[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18585-18624]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              SECURE FENCE ACT OF 2006--MOTION TO PROCEED

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 6061, which the 
clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to H.R. 6061, an act to establish 
     operational control over the international land and maritime 
     borders of the United States.

  The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in May of this year, this body passed 
comprehensive immigration reform. We are a nation of immigrants, but we 
are also a nation of laws. We must honor both of those heritages. 
Accordingly, we pursued in this body a four-pronged approach to reform: 
first, fortify our borders; second, strengthen worksite enforcement; 
third, develop a strong temporary worker program; fourth, develop a 
fair and realistic way to address the 12 million people here already 
who entered our country illegally, but under no circumstances would we 
offer amnesty.
  Unfortunately, at this point it is pretty clear to everyone that we 
will not reach a conference agreement on comprehensive immigration 
reform before we break in September. While I have made it clear that I 
prefer a comprehensive solution, I have always said that we need an 
enforcement-first approach to immigration reform--not enforcement only 
but enforcement first.
  We share a 1,951-mile border with Mexico, and it doesn't take too 
much creativity to imagine how terrorists might plot to exploit that 
border. It is time to secure that border with Mexico. As a national 
security challenge, that is absolutely critical to fighting a strong 
war on terror. That is the approach of this bill, the Secure Fence Act 
of 2006, a bill on which we will shortly vote.
  Earlier this year, with passage of the supplemental appropriations, 
we provided almost $2 billion to repair fences

[[Page 18586]]

 in high-traffic areas, to replace broken Border Patrol aircraft for 
lower traffic areas, and to support training for additional Customs and 
Border Patrol agents. In addition, we deployed more than 6,000 National 
Guard troops to our southwest border, and subsequently--and this is 
tremendous news--we saw a 45-percent drop in border apprehensions.
  But we have to do more. The Secure Fence Act picks up where that 
supplemental left off. It lays the groundwork for complete operational 
control over our border with Mexico, and it will go a long way toward 
stopping illegal immigration altogether. Customs and Border Protection 
will take responsibility for securing every inch of our border with 
Mexico. Engineers and construction workers will erect two-layer 
reinforced fencing along the border. Hundreds of new cameras and 
sensors will be installed. Unmanned aircraft will supplement existing 
air and ground patrols.
  We are enhancing and fortifying our borders to entry so we will have 
better control over who enters the country, how they come, and what 
they bring. We know this approach to enforcement works. We saw a 
drastic downturn in illegal immigration when Congress mandated a 14-
mile stretch of fence in San Diego, from 200,000 border violations in 
1992 to 9,000 last year.
  The Secure Fence Act is a critical component of national security. It 
is an essential first step toward comprehensive immigration reform. So 
we can't afford to demean it with partisan political stunts.
  Mr. President, very shortly we will have a vote to bring this bill to 
the floor. But the vote isn't just about this bill. It is about 
bolstering national security. It is about keeping America strong. It is 
about ensuring the safety of each and every American. With action here 
to secure our border, Congress and the Nation can turn to resolving the 
challenges of worksite enforcement, of a strong temporary worker 
program, and the challenges of the 12 million illegal aliens who live 
among us, with respect and care and dignity.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama is recognized.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I would like to make some comments on 
this legislation and ask that I be notified after 8 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator suspend? Under the previous 
order, there will be 1 hour for debate equally divided between the two 
leaders or their designees.
  The Senator is recognized.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, we are indeed a nation of immigrants. We 
will always have immigrants coming to our country, and they have 
enriched our Nation in so many different ways. It is time for us, 
however, to recognize that the policies we have adopted as a Nation are 
not working; that the law that we as Americans respect so greatly is 
being made a mockery of; the system is in shambles, and the American 
people are very concerned about it--as they rightly should be. I 
believe public officials are coming to understand the gravity of the 
problem after the American people have led them at last to that event.
  For the last 30 or 40 years, the American people have been right on 
this subject. They have asked for a lawful system of immigration. They 
have asked for a system of immigration that serves the interests of the 
United States of America. And they have expressed continual concern 
about the illegality that is ongoing. Frankly, the politicians and 
Government officials have not been worthy of the good and decent 
instincts and desires of the American people.
  Finally, I think those voices are being heard today.
  We want to talk about the House bill that is on the floor of the 
Senate today. We are asking that this legislation be considered by the 
Senate. The majority leader has had to file for cloture because 
apparently some in this body do not even want to consider this 
legislation. They do not want to talk about it, push it away through 
surreptitious legerdemain. They want to figure out a way to undermine 
whatever legislation has been passed and make sure nothing ever gets 
done. That has been the problem. I hate to say it. We have gone again 
and again, and we have promised we are going to do something and we 
tell the American people we are going to do this and we are going to do 
that. But they are not ignorant, they know we have not done anything, 
except for the last few months we began to take a few steps that had 
some significance. But for the last 40 years we have basically had a 
system driven by illegality that is not worthy of the American people, 
not worthy of our heritage of law, and it must end.
  Let me tell you what happened in the Senate about the fencing issue. 
Five months ago, May 17, my colleagues, by a vote of 83 to 16, after 
talking to their constituents, I submit, approved my amendment to 
mandate the construction of at least 370 miles of fencing and 500 miles 
of vehicle barriers along the southwest border. That totals 870 miles 
of physical barriers, either a fence or a vehicle barrier. Admittedly, 
that was a strong vote in this body, indicating that fencing on the 
southern border is and should be a part of our plan to recapture a 
legal system of immigration in America. It remains one of our important 
priorities.
  On August 2, my colleagues, this time, by a vote of 93 to 3, voted to 
fund the construction of those miles of fencing and barriers on the DOD 
appropriations bill as part of the National Guard effort at the border. 
Today we will vote again. I expect and hope that the Senate will have 
the votes for cloture so we can move forward with this bill and not 
have it obstructed from even being debated in the Senate. The miles of 
fencing contained in this bill are not that different from what the 
Senate had already voted for, 93 to 3 to fund this year.
  The Senate has already voted to fund them, and we are moving forward. 
This bill simply requires--the House bill that has been passed by the 
other body--that more of those miles be fencing in designated areas.
  I will make this point: We are not there yet. Just because we have 
had these votes, just because the House has voted for fencing, just 
because the Senate, by an overwhelming vote, has authorized fencing, we 
have not begun to construct that yet. We have to get the money, and we 
have to get a final bill. The amendment I offered--that passed 83 to 
16--was part of the comprehensive immigration bill. That bill is not 
going to become law. That whole bill is not going to become law. So if 
we are going to commence now to build a barrier on the border, we need 
to pass this legislation that actually authorizes it. So don't go back 
home and say I voted for it, but I didn't vote for this bill. This bill 
is going to determine whether we actually do something and we authorize 
it and direct how it is to be done, not your previous vote.
  That is what has been happening. We have always said we have had 
these votes, but when the dust settled we never made it law and never 
made it reality. I urge my colleagues to understand that. Without this 
legislation we are not going to get there in the way you previously 
voted, and everybody needs to understand that.
  Let me tell you a little bit about what is in the legislation. The 
majority leader summed it up correctly. I appreciate his leadership and 
his strong support from the beginning for sufficient border barriers. 
Majority Leader Frist is committed to a good and just solution of the 
immigration problem in America, but he has come to understand that we 
have to take steps and do some things, and one of them is fencing.
  This is what this bill will do. It will establish operational control 
of the border. Most people think we ought to have that now but we do 
not. We do not have operational control of the border. So not less than 
18 months after the enactment of this bill, the Department of Homeland 
Security must take all actions necessary and appropriate to achieve and 
maintain operational control of the border. Isn't that what we want? 
Isn't that what we have been asking for, for 30 years?
  Within 1 year of enactment, and annually thereafter, the Secretary 
must

[[Page 18587]]

report to Congress and to the American people on the progress made 
toward achieving operational control of the border. We are not going to 
just pass a bill this time and forget it. We are going to have some 
reports and some analysis so we can monitor whether we are being 
successful.
  Operational control under the legislation includes systematic 
surveillance of the international land and maritime borders through the 
use of personnel and technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles, 
ground-based sensors, satellites, radar, and cameras. Those are all 
going to be part of any effective system. We know that. We are not 
opposed to that. But don't let anybody tell you only those things will 
make the system work. They will not.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 8 minutes.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Thank you, Mr. President.
  Physical infrastructure enhancements to prevent illegal entry of 
aliens and to facilitate access to international land and maritime 
borders by the Customs and Border Protection Agency are important. The 
bill further defines operational control as the prevention of unlawful 
entry into the United States, including entry by terrorists, unlawful 
aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and contraband. Second, 
the bill extends the current requirement for border fencing in San 
Diego, requiring that fencing be installed by 2008 through several 
urban areas. It mentions those. All the fencing in the bill is focused 
on the heavily trafficked areas on the southwest border. None of the 
fencing extends further than 15 miles outside high trafficking areas.
  Let me just say this: The system that we have today is failing so 
badly that last year we apprehended 1.1 million people entering into 
this country illegally. Tell me that is a functional system.
  By sending in the National Guard, by building these barriers, by 
adding to the number of agents, each one of those steps will help send 
a message throughout the world that we are not wide open, that our 
borders are going to be enforced. You should not come illegally. You 
should wait in line and come legally.
  Those are facts that I think all of us need to consider as we 
evaluate this legislation.
  Mr. President, I see the Democratic leader here, Senator Reid. I know 
his day is busy. I will be pleased to yield the floor and reserve the 
remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. I so appreciate the courtesy that is so normal and usual 
from my friend from Alabama.
  Mr. President, it is so interesting that here it is 5 days before we 
are set to adjourn, 6 weeks before an election, and this border fence 
bill has been brought forward. The majority and the President have had 
5 years since 9/11 to secure our borders, but they basically ignored, 
for 5 years, this issue of national security. Now, with the elections 
looming, suddenly they want to get serious about protecting America. If 
they want to have this debate, I am happy to join in it.
  First of all, we can build the tallest fence in the world, and it 
will not fix our broken immigration system. To do that we need the kind 
of comprehensive reform that the Senate passed earlier this year. We 
have been waiting for months for the majority to appoint conferees so 
we can move forward on this bill, but they have not done that.
  Mr. President, I direct your attention and that of my distinguished 
friend from Alabama to this document called ``Immigration and America's 
Future.'' I just completed a meeting with Senator Spencer Abraham and 
Congressman Lee Hamilton, who are cochairs of this Task Force on 
Immigration and America's Future. Twenty-five of the most prominent 
people in America have met to recognize that our system is in bad 
shape. This document will be made public in a matter of hours. It will 
be made public today. I so much appreciate their coming and talking 
about what they believe is good and bad about our system. I think it is 
without any exaggeration that they think the House suggestion that we 
can do it through just security will not work.
  Our bill, our Senate bill--I am sure they are not going to endorse it 
but, of course, they think it is better than the House bill by a far 
measure.
  Because it appears very clear to me that the President and the 
majority leader are not going to help us get this conference 
appointed--we have waited weeks and weeks for a conference--I hope that 
we can, when we come back next year, do something about immigration, 
something serious and substantial.
  I have not read this document. I have the greatest respect for the 
people who have come up with this document, and I think we can find a 
lot of substance in it. We need a bill that combines strong and 
effective enforcement of our borders, tough sanctions against employers 
who hire undocumented immigrants, a temporary worker program, and an 
opportunity for undocumented immigrants currently in this country to 
have a pathway to legal immigration. They need to work hard, pay their 
taxes, learn English, and stay out of trouble. Only a combination of 
these elements will work to get our broken immigration under control.
  President Bush says he supports comprehensive reform, but he has a 
strange way of showing it. I heard my friend, who is one of the 
Senate's lawyers. Rarely does he come to the Senate floor unless he has 
an element of the law on which to speak. One of the things he talked 
about, last year they apprehended a little over a million people coming 
across the borders. However, that is down 30 percent from the time 
President Bush took office until now. Prior to that, we were picking up 
close to 2 million. We have a system that just does not work.
  It is not just people coming across our border; it is what they are 
bringing across the border. The General Accounting Office reported that 
they were able to bring nuclear materials across our border. Now, 6 
months after we received that report from the General Accounting 
Office, the Republicans want to get serious about border security. What 
has taken so long?
  For years, we have had procedures and laws in place to secure our 
borders--not well but certainly better--and they have been virtually 
ignored. The September 11 Commission told the President he should work 
with other countries to develop a terrorist watch list that our Border 
Patrol agents could use to check people coming in. Did he do that? No. 
The September 11 Commission gave him a failing grade.
  In the 9/11 Act--we all remember that--Congress provided for 2,000 
new Border Patrol agents. Guess what. Like so many things, they are 
authorized but not paid for. We have been unable to get the President 
and the Republican Congress to pay for these new Border Patrol agents. 
We authorized them and do not pay for them.
  We did not oppose the sensible fence on the border. Almost all of us 
voted for a 370-mile fence as part of the comprehensive bill. If I am 
not mistaken, it is the Senator from Alabama who moved forward to have 
the fence paid for. That is good. Now we have an amendment to build 700 
miles of extremely expensive fencing--some estimate it will cost as 
much as $7 billion--with no plan to fix our broken immigration system.
  The majority has made very clear they have no interest in negotiating 
with the Senate to enact legislation. What we are doing today is about 
November 7th. In addition, we now hear the majority may try to include 
the entire House enforcement package in the Homeland Security 
appropriations conference report. This is the package that the House 
Republicans put together after their unprecedented summer of sham 
hearings about the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill.
  Among the measures included in the package is a provision making the 
12 million undocumented immigrants subject to arrest and detention. 
This provision has long been opposed by State and local law enforcement 
authorities who already are stretched thin and do not want to 
jeopardize the policing efforts in immigrant communities.

[[Page 18588]]

  This is clearly an effort to sneak the controversial criminalization 
provisions of the House enforcement-only bill through the back door. I 
strongly oppose this illegitimate maneuver. If the Republicans want to 
move forward on these provisions, they should have agreed to a 
conference on immigration bills that each Chamber passed.
  Enforcement measures alone will not secure our border. It is crucial 
we get control of our border. That is without any question. But, like 
many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and like 
President Bush, I believe we can only secure our border through 
comprehensive reform. No amount of grandstanding will change that.
  This is a rehash of a battle we already have fought. The Senate has 
spoken and profoundly disagrees with the House. The Senate is ready to 
sit down with the House and work out a real solution. We need the 
President and the majority leader to help find the solution. We have 
offered practical, workable, fair solutions to solve our immigration 
systems. The President and the majority leader said they supported what 
we were trying to do, but it does not appear they are interested in 
real solutions, just political posturing at this stage.
  On the motion to proceed to this bill, I will vote aye in the hope 
that the majority leader will allow Members to amend it to reflect the 
Senate's bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reform. At 
the very least, there are certain key things we need to do. The fruits 
and vegetables in our country are being thrown away at harvest time 
because we do not have the people to pick the fruit and vegetables and 
work at the processing plants. I hope that amendment would be allowed--
at least the farm workers provision.
  I wish we were in a different position. I, again, direct my 
colleagues' attention to this work done by Senator Abraham, Congressman 
Hamilton and 23 others. It is a bipartisan group. As I have indicated, 
I have not read this--I have gotten a briefing on it--but we need to 
have a new direction in immigration in this country. Hopefully, this 
document will allow that new direction.
  Again, I so appreciate my friend allowing me to speak. I appreciate 
it so very much.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama is recognized.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I thank the Democrat leader and his 
citing of that report. I look forward to reading it.
  The reason that is important, this so-called comprehensive reform 
bill that actually passed the Senate, with a substantial number of no 
votes, is nothing more than an extension of the current failed system. 
It is not a comprehensive reform of immigration at all.
  We had a hearing last week at my request. We had some of the best 
minds in America on immigration. They said our present system is 
completely ineffectual. I think that is fair way to summarize what they 
said.
  They all spoke favorably of the Canadian plan, the Australian plan, 
and other plans being developed by developing nations around the world. 
It makes every sense that we do that. I am looking forward to analyzing 
that report. I am confident it will be further evidence that business 
as usual in immigration must end.
  Next year we need to come forward--and I will commit to working with 
my colleagues--and have a real dialog on what immigration should be for 
America. The seminal expert in America, Professor George Borjas, 
himself an immigrant, at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard, has 
written the most authoritative and best-known book on immigration, 
``Heaven's Door.'' He just testified at our hearing last week. He has 
said in his book and in his testimony, fundamentally, America needs to 
ask this question: Are you crafting an immigration policy that serves 
your national interests?
  If that is what we are doing, then he has some ideas that help us do 
that. But that is not what we have been doing. We have never had a 
discussion of the Canadian plan that gives preference to people with 
education. We have never discussed the Canadian plan that gives 
preference to people who already speak English. We have not discussed 
the system in Canada that gives preferences to people who bring 
business investment or have skills that are important in the workplace.
  Isn't that what a rational nation would do? This bill that passed the 
Senate is fatally flawed. We need to start over completely. I believe, 
that report will validate the things I just mentioned.
  Of course, let me say to all of our colleagues, no one suggests that 
building a fence is the end to the problem. Mr. T.J. Bonner, head of 
the Border Patrol Agents Association, testified at our committee. He 
said there are two things we need to do: We need to strengthen the 
border and eliminate the magnet of the workplace by cracking down on 
illegal hiring in the workplace.
  The Senator from Nevada, the Democratic leader, is correct. We have 
seen some reduction in the numbers being apprehended. I hope that 
indicates we are seeing a reduction in those attempting to enter the 
country. I believe it does.
  What should that tell us? That should tell us that if we continue to 
take strong steps, we can end this worldwide perception that our border 
is wide open, that anyone can come through our country legally or 
illegally and end that whole perception and shift toward that magic 
tipping point where people realize they are not going to be successful 
getting in our country illegally, and they are not going to be able to 
get a job once they get here. We can do both of those.
  The American people need to know, our Members of Congress need to 
know, if we continue the course we are on and actually follow through 
on the things we have discussed, we can create a lawful border. It is 
not impossible. Don't have anyone say that is impossible. It is part of 
the steps. To say we should not do border fencing because that is just 
one step and that is not the whole thing is silly. If we have to take 
20 steps to get to the goal, why say it is worthless to take 2 of those 
steps? Certainly we ought to take the steps we know we can do right 
now.
  The American people are a bit cynical about what we are doing. The 
leader asks, Why do we want to bring it up now? We are about to finish 
the session, and we still haven't gotten it done. I don't want to go 
home without having done some things to improve the legal system of our 
border. I don't think most Members do. We have to get it done. We 
should have already had it done. I agree with that.
  I was sharing some thoughts before the minority leader, the 
Democratic leader arrived, about what is in this bill, how it actually 
is effective and will actually work and will actually reduce the 
immigration in our country from illegal sources by a significant 
amount.
  I was able to travel with Senator Specter, chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, to South America recently. We were in a number of countries. 
We saw a report on polling data in Nicaragua that said 60 percent of 
the people of Nicaragua would come to the United States if they could. 
I mentioned that to the State Department personnel in Peru. They told 
me that 70 percent of the people in Peru would come to the United 
States if they could, according to a recently published poll. This is a 
wonderful place. America is a great country. All over the world, 
millions and millions and millions would like to come here. We cannot 
accept everyone that would like to come. I wish we could, but it is 
just not possible.
  We need to set standards and appropriate behaviors to create a system 
that is lawful, No. 1; also, a system that lets people come in on the 
basis of merit and what is in the best interests of our country.
  The House bill we are now considering has some important and valuable 
things in it. It calls for interlocking surveillance camera systems 
that must be installed by May of next year. They are going to keep 
waiting. How much longer can this go on? We need Homeland Security to 
get moving. It says all of the fencing must be installed by May of 
2008. That is a good step. That says we are going to get serious and we 
are going to do something.

[[Page 18589]]

  Laredo-Brownsville would be given until December of 2008. The bill 
provides the Secretary of Homeland Security the flexibility to 
substitute fencing with other surveillance and barrier tools if the 
topography of a specific area has an elevation or hillside of greater 
than 10 percent.
  I ask what the balance is on both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority side has 11 minutes remaining and 
the minority side has 20 minutes remaining.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, the bill that is before us today 
requires the Secretary, not later than 30 days after passage, to 
evaluate the authority of our Customs and Border Protection agents to 
stop vehicles that enter the United States illegally and that refuse to 
stop when ordered to stop. Compare that authority with the authority 
given to the Coast Guard to stop vessels on the high seas that don't 
stop when they are ordered to stop, and to make an assessment about 
whether the Border Patrol authority needs to be expanded. We have a 
real problem with people just riding by and placing people at risk by 
not stopping. That situation needs to end.
  We need to give our agents authority sufficient for their own 
personal safety and the protection of the laws of this country.
  The Secretary would be required to report his decision within 60 
days.
  The bill further calls for a northern border study to assess the 
feasibility of a state-of-the-art infrastructure security system. The 
report will assess the necessity for such a system, the feasibility of 
implementing a system, and the economic impact of the system.
  We need to look at the northern border. We are not arresting 1 
million people-plus a year on the northern border. It does not have 
anything like the impact of the movement of people illegally such as we 
have on the southern border, but we need to watch that, too.
  Fencing is proven. In San Diego, where they built a fence a number of 
years ago, crime has fallen dramatically. According to the FBI Crime 
Index, crime in San Diego County--the whole county--dropped 56 percent 
between 1989 and 2000. Can you imagine that? Just by ending the open 
border that existed, vehicle drive-throughs where they do not stop--and 
the reason they have fallen from between 6 and 10 a day before the 
construction of the fence, to only 4 drive-throughs in 2004, the whole 
year.
  This is a mockery of law when 6 to 10 people are just driving through 
the border ignoring the Border Patrol officers who are there. What kind 
of mockery of law is that?
  Fencing has reduced illegal entries in San Diego.
  According to the numbers we have, apprehensions decreased from 
531,000 in 1993 to 111,000 in 2003. That is by four-fifths. That is 
only one-fifth the number being arrested today as there were 10 years 
ago as a direct result of serious enforcement bolstered by physical 
barriers.
  Fencing has also reduced drug traffic in San Diego. In 1993, 
authorities apprehended over 58,000 pounds of marijuana coming across 
the border. In 2003, only 36,000 pounds were apprehended. In addition, 
cocaine smuggling decreased from 1,200 pounds to 150 pounds.
  I am glad to hear that the majority leader--and the Democratic 
leader--indicated he would move to have this bill come forward on the 
Senate floor. If there is some tweaking which needs to be done, that 
will give us an opportunity to do that.
  I think the bill is fundamentally sound in all respects. I urge my 
colleagues to look at it. I think they will feel comfortable that it is 
consistent with their previous votes in this body for a fencing 
measure.
  But the Members of our body need to understand that our first vote on 
fencing, which we authorized on the immigration bill, is not going to 
be effective because that bill is not going to pass. It was an 
amendment to that bill. If we are going to do anything before we leave 
this year--and the American people should be watching us carefully--
this is what we need to do. We have an opportunity now to stand up and 
make real what we have talked about and what we voted for. If we don't 
do it, we will not make that reality come into effect, and we will not 
be faithful to the promises we made to our constituents. And, once 
again, we will see this kind of cynicism and disrespect for Congress 
because of our inconsistency in what we say and what we do.
  Too often I have observed in this body when we come up with an idea 
about immigration that does not work, it will pass. If you come up with 
something that actually does work, for some reason or another, even if 
it is voted and passed in one body or other, it never seems to really 
become law. This time we need to make our legal system work.
  I thank the Chair.
  I reserve the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 4 minutes 10 seconds.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I am convinced that physical barriers at 
our borders--fencing in particular--are an important and central cost-
effective solution to border security.
  My colleague, the Democratic leader, has used a figure of $7 billion. 
We think that is greatly exaggerated. We believe it can be done for 
much less than that, although that money has been floated. A private 
contractor has indicated he could do it for about $1.8 billion, and 
that is the money we put into the bill. And with the help of the 
National Guard, I think we ought to be able to build fencing at a rate 
far less than that.
  I note that this is a one-time expenditure. This expenditure is going 
to reduce the 1 million apprehensions a year dramatically. A barrier 
like this will enhance the ability of each and every single Border 
Patrol officer to do his or her job. It will enable them to be far more 
effective. It is going to enable us to not have to hire nearly as many 
people. It will send a signal to the world that our border is not open. 
That means we will need fewer bed spaces.
  We are going to be moving toward reaching that tipping point where 
the border is perceived as being closed, where the legal system is 
being honored in America again, and where we can make a difference in 
this whole system. Manpower alone cannot work.
  Are they going to have to stand every 500 yards on the border and try 
to catch people? When you apprehend somebody, you have to pay to take 
them to a facility and then take them back across the border; or if 
there is some distant country, pay for a plane ticket and send them 
back home and put them in a detention place until that occurs. We think 
we need a catch-and-release program. But even if we do this, it is 
still very costly.
  A fence is going to save us billions of dollars over the years. It is 
going to allow us to be effective, with fewer Border Patrol agents. It 
is going to help us reach that tipping point where we will need far 
fewer bed spaces and far fewer planes to charter to take people back 
home. We will have far fewer efforts to move people back across the 
border, at a great savings to this country. This is a cost-savings 
bill. It is a statement bill, I submit. When you count the costs of 
salaries and the time and insurance for our Border Patrol, the risk at 
which they are placed, a fence is going to be a tremendous asset to 
them. We will have a roadway so they can move down in their vehicles 
along the border to pick up people who have entered. The word is going 
to get out that it is not easy to do that anymore.
  There are a lot of other things we need to do. We need to clarify the 
current law as it exists.
  Along with my staff person, Cindy Hayden, a lawyer on the Judiciary 
Committee, my chief counsel, we wrote a Law Review article for the 
Stanford Law Review. We talked about the authority of the local law 
enforcement officers. They have authority in most instances, but it is 
blurred and confused, and as a result most State and local law 
enforcement officers are afraid to do anything. We need legislation 
that will fix that. We need the workplace enforcement.

