. The Searchlight Mining 
     and Milling Company, known thereafter as the M&M, was 
     capitalized in 1899 with sufficient financial resources for 
     continuous work until ore was finally found in 1904.
       But the Quartette was the mine that propelled Searchlight 
     out of the ranks of insignificant Nevada mining towns. The 
     Quartette was a great mine by any standard, and its dramatic 
     success allowed Searchlight to become a mining camp of world-
     class proportions.
       The finest mine in Searchlight almost never came into 
     existence, however. The original capitalization by the 
     Hopkins group was soon expended, but more money was sunk into 
     developing the mine. Suddenly, Fred Dunn, the company's 
     resident agent, acting on instructions from the owners in 
     Massachusetts, ordered the foreman, Jack Russell, to stop 
     work. Russell politely but firmly informed Dunn that he took 
     orders only from superintendent Macready, who was in Los 
     Angeles. Dunn then contacted Macready in Los Angeles by 
     telegraph, ordering him to close down the mine. Macready 
     could not return to Searchlight for four days, since the 
     train from Goffs to Manvel ran only three days a week. He did 
     not receive the message from Dunn until Thursday, so he had 
     to wait for the Monday train. Instead of biding his time 
     until the train ran, Macready wired two words to his foreman: 
     ``Crosscut south,'' instructing the men to continue work but 
     to extend the work at an angle rather than straight down.
       When Hopkins originally purchased the Quartette, the shaft 
     was 100 feet deep. At the time of the apparent depletion of 
     funding, the shaft had reached the 300-foot level, and the 
     findings were not encouraging. In fact, the ore was averaging 
     only $3.84 in gold per ton. Since all of the ore in other 
     Searchlight mines was being found at depths of less than 100 
     feet, Benjamin Macready was actually charting unknown 
     territory when he ignored the instructions from his owners 
     and ordered the miners to continue. When he arrived in the 
     camp four days later, they had struck a bonanza--and they had 
     reached the ore after only two more shifts. By the time the 
     mining boom ended, the Quartette accounted for more than 50 
     percent of all the gold taken out of the Searchlight mining 
     district.
       Twenty-three miles southwest of Searchlight was a railroad 
     connection, originally called Barnwell after the first 
     telegraph operator at the station. The Quartette and other 
     Searchlight operations had to haul ore over this twenty-three 
     miles of incredibly rough terrain in freight wagons to the 
     small railroad line, originally called the Nevada Southern 
     and then the California Eastern. From here, the ore was 
     shipped to the central complex of smelters and mills in 
     Needles, California. It was a time-consuming and expensive 
     operation. To curry favor with the Atchinson, Topeka, and 
     Santa Fe, to which this thirty-mile line connected, in 1893 
     the small railroad changed the name of Barnwell to Manvel, 
     for the Santa Fe president. The small railroad was taken over 
     by the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe in 1901. Shortly after 
     Searchlight was discovered, the president died, and the name 
     of the site was changed back to Barnwell. Ultimately, the 
     railroad built a line to Searchlight.
       With the significant gold production at the Quartette, and 
     the long, hard haul to Barnwell, management agreed to finance 
     the construction of a mill at the Colorado River, about 
     fourteen miles east of Searchlight. The haul to the river 
     made sense because the load would be heavy going downhill and 
     the freight cars would be empty on the arduous trek back up 
     the hill. The construction of the mill at the river also 
     solved the problem of the lack of water in the immediate 
     Searchlight area. In fact, even at the 300-foot level, where 
     the big strike had occurred, there was no sign of water, at 
     the Quartette or at any other place in the camp.
       Building the mill was not a difficult engineering task, but 
     constructing a railroad to the river was more complex and 
     expensive. It was, however, necessary in order to save costs 
     in the production and processing of the ore, and so the 
     decision was made to proceed. The construction of the mill 
     and narrow-gauge railroad took nearly a full year, until May 
     1902. The mill ran continuously until June of the following 
     year.
       A significant water supply was finally reached at the 
     Quartette about the 500-foot level, at just about the time 
     when the mill and railroad construction was completed. The 
     discovery of water in the mine reduced the need for the 
     riverside mill.

  I am up to chapter 4. We are marching along with my book. As I said, 
it

[[Page 28380]]

was quite a job to write it. I am sure it has been a harder task for 
some people to read it, but it is something I am proud of. As I said, 
it sold well at Searchlight. But, of course, that is not much in the 
way of large sales. I have about 25 more chapters to go. The chapters 
are not long. That is the good news.
  I will take a little sip of water. That is pretty good today. That is 
all the water I have drunk. I have been pretty careful in my water 
intake.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Roberts). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I remember the first 
time I talked for an expended period of time beginning my first year. 
Senator Byrd was the leader. He has never taken credit for this, but I 
think he probably was behind this. He kept bringing me water, and I 
didn't realize that was something I shouldn't have been doing. So I 
have learned my lesson since then. It is fairly easy to do. Not 
drinking a lot of water is more comfortable.

       Theories about how the town of Searchlight was named have 
     provided ongoing controversy among the area's residents 
     almost since the founding of the town. One of the first 
     mentions of the name Searchlight occurred in a mining journal 
     of February 11, 1899: ``Miners flocking to the Searchlight 
     camp located about 100 miles north of Needles. Highgrade gold 
     quartz veins have been discovered.'' Note that the 
     specification of Searchlight's location is off by almost 
     fifty miles--Searchlight is only fifty miles from Needles, 
     not a hundred miles.
       After Colton's initial discovery, the exploration and 
     mining activity began in earnest. It is noteworthy that even 
     though Colton and his family lived in Searchlight throughout 
     most of the next fifteen years, with brief visits to 
     California, neither he nor the family commented on the 
     initial prospected discovery. No interviews with George 
     Frederick Colton, the founder of Searchlight, can be located 
     in which he explains the details of his location of the 
     Duplex, or even how the name Searchlight was assigned. 
     Several competing versions of the town's naming have been 
     proffered, and Colton neither confirmed nor objected to those 
     differing versions. For example, descriptions of how the camp 
     got its name appeared in early Searchlight newspapers at a 
     time when Colton was a prominent citizen of the town. In the 
     decades following the decline of Searchlight, he came in and 
     out of the town, and members of his family lived in nearby 
     Las Vegas, but he left no traceable interview in which he 
     discusses the naming of the camp.

  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator from Nevada yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I have to finish a sentence. This is a significant point of 
the story.

       During this time, however, other theories emerged about the 
     naming of Searchlight.

  We are getting to a point--I want your attention, Mr. President. We 
are getting to a point now in this book where we are going to find out 
how Searchlight got its name. I hope the Chair will give me your full 
attention because it is one of the most asked questions there is: How 
did Searchlight get its name? That is what this chapter is all about. I 
hope you will give me your full attention.
  I am happy to yield to my friend from Illinois for a question without 
my losing the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the Senator from Nevada anticipated my 
question. I was going to ask him how Searchlight got its name. I 
understand he will reach that point in the book.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is the case.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask a question of the Senator from Nevada. There are a 
number of colleagues asking, in terms of the presentation of the 
Senator from Nevada, if he has a goal in mind in terms of what he would 
like to present to the Senate before we reach a point where we might 
take a vote; has the Senator thought of that point?
  Mr. REID. I am happy to respond to that. I have not heard anything 
about votes in the last 6\1/2\ or 7 hours. That is a reason I am here.
  I will put this exciting book down for a minute and respond to my 
friend. I know the Chair wants to hear that before the 8 p.m. hour 
arrives so he does not have to come back and ask me tomorrow. That is 
one of the reasons we are here. We were not told, other than there will 
be a vote sometime today. I personally thought--and I think my 
distinguished Democratic leader, Senator Daschle, agreed--that really 
was not fair. We tried to probe and find out what there would be. We 
know there are 30 hours starting Wednesday. We read about that first in 
the newspapers. As far as votes, I want to make sure those people with 
planes coming from the West will not be jammed with an early vote. I 
heard there would be votes at 2 or 3 and people would leave so they 
could go to their events on Veterans Day. We did not know.
  As I said earlier, I say to my friend from Illinois, around here we 
have to work together. No one knows that better than the Presiding 
Officer, with whom I worked on a close basis on the Ethics Committee. I 
cannot say enough about the Senator from Kansas and his leadership. It 
was significant, strong. It was for the good of the institution.
  I say to my friend from Illinois, around here we have to get along. 
To get along, we have to work together. As I said, speaking for my 
Senators, including the Senator from Illinois, who is not only a fellow 
Senator but a close personal friend, someone I care about a great 
deal--we have been together here for 21 years. I say to him, I don't 
know. Somebody can let me know, and I guess someone from the majority 
can ask me to yield and ask me a question, Did I know they were 
scheduling a vote at such-and-such a time? I don't know if they want 
more votes tonight. I don't know.
  In the meantime, I am a soldier with a mission. That mission is to 
tell people around the world, C-SPAN and people within the breadth and 
width of my voice, about Searchlight and how it got its name.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Forward march.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I hope someday we can do maybe like a 
Democratic retreat, maybe a Senate retreat, in Searchlight. We only 
have one motel, but we are working on others. We have a McDonald's now, 
one of the highlights of the economic life of the last 25 years of 
Searchlight. You can get a McFlurry there, a Big Mac, really good 
fries. I am not a big fry fan. Good fries. I am kind of a McFlurry fan, 
myself. I am very happy; some of my friends built that place. They have 
a concession, the Herbst family. They have a flag that flies over 
McDonald's, and I am not exaggerating, it must be 50 feet high, and I 
don't know how long it is. You can see it for miles around.
  Anyway, Searchlight is coming along, and before too long maybe we can 
have a Senate retreat there. Colorado is not far. Below Searchlight we 
have the beautiful Lake Mohave, part of Lake Mead Recreation Area. 
Searchlight is a good place, and we need to find out how it got its 
name.

       One version insists that it was named for an early miner in 
     the area, Lloyd Searchlight. There is, however, no record of 
     anyone by that name who ever lived nearby. The confusion 
     developed when a man known only as Mr. Lloyd started the 
     Lloyd-Searchlight Mining Company, a company that didn't begin 
     operations until the Searchlight mining district had long 
     been formed and named.
       A Bulletin headline in 1906 read, Santa Barbarans pay 
     $40,000 for Bonanza Prospect. Lucky owners retain large 
     interest--will be known as Lloyd-Searchlight. The article 
     goes on to state that the development work would be under the 
     direction of Mr. Lloyd. ``Although the local management is 
     preserving clam-like silence, it is learned on the best of 
     authority that the Lloyd-Searchlight has struck it rich. In 
     point of discovery and development Lloyd-Searchlight is the 
     foremost property at Camp Thurman, fifteen miles south. Its 
     owners all reside in Santa Barbara, California.''

  I only have two paragraphs for Mr. Lloyd but, frankly, that is about 
a paragraph more than he deserved. It was hard to fill all these pages. 
I gave him an extra paragraph.
  I say to these pages, some of whom I am sure will be historians, I 
hope they will remember as they study history, this history lesson 
tonight. It may not be the best, but it is history and it is certainly 
better than some of the speeches we have heard.

       A second version is more humorous. Prospectors congregating 
     at Summit Springs before the formation of the Searchlight 
     district used to joke about the miners John Swickard and Joe 
     Boland, who patiently ground their very low-grade ore in a 
     mule-drive crusher, saying, ``There is ore there alright, but 
     it would take a searchlight to find it.'' It was recalled 
     that they all laughed

[[Page 28381]]

     afterward, but when Fred Colton turned up some high-grade ore 
     three miles west of Summit Springs, he remembered this joke 
     and called the location Searchlight.
       A Searchlight newspaper article lends credence to this 
     version because Colton and various members of his family were 
     living in Searchlight when it was written. Logically, if the 
     story were inaccurate Colton would have denied it. 
     Conversely, it could also be argued that if the story were 
     not true, Colton would not want to contradict it, since the 
     tale gave him greater standing in the town.
       The newspaper stated in 1906: ``It might be interesting 
     here to relate how the camp originally got its name. A number 
     of prospectors had discovered some float in the valleys to 
     the east and west of town and had a camp established in a 
     gulch near where the Cyrus Noble is now located. Coming into 
     camp one evening tired, sore and disgruntled, Fred Colton, 
     the first discoverer of the camp, threw his canteen on the 
     ground and exclaimed, `there is something here boys, but it 
     would take a searchlight to find it.' Two or three days later 
     he found the ledge of the present Duplex and named it 
     Searchlight. And this was the christening of the camp.''
       Another recently unearthed version of the town's naming was 
     buried in a 1911 Bulletin article. In naming the mine and the 
     town, Fred Colton was impressed with the wonderful view from 
     the Duplex Mine, which was situated on a large hill 
     overlooking the town. He is reported to have said, ``This 
     would be a nice place to mount a searchlight.''
       Yet another version of the unusual name Searchlight 
     originated with a box of wooden matches, . . .

  Maybe these young pages don't know what a box of wooden matches is, 
but when I grew up they were about all we had. You had a box and pulled 
out these wooden matches to light your fires. But there was a name--
well, anyway, let me read my book:

       Yet another version of the unusual name Searchlight 
     originated with a box of wooden matches, which were essential 
     for lighting cigarettes, cigars, stoves, and for general 
     survival in the early part of this century. One of the most 
     popular brands was named Searchlight. The story is told that 
     a handy box of Searchlight matches was seen at the camp and 
     inspired miners to give the name of Searchlight to the desert 
     mining district.
       George Colton's grandson, Gordon, has perpetuated the 
     matchbox version of the tale, spreading word that this is how 
     the town got its name. Gordon was very loquacious, but he did 
     not base his story on conversations with his grandfather. He 
     never lived in Searchlight until late in his life, and the 
     box-of-matches version of the story didn't appear until many 
     years after the camp was founded. (As an interesting side 
     note, Gordon was alleged to have played five years of high 
     school football at Las Vegas High School before embarking on 
     a professional football career with the Los Angeles Rams. His 
     classmates even assert that he was All-State at two different 
     positions. This is confirmed by his son, Stanton, a former 
     Nevada state treasurer. In his old age, Gordon became the 
     constable and deputy coronor of Searchlight.)
       Most longtime residents of Searchlight agree that the name 
     came from Colton's being told--or saying--that one would need 
     a searchlight to find gold, but there is no surviving 
     interview at any time with the original developers of the 
     mining district that would shed light on the authenticity of 
     this version. The Searchlight newspaper opined, however, that 
     this version had ``the widest credence.''
       The most credible version of how Searchlight got its name 
     is Colton's story of the need for a searchlight to find the 
     ore. A few have felt more support for Gordon Colton's box-of-
     matches theory. But before a jury both his story and the 
     other versions would fail. Historian John M. Townley agrees, 
     conceding that the most logical version of the name's origin 
     is the one that centers around needing a searchlight to find 
     the gold, even though Colton never commented on the naming. 
     Townley does confirm, however, that even five years after the 
     discovery of gold in Searchlight, no one was certain as to 
     the origination of the name.
       George F. Colton, the town's founder, was rarely 
     interviewed on any subject having to do with the beginnings 
     of the town. In 1906 he returned after about a year's absence 
     from Searchlight and said, ``I came here in 1897 and pitched 
     my tent near the present site of the Searchlight Hotel. . . . 
     This is not only a camp without a failure, but a camp with a 
     future. Jane Overy, resident historian of Searchlight and the 
     curator of its museum, insists that the place where Colton 
     pitched his tent is the present location of the post office 
     parking lot.
       Possibly another reason that Colton did not make a big deal 
     out of his discovering the town and naming it is that perhaps 
     in his mind he didn't do either. It is clear that there was 
     significant prospecting in the area of Searchlight long 
     before 1897. This is confirmed by many sources, not the least 
     of which is a news article describing Colton as ``the father 
     of Searchlight, because of the fact that he discovered the 
     first interesting claims in the camp and built the first 
     house in town.'' The article recognizes him not as the 
     discoverer of gold in Searchlight but as the discoverer of 
     the first interesting claim. George Colton died in California 
     in 1916.
       The same newspaper rightfully calls John Swickard the 
     father of Searchlight. In the early nineties, Swickard 
     prospected through this territory. His locations were the 
     first in the district. As early as 1896 he enlisted the 
     backing of Colonel Fred Dunn and, in 1897, he established the 
     first permanent camp, at Hall's Well.
       In short, Searchlight is a camp with more than one father.