[[Page 18590]]

  All of these are steps that need to be taken so that people can't 
come into the workplace fraudulently and get a job as they are today. 
Those things can be done, but a critical part of this entire process is 
securing the border first. The American people expect us to do that.
  This legislation gives us that capacity. We can make that difference, 
and the result will be that we are going to see further improvements in 
the number of apprehensions.
  Then, next year we need a good dialog. As Senator Harry Reid said, we 
need to take Professor Borjas's book, ``Heaven's Door,'' and take other 
testimony that we have seen and reviewed and build on that and develop 
a comprehensive program that we can be proud of, that will allow 
talented immigrants to come here, people whom we know scientifically 
from studies and analyses will be successful in America, who will pay 
more in taxes than they take out. And the numbers are really scary.
  Large numbers of people coming in today are high school dropouts, do 
not have a high school diploma. According to the National Academy of 
Sciences, a person coming into our country without a high school 
diploma, over a lifetime, will cost the U.S. Treasury almost $90,000. 
Think about that. They will have a low-wage job. They will not be 
paying income tax. They will be receiving other benefits. That does not 
include extra schools and highways that will have to be built. It only 
includes what they will be getting in terms of earned-income tax credit 
or Food Stamps and other benefits such as medical and the like.
  We are moving now. The American people's voices are beginning to be 
heard. But I think we are going to have to study this issue. If the 
American people will stay in tune, if they will insist on the highest 
and best values, including law and decency and generosity and a 
positive view of immigration, we will have all those values at play in 
our decisionmaking process. We can come up with legislation next year 
that actually could do more good than most people realize.
  I can't tell you how exited I am about it. But it is absolutely 
essential that we take steps today to gain credit with the American 
people; to have them understand that we are listening, that we are 
going to make the legal system work. And then we can enter into a 
dialog with them next year to develop, as Professor Borjas's book says, 
policies that serve the legitimate interests of our Nation.
  Why shouldn't we do that? Other countries are doing that. Are we 
saying that Canada is not an advanced and humane nation? Are we saying 
that the policies that New Zealand adopted are not humane and decent 
and effective? Look at it. We will find that they are. In fact, they 
allow quite a number of people to come into their country every year, 
but they try to allow those to come who have the best chance of being 
the most successful.
  It has exciting possibilities for us. It is important that the 
misguided legislation that has come through this Senate has now ground 
to a halt, that the House has flatly rejected it, and that we in our 
own body are reevaluating it--I think rightly--and we will be at a 
point where we can start over, start afresh and develop a comprehensive 
plan.
  Let's get credibility with the American people.
  Let's make this border a lawful border again, and we will see a 
reduction in crime. We will see increasing economic and commercial 
development in the areas where enforcement becomes a reality. We can 
tell the world that you have an opportunity to come to our country, but 
you are going to have to meet standards. You will have to apply, and 
you will be objectively and fairly evaluated. And if you meet those 
criteria, you will rise up in the list. If you do not, you may not be 
able to get in. We are sorry, because everybody cannot come in here. We 
wish it were different, but it is just so. We cannot accept more and 
more and more. We have to decide what the right number is, what skills 
and assets they bring that we want for our country, and make a 
selection process on that basis. It is really exciting, that 
possibility.
  In our situation today--I say to my colleagues, I would like to share 
this one thought with you--and I am sure the report that Senator Reid 
mentioned probably has some discussion of it because it is a defining 
event--only 20 percent of the green cards--that is the card that gives 
one permanent residence in the United States--only 20 percent of those 
are given out based on the skills of the applicant. Think about that. 
How can that be in our national interest? The experts we have heard say 
it is not in our national interest. Canada and other nations have 
analyzed this. They have decided that is not where they want to go. So 
they are trying to get to 60, to 70 percent based on skills.
  Yes, we will always have those subject to persecution around the 
world, humanitarian cases, who we will allow in our country. But the 
number and the way we are doing it now is not a sensible way to 
proceed.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my 
time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Graham). The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I notice that none of my colleagues are 
here. Senator Reid, I am pleased to say, indicates he will be 
supporting moving forward to the bill and cloture. I will take time, as 
we are heading up to the hour to vote, to share a few additional 
thoughts.
  The only way we are going to get an authorization of the fencing is 
to pass this amendment. The authorization for border barriers I offered 
as an amendment, which was adopted as part of the comprehensive so-
called immigration bill, will not become law because that bill will not 
become law. This is the way we have now to do it.
  The House has passed a bill that is thoughtful, that makes sure we 
are not playing a shell game with the American voters but that we 
actually create a mechanism to ensure that the fencing gets built on a 
timetable. It includes a number of other things, such as technology and 
sensors and the like.
  The second aspect of the legislation is very, very important. We 
voted in this body 93 to 3--and the majority leader and the Democratic 
leader both made reference to it--to fund it at $1.8 billion. That was 
a commitment we made. We said we were for that. This budget that we 
passed has $20 billion set aside for emergency funding as part of our 
budgetary expectations for this year. How much of that will go to 
homeland security? We have to be careful to watch. And even though we 
authorized these barriers at the border, which are going to make a 
huge, huge difference in reducing illegal entry into America--it is 
going to be so positive--but if we do not fund it so we can actually 
build it, it cannot be built. That requires an appropriations.
  So I am getting worried about that. I am hearing some things--that 
the $1.8 billion we passed with such an overwhelming vote may not be 
funded. So isn't that the shell game we are talking about now? Isn't 
that the deal? We thought we had done it on the Defense bill. It would 
be built through the National Guard who is already on the border. And 
the money would go to them to supervise, to contract out, or utilize 
their own personnel to construct this fencing.
  That is what we thought we had done. But as often happens around 
here, subtle things happen. You think you have something in your hand 
and like a will-o'-the-wisp it just disappears. I hate to use the words 
``shell game'' because it is not always planned out that way, but the 
effect can be the same. First you think you have it, and then it 
disappears. You think it is under that shell, you think you have it, 
and it is not there.
  So I am going to have to tell our leadership on both sides of the 
aisle I am pleased to see we have a commitment to building the fences. 
We voted twice now, and the House has overwhelmingly voted for this. 
But we need to make sure we don't play a shell game where we don't have 
the money at the end to build it because somebody wants to spend it on 
a pet project they have.
  This is a matter of national interest. It is a matter of national 
security. It is

[[Page 18591]]

a matter we cannot fumble the ball on. It is a matter we are committed 
to by our previous votes. So let's make sure we do it. And setting 
priorities is what we do. That is what we are paid to do. We cannot do 
everything. So we will have a bit of a test as the session winds down 
to see if the appropriations process--the actual appropriating of the 
money to do the things that are needed to be done--is carried out and 
the funding is there and the barriers are built.
  Again, I repeat, this would be a one-time expenditure. I believe the 
numbers we are hearing are too high. We felt like $1.7 billion, $1.8 
billion would do the 370 miles of fencing, including 500 miles of 
vehicle barriers. There is enough money to fund that. But if we are 
going to have to have that, we can't have no funding, a third of the 
funding, or a half of the funding or we are not going to be able to do 
this job. And if it turns out we are wrong and the cost is higher than 
we expected, we are not going to come close to doing what we are 
telling the American people we intend to do. So we will have to watch 
that.
  I will just share, in conclusion, my thoughts about the nature of the 
American Republic of which we are a part. It is a good and decent 
nation. We have a positive view of immigration. We have been a nation 
of immigrants from our founding. We believe in immigration. But we are 
also a nation of laws.
  I was a Federal prosecutor for 15 years, and it breaks my heart to 
see the Federal United States law be made a mockery along the border of 
our country, that without fencing people are driving by, and not even 
stopping when the Border Patrol attempts to detain them.
  We had a hearing yesterday on crime in America. We had the Director 
of the Bureau of Prisons. He told us that in the Federal prison 
penitentiaries 27 percent of the people detained are not American 
citizens. Can you imagine that--27 percent?
  Now, I am absolutely convinced that overwhelmingly the people who 
come to our country are law-abiding; even if they come to our country 
illegally, they are law-abiding, other than their entry. But I have to 
tell you, if I were in big trouble somewhere in some foreign country, 
and they were trying to arrest me in my hometown, and the chief of 
police knows my name, and I am facing a big, serious crime, why would I 
not want to scoot across the border and go to the United States where 
nobody would know me?
  I think we are picking up an excessive number of people who may even 
be fleeing prosecution in their towns or people who have come here to 
set up drug distribution networks and things of that nature. So somehow 
we are picking up a larger number of the criminal element than we ever 
have. When I asked Mr. Lappin about the prison system and the fact that 
he said 27 percent of the people in the Federal penitentiaries are 
noncitizens, I asked him: Does that include those we detain at the 
border who are being held waiting to be deported? He said, No, it does 
not even include those.
  So this Nation, in our own interest, has every right--indeed, we have 
a duty to our people--to make sure our borders are not wide open, 
terrorists do not come here, drug dealers do not come here, people in 
trouble for sexual offenses and child pornography and those kinds of 
things, and child abuse, who flee their own countries, do not run 
across the border to safety in the United States, where they are never 
apprehended and live here.
  So this is all part of it. If we are coming through with the right 
funding, we will be successful in taking the historic step to creating 
a lawfulness in this country.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I wish to say a few words before we move 
to the cloture vote on H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Act of 2006. 
Colleagues, the purpose of the fence is to prevent illegal pedestrian 
and vehicular traffic crossing the international border of the United 
States with Mexico.
  This bill does four main things. First, it authorizes over 700 miles 
of two-layered reinforced fencing along the southwest border with 
prioritized placement at critical, highly populated areas. Second, the 
legislation mandates that the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, 
achieve and maintain operational control over the entire border through 
a ``virtual fence'' that deploys cameras, ground sensors, unmanned 
aerial vehicles, UAVs, and integrated surveillance technology. Third, 
it requires DHS to provide all necessary authority to border personnel 
to disable fleeing vehicles, similar to the authority held by the U.S. 
Coast Guard for maritime vessels. Finally, the bill requires DHS to 
assess the vulnerability of the northern border.
  Some of my colleagues ask why we need these additional border control 
tools. When combined with high-tech detection devices, a secure fence 
should make attempts to cross our border more time-consuming so that 
the Border Patrol has time to respond and catch those trying to breach 
the border. Having a state-of-the-art border security fence system 
should ensure that it cannot be easily compromised. The business of 
apprehension is manpower-intensive, slow, and legally complex. If we 
only build a ``virtual fence'' without additional physical barriers, we 
will spend millions on technology that is subject to ordinary downtime 
and then spend even more money to chase down, apprehend, process, and 
deport the illegal border-crossers.
  I believe instead we should add these tools to the toolbox of the 
Border Patrol, as requested by DHS. An increased manpower alone 
approach would have the Border Patrol remain vulnerable to decoys and 
other tactics designed to draw our border agents into one area so that 
another area is left exposed. This fencing will help border control 
efforts and will not be an inhibitor to legitimate entry to this 
country.
  More importantly, we know that fencing works. With the establishment 
of the San Diego border fence, crime rates in San Diego have fallen off 
dramatically. According to the FBI Crime Index, crime in San Diego 
County dropped 56.3 percent between 1989 to 2000. Vehicle drive-
throughs in the region have fallen from between 6 to 10 per day before 
the fence to only 4 drive-throughs in 2004, and those occurred only 
where the secondary fence was not complete. According to numbers 
provided by the San Diego Sector Border Patrol in February 2004, 
apprehension decreased from 531,689 in 1993 to 111,515 in 2003.
  The Senate should take up and pass the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and 
give the Border Patrol all of the tools it needs to do its job. The 
Senate should send a clear message that we need this fence and we need 
it now. Let's send this bill to the President before we leave at the 
end of the month.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to again voice my strong 
support for securing our Nation's borders, which remain porous. We must 
immediately address this threat to our national security.
  I have consistently supported and voted in favor of border security 
efforts such as the installation of reinforced fencing in strategic 
areas where high trafficking of narcotics, unlawful border crossings, 
and other criminal activity exists. I have also supported installing 
physical barriers, roads, lighting, cameras, and sensors where 
necessary.
  However, I object to the Congress making decisions about the location 
of border fencing. These decisions should be made by State and local 
law enforcement officials working with the Department of Homeland 
Security, not dictated by Congress. The border States have borne a 
heavy financial burden from illegal immigration; their local officials 
are on the front lines. They should be part of the solution.
  Ours is a nation of laws and we must be a nation of secure borders. I 
stand

[[Page 18592]]

resolved to work with my colleagues to enact meaningful legislation in 
this session of Congress that addresses border security first and 
enacts comprehensive immigration reform.


                             Cloture Motion

  Under the previous order, pursuant to rule XXII, the clerk will 
report the pending motion to invoke cloture.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 615, H.R. 6061, a bill to establish 
     operational control over the international land and maritime 
     borders of the United States.
         Bill Frist, Ted Stevens, Robert Bennett, Lisa Murkowski, 
           Mike Enzi, Pat Roberts, Jeff Sessions, Orrin Hatch, 
           Wayne Allard, Thad Cochran, James Inhofe, Trent Lott, 
           John Ensign, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, Mitch McConnell, John 
           Cornyn.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum has 
been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate on the 
motion to proceed to H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, shall be 
brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Akaka), the 
Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd), the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. 
Inouye), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. 
Menendez) are necessarily absent.
  I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. 
Menendez) would each vote ``yea.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 94, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 252 Leg.]

                                YEAS--94

     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     Dayton
     DeMint
     DeWine
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Frist
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Akaka
     Dodd
     Inouye
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Menendez
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 94, the nays are 0. 
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the 
affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to claim my 1 
hour at this point and ask to speak as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                               job losses

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the most 
pressing issue that I believe families feel across this country and 
certainly in my home State of Michigan, and that relates to the squeeze 
that families are feeling on all sides today. It starts with the issue 
of jobs. We see that almost 3 million jobs have been lost in the 
manufacturing sector in the last 6 years--almost 3 million jobs. When 
we look at this chart, under this administration we see that we have 
the slowest job growth of any administration in over 70 years. We have 
to go back to Herbert Hoover to see the kind of job loss that we are 
now seeing--the slowest job growth in over 70 years.
  In my home State of Michigan it is even worse than that, because what 
we are seeing is the impact of a lack of a 21st century manufacturing 
strategy on those in my State who have been the global leaders--who are 
the global leaders--in manufacturing. Almost 3 million jobs have been 
lost in manufacturing alone, and 260,000 of those jobs have been in 
manufacturing in Michigan.
  Now, to add insult to injury, we see expenses going up on all sides 
for families. They are losing good-paying jobs.
  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, would the Senator yield for a question 
about the previous chart?
  Ms. STABENOW. Absolutely. I yield to my dear friend who is the 
ranking member on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, as I understand it, this figure here 
reflects the amount of annual growth rate of employment under the Bush 
administration.
  Ms. STABENOW. That is correct.
  Mr. SARBANES. At four-tenths of 1 percent.
  Ms. STABENOW. That is correct.
  Mr. SARBANES. We should compare that with the job growth that has 
taken place in all of these previous administrations. This is the 
smallest amount until we get back to Herbert Hoover, is that correct?
  Ms. STABENOW. Absolutely. Prior to the Great Depression.
  Mr. SARBANES. Right. It is a matter of very great concern. This chart 
is a dramatic demonstration that this so-called economic recovery has 
not really produced jobs, which, after all, is one of the main purposes 
that we seek in terms of the workings of the economy.
  Ms. STABENOW. Absolutely. In my home State of Michigan, because we 
are the global leaders in manufacturing, and I know in my good friend's 
home State of Maryland it is the same way, in terms of manufacturing, 
that number is even worse because of the lack of effectiveness in 
enforcing trade-offs, because of our inability to address health care 
and being able to change the way we fund health care, because of the 
lack of investment in education and innovation. That number does not 
reflect the fact of the impact of the loss of good-paying jobs, the 
kind of jobs that have built the middle class of this country.
  Frankly, I am very proud to represent a State that has been at the 
forefront in the auto industry, with an industry that has created the 
middle class in this country--middle class jobs, not only in autos, in 
furniture production, in other manufacturing.
  The reality is that we have lost almost 3 million jobs that created 
the middle class of this country. Even though there has been just a 
tiny little bit of an increase here over all, we see it is the lowest, 
slowest job growth of any administration. We have to go way back to 
Herbert Hoover to find an administration that has a worse jobs record 
than this particular President.
  I have to say it is particularly insulting to those of us in Michigan 
who, given this record and the fact that we have almost 3 million jobs 
that have been lost, and 260,000 manufacturing jobs in Michigan alone, 
that when the President of the United States came to Michigan a couple 
of weeks ago to do political fundraising, he didn't have 30 minutes to 
meet with the auto industry. He didn't have 15 minutes to meet with the 
executives of the largest employers in the country. In fact, he has 
postponed or canceled I believe three different meetings with them and 
now says he is prepared to meet with them after the election.
  This isn't about elections. This isn't about politics. This is about 
a fight for a way of life. This is a fight for a way of life in this 
country. While he is waiting until after the elections to meet with the 
auto industry and to begin to engage to do something about these 
numbers, we have folks who are facing layoffs today. We have headlines. 
We have Ford Motor Company and their

[[Page 18593]]

latest headlines. We have struggles going on throughout the industry. 
Every day, somebody in Michigan gets up in the morning and worries 
about whether or not they are going to have a job, worries about 
whether or not they are going to be able to afford to send their kids 
to college, whether or not their health care is going to still be 
there, and whether or not they are going to be able to pay for it.
  To add insult to injury, too many people who have worked all their 
lives and who have paid into a pension are now finding themselves in a 
situation where that pension won't be there. I think that is the 
ultimate outrage. In the United States of America, I never thought I 
would have to stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate and say somebody 
may be in a situation to lose a pension they have paid for their whole 
lives. We addressed this issue on a bipartisan basis, and I am very 
proud we put in place efforts that are going to save many of those 
pensions because of the work that we did a few weeks ago. But too many 
people still find themselves on the line as a result of that, and that 
should not be an issue. Bankruptcy or no bankruptcy, in this country 
you ought to get your pension, period.
  So we have a situation where more and more families are on the edge, 
more and more families who believe in America, who believe in playing 
by the rules, who get up every day and work hard at one job, two jobs, 
three jobs, and still find themselves falling more and more behind.
  On top of the job situation that they are concerned about, they are 
being squeezed on all sides by all of the other costs that relate to 
their families. We see, for instance, a 44 percent increase in the cost 
of college tuition, room, and board--a 44 percent increase. So here we 
are, we are in a transition. We hear that the economy is changing. We 
need to be investing in education. We need to be investing in 
opportunity for the future, and in innovation and, at the same time, we 
see the costs going up, and the exact opposite policies are being put 
in place in terms of cutting opportunity for people.
  We all want our children to have a better opportunity than we have 
had. I am very fortunate to have two children who have worked their way 
through school and a wonderful stepdaughter who just graduated. I 
understand about student loans and what that means. I know the costs 
have gone up, because we have watched them go up over the last several 
years. There is no question that families are feeling more and more 
squeezed as it relates to creating opportunity for their children to be 
successful, and that makes no sense in this country. That makes no 
sense at this time when we could be doing something about it.
  Health insurance premiums have gone up 71 percent. Seventy-one 
percent under the Bush policies and this administration--71 percent. 
Now, this is an issue for us in Michigan with not only families and 
individuals who are struggling to be able to pay for what I believe 
should be a right in this country, not a privilege, which is health 
care, but we know what it is doing to our businesses as well. We know 
that in a global economy, we are the only industrialized country that 
pays for health care the way we pay for it. So we add to the burdens on 
our manufacturers, our small businesses, and others by having health 
care predominantly on the backs of business
  To make it even worse, we end up, because of our system, because of 
the craziness of our health care system, paying twice as much of our 
GDP for health care as any other country, but we have 46 million people 
with no health insurance. What is wrong with this picture? The United 
States of America has the highest infant mortality rate. Shame on us. 
We can do better than that. All this takes is a matter of political 
will, to make the changes that are necessary so no family has to go to 
bed at night praying that the kids are not going to get sick; no small 
business has to worry about whether they are going to be able to find 
health care for themselves and their employees; and no manufacturer 
should have to worry about whether they are going to be able to compete 
internationally and still provide health care for their workers.
  Health care costs have gone up 71 percent. To add insult to injury, 
gasoline prices experienced a 104-percent increase. They are coming 
down now. They are coming down a little bit before the election. We 
know what will happen after the election. And we also know what has 
happened to people trying to go to work, trying to take the kids to 
school.
  In my home State, in Michigan, where we have a very robust tourism 
season, we want everybody to be able to go to the cottage up north, 
take the boat out, and enjoy the wonderful Great Lakes or go fishing on 
the inland lakes and rivers. This is a major economic factor for us, 
gas prices. What happens to individuals who have to take more money out 
of their pockets just to be able to get to work? Maybe this summer they 
didn't take that trip they normally take, which means our small 
businesses up north were hurt. It means economically we are not seeing 
the robust investment in tourism that normally we have seen in 
Michigan.
  Families are being squeezed on all sides. This is just a fraction of 
the cost we have seen going up. What has been the response of this 
administration? What has been the response of the Republicans in 
Congress? Unfortunately, the response has been, first of all, to block 
our efforts to ban price gouging. As part of the Energy bill that 
passed a year ago, an amendment of mine was agreed to that required the 
Federal Trade Commission to do a complete investigation of price 
gouging. It took them way too long, but they finally came back and 
indicated that on the surface of it, they didn't think it was happening 
and they really didn't have the tools. We had not defined price gouging 
so that they could really be serious about that. The administration 
basically took a pass on whether there is price gouging. So we 
introduced legislation to define it. That has not been able to move 
because there has been no support to do that.
  Health care costs? We could go on and on in all of the areas in 
which, instead of coming together and doing what we can do, efforts 
have been blocked. Here are some of the basics, starting with the 
Medicare prescription drug program. Instead of having a plan that works 
for seniors and the disabled, a plan was written that was great for the 
drug industry. Included in that was the outrageous provision that we 
are not allowed--Medicare is not allowed to negotiate group discounts. 
Can you imagine that anywhere else? Anybody knows bulk purchasing is 
cheaper, negotiating group prices is cheaper. Yet, in the area of 
Medicare, in behalf of the industry, that is prohibited.
  What is the result of that? First of all, we have a Medicare plan, 
essentially, that is privatizing Part D, requiring those to go through 
private insurance rather than directly through Medicare. There is just 
a great big hole. Some folks have called it a doughnut hole, this gap 
in coverage, because there is not enough money to pay for complete 
coverage because they can't negotiate group prices. All the money is 
going to the industry rather than going to make sure there is 
comprehensive coverage.
  There is a better way to do that. I am introducing legislation that 
would allow us to go directly to Part D. Any senior, any person with 
disabilities, could go directly to Medicare, sign up under Part D under 
the normal copays and premiums, go to their local pharmacy, they 
negotiate prices, we eliminate the gap in coverage, and folks would get 
what they need without all of the confusion and complexity. But that 
has stalled. We have not been able to move that forward because of the 
administration and those in control.
  Mr. SARBANES. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Ms. STABENOW. Absolutely.
  Mr. SARBANES. Isn't it the case that the VA, in providing health care 
for veterans, can use its bargaining position with the pharmaceutical 
companies to get lower drug prices and therefore is in a better 
position to provide more extensive coverage for the veterans as a 
consequence? But on the Medicare for our seniors--I remember the 
Senator opposing that provision so

[[Page 18594]]

strongly here on the floor--it is prohibited that Medicare enter into 
this bargaining with the pharmaceutical companies, bulk purchasing, in 
order to get lower prices on the drugs?
  Ms. STABENOW. The Senator is absolutely correct. We have the model. 
It is the VA. They have done it very well. They have been able to get a 
better deal, anywhere from a 35-percent to a 40-percent lower price 
because they negotiate prices. I don't know anywhere else in the 
Federal Government where we are not trying to get the best price, where 
we are not trying to negotiate, except in the area of prescription 
drugs, except in the area of lifesaving medicine where somebody may 
need it or they may not be able to live or may not be able to treat 
their symptoms for high blood pressure or diabetes or get their heart 
medicine or get their cancer medicine--except in the area that is 
lifesaving.
  Even with the VA, which does a marvelous job in negotiating prices, 
we are able to do that in every area except Medicare--Medicare, the 
health care system for older Americans and the disabled. It is the only 
place where the decision was made to go with the drug companies rather 
than to go with the people who are on Medicare.
  There are so many areas in health care costs we should be 
addressing--health IT, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs 
with the use of generic drugs, addressing the issue of health care 
costs. Senator Durbin and Senator Lincoln have a very important 
proposal that would allow small businesses to pool together nationally 
and to be able to have a pool--whether it is Blue Cross, whether it is 
other private insurance, whether it is HMOs--be able to pool together 
to get the best price. That came to the floor and was voted down.
  I have legislation that would provide a catastrophic tax credit for 
our manufacturers. We know about 1 percent of employees in a business 
will be seriously ill during the year, but it is 20 to 25 percent of 
the cost of the health care paid during that year. We could take a 
major step forward if we provided a tax credit for catastrophic costs 
to help our manufacturers and our businesses.
  This is not rocket science. It is about having the political will and 
the right values and the right priorities. This has not happened here, 
and every day people continue to struggle with their health care. Too 
many people end up in emergency rooms where we pay twice as much 
because they are sicker than they should be and they are not getting 
the care at the time they should be getting it. They get treated. The 
hospital, of course, does the treatment, as it should. Then the costs 
roll over onto everybody with insurance. That is why we pay so much for 
health care, and we in the Senate should be focusing on this as a No. 1 
priority.
  I mentioned college tuition before. Right when we need to be focusing 
on more opportunity for people in a changing economy--we all talk about 
education all the time--what happens here? Right before Christmas, we 
had the largest cut in student loans in the history of the country, $12 
billion. For everybody who had to refinance their loan by July 1 and 
saw their interest rate go up, it was as a result of that.
  Then, on top of that, we see the President proposed the largest cut 
in education for next year, the largest ever proposed since the 
Department of Education was established. Who would believe that at this 
time, in a global economy, that we ought to be proposing and passing 
the largest cuts ever suggested for education? These are the wrong 
priorities and the wrong direction.
  And then, certainly, time and time again, we have tried to pass a 
minimum wage bill that truly raises the minimum wage for everyone. It 
is something that makes sense. It is something where workers in every 
State will find that their minimum wage will be raised.
  Let me just say that I see our distinguished colleague here, Senator 
Reed, who has played such a distinguished role on economic issues, and 
I will yield to him to speak in just a moment, but when you look at the 
numbers and you look at what is happening to families across this 
country, we need a new direction. We need a new direction. We need to 
create a new set of priorities based on a different set of values that 
put Americans first--American businesses and American workers.
  What I see happening in this country is a willingness by the 
President and those in charge of Congress to accept a race to the 
bottom in a global economy. Too many workers in my State have been 
told: If you only work for less, pay more in health care, and lose your 
pension, we can be successful. That is a lose-lose strategy. First of 
all, there is always going to be somebody in another country who can 
work for less.
  I don't want to win that race. Nobody in Michigan is interested in 
winning a race to the bottom. What we understand is that we need to do 
what America does best, which is make this a race to the top. In order 
to make it a race to the top, we have to have a level playing field on 
trade. We can compete with anybody if the rules are fair, if it is a 
level playing field. We have to change the way we fund health care and 
address health care costs for businesses and families. We have to 
change. We have to start passing legislation that addresses health care 
in a positive way, to truly bring down costs, not just shift them 
around but bring down costs in a real way and make health care 
available and affordable and support businesses and families.
  We have to continue to say we are going to protect pensions. We did 
make a step forward in that area, and I am proud that we did that 
together.
  Then we have to race like crazy on education and innovation. That is 
what we do in America. Let's race up. Let's make every other country 
race to keep up with us. Let's be the ones who are continuing to invest 
in education, in opportunity for every child, in opportunities for 
everybody to be able to go to college and focus on areas of math and 
science and technology and engineering and all of those things we need 
to do to make it a race up, areas of health research, creating new 
opportunities and new discoveries. That is what we do in America. That 
is what we have always done in America. But we have seen in the last 6 
years a willingness to put that all aside for other priorities, put 
that all aside and make this a race to the bottom. That is not good 
enough.
  We believe in a race to the top, and we know that is going to take a 
new direction. It is going to take a different set of priorities. It is 
going to take a different set of values to do that. But in a global 
economy, if we are going to keep our middle class, we have to do that.
  We are in a fight for our way of life in this country. It is not 
going to do any good if a few people have a lot of money if the average 
person has no money in their pocket to be able to buy that house, that 
car, send the kids to college, get the boat, and be able to enjoy the 
beautiful lakes in Michigan, be able to buy their medication. It is not 
going to matter if everybody is being asked to race to the bottom.
  So I am hopeful--in fact, insistent--that we turn things around. 
America can do better. We need a new direction. We need a race to the 
top. We can do this. It just takes people who get it, people who get it 
to be in charge with the right values and the right priorities, and 
Americans are expecting that to happen. In fact, they are tired of 
waiting for it to happen. And so am I.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Murkowski). The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. REED. Madam President, I am very pleased to join my colleague, 
Senator Stabenow, and my colleague, Senator Sarbanes, to talk about the 
reality that is confronting the American family across the country. 
That reality is, they are being squeezed, and they are feeling every 
day increased pressure from an economy that is not resulting in higher 
wages and income but is demonstrating increased costs to every family 
in the country. Between flat, stagnant incomes and increasing costs, 
they are seeing their dreams shredded.
  It is our obligation, our duty to respond. This administration has 
not responded. The President tries to paint a

[[Page 18595]]

rosy picture of the economy, but the American people know better 
because every day they see the high gasoline prices, and increased 
costs of education. They look at their paychecks and see no significant 
increases. And they wonder, really, for the first time in my lifetime, 
whether their children will have a better life than they enjoyed.
  It was taken as an article of faith in America when I was growing up 
in the 1950s and 1960s that your children would do better than you did. 
They are probably going to college, if you hadn't gone to college. If 
you were fortunate to be a college-educated person, they certainly 
would go to college and maybe on to professional school beyond. They 
would be able to enjoy a home in a good community. They would be able 
to use their talents and their energies to provide for their families 
and to build a strong America. But, again, for the first time in 
generations, many, many people are wondering whether their children 
will be able to afford what they did, and be able to accomplish what 
they have done. Can they afford a home in the same community they grew 
up in? In many cases, that is not true in America today. Will they have 
a pension that they can depend on when they get older 40 or 50 years 
from now? Will they have the ability to send themselves to school, to 
educate themselves, not just through college but throughout their 
lifetime?
  This is not something that is just the impersonal effect of the world 
economy and globalization. This is something that Government has a duty 
to respond to, and this administration has not responded to it.
  The facts are very clear. After adjusting for inflation, the income 
of the typical family is lower than it was when President Bush took 
office. The typical family has fallen behind in the last 6 years. The 
economy has gone through the most protracted job slump since the Great 
Depression. Even though job creation has turned positive, the pace of 
job creation has been modest and real wages are not growing.
  The administration likes to point to statistics that show an increase 
in average income or compensation. But it seems pretty clear that these 
averages reflect gains by highly compensated individuals who receive 
bonuses, who exercise stock options, while ordinary workers see their 
wages falling behind with rising living costs.
  When you talk about an average, if you have a lot of poor people and 
you have several highly compensated individuals, that average moves up. 
That is what the President is talking about.
  What we should be looking at is, how do we help those low-income 
Americans see more in their paychecks? How do we help them protect 
against rising prices in so many critical areas?
  This first chart demonstrates what has happened between 2000 and 
2004. This is the median inflation-adjusted household income. This is 
the centerpoint of households in the U.S., 50 percent below, 50 percent 
above. So it takes away the distorting effect of a few, a handful of 
terribly wealthy households in the country. This is the most accurate 
view of what has been happening. You can see in 2004, the median income 
was $47,399; in 2005, in inflation-adjusted terms, $46,326, a fall of 
$1,273. Median household incomes fell. That is not the sign of a good 
economy. In fact, that is the sign of a failing economy.
  This is accompanied by another phenomenon. The second phenomenon is 
that prices are increasing. In fact, they are rising dramatically in 
critical areas.
  This is a chart that shows the middle-class squeeze under the Bush 
administration. College tuition, room and board, up 44 percent; 
households have $1,300 less at the median; their expenses for college 
are going up 44 percent. Health insurance premiums, if you can afford 
them or you have access to health insurance at all, because there is a 
growing number of Americans who can't buy health insurance; those 
premiums are going up 71 percent.
  Gasoline prices, up by 104 percent. Even in the last few weeks of 
lower prices, they are still extraordinarily high given the prices in 
2000.
  What you have seen is a situation--this is just arithmetic--income 
goes down, costs go up, families are squeezed. They have to put on hold 
a lot of their dreams and hopes for the future--for college, in some 
cases. They have to worry about whether they will be destroyed 
financially by a health care crisis at home because they cannot afford 
health care coverage.
  Certainly we are all seeing throughout the economy how expensive it 
is just to get around because of the price of gasoline. For upper 
income Americans, the people who are certainly above the median income, 
this is a problem. For the vast majority of Americans, low-income 
Americans, the extra $10 or $15 per fillup means they cannot take the 
kids out for even a modest meal. They can't do things that they took 
for granted. They certainly cannot save.
  One of the other phenomenons we have seen is virtually a zero savings 
rate for households in the country. They are not getting ahead.
  I can recall--I think we all can recall as children--when parents 
talked about trying to get ahead, trying to get a little bit ahead, 
something that will give them not only some financial security but 
peace of mind. For some families in the last 6 years they are not only 
not getting ahead but they are falling behind. It is not predestined; 
it is not inevitable. It is because of the policies of this 
administration.
  One of other startling aspects of the Bush administration is that 
employment has not grown. This is a chart showing the growth of nonfarm 
employment throughout administrations in the country going back to 
Herbert Hoover. The Bush administration has the worst nonfarm 
employment growth of any administration since Herbert Hoover. That is 
not a comparison anyone would like to entertain.
  We have seen it go up and down through administrations, but this is 
the worst. Under the Clinton administration, there was a 2.4 percent 
per year growth in nonfarm employment. That has been reversing.
  This is a situation where people are looking around, again despite 
all the happy talk of the administration, people just have to look 
around. The jobs are going away and they are not coming back. Pick up 
the paper. About every day you see a big American company announcing 
20,000 jobs being let go, changes, restructuring, et cetera. That 
causes people great concern.
  Again, we have to do something, and nothing of consequence is being 
done by this administration. It is the worst job record since Herbert 
Hoover.
  That is a damning epitaph for the economic policies of this 
administration.
  Coupled with the anemic job growth has been a similar anemic growth 
in earnings. Here again is a comparison. Between 1995 and 2000, under 
the Clinton administration, and between 2000 and 2005 under the Bush 
administration. What you see in the Clinton administration is a strong 
growth in earnings, weekly earnings, for every category of worker, from 
the lowest to the highest.
  In fact, I should point out that the highest-income Americans did 
much better under the Clinton administration than they are doing under 
this administration. But what is startling is that this picket fence of 
the Clinton administration of growth in every income level, strong 
positive growth, is not the case in the Bush administration. In fact, 
in the lowest 10 percent you are seeing negative growth, a loss in 
terms of weekly earnings. The poorest Americans are not only not 
keeping up, they are falling behind. It is not just at the bottom, it 
is all the way up to the 50th percentile. Half of American full-time 
workers have seen a loss in the last 5 years in their usual weekly 
earnings. They are losing ground, and they know it. They are not 
getting ahead. They are falling behind.
  You see at the upper income levels a slight increase. It was much, 
much better under the Clinton administration.
  One of the ironies here is that the economic policy, relatively 
speaking, is benefiting the wealthiest Americans, but it is not 
benefiting them as much as under the Clinton administration.

[[Page 18596]]

  Again, these are weekly earnings. This figure would be much, much 
different if we put in all forms of compensation. There you are seeing 
even a more pronounced view of the upper income Americans because of 
stock bonuses, because of all sorts of compensation that is not in the 
form of weekly earnings.
  Mr. SARBANES. Madam President, will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REED. I would be happy to yield to the Senator.
  Mr. SARBANES. If I understand that chart correctly, the people up to 
the 50th percentile in the last 5 years have actually fallen behind. 
They have not had an increase, they actually have had a decrease in 
their real weekly earnings. Is that correct?
  Mr. REED. That is absolutely correct.
  Mr. SARBANES. Then beyond that, while there has been some increase, 
it is far less than what occurred in the previous 5 years of the 
Clinton administration? Is that right?
  Mr. REED. That is right.
  Mr. SARBANES. Of course, that helps to explain what people are 
thinking about the economy. I know our distinguished colleague from 
Michigan talked earlier about the increase in health care costs, the 
increase in tuition costs, education costs, and the increase in energy 
costs. That is one side of the squeeze on the middle class and working 
America. But this is the other side of the squeeze on the middle and 
working Americans. They are being squeezed down in their earnings and 
they are being squeezed from the other direction by the increase in 
costs. So they are really caught in a vise. Their income is not as good 
and key costs are going up--and at a rather rapid rate. Will the 
Senator agree with that?
  Mr. REED. The Senator is right. It is absolutely a phenomenon between 
being crushed by falling real income and rising costs. It is not a 
situation where incomes are falling and being compensated by falling 
prices. It is a situation where they are being caught in this vice. The 
pain is palpable to working families throughout this country. These are 
all of our citizens. These are the people we all say we are here to 
help. And we are not helping them--not this Congress, not this 
administration. Not only are we not helping these individuals but it 
turns out the very policies of this administration and this Congress 
are rewarding those people who are doing the best, not those who need 
the assistance. That is evident in the tax policy being pursued by this 
administration and supported by this Republican Congress.
  This is the average amount of capital gains and dividend tax cuts by 
household incomes in 2005. This is one of the centerpieces of the 
administration's proposal. They have to cut capital gains taxes. They 
have to cut dividend taxes. Here is where the benefits go. If you make 
under $50,000--that is an awful lot of Americans--you get $6 in 
benefits If a person is making between $50,000 and $100,000--most 
Americans within that range are considered to be pretty prosperous 
folks--they get $55 in benefits. If a person makes over $1 million, 
they get $37,000 in benefits. One of the reasons for this is the fact 
that most working Americans, if they hold stock, they hold it in their 
retirement accounts. These retirement accounts do not benefit directly 
from these capital gains and dividends tax cuts. So for the vast 
majority of Americans, we are seeing virtually no direct benefit from 
these capital gains and dividends tax cuts. Of course, for the 
wealthiest, it is a bonanza.
  Now, if this somehow stimulated a huge spurt in economic activity, 
growth, job performance, and increased employment, that might be a 
justification--not the most compelling, but a justification. We are not 
even seeing that.
  What we are seeing--because, again, ultimately this is about 
arithmetic as much as anything--we are seeing a decrease in the 
resources and revenues of the Federal Government. So we can't 
compensate for increased cost of tuition. In fact, this administration, 
as the Senator from Michigan suggested, is sending up a budget that has 
record cuts in Pell grants and Stafford loans and those supports for 
education that are so critical at a time when everyone reflexively says 
we have to be the best educated country in the world because we must 
compete today with an emerging India and an emerging China.
  We can no longer sit back on our laurels saying we have the best 
educated people. We have to keep investing in education. We have 
dissipated those resources in a way that does not benefit the vast 
majority of Americans but benefits very few. As a result, not only are 
the costs of education going up, but our Federal support for education 
is going down.
  I should say something else, too. The last several weeks the, 
President hasn't missed an opportunity to remind the American people 
that we are at war. We are. And we have to support our forces in the 
field. I saw a figure today that to keep an Army division in operation 
in Iraq for 1 month costs $1.5 billion. Those costs have to be met.
  With the tax policy rewarding the wealthiest Americans without 
benefiting the rest of America, without contributing in a demonstrable 
way to significantly increase employment, without contributing to 
supports and programs so essential to investments for the future of 
this country, we are not only dissipating our resources, we have also 
engaged in an international policy that requires spending that is very 
difficult to avoid, nigh impossible. Who is bearing the burden? It is 
all being rolled into the next generation of Americans as we accumulate 
a huge amount of debt going forward.
  This is the most reckless economic policy I have ever seen. It is 
``credit card economics,'' borrow as much as you can to fund military 
operations abroad, but we cannot afford domestic programs. What 
resources we have we give away in the form of tax cuts that are not 
strengthening the economy.
  It is a massive shift of resources from the vast majority of 
Americans to the wealthiest Americans; from a generation in the future 
that will pay for it, to a generation today that seems to be consuming 
it.
  Ultimately, these policies will catch up with us. They have already 
caught up with the families of America. As we debate these issues 
today, they are looking at sticker shock in health care, education, at 
the gas pumps, and housing. And they are looking at their stagnant 
paychecks.
  Not only can we do better, we must do better. This Government has in 
the past been able to sort these problems out. We have a record over 
the last 5 years of the preceding decade of growth across the board in 
terms of income at robust levels, of significant employment gains, of 
fiscal responsibility. All of that today is history.
  Mr. SARBANES. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REED. I yield.
  Mr. SARBANES. As I understand it, we have had this tremendous runup 
in the debt. We are just saddling this burden on the next generations.
  One of the things that has happened and needs to be underscored, at 
least as I am informed, is that the amount of the debt that we are 
borrowing from overseas has escalated tremendously. In fact, we have 
borrowed more from overseas--in other words, foreign-held debt--under 
President George W. Bush than all of the previous Presidents combined.
  It is not only that we are incurring the debt and the problems that 
go with that in terms of the future burden, but more of that debt is 
being held externally by people overseas rather than being held 
internally. Before, we were paying it to ourselves. It meant working 
people were paying money to people who held the Government bonds, but 
at least it was all within the country. Now there is a tremendous 
tariff on working people to send this money overseas to the debt that 
is being held abroad.
  Isn't that the case?
  Mr. REED. That is absolutely right. The Senator is right.
  We have extraordinary debt being held by countries such as China. 
Even Mexico is a creditor of the United States today. That debt has to 
be serviced. That money goes overseas. It is not kept within the United 
States for investment here.

[[Page 18597]]

  It also not only economically weakens us, it puts us into a position 
internationally where we do not have the kind of leverage we used to 
have when we were an economic power that did not have these huge debt 
burdens, and we did not rely upon the kindness of strangers. We are 
relying on the kindness of lots of countries who, sometimes, are not 
our friends.
  We can see that manifested in situations such as our relations with 
North Korea, China and our relationship with Iran. The Senator is a 
senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. We are struggling now 
to control the Iranians' race for nuclear technology. A key player is 
the Chinese. We cannot push them hard to take a tough line, in some 
cases because they hold a lot of our debt. That is a reality not only 
economically but also in terms of international affairs.
  Mr. SARBANES. If the Senator will yield, as the Senator points out, 
we have become dependent, as Tennessee Williams said, on ``the kindness 
of strangers.''
  On the one hand, we say we are the world's superpower. In many 
respects, that is quite true. However, economically, the foundations 
are weakening. They are not as solid and as strong as they once were.
  In the last years of the Clinton administration we were running 
surpluses and paying down the debt. The Bush administration came in and 
made these very excessive tax cuts at a time when we moved into a war 
footing. We have never done that before in this country. When we have 
gone into a war footing we have always concerned ourselves with how to 
meet the budgetary demands of the war. That did not happen here. All of 
a sudden we have switched from running surpluses to running these large 
deficits, year after year after year. The projections are that they 
will go out into the future as far as the eye can see.
  The Bush people say: We will lower the deficit a little bit. As long 
as we are running the deficit, we are still building up the debt. We 
are adding to the debt every step of the way. As we noted previously in 
our discussion, more and more of that debt is being held overseas. To 
the extent that happens, we are subject to the kind of leverage that 
others have.
  The United States has gone from being the world's largest creditor 
nation; now we are the world's largest debtor nation.
  Mr. REED. The Senator is absolutely right. He realizes, as I do, when 
the Bush administration came into power, we were running a surplus. We 
had a projected surplus over several years in the trillions of dollars, 
an opportunity to do lots of critical and important tasks for America: 
to try to reform our health care system which will require not only 
changes in rules, regulations, and procedures, but probably additional 
resources; to try to reinvigorate public education at the elementary 
and secondary level and try to make college more affordable. These were 
investment goals. At that juncture we had the resources to do it.
  The Senator listened, as I did, to proposals which we thought were 
fanciful: the suggestion that if we did not cut taxes, our surplus 
would grow so great it would be unmanageable. What has grown so great 
and what is unmanageable now is not a surplus but a deficit.
  The Senator also recognizes, as we look ahead and as we see this 
continued deficit finance and growing debt, there are structural issues 
which will drive the deficit further. For example, we have to somehow 
come to grips with a longer term solution to the alternative minimum 
tax which will take additional revenues and resources away from the 
Federal Government.
  There are proposals, and we have heard them, of a full-scale repeal 
of the estate tax. Again, that would be an additional denial of 
revenues and resources to the Government at a time when we are running 
a huge deficit and we are fighting a war.
  All this adds up to what the Senator pointed out: not only annual 
deficits but a hugely increasing debt funded by foreigners, leaving us 
vulnerable not only to economic shocks but also to the fact, as the 
Senator suggested, that we are dependent. Dependency, in many respects, 
is the opposite of strength. We have surrendered a great deal of 
economic strength through these policies.
  The bottom line of this discussion is that this is not some 
theoretical macroeconomic research topic. This is reflected in the 
daily lives of Americans who are struggling, and in the future they are 
seeing every day a decreasing sense of confidence that they can provide 
their sons and daughters at least as good a quality of economic life, 
family life, and support as they have enjoyed. That is distressing the 
American public.
  Mr. SARBANES. If the Senator will yield, furthermore, we have an 
opportunity to strengthen the economy in so many ways, including 
addressing the Social Security system which can be done with a number 
of relatively sensible steps.
  The Bush administration, of course, has been pressing this 
privatization. For the moment, they have been beaten back on that and 
people are turning their attention elsewhere, but it is very clear they 
have not given up.
  The President, at the end of June, said:

       If we can't get it done this year I'm going to try next 
     year. And if we can't get it done next year, I'm going to try 
     the year after that.

  The majority leader in the House of Representatives says:

       If I'm around in a leadership role come January [this 
     coming January], we're going to get serious about it 
     [privatizing of Social Security].