  Mr. President, we are moving right along. We are headed into chapter 
5, which is, just to give a little preview of chapter 5, called ``The 
Big Strike.'' It talks about the only really big mine in Searchlight. 
There are lots of mines, hundreds of them. I was there Saturday from 
about 10 o'clock at night to about 9:15 Sunday morning. As you drive 
through there, you can still see all these old abandoned mining claims. 
Most of them have been ordered by law to be fenced because some of them 
are very dangerous.
  I see my friend from Idaho on the floor today.
  One of things I hope we can do--I know he and I have worked very hard 
to do this over many years--is to do something about the mining law 
that is so old and so antiquated in many ways. We have been willing to 
reform that, the Senator from Idaho and the Senator from Nevada, but 
the problem has been those people who want to change the law want to 
change it so they get everything and the people who create the 
thousands and thousands of jobs--the highest-paid blue-collar jobs in 
America are in the mining industry.
  I would hope the Senator from Idaho will work with us, as he has in 
the past, to try to figure out a breakthrough next year on how we can 
do that. There are some real injustices out there now. I was glad to 
see this administration overturn the mill site opinion that was written 
by one of Secretary Babbitt's assistants, which was one of the most 
illogical legal opinions I had ever seen on mill sites. This 
administration reversed that. I told Secretary Norton, when they did 
that, I would applaud publicly what they did, and I did do that. That 
helped quite a bit, having done that.
  But one of the things I think is so bad is we are doing so many 
things to damage the ability of mining companies to not only continue 
their operations but develop new operations. I hope before too long we 
can change that law. There is a way we can compromise this and give the 
environmental community some of the things they want but also certainly 
give the mining industry what I believe is a very powerful tool, which 
is one of the few businesses in America today that is a net exporter. 
We produce gold, and we export gold. It is wonderful we do that. We 
need more businesses in America where we produce more than we can use.
  So I hope the Senator from Idaho--and I know he will--will work with 
us next year to figure out some way to make a breakthrough through this 
morass we find ourselves in. I have been working on this for many years 
to try to come up with some kind of compromise.
  The mining companies bent over backwards for a compromise. We had a 
compromise in the Interior appropriations bill a number of years ago. 
We took it to conference, and the people in the House said: No, it is 
not good enough for us. We want everything. They got nothing. That has 
been now 7, 8 years ago, and that is too bad, really too bad.
  Mr. President, chapter 5 is called ``The Big Strike.''

       The purchase of the Quartette by the Hopkins group was 
     important to the success of Searchlight. Without the large 
     initial infusion of capital into the Quartette operation, the 
     mine would not have been sunk deeper than any other mine in 
     the history of Searchlight. Without the deep shaft and the 
     subsequent huge ore strike, mining in this area would never 
     have developed. The extensive mining and exploration that 
     later occurred was all based on the early success of the 
     Quartette.
       The Searchlight, the newspaper of early Searchlight, 
     promoted the town as the ``camp without a failure.'' Until 
     1907, when the newspaper changed its name, this phrase

[[Page 28382]]

     was on the masthead, proudly broadcasting the area's 
     prosperity to the state and nation. The newspaper hoped to 
     attract new capital and people to the southern part of 
     Nevada.
       Shortly after the fateful telegram was sent by Macready, 
     the Quartette seemed destined to become a real bonanza. by 
     1903 Searchlight was the talk not only of Nevada but, 
     according to the local newspaper, of the whole mining world. 
     At what seemed to be the height of Searchlight's success, 
     however, labor problems erupted.
       Union activity in Searchlight was the result of 
     organizational efforts of the Western Federation of Miners 
     (WFM), founded at Butte, Montana, in 1893, shortly before the 
     discovery of gold in Searchlight.

  Mr. President, this strike about which I refer was a union strike, 
about miners who struck.

       Some have written that the creation of this union was the 
     ``birth sign of the coming militant industrialism of the 
     Industrial Workers of the World. In the first decade of the 
     twentieth century this union enjoyed success in its 
     activities in goldfield and to a lesser extent in tonopah.''
       A costly labor strike almost brought the mining boom in 
     Searchlight to a standstill in 1903. Even though the union 
     focused on the Quartette, other operations panicked, and most 
     closed down until the strike was resolved.
       The union strike, called on June 1, 1903, was precipitated 
     by a number of disputes, primarily a law passed on February 
     23, 1093, by the Nevada Legislature that limited the workday 
     to eight hours for most mining-related jobs, particularly 
     underground positions.
       On June 1, the mine owners posted a notice ordering all 
     workers not affected by the new law to work nine hours. This 
     gave the union an issue. It is interesting to note, however, 
     that the only workers affected by the Quartette order were 
     three men who did not work in the mine or the smelter but 
     were hoistmen and trammers who were not covered by the new 
     law. The law stipulated an eight-hour workday not only for 
     underground miners but also for those who worked in smelters 
     and all other positions involving the reduction of refining 
     ores and metals. The strike was ostensibly called because of 
     these three men, but it also provided an opportunity for this 
     new labor organization to flex its muscles.
       Initially the union had the support of most people in town, 
     who thought that the workers deserved better pay and 
     improvements in working conditions. Even the newspapers that 
     covered Searchlight, the Searchlight and the DeLamar Lode, 
     appeared to favor the goals of the striking workers. It also 
     was clear that the real issue was not the basic economic one 
     but whether labor or management was to control the 
     Searchlight workforce.
       After the company's notice was posted, the union committee 
     asked the mine superintendent what would happen if the union 
     called the workers off the job. Management replied that the 
     mine would be closed. In fact, the mine was closed on June 1, 
     without the union's ordering work stoppage.
       Anticipating union action, the owners of the Good Hope Mine 
     and the Duplex also terminated operations the day after the 
     shutdown by the Quartette owners. The provocative nature of 
     the mine owners' actions is clear when one realizes that in 
     all three of these mines, only three men were working nine-
     hour shifts, and that was at the Quartette.
       At first, public comment about the way the union was 
     conducting the strike was very positive. The press and 
     Searchlight residents were favorably impressed that there was 
     no violence. In fact, the union helped foster positive public 
     relations by allowing four of its union men to be engaged in 
     working the pumps at the lower levels in the Quartette, where 
     water would have accumulated, damaging equipment and the 
     workings in the shaft and drifts, if the pumps had not been 
     kept operating.
       The union movement in the western United States was in its 
     infancy at this time, especially in the mining industry. 
     Strategies for resolving impasses between labor and 
     management were not well developed, and the two parties were 
     experimenting with ways to end disputes like this. The union 
     wanted to appear tough and strong, even resilient, and the 
     mine owners wanted to put an end to the union before it 
     gathered strength.
       In the early days of the strike there was considerable talk 
     of arbitration, but that was very short-lived. In the DeLamar 
     Lode of June 23, the prospects for settlement were more vague 
     than ever. In fact, the mine owners and managers had left for 
     Los Angeles almost as soon as the strike started. The owners 
     indicated they would receive union representatives only in 
     Los Angeles, stipulating that all negotiations would have to 
     be conducted somewhere other than in Searchlight. This action 
     only made relations between the warring parties worse, since 
     during the early days of the strike various union 
     representatives from the national office often visited 
     Searchlight with the intent of negotiating with the owners. 
     They soon learned there was no management to meet with unless 
     they went to Los Angeles. The papers reported: ``J.H. 
     Vaughan, representative of the miners union, was in the city 
     Monday to see if the mine owners had anything to say, or to 
     see if they were desirous of a conference.'' The same 
     newspaper article observed: ``John C. Williams, Vice 
     President of the Western Federation of Miners, is expected to 
     be in camp tonight to take hold of the union and end the 
     strike.''
       The local newspaper strongly condemned the owners' and 
     managers' retreat to California at the strike's inception. 
     Precisely, the Searchlight also reported in its June 26 
     edition that it was the employers' intention to create an 
     issue to discredit the union. Again, the paper and the 
     townspeople clearly were on the side of the miners and not 
     the owners.
       Because unionism was new in Nevada, and this type of labor 
     unrest was fresh in the western states, the union 
     representatives were continually trying to justify their 
     ability to sustain a long strike. When the owners, in effect, 
     refused to negotiate, the union announced that it had ample 
     funds to support the union miners for an indefinite period of 
     time. The company responded by announcing a policy inviting 
     nonunion men to apply for jobs.
       As the contention continued, so did the competition for the 
     most marketable story describing the strike. Since the 
     Searchlight was published in Searchlight and was the paper 
     closet to the controversy, it seemed always to paint a 
     picture of peace and serenity during this time, wanting only 
     to project the image of a boomtown. The DeLamar Lode was the 
     newspaper in the town of Delamar, located in what was then 
     the upper part of Lincoln County, about 30 miles from 
     Caliente and 150 miles from Searchlight. On August 4, only 
     two months after the beginning of the dispute, the Lode 
     opined that only the bad people in the county were left in 
     Searchlight. The Lyon County Times, published in Yerington, 
     about 350 miles north of Searchlight, reported that the 
     miners at the Quartette struck to have their workday reduced 
     from twelve hours to eight. Such a report was ridiculous; at 
     no time in Searchlight's brief history had the miners been 
     required to work more than nine hours. The Searchlight wrote 
     a rare scathing editorial, attacking those who engaged in 
     perpetuating false rumors and emphasizing that the strike was 
     being conducted in a peaceful, orderly manner, on issues that 
     were strictly a matter of principle.
       On July 3, 1903, Judge M.A. Murphy of the state district 
     court struck down the law establishing the eight-hour day in 
     mining-related work, ruling it unconstitutional. The court 
     declared that the legislation, being class in nature, was 
     invalid because it separated mining and milling from other 
     types of employment, violating the state constitution by 
     taking property without due process. In effect, the court 
     ruled that the Nevada Legislature had no right to dictate 
     hours to miners and mill workers when it did not set the same 
     standards for other types of work. Because of this, the 
     owners were being forced to work their property under 
     conditions that unfairly paralyzed them by having their 
     employees work fewer hours than other workers.
       Immediately thereafter, the union, through John Williams, a 
     vice president, approved the strike despite the court's 
     interpretation of the recently passed law. The union again 
     declared its ability to withstand a long strike, since the 
     WFM had supplied the funding necessary for the duration of 
     the union activities.
       Even though the owners and managers were not often in the 
     vicinity of Searchlight, they had obviously been plotting to 
     ruin the union and end the strike. Their first move was to 
     form the Desert Mine Operators Association. Although the 
     association's bylaws prohibited discrimination against union 
     members, everyone knew that the purpose of the organization 
     was to stamp out the union. The association even included 
     mines in California, as well as Searchlight's Quartette, 
     Duplex, Good Hope, New Era, Cyrus Noble, Southern Nevada, and 
     Ranioler. The formation of this association was the beginning 
     of the end of the effectiveness of the labor movement in 
     Searchlight. The owners began to investigate ways to reopen 
     the mines with or without the union miners.
       The commercial interests in town formed a citizens' 
     committee to arrange a conference with the owners and the 
     union and to act as a liaison, carrying messages of hope 
     between the two warring parties. The Quartette officials, 
     representing all the other companies, refused to talk to the 
     union but professed a willingness to resume operations and to 
     take back all former employees--with the same wages and hours 
     that were in effect before the strike. Company officials also 
     indicated that when the mines began making a profit again 
     they would entertain a different wage scale. This decision by 
     the owners meant that underground workers, as well as 
     blacksmiths and engineers (who were traditionally treated 
     like miners), would work eight hours and aboveground men 
     would work nine hours. All others, such as laborers and those 
     on temporary jobs, would work nine-hour shifts. The union 
     rejected that offer, holding out for a fifty-cent raise and 
     an eight-hour day for all mine-related work.
       It didn't take long for businesses to start feeling the 
     effects of the mines' closure.

[[Page 28383]]

     Though there was significant independent prospecting being 
     conducted during the labor unrest, it generated very little 
     commercial trade.
       The first strikebreakers, two miners from Los Angeles, 
     arrived in September. They didn't stay long, since they were 
     persuaded by the union not to go to work. Several days later, 
     two stagecoaches arrived with men who were to begin work at 
     the Quartette. The Searchlight of September 25 reported that 
     the Quartette had gone back into operation with thirty-five 
     men on its payroll, including miners and guards. Even though 
     this is a small number of employees, the company's action 
     demonstrated its determination to get the valuable property 
     back into production. Conversely, the union was doing 
     everything it could to prevent the mine from adding 
     employees, even stationing pickets at various locations, like 
     Manvel, Ibex, Needles, Goffs, and San Bernardino, to deter 
     the further importation of strikebreakers and other anti-
     union activities. The union also appealed to other labor 
     organizations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, urging them 
     to make every effort to keep workers from coming to 
     Searchlight until the strike was settled, and it advertised 
     in the Joplin, Missouri, area--the home base of the union--to 
     warn hirelings of the situation in Searchlight.
       By early October, however, the Quartette had started a 
     stamp mill, located next to the mine. It was obvious to all 
     that for the mill to operate the mine had to be producing 
     ore. Nevertheless, the union still talked as if it was 
     winning the dispute, even though it was apparent that the 
     mine was operating with nonunion workers.
       One incident that added to the excitement during these 
     tense times was when the union learned that thirty 
     strikebreakers were en route by train to Manvel, on their way 
     to the Searchlight mines. The union organized a march along 
     the twenty-three miles from Searchlight to Manvel to 
     intercept them. After the long, grueling walk, however, they 
     learned that not a single strikebreaker was on the train.
       The editorial position of the Searchlight took its first 
     turn against the union on October 2, noting that the union 
     was hurting its own cause by not working harder to resolve 
     the dispute. Recognizing that nonunion men were already being 
     shipped in to work, the editor further elaborated that the 
     new law, on the basis of which the strike had been called, 
     had since been declared illegal. The article made the case 
     that the two sides were crushing the life out of the new town 
     of Searchlight and stated that the business of the town was 
     being ruined and the storekeepers forced to operate at a 
     loss. This was the first editorial calling for an end to the 
     strike.
       Just a week after this editorial appeared, the Quartette, 
     the Good Hope, and the Southern Nevada mines were back to 
     full operation. Simultaneously, the union suffered several 
     other setbacks, including the arrival of twenty-one workers 
     from Joplin, Missouri, and several more from the mines of 
     Colorado. The strikebreakers went to work under the 
     conditions that had existed before the strike began.
       About this time, the Quartette opened its own general store 
     and even built bunkhouses for its workers, which provoked 
     extremely negative reactions from both the merchants and the 
     general population. The Quartette, located about a mile and a 
     half from the center of the city, was becoming its own town.
       The Searchlight condemned the actions of the mine owners. 
     They were particularly galling to the paper because it had 
     recently run editorials supporting these companies. In 
     desperation the paper called on the union to end the strike, 
     but the union remained defiant. The newspaper finally 
     declared that the union had lost the goodwill and sympathy of 
     the community.
       Even at its most intense, however, the strike in 
     Searchlight was orderly and nonviolent. The sheriff from the 
     county seat of Pioche periodically visited Searchlight to 
     monitor the situation, always returning with reports of 
     nothing more than rumors of disturbances. The entire period 
     of the strike was unusually calm.
       The peaceful nature of the Searchlight strike was similar 
     to the minimal labor strife that the Comstock has experienced 
     a generation earlier. The Western Federation of Miners formed 
     its first union in southern Nevada in Tonopah in the summer 
     of 1901, and Tonopah escaped any real labor problems until 
     after World War I.
       At nearby Goldfield, however, there were significant labor 
     disputes, marked by numerous episodes of violence. The unions 
     had obviously learned from the losses of the wfm in 
     Searchlight, for they became powerful in Tonopah and 
     Goldfield. In 1907 Goldfield was an armed camp. Several 
     shootings occurred, with one reported death. Eventually 
     President Theodore Roosevelt, at Governor John Spark's 
     request, sent federal troops to quell the quarreling 
     factions. In comparison, Searchlight had been very calm.
       In January 1904 the courts again surprised the entire 
     Nevada mining community with a long overdue decision. The 
     Nevada Supreme Court overruled the district court and 
     declared the wages-and-hours law constitutional. The reason 
     for the strike had come full circle. But like its 
     predecessor, this final decision did not change the fact that 
     the union had been broken. The union continued operating in a 
     strike mode for the next year, even though almost all of the 
     union men had gone back to work. Those who returned to the 
     mines were required to sign a card agreeing not to 
     participate in union activities, pursuant to the Desert Mine 
     Operators Association rules.
       In 1907 the same card system was put into a place in 
     Goldfield just before Roosevelt ordered federal troops to 
     Esmeralda County. The right of the companies to have 
     employees sign such a card was affirmed by the Nevada state 
     legislature in 1907.
       The strike had a tremendous impact on the new town. The 
     merchants suffered in not being able to develop commercial 
     enterprises as quickly as they otherwise could have. Many 
     people experienced economic hardship as a result of the 
     strike, and workers with known union sympathies were laid 
     off. For example, James Lappin, foreman of the Quartette 
     Mine, was laid off as a result of his union leanings. His 
     wife, Lula, opened an ice cream parlor to provide income for 
     the family, but the store failed and the Lappins migrated to 
     Southern California where, at age fifty, James began a second 
     career as a farmer. He died in Anaheim, in 1908, at age 
     fifty-five, just about five years after being run out of 
     Searchlight. James Lappin's story was repeated numerous times 
     in the lives of the early inhabitants of this boomtown.
       The labor-management problem in early Searchlight had a 
     very limited effect, however, setting the progress of the 
     town back for only about three months. Though the union and 
     townspeople kept referring to the ``strike,'' in reality it 
     didn't exist--the strike was actually broken early in the 
     dispute.
       As mentioned above, much of the friction was caused by the 
     competing newspapers, the DeLamar Lode and the Searchlight. 
     The Lode, for example, had the strike settled by September 20 
     when it reported: ``The backbone of the strike is broken. The 
     Quartette landed a number of men on its property yesterday to 
     begin work and to date things were moving as of old.'' The 
     Searchlight was more cautious. In its October 2 issue, it 
     reported: ``The strike situation that past week has shown 
     little change.''
       The strike did have other, unintended consequences, 
     however. It was because of the pro-union stance taken by the 
     Searchlight and some of its advertisers that the Quartette 
     Company decided to start its own general store and other 
     competing businesses at the mine site. The action was clearly 
     an attempt to punish those businesses that went along with 
     the union leaders.
       The dispute also caused the company to focus on labor 
     relations instead of on ways to improve the mine. One of the 
     Quartette's managers said in December 1903 that if the strike 
     had not occurred the company would have built a railroad from 
     Ibex to the camp.
       In just three short months, the union was vanquished. 
     Though the exact date of the defeat is debatable, the 
     conclusion is not. Union activity disappeared and to this day 
     has never reappeared in Searchlight.

  Mr. President, that is the end of chapter 5.
  I got a call. The cloakroom called. I have a note that one woman from 
Frederick, MD, called. She likes the book. She called Barnes & Noble 
who said it would take 2 weeks to get a copy. She said it would be good 
if I would speak more slowly so she can hear and understand the book.
  I don't think I can do that. I don't speak very fast to begin with. I 
appreciate her being interested, though. You can get it at Barnes & 
Noble. If she came to Searchlight, she could buy one right there.
  As I said, Searchlight was part of the busiest two-lane road in all 
of Nevada. But we have been able to get four lanes there now, half the 
way. That helped a lot. They opened it a couple of weeks ago. It is not 
hard to go to Searchlight. Lots of people go there. As I indicated 
earlier, we have a great new McDonald's there. We had a store there 
that was opened by a woman who was a fantastic artist. That young woman 
died at an early age, about a month ago. That closed that operation. 
But there is kind of a curio shop there. They would call it an antique 
shop here. They have old mining equipment and things of that nature. We 
have a nice restaurant and casino there. A long-time friend of mine 
added to inflation a lot about a year ago. For many years she 
advertised a nickel cup of coffee. She raised that to a dime. So now in 
Searchlight, you can drive through there and get a cup of coffee for a 
dime. You don't have to get anything else. I don't know how many people 
it draws, but she has a dime cup of coffee.
  She hired a new chef. She had one many years ago named Bill. He loved 
to fish. The lake is only 14 miles away.

[[Page 28384]]

He would get huge amounts of fish, save them up, and then Bill the cook 
would have a fish fry for the whole town. Great fish. But after he 
died, I have to tell you the food was not very good there. They no long 
refer to him as a cook. Now there is a chef in town. We have a chef in 
Searchlight. Every day, you see the special--things like stuffed pork 
chops, spareribs; he even had goulash one night. This guy knows what he 
is doing.
  My wife and I look forward to going into Searchlight. My home is 
about a mile and a half, 2 miles out; we are still in the metropolitan 
area, I guess you would call it.
  The town has grown since I grew up there. There must be 1,000, 1,200 
people in the area. We love to go there now for one of the specials. So 
Searchlight is moving along.
  We have a sewer system on one side of Searchlight. If you live on the 
east side of the highway, you have sewer. If you live on the west side, 
no luck: septic tanks.
  I, was born there. I really left when I became a freshman in high 
school. I went back, of course, to visit with my parents. I fell in 
love with Searchlight. It is a place where I was born, where I grew up, 
and really developed a lot of the things I thought were right and 
wrong.
  For many years in my congressional service, I didn't even have a real 
house. I had a mobile home I bought from my uncle, but I never felt 
good in it. So 2 years ago this next month, my wife and I, after we had 
gotten our five children through school and college, built ourselves a 
modest home in Searchlight. I love that place. It is such a nice 
retreat, going from the metropolitan Washington area out there 55 miles 
from Las Vegas.
  We made a few mistakes in building that house. My wife actually did 
it. One of the mistakes she made was she put in a little sprinkler 
system and planted some stuff around the house. Well, the stuff was 
eaten by rabbits in about a week. They hadn't had a feast like that 
ever, probably. So we went to the extension service and said: We would 
like you to tell us what we can put in there that the rabbits won't 
eat--rabbitproof. They loved that. They came back in a week or so. We 
spent some more money planting again.
  This was even better. The rabbits learned there was something there, 
and they finished this off in 3 days--3 nights. They won't eat in the 
daytime. Here we were. What were we going to do?
  Looking around the desert, I noticed they didn't eat cactus, or I 
thought they didn't eat cactus. They didn't eat desert cactus. They ate 
my cactus. We planted a bunch of cactus. I can't imagine how they can 
do it, but they eat some cactus--not all of them. I don't know the 
names of the cactus they don't eat. Some of the names I know. They 
don't eat the cholla. They don't eat the beaver tails. They don't eat a 
plant that is not native to Searchlight, Ocotilla from Arizona, a long 
stringy plant with stems that go up very high. They don't eat those.
  So I have replanted my house several times. They are good, these 
rabbits. What I did was, some of our big cactus, I told the cactus 
guy--Cactus Joe is his name--in Las Vegas. He brings his truck. ``Come 
and see what they ate, and bring something they don't eat.'' Oh, sure, 
they are happy to bring Tommy Lee and his crew out. They planted--oh, 
man, some of these things were big, beautiful green cactus. I got up 
the next morning, and they had ravaged my cactus.
  They looked like these big things with big holes in them. They 
chomped them through. I called one of my friends in Las Vegas and said 
I needed some help--my friend Gary Bates. He responded and came out 
with some wire, pliers, and all that kind of stuff. We picked some of 
these cactus these rabbits wouldn't eat. Do you know, they figured a 
way to get through that wire. I don't know how they did that. I don't 
know how they got those big ears through there, but they did. They 
didn't ravage them; they just kind of chomped on them a little bit. I 
might be able to save some of them.
  So that is my story of my cactus.
  I was out there, as I said, Saturday night. I had dinner with a 
couple of my Senator friends in Searchlight. The first thing I did was 
look at my cactus crop. It was dark, and I couldn't see. I was pleased 
it wasn't worse than it was. We planted some more Ocotilla, which is 
rabbitproof, proven from prior plantings of my Ocotilla.
  These rabbits are interesting animals. I used to always like those 
cottontails. In Searchlight, we have cottontails, cute little rabbits 
about so big. Then we have the big jackrabbits. I developed a strong 
dislike for cottontails because they are worse on my cactus than the 
jackrabbits.
  Anyway, I will take a sip of water and go to chapter 6. I guess there 
is no word about votes around here, so I will just keep reading.
  Let's see, at 8:16 it will be 7 hours. My only regret is I should 
have started earlier on my book. I was a little bit repetitive.
  Before I start chapter 6, let me just say this. I understand the 
rules of the Senate pretty well, and I know today there could have been 
a vote offered by somebody if I hadn't gotten the floor. There could 
have been a vote on a motion to table somebody's amendment. I know the 
Senator from Arizona was going to offer an amendment because he told me 
so. Maybe it was an amendment the other side didn't like. I don't know. 
And tomorrow, or whenever we come in again, another amendment can be 
offered.
  Under the rules of the Senate normally followed, when someone offers 
an amendment, the person who offers the amendment speaks on its behalf; 
those opposed to the amendment speak against that amendment. The person 
who offers it can speak for as long as they want, and the person who 
opposes it can speak for as long as they want. I wanted to make sure 
today that because of what we were told would happen, I was going to do 
what I could to see if it wouldn't happen.
  I don't miss many votes. The only votes I have missed in recent years 
have been for my friend, the junior Senator from Nevada. I have paired 
with him on a number of occasions because of family issues; he has a 
young family, and I have been happy to do that. I don't mind missing a 
few votes. I was not missing them. I was here. But I am happy to pair. 
We used to do it a lot in the Senate. It was the thing to do. If 
somebody had something important, we would vote yes or no.
  We have become so interested in voting records. We vote on things 
here that don't mean anything of importance. Most everything we vote on 
here passes overwhelmingly, but we have to have votes: I can't miss 
that judge's vote; oh, I can't do that. I say: It is going to pass; 
everybody is going to vote for him or her. Why worry about it? I can't 
miss a vote.
  But anyway, I have paired with my friend from Nevada on occasion. The 
last time I paired with him, he had not been able to watch any of his 
son's football games the whole year because they don't play on Friday 
or Sunday.
  He said: I sure would like to watch Trevor's game. I said: Go watch 
Trevor's game. It is more important than what we do on this occasion 
because a year from now, 2 years from now, your son's football game is 
going to be more important than the votes that happen here. I am glad 
he watched his son's football game.
  My friend, Senator Ensign, is glad he watched his son's football 
game. The only point I am making is we have votes all the time. We can 
have a vote tonight. I do not care. I am going to be here. It does not 
matter what time we have it. I am here all the time. We can have votes 
tomorrow, but I understand the rules of the Senate, and we have to work 
together.
  I want the record to be spread, as it has been, that this 30-hour 
judges thing is not the way to run this place. It is simply not right. 
If we tried something like this I hope I would have the integrity to 
speak out against it. I believe I would. I hope I do.
  When we have so many important things to do in this Congress, we do 
not have the time to spend 30 hours on our turndown of 4 judges that 
President

[[Page 28385]]