  And the chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social 
Security said that privatization would be a top priority in the 
Congress in 2007.
  The American people have to understand this is still very much on the 
agenda of this administration and its supporters.
  Now they want to abolish the estate tax. Why not keep the estate tax 
and devote the revenues from the estate tax to strengthening the Social 
Security system? Then there would be a better retirement for everybody.
  Mr. REED. Well, I think the Senator has a very valid point about 
Social Security, that, yes, you are right, from what I read into those 
comments, the President and the Republicans in the House of 
Representatives are committed to, once again, going after Social 
Security. It seems to me to be contradictory to everything that 
Americans are experiencing today.
  The one phenomenon that is frightening everyone is the loss of 
defined benefit pensions, left and right. Thinking back to when I was 
beginning to enter the workforce, in the 1960s and 1970s, if one of my 
colleagues had said: I have just taken a job as a machinist at United 
Airlines--you would say, you are set for life, just like your father 
was. You are going to work for 30 years, and you are going to retire 
with a nice pension and have benefits like health care. You, 
financially, are in a good position.
  Now we are hearing stories about machinists' pensions being abrogated 
because of bankruptcy proceedings, companies that we took for granted 
as being solid trying to get rid of their pension liabilities. The only 
thing left for most Americans is Social Security.
  Now, we hope they all have 401(k)s and private investments. But there 
is that credit card commercial about how something costs $50 and 
something costs $80, but at the end there is that priceless element. 
The priceless element, when it comes to pensions, is Social Security 
because at least you know every month you will get a certain amount of 
money, you will have something, you will know what it is. And that is 
worth a great deal because it gives a certain peace of mind. For most 
Americans, it is very modest, but at least it is something they can say 
they will have as long as they live.
  This administration wants to eliminate that. They want to put every 
American into a market which has great ups, but also great downs. It 
has cycles where everyone is doing well and cycles where people are not 
doing very well at all.
  That cannot be the bedrock of retirement. We have to maintain Social 
Security. So it is shocking to me that despite what America said over 
the last

[[Page 18598]]

several months--essentially, take your hands off my Social Security--
this administration is going to try again.
  And, of course, there are ways we can fund Social Security. I think 
we did that under the leadership of you and your colleagues in the 
1980s, where changes were made to the formulas, changes were made to 
the rates of taxation, changes were made to strengthen Social Security.
  They are not interested, I think, in strengthening it because their 
objective is not making sure that American families have something to 
rest their dreams on in retirement. This is, in some respects, simply 
another example of catering to the market, of letting these investments 
be turned over to private markets. And there is some advantage to that, 
but not fundamentally with respect to Social Security.
  I am afraid we are going to have to fight this fight again.
  Mr. SARBANES. Will the Senator yield on that point?
  Mr. REED. Yes.
  Mr. SARBANES. In fact, the administration states the problem in such 
a way I think to sort of panic people, and then use that panic to push 
them toward the privatization of the Social Security system.
  For example, the administration says the Social Security system is 
bankrupt. The Social Security system is not bankrupt. The Social 
Security system, at the moment, is taking in more money than it pays 
out in the trust fund. Of course, the administration then borrows that 
money to cover its deficits. That is a separate issue. But there is 
more flowing into the system than is flowing out. That will last until 
about 2020.
  After that, they will start paying out more than flows into the fund, 
so they will start drawing down the fund. And they can continue to pay 
out all the benefits until 2046--in other words, 40 years from now, 
under the projections; of course, the projections are all problematic 
because it depends a lot on how the economy functions--but under their 
best projections, before they draw the fund down. At that point, they 
will still be able to pay 75 to 80 percent of the benefits from what is 
coming in to the Social Security trust fund. So the worst scenario is a 
20- to 25-percent shortfall 40 years from now.
  Now, there are many things you can do now, next year, the year after, 
with an administration that really wants to support the Social Security 
system, to take care of that problem. The magnitude of that problem is 
not out of bounds in terms of being able to address it.
  But it has been dramatized as though it is an immediate crisis I 
think to sort of help scare and panic the American people and then have 
them be more open to these privatization proposals, which, as the able 
Senator from Rhode Island points out, would be to shift people from a 
guaranteed benefit--where they are told, as they are with Social 
Security: You are going to get so much a month and that is guaranteed 
to you--to a defined contribution plan, where you do not know what you 
are going to get.
  The people who worked at Enron and WorldCom thought they had 
wonderful retirements. They had these 401(k)s and everything--they 
thought they had company plans--they thought they had wonderful 
retirements, and they were going to be living quite well in their 
retirement years, and it all collapsed. But they still have----
  Mr. REED. Social Security.
  Mr. SARBANES. Their Social Security, with its guaranteed benefit 
every month. So at least they have that basic form. People need to 
understand how important Social Security is to more than half of 
Americans who get more than 50 percent of their retirement income from 
Social Security. And 20 percent of retired Americans get more than 90 
percent of their retirement income from Social Security.
  So Social Security is really essential to providing that base. In 
fact, it has helped to lift the seniors out of poverty. It used to be 
that the age group most in poverty was the elderly. Because of Social 
Security, essentially--and other things--but because of the 
improvements we have made to it now, that is the age group least in 
poverty. So we have made a substantial change. But Social Security is 
essential to achieving that.
  And I do not know why the administration put it out there. The 
country rejected it, clearly. And it was reflected by Members of 
Congress from both parties who said: No, no. And now they continue to 
talk about coming back to this issue and privatizing. They have not 
given up on privatizing the Social Security system.
  Mr. REED. Well, I think the Senator is absolutely right in terms of 
his analysis. He has stated very eloquently and accurately about how 
many Americans depend upon Social Security; how, over the long term, it 
is a program that will be solvent--with no changes--for 20-plus years, 
and 50 years even if it is not paying full benefits.
  Frankly, I cannot think of another Federal program where we can say 
we can guarantee 25 years from now you are going to get what we told 
you you are going to get. That is one of the few programs of the 
Federal Government that will do that.
  I think the other point that should be made is that these actuarial 
assumptions are rather conservative. So this is not a situation where 
we are trying to, with smoke and mirrors, create an artificial picture 
of the funding stream going forward. And I have the same shock that you 
have, in a way, at these proposals because right now Social Security is 
even more important.
  There was a period in our economic history, from the end of World War 
II up until fairly recently, where many Americans were looking at and 
anticipating not only their Social Security but a defined benefit 
private pension--a rather good private defined pension--and their 
private investments. Frankly, we all understand that the best 
retirement plan has, as a foundation, Social Security, but it is not 
only Social Security. It has to have private savings, private 
investments over time.
  Sometimes--I am sure the Senator might have some of the same feelings 
I have--if we have all these proposals--benefiting the wealthiest 
Americans, why can't we give incentives for average Americans--more 
incentives--to save for their retirement, to put money away? We have 
some, but they are not enough. We can do that. But that is a conscious 
choice to favor, in this respect, the wealthiest over the vast majority 
of Americans.
  I do not think it makes much sense in terms of economic policy, 
fiscal policy, and also social policy. But today we have seen those 
private pensions too often disappear. Today it is more important to 
maintain the defined benefit program of Social Security, and I hope we 
can.
  But again, I say to the Senator, like you, I am concerned there is 
another movement afoot. Just listen to what the President says and what 
the chairman of the relevant subcommittee in the House and also the 
House majority leader say. If they get a chance, next year, they are 
going right back after Social Security, despite, as you point out, the 
rejection by the American people. And this was not some type of narrow, 
close call. Seniors, middle-income Americans--all Americans, I think--
were standing up basically saying: This is not a sensible approach.
  Mr. SARBANES. If the Senator will yield further, I think this does 
much to help explain the anxiety that Americans are feeling about the 
workings of their economy.
  Now, as the Senator so ably showed earlier, working people are being 
pressed from two directions. Their wages are not going up to keep pace 
with inflation, and key costs are increasing. That is compounded by the 
fact that the retired people are in a state of anxiety because they are 
constantly being told: Social Security will not be there for you--
although I think that is a false cry.
  Furthermore, as the increase in educational costs indicates, younger 
people--not yet in the workforce but moving in that direction--see the 
opportunities for education and training not opening up but closing 
down. Senator Stabenow pointed out earlier, we have the most 
significant cuts in Federal aid to education that we have experienced 
since the Federal Government began to try to provide assistance in that 
area.

[[Page 18599]]

  So through every age group, as they look at the situation, they find 
themselves being constrained, to deny them the opportunity--the young 
people--to get an education. Working people are being squeezed badly. 
And our retired citizens are kept in a constant state of agitation 
about the safety and the security of their retirement income.
  I think that explains why you are getting all these articles now in 
the major periodicals and in the major newspapers about this sort of 
anxiety that is running through the society about the workings of our 
economy. And when they look at it, it is very clear what is happening: 
the benefits are all being--as that chart indicates--focused right up 
at the top of the income and wealth scale. And everyone else is left in 
a state where they are really quite concerned about their future.
  Mr. REED. I think the Senator is absolutely right. I think what 
Americans are seeing is a bifurcated society. That is a fancy term for 
the haves and the have-nots. The haves are doing quite well.
  I remember Warren Buffett once said: ``If this is class warfare, my 
class is winning.'' And it is not class warfare. What it is is a series 
of economic policies that are not creating the jobs, that are not 
creating circumstances so that those jobs provide growing compensation 
to workers, and then on top of that, developing tax policies which 
favor the very wealthy and do not do enough to help those who do need 
assistance. Then it is complicated further by budget policies that are 
undercutting education and health care. We are debating a cut to 
physicians in terms of their compensation which goes into the overall 
effect of the health care system.
  One point I would make, in addition to this issue about education, is 
that one of the reasons we saw a spectacularly productive decade in the 
1990s and previous decades is not because anything was done in the 
1990s, it is because of the Pell grants and Stafford loans of the 1960s 
when Americans with talent and ambition could go to college. Twenty-
five years later, they were inventing new products. They were 
developing new ways to develop and provide services. They were leading 
the world economy in every dimension--health care, business, all these 
things.
  If we stop investing in education now, we will lurch along for a few 
years, but we will start slowing up in terms of momentum, and we will 
ask ourselves 20 years from now: Are we still the preeminent economy, 
the preeminent area of scientific research? And that is a question 
mark.
  People understand that. I think it goes back to the point we have all 
tried to make, which is that these charts are illustrative of what is 
going on from a statistical and analytical point; but just ask the 
average family and they will say simply: My wages are stuck, my 
expenses are going up, I cannot provide for my children the way I 
thought I could, and I need help. We should be giving them help and we 
are not.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. DeMint). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, where are we at this point?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Postcloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 
6061.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up 
to 7 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I rise today in support of H.R. 6061, 
the Secure Fence Act of 2006. As I traveled back home over the summer, 
particularly over the month of August, there was not a single issue I 
heard more of from my constituents, whether they were in the north 
Georgia mountains, vacationing on Georgia's coast, or working on farms 
in south Georgia, than illegal immigration. This is by far the most 
emotionally charged issue with which I have dealt during my 12 years in 
Congress.
  Earlier this year, the American people watched as Congress debated 
how to handle the growing crisis of illegal immigration. During that 
debate, there were a wide variety of views expressed regarding the best 
way to stop illegal immigration and how to address the presence of 15 
to 20 million illegal aliens currently in the United States. However, 
there was one issue on which everybody agreed; that is, the need to 
secure our borders. This legislation we are considering today takes an 
important step in the right direction to do just that.
  Securing the borders is not anti-immigrant. There is more to this 
debate than the presence of illegal immigrants. Securing our borders 
will stop illegal commercial activities, such as human trafficking and 
drug and weapons smuggling--the three most lucrative illegal commercial 
activities in the world. Human traffickers profit by exploiting people 
who seek to come to the United States to seek a better life for 
themselves and their families. It is estimated that 20,000 people are 
trafficked into the United States each year, primarily women and 
children. In addition, porous borders result in illegal drugs and 
weapons being smuggled into our country.
  If drug and weapons smugglers can get cocaine and firearms into our 
country, what is to prevent them from bringing nuclear, chemical, or 
biological weapons across the border? It is an important national 
security matter for us to take the appropriate steps to gain 
operational control of our borders. We have all heard from our 
constituents and know they demand no more and deserve no less.
  Earlier this year, when the Senate considered the comprehensive 
immigration reform bill, this body voted overwhelmingly to authorize 
construction of 370 miles of fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers 
along the southwest border. This totals almost 900 miles of barrier on 
that border. Late this summer, the Senate voted to fund the 
construction of fencing and barriers we previously authorized.
  Some may ask: Why are we considering this legislation if the Senate 
has already considered something very similar? We all know Congress is 
not going to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill before we 
leave. Passage of this bill will allow us to move forward with the 
process of getting these necessary tools in place to secure the border.
  Finally, the American people have questions about the commitment of 
Congress when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform. Congress 
tried to sell this idea to them in 1986 when it said that we would 
allow all of those people who were here illegally to adjust their 
status. In exchange, we pledged to secure the border and have real 
interior enforcement. We all know what happened. Millions of people 
were allowed to obtain lawful permanent residence, but we did not 
secure our borders. Now 20 years later, some in Congress are trying to 
sell the same idea again, and the American people simply are not buying 
it, and rightfully so.
  This bill will give Congress an opportunity to move in the direction 
of gaining the trust of the American people on the issue of immigration 
and allows us to prove to the American people that we are serious about 
securing our borders.
  Once we have operational control of our borders and can know who is 
coming into and going out of the country, I think the American people 
will be more receptive to temporary guest worker programs. Once we have 
operational control of our borders, the American people will be willing 
to engage in a debate about whether we should increase the number of 
people our country accepts for permanent resident status each year. 
Until we have operational control of our borders, most people think we 
will simply have a repeat of the 1986 amnesty.
  I don't believe a fence is a panacea, and I don't believe we need to 
build a fence across the entire stretch of our

[[Page 18600]]

borders. However, we know fencing and vehicle barriers are effective 
border security tools. Combined with state-of-the-art technology, it is 
possible for us to gain control of our borders and then have a healthy, 
responsible debate about our Nation's immigration policies.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                            Federal Tax Gap

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I have repeatedly raised the problem of 
the ever-growing Federal tax gap. What is that? The tax gap is the 
difference between taxes legally owed and taxes actually paid. That gap 
is $345 billion a year, and it is growing. That is right. Every year, 
about $345 billion in taxes legally owed is not paid--$345 billion a 
year.
  One of the things that contributes significantly to the tax gap is 
confusion. Many taxpayers simply claim credits or deductions by 
mistake, and that error rate is about to get worse. As IRS Commissioner 
Everson pointed out in a Finance Committee hearing this month, the IRS 
and taxpayers will face unnecessary confusion and compliance errors if 
Congress does not finish its changes to the tax law soon. Taxpayers 
will face more mistakes and hassles if we do not extend the expired tax 
provisions soon. ``Soon'' means prior to October 15, according to 
Commissioner Everson.
  If Congress does not reinstate the expired tax incentives before it 
recesses for the election, then the IRS will have to print tax forms 
for next year's filing season applying the law ``as is.'' That means 
reprint; more expense. The IRS will print the forms without the tax 
credit for U.S.-based research jobs, without the tax deduction for 
State sales taxes, without the tax credit for hiring welfare workers, 
and without the tax deductions for classroom supplies that teachers 
buy--without those deductions. That is what would have to be printed by 
the IRS.
  If Congress does not extend these provisions by the end of next week, 
then the IRS will have to spend taxpayers' money to rush printing for 
supplemental documents to describe these incentives if and when 
Congress actually passes them.
  Millions of families, businesses and workers utilize these popular 
tax incentives. These are not obscure tax benefits claimed on separate 
forms or schedules.
  For example, look at the front page of the basic form 1040, which I 
have at my right. Look at line 23, right here, in the category 
``adjusted gross income.'' That line 23 is labeled ``educator 
expenses.''
  What should the IRS do with the classroom teachers' deduction? Look 
at line 34, right here: ``Tuition and fees deduction.'' What should the 
IRS do with the tuition deduction for middle-income families? They both 
expired at the end of 2005, so the IRS really cannot print them. It 
cannot do so on the 2006 tax form. It cannot print them because 
Congress has not extended those provisions.
  But if the IRS does not print them on form 1040, and it cannot do so, 
how many teachers will miss out on this deduction? School started not 
too long ago this year. How many teachers will miss out if the IRS 
merely mentions the deduction in some supplementary instruction guide?
  What about the millions of taxpayers who use software to assist in 
tax preparation? Those software providers have deadlines, too, and they 
have told us mid-October is their ``drop dead'' date, just as it is for 
the IRS. They will try to have their products in stores and on the 
shelves by Thanksgiving. That would be literally days after our lame 
duck session, when some believe that we should extend these benefits 
appearing on form 1040.
  You might ask why these software providers cannot just send updates 
to customers. The providers tell us they cannot force the customer to 
receive the update. Millions of customers will miss the update; they 
just will not know about it. They will miss it. Millions of customers 
will ignore the update and millions will lose out.
  Earlier this year the Finance Committee held an investigative hearing 
and looked at the ``free file'' alliances, which provide free 
electronics services to many taxpayers via the IRS Web site. The 
committee found many members of the ``free file'' alliance simply 
declined to include any of the Katrina-related tax benefits. Why? 
Because Congress enacted those benefits into law so late in the year it 
simply was not feasible for providers to include them.
  Delay has costs. Delay costs taxpayers money. Delay impairs the 
effective tax administration by the IRS.
  I am again asking my colleagues to support my unanimous consent 
request to pass the negotiated tax extenders. If my amendment is agreed 
to, it will retroactively restore all those popular benefits. We are 
going to enact them, but the real cost and the irresponsibility will be 
if we don't pass them in the next couple of weeks but, rather, later on 
in the year when it will cause all these costs I just mentioned. My 
amendment will also provide the compromise reached on the Abandoned 
Mine Land trust fund, or AML.
  We need these tax cuts. We cannot wait until the next tax period.
  Mr. President, I do not see anybody on the floor who might object, 
except for the Presiding Officer. I guess he will object in his role of 
a Senator from his State.


                  unanimous-consent request--h.r. 4096

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to Calendar 
No. 326, H.R. 4096, that the Senate adopt my amendments numbered 5003 
and 5004, which are the agreed-upon tax extender package, that this 
bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid 
on the table, and all this occur without intervening action.
  I repeat, Mr. President, before the Chair in his role as a Senator 
objects, because he has been instructed to do so by the majority party, 
I think it is extremely irresponsible for this body not to enact these 
extenders right away. As I stated, it is going to happen, so why put 
the American people through this unnecessary, ridiculous additional 
cost? Why can't we as a body just do what is right? What is right is to 
pass these extenders now before we recess in a couple of weeks. That is 
the right thing to do instead of all the games we have been playing 
around here. I wish those games would not be played. But, frankly, the 
party in control of this body has chosen to object to this request. I 
am very disappointed in the U.S. Senate for not doing what is right.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. In my capacity as a Senator from South 
Carolina, I object.
  The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before my friend leaves the floor, I want to 
have the Record spread with my appreciation for who he is and how he 
has operated as a Member of Congress, first in the House of 
Representatives and now in the Senate. Our ranking member on the 
Finance Committee has been the chair of our Finance Committee, the 
chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. The people of 
Montana are very fortunate to have him in their corner.
  I appreciate his coming here, as the people of Montana and the people 
of Nevada want, with just commonsense legislation. This is going to 
pass. I cannot imagine that this legislative body would walk away from 
here and not pass this must-do legislation.
  But I say I am of the opinion now that maybe this Republican 
Congress, which has been dubbed--not by me but by writers all over the 
country--as the most do-nothing Congress in the history of our 
Republic, I guess they want to make sure they don't lose that record as 
the most do-nothing Congress in history.
  This is evidence of it. We sit here doing nothing all day today, 
doing nothing all day tomorrow, when there are important things to be 
accomplished.
  Some of my colleagues were here earlier talking about the delicate 
balance

[[Page 18601]]

we have in our economy. Housing all over the country is headed the 
wrong way. I have learned that highway construction and homebuilding 
are the two economic engines that drive our economy.
  I am so disappointed, and I say that very seriously, that these 
important provisions have not been extended today. If we had an 
opportunity to vote on these it would be virtually unanimous, Democrats 
and Republicans, but we are not provided the ability to vote on this. I 
don't know why. Maybe they are trying to come up with some kind of an 
arrangement so that we will be forced to vote for it because, although 
it will have other things in it that we will not like, we will like 
this so much. That was tried once and it didn't work. The American 
people are too smart, and we speak for the American people.
  Some things are so important. I have a niece. Her name is Lari, named 
after my father and brother. She struggled to get through school. She 
worked. She finally got to become a schoolteacher. She now teaches high 
school at Las Vegas High School, but she doesn't have much money.
  She spends money out of her own pocket to buy school supplies. The 
school district should buy them but they don't. Under the provisions we 
are trying to extend, schoolteachers all over America can deduct up to 
$250 a year for school supplies they buy out of their own pocket.
  Mr. President, $250 to my niece means a lot. It may not mean a lot to 
millionaires and all the people who benefited so much during this 
Republican administration, but to my niece it means a lot. She will not 
get that unless we put on these extenders.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I deeply appreciate the Senator's comments, but let me 
ask if the Senator heard, as I have, in a good number of companies, if 
these provisions are not enacted the companies are going to have to 
begin to restate their financials and take a charge against earnings 
because of the loss of the work opportunity tax credit and loss of the 
research and development tax credit.
  I wonder if my good friend from Nevada has heard that, learned that, 
and what he might tell us the consequences of that might be when a 
company has to take a charge because of the failure of the other side 
of the aisle to let this provision pass, which we all know is going to 
pass.
  Mr. REID. I say to my friend, I received a call before the last 
recess from the chair of the Business Roundtable. This is a group 
composed of Democrats and Republicans but, frankly, more Republicans 
than Democrats, and they represent the American business community. The 
chairman of that group said something to me. I asked him, Of all these 
provisions, which is the most important? And he said, We only care 
about one: the research and development tax credit has to pass. It is 
so important to the American business community. If we don't have that, 
it is going to have a tremendously detrimental effect on business.
  We have not done it.
  So I say to my friend, there are so many problems and he has outlined 
them very clearly. I listened to my friend--I just saw him walk through 
here--the chairman of the committee.
  Mr. BAUCUS. He wants to do what I am suggesting.
  Mr. REID. He made a wonderful statement. He said, Why should the 
Federal Government have to pay extra money for what we aren't doing?
  Mr. BAUCUS. Right.
  Mr. REID. They are waiting, as you indicated. They need to prepare 
these forms. It costs money to do this. In my State--it is different 
than your State--we pay a very large sales tax. In your State you don't 
have a sales tax, you have an income tax.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Correct.
  Mr. REID. You get a deduction. There are 12 million families in 
States without a State income tax, and they are not going to have the 
benefit of that--12 million families.
  I talked to my friend--I don't think he would be embarrassed if I 
mentioned his name--Steve Wynn, who is one of America's great 
businessmen. He has done so much for Las Vegas. He is a modern business 
giant. He comes up with new ideas. His hotels are magnificent.
  He called me up about a situation today. I am trying to work it 
through the last few days of this session. We have a Republican in the 
House and a Republican in the Senate who are fighting over a bill. He 
didn't know who. He thought one of them was a Democrat. I said, No, 
these are two Republicans fighting over this. He said, That's the way 
it always is, Harry.
  I said, Steve, I'm sorry to say you are right. What do you think the 
American people think of this?
  We mentioned just a few things. I again mentioned my little niece, 
the schoolteacher and the $250. To us, we get a big fat salary, we 
Members of Congress, and all the tax cuts the administration passed on. 
They don't care about my niece; $250, what does it mean to them? To her 
it means a lot. What do the American people think we are doing here? 
These provisions have to be passed.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I thank my friend very much.
  Mr. REID. I so appreciate your leadership. I have never come to this 
floor, ever, and criticized the chairman of the Finance Committee. I 
can't say that about other chairmen, but I have never criticized the 
farmer from Iowa, because he has a heart of gold. He can be very tough 
and hard. But he has been saying everything he can publicly that has 
supported our position. I hope the majority will allow this most 
important piece of legislation to come before it.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I appreciate that. The chairman of the Finance Committee 
more than anything else wants to do what is right. He doesn't like to 
get involved in politics. That is what the American people want, not to 
get involved in politics, but to do what is right. That is why they 
should listen to the chairman who very much agrees with what you have 
talked about here.
  Mr. REID. I am sorry to talk about my niece so much. Her name is Lari 
Dawn. She is named after my dad and my brother, Larry. We love Lari 
Dawn. But she is one of 3.3 million teachers who are forced to reach 
into their own pockets to provide supplies for their students. They are 
going to lose that. Again, that doesn't sound like much, but for the 
American people they get their money's worth for every Lari Dawn of the 
world who is out there trying to educate their children. For the 3.3 
million teachers and the head of the Business Roundtable, all aspects 
of our society benefit from this legislation.
  Again, I express my appreciation to the Senator from Montana.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending 
business be set aside.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I just had the unfortunate experience of 
being trapped in the Presiding Officer's chair as some of my Democratic 
colleagues presented a sad scenario of how Republicans had not taken up 
an important bill that would continue important tax credits for 
Americans and American businesses. Unfortunately, they failed to admit 
that we all had a chance to vote on that bill only a couple of weeks 
ago when Republicans, attempting to work with Democrats, brought all of 
these ``tax extenders,'' as we call them, to the floor, along with the 
increase in the minimum wage, which our Democratic colleagues had 
spoken so often for, and a reform of the death tax, a compromise plan 
to tax only the larger estates in this country. We put this together in 
order to try to move some business through the Senate--a very important 
piece of legislation that we called the Family Prosperity Act because, 
indeed, that is exactly what it was.