Bush has put forward: We have approved 168 judges, turned down 4. That 
is not the way to operate things.
  I am very cooperative most of the time. I apologize if I have caused 
any inconvenience to any of my friends today, but I want to make sure 
that the inconvenience caused to some today is something that will help 
us in the future have a more organized, friendly, cooperative 
partnership in the Senate. It is going to be hard for the next few days 
doing that when we are going to spend 30 hours, starting Wednesday at 6 
going until midnight on Thursday, talking about how badly--that is 
wrong--we have treated Miguel Estrada, Justice Owen, Judge Pickering, 
and General Pryor, people who, I repeat, have well-paying jobs.
  Is it important that we devote our time to that? I mean, have a vigil 
for 3 hours, not 30 hours. There is not going to be anything new said 
in 30 hours that could not be said in 3 hours. I am interested to see 
if anything new will be said in the whole 30 hours that has not been 
said already.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question without yielding 
the floor?
  Mr. REID. I yield to my friend from Illinois without losing the 
floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator from Nevada, through the 
Chair, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, each of these 
nominees who has been contested, four nominees who have been 
contested--it is my understanding 168 of the President's nominees have 
been approved and four have been held, and as a member of this 
committee I can say to the Senator from Nevada, in preparation for my 
question, Miguel Estrada, I might mention there was a lengthy hearing. 
It may have been two hearings, if I am not mistaken, and a lot of 
questions asked by individual Senators and then several lengthy debates 
on the floor of the Senate leading to the cloture votes.
  In the case of the nominee, Priscilla Owen, who is a Texas Supreme 
Court Justice, she was not only given a hearing and considered 
previously and rejected, she was brought again for another 
consideration by the committee and more debate on the floor.
  When it comes to Attorney General Pryor of Arkansas, I can recall it 
was a very lengthy hearing in the large hearing room over at the Hart 
Building, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then with Judge 
Pickering, another district court judge from Mississippi, who received 
two separate hearings, and then after those hearings was rejected, then 
brought back again, more lengthy debate. So I ask the Senator from 
Nevada, through the Chair, is it his belief that any of these four 
nominees have been treated rudely by the committee or denied an 
opportunity for a hearing or given a chance in the Senate to have had 
their qualifications considered before the votes were taken?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend from Illinois, through the distinguished 
Chair, there has never been any suggestion that these nominees were 
treated like President Clinton's nominees and not given hearings. The 
answer is, no.
  I also say to my friend, assuming for purposes of this debate only, 
that every one of the decisions we made--that is the Senate Democrats 
made--with these four nominees, that we were wrong, we should not have 
done it, is that any reason to take the time of this Senate to spend 30 
hours on four nominees? I am only stating this for purposes of this 
debate, that even if we made four wrong decisions, should we spend 30 
hours of our time talking about what is going on? Thirty hours? I just 
cannot believe that.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for another question, through the 
Chair, without yielding the time?
  Mr. REID. I would do that. Any time I hear someone shuffling around 
the room, I am always hoping it is people coming to hear more about my 
book. I am on chapter 6 and I can tell everybody it gets better. This 
is kind of the buildup. I thought the naming of the town was pretty 
good. I thought the strike was pretty good.
  Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator would yield?
  Mr. REID. I would say I thought my dissertation on the rabbits and 
cactus was okay. In fact, I wish I had known at the time how bad those 
rabbits were, and I may have talked about them in my book. I am 
becoming more of a coyote fan all the time, hoping that they win more 
battles with the rabbits.
  Anyway, I would be happy to yield to the Senator from Illinois for a 
question only, without losing my right to the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. Well, being from Illinois, I cannot get into the rabbit 
and cactus debate as some of my colleagues, perhaps my colleague from 
Arizona might be able to, but I ask my colleague from the State of 
Nevada, through the Chair, the following question: Is it his hope this 
evening we will lead to a point where there is a vote so that Members 
will have a chance to vote before the end of the day? Is that the 
Senator's goal in taking the floor as he has?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, I personally do not care whether we 
vote or not. I think it is late. I am not sure we need a vote. I am not 
sure people are here to vote, but I really do not care. I simply want 
everyone to know, as I have said on several occasions, that someone who 
can be maybe not the most cooperative--but I think I am in the top 20 
or so of being cooperative around here--I am happy to be cooperative in 
the future. But I repeat, on more than one occasion I have said today 
that we cannot be treated this way. We are part of the program here.
  We cannot tell people who live in California there is going to be a 
vote. They ask, well, what time is that vote going to be on Monday?
  Well, we don't know.
  What is it going to be on?
  We don't know, maybe something dealing with the Commerce-State-
Justice.
  Well, what if an amendment is going to be brought up, is it not going 
to be debated?
  I don't know.
  I had a call from somebody who had a schedule in the eastern part of 
the United States today. He said: Should I come?
  I said: I don't know. I am going to try to protect you, but I don't 
know if I can.
  Here we are. To compound things, tomorrow is a national holiday that 
Senator Daschle originally agreed to work and have votes on so we could 
get out of here.
  So I don't know if there is going to be a vote. I don't know. I don't 
know if there is going to be a vote. I really don't know, but maybe 
when I finish there will be a decision made on that. Maybe tomorrow we 
will have a better idea of what the schedule is. I hope that in the 
scheduling for tomorrow we will have some definition tonight what that 
scheduling is going to be.
  Those people in the West have lost their day. They cannot go West to 
enter into functions sponsored by veterans on Veterans Day. They cannot 
do that now. They have been brought back here for various and sundry 
reasons, none of which they understand. If people had some idea 
tonight, there are still things on the East Coast that people could 
still do tomorrow. I am sure maybe the Senator from Illinois, if he 
knew what the schedule was tomorrow he could return to the Chicago area 
or other parts of Illinois and do things. But those of us in the West 
cannot do that. So that is where we are.
  Chapter 6, ``The Big Mine,'' M-I-N-E.

       If one travels to Searchlight today and drives or walks 
     around the area, he or she will see scores of mines, mine 
     dumps, tailing remnants, gallows frames, and even collapsed 
     mill sites. The names of the mines are entertaining and 
     curious: Empire, Good Hope, Good Enough, New Era, Blossom, 
     Key, Tiger, Barney Riley, Rajah, Yucca, Shoshone, Ironclad, 
     Parallel, Searchlight Mining and Milling (M&M), Western, 
     Berdie, Pan American, Elvira, Mesa, Pompeii, Southern Nevada, 
     Telluride, Empire, Red Bird, Blue Bird, Saturn, Santa Fe, 
     Philadelphia, Eddie, Ora Flame, Carrie Nation, Magnolia, 
     Hyacinth, Poppy, Parrot, Spokane, Cushman, Dubuque, Golden 
     Garter, Silk Stocking, Eclipse, June Bug, Little Bug, 
     Cushman, Duplex, Water Spout, Cyrus Noble, Golden Rod, Water 
     Wagon, Bellevue, Chief of the Hills, Crown King, Quaker Girl, 
     Iditarod, Greyhound, New York, Stratford, Quintette, 
     Columbia, Gold Legion, Calivada, Annette, Gold Coin, Gold 
     Dyke--these are but a sampling of the myriad claims that make 
     up the Searchlight mining district. A few of the mines were 
     sporadically good producers, especially the Duplex, Blossom, 
     Good Hope, and Good Enough.


[[Page 28386]]

  Mr. ROBERTS. Will the distinguished Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I will yield for a question not to exceed 1 minute, Mr. 
President, without my losing my right to the floor.
  Mr. ROBERTS. I thank the distinguished Senator. While sitting in my 
capacity as the acting Presiding Officer, going back to chapter four of 
your book, I got a little confused as to how the city of Searchlight 
actually was named Searchlight. I got mixed up between Lloyd 
Searchlight and the kitchen matches. I was wondering if you, with your 
intimate knowledge of who is a chef and who is a cook and poor Bill who 
has died--obviously you don't have any fish fries anymore, but I am 
interested in the goulash--but with your intimate knowledge of 
Searchlight, do you have a theory, a pet theory as to how Searchlight 
actually got its name, of the three hypotheses that you mentioned?
  Mr. REID. I actually know how Searchlight got its name, I say to my 
friend through the distinguished Presiding Officer. Searchlight got its 
name because someone said, ``I found gold,'' and someone said he would 
``need a searchlight to find it.'' I feel fairly certain that was it.
  I think, as I said in my book, if I took the naming of Searchlight to 
a jury I would win, but not every time. We know the Lloyd Searchlight 
thing is history that, as I said, only deserved one paragraph. I gave 
it two. But it is not much of a theory.
  But the one dealing with the matches is pretty good. I think that is 
something that a jury once in a while--if we did it 10 times, maybe 2 
out of the 10 would find that.
  Mr. ROBERTS. If the distinguished Senator would yield one more time--
  Mr. REID. Under the same conditions.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Those were kitchen matches, not the modern?
  Mr. REID. Oh, yes, I say to my friend who remembers those little 
wooden matches.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Yes.
  Mr. REID. He remembers those wooden matches. They still have them now 
but usually they are hard to find and usually they have the real long 
ones they use for lighting fireplaces.
  Yes, the Senator from Kansas, I know, remembers those wood matches. I 
compliment the Senator from Kansas for being so attentive. You did pick 
up a lot. You were here for quite a few chapters.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, if I could just ask one more additional 
question of the Senator?
  Mr. REID. Under the same conditions.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Did you ever solve the problem with the rabbits with 
regard to the cactus they would eat or wouldn't eat? And I was 
wondering if you thought about just basically desert rocks? They have 
some beautiful rocks out there and I doubt seriously if the rabbits 
would have eaten the rocks.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the cactus is an ongoing saga. The cactus, I 
am working on that. I am not going to say in front of everybody how 
much money I have spent on cactus. My wife knows and is not very happy 
about it. I hope she is not watching because I just spent a few more 
dollars.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Rubber tires, perhaps?
  Mr. REID. Oh, no, my home is much nicer than rubber tires. In fact, 
we do have a magnificent rock. I am glad you mentioned that.
  In front of a great Joshua tree, we have a rock that was hauled to my 
home that is as big as, oh, probably, four of these Senate desks put 
together. The reason it is so meaningful to me is, in the days as I was 
a boy growing up, my father and uncles--and people in Searchlight--
would engage in single-jacking contests. Single-jacking contests are 
contests where a man with a piece of hardened steel that has been 
sharpened very sharp, with a big hammer that you handled with one hand 
but which had a great big head on it, not like a carpenter's hammer--
they would have contests during a 10-minute period of time to see how 
deep you could dig into that rock.
  Now I have that rock, where a number of contests were held, driving 
these pieces of steel with a single-jack into these rocks. My dad 
participated in some of these events. As I drive into my home, there is 
this great big rock and I take people out and show them these holes. I 
don't know specifically which ones my dad was involved in, but he was a 
single-jacker in his earlier days.
  I am glad you mentioned the rock.
  My cousin, who has a master's degree--never used it--started mining 
from the time he was a few years younger than me. He started mining up 
at Crescent. I talked about him in the first part of my book because 
his dad was very into that.
  His son, never having worked in mines, decided that was what he was 
going to do. He spent the last 25 years or so working up there, making 
very little money until the last few years. He didn't make any money 
from gold. But a Searchlight contractor came to him and saw this 
beautiful rock that he dug out. It had no gold in it but it was red and 
all variations in color. He said: How about selling me some of this? So 
he entered into a contract.
  We build thousands of homes every year in Las Vegas. With water being 
as scarce as it is, there is a lot of desert landscaping going on in 
Las Vegas. My cousin has made a lot of money in recent years selling 
rock.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, if I could just ask one more question and 
I will desist.
  Mr. REID. Under the same conditions, Mr. President.
  Mr. ROBERTS. I thought perhaps with your cousin, again, you could 
replace those cactus with rocks and I know the rabbits wouldn't eat the 
rocks. But in any case I think the operative thought would be to simply 
``rock on.''
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, my friend from Kansas is absolutely right. 
We probably should rock on.
  I know this is not drawing a lot of people and certainly is not going 
to take away from Monday night football, but I did get a call from my 
friend who is a Congressman from Nevada by the name of Jim Gibbons. Jim 
is somebody who has a distinguished military record. On the first 
flights that went to Iraq the first time, he was in the first formation 
of airplanes that went into Iraq through all that flak and other stuff.
  He is an American war hero. He is a lawyer and a geologist. He served 
in the Nevada State Legislature. He is now a long-time Congressman. 
When he was in the State legislature, he initiated an action that led 
to the amending of the Nevada State Constitution to require a two-
thirds vote on all tax issues.
  Jim said: I am from Sparks; say something nice about Sparks. So I 
will do that.
  My first remembrance of Sparks, I say to my friend, Congressman Jim 
Gibbons, was when I was a little boy. My hair was not as red as that of 
one of the pages. She is not here tonight. But she has really red hair. 
People thought I had red hair, strawberry blonde, or red. It has turned 
gray.
  The first thing I say to Congressman Gibbons about Sparks is, when I 
was a little boy, the bus used to stop in Searchlight. A woman got off 
the bus. I didn't know she had come from Sparks. Sparks is where the 
mental institution is. I was just standing there, this poor little kid. 
I must have been about 8 years old. She got off the bus and said: You 
little SOB, you have been following me. I am tired of it.
  I was scared to death. That is my first memory of Sparks. I learned 
later she had just gotten out of the insane asylum. This woman haunted 
me for weeks. My parents explained to me that she had come from an 
insane asylum and she had not gotten it all together.
  I say to Congressman Gibbons from Sparks, we still have the State 
mental institution. Sparks is a workingman's town. Sparks is connected 
to Reno. There is no space between the two towns. Sparks was a railroad 
town. They are working on a better version of a railroad museum that 
needs to be developed there. The railroad still goes through Sparks. It 
is still an important part of Sparks. It is a resort area. It is a very 
nice resort with a hotel and casino. It is a very nice place.

[[Page 28387]]

  So, Congressman Gibbons, Sparks is a great place. It is part of what 
makes Nevada. One of the things that makes Nevada as good as it is is 
the people who come from Nevada, not the least of whom is Congressman 
Gibbons.
  I probably should say something about Senator Ensign. I will have to 
say a few things, I guess, about everybody. I don't want to hurt 
anyone's feelings. Senator Ensign and I have comparable backgrounds in 
many respects. Senator Ensign is a long-time Nevadan. He spent most of 
his time in Nevada as he was growing up in the Lake Tahoe area. I don't 
remember exactly, but I think about 6th through the 10th grades. He was 
an athlete there. He still calls Lake Tahoe one of his favorite places 
in Nevada. Senator Ensign, as we all know, served in the House of 
Representatives. Prior to doing that, he was a veterinarian in Las 
Vegas. Senator Ensign and I hold the distinction of being alternates to 
the military academy. And we say for those people who want to go to the 
academy, if they can't make it to one of the academies, maybe they can 
wind up being a Senator. That is what happened to Senator Ensign, and 
that is what happened to me.
  John has a wonderful family. His father and I have been friends for 
many years. Our congressional delegation is really growing. For many 
years--from the time we became a State in 1864 until 1982--we only had 
one Member of Congress. Now we have three House Members and two 
Senators. My old House seat is now held by Congresswoman Shelley 
Berkley.
  I see the distinguished senior Senator from Michigan in the Chamber. 
He knows Shelley Berkley, a wonderful woman. She is so good at what she 
does. She has been a member of the State legislature in Nevada. She has 
been a member of the Board of Regents in Nevada. Now she is in her 
fourth term as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She is a 
wonderful woman. She is married to a fine physician who is tremendously 
supportive of her. She has had some very difficult elections, but not 
anymore. That is her congressional district which she represents 
extremely well.
  We have a new seat. The seat Congressman Gibbons holds is a heavily 
Republican district. The seat Congresswoman Berkley holds is a heavily 
Democratic district. The seat Congressman Jon Porter holds is one of 
the seats divided between Democrats and Republicans. He served 
previously as mayor of Boulder City, then as a member of the Nevada 
State Senate, and was elected in the first term as a Member of the 
House of Representatives.
  I appreciate Congressman Gibbons. If he or his staff, or both, are 
watching what we are doing here today, as I said, I talked about 
Searchlight and Congressman Gibbons wanted to make sure I said 
something about Sparks. I am happy to do that. It is a pleasure to work 
with the people who serve in the Nevada Congressional Delegation. They 
are wonderful people. I am proud of each one of them.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator will yield for a 
question without losing his right to the floor.
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to. I know that by yielding for a question 
I don't give up the floor, but I always say ``without giving up my 
right to the floor'' just to make sure. Because the Chair changes all 
the time, I want to make sure the Chair understands I don't have to say 
``without losing my right to the floor.''
  I will be happy to yield for a question of my friend from Michigan as 
long as the question doesn't exceed 2\1/2\ or 3 minutes.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I tried to catch as much as I possibly 
could about the Senator's exposition of Searchlight on the monitor in 
our offices. It is an absolutely fascinating history which he has 
shared with the Senate.
  I point out that the Senator who is doing this tonight is surely one 
of the most patient, determined, and beloved Members of the Senate. I 
ask this question of him as somebody who I think in the Senate on both 
sides of the aisle is admired, as somebody who tries to keep this 
institution working, and who has accommodated every Member of this 
Senate over the years, be it Republicans or Democrats.
  My question relates to Searchlight. I want to just see if the place I 
actually went through with my wife on our way to Death Valley, CA, 
might have been Searchlight. We went through it at night. It was a town 
in Nevada--a very long town. It was in a valley. It was probably 10 
times longer than it was wide. It was one of those nights where all the 
lights of the town sparkled. I am sure Nevada probably has some of the 
clearest air in the world. I wonder whether or not that is the shape of 
Searchlight. Is it a very long, rectangular town?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I could say to my friend, my friend went 
through Pahrump, not Searchlight. That was Pahrump. Searchlight is very 
short. You are through Searchlight in less than a mile on the highway.
  Pahrump is a town that is, by the way, now more than 40,000 people, 
unincorporated. It is a town that was blessed with large amounts of 
water. Pahrump is some Indian term dealing with water. It has lots of 
water. They actually grew cotton in large quantities in Pahrump for 
many decades. It is very water intense.
  With the growth of Las Vegas, Pahrump has become almost a bedroom 
community for Las Vegas. It is one of gateways to Death Valley. It is a 
place just as the distinguished Senator described, a long, narrow town 
that goes on for miles. As I said, it is growing significantly and is 
part of Nye County, which is the second largest county in America, 
second only to San Bernardino County.
  Let me say to my friend, I want the distinguished Senator from 
Michigan to know what a solace it is to me the Senator from Michigan is 
the leading Democrat, the number one Democrat, the ranking member on 
the Armed Services Committee. There are a lot of different 
personalities and character traits we all have in the Senate. The 
Senator from Michigan has a couple, all positive. One is, nothing gets 
by the Senator from Michigan. There is not a sentence in the bill the 
Senator is involved in that he does not understand. There is not any 
agreement they enter into that the Senator is a part of that he does 
not understand. When we deal with the defense and security of this 
Nation, it does my heart good to know the Senator from Michigan is 
involved in helping make our country safe and secure.
  I appreciate his kind comments. In an effort to indicate to the 
Senate my fondness for the Senator from Michigan, the first time I met 
the senior Senator from Michigan, I was a member of the House of 
Representatives. We met. I proudly said to the Senator from Michigan, I 
came to Washington with your brother, Sandy Levin. I said how much I 
cared about him. The Senator from Michigan said it very quickly: My 
brother Sandy is not only my brother; he is my friend.
  Having three brothers, that meant so much to me. I have always looked 
at the Senator from Michigan in the context of what he told me about 
his brother Sandy.
  I also say to my friend from Michigan, I had other things to do today 
than be here and do what I am doing today. We are talking about 
Searchlight now. But for 3 hours I had to be aware of the Pastore rule 
and talk about the bill. I talked about that for approximately 3 more 
hours, about substantive issues. I tried to lay the groundwork in this 
body to show that we, as the Senate, should be concerned about a number 
of things.
  We should be concerned, as in this chart, about the things that are 
going up. Uninsured medical, going up. This is during the Bush term of 
office, almost 3 years now. The number of poor is going up. The 
unemployed numbers are going way up. The budget deficit, the largest 
ever in this country; the national debt, going way up. I thought it 
would be better that we as the Senate talk about the issues that are 
going up rather than spending 30 hours on something going down, the 
lowest rate of Federal vacancies in the Judiciary in almost 15 years.

[[Page 28388]]

  The Senator understands procedures of this body as well as I do. The 
Senator understands the Senate was developed by our Founding Fathers 
not to protect the majority; it was developed to protect the minority. 
The minority has trouble protecting itself and the majority never does. 
It was developed for more than protecting the Senate minority, but it 
was set up to protect the minority so that in pieces of legislation 
where people had no advocacy and only the moneyed interests were 
pushing through, the minority could do something about it.
  One area of responsibility we have as Senators is to protect what 
goes on in the Senate. The distinguished majority whip came to the 
floor the first thing this morning and said, I think it is unfair we 
have been criticized for poor leadership--we, the Republicans. We have 
done great things. We passed 10 appropriations bills; you only passed 
three. We have done lots of good things.
  What he failed to say--and anyone who knows anything about the Senate 
knows you cannot do things on a one-party basis here. They passed 10 
appropriations bills because we let them, because we thought it was 
good for this country.
  When we were in the majority, they would not let us pass them, as we 
all remember. But this, as I said before, is not payback time. This is 
time to be responsible.
  We were on the path to pass all 13 appropriations bills. I talked to 
Senator Stevens on several occasions about ways to help him. The 
Presiding Officer knows we could have passed the Agriculture bill in 
less than 1 day. Why didn't we? Because as we are working hard, 
agreeing to work today, November 10th and on a holiday, November 11th, 
there is a program being conducted to keep us in session from Wednesday 
at 6 until Thursday at midnight. To do what? To talk about 
unemployment? To talk about unemployment benefits? To talk about 
minimum wage? To talk about health care? To talk about the environment? 
To talk about all the important issues we have to deal with? No, we are 
going to talk about Federal judges for 30 hours. Can you imagine that? 
Thirty hours to talk about Federal judges.
  What have we done that is such a bad job with judges? As I said to 
the Senator from Illinois a little while ago, I say to my friend, 
assume the four judges we turned down--Estrada, Owen, Pickering, and 
Prior--assume we were wrong. Just for purposes of argument, we were 
wrong, we made a bad decision on every one of them. Is that any reason 
to hold up the Senate, and the country, for 30 hours? But the fact is, 
we were not wrong. The fact is, we did the right thing for this country 
to keep out a man by the name of Pickering, who every civil rights 
group in America opposed. Every one. Every one. I am saying we did the 
right thing by keeping Miguel Estrada from going onto the bench. Why? 
Because he thought he was somebody who did not have to answer questions 
like everyone else. He thought because he was so smart and graduated 
first in his class that his intellectual abilities before the dumb 
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee--he didn't have to deal with those 
people. He could just waltz through. He didn't have to tell people how 
he felt. He showed more of his arrogance when he said, I don't have to 
give you the memorandum I wrote while I was in the Solicitor's Office. 
We did the country a favor by turning him down.
  We have done the country a favor by turning down Justice Owen, a 
Texas Supreme Court Justice who even the President's lawyer doesn't 
want to be on the court. That is what he said in some of his opinions--
he dissented, she didn't--in Texas.
  William Pryor--give me a break. We did the country another favor.
  So we are going to spend 30 hours of this Senate's valuable time 
talking about 4 judges who were turned down. How many have we approved? 
One hundred sixty-eight. How many more on the calendar will we approve? 
I don't know, but we just have to arrange votes for them. I said to 
Members of the Judiciary Committee who came here today, I don't like a 
lot of the 168 we voted on and approved, but I believe the President 
should have wide latitude in picking these judges. We have given him 
wide latitude. We have only sifted out the very worst.
  Mr. LEVIN. Will the Senator yield for a question without losing your 
right to the floor.
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to do that for my friend from Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. Are there not two other factors involved here: One, that 
in all four cases there has been significant debate on each of those 
four judges before the votes that were cast, the cloture votes which 
were cast? As a matter of fact, there is a suggestion there may be 
additional cloture votes for which debates would be totally 
appropriate. If the majority is going to bring up additional cloture 
votes on any of those judges, there would be debate before cloture on 
those judges. But what the 30-hour proposal is, is something which does 
not lead to votes.
  Is the Senator from Michigan correct, there are no votes at the end 
of the 30-hour use of the Senate's time?
  (Mr. BENNETT assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. REID. The Senator from Michigan is absolutely correct. I say to 
the Senator from Michigan, until Friday, all the time was going to be 
taken by the majority. After public statements crying for fairness, in 
the unanimous consent agreement here Friday they said we can take half 
the time.
  Mr. President, I say to my friend from Michigan, of course they have 
had hearings. Some of these people we voted on numerous times, and 
every time we vote on them it is the same argument. I can give the 
arguments. I have listened to them so many times on the other side. We 
are going to spend 30 hours. Is there going to be a single new thing 
brought up other than to berate us for destroying the system?
  I repeat, Mr. President, on my Blackberry here today I got something 
from the majority leader. Let me see if I can pull down to it here. I 
have been getting a lot of messages I have not returned today. Let's 
see what I can find. It is here on my Blackberry. Here it is. Here is 
what it says: ``What we are doing to move our judicial nominations 
forward.'' That is the title of the deal here: Judges.

       This year the Senate has suffered an unprecedented 
     obstruction of a President's judicial nominees by filibuster. 
     In the history of our Nation this has never been done before.

  Of course it has been done before. It has been done while I have been 
here. I have not been here that long. It has been done just the last 
few years. I do not have it here--yes, I do. Lisa has it up here. We 
know that right here we have many judges who never even got a hearing, 
but for Barkett, Paez, Berzon, we had to file a petition to invoke 
cloture, and cloture was invoked before we got to vote on these.
  Now, on these, remember, you need 41 votes to stop a cloture. They 
almost got it with Paez. For Berzon they got 34 votes; Barkett, 37 
votes.
  Mr. LEVIN. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REID. So I say to my friend, what makes it even worse than these 
people is what happened to my friend from Michigan. For my friend from 
Michigan, they would not even give his people hearings. They ignored 
him. They are gone.
  So I say to my friend from Michigan, we have been fair. We have been 
fair in the treatment of judges. We have done what we feel is fair, 
168. One hundred sixty eight, let's understand that. This is not 
anything that is too hard to understand. I know I am being somewhat 
facetious here: 168 to 4--168 to 4--168 judges approved during the less 
than 3 years this man has been President. We have turned down 4--1, 2, 
3, 4. That is how many we have turned down.
  Now, does that deserve something? Does that deserve 30 hours in the 
last few days, the waning hours of this Congress? I do not think so. I 
do not think so.
  Now, we have said many times this is not payback time. And that is 
established by this 168 to 4. Look at what happened--look at what 
happened--during the Clinton years. Nominees blocked: 63. Percent 
blocked: 20 percent. Bush: 2 percent.
  Now, as I said here earlier today, if we only blocked 2, and it 
dropped to 1

[[Page 28389]]

percent, do you think 15 hours is what they deserve for talking about 
judges--15 hours, I say to my friend?
  Well, I think we have treated them fairly. I do not know how many of 
these 63 people who were treated poorly were from the State of 
Michigan, but I know of a couple because I have had conversations with 
my friend from Michigan. I so appreciate the Senator bringing this to 
the attention of the Senate through the questions that he has asked.
  That is why we are here. As I said earlier, I have other things to 
do. We all do. But I am here today not as Harry Reid, a Senator from 
Nevada. I am here today as Harry Reid, the person representing the 
Democrats who feel it is unfair that we are going to spend 30 hours, 
beginning at 6 o'clock on Wednesday, going until midnight on Thursday, 
when we have such important things to do, and when we have bent over 
backward to make this new majority leader's life a pleasant life. We 
have been so easy on him because we believe that is our function.
  Mr. LEVIN. Will the Senator yield for an additional question?
  Mr. REID. I will yield for a question without losing the floor.
  Mr. LEVIN. Without losing your right to the floor.
  I wonder if your staff could put that other chart on with the judges 
because I just want to expand on one or two points. Some of the judges 
which the good Senator from Nevada pointed out were judges where 
cloture votes were required by the opponents of the judges; is that not 
correct, during the Clinton years, and it was required there be 60 
votes in order to get those cloture motions adopted?
  Mr. REID. Yes. We have here Rosemary Barkett, Eleventh Circuit, where 
a cloture motion had to be filed.
  Mr. LEVIN. Now, does that not mean, for people who might be watching 
this, that it was required that the supporters of that judge produce 60 
votes?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, that is absolutely right. Barkett, 
Paez, and Berzon all required 60 votes--60 votes. Without 60 votes, 
these people could not serve. And so for someone to have the audacity 
to say: By filibuster, the first time it has been done in the history 
of our Nation; it has never been done before--it has been done not only 
here but other times. Other times it has happened.
  Now, I say to my friend, there have been other occasions where the 
filibuster was conducted, and it was obvious to the nominee that person 
was not going to be able to break the impasse, so to speak, and they 
quit. We know that Abe Fortas, who wanted to become the Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court, he withdrew when he saw he could not get enough 
votes to break the filibuster. So that is simply the fact. That is a 
fact of life.
  So, please, I say to my friend, the majority leader, or anyone else, 
do not say it has never happened before. We have done it four times 
this year to protect our role. As the Senator from Illinois, Mr. 
Durbin, pointed out earlier today, our role, which article II, section 
2 of the Constitution of the United States states, is that we advise 
and consent to the President of the United States. We believe that is 
our role as it relates to those Federal judges.
  These are lifetime appointments. These are very important positions. 
They are prestigious. They are important. These judges have the ability 
of life and death through the stroke of a pen--life and death of an 
individual, of a company, a course of action, a labor union, a 
business.
  So I think what we have done is appropriate. Would it be better for 
us to not have the advise and consent role--just say: President Bush, 
send them all up. We will take them all. In fact, we will vote on 20 at 
a time. Just bring them up. We will vote on them 20 at a time. We have 
nothing to say about it, so just put them on through.
  Now the majority is going to come and say: Well, yes, but let's give 
them up-or-down votes. What they are saying is: We do not want to play 
by our rules. We want to play by somebody else's rules.
  They demanded filibusters, and we were able to break those. Thank 
goodness there were some people on the other side who recognized this 
was not right. But do not say we have never had filibusters. We have 
had them.
  I heard my friend, the distinguished Senator from Utah, the senior 
Senator, say: Yes, but those were friendly filibusters. Come on. What 
is a ``friendly filibuster''? I do not understand what that means. Even 
if that were not the case, there have been filibusters in the past.
  So I say to the Senator from Michigan, I appreciate him being here 
tonight and talking about some of these issues with us. It is important 
that we understand that the reason the majority has been able to do as 
well as they have with the legislation this year is because we have 
worked with them.
  I have no regrets about that. I think what we have done has been 
good. But I also say to the very experienced senior Senator from 
Michigan, the Senate is not a place where you can just run over people. 
The majority leader has a title, but it is not dictator. It is not: You 
do whatever I say.
  The only way he is going to continue to be successful is if we work 
with him. And we will continue to do that. But we are not going to be 
stampeded.
  When is the vote?
  Oh, I don't know. Sometime on Monday.
  Early or late?
  Well, no, I haven't decided yet.
  We have people living on the west coast who went home this weekend 
for various reasons. They have to live by a rule like that when 
tomorrow is a national legal holiday?
  Mr. LEVIN. I wonder if the Senator will yield for an additional 
question without losing his right to the floor.
  Mr. REID. I will do that.
  Mr. LEVIN. The Senator from Nevada, probably more than anybody, has 
made it possible for this Senate to run as smoothly as it does, even 
though there are huge numbers of bumps in the road. There would be 100 
times as many bumps in the road but for the willingness of the Senator 
from Nevada to work with Members on both sides of the aisle to get 
legislation passed. He is constantly here in the well of the Senate 
asking people if they could cut the time down on their amendments, 
could they drop amendments, could they work cooperatively with somebody 
to work jointly on a bill. It is a constant effort to keep the wheels 
greased so we can accomplish as much as we do.
  I ask the Senator from Nevada this question: As somebody who is known 
to every Member of this Senate as someone who makes it possible for us 
to get a whole lot of things done, which we could not get done but for 
that effort, is part of the cooperation which makes it possible for us 
to act cooperatively, to act with a sense of comity, which we do most 
of the time, is it not true that part of that is that there be a 
willingness to share scheduling information with the minority so the 
minority can schedule airplanes, come back when there are going to be 
votes, and that that is an essential part of a spirit of cooperation 
which is so essential to be President of the Senate, and whether that 
is something which the Senator is referring to when he talks about an 
unwillingness to give information about whether there would be votes 
and on what subjects today and tomorrow?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, Senator Daschle agreed that we would 
work today and tomorrow, when all of a sudden we learned toward the 
middle of last week that the schedule this week was going to be 
interrupted by 30 hours talking about four judges. We were dumbfounded. 
We thought the report we first got had been mistaken, that they had 
made it up. But we came to the realization that it is true. The 
majority leader made a deal with somebody that they could spend 30 
hours talking about these four judges. So then we agreed to go to 
Agriculture, which we figured we would do that. We could have finished 
that more quickly than we did, but some of the Members were pretty 
upset. They were going to have to work Monday and Tuesday, when they 
had lots of things to do at home.
  Then when it came time for the schedule today and tomorrow, it is so