[[Page 18602]]

  All of us were amazed at how our Democratic colleagues came to the 
floor and found one excuse after another why we could not vote for this 
important piece of legislation that would have given the tax credits 
for schoolteachers who buy supplies, it would have given some breaks to 
middle-class families who are faced with the death tax on their farm or 
family business, and it certainly would have given low and minimum wage 
workers the increase that we talked about for years. Yet the Democrats, 
which has been their form for month after month--in fact, during my 
entire time here in the Senate--when we bring something important to 
this floor, the Democrats block it. Then, as they did today, they come 
down and attempt to blame Republicans for the bill not getting passed.
  I think it is important for the American people to know the truth, 
particularly as we head toward elections. The tax credits which are so 
important to America were brought to the floor by the Republicans, with 
a good compromise package, with an honest attempt to work with 
Democrats on several important issues. The Democrats to a person 
unanimously voted against this bill. Now they are here trying to blame 
Republicans.
  I think it is important that we set the record straight. I intend to 
be a part of doing that as we try to end this session in a productive 
way next week.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, what is the pending business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending business is the motion to proceed. 
We are in a postcloture period, having invoked cloture, 94 to 0.
  Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                 alternative energy fuel grant program

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on July 24, the House of Representatives 
overwhelmingly passed H.R. 5534 by a vote of 355 to 9. This bipartisan 
legislation seeks to provide grants, not to exceed $30,000, to assist 
gas station owners and other eligible entities who install alternative 
fuels such as biodiesel, natural gas and E85 ethanol.
  As all of my colleagues know, the American public has been calling on 
Congress to address our Nation's overdependence upon foreign sources of 
energy. Senator Salazar from Colorado and I have a bipartisan 
substitute to the House-passed bill that is currently being held in the 
Senate at the desk. The substitute has been cleared by the relative 
committees, as well as by my colleagues on this side of the aisle; 
however, for some unknown reason, some of my Democratic colleagues have 
placed secret holds on this very noncontroversial bill.
  The Thune-Salazar substitute has the support of the U.S. Automakers 
Alliance, alternative energy groups, and environmental organizations 
that have called upon Congress to increase the availability of 
alternative fuels.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record letters from 
the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers, which includes BMW Group, 
DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, 
Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                            Alliance of Automobile


                                                Manufacturers,

                                               September 14, 2006.
     Hon. Daniel Akaka,
     U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Akaka: I am writing in support of legislation 
     authored by Senators Thune and Salazar that seeks to expand 
     our Nation's alternative fueling infrastructure through the 
     use of CAFE program fines. Automakers urge the Senate to 
     adopt this legislation prior to adjournment.
       As our Nation works toward energy independence, automakers 
     support a diverse mix of fuels to power our transportation 
     sector. To date, automakers are proud to report that there 
     are over nine million alternative fuel and advanced 
     technology vehicles on America's roads. These vehicles are 
     powered by E-85 (ethanol), clean diesel, gasoline-electric 
     hybrid engines, as well as other emerging technologies that 
     improve mileage and reduce our dependency on foreign oil.
       However, the infrastructure to refuel vehicles capable of 
     running on ethanol is woefully inadequate. Currently, only 
     about 830 of the 170,000 gasoline stations in America offer 
     E-85 for sale. Expanding availability of this, and other 
     renewable, domestic fuel sources, can help reduce our 
     dependence on imported petroleum.
       The Thune-Salazar legislation would create an Energy 
     Security Fund within the Department of the Treasury. The Fund 
     would use moneys collected from CAFE program fines and 
     penalties toward a grant program for investment in 
     alternative fuel infrastructure. Furthermore, the Thune-
     Salazar proposal is similar to legislation that passed 
     earlier this year in the House by a vote of 355-9.
       Automakers support this legislation as sound public policy 
     to spur development of an infrastructure for the distribution 
     of alternative fuels. It is an important piece of legislation 
     that deserves passage before the Senate concludes its 
     business for the year.
           Sincerely,
                                              Frederick L. Webber,
                                                  President & CEO.
  Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
letters from the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition and the National 
Association of Convenience Stores, representing the fuel retailers 
across this country.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                           National Association of


                                           Convenience Stores,

                                   Alexandria, VA, August 3, 2006.
     Hon. John Thune,
     U.S. Senate
     Washington, DC.
     Hon. Ken Salazar,
     U.S. Senate
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senators Thune and Salazar: On behalf of the 2,200 
     retail member companies of the National Association of 
     Convenience Stores (NACS), I would like to commend you for 
     your dedication to promoting a more stable motor fuels market 
     for America's consumers and for recognizing the challenges 
     that face the nation's motor fuels retailers with the 
     introduction of alternative fuel products.
       As you know, many of the alternative fuels available today 
     have chemical properties that necessitate certain adjustments 
     to the current distribution and storage infrastructure. These 
     adjustments can cost substantial amounts. For example, to 
     accommodate the alternative fuel E-85, many retailers must 
     either retrofit existing underground storage tank systems or 
     install new systems. This can be extremely costly, ranging 
     from $40,000 to more than $200,000 in some markets. 
     Therefore, NACS supports your amendment that will provide 
     additional funding through the Clean Cities Program for 
     alternative fuel infrastructure grants.
       It is important to note, however, that while these 
     infrastructure grant programs will help offset the cost of 
     converting a retail facility to accommodate an alternative 
     fuel, there are other factors a retailer must consider before 
     making such an investment. These include whether there is the 
     physical capacity to store and dispense an additional fuel 
     product without compromising the availability of traditional 
     fuels, whether the level of consumer demand for the 
     alternative fuel justifies the investment, and whether the 
     alternative fuel can be offered for sale at a price that is 
     competitive with traditional fuels on a miles per dollar 
     basis. These considerations will be determined by individual 
     retailers based upon conditions within their own markets.
       The underlying bill, H.R. 5534, was recently approved by 
     the House of Representatives by a vote of 355-9. Your 
     amendment, which seeks to balance competing priorities to 
     increase the likelihood that the proposed ``Energy Security 
     Fund'' will be signed into law, will facilitate the 
     introduction of alternative fuels to the marketplace by 
     addressing one of the major challenges facing petroleum 
     retailers. NACS applauds your efforts to help address the 
     costs associated with alternative fuels infrastructure. Thank 
     you for your continued support of the nation's convenience 
     and petroleum retailers.
           Sincerely,
                                                  John Eichberger,
     Vice President, Government Relations.
                                  ____

                                                  National Ethanol


                                            Vehicle Coalition,

                               Jefferson City, MO, August 9, 2006.
     Hon. John Thune.
     U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Thune: As you know, the National Ethanol 
     Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) promotes the use of 85 percent 
     ethanol (E85) as a renewable, alternative transportation 
     fuel. Our membership comprises a wide array

[[Page 18603]]

     of interests including ethanol producers, automakers, and 
     health and agricultural organizations--all of which are 
     working together to increase deployment of E85 refueling 
     infrastructure nationally.
       I am writing to express our support for the Senate version 
     of H.R. 5534, legislation to establish a federal grant 
     program for alternative fuel infrastructure. Your proposal 
     incorporates an idea originally put forth by the NEVC to use 
     penalties collected from the Corporate Average Fuel Economy 
     (CAFE) program to promote alternative transportation fuels. 
     This legislation would advance both the NEVC's efforts to 
     make E85 a viable transportation fuel nationally and the CAFE 
     program's explicit goal of reducing energy consumption by 
     cars and light trucks.
       We also understand the Secretary of Energy would have broad 
     authority to allocate grants authorized under this bill and 
     that the sponsors intend for the Department of Energy to 
     maximize its benefit for the driving public. Unfortunately, 
     the legislation does not prioritize funding for the most 
     viable and prevalent alternative fuels or include any 
     requirements for grant recipients to market or even sell 
     these fuels. Without such clarification, it remains unclear 
     how much funding will go towards deployment of E85 and how 
     many E85 pumps will be placed in service. Therefore, we 
     believe it essential for Congress to provide dedicated 
     funding for E85 national deployment in Fiscal Year 2007.
       We appreciate your understanding of the important role the 
     NEVC plays in providing critical technical and marketing 
     assistance and we look forward to continuing to work with you 
     to expand the use of alternative transportation fuels, 
     particularly E85.
           Sincerely,
                                               Phillip J. Lampert,
                                               Executive Director.

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, simply put, our substitute has no budgetary 
score and simply authorizes future appropriations for the annual 
penalties collected each year from foreign automakers who violate CAFE 
standards.
  I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will work with 
Senator Salazar and me to clear this important measure. The House has 
agreed to take up and pass the Thune-Salazar substitute once it clears 
our Chamber, allowing the bill to be sent to the President for his 
signature. In light of the very clear message from the American people 
that they want Congress to do more to increase the availability of 
alternative fuels, I hope my colleagues drop any objections they have 
so this measure can be passed by the Senate.
  If we look at the state of the renewable fuel industry today and the 
state of our energy situation in this country, it is very clear that we 
need to be doing more to promote the use of alternative energy and 
renewable fuels.
  If you look at the Energy bill that was passed last summer, it 
included a renewable fuels standard for the first time ever as a matter 
of policy for this country. We have in law a requirement that a certain 
amount of renewable fuel--ethanol and other types of bioenergy--be 
used. Now, that creates a market for ethanol.
  We also have on the other side, on the production side, a lot of 
ethanol plants either currently in production or under construction. In 
fact, back in my State of South Dakota, we have 11 ethanol plants and 3 
others under construction. In just a few short months from now we will 
be somewhere around a billion gallons of ethanol produced annually.
  So we have the production side of it. Our ethanol production is 
gearing up. We have the market now, the renewable fuels standard we 
passed last year as a part of the Energy bill, which is something I 
think was long overdue and much needed in terms of our energy policy in 
this country.
  What we have is a gap in the distribution system. We do not have 
enough retailers out there, convenience stores, filling stations, that 
make E-85 available at the pump. In fact, there are 180,000 fuel 
retailers in this country, and of those only about 600 make E-85 
available at the pump.
  So what we are talking about is dealing with what, in my view, is a 
real sort of gap in our system; that is, making all that production 
that is being brought on line available to consumers in this country 
who really want to buy and use alternative fuels but do not have access 
to them because fuel retailers across this country simply do not want 
to deal with the cost of installing the pumps.
  So what this bill does, the Thune-Salazar bill, is provide up to 
$30,000. The cost for installing a new E-85 pump is considered to be 
somewhere between $40,000 and $200,000, depending on where you are in 
the country. But the simple fact is, we think this incentive will go a 
long way toward filling in that distribution gap so the ethanol 
production side of it, the supply side of it, can meet the demand; the 
demand being, of course, the renewable fuels standard we passed last 
year, as well as Americans' appetite for using renewable fuels and 
moving increasingly away from our dependence upon foreign sources of 
energy.
  It makes perfect sense. We have an energy crisis in our country. 
People have reacted with extreme intensity toward $3-a-gallon gasoline. 
They want to see us take steps that will make America energy 
independent, that will provide American energy to meet the demands that 
we have out there in the marketplace, to continue to drive our economy, 
to provide fuel for those who travel long distances.
  I will say, in my State of South Dakota, we are a predominantly 
agricultural State. We are a State that relies heavily upon tourism. We 
drive long distances. We are a big user of fuels to get to where we 
need to go, to get to our destinations--whether it is part of our 
economy to get to jobs, the marketplace, whether it is farmers in the 
field or ranchers, or whether it is, again, tourism, which is an 
important component in our State's economy.
  For all these very obvious reasons, we need policies that will make 
renewable fuels more available to more people in this country. Today, 
as I said, there is a point in that distribution system that has been 
closed off. We have the production over here, the ethanol plants under 
construction, and those that are already fully operating that are 
producing more and more ethanol. And we have, again, the demand side, 
consumers who want to use renewable energy. And we have the renewable 
fuels standard we passed last summer as part of our policy. There is 
now a requirement for many of our States to get in compliance with that 
policy.
  What we are missing right now is at the fuel retailer level. This is 
an opportunity to address that, to do something that is meaningful 
about lessening our dependence upon foreign sources of energy, about 
using more American energy, and meeting what is a very serious need in 
our economy.
  So, again, I would refer people to the letters I have included in the 
Record. We have auto manufacturers in this country that are 
increasingly--you see more and more production of E-85, or what they 
call flex-fuel vehicles, those vehicles that can use E-85. I have to 
say, our bill does not preclude other alternative sources of energy 
from the pumps being installed, from them offering other energy other 
than E-85.
  But I think it is fair to say there is a growing demand in this 
country for E-85. There are more and more flex-fuel cars being 
manufactured in America today, as evident from the letter from the 
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. But all the car companies in this 
country are building more and more cars that are flex-fuel vehicles 
that could use E-85.
  The simple fact is, they cannot get access to the fuel because it 
does not exist, because we do not have the number of pumps that are 
necessary out there to provide people in this country who want to use 
renewable energy and want to use E-85 the opportunity to do that.
  In my State of South Dakota, we have E-85 pumps installed in most of 
the cities across the State. Where that has been true, the cost of E-85 
is somewhere from 50 cents a gallon less to up to $1 a gallon less, in 
places such as Aberdeen, SD.
  But the simple reality is, we could do a lot to help ease the 
pressure on fuel prices in this country. We could do a lot to lessen 
our dependence upon foreign sources of energy. We could do a lot to 
meet the demand that American consumers have for using renewable 
energy. But today we have this gap in the distribution system, and we 
need to address that.
  This is such a straightforward piece of legislation. It is so clear 
and obvious that it is supported--broadly supported--with, as I said, a 
big bipartisan

[[Page 18604]]

vote of 355 to 9 coming out of the House of Representatives. We have 
holds on it in the Senate. I do not know what those holds are. The 
rules of the Senate, obviously, preclude us from knowing who has holds 
on bills. I, urge and plead with my colleagues on the other side who 
are holding up this legislation to release those holds.
  It is important. This is noncontroversial. It is broadly supported. 
It is very necessary if we are going to follow through on the 
commitment we made last summer in the renewable fuels standard we 
passed in the Energy bill to increase the use of renewable energy in 
this country.
  We have the production out there. These plants are coming on line. We 
have car manufacturers that are making flex-fuel vehicles. We have a 
renewable fuels standard in place that requires usage of a certain 
amount of ethanol, renewable or E-85. We have consumers who I believe 
are very conscious of, again, lessening our dependence upon foreign 
sources of energy and supporting American-grown energy.
  For all those reasons, this bill makes so much sense. I am at a loss 
to explain why anybody would put a hold on it. I understand there are 
lots of cross pressures in an election year, but I hope that will not 
get in the way of doing what is right for the country, following 
through on the commitment that was made last year in the Energy bill in 
the renewable fuels standard, to put in place the distribution system, 
the mechanism whereby people can have access to renewable energy, to 
ethanol, E-85, other types of alternative fuels that would be made 
available under this legislation by allowing these fuel retailers to 
install the pumps that are necessary to deliver it to the American 
people.
  Again, as I said, I have a letter from the National Association of 
Convenience Stores which represents all the fuel retailers across the 
country. It is important this legislation move, that it not get bogged 
down, and it move before Congress adjourns at the end of next week for 
the elections this year.
  I know my colleague from Colorado is here. He has been a great 
advocate and supporter of this legislation. I enjoyed very much the 
opportunity to work with him on this legislation. I think he is as 
frustrated as I am at some of the secret holds that have been put on 
this bill. But, again, I would urge my colleagues in this Chamber, and 
those on the other side who have been obstructing and stopping this 
from moving forward, to release those holds.
  There may be other issues associated with this legislation that I am 
not aware of, but the reality is that this bill, on the merits, is 
broadly supported in both Chambers by both parties. It is a necessary 
part of our energy policy in this country. It is high time, for the 
good of the American people, that we get it passed.
  The Senator from Colorado is here. I am sure he wants to take some 
time to speak to this issue. But I appreciate his support and hard work 
to get it to where we are today. I know he shares my interest in 
getting the holds released and being able to proceed forward.
  So, Mr. President, I yield back my time to allow the Senator from 
Colorado to be heard.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that immediately 
following my comments, Senator Leahy be recognized for his comments on 
the pending business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, what is the pending business? Is there 
pending business, might I inquire?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are currently on the motion to proceed, on 
which cloture has been invoked.
  Mr. SESSIONS. All right. Does the Senator know how long he might 
speak?
  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I intend to speak for probably 10 
minutes. And I don't know what my friend from Vermont planned on, how 
much time he will consume after my statement.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I tell my friends from Colorado and 
Alabama, I certainly would not consume more time than that.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Well, Mr. President, I want to talk on a slightly 
different issue, so I would accept that and withdraw any objection.
  Mr. LEAHY. I thank the Senator from Alabama.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Colorado is recognized.
  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Alabama and the 
Presiding Officer.
  Mr. President, let me, at the outset, say that I very much appreciate 
the work we have done on the alternative fuels legislation that Senator 
Thune and I have been sponsoring and advocating. I would hope it is 
legislation we can move forward to yet in this Congress. I think when 
we look at the issues that are confronting our world, from the issues 
of terrorism, to the issues of energy independence, there is an 
opportunity for us to do something significant that will move us down 
that track of energy independence.
  Last year, in the passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, we acted 
together in a bipartisan way to move that legislation forward. I am 
hopeful the legislation Senator Thune and I have been sponsoring will, 
in fact, be legislation that can, in fact, become law and reach the 
President's desk as a result of the work of this Congress. I appreciate 
his work and his advocacy in trying to find out where the problems lie 
with respect to this particular bill.
  Mr. President, I would like to turn my attention and remarks to the 
border fencing bill, H.R. 6061, which is before the Senate today.
  First, let me say that as I look at where we have gotten today with 
respect to immigration reform in this Congress and here in America, we 
are now at the point where we are playing political games and gimmicks 
and tricks with what is a very important national security issue.
  At the heart of the immigration reform debate, which has consumed so 
much of our time in this Senate and this country over the last year, we 
recognized it is in America's national security interests for us to 
develop a comprehensive immigration reform package. We recognized, as 
well, that we are a nation of laws, and as a nation of laws we should 
be enforcing our immigration laws in the United States of America. And, 
finally, we recognized there is a reality of 12 million undocumented 
workers who live somewhere in the shadows of this society and that we 
ought to move forward and create a realistic program that addresses 
those 12 million human beings who live in the United States of America 
today.
  Yet somehow today we have gotten away from that comprehensive 
approach to immigration reform, to look at what is a 1-percent 
solution. It is a small part of the solution that we need to deal with 
for immigration reform. Yet it has been chosen that we move forward to 
discuss this issue because there are political agendas at stake. It is 
the House Republican leadership that has refused to go along with the 
comprehensive approach which President Bush and this Senate have 
advocated, which has resulted in us coming to the point where we are 
now talking about a fence-only bill to deal with this very complex 
issue of immigration reform which has gone unaddressed by this country 
and by this Congress decade after decade.
  President Bush, himself, in his address on August 3, 2006--this 
year--said:

       I'm going to talk today about comprehensive immigration 
     reform.

  This was just a month ago--6, probably 8 weeks ago, where he said:

       I say comprehensive because unless you have all five pieces 
     working together it's not going to work at all.

  That was the President of the United States.
  Earlier on, the President had said:

       An immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive, 
     because all elements of this problem must be addressed 
     together, or none of them will be solved at all.

  Again, this is President George Bush, former Governor of Texas, who 
has

[[Page 18605]]

been working on this immigration issue for a long time. He, as 
President, reached that conclusion. He said:

       An immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive, 
     because all elements of this problem must be addressed 
     together, or none of them will be solved at all. Congress can 
     pass a comprehensive bill for me to sign into law.

  Unfortunately, we appear to be failing in getting a comprehensive 
immigration reform package to the President that he can sign. Instead, 
we have devolved to the point where there is a piece of legislation 
which the House of Representatives has passed which is a fence-only 
bill. This fence-only bill is only a very small part of the solution we 
face to this very complex problem.
  From my point of view, it is a cop-out and a political gimmick being 
played on the people of the United States. Let me remind people that it 
was not so long ago that in this Chamber, by a large bipartisan 
majority, Democrats and Republicans came together and said we can pass 
a comprehensive immigration reform package that addresses the issues 
that the President and the country want to be addressed in immigration 
reform. It was a law-and-order bill, which we enacted out of this 
Senate. It was a bill that dealt in a straightforward manner with 
border security, with enforcement of immigration laws, and also 
applying penalties and registration to those people who had come 
forward from the shadows and registered to take them out of the 
shadows.
  I want to briefly review the comprehensive nature of that bill and 
some of the components that caused me to support the bill as the right 
way for us to address immigration reform.
  First, we said we would do border security. We are not afraid to do 
that. We ought to do border security because it is our right as a 
sovereign nation to do border security. It is our right to make sure 
that we are protecting America against terrorism coming across our 
borders.
  For us, as we worked on that comprehensive bill, border security was 
very important. In our legislation we added 12,000 new Border Patrol 
agents. We created additional border fences--in fact, a 370-mile 
fence--through an amendment authored by my friend from Alabama. We 
provided new criminal penalties for construction of border tunnels, 
which we find in places where there are fences today. We added new 
checkpoints and points of entry throughout the border between Mexico 
and the U.S. We expanded exit-entry security systems at all land 
borders and airports.
  So, yes, this legislation was a very tough border security bill. It 
was part of the comprehensive approach that we took.
  Secondly, we said that it is not enough to just strengthen our 
borders. We need to do more in terms of what we do inside our country. 
We said we would do more with respect to immigration law enforcement. 
Instead of continuing the patterns and practices of looking the other 
way in this country, we said we as a nation of laws are going to 
enforce our immigration laws.
  We said we would add 5,000 new investigators in our legislation. We 
said we would establish 20 new detention facilities. We said we would 
reimburse States for detaining and imprisoning criminal aliens. We 
would require a faster deportation process. We would increase penalties 
for gang members, for money laundering, and for human trafficking. We 
would increase document fraud detection. We would create, very 
importantly, new fraud-proof immigration documents with biometric 
identifiers. And we would expand authority to remove suspected 
terrorists from our country.
  So it was tough in terms of our saying that as a nation of laws we 
will enforce the laws. We didn't stop there. We said there is something 
else that needs to be dealt with in America--those 12 million people 
who are cleaning hotel rooms, working out at the construction sites, 
and the people who probably provided you with your breakfast this 
morning. There are those 12 million people here who are human beings, 
and we need to deal with them in a humane and moral fashion.
  We said to them that we will require there to be some punishment and 
registration with respect to your presence in the United States of 
America. You must go to the back of the line, and, eventually, over a 
long 12-year period, after we put you in this period of ``purgatory,'' 
you may end up becoming a citizen.
  We said we would require a fine for their illegal conduct of several 
thousand dollars. We would require them to register with the U.S. 
Government. I don't have to register with the U.S. Government; I am a 
citizen. We are requiring these people to register with the Government. 
We require them to obtain a temporary work visa. We require them to pay 
an additional $1,000 fee. We require them to go to the back of the line 
of the legal immigration process. We require them to pass a background 
check so we would make sure they would all be crime-free.
  We would require that they learn English. We would require them to 
learn history and government. We would require them to pass a medical 
exam. We would require them to prove continuous employment with a valid 
temporary visa.
  Mr. President, that was a comprehensive immigration reform law that 
was passed by a bipartisan group of Senators in this Senate, and it is 
legislation that we should be proud of.
  Today, we are being asked to forget that work we did, forget the 
comprehensive nature of that reform, and to take a simple piece of 
legislation on a fence and say that we have dealt with the immigration 
problem of our country.
  That is simply, again, a piecemeal approach to dealing with the 
issue, a political gimmick being used in this election year. It is a 
gimmick that we should stand together as United States Senators, 
Republicans and Democrats alike, and reject it and say we are going to 
move forward with comprehensive immigration reform.
  Finally, with respect to this fence, when you look at what people 
have said about the fence, some have said it reminds them of the Berlin 
Wall. Some have said that it is un-American. But I would like to quote 
from some of the members of the administration who, frankly, have been 
working with us on a comprehensive immigration reform package. 
Secretary of Homeland Defense, Mr. Chertoff, said:

       Fencing has its place in some areas, but as a total 
     solution, I don't think it's a good total solution.

  We had a fence in our comprehensive reform bill, but it was not this 
fence that essentially creates a fence all across the wide chasm of 
Arizona and most of Texas.
  Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this about the fence:

       I think that's contrary to our traditions.

  He noted that ``99.9 percent'' of illegal immigrants ``come across to 
seek a better life for their families,'' not to make trouble.
  That was his quote with respect to the fence.
  He also said:

       I don't know if that would make much sense. We've got a 
     2,000-mile border. Because of natural geography, we don't 
     need a fence or border along certain portions of that border.

  Yet, today we are looking at legislation proposed in the form of H.R. 
6061 that would create a fence-only solution to this very complicated 
problem we are facing.
  In conclusion, I believe Americans deserve better from the U.S. 
Congress and from us in the Senate. We can, in fact, move forward with 
comprehensive immigration reform and deal with this issue of national 
security importance, of economic security importance, and of the moral 
importance of how we deal with the 12 million human beings who live in 
America today.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont is recognized.