[[Page 28390]]

vague. It is obvious they are doing things to protect people over here 
and not telling us who they are protecting and why.
  This isn't some big cabal to take over the Senate, but it is a cabal 
of one to make sure people understand around here that if the Senate is 
going to be productive, it takes both Democrats and Republicans to be 
productive.
  We have set an exemplary record, as the history books will recount, 
of being very productive this year. We have allowed the production to 
go forward because we thought it was in the best interest of the 
country.
  Mr. LEVIN. If the Senator will yield for one additional question.
  Mr. REID. I yield without losing the floor.
  Mr. LEVIN. Is the likelihood that we will be able to finish all the 
appropriations bills reduced when we spend 30 hours on some other 
subject which, again, does not lead to a vote on those judges, but 
nonetheless is it less likely that we will be able to finish all the 
appropriations bills as a result of allocating that time to that debate 
and, as a result, if we do not finish the appropriations bills 
individually, does this mean it is more likely that we are going to end 
up with some kind of an omnibus appropriations bill which bollixes 
together three or four appropriations bills which should be and usually 
are treated separately, amended separately, debated separately in the 
light of day?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, it is obvious. Think of that schedule, 
30 hours beginning at 6 o'clock Wednesday going all night, all night 
until midnight the next night. Is that going to bring about a fatigue 
factor here? Of course, it will. People have to be here. All the staff 
has to be here working hard. Of course, it is going to slow things 
down. But not only slow down appropriations bills and conference 
reports, we have things here we should be doing.
  I asked last week on several occasions, why can't we pass The 
Military Construction appropriations bill by voice vote? Well, it is 
obvious why not. They want to arrange it so that it is brought up here 
and a time for debate on it, just for lack of a better way to describe 
it, just to jerk us around. Why aren't we doing the Syria 
Accountability Act? I don't know. There is an hour and a half time set 
on that.
  I am confident the reason they didn't do it is because they have some 
people who weren't here today. We don't know that, but that is why they 
didn't vote on it today. We know that. They are protecting certain 
people. None of us were protected because we weren't part of the 
schedule.
  I would hope that we would do a better job of working together on a 
schedule. The Senator is right. We have worked together on trying to 
work out amendments so there wouldn't be as many amendments and we 
would have shorter time on the amendments. That is the only reason 
these bills got passed, not only the appropriations bills but a long 
string of bills that my friend from Kentucky this morning talked about, 
things that they have accomplished.
  They haven't accomplished them. We have accomplished them. No one, no 
Republican or Democrat in the Senate can do it alone. This is a body 
where it takes, virtually for everything, unanimous consent. We all 
have to work on it.
  I would certainly hope that we would do a better job working together 
in the future and not try to do all this freelancing. I thank the 
Senator for his participation.
  Mr. President, I began a long chapter here. I am going to proceed 
with the town that my friend from Michigan almost came to but not 
quite. I spotted it in a second. He described it perfectly. We all know 
what Pahrump is like. It is just as it was described by the Senator 
from Michigan. There are wonderful people in Pahrump. I worked with him 
on a lot of different projects, not the least of which is a nice two-
lane road which was killing so many people. The two-lane road is now a 
four-lane road.
  One of my good friends, who was a prominent person in Pahrump, he and 
I served in the legislature together. He is a Republican. I am a 
Democrat. Tim Hafen is a fine man who has worked so hard to develop 
that town. He owns a lot of property. It has developed a lot. My 
brother lives in Nye County, Amargosa Valley.
  There are a number of things going on there, not the least of which 
is a huge dairy farm, 15,000 cows, something like that. There are lots 
of them.
  On we go with the big mine, chapter 6. I know there has been a lot of 
disappointment in that we weren't dealing with chapter 6 earlier. I got 
off the script dealing with rabbits.
  I would just say this: I had always wanted so hard to find a picture 
of a coyote. They are such wiley animals, not seen very often.
  So I was in Winnemucca. Someone was a sculptor there and they had 
this Western display in Winnemucca, NV. I said: Have you ever known 
anybody to sculpt a coyote? He said: No. I said: Would you do one for 
me? He said: Yes.
  I have it in my office upstairs. He did a wonderful job. At the time 
I did that, I didn't realize I was pulling so hard for the coyotes and 
against the rabbits. Since I built my place in Searchlight, I have 
become even a bigger fan of coyotes than I was before.

       It was, however, with anticipation and great hope that the 
     early Searchlighters approached the future. In May 1904 the 
     headline in the local newspaper blared that the area was the 
     premier desert mining district. The first years of the boom 
     created much speculation and investment. By 1904 there were 
     seven mills within a mile of one another: Cyrus Noble, 
     Quartette, Duplex, Southern Nevada, Good Hope, M&M, and Santa 
     Fe. Unfortunately, soon after construction, several of the 
     mills were left without any ore to process.
       The Cyrus Noble earned its name because the claim was sold 
     for a bottle of Cyrus Noble whiskey. Ten days before the 
     assessment work on the claim was due, the owner walked into a 
     Searchlight bar and shouted, ``What am I offered for my 
     claim?'' ``I'll give a cigar,'' one patron said. The offer 
     was accepted. Immediately afterward, the new owner crowed, 
     ``What am I offered for my claim? Another miner responded, 
     ``I'll give you this bottle of Cyrus Noble.'' ``Sold,'' 
     replied the new owner. The third owner made a good bargain 
     because, unlike many others, this claim did produce some 
     gold. Adjacent to the Cyrus Noble were other claims with 
     names that related to the bottle, such as the Little Brown 
     Jug.

  I might say, Mr. President, that the Cyrus Noble, a whiskey company, 
produced a collection; they are collector's items now--the bottles of 
whiskey called Cyrus Noble. They are beautiful. I have most of them in 
my house in Searchlight. They are of a prospector, a man playing a 
piano, an assayer, and lots of different things. I think I have 11 of 
them. There may be more than that. Cyrus Noble is a famous little mine, 
by Searchlight standards.

       The Duplex was the second-best mine in Searchlight, but it 
     was a very distant second place. Another good mine was the 
     Blossom, which was staked by George Butts. It produced a 
     small amount of high-grade ore, but Butts didn't have the 
     money to work it. While trying to sell the mine, he lived on 
     the property in abject poverty in a hut built of Joshua 
     trees. For more than a year he lived in these harsh 
     conditions, holding out for his price. George Butts was given 
     many offers for the claim, but he held out for $25,000, a 
     huge price in that day. After almost two years had gone by, 
     he got his $25,000. He died three days after the sale.
       Speculation was not limited to minerals. In December 1907 
     news reached Searchlight that oil had been struck midway 
     between the town and Needles. According to the story, the 
     Wayne Oil Company was confident that a large oil deposit lay 
     beneath the surface. Like many other strike rumors, this one 
     also went bust. The story was never mentioned again, but the 
     anticipation must have been intense.
       The only real world-class mine in the history of 
     Searchlight was the Quartette. From 1899, when Macready 
     disobeyed the order to stop further work in the Quartette, 
     this mine became Searchlight's biggest and best. For the 
     first decade of Searchlight's existence, the Quartette was 
     the premier mine. Anyone writing or talking about the camp 
     lifted up the mighty Quartette as a beacon of Searchlight's 
     progress. Even after mining had all but disappeared in the 
     area, it was still a fine mine, continuing to produce small 
     amounts of gold up until the 1960s. it was the best in 
     Searchlight.
       During the decade of mining dominance, from 1899 to 1908, 
     not only was the Quartette the biggest producer in the whole 
     of southern Nevada, but several times it was also the largest 
     producer in Nevada and one of the biggest in the entire 
     United States.
       From its inauspicious beginning, the Quartette developed 
     into a mine with multiple shafts. The main shaft, or the 
     glory

[[Page 28391]]

     hole, was sunk to a depth of 1,350 feet. As with many mines 
     of the day, an air shaft was usually sunk to help with the 
     circulation of air in the main shaft, its drifts, crosscuts, 
     and other diggings. The Quartette was no different; it used 
     an air shaft that initially started at the 600-foot level and 
     then was raised to the surface. Eventually the shaft was 
     extended down to the 900-foot level when bad air necessitated 
     that fresh air be circulated to the lower levels. Other 
     shafts sunk over the years were distinguished by the names 
     the Carlton, the Crocker, and Shaft #3. These were not cut to 
     great depths, and most were used for ore exploration 
     purposes.
       W.J. Sinclair, one of the first dozen men to enter Tonopah 
     and one of the wealthiest men of Nevada, stated in 1904: ``I 
     doff my hat to Searchlight, for you certainly have in the 
     Quartette, the biggest gold mine in the country. I have seen 
     many wonderful showings, but never the equal of the 
     Quartette.''

  Mr. President, I have an illustration in my book that shows the 
hundreds and hundreds of mining claims in Searchlight history. It was a 
very big dig for a decade or more.

       The Searchlight newspaper opined shortly thereafter: 
     ``Searchlight is justly proud of the Quartette mine for it 
     is, as it stands today, the biggest and best mine in the 
     Southwest. As a free milling proposition it is unequalled by 
     any mine in the United States, and considering the amount of 
     development done it is one of the largest in the world.''
       There was a strong basis for this optimism. In November 
     1903 the mine was working three full shifts, and the mill 
     would begin working three shifts by early 1905. Modern 
     equipment was installed that allowed electric arc lights to 
     shine in the night desert sky, pointing out the location of 
     the famous hole in the ground. The electric lights on the 
     surface were duplicated in the underground workings as well. 
     In 1904 the Quartette milling operations were electrified. 
     There were telephones on the surface and in certain stations 
     underground. At no time, however, did the Quartette Company 
     share its electrical power generation capabilities with the 
     town. Searchlight would later have to develop its own system 
     of electricity.
       After the cessation of mining activities in the mine, there 
     was still much talk of the width and depth of the Quartette 
     ore vein; it was indeed the stuff of which legends are made. 
     At the 700-foot level the ore body was described as being 
     more than 14 feet high and averaging $100 per ton, a figure 
     representing more than four ounces per ton. By today's 
     standard this gold would be worth more than $1,500 per ton. 
     Currently, gold ore in Nevada is mined at significantly less 
     than four ounces per ton; many times are worked when the ore 
     grade has only one tenth of an ounce per ton and sometimes 
     even less. At just one station at the 700-foot level, the 
     stope (a steplike excavation underground for the removal of 
     ore that is formed as the ore is mined in successive layers) 
     was described as being 18 feet by 40 feet and needing 18,000 
     square feet of timbers for just that one station. By 1906, 
     when the mine had reached the 900-foot level, the vein was 
     measured to be 60 feet wide. In addition to these huge bodies 
     of moderately good ore, another strike occurred on the 700-
     foot level, which assayed an astounding forty-four ounces per 
     ton; by today's standard, the ore would be worth more than 
     $17,750 per ton. The huge stopes dug out to retrieve the ore 
     were basically underground caverns supported by timbers or by 
     pillars of dirt not removed during excavation, even though 
     valuable, but left to provide support to keep the ground from 
     collapsing.
       The early mining in the Quartette, and in all of the mines 
     in Searchlight, was performed by hand. Two methods of 
     drilling were used. The first was single jacking: one man 
     with a large hammer simultaneously hit and turned a sharpened 
     piece of steel. The other method was double jacking: one man 
     held a large, long-handled hammer or mallet with both hands, 
     striking a piece of steel that was held and turned by another 
     man. After the holes were drilled, dynamite was packed into 
     the cavities; a cap attached to a fuse was lit, causing the 
     cap to explode and ignite the dynamite charge. This same 
     method was used in shafts and for tunneling work.
       Occupational safety was almost an afterthought. Miners 
     didn't wear hard hats in Searchlight until World War II. They 
     wore cloth hats with a mount on the front upon which to hook 
     their carbide lanterns. Carbide is a binary compound that 
     produces an ignitable gas when combined with water, thus 
     allowing miners to see underground.
       After Hopkins purchased the Quartette, the work gradually 
     became mechanized. Gasoline combustion engines were used to 
     power hoists for removing muck and ore from the shafts. Hand 
     power was used to tram the material to the shaft from the 
     various tunnels--drifts, crosscuts, winces, and raises. This 
     waste and ore was placed in cars and trams that ran on iron 
     tracks laid like a miniature railroad. At the shaft, the 
     bucket or tram was put on skids and hoisted to the top.
       In the smaller mines, the ore and waste products were 
     brought to the surface by various means, the cheapest being a 
     windlass. A windlass was normally a rounded wooden shaft with 
     a crank on one side end, which had the rope or cable wound 
     around it. When the crank was turned, the rope or cable wound 
     around the shaft, bringing the materials to the surface. 
     Other more elaborate hoisting methods used horses or mules to 
     turn the crank and bring the earth up to the surface.
       Even the quarters for the mine bosses at the Quartette were 
     impressive. In 1905 new quarters constructed for the 
     superintendent and other supervisory personnel included 
     lounging and reading rooms. Colonel Hopkins had a complete 
     private suite, even though he spent most of his time outside 
     the district, in either Los Angeles or Boston.
       It was reported in 1905 that even more modern provisions 
     would come to the depths of the mine, in the form of new 
     drilling equipment. A new compressor on the surface would 
     supply a new drilling apparatus for drilling uppers, making 
     it easier to place drill holes on the upper reaches of the 
     adit. This method replaced the single and double jacking for 
     much of the work in the Quartette. About the same time, a 
     small timber mill was installed, including a tip saw, swing, 
     cut-off, and wedge saw for the preparation of the mine 
     timbers.
       When the main shaft reached the 800-foot level, the modern 
     hoisting equipment allowed the skip, which held three 
     thousand pounds of ore or waste, to go to the bottom and back 
     to the top in three minutes. The hoist was operated by a 60-
     horsepower Fairbanks-Morse engine, at the time the largest 
     made in the world. Despite all the expenditures for supplies 
     and equipment, it was determined in the summer of 1905 that 
     it cost only $5 per ton to mine and process the Quartette's 
     ore.
       Throughout its entire period of operation, the Quartette 
     required timbers in large quantities for square-set 
     timbering. The square-set process was invented by Philip 
     Deidesheimer, who was brought to Virginia City during the 
     Comstock era to solve the extremely dangerous problem of 
     cave-ins, which frequently caused injury and death. He 
     developed the system in just two weeks. His plan was to frame 
     timbers together in rectangular sets, each set being composed 
     of a square based, placed horizontally, formed of four 
     timbers, sills, and crosspieces from four to six feet long, 
     surmounted at the corners by four posts from six to seven 
     feet high, and capped by a framework similar to the base. The 
     cap pieces forming the tip of any set simultaneously 
     functioned as the sills or base of the next set above. These 
     sets could readily be extended to any required height and 
     could be spread over any given area, forming a series of 
     horizontal floors, built up from the bottom sets like the 
     successive stories of a house. The spaces between the timbers 
     were filled with waste rock, forming a solid cube, whenever 
     the maximum degree of firmness was desired.
       Not only did this method of timbering provide strength, but 
     it also allowed the timbers to move with shifts in the 
     ground. The slight shifting of the ground would twist normal 
     braces of timbers loose, but with Deidesheimer's square-set 
     method, the bracing remained firm. In Searchlight much of the 
     ground required the square-set method, and experienced 
     timberers were always at a premium.
       The Quartette constantly had trouble finding a sufficient 
     supply of wood for its timbering. In September 1905 it was 
     reported that it became so difficult to get the timber from 
     Southern California suppliers that the company ordered 
     500,000 feet of the product from the Northwest. It was a time 
     when huge amounts of timbers were needed because the shaft 
     was reaching the 1,000-foot level.
       In addition to the timbering method of shoring up the loose 
     and dangerous ground, many of the stopes were buttressed by 
     leaving pillars of ore to hold the ground from caving in. In 
     the later leasing years, even though the procedure was 
     dangerous, the pillars of ore would be taken, leaving the 
     ground without support.
       The Quartette used timbering only as a last resort. This is 
     clear from early statements made by Colonel Hopkins, who, 
     when asked in 1906 if the company could take more ore than it 
     was currently processing, replied, ``It is not because we 
     have not the desire to take out as much metal as possible in 
     a given time, but simply because we are compelled to protect 
     our mine from the possibility of collapse owing to the 
     character of the walls. With an increased output it would be 
     for us necessary to do much costly timbering to keep the mine 
     from caving in that it would not be worthwhile, whereas at 
     present we are safe from disaster and are doing very well 
     indeed with our investment. In the course of time we will 
     reach a stage we can work upward and then will be asked to 
     mine on a larger scale.''
       By June 1905 the Quartette had already produced more than 
     $800,000.

  (Ms. MURKOWSKI assumed the chair.)
  Mr. REID. Madam President, that was a huge amount of money in 1905.

       Before the end of the same year, the mine would have 
     produced more than $1 million, a huge sum of money for just 
     after the turn of the century. In August 1905, 325 men were

[[Page 28392]]

     employed in the mines in Searchlight, this figure did not 
     include the many supporting workers such as teamsters, 
     millers, and the businesses that supported the town and the 
     mine workers. Seventy-five of these men were employed in 
     assessment work and by contract--that is, they were not 
     employed for wages as other miners were. By far the largest 
     employer in the county was the Quartette Company.
       As late as 1908 there were those who wrote that because 
     gold was still present at depths of nearly 1,000 feet, the 
     mine would have a virtually inexhaustible supply of good ore.
       About the same time that the Quartette's river mill began 
     operating with ore supplied by the company's own railroad, 
     water was hit at the mine. In fact, one of the interesting 
     phenomena in the Searchlight area was that some of the mines 
     hit water at relatively shallow depths. The Santa Fe, located 
     about a mile and a half from the Quartette, found water at 
     less than a hundred feet. The Quartette didn't hit water 
     until about the 500-foot level. The local newspaper reported: 
     ``It is supposed to be the scarcest article in the desert, 
     but mine after mine here is developing water in unheard of 
     quantities.'' Even though the water came at relatively deeper 
     levels in Searchlight, when water was reached, it appeared in 
     large quantities. At the beginning of 1908, the Quartette was 
     pumping 200,000 gallons a day out of the mine.
       The dewatering of the mine allowed the company to build a 
     mill closer to the mine site. By October 1906 the twenty-
     stamp mill was crushing 2,000 tons monthly. Like the rest of 
     its operation, the mills of the Quartette were state-of-the 
     art facilities. By the end of the year the company had added 
     another full twenty-stamp mills and was then milling more 
     than 4,000 tons each month. These mill were used well into 
     the 1920s before they were replaced by ball mills, which were 
     much more efficient and less costly, requiring significantly 
     less maintenance.
       By the summer of 1909 the 1,200-foot level had been reached 
     in the main shaft. In August ore of a very high value was 
     found in one of the drifts at the 1,100-foot level. At the 
     same time a new ore body was announced at sites between 400 
     feet and 500 feet down in the workings.
       The bowels of this magnificent mine were extraordinary. 
     Even as early as 1906, the description of the mine was 
     inspirational: ``It would take several hours to make even a 
     hurried trip through the several miles of underground 
     workings. The mystical maze of drifts, slopes, upraises, 
     crosscuts and winces confuses one . . . and the visitor 
     simply loses what mental balance he has left and becomes 
     simply a human exclamation point and ejaculates an endless 
     strings of Oh's and Ah's.''
       From the main shaft extended various drifts, nearly 
     horizontal mine passageways driven on or parallel to the 
     course of the vein. On the 200-foot level the drift west was 
     driven more than 1,000 feet.

  Madam President, I have a couple pages more, and then I understand we 
will have the closing script, and I will take a look at it.

       It is difficult to imagine the danger and hardship of 
     working in these huge caverns. The only preserved account of 
     the adversity came in 1934, from someone who had been in the 
     Quartette in 1912: ``The temperature was at 105 degrees, at 
     the 1,200 and 1,300 foot levels, with the ground being very 
     soft. The working conditions on the east face of the 1,200 
     and 1,300 foot levels were almost impossible even though the 
     ore was still good. The work at almost all levels was most 
     difficult because the stoping had been done improperly.''
       This letter was written many years later, when Charles 
     Jonas, formerly the superintendent for Hopkins and a 
     subsequent lessee, was attempting to get financing for the 
     mine. He had firsthand knowledge of the operation because he 
     had been involved in the mine since at least 1912. Jonas 
     observed that ore was removed in such a manner that no others 
     would later be able to work the mine in the area where the 
     stoping had occurred. Not only was the ground bad and the 
     underground working hot, but miners were also constantly 
     fighting the never-ending encroachment of water. As late as 
     the 1940s, residents of Searchlight could still feel and hear 
     the Quartette's big stopes caving.
       In 1909 the Great Quartette Mine was still producing 
     $500,000 a year, but even as early as 1908, there were rumors 
     that the mine was beginning to fail, and the owners were 
     reported to be negotiating a sale to an English syndicate for 
     $4 million.
       The demise of the Quartette began when Colonel Hopkins 
     decided he wanted to turn the management over to others. In 
     January 1910 Hopkins's son, Walter, became the assistant mine 
     manager. Immediately afterward came the first mention of 
     leasing out operations, even though the reports showed that 
     the mine was doing well. But in June, thirty-five of the 
     forty stamps in the mill were silenced.
       By the end of 1911 the Quartette was being leased to many 
     different individuals, much like sharecropping in the South. 
     Different areas of the old mine would be mined by lessees, 
     and the Quartette Company would receive a royalty or 
     percentage of the ore taken out by the lessees.
       From a review of the mining statistics for the year ending 
     December 1909, the figure for Clark County, almost 12,000 
     tons, basically referred to mining in Searchlight--no 
     significant mining activity had gone on elsewhere in the 
     county during the preceding decade. For the same period in 
     1910, the tonnage dropped to 2,400 tons. The main obstacle to 
     further success was the extremely high cost of taking ore 
     from such deep areas of the mine. It is clear that the 
     leasing emerged for primarily economic reasons.
       By July nine lessees were operating above the 100-foot 
     level in the Quartette. It was said that the mine was a 
     leaser's mecca because the lessees had some good luck 
     reworking the tailings. Most of the work was at the upper 
     levels of the mine, with some miners sinking new shallow 
     shafts. By the end of 1922 a significant amount of work was 
     being conducted near the surface of the old glory hole, the 
     shaft Macready had opened to start the Quartette. In January 
     and February lessees hit ore at 20 feet, 40 feet, and 1,350 
     feet.
       Most of the mining camps in Nevada experienced much the 
     same evolution as Searchlight, with leasing following the 
     initial production. Tonopah, however, was unusual in that the 
     leasing came first. Within a year of the initial discovery of 
     gold in Tonopah, Jim Butler, the discoverer, had granted more 
     than a hundred leases on his property. He received a 25 
     percent royalty on the production of the ore. In Searchlight 
     the formation of the large mining companies came shortly 
     after the discovery of the valuable minerals. In Tonopah the 
     large companies came after the leasing era.
       Some believed that the labor unrest of 1903 encouraged 
     miners to secrete certain valuable ore deposits during and 
     shortly after the strike. This information was a good basis 
     for the mystic mind of the miner who envisioned hidden 
     treasures of gold deposits. In the report to investors in 
     1934, Jonas would write, ``The prior leasing operations 
     success depended upon the secret knowledge held by certain 
     people who had secured this information from the unscrupulous 
     group who operated the mine prior to 1905.''
       Leasing of any consequence at this great mine was basically 
     concluded by 1917. The success of the lessees is not fully 
     known. Though some miners did quite well, most made 
     insignificant profits. Montgomery-Jones earned $40,000; Post, 
     $20,000; Holmes-Jones, $80,000; Hockbee, $15,000; Pemberton, 
     $5,000; Hudgens, $40,000; and McCormick, $40,000. The 
     discovery of new ore deposits was negligible, with most of 
     the value coming from the recovery of ore left by the 
     Quartette Company for safety reasons. The lessees would 
     simply remove the dirt pillars, causing further degradation 
     of the mine. Several had good luck near the surface, such as 
     John Hudgens, who worked the surface east of the air shaft. 
     He removed $40,000 of ore from the Quartette by going after 
     some ore left behind by the Hopkins group. But years later, 
     in 1931, his son and grandson obtained another lease on the 
     Quartette. They took out about 60 tons that assayed at $50 
     per ton. This was a good find considering it came from an 
     area no larger than twenty feet by fifteen feet. McCormick 
     removed his value on the 600-foot level at a point of a drift 
     400 feet from the main shaft. This block of ore was 
     deliberately hidden by the crooked management of the 1903 era 
     and ran more than $200 per ton.
       The mine that made Searchlight would continue to be 
     excavated for many years to come, but the glory hole was 
     rendered unusable, as were most all of the areas in the 
     Quartette that had been worked before 1917. The mine, with 
     its large caverns, was too dangerous even for the most 
     courageous and, at times, foolhardy miners. Most of the work 
     in the future would be promotional at best; never again would 
     the magnificent mine produce ore of any consequence. But 
     neither did any of the other mines in the district.

  Mr. President, that is the end of chapter 6. I see here a closing 
script. Let us see what is going to happen tomorrow, if I may just 
glance over this. I understand the leader is on his way.
  I think this is an excellent schedule for tomorrow.
  Mr. LEAHY. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield to my friend from Vermont for a 
question only, without losing my right to the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, as always, I am impressed with my dear 
friend, the senior Senator from Nevada, one of the finest people out of 
the several hundred Senators with whom I have served in 29 years. I 
know the senior Senator from Nevada to be one who cares deeply about 
this institution and the way it works. He has been speaking at great 
length and on matters of great interest to all of us today.

[[Page 28393]]

  I ask my distinguished friend from Nevada, is it not true the senior 
Senator from Nevada, like the senior Senator from Vermont and the 
senior Senator from Michigan who is on the floor, would have been very 
pleased if we had been doing the appropriations bills that by law we 
should have finished on September 30 rather than having to try to 
figure out the schedule the other side has put us in, a schedule that 
accomplishes, in this Senator's mind, absolutely nothing?
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend from Vermont, in answering his question, 
through the Chair, I have experienced on this floor many times my 
admiration and respect for the senior Senator from Vermont. As I said 
earlier today, I am proud of the record of the minority with the 
Judiciary Committee during the time we have been in the minority. I am 
proud of what we did when we were in the majority. I say to the former 
chairman, now the ranking member, we have done some outstanding things 
for this President, not the least of which is approving 168 judges. I 
hope the American people understand this, that what we have going on 
this coming Wednesday does not deal with anything important in this 
country. There is not a thing that will be said that will be different. 
We have heard the speeches ad nauseam.
  The first time I ever heard this--I am not sure it was original with 
him--but my friend Mo Udall from Arizona, when he was in the House, 
when there was a big battle dealing with franking, he was chairman of 
the franking committee and there was some kind of a dispute, and he 
said, everything has been said but not everyone has said it.
  As I say, I do not know if that is original with him, but that is the 
first time I heard it. And with Estrada, with Pickering, with Owen, and 
with Pryor, everything has been said more than once. What in the world 
do we accomplish as a country, as a Senate, by spending this inordinate 
amount of time on these judges? These two judges and two other people 
who want to be judges.
  I have a chart here that is right next to my friend. We have 20 
percent of President Clinton's nominees who were blocked. They were 
blocked by filibusters or simply not holding hearings. There are 
different ways of blocking judges.
  What we have done is, we have held hearings. I commend my friend, the 
senior Senator from Vermont. You have held hearings in this process, 
during the 3 years he has been President--and there will be a lot more. 
I bet by year's end that will be maybe 175, something like that, maybe 
even more than that. But it will be a larger number than 168. We have 
turned down 4.
  So 20 percent of President Clinton's nominees blocked, 2 percent of 
President Bush's nominees blocked. Did we hold a vigil? We complained. 
But as then-Majority Leader Trent Lott said: When he goes home, he 
doesn't ever have anybody come up to him saying, Why aren't you doing 
something about the judges? He said it is a nonissue in Mississippi. It 
is a nonissue all over the country, except in the minds of these people 
who, for some reason, think we have no obligation under the 
Constitution to give advice and consent to the President of the United 
States. I think it is in the Constitution, and we are doing that. We 
don't do it very often. We don't advise very much because we are not 
asked very much, but we should advise more. We are advising the 
President without having been asked. Four of these nominees, we don't 
think they should be judges. To protect the American people, we have 
failed to invoke cloture.
  I will be happy to yield to my friend for a question without losing 
my right to the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY. If I could ask him a question without his losing his right 
to the floor, I am sure the distinguished senior Senator from Nevada is 
aware of this, but he has talked about the record. Does he believe that 
people, including the press, might be surprised to know that in the 17 
months the Democrats controlled the Senate during President Bush's 
current term, we confirmed 100 of President Bush's nominees and during 
the 17 months the Republicans were in charge of the Senate, they 
confirmed 68?
  My point is not to say what a poor record they have; 68 would be a 
fine record, and they confirmed those 68 with the support of most of 
the Democratic Senators.
  But my question to the senior Senator from Nevada is, does it seem 
like a little bit of crocodile tears when we hear from our friends on 
the other side, What is this terrible slow-up, when actually during the 
17 months the Democrats were in charge, we confirmed more of President 
Bush's nominees, considerably more, than the Republicans had during the 
17 months they have been in charge?
  Mr. REID. Madam President, reclaiming my time, let me also remind the 
country--I don't need to remind the senior Senator from Vermont--during 
that period of time we had some difficult times. The Senator from 
Vermont received an anthrax threat; Senator Daschle, an anthrax threat 
that made people sick. We don't know where they came from. People died 
as a result of that anthrax. It closed down the Hart Office Building. 
But in spite of that, we held hearings.
  I can remember going to a hearing in the basement of this Capitol--
jam-packed. It would have been easy for the Senator from Vermont to say 
we don't have room. We had the hearing.
  One of the people the long hearing was held on was Judge Pickering. 
We held a hearing on Pickering. That was one when I was there. I know 
that.
  There were lots of problems. In spite of all the many problems, we 
could have had lots of excuses, but we didn't say the Judiciary 
Committee room was blocked, that Senators on the Judiciary Committee 
couldn't go to their own offices. We didn't do that. We went ahead and 
processed these judges.
  I extend my appreciation to the Senator from Vermont for an exemplary 
job as a committee chair.
  I hope that, in the months to come, we will have a few more questions 
asked by the administration: What do you think about this person? Do 
you think he would be good? Let's talk about it.
  We haven't had that. This is a White House where it is their way or 
no way.
  It is amazing to me that we as a Senate, when we have a war going on 
as we speak--I have been here in the Chamber. I don't know what the 
news is. It is daytime now in Iraq. I don't know if there have been any 
more deaths today. There were three yesterday. I don't know what is 
going on in Afghanistan. But maybe we should spend some time talking 
about Afghanistan, Iraq, and the general war on terrorism rather than 
on four people who have jobs. I think that would be a pretty good use 
of the Senate's time.
  I think we have a schedule that looks pretty good for tomorrow. I 
hope we can work this out pretty soon, have the leader come and do 
whatever closing business there is.
  I have had a time today where I have been able to express what I 
think are the sentiments of the Senate on what we should be doing this 
coming Wednesday and how we could have, if you had used the time today 
and tomorrow to move toward the completion of this body's business. We 
could have had a more productive day on Wednesday and Thursday and 
Friday, except for this reasoning which is lost on me, where we are 
going to spend 30 hours on four people who have good jobs. Miguel 
Estrada, I understand, makes half a million dollars a year. The rest of 
the judges make about a half a million dollars between them.
  We have staggering unemployment in this country--over 9 million 
people for sure. Many people are not on the rolls because they have 
been out of work so long.
  I spent a lot of time today talking about the minimum wage and how 
desperate people are who work 40 hours a week at minimum wage, earning 
$10,700 a year--a year.
  I read into the Record letters I got from people in Nevada where they 
are desperate for a job. One woman said for every opening, 50 people 
apply.
  One woman wrote and said: I worked for the airlines for 38 years. 
They laid me off. I don't know what I'm going to do. She must be at 
least 58 years old. I