                          Military Commissions

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Colorado and my 
friend from Alabama for their usual courtesy.
  Over the last couple of weeks, the President, as Presidents do, used 
his pulpit to inform the Senate that his top priority was fixing the 
problem he created when he unilaterally proclaimed what laws govern 
military

[[Page 18606]]

commissions. This newfound desire, this last-minute conversion to the 
idea of working with Congress, stands in stark contrast to his position 
in 2002, when a number of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, reached 
out to the administration and asked the President to work with us to 
establish the authority for fair and effective military commissions.
  Four years later, after saying flat out, no, now the administration's 
go-it-alone plan has succeeded in having no terrorist military 
commission trials completed and no convictions. They are ``tough on 
terror,'' but nobody has been convicted.
  Still, Congress set to work and the Armed Services Committee last 
week reported a bill that is supported by Republicans and Democrats to 
authorize military commissions. They worked with the professionals in 
the military, and listened to them. But this week the Senate Republican 
leadership has threatened to filibuster that bill, which came from a 
Republican-controlled committee and was voted for by both Republicans 
and Democrats.
  I am a little bit confused. I have been here for 32 years, and I 
don't always follow exactly what is going on. But as I understand it, 
last week, the leadership was demanding immediate action on military 
commissions, saying they were going to be the Senate's No. 1 priority. 
All of a sudden, they are going to filibuster that. Just last year, the 
same leadership could not be more critical of what it called 
leadership-led partisan filibusters on the Democratic side. But 
apparently they are a great idea when led on the Republican side, even 
on legislation they supported--or said they did--in the present 
conference.
  This week, the priority is a 700-mile fence along the southern border 
and a study to do the same thing along the northern border. It is 
getting hard to keep track of their real priorities.
  In the Spring, the majority leader praised and voted for 
comprehensive immigration reform. The President supported it. The 
majority leader stood with Senators on both sides of the aisle and 
supported that bill. Now, he seems ready to throw our work over the 
side and abandon our principles.
  If there is an opportunity for Senate floor time, why not use it 
instead to put an end to the ongoing war profiteering and contracting 
fraud in Iraq? Why not help those suffering from Hurricane Katrina? Why 
not pass a Federal budget? We are required by law to do that in April; 
it is now late September. Let's show the American people we will obey 
the law and pass one. Or we can consider the remaining appropriations 
bills; most have to be completed by next Saturday. Why not work on 
lowering health care costs? That would get a great cheer from everybody 
in my State. Or we can work on health insurance costs, fuel costs, or 
the rising costs of interest rates and mortgage rates.
  The bill before us was rushed through the House of Representatives; 
it is not ready for consideration on the Senate floor. It has had no 
committee hearings whatsoever in the Senate. It is completely different 
than what the Senate passed, with Republicans and Democrats voting for 
it just a few months ago. I don't know why we could not have worked in 
the normal way we have done for a couple hundred years here and worked 
out the bills we had. Actually, this is an issue on which the President 
could be of help and show some leadership. He stated privately that he 
preferred the bill we passed, and it would be nice to hear him support 
it publicly.
  Along with a bipartisan majority of Senators, I voted for a far more 
measured version of a physical barrier on the southern border. In doing 
so, we demonstrated our commitment to border security.
  The Senate bill has a provision calling for 370 miles of fencing in 
the most vulnerable high-traffic areas. That is what the White House 
requested and recommended. That is what we were told the Secretary of 
Homeland Security wanted. It also had a provision, which makes a lot of 
sense, for consultation with the Mexican Government regarding any 
building of new fences to help ease the tensions that come along with 
such a project. We don't have an awful lot of friends around the world 
and we should not work to lose any friendships from our neighbors. In 
the Judiciary Committee, we also took into account the differences 
along the northern border and the very close working relationship and 
personal relationship with the Canadian Government, and kept out a 
study for a barrier on the northern border.
  Look what we are debating today instead of all that. It is a hasty, 
ill-considered, mean-spirited measure that will cost taxpayers billions 
of dollars. America can do a lot better than this. A wall of this 
magnitude will be a scar on the landscape, a scar on a fragile desert 
ecosystem, and a scar on our legacy as a nation of immigrants. My 
grandparents were immigrants; my parents-in-law were immigrants. What 
does a 700-mile barrier wall say about us as a free country?
  Most troubling, this bill would give the Secretary of Homeland 
Security unfettered power to decide what laws to follow, but even more 
important, what laws to totally ignore. Read the bill.
  Remember, it is the same Department of Homeland Security that just 
last year was supposed to handle Katrina, one of the biggest 
governmental screw-ups in our lifetime. The Department of Homeland 
Security was supposed to have those people back a year later in their 
homes. Instead, we are spending billions of dollars, most of which have 
been wasted; it has disappeared. What we do see are homes intended for 
the victims of the Hurricane sitting in fields, empty and decaying.
  This is the same Department of Homeland Security that has not managed 
to secure our ports, chemical plants, and our borders. It is the same 
Department of Homeland Security that the House of Representatives would 
entrust with unlimited power to ``take all actions the Secretary 
determines necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain 
operational control over the entire international land and maritime 
borders of the United States.''
  Mr. President, we don't create czars in this country. We fought a 
revolution to get out of the dictatorial control of King George. We 
have a constitutional form of government. We don't give one person the 
power to set aside any law they want.
  I don't think any executive official, certainly not those who 
horribly mismanaged our preparation for Katrina and our response to it, 
should be given one more blank check. How many more blank checks should 
we give away? We have already given them to Halliburton in Iraq. We 
have given them to the Department of Homeland Security for Katrina.
  Remember how this administration misinterpreted the authorization for 
use of military force? We told them to get Osama bin Laden and they 
failed miserably, even when they had him cornered. Instead, they say: 
What we really meant was, not to get Osama bin Laden, but that the 
President can violate the FISA law and secretly wiretap Americans 
without a warrant. It is like ``Alice in Wonderland.''
  This is the same President who signs a law with his fingers crossed 
behind his back and then issues a signing statement reserving to 
himself the power to decide what laws to follow, and how and when.
  Remember the law against torture? We all voted for that legislation. 
The President signs a signing statement saying: However, I will 
determine how best to follow it.
  This is the administration to which the Republican House wants to 
give a blank check, even after Justice O'Connor and the Supreme Court--
the Supreme Court made up of seven Republicans out of the nine 
members--have reminded us our Constitution provides for checks and 
balances, not a blank check for the administration.
  As I said, instead of doing the job we should do--sitting down, 
having a conference, working this out, and actually voting on this 
legislation--what do the Senate and House Republican leadership want to 
do? Just give all the power to a Republican appointee, and we can all 
go home and campaign for reelection. God bless America.

[[Page 18607]]

  The only thing the House left out of its bill is calling this a war 
on immigrants in which they view Secretary Chertoff as the commander in 
chief. Actually, I would like to see him take care of the problems in 
this country, starting with Katrina.
  Have the lives lost in Iraq and the billions of taxpayers' dollars 
unaccounted for, the tragedy of 9/11, and Katrina taught us nothing? 
Everything happened on this administration's watch: Iraq, 9/11, 
Katrina, and billions of tax dollars wasted trying to fix the messes 
they created. How many more disastrous mistakes must this 
administration make before even a Republican-controlled Congress 
recognizes that abdicating our constitutional role and concentrating 
power in the executive branch is the wrong strategy for protecting the 
security and rights of the American people? Do we need to create yet 
another environment for crony contractors of the Bush-Cheney 
administration to bilk taxpayers out of billions?
  Five years of this administration's incompetence has left America's 
borders unsecured and our immigration system broken. We joined to pass 
a bipartisan Senate bill with tough, practical, comprehensive 
immigration reforms to secure the borders, enforce our laws, and fix 
our immigration system. We want to bring undocumented immigrants out of 
the shadows. They are not just numbers; they are actual, real people--
mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, children. The President and his 
administration say that comprehensive immigration reform will make us 
safer. I agree with the President on this issue. President Bush told 
the American people he supports comprehensive immigration reform. I 
told the public I agreed with him. So now, if he wants comprehensive 
immigration reform, he has to tell the Republican leadership in 
Congress to stop obstructing it. They haven't even gone to a 
conference.
  Nor do we need a study to determine whether we should build a barrier 
along the 3,175 miles of the United States-Canada border. Heavens to 
Betsy, most of us who live up there go back and forth all the time. We 
are visiting our relatives, visiting our cousins. I have been visiting 
my wife's relatives for years. When they come down, they are not 
terrorists, they are our neighbors whom we welcome to the United 
States. As I said before, and I will say again, I have heard some 
cockamamie ideas in my time in the Senate, but this rises to the top.
  The northern border is different. It spans the continent. It is the 
world's longest and safest international boundary, and Canada is our 
most important trading partner. Have we gone blind? It is clear to me 
that those who want to build this barrier have no clue about the 
character, the history, and the day-to-day commercial importance of the 
northern border and the needs of the States and communities that would 
be affected. It is best to nip this foolishness in the bud before 
Congress wastes more tax dollars on another boneheaded stunt.
  America can do better than this. The Senate has already pointed the 
way with a bipartisan, comprehensive approach. We need comprehensive 
reform that reflects America's values and which will actually work. The 
House bill we debate today will cost the taxpayers dearly, but it will 
accomplish little.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Martinez). The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the Chair.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, will my friend yield for a question on how 
much time he would like? I would like to speak immediately following 
his remarks.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from California, I 
attempted to follow the Senator from Colorado, and Senator Leahy wanted 
to speak next.
  Mrs. BOXER. I don't have a problem.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I am thinking about 20 minutes.
  Mrs. BOXER. That is wonderful. I ask unanimous consent that at the 
conclusion of the Senator's remarks, I be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, with regard to the question of fencing 
along our southern border, I wish to make a couple of points.
  Over 1 million people were apprehended last year along that border. 
One million people coming in illegally were apprehended. Probably 
another half million got through without being apprehended. Good fences 
make good neighbors. It is time for us to bring lawfulness to that 
border. I think the American people want that.
  If somebody would like to know the differences between our parties 
and the differences of how we approach the question of having a lawful 
immigration system in America, I suggest that my colleague--I enjoy 
working with him a great deal on the Judiciary Committee.
  My colleague referred to the legislation that we voted to move 
forward to consider--legislation that passed this Senate 94 to 3 to 
fund the fence on the border and passed 83 to 16 to authorize the fence 
to be constructed--as ``hasty, ill-considered, and mean-spirited.'' He 
then went on to suggest Secretary Chertoff is conducting a war on 
immigrants.
  How much of a difference can we have here? How big a gulf? Do the 
American people want us to just say nothing can be done one more time 
and just give up, or do they want us to take rational steps that would 
bring lawfulness to the border? I think they want us to do the latter. 
They have been asking us to do that for some time, and the votes in 
this Senate and the House of Representatives have been overwhelming in 
favor of that approach.
  My colleague says that we had hearings in the Senate and we had a 
Senate bill on the floor, and he implied--I thought he said that 
fencing was a part of that bill, but it wasn't really. It was my 
amendment on the floor that moved that bill forward in a significant 
way. At any rate, we did discuss it, and there has been broad support 
both in the committee and on the floor to proceed to that matter.
  I just want to say, yes, we want comprehensive reform. No, we don't 
want to end all immigration. The wall the Communists built in East 
Germany was to keep their citizens in East Germany, to keep them from 
fleeing their country so they could have freedom. That is quite 
different from an attempt to maintain a legal flow of people into the 
country because we just can't accept everybody. This country cannot 
accept everybody who would like to come.
  A recent poll in Nicaragua said 60 percent would come to the United 
States in they could. A poll in Peru said as many as 70 percent would 
come if they could. The whole world has millions and millions of people 
who would like to come to this country. So we ought to set up a 
rational system, one that serves our national interest, one that is 
fair, and then enforce it, set up a system that works. As long as we 
have a wide-open border, without control and law, we are not doing our 
duty. I don't think those of us in this Congress, in this Senate, want 
to go back home after we recess and say we didn't follow through on 
what probably most of us have been saying--that we do believe barriers 
are necessary.
  The House has sent us a bill, not unlike the Senate bill that we 
passed 83 to 16 and we voted to fund 94 to 3. The bill I offered had 
370 miles of fencing and 500 miles of barriers. The House bill has 
about 700 miles, I believe, of fencing and barriers and electronics. 
There is not a lot of difference fundamentally between the two.
  We now will have an opportunity to offer amendments to discuss 
details. Fundamentally, we need to take action. We need to do 
something. We don't need to go home again and wait until next year 
without any action.
  Then when it comes to comprehensive reform, we need to bury the 
proposal we have that the Senate has considered and voted on, move that 
aside, and come back next year with a fresh approach and create a 
comprehensive plan for immigration that serves our national interest, 
that is consistent with what our allies, such as Canada and Australia, 
do, and consider what they do. If we do, we will come up with

[[Page 18608]]

some good ideas, and we will have something the American people can 
support.
  If we gain some credibility with the American people by, first, 
taking action toward enforcement, we will be able to do something good, 
but it will have to be next year. There is no way this Senate should 
accept a rushed-through package before this election or after this 
election in some lame-duck Congress that does not have a fresh look at 
our policy. I will resist that with every fiber of my being, but I will 
not resist comprehensive reform because I think we need it.
  I wanted to share those thoughts, Mr. President. I am pleased that we 
just had a unanimous vote to move forward to the fence bill the House 
has passed. We will talk about it today and tomorrow.
  I also serve on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services 
Committee. We have had quite a lot of discussions on those two 
committees and now in Armed Services, in particular, about how to deal 
with the effect of the Hamdan decision and how to make sure we are in 
compliance with the Supreme Court opinion. I want to make a couple of 
points.
  The President thought and believed and his top lawyers advised him--
his top lawyers advised him--that the detainee interrogation program 
that was being conducted, that they wanted to conduct, was producing 
substantial results for America, obtaining information that has 
thwarted attacks on America and saved lives, has provided information 
to identify that some of the people involved in 9/11--these are some of 
the people who have admitted and we have evidence against to prove were 
actually complicitous in 9/11, coconspirators. The President has moved 
those prisoners down to Guantanamo.
  The interrogation process for those have been exhausted. They believe 
they have obtained all the information they can expect to obtain. They 
need to be tried for the crimes they have committed in a war they are 
conducting against the United States of America. They will be tried in 
the forum in which they should be tried, in a forum provided for in the 
U.S. Constitution, in a military commission.
  This is not a trial in the Southern District of New York for an 
American citizen for bank fraud or drug dealing. This is a military 
commission adjudication of whether these people are involved in a war 
against the United States that has resulted in the deaths of 3,000 
American citizens on 9/11 and other deaths since then. So he had a 
legal opinion on that. They briefed it to him. And do you remember the 
President looking us in the eye right after 9/11, and he said just the 
other night, Monday night a week ago, I guess, on television, he looked 
the American people in the eye and said: I am going to use every lawful 
power I have to defend the people of this country. That is my 
responsibility, in effect, he was telling us, that is my duty, to 
protect this country, and I am going to use every lawful power I have. 
And we cheered. And we said: Yes, sir. And we said: Mr. President, 
catch those guys. Put your people out there and catch these terrorists 
who have attacked our country and killed our innocent people and 
crashed into the Trade Towers and run airplanes into them. Go get them. 
Do you remember that? Boy, I am telling you, people felt strongly about 
it.
  So now what do we have? Oh, we have the complainers and the second-
guessers. I just want to say this: I believe the President's program 
was legal from the beginning. I have researched the law. I have been 
involved in this. I was a Federal prosecutor. I don't know everything, 
but I have some understanding of it through both of the committees in 
which I have been involved, and I know they researched the law and they 
believed they were operating lawfully.
  I remember the Ex parte Quirin case during World War II when 
President Roosevelt was President. They caught a group of saboteurs who 
were let loose on the American homeland from a submarine, I believe it 
was, and they came in and they planned sabotage against the American 
people. Do you know what they did? And the Supreme Court approved this 
in the famous case Ex parte Quirin. They took them, they caught them, 
they set up a commission, they tried them, and they executed most of 
them in short order because this was not like some normal trial. These 
were people coming into our country for the purpose of sabotaging this 
country, people whose motives and desires were to kill innocent men, 
women, and children, contrary to the laws of war--contrary to the laws 
of war, which do not allow for that. That is the big deal.
  So the people who have been apprehended, the people who were being 
detained and incarcerated and interrogated were not prisoners of war. 
This is crystal clear. You can't execute prisoners of war the way we 
executed the Nazi saboteurs. Prisoners of war are entitled to all of 
the protections of the Geneva Accords, and they have to be provided 
great protections and great advantages, really, and we adhere to that, 
we adhere to that today, and we always have. It was been taught to 
every soldier in America.
  But these are unlawful combatants. They sneak around. They don't wear 
uniforms. They don't carry their weapons openly. And their goal and 
tactic is to utilize terror and slaughter innocent men, women, and 
children to promote their agenda. That is not a soldier. A soldier can 
drop a bomb on a military target, but a soldier can't shoot because it 
may unfortunately result in someone being killed. But a soldier can't 
deliberately have his policy to kill women and children and 
noncombatants. Otherwise, they are an unlawful combatant, not a lawful 
combatant, and they have been considered not to have been covered by 
the Geneva Accords.
  But the Supreme Court, in my opinion fundamentally reversing the 
Quirin case, which the President relied on, came along and said that in 
Hamdan, Common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to these 
terrorists and that we need some more rules and regulations with regard 
to how to try them to create a just trial.
  OK. So what did the President do? Did he act unilaterally and say: I 
am not going to do it, I am not going to comply with the Supreme Court. 
Yes, he previously said he thought what he was doing was proper. No. 
What did the President say? He said: Congress, let's review Hamdan. We 
are sending you some proposals which will clarify what we can do with 
interrogations, which will fix the concerns about trying these unlawful 
combatants, and I want you to act on that, and we need to do it quickly 
because we need to continue to interrogate terrorists and we need to 
try those people who are responsible for the deaths of American 
citizens on 9/11. That is not a seizing of power--some dictator. That 
is not someone who comes along and says: It has to be my way or the 
highway.
  So we have a group of Senators now on the Armed Services Committee 
who say: Well, they have their own plan and they have researched the 
law and they don't want to do what the President says. They want to do 
it their way. OK. This is what Congress is all about.
  I agree with the President. From what I understand of the situation, 
I am supporting the President's view. But I know people have different 
views, and I am willing to listen to those concerns. If we can reach an 
accord that I feel good about and the President feels good about and 
the Senators objecting who have their own agenda can agree to, that 
would be wonderful. But there are a couple of things that have to 
happen.
  We cannot end our interrogation procedures that have been so 
effective. General Hayden, the Director of the CIA, has told us and 
pleaded with us that if we adopt the proposal the Senators have 
favored--and it was voted out of the Armed Services Committee--he is 
going to have to stop the program. Wow. He is going to have to stop 
that program. So we don't want to do that, surely. I mean, this is a 
man of integrity and ability and experience. He has talked to his 
people who conduct these interrogations. They are not torturing anyone. 
We have a statute that prohibits the torture of anyone--Federal law. 
People can go to jail for

[[Page 18609]]

that. It defines what torture is in very explicit terms. If somebody 
has proof that our people have tortured somebody, well, let's bring 
them up and try them. But let's not overreach here.
  We are in a dangerous world. The leader in Iran recently said that 
his goal was to see the United States of America bow down before Iran, 
in a public address. How about that? We have nonstate extremists 
committed to death and destruction around the world through suicidal 
attacks, and they represent a real threat to the peace and dignity of 
the whole world. So this is not an itty-bitty matter.
  There are two things that have to be done, and we should do them 
before we adjourn. The two things are as follows: We need to establish 
the rules for interrogations because if you read through the lines, if 
you read through the lines, what you will hear those agents saying is: 
We thought we were serving you. We thought we were following all these 
rules the lawyers told us to. But we were using what we thought were 
legal tactics and techniques to interrogate prisoners, and we have 
obtained great and valuable information which will help protect our 
country, which has helped us identify people who attacked us on 9/11, 
which has thwarted attacks. We have done all of these things. That is 
what we thought you wanted us to do, Congress. Now you tell us we are 
some sort of beasts and that we have done all these things wrong and we 
ought to be sued. And many of our people are being sued right now--
400--by terrorists, and we are going to accuse them of being less than 
American. They put their lives on the line in some of the most 
dangerous areas of this globe to capture these terrorists. And they are 
saying: OK, Congress, you tell us.
  That is what I read General Hayden to be saying. He didn't say that 
exactly, but he speaks for those agents of his. And they are having to 
take out insurance policies against lawsuits because they expect to be 
sued more by terrorists. Where did this happen--in a war, we have 
lawsuits?
  I am suggesting that this matter is no light deal. We do not need to 
make a mistake and destroy the morale of those who have served us so 
ably, with so much fidelity and courage and hard work. We need to fix 
this, and we need to allow them to utilize legitimate techniques. Some 
of those have the ability to stress an individual for a period of time 
but not torture. That is against the law. That is illegal. It is not 
against the treaties we have signed. We can do that, but we don't need 
to go too far.
  The next thing is, it is time to get on with the trial of the people 
who attacked us, in a military format because it was a military attack 
on us. Al-Qaida, you remember, bin Laden declared war on the United 
States of America for years before 9/11. He attacked our warship, the 
USS Cole, he attacked our embassies in Africa, and there have been 
other attacks. We are in a state of hostilities with al-Qaida directly, 
and we have authorized those hostilities by the Congress of the United 
States. So they are rightly to be tried not in the Southern District of 
New York, not in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 
they are to be tried in a military commission as an extension of the 
military campaign, the war we are conducting.
  The military commissions are not the same as trials, I have to tell 
my colleagues. They are just not. It is a different animal. Because we 
are Americans, we want to be sure that even those terrorists we try are 
not unjustly convicted, that the evidence against them is legitimate 
and that it proves their guilt to the required degree, and only then 
should they be punished, as opposed to just being detained, actually 
punished for the crimes they committed. But it does not require that we 
meet the standard of Federal district court.
  Let me just say these two things. We have made mistakes before. This 
time we are in now, we have the newspapers all excited, saying we have 
abused prisoners. We have leftist groups and world interest groups, and 
they have all said we are abusing prisoners and Guantanamo is horrible. 
Well, I have been to Guantanamo twice, and it is not horrible. They are 
treating those prisoners fairly and decently. They are not being 
tortured. Anybody who abuses prisoners is being disciplined.
  They said: Well, you abused prisoners in Abu Ghraib. Well, they have 
been tried and sent to jail, the American soldiers who participated in 
that. They put them in jail. And it was not part of any interrogation. 
What they did was just an abuse of those prisoners for their own 
amusement, their own sick feelings or ideas. They were not 
interrogators. They were not interrogating them. They were not 
following any rules of interrogation. They were just abusing prisoners. 
And we have tried them and convicted them and sent them to jail. The 
fact that they did that was discovered by the military itself. Our 
military has done its level best to treat prisoners fairly and justly, 
and it is a slander on them to continually suggest that is not so. 
People from all over the world have gone to Guantanamo.
  So I want to say this warning. I am going to watch this legislation. 
Even if the President agrees to it, I am going to read it. I don't know 
what they are talking about now. I haven't seen the latest negotiations 
between the Armed Services Committee and the White House. I want to 
give this warning. It wasn't too many years ago that people in the 
Congress and in the news media and the world groups all raised cain, 
and they said that CIA agents were out talking to bad guys, people who 
had criminal records, and they were paying them money to be informants 
for them. And some of them had actually killed people, and this was 
horrible. The CIA couldn't have that judgment call to make anymore, and 
they should never again associate themselves with people with criminal 
histories. The people said: This is going too far.
  Many times, the only people who know anything are people who are 
participating in it. You have to get the information wherever you can 
get the intelligence. No, the Congress said, listening to the media, 
listening to the ACLU-type groups. No, no. We have to crack down on our 
agents and make sure they don't deal with people with criminal records. 
So we passed a law that banned that.
  Then they said: Well, you know, the CIA can gather information 
differently than the FBI. We don't know what they might gather, so we 
have to create a wall between the CIA and the FBI, and the CIA can't 
share information with the FBI--not to prosecute somebody--just to find 
out what is going on. In this country, when they find out from foreign 
intelligence that someone is threatening the security of America, they 
are not able to share that information readily. I suppose they were 
trying to mollify the news media and the activist groups and those who 
are always complaining. Maybe they did, in the short run. But do you 
remember what happened after 9/11? I remember. We said we didn't have 
enough intelligence. Why didn't we know this was happening to our 
country? Why didn't we know?
  We began to look at it and see what was happening. Both of these 
issues--they were passed in a fit of morality or trying to go overboard 
to prove we were good and decent people. They went back and found both 
of these tactics, the wall between the FBI and the CIA and the ban on 
agents talking to dangerous people with criminal records were bad, and 
we promptly reversed them. Can you imagine that? So we threw them out.
  All I am saying is we need to watch this deal coming forward to the 
Senate today. We do not need to go too far. We have laws against 
torture. We have laws that require us to treat prisoners with decency 
and respect in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. But there are 
things we can do consistent with our law and consistent with our 
treaties. It would be a mistake for us to unilaterally, out of some 
sort of attempt to placate opinion around the world or the opinions of 
those who dislike us, to adopt restrictions on our capabilities that go 
beyond what the law requires. How silly would that be.
  It might not make a difference in this case, because he has already 
confessed, but what cases are we going to

[[Page 18610]]

see in the future? What other threats will this country have? I, for 
one, am not going to participate in unilaterally hamstringing the 
ability of our military and our intelligence agencies to do their job, 
to protect America consistent with our law, consistent with our 
heritage, consistent with the treaties which we signed.
  It is a tough call. The matters are very complicated. I respect 
people on both sides, but I am telling you we need to be careful. We 
don't need to make the mistakes we did when Frank Church was running 
the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate and we made a lot of 
errors, and other errors we made over the years.
  I thank the Chair for allowing me to share these thoughts as we 
continue to wrestle with how to establish interrogation rules and 
trials of those who have attacked our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.


                               After 9/11

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I have listened to the Senator from 
Alabama. He brought us back to 9/11 and that is where I am going to 
start in my remarks right now, on a dreadful day when we saw the 
Pentagon in flames right here from the Capitol and we ran down those 
front steps and it was the bluest of skies and we were looking for 
Flight 93, was it coming our way? We all vowed to go get the people who 
attacked us.
  I came down to this floor and with a heart full of grief. Every one 
of those planes was going to my State. I voted to go get the 
terrorists. Go get al-Qaida. Go to war against Osama bin Laden. I am 
sorry to say that, for whatever reason--and we are beginning to learn 
more about it--based on misinformation, faulty information, skewed 
information, we turned around and we took our resources, great 
resources and the greatest men and women in the military, and we went 
into Iraq.
  The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee now tells us 
unequivocally there was never one connection between al-Qaida and 
Saddam Hussein. Remember all the talk and all the chatter from the Vice 
President and the President and Condi Rice? Remember when Donald 
Rumsfeld said we know where those weapons are? I remember sitting 
literally 8 feet from Donald Rumsfeld, asking him where the weapons of 
mass destruction were. And he said, Oh, they are all around Baghdad. 
You go down the street, take the left, turn to the right--there they 
are.
  No. No. Now we have a circumstance where, because of the great work 
of our intelligence community, we have brought back people, some of 
whom were involved--that is what we believe--in 9/11. Right now we do 
not have a system in place so they can meet their just reward because 
the Supreme Court said Congress has to act and set up a tribunal in a 
way that respects the Geneva Conventions--this is very important.
  We have three Senators with distinguished military careers on the 
other side of the aisle, who have said: Whatever we do we must not 
jeopardize our troops. Therefore, we must make sure that we do not do 
anything to change the Geneva Conventions. What do they get for thanks 
from those who have never seen combat?
  My husband served in the military. I know what it is like to sit and 
wait, because he was 6 years in the Army Reserves, asking, Will he be 
called? Won't he be called? We were fortunate. Senator McCain was not 
that fortunate. He was a prisoner of war. He, John Warner, and Lindsey 
Graham, who was an attorney in the military, are guiding us to write 
something that makes sense so that we can try these people. And if in 
fact they are guilty, they can meet their just reward.
  They get people on their own side of the aisle calling them out. I 
think it is outrageous. To quote the Senator from Alabama:

       People who don't agree with the President on this, they are 
     slandering the military.

  I can't believe it. It is basically like swiftboating Senator McCain 
and Senator Warner. It is unbelievable.
  Who would you trust, I ask the people of America, on this military 
matter? People who never served a day in combat or people who put their 
life on the line? And then to hear them slandered in this way on the 
floor of the Senate--not by name, but by inference--is very 
disheartening. And to see a Republican do it to a Republican? I don't 
get it. I don't get it.
  I hope we can come together to make sure we have a good plan in place 
because if we do not have a good plan in place, what good does it do 
us? It doesn't do us any good if we don't have a plan in place that 
passes the legal test, because it will be thrown out by the courts and 
we will be back to square one and we will not be able to try these 
people in the way they ought to be tried.
  I come here to say thank you to those Senators who stepped out and 
said: Wait a minute; we want to do this right, Mr. President. Work with 
us. We want to do it right.
  I think we have had enough. We have had enough of swiftboating around 
here, and it has to stop in America. It has to stop in America.
  I want to go back to 9/11 because when I voted to go after the 
terrorists, that is what I thought this Government was going to do. I 
thought they would throw all the resources at it. We went into 
Afghanistan. We freed the people there. I was proud. I went to my 
Afghan-American community and I was so happy for those people. They saw 
light. And we shorted that. We shorted them. We don't have enough 
troops there.
  You know what is happening even in Kabul now. You are seeing attacks 
on women and girls, you are seeing murders. The poppy trade is growing. 
This was our opportunity to not only find Osama bin Laden, who was 
there, but also to make Afghanistan a model of democracy that the 
President is always talking about. He stood up at the United Nations--
some of the things he said I really believe were correct. But one of 
the things that was not correct is when he said: We need democracy; 
take a look at what we have done in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  I can tell you, anyone with a television set looks at what is 
happening in Iraq and says: Oh, my God, it's close to civil war. He 
puts that picture in our minds next to the word democracy? That is not 
going to help people. People looking around the world at that say, You 
know what? I really want democracy, but if my country is going to look 
like this, count me out.
  It is just not real, Mr. President. It is not real. Just like it is 
not real to go after three Senators with distinguished military careers 
and tell them they are off-base when they try to put forward a solution 
to the problems that we are facing in terms of how we try these alleged 
terrorists. If they did what we think they did, again, I don't want 
them sitting in prison, I want them tried, convicted, and meet their 
fate. That means we need to put a system in place.
  After 9/11 and after we took that turn and we didn't go after the 
terrorists as we should and we went into Iraq instead and we got bogged 
down there, year after year after year, and the President's plan is, 
and I quote: We will be there as long as I am President. That is his 
plan. That is not a plan. That is not a strategy. That is not a policy 
of success. It is the status quo, and it is weighing on the American 
people.
  The President said that. I agree with him. It is weighing on the 
American people. What he didn't say is it is weighing down the American 
people because it is so expensive that it is up to near $8 billion, $9 
billion, $10 billion a month in Iraq.
  I went to a rally on The Mall today for cancer survivors. Mr. 
President, I don't know if you got to go over there, but it is the most 
touching thing I have seen in a long time. Each State there has a tent 
and in the tent are the cancer survivors. They are asking us, they are 
begging us, they are pleading with us to reverse the cuts that this 
President made in this budget for cancer research. That is what they 
are asking.
  We spend $5 billion a year on cancer research--$5 billion. That is 2 
weeks of the Iraqi war. Why don't we just decide

[[Page 18611]]

we will end the war 2 weeks earlier and double the funding for cancer 
research?
  Our families need us at their backs. They cannot do this alone. They 
cannot find the cure for cancer. They cannot come up with the 
treatments, with the science. Many of them need insurance. We spend $10 
billion a month, almost, for the Iraq war. Think about it.
  So this war, which has nothing to do with the war on terror, which 
has been shorted because of this war, is also now stealing from the 
American people, and they do not want it. They want to start bringing 
the troops home.
  We need a political solution in Iraq. We need a conference with that 
country and its neighbors. We need to look at semi-autonomous regions, 
with the Federal Government there making sure that the oil is 
distributed in the right way. That is a way out of this. Senator Biden 
has explained it many times. He understands that it is not a policy to 
just say we are just going to keep on keeping on.
  Anyone who has ever read a book on Iraq knows that after World War I 
the Brits put together everyone in that country who didn't get along 
with each other and then they were just busy taking in oil while 
everyone else was fighting. It took a monstrosity of a man, a 
tyrannical man, to keep that country together--and now that man is 
facing his just rewards.
  But there has to be a better way than the status quo. We need a new 
direction in Iraq, and we need it because the Iraqi people have to step 
up to the plate and take care of their own country. No country can 
survive with an occupation force running the show. It doesn't work.
  They have to want freedom and democracy. They have to love each other 
enough to live in the same country as much as we want it for them; 
otherwise, this is an endless war. This is the forever war.
  Come to my office. In front of the door I have four easels. I am 
sorry to tell you they are huge easels with small print. On those are 
the names of the dead from California or based in California. We are 
all faced with this in our States more and more--broken-hearted 
mothers, hysterical children. And what is the ultimate plan?
  First, it was the mission: go get the weapons of mass destruction. 
Then we found out there were none. That mission was done. Second 
mission: go get Saddam Hussein. Our military was brilliant. They got 
Saddam Hussein. He has been brought to trial. Then they said, well, 
things are still not good. Maybe you ought to get his family members, 
and we will show them to the Iraqis. That will stop the killing. Tell 
them that we mean business. Our military did it. That didn't help. Oh, 
well, we will get a terrorist. That will show them. That didn't help 
because the underlying problem is these are people who have hatreds 
that go way back. They have to decide if they want to set those hatreds 
aside. Otherwise, we will be there forever.
  We are fueling terrorism. We cannot stop this civil war. And we are 
paying the price in dead and wounded, 20,000-plus, with the worst 
injuries you can imagine, including brain damage, burns, things that I 
don't know whether any of us here could actually imagine.
  The cost is weighing us down. Everywhere you look we don't have the 
money for this, we don't have the money for that, we don't even have 
the money for what Senator Sessions is putting before the body, which 
he voted for before. There are areas of the border where you can build 
the fence. This isn't an issue with me. But we don't even have the 
money for that. It is not even in this bill that is before us. Where 
are we going to get it?
  I wasn't going to go on and on with these different subjects because 
I really came to talk about the state of agriculture in my State. I am 
going to do that now. But when the Senator from Alabama--and he is most 
sincere--came down here and attacked people who are trying to find a 
reasonable solution to a difficult problem and said that they were 
slandering the military if they do not agree with the President, I had 
to talk about these things.
  It was a Republican President who said this. I wish I had the exact 
quote. I will paraphrase it. This was Teddy Roosevelt. He said--and I 
paraphrase--that the President is the most important elected official 
among many, but those who say that he should not be criticized are 
guilty of being servile and border on the treasonous.
  I can tell you when I came here, I took an oath to protect and defend 
my country. I told the people of California they could count on me to 
do that. I didn't come here to be a servile Senator, to rubberstamp any 
President, Democratic, Republican, Independent, you name it. And I 
certainly didn't come here to say to another Senator who might not 
agree with me that if they do not support the President they are 
slandering the military. I find that over the top, outrageous.
  We have a bill before us that, as I understand it, the Republicans 
are not going to allow us to amend. I hope I am wrong. I hope Senator 
Frist, in fact, will allow us to amend it because there are some very 
good ideas in this body that need to be heard about security, about 
immigration reform. And I know my colleagues in the Chamber today have 
worked very hard to try to bring balance into the way we approach the 
immigration debate. I support them on that.
  I want to tell you what is happening in my State right now. We 
haven't acted, and we haven't taken care of the broader issue. I have a 
farm community, an agricultural community that is in deep trouble. It 
seems to me, since we have 62 Members supporting the Craig-Kennedy 
bill, which is the AgJOBS bill, that at minimum we ought to be allowed 
to offer an amendment, which I know Senator Craig wants to do, to deal 
with this terrific problem. We must do more than one thing at a time.
  To those people who say we will take care of the fence, and then 
after it is built we will figure out how we can take care of the rest 
of the immigration problem, I say that is a recipe for economic 
disaster, at least in the agricultural community.
  I want to read to you a letter that I received from an organization 
that represents 1,100 organizations, the United Fresh Produce 
Association. The headline says: ``Farmers to Congress: Support a Safe 
and Secure American Food Supply, Pass an Immigration Fix Before the 
Election of 2006.''
  It goes on to say that we have a horrible problem in our agricultural 
industry.
  Here is what they say:

       American labor-intensive agriculture has proactively sought 
     a solution to its labor and immigration challenges since the 
     early 1990's. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to act. Now, 
     growers and producers are experiencing actual labor shortages 
     rather than just shortages of legal workers. Labor shortages 
     are being reported from coast to coast. Crop losses are 
     starting to occur, from berries and pears in the West to 
     oranges in Florida.
       Specialty crops, fruits, vegetables, nursery, greenhouse 
     and floriculture plants, turfgrass, sod, wine grapes, forage 
     crops, and Christmas trees comprise 50 percent of the value 
     of the American crop agriculture. They are labor-intensive 
     crops, and they are at risk. Also at risk are poultry, dairy 
     and livestock production.

  My dairymen tell me the same thing. They talk about the fact that the 
50-year-old flawed guest worker program just isn't working. It is 
unresponsive, it is bureaucratic, and it is expensive. It is litigation 
prone. They are asking for this AgJOBS bill.
  You may ask: Senator, why can't you offer this amendment? The answer 
has to come from the Republican side. They control this place. I can 
tell you right now there is support from 1,100 businesses from growers 
to shippers, wholesalers, retailers in every state want this bill.
  I ask unanimous consent that their letter be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 Farmers to Congress: Support a Safe and Secure American Food Supply--
              Pass an Immigration Fix Before Election 2006

       American labor-intensive agriculture has proactively sought 
     a solution to its labor and immigration challenges since the 
     early 1990's. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to act. Now, 
     growers and producers are experiencing actual labor shortages 
     rather than

[[Page 18612]]

     just shortages of legal workers. Labor shortages are being 
     reported from coast to coast. Crop losses are starting to 
     occur, from berries and pears in the West to oranges in 
     Florida.
       Specialty crops (fruits, vegetables, nursery, greenhouse 
     and floriculture plants, turf-grass sod, winegrapes, forage 
     crops, and Christmas trees) comprise 50% of the value of 
     American crop agriculture. They are labor-intensive crops, 
     and they are at risk. Also at risk are poultry, dairy and 
     livestock production. An estimated 70% of the farm labor 
     force lacks proper legal status. The only available labor 
     safety net is a 50 year-old flawed guest worker program known 
     as H-2A, which presently provides only two percent of the 
     farm labor force. It is unresponsive, bureaucratic, 
     expensive, and litigation-prone.
       The reforms American agriculture needs now are two-fold: An 
     agricultural worker program, such as reformed H-2A, that 
     meets the special needs of agriculture; A workable transition 
     strategy that allows for more experienced workers to earn 
     legal status while capacity is built on the farm and at the 
     border for wider reliance on an agricultural worker program.
       Last May, the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive 
     immigration reform bill. It contains agricultural provisions 
     consistent with the needs outlined above. Namely, it 
     overhauls H-2A to streamline the program, make it more 
     affordable, and provide a balance of worker and employer 
     protections.
       By contrast last December the House of Representatives 
     passed a harsh and anti-employer border security and internal 
     enforcement bill. If it became law, H.R. 4437 would cause 
     American agriculture to lose most of its workforce through 
     mandatory and universal electronic verification of employment 
     authorization documents.
       What is at stake? America's food independence and security.
       That's a matter of national security.
       And the economic contributions and job-creation that exist 
     here in America because the production is here.
       A recent study by the American Farm Bureau conservatively 
     projects that the loss of the workforce from an enforcement-
     only bill would result in U.S. fruit and vegetable production 
     falling $5-9 billion annually in the short term and $6.5-12 
     billion in the long term, with impacts in other production 
     sectors reaching upward of $8 billion. Three to four jobs in 
     the upstream and downstream economy are generated by each 
     farm worker job, so well over one million good American jobs 
     are at risk.
       To avert an unfolding crisis in American agricultural 
     disaster, Congress must enact comprehensive immigration 
     reform that that ensures growers and producers access to a 
     legal workforce American agriculture is unified behind these 
     critical principles:
       A safe and secure domestic food supply is a national 
     priority at risk. With real labor shortages emerging, 
     agriculture needs legislative relief now. The choice is 
     simple: Import needed labor, or import our food!
       If perishable agriculture and livestock production is 
     encouraged or forced offshore, we will also lose three to 
     four American jobs for every farm worker job.
       Any solution must recognize agriculture's uniqueness--
     perishable crops and products, rural nature, significant 
     seasonality, and nature of the work.
       Enacting enforcement alone, or enacting enforcement-first, 
     will cause agriculture to lose its workforce. Even ``doing 
     nothing'' will worsen the growing crisis, with the border 
     already much more secure, and worksite enforcement on the 
     rise.
       As part of a comprehensive immigration reform or stand-
     alone legislation, agriculture needs a program that (1) 
     eliminates needless paperwork and administrative delays; (2) 
     provides an affordable wage rate; and (3) minimizes frivolous 
     litigation.
       For a successful transition, trained and experienced 
     workers who lack proper legal status should be able to 
     eventually earn permanent legal status subject to strict 
     conditions like fines, future agricultural work requirements 
     and lawful behavior.
       American farmers, ranchers, and business people are 
     depending on Congress to pass a good bill without further 
     delay. To do otherwise jeopardizes American agricultural 
     production and jobs and the food security of our Nation.
       For more information: Agriculture Coalition for Immigration 
     Reform, Craig Regelbrugge; National Council of Agricultural 
     Employers, Sharon Hughes; United Fresh Produce Association 
     Robert Guenther.

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we need to pass an AgJOBS bill. Our 
farmers and our ranchers are begging us to do it. They need a solution. 
But because we haven't acted, everything is paralyzed.
  I want to show you a picture of Toni Skully, a pear farmer from Lake 
County, CA, looking at the pear crop she lost because she didn't have 
enough workers to pick the trees. Pear farms are an estimated $80-
million-a-year business in California. They were unable to harvest 35 
percent of their crop this year due to the lack of field and 
packinghouse labor. Unfortunately, situations like Toni's and the pear 
growers of Lake County are happening all over California.
  I discussed this with my colleagues. They are telling me it is 
happening in their States, too. My lemon growers in San Diego are 
experiencing a 15- to 20-percent harvest loss. Avocado farmers in 
Ventura County are worried about workers for the December planting 
season. Tree fruit growers in Fresno County have seen their labor force 
increase by as much as 50 percent. In Sonoma, as many as 17,000 
seasonal farm workers have not returned from Mexico to work in the 
fields.
  According to USDA, agriculture is a $239-billion-a-year industry. And 
if we refuse to provide a solution to labor shortages now, we are 
jeopardizing our domestic economy and our foreign export markets. We 
are driving up production costs that get passed on to consumers. Our 
consumers are already having trouble. Even with the decrease in 
gasoline prices, they are way up from where they where historically. 
They are dealing with health insurance premiums that are way up. They 
are dealing with college tuition costs and education costs that are way 
up. Now they are going to walk in the supermarket where we have such 
good prices and see that prices are up because of the inability to hire 
people because there has been a crackdown on the workers.
  All of that is happening for one reason: the House wouldn't follow 
the Senate. The Senate had taken care of it. We had a good, broad bill 
that dealt with border security, additional guards at the border, and 
everything they needed at the border, plus a way to deal with the 
agricultural industry and the millions of workers who are in the 
shadows who are afraid to come out of the shadows.
  Let me tell you, do you think that makes us secure when we don't know 
who they are? I don't think it does for a minute. That is why we need 
to have this type of bill passed in the Senate.
  But at minimum, I say to Senator Frist, allow us to offer the Craig 
amendment. Senator Feinstein is very strong on this.
  It was interesting. Independent of one another we immediately said we 
ought to offer the Craig-Kennedy amendment. She and I talked to Senator 
Craig. We said: Please put us on as cosponsors.
  A 2006 study done by the American Farm Bureau found that if 
agriculture's access to migrant labor is cut off, as much as $5 billion 
to $9 billion in annual production would be lost--and that is just the 
short-term prediction. If agriculture's access to migrant labor is cut 
off, as much as $5 billion to $9 billion in annual production of 
primarily import-sensitive commodities would be lost in the short term. 
That is a statistic from the American Farm Bureau Federation.
  Again, this is a place where Republicans and Democrats should come 
together. I don't understand why Senator Frist will not allow us to 
offer this Craig amendment. We have a vast majority in this body in 
favor of it. Our farmers say pass the AgJOBS bill now.
  It is supported by United Fresh Fruit and Vegetables, the 
Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform, the National Council of 
Agricultural Employers, Western United Dairymen, the California Grape 
and Tree Fruit League, California Citrus Mutual, among many other 
agricultural groups.
  The AgJOBS bill pulls together both the owners and the workers. This 
is rare in and of itself to have everybody come together, farmer groups 
and the agribusiness people coming together, and yet with all that 
support--I believe we are up to 62 supporters in the Senate--we cannot 
at this stage be assured that Senator Frist, the Republican leader, 
will allow us to have a vote on this amendment.
  The AgJOBS bill would allow immigrant farm workers who are here now 
to harvest the crops. It would put 1.5 million workers on a path toward 
legal status if they prove they worked in agriculture before enactment 
of the law, and if they work 3 to 5 more years in agriculture after its 
enactment.
  It is a way to save the workforce and get people out of the shadows. 
We know

[[Page 18613]]

who they are. That is key, to know who is in this country, not to have 
people hiding. It makes no sense.
  In May, the Senate again passed immigration reform that included this 
very language we want to offer. It got 62 votes. Building a border 
fence--again, I voted for it. There are parts of our border that need 
that kind of structure. I don't have a problem with it.
  What I have a problem with is the fact that is not going to solve our 
problem because we need to address the economy. We are worried about a 
housing slump. It is coming on pretty quick. We hope it does not 
materialize, but it does not look good. In many cases, a housing slump 
is followed by a recession. Do we want to add to the trouble by having 
a situation where as much as $5 to $9 billion in annual production is 
lost? I don't think so.
  I will do whatever I can to convince the Republican leadership to 
allow Congress to take care of agriculture. When we have a bill that is 
supported by 62 Senators, on both sides of the aisle, that is supported 
by labor and management, it makes sense to move it forward. I cannot 
stand the thought of looking in the eyes of my dairymen and my farmers 
one more time when they come back here and say the first issue on their 
agenda is this problem they are having with their workforce.
  There is a way to do this that makes sense. There is a way to do this 
that will give us control of our border. That is what we ought to be 
doing. We ought to be looking, at the minimum, to saving our 
agricultural industry.
  I say to my Republican friends, and I am being very honest, I am not 
sure farmers have been my strong supporters over the years. They 
usually go Republican. I can read the list of supporters. What is the 
majority doing, shutting them out?
  Let's work together. Let's work together for them, for the consumers, 
for the workers. We cannot afford the one-two punch of an agriculture 
industry that begins to fall apart as the housing industry is having 
problems. We just cannot afford to see another sector have a problem. 
Autos, housing, now agriculture?
  Please, this is too important to play politics with. Help our 
agriculture businesses. Help our workers. Help get people out of the 
shadows. Do something to help America. Don't keep this bill so narrow 
in focus that we do not see the forest for the trees.
  I hope we have some good news and that there will be a good agreement 
on our surveillance issue, on our military tribunal issue. I hope the 
leadership will open this up to save our agriculture industries. They 
are asking us for this.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coburn). The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from 
California for the passion she brings to this issue in pointing out the 
fact that, indeed, there are major industries in this country that are 
desperately in need of a labor pool. Agriculture, as the Senator has so 
articulately pointed out, construction, the tourism industry--three 
industries that affect our State and the Senator's State--all three of 
those industries are enormously important.
  If we want to do something for immigration and actually make what is, 
in effect, amnesty now, because the law is not being obeyed, at the 
time the Senator and I served in the House of Representatives in the 
1980s, in which we voted for that immigration bill, there were only an 
estimated 2 million people in the country illegally. Now it has swelled 
to something like 12 million.
  Amnesty is the condition we have right now because the law is not 
being obeyed by the people who are supposed to obey it and the U.S. 
Government is not enforcing the law which allows all the more illegal 
entrants into the country.
  The solution, in the interest of the United States, it seems to me, 
to get our hands around the problem of illegal immigration, is to pass 
a law that has some teeth, that will be obeyed and, at the same time, 
provides the labor pool so we do not wreck our economy in the meantime.
  The Senator from California has just pointed out industries in her 
State, agricultural interests in her State that, in fact, are having 
difficulty getting workers to harvest the crops. It is another one of 
the little ironies, that people are saying amnesty, amnesty, amnesty, 
amnesty, and what we have right now because the law is not being 
obeyed.
  We ought to pass a bill, a bill that controls the borders--of course, 
there are more reasons for controlling our borders than just 
immigration, with terrorists coming into our country--a bill, in 
addition, that will address the labor needs.


                   Unanimous-Consent Request--S. 2810

  I address the Senate on another subject with regard to seniors and 
their prescription drug coverage. We have long advocated there be 
meaningful prescription drug coverage. Two or 3 years ago we passed 
one. It ended up showing there are quite a few deficiencies in the 
prescription drug coverage Medicare Part D for senior citizens. 
However, it was passed and it is law.
  It is our job now to improve that law and correct the deficiencies, 
plug the loopholes, and make the appropriate changes to this program 
that are going to help seniors afford the cost of prescription drugs.
  Over the past several months, as we have been dealing with this 
issue, I advocated extending the enrollment period under the Medicare 
prescription drug program and the elimination of the late enrollment 
penalty. Under the current law, which was passed several years ago, 
seniors who did not sign up by May 15 of this year--that was the 
deadline--and who enroll at a later date, when they do enroll for the 
Medicare prescription drug program, they are going to pay a penalty of 
1 percent of their premium tacked on for each month they delay the 
enrollment. If they wait to sign up until the end of the year, they are 
going to pay a late enrollment penalty of 7 percent.
  If the whole idea of giving senior citizens some financial help with 
a prescription drug program is to help them financially, and now we are 
going to slap a 7 percent late enrollment penalty on them, it works at 
counter purposes to what we are trying to do to help the seniors.
  The Congressional Budget Office says that three million seniors are 
going to have to pay these higher premiums because they will have the 
penalties assessed. Many of the senior citizens in this country simply 
are not aware this penalty exists.
  The Kaiser Foundation did a survey and found that nearly half of the 
seniors are unaware they face a financial penalty if they did not sign 
up by May 15. We tried, before May 15, to get Congress to extend the 
enrollment deadline. We got well over a majority of the votes, but we 
could not get the 60 votes to cut off debate. I believe we ought to at 
least waive that penalty for those who did not enroll and want to do so 
at the end of this year.
  We filed a bill, S. 2810, the Medicare Late Enrollment Assistance 
Act, that allows Medicare beneficiaries to sign up during the next open 
enrollment period without a penalty.
  Last May, after the deadline had just passed, this Senator worked 
with Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus to introduce this bill. The 
bill now has 45 Senators cosponsoring it. The enrollment period for 
next year is fast approaching. We need to pass this bill before we 
adjourn. We have less than a week and a half. We have a week and 2 days 
until the Senate adjourns. It is imperative the Congress pass this 
legislation and not just continue to talk about it.
  It is wrong to penalize seniors who could not enroll by the deadline. 
What we all ought to be doing is to make this Medicare prescription 
drug program more senior-friendly. That includes exactly what this bill 
is. It was filed on a bipartisan basis. It is time to stop playing 
politics with the health care of our seniors. Waiving that enrollment 
penalty, backed by Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus, is the 
compassionate thing to do.
  We are not alone in this. Listen to the organizations that have come 
out

[[Page 18614]]

in favor of S. 2810, the Medicare Late Enrollment Assistance Act: AARP; 
American Diabetes Association; Alzheimer's Association; American 
Autoimmune Related Disease Association; Asthma and Allergy Foundation 
of America; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; Epilepsy Foundation; Lupus 
Foundation; Men's Health Network; National Alliance for Mental Illness; 
National Council of Community Behavioral Health Care; National Family 
Caregivers Association; the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of 
Husbandry; the National Health Council; the National Osteoporosis 
Foundation; the AIDS Institute; the Arc of the United States; United 
Cerebral Palsy; and the National Coalition for Women with Heart 
Disease.
  That is a pretty broad spectrum of people who deal in health care, 
particularly with regard to seniors.
  Now, somebody may say: Well, it is not paid for. Members of the 
Senate, it is paid for. The bill is estimated now to cost $500 million 
over 5 years. And this cost is offset by using part of the 
stabilization fund which was set up in the Medicare drug law. That fund 
was to be used to subsidize and entice private companies into the 
Medicare Program. But the fund is sitting there, and it is not needed 
because private plans are abundant in the Medicare market. There is 
money available, and it is time not to penalize our seniors.
  So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
immediately take up and pass S. 2810.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Acting in my capacity as a Senator from 
Oklahoma, I object.
  Objection is heard.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, given the fact that is the 
case, that we cannot proceed, and given the fact we have 1 week left in 
order to avoid this penalty, it is my hope there may be a vehicle that 
will come along, and that since Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus 
have been trying so hard to get this legislation up, they may find an 
appropriate legislative vehicle on which to attach it to bring this 
needed relief to the senior citizens of this country.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator yields the floor.
  The Senator from Pennsylvania.


                  Writ Of Habeas Corpus And Detainees

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to discuss the 
issue of habeas corpus, which is the Latin term used to define the 
great writ from ancient England to produce the body, to determine if an 
individual is being lawfully held.
  The writ of habeas corpus has an illustrious history in common law, 
in English law, and in American law. It is the focus of attention on 
issues now being considered relating to detainees in Guantanamo, and 
was the focus of attention in the Hamdan case, which is now being 
considered by the Congress of the United States in terms of complying 
with the order of the Supreme Court of the United States for the 
Congress to discharge its constitutional duty under Article I, section 
8, to establish procedures for military commissions.
  We have pending at the present time two bills: the Terrorist 
Tracking, Identification, and Prosecution Act, S. 3886, which has been 
proposed by the administration; and the Military Commissions Act, S. 
3901, which has been reported out by the Armed Services Committee.
  There have been extended discussions about these bills in terms of 
compliance with the Geneva Conventions, whether classified information 
may be used, whether hearsay is appropriate, whether coerced 
confessions can be used. But there has been relatively little 
attention--almost none--on the fact that both of these bills eliminate 
the writ of habeas corpus review.
  Had this prohibition been in effect earlier, the case of Hamdan v. 
Rumsfeld, decided in June of this year, might not have been decided. As 
a matter of law, it is my legal judgment that Congress cannot act to 
delete the remedy of habeas corpus because the Constitution provides, 
as follows: Article I, section 9, clause 2:

       The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be 
     suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the 
     public Safety may require it.

  Now, we do not have a rebellion and we do not have an invasion. Those 
are the two circumstances under which the writ of habeas corpus may be 
suspended. Since neither is present and the Constitution cannot be 
altered by statute, the pending legislation may be unconstitutional.
  As a matter of public policy, the writ of habeas corpus is also 
established as a statutory base in Title 28, United States Code, 
section 2241. In the case of Rasul v. Bush, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme 
Court ruled that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay have a right to file 
petitions for habeas corpus so that a Federal court may review the 
evidence which justifies their continued detention.
  Many of the detainees have filed petitions, but only a few have been 
heard. And most have not yet had a hearing on their habeas petition.
  Senator Leahy and I have asked for a sequential referral to the 
Judiciary Committee from the Armed Services Committee because our 
Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over habeas corpus and other 
provisions of the legislation which I have cited.
  If you take a look at the pending legislation, it is obvious that the 
enemy combatants who are detained have virtually no rights, very few 
procedures applicable to them compared to those who may be charged with 
serious war crimes. And it would, indeed, be anomalous to have greater 
procedural protection for someone charged with a war crime, where the 
evidence is present to justify that charge, contrasted with a detainee, 
where, as the practice has evolved, there is very little information, 
let alone the absence of evidence, very little data, to warrant 
detention.
  The pending legislation endorses as the exclusive review mechanism 
that the hearings will be held under the so-called Combat Status Review 
Tribunals. And this is a comparison of what the Combat Status Review 
Tribunals, called CSRTs, will do in comparison to the military 
commissions.
  In the CSRTs, no evidence is presented by the Government. The 
proceedings are governed by what is called a proffer in criminal 
courts. The charges are read to the detainees, and they are asked to 
respond. By contrast, in the military commissions that are parts of 
both bills, the Government must introduce evidence which support the 
charges.
  In the CSRTs, the detainees have no lawyers. Most speak no English 
and communicate through interpreters. In the military commissions, the 
accused detainees have the right to be represented by lawyers.
  In the CSRTs, the detainees have no ability to cross-examine the 
witnesses against them or to see any physical evidence because none is 
introduced. In contrast, in the military commissions, the detainees' 
lawyers will be allowed to cross-examine the Government's witnesses and 
see the Government's physical evidence, although there may be some 
limitation as to classified information on a controversy yet to be 
worked out.
  In the CSRTs, the detainees have no ability to call their own 
witnesses to produce evidence. In the military commissions, those 
rights will be fully protected through the commissions' subpoena power.
  In the CSRTs, the tribunals are permitted to consider classified 
evidence, including, apparently, for all we know--although we are not 
really certain as to what happened in each individual case--there may 
be information obtained by torture or by means which produced 
flagrantly coerced confessions. That will not be the case in the 
military commissions.
  The bills provide that the rulings of the past CSRTs are final and 
conclusive, with the only appeal allowed being to the District of 
Columbia Court of Appeals--and such an appeal would be limited as to 
whether the CSRTs followed their own procedures. In contrast, a full 
judicial-like appellate procedure is provided for appeals from military 
commissions.
  So from this analysis, it is obvious that the worst of the detainees 
will be accorded far greater rights--those

[[Page 18615]]

charged with war crimes--than all the other detainees, many of whom, 
according to summaries of proceedings, took no action against the 
United States or its allies.
  This habeas corpus legislation, if enacted, will not end the court 
battle over detention at Guantanamo Bay. If either of these bills 
becomes law, there will be years of litigation as to whether the U.S. 
Constitution is violated. If the proposed changes to habeas corpus in 
these bills are rejected by the courts, we will be back for more 
legislative fixes and more judicial proceedings.
  As I have noted, the request has been made for referral to the 
Judiciary Committee. There are some difficult procedural steps to get 
that sequential referral. I am, frankly, not optimistic it will occur. 
The scheduling of the floor action on these bills is uncertain at this 
time, depending on whether an agreement is worked out.
  It is my hope we will reach an agreement on the issue of how the 
Geneva Conventions will apply and whether there ought to be any 
modifications of it. I believe the committee bill, endorsed by Senator 
Warner, Senator McCain, and Senator Lindsey Graham, is correct, that we 
ought not to water down the provisions of Common Article 3 of the 
Geneva Conventions, that we ought not to modify that or have the 
appearance of modifying it. It is my legal judgment that what General 
Hayden is looking for can be accommodated within the existing 
recognition by the United States.
  The Geneva Convention on torture was adopted in 1988 and has language 
which is very similar on indignities or mistreatment. And the Congress 
filed a reservation as to that 1988 Convention, saying that it would be 
defined in terms of the provisions of amendments V, VIII, and XIV to 
the U.S. Constitution.
  My understanding is that is pretty much what General Hayden is 
looking for, so that it may be possible to establish the existing 
position of the U.S. Government on that reservation, which would be 
consistent with full recognition of Common Article 3, as a stand 
already taken by the United States, so that we would not be limiting 
Common Article 3 to something new or we would not be appearing to limit 
Common Article 3 to something new.
  With respect to classified information, again, I agree with what 
Senators Warner, McCain, and Graham have articulated, that it is not 
appropriate to deny classified evidence to an individual where the 
death penalty might follow or other serious penalties might be imposed. 
It is insufficient to give that information to a lawyer. And even if it 
were given to the lawyer, there is a problem as to whether it might be 
transmitted, and sources and methods might be revealed to those who 
could harm the United States.
  As to coerced confessions, again, I agree with the Warner-McCain-
Graham approach, that coerced confessions should not be admitted.
  They are unfair and unreliable. When it comes to the issue of habeas 
corpus, I think both the administration's bill and the bill passed out 
of committee, with the endorsement of Senators Warner, McCain, and 
Graham eliminating habeas corpus is inappropriate. Depending on when 
the bill comes to the floor, there may be an opportunity for the 
Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing and to have an analysis of the 
constitutional limitation on suspending habeas corpus and the public 
policy interests that are involved.
  I, Senators Leahy, Levin, and others will be circulating a ``Dear 
Colleague'' letter advising that we intend to offer an amendment if 
these bills come to the floor with the denial of habeas corpus in them.
  Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. SPECTER. Yes.
  Mr. DURBIN. First, I thank my colleague for coming to the floor. I 
heard him open his remarks while I was in my office, and I salute him. 
I don't think many colleagues are aware of the seriousness of the 
habeas corpus provision that is in the detainee bill coming out of the 
Armed Services Committee. I ask my colleague--and I only caught part of 
his remarks--are you going to ask that this bill be referred to our 
Senate Judiciary Committee for hearings on this question of habeas 
corpus?
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, in response to the question of the 
Senator from Illinois, Senator Leahy and I have signed a letter to the 
majority leader, Senator Frist, and the Democratic leader, Senator 
Reid, asking for sequential referral.
  Mr. DURBIN. One further question. I ask of the Senator from 
Pennsylvania, we understand the Armed Services Committee's jurisdiction 
on treatment of detainees, military commissions, and the like. If I am 
not mistaken, I ask the Senator from Pennsylvania, when we discuss a 
fundamental constitutional question, it seems to me that is an 
appropriate area for the Judiciary Committee to consider the merits of 
the question. I think I know the answer from what I have already heard 
in the Senator's previous statements. I hope I can join the Senators in 
making this request.
  Mr. SPECTER. The Senator is correct. The Judiciary Committee has 
jurisdiction over the constitutional issue. In fact, as to the pending 
legislation, the Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over Common 
Article 3, and the committee also has jurisdiction over changes to the 
war crimes.
  We have submitted to the Armed Services Committee a sequence of war 
crimes which have been included in the bill. Regrettably, we didn't 
have enough time for committee action. Although, as the Senator from 
Illinois may recollect, I advised the committee of what we were doing 
and circulated early drafts so people could be in a position to 
comment. I think it is important that Congress move ahead to comply 
with Hamdan. Also, we ought to do it right. It requires some analysis. 
We can do it in a relatively short timeframe. Provided we focus on it 
and have hearings, it is going to require Senators to become acquainted 
with what is going on.
  The fact is, Congress has been derelict in its duty in providing 
rules for military commissions, and it is our responsibility under 
article I, section 8. The Senator from Illinois and I filed legislation 
shortly after 9/11, 2001, to accomplish that, as did other Senators. 
The Congress did not act because this issue has been too hot to handle, 
too complicated, too dicey. It is not to the credit of the Congress, 
which sat back and did nothing.
  Finally, in June of 2004, the Supreme Court came down with three 
opinions. We punted to the courts, as we do repeatedly. Thank God for 
the courts. Thank God for life tenure and the independence of the 
courts in this country, which come in to act when there has been 
inertia and inaction by the Congress, or inappropriate contact by the 
executive branch historically, and not just with this administration.
  When the Hamdan case came down, the Court ordered the Congress to 
comply with our duty to legislate. All of this comes about because of 
habeas corpus. I don't believe the Congress has the authority to take 
away habeas corpus jurisdiction, especially in light of the specific 
provisions of habeas corpus, but also generally. When we considered, in 
a rush, the legislation last year that was passed, I was the sole voice 
on this side of the aisle objecting to it. It was passed with 
substantial support on the other side of the aisle because it was 
thought that at least it would not be applied to pending cases. Then 
there was a surprise when Justice Scalia said these colloquies were 
inserted by staff after the fact and there was no matter of 
congressional intent. He would have disregarded it. The majority 
opinion did not deal with the issue but just took the jurisdiction and 
moved ahead to decide the case.
  This is not an issue which I came to recently. This is an issue that 
has concerned me for more than two decades. When Chief Justice 
Rehnquist was up for confirmation, I raised the issue in the 
confirmation proceedings with him as to whether the Congress had the 
authority to take away the jurisdiction of the Court on first amendment 
issues. Chief Justice Rehnquist refused to answer. Overnight we 
produced an article that he had written criticizing the Congress in the 
Whitacre proceedings for not asking about due process or equal

[[Page 18616]]

protection, talking only about matters of lesser concern, such as 
Whitacre being from Kansas City and it was an honor to both Kansas and 
Missouri because he lived in one State and worked in the other.
  Chief Justice Rehnquist, when confronted with the article, answered 
the question. He said Congress could not take away the jurisdiction of 
the Court on first amendment issues. Then I asked him about the fourth 
amendment, search and seizure. He declined to answer. I asked about the 
fifth amendment, privilege against self incrimination. He declined to 
answer. On the eighth amendment, crucial and unusual punishment, he 
declined to answer. It was a significant statement that Chief Justice 
Rehnquist made. As to the first amendment, the Congress could not take 
away the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court or the Federal courts.
  There is a much stronger case that you could take jurisdiction on the 
first amendment rather than on habeas corpus because the Constitution 
says habeas corpus is suspended only when there is a case of invasion 
or rebellion. You don't have either. We better be careful what we do on 
constitutional rights. We better be careful. We were concerned in the 
PATRIOT Act to make sure we didn't go too far, that we could pass an 
act to give law enforcement protection and protect the constitutional 
rights, and we are struggling with the electronic surveillance issue, 
where we are trying to accommodate the interests of some Republicans 
and many Democrats to give appropriate protection to civil rights. I 
think this Congress has sufficient wisdom and experience to protect 
America from terrorists and still respect constitutional rights.
  That was a long answer to a short question, I might say to the 
Senator from Illinois. I appreciate his coming to lend some emphasis. 
There are more people who tune up their television sets, watching this 
lonely discussion, when there is a little colloquy and dialogue as 
opposed to the monotonous tones of the speaker alone.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator. If I might, I say to the Senator, I 
recently joined Senator Allen of Virginia on a trip to Guantanamo. We 
were met by the admiral in charge of the facility. He made it very 
clear in one of his opening remarks that Guantanamo is not there for 
punishment, but it is there for detention. He said punishment, of 
course, would be meted out to those found guilty of crime and 
wrongdoing. But the people being held there are being detained until we 
can determine their status. If they are, in fact, guilty of terrorism 
or war crimes, I think the Senator from Pennsylvania and I would 
quickly agree that they should be held responsible for those activities 
and punished to the full extent of the law. But, in most cases, for the 
hundreds of people in detention there, no charges have ever been 
leveled against them.
  The writ of habeas, which basically is asking the Government to give 
cause why they are detaining a person, is the way to determine whether 
this person is being held justly and fairly. I think to eliminate that 
right, which is fundamental in our western civilization, raises a 
question as to the outcome for the lives of hundreds of people still in 
Guantanamo in this uncertain situation where they are not charged with 
any crime at all: not charged with terrorism, not charged with a war 
crime, but being held in indefinite status, many of them, for many 
years.
  So I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania for raising this important 
issue. It is one that needs to be debated on this floor on a bipartisan 
basis.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, one concluding statement. A group of 
attorneys who came to see me on this issue have been representing 
detainees. They produced summaries of proceedings before this body. It 
is shocking as to how little information there is in these proceedings 
under the CSRTs. I am trying to find out now if the information I have 
is not classified and present it in detail to Senators and to Members 
of the House so you can see how little information there is and how 
explanations are made and how people are detained without any basis, 
and on what appears to be a situation where there is no danger.
  To the credit of the officials in Guantanamo, many have been 
released. But that is not sufficient. The detention of an individual 
under our laws is to be made by a court. When challenged, that requires 
a habeas corpus proceeding.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and my colleague from Illinois.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague again for coming to 
the floor and raising this issue. For most people, it is a very 
complicated constitutional issue. I think it can be reduced to very 
understandable principles and values that we share as Americans. When 
you think back to the earliest founding of the United States, we valued 
so much our personal freedom, our personal liberty, and our rights as 
individuals, and we created within our Constitution a means to ask a 
basic question. By the filing of a writ of habeas corpus, we ask this 
question, by what right does the Government hold this person? Habeas--
holding; corpus--body. One of the few words that I remember from the 
Latin I took many years ago. By what right does the Government hold 
this body, this person?
  That has been a writ, as they call it, a law that has been recognized 
and respected for generations. It is part of our American body of law. 
We don't want a circumstance where the Government is wholesale 
arresting individuals and detaining them without charging them. There 
was a time, of course, during our Civil War when President Abraham 
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus; arrested, detained, and 
jailed many people without charging them. It was then an extremely 
controversial decision. In fact, if you read the history of the time, 
there were even people in the President's own political party who 
thought he had gone too far. President Lincoln argued that he had to do 
it in the midst of a civil war.
  We look back on it now and wonder if perhaps this was excessive 
conduct in the name of security. We ask the same questions today. Are 
we doing things in America today that are going too far, things that 
infringe on our basic values and how we define ourselves as Americans 
in this diverse world? Are we doing things which, on reflection, 
history will not judge in a positive way? I think, unfortunately, the 
answer is, yes.
  The issue of torture is one such issue. We, for decades and 
generations, had held to the standards of the Geneva Conventions. We 
basically said that civilized countries in the world act differently 
than those that are not civilized. Civilized countries, even in time of 
war, will not engage in torture, cruel, inhumane, or degrading 
treatment of prisoners. That has been a standard which we have lived by 
for more than a century in the United States, a standard we have 
proudly proclaimed as our own, and a standard by which we have judged 
other nations which we believe have crossed that line.
  After 9/11, there were serious questions raised by this 
administration as to whether we could continue to live under the 
principles, the standards of the Geneva Conventions. For a period of 
time, there were memos that circulated at the highest levels of our 
Government which tried to redefine torture and redefine treatment of 
prisoners. Those memos, sadly, were distributed. It appears that in 
some isolated cases, they were followed. It also appears that they were 
discredited and have been rejected after they had been used as a basis 
for American treatment of prisoners. We know that now. The facts have 
come out. Some of the people who were engaged in the preparation of 
those memos are at the highest levels of our Government today.
  Those memos, so-called torture memos, suggested things such as one 
very noteworthy example: the use of guard dogs, turning dogs loose on 
prisoners to frighten them into submission or cooperation. That was a 
departure from what the United States had ever done in the past. That 
was part of a

[[Page 18617]]

memo which was prepared at the highest levels of the White House and 
Department of Defense, a memo which has been acknowledged by the 
Administration, but which is now being repudiated by them. They are 
saying it is no longer being followed.
  One of the architects of one of those memos is a man named William 
Haynes. Mr. Haynes recommended things we could do to prisoners to try 
to get more information. That was distributed, and not long thereafter, 
we had the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. One of the photographic images we 
can all recall is the picture of a guard holding a dog on a leash 
threatening a prisoner. That guard, an American soldier, was charged 
with violation of the law and has been imprisoned for that conduct.
  The irony is that Mr. Haynes, one of the authors of this memo which 
suggested the use of these dogs, not only was never charged with a 
crime and was never imprisoned as this soldier was, who was working at 
the Abu Ghraib prison, but this individual is now being proposed for a 
Federal judgeship, a lifetime appointment to the second highest court 
in the land. So, at one level, we are sending soldiers, privates, 
corporals, and sergeants to prison, and at the highest levels where 
these memos were being written, we are rewarding the conduct of those 
who wrote them and suggesting they deserve a lifetime appointment to 
the Federal judiciary. I believe that is inconsistent and unfair, and 
if we are going to have a standard and a rule of law, it has to apply 
at the highest levels as well as to our soldiers. In this case, it did 
not.
  Now we have before us the question raised by the Senator from 
Pennsylvania which we may face in the next few days. The question is 
this: Of the hundreds of people who are now being held in Guantanamo 
without any specific charges, what will happen to them? Will we ever 
have to charge them with wrongdoing? At this point in time, few, if 
any, of them have been charged. Over 100 have been released, 
incidentally, after being incarcerated there for long periods of time. 
The writ of habeas corpus is the means by which that detainee in 
Guantanamo and in other settings raises the question: By what right do 
you hold me in this prison? What crime do you charge me with? What is 
my wrongdoing? That is the writ of habeas corpus. The bill that is 
proposed from the Armed Services Committee would eliminate the right of 
habeas corpus for those who are currently being detained.
  I raise this because I have visited this Guantanamo facility, and was 
told that we are not punishing anyone there because we don't know that 
they have committed a crime, they haven't been convicted of a crime, 
and we are only detaining them. But, by eliminating the writ of habeas 
corpus, we are eliminating that prisoner's right to step up and explain 
what happened, to tell their side of the story. There is no guarantee 
we will believe their side of the story. There is no guarantee they 
will be released. But our basic constitutional principles, the 
principles we have followed, have given individuals that right to 
question the Government.
  Earlier today, I was visited by three attorneys from the city of 
Chicago, which I am honored to represent. Thomas Sullivan is a former 
U.S. attorney, Jeffrey Colman is active in the practice of law in that 
town, and Gary Isaac is another lawyer. They came to me because they 
have been involved in representing the detainees at Guantanamo.
  Mr. Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney, a former prosecutor, well 
respected not only in Chicago but around the United States, has raised 
questions about the treatment of these Guantanamo prisoners. He left 
with me a description of one of his clients in Guantanamo, a client he 
represented pro bono, for nothing. The client's name is Mr. Abdul Hadi 
Al-Siba'i, who was taken into custody in Pakistan in December of 2001. 
Mr. Sullivan became his lawyer in 2005. After speaking with him and his 
family through interpreters and visiting him at Guantanamo, he learned 
the story.
  It turns out Mr. Al-Siba'i had been employed for 20 years as an 
officer in the police department in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He took a two 
months leave of absence in August 2001 to go to Afghanistan to build 
schools and a mosque. He was captured, first by forces in Afghanistan 
and then turned over to the United States. He presented his airline 
tickets to show the journey he had made from Saudi Arabia to 
Afghanistan. The passport showed where he had been. The tickets showed 
the dates he was required to return, and he requested that the people 
who were detaining him in the United States verify the information. If 
they had a question, call the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, police department 
and they would explain who he was, what his background was, and why he 
was given this two months leave of absence to go into Pakistan.
  He was denied that request. The person presiding over his tribunal 
said:

       I denied that request because an employer has no knowledge 
     of what their employees do when they are on leave.

  I can't quarrel with that statement, but any good lawyer would tell 
you that you try to sift through the evidence and testimony to come out 
with what you consider to be the truth, and that would mean at least 
taking the time to ask the question: Was this man a police officer in 
Saudi Arabia? Did he notify them he was taking a two months leave to 
work among the poor in Afghanistan? Those are simple questions which 
one would expect to be asked. They weren't.
  Mr. Al-Siba'i explained what occurred