[[Page 28394]]

assume she went to work for TWA when she was 20. She was laid off by 
American Airlines.
  One of the women who wrote to me said she worked two minimum-wage 
jobs just to get money for her family. Her husband is disabled. She 
would move, but she can't afford to move. She is stuck.
  We don't talk at all about these programs. As I said on several 
occasions, everything is going up; that is, the uninsured, the poor, 
the unemployed. Many such things that are going up should be going 
down. We aren't going to talk about those. No, we are going to talk 
about something that is going down--judicial vacancies. This is the 
lowest rate in almost 15 years.
  So we have a lot of important work to do in the Senate, and a 
tremendous kink has been thrown into the apparatus. But I hope today, 
and I hope in a dignified way, we have shown the majority and the 
American people that the Senate is a partnership, a partnership between 
Republicans and Democrats. We can't get anything done here unless we 
work together. Secret schedules don't work--trying to let your Members 
know that on Monday we will have a couple of votes but we haven't 
ordered them.
  What are we going to vote on? They haven't told us.
  What time should our people come back? Well, votes during the day. On 
what? Well, State-Commerce-Justice.
  As we all know, one Senator can offer an amendment and speak on it 
for 2 minutes or 2 hours. Another Senator has a right to offer an 
amendment. But what happens if suddenly the majority offers an 
amendment and moves to table that amendment immediately? They can do 
that.
  They can do that. They have the majority. They can get a second on 
that.
  It wasn't fair to our folks over here. We have been so fair to the 
majority. As the Senator from Michigan indicated, we work hard 
together. That is why it is disappointing when the majority whip came 
on the floor today and talked about all of their accomplishments and 
how little we accomplished when we were in the majority. The difference 
is that we worked with them to get things done. Now we stop things from 
happening. We can stop things from happening. We showed that today. I 
hope we don't have to do this on a regular basis. I think there is work 
that needs to be done, but it will only come to be if we work as 
partners and go back to the way we were a couple of weeks ago when we 
were working hard to pass amendments to get appropriations bills 
passed; where again we developed meaningful conferences where we saw 
people debating as has been the history of this body.
  Fair credit reporting: Because of the tremendous relationship that 
the chairman of the committee has with our ranking member, Senator 
Sarbanes, we were happy to go to conference on that which would be 
fair. I know Senator Shelby votes with both the majority and minority.
  We have a lot to do in the Senate with so little time to complete it.
  We live in a troubled world where people are so evil that they place 
explosive devices in cars and drive these cars and blow themselves up 
as well as many people as they can.
  In Saudi Arabia over the weekend, with this war on terrorism, they 
drove into an area where there were no Americans but there were Arab 
workers. I don't know how many have died or who are going to die as a 
result of that but more than a score. Because of these senseless acts 
of violence, we need to work to bring about a higher standard of 
living--something these terrorists won't be able to appeal to the 
people who face very difficult economic conditions.
  That is why I hope in Iraq we can have more involvement from the 
international community in the way of helping us pay for that 
situation, helping us bring in peacekeepers so they can help bring 
about peace in Iraq and work for a stable government run by Iraqis. 
Iraqis are so much more fortunate than the people of Afghanistan 
because of their great natural resources.
  Senators Daschle, Frist, McConnell, and I met a short time ago with 
the Iraqi Governing Council. They said: People say we have the second 
largest oil reserves in the world. We don't have the second largest oil 
reserves in the world. They have the largest oil reserves in the world. 
They said in less than 2 years they will be producing 6 million barrels 
of oil a day.
  In addition to the oil which they have, which is immense, they also 
have water. The Tigris and Euphrates Valley was spoken about. In early 
history, it was the garden basket of the world. They are very fortunate 
to live in a country with such economic potential.
  Afghanistan doesn't have that same ability to develop. They need our 
help. They haven't been getting help as indicated by the supplemental 
appropriations bill. Virtually all of that went to Iraq. Hardly any 
went to Afghanistan. If there were ever a place for a grant, it would 
be Afghanistan. If there were ever a place for a loan, it is Iraq. Loan 
them the money and collateralize it with oil which will be produced in 
the future. I think it would be better for the Iraqis knowing they 
aren't getting handouts. That doesn't seem to be the way things are 
going. We need to continue to work our way through all of this.
  I hope when we come back the two leaders will decide that the 
Commerce-State-Justice bill is something we should pass. I hope we can 
do it quickly. It is something that needs to be done. It is an 
important bill. I have gone over it in some detail.
  One thing I wanted to do is talk a little bit about Veterans Day. I 
have talked about the veterans on several occasions today, but I hope 
leaders will do a good job of taking care of veterans in the future.
  Like many soldiers who die on the battlefield, when Marine LCpl 
Donald Sparks died on the battlefield, the U.S. Government extended a 
helping hand to Tina, his widow, paying her a small death benefit of 
$6,000. With the other hand, however, Uncle Sam is reaching into her 
pocketbook to tax the same benefits.
  As outrageous as it may be, taxing death benefits is just a symptom 
of a larger problem because of our failure to provide adequate benefits 
and incentives for the veterans and current troops of the All-Volunteer 
Army.
  Fifty-nine years ago, we passed the GI bill for the 16 million 
veterans who served in World War II. Most of them went for a couple of 
years as the United States mobilized on a scale we hoped to never see 
again. The GI bill helped these veterans return to civilian life by 
providing opportunities for education and housing that they would not 
have otherwise enjoyed.
  Today, our military is different. We rely on volunteers, and our 
security depends on our ability to maintain a steady force by 
recruiting and training good troops. It is in our national interest to 
keep turnover at a minimum.
  How are we trying to accomplish this? Certainly not with a fat 
paycheck.
  I let the majority leader know that whenever he is ready to come 
forward, I will be happy to yield the floor to him.
  I heard from a constituent who was shocked that the Army had included 
applications for food stamps in the orientation material for his son-
in-law, a sergeant with a young family. The fact is that soldiers' pay 
is barely enough for subsistence. Of course, nobody joins the military 
to get rich. Volunteers want to serve their country, and they 
appreciate the experience of military life. But in return for keeping 
our Nation secure, they deserve some security of their own. To provide 
that security, we need the GI bill which offers tax breaks, better 
health care, and expanded education benefits for veterans and their 
military families.
  The Senate and House both passed military tax reform last week. 
President Bush should sign it into law as quickly as possible. These 
bills would double the death benefit to survivors to $12,000 and make 
it tax free. They also would allow military personnel to sell their 
homes without paying capital gains taxes regardless of whether they 
live in their houses long enough to claim a standard exemption.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. As I was just reading this, I think the tax law in this 
country is

[[Page 28395]]

that if you sell a home you don't pay taxes on it.
  I will be happy to yield to my friend from Michigan without losing my 
right to the floor.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, one of the areas which the Senator from 
Nevada has led us to is the question of concurrent receipts. We are 
going to make some progress on that this year. I say that 90 percent of 
the credit for the progress we are going to make in that area belongs 
to the Senator from Nevada. He was modest in mentioning it here in 
terms of what is before the Senate. The success we have had in 
overcoming a veto threat from the administration--that if we finally 
allow people who are disabled to receive both the disability benefit as 
well as a retirement benefit and not take away one benefit when they 
receive the other--we were finally able to accomplish that because of 
the leadership of the senior Senator from Nevada.
  I want to ask him whether it is not accurate that one of the bills 
which awaits our consideration would be the conference report that 
accompanies the Defense authorization bill which contains the provision 
I just mentioned which would finally allow for at least the people who 
have 50-percent disability or more the concurrent receipt of both their 
disability benefit and their retirement benefit, and end the unfairness 
that you cannot get a retirement benefit.
  Mr. REID. My friend is absolutely right. That is such an important 
bill and important element of the bill. I know that some veterans 
groups are dissatisfied. We have done so well to get as much as we 
have. We will work for more in the future. I compliment the Senator 
from Michigan and Senator Warner for the good work they have done. I 
admire and respect them for the work they have done.
  I see the majority leader on the floor. I indicate that what I have 
talked about, this new bill, is not all encompassing. We also need to 
extend the child tax credit for working families; we need to renew the 
commitment we made in the original GI bill and restate that taking care 
of Veterans Day and military families should be as high a priority for 
our Nation as rebuilding Iraq. It is a key to maintaining a well-
trained voluntary fighting force.
  I say to the majority leader, if he is here ready to close, that is 
good. If he is not, I will have to go back to my book.
  I say to my friend, I have done pretty well. If I could have the 
leader's attention, I hope the leader has been advised as to the 
apology that I made on the Senate floor. I tell the Senator that I 
indicated the remarks I made at the press conference last Friday were 
ill-chosen and showed my frustration. I apologize. I have already done 
that. But the leader is here and I am happy to do that. Although I did 
not mention his name specifically, I don't think it would be hard to 
figure out I was referring to the majority leader. I apologize for the 
choice of words. The Senator from Tennessee may be a lot of things but 
certainly he is not amateur. Previously today I talked about the deep 
respect I have for the Senator from Tennessee, for his commitment to 
public service, having been a very dedicated and now famous surgeon who 
uses his skills all over the world when we are not in session.
  I apologize, and I have done it publicly on two occasions, for using 
that choice of words. It showed my frustration as to what had gone on 
here. There is no need to talk about it now other than to say that 
hopefully Wednesday we can move on to bigger and better things.
  Madam President, I appreciate everyone's patience and courtesy to me 
today. I especially apologize to the staff for keeping them as long as 
I have. I hope that I have been of some benefit to my friends on this 
side of the aisle. I hope I have not been too offensive to those on 
this side of the aisle.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, with the concurrence of the distinguished 
majority leader, let me say that the majority leader, of course, is a 
dear friend, but the senior Senator from Nevada has been a very dear 
friend for many, many years. We campaigned the same year, I for 
reelection, he for the Senate. I have always been very proud of him.
  When historians look back, they will see he did a great service for 
the Senate today in trying to put a lot of things in perspective. I 
will speak longer at a another time. I am doing this at the concurrence 
of the leader showing his usual courtesy. I will not exceed that. I 
will speak at a later time.
  I appreciate my friend and also appreciate my friend from Tennessee.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I know Members have been wondering about 
the schedule. There will be no rollcall votes tonight. We were prepared 
to have votes throughout today and this evening, procedural or 
otherwise, but I think that will not serve any useful purpose at this 
late hour. The best course is probably to step back for the evening and 
begin fresh tomorrow, which we will do.
  Today we were to begin considering a very important appropriations 
bill, Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill. As a matter of fact, 
that bill has been pending since shortly after 1 o'clock today. 
Unfortunately, we were able to make no progress on that bill today. 
That was successfully obstructed.
  I indeed respect every Senator's right to do just that, and the 
distinguished minority whip was within his rights to hold the floor 
throughout the entire afternoon and this evening.
  We were prepared to offer and vote in relation to amendments to the 
Commerce-Justice-State bill, but that was not possible. We were told 
last week the other side of the aisle would not be offering their 
amendments today, on Monday. The two managers were working together to 
move forward on amendments that would be offered by Members on this 
side of the aisle today. Indeed, Republican Members were present today 
to offer and debate those amendments. I take it the other side of the 
aisle did not show up to do the Nation's business as it pertained to 
this Commerce-Justice-State bill.
  I have stated repeatedly in the Senate that there is much, much work 
to do and that there is little time remaining to do it. Later this 
week, indeed, we will focus on judges as part of the unfinished 
business that remains before this body. I will continue to bring to the 
floor to the best of my ability each and every appropriations bill. If 
the other side of the aisle does not want to debate and discuss those 
bills as they are brought to the floor, that is their right.
  Today our focus was on continuing the appropriations process. It is 
obvious that delay will occur on every front. Then, indeed, I think 
that is unfortunate given the amount of business we have to do.
  I am sure that at some point in the future we will hear speeches 
about work that we did or did not get done or we were late in doing, 
and there will be Senators bemoaning the fact that the Senate has been 
unable to finish our business. Today was a missed opportunity to make 
progress on these important appropriations bills.

                          ____________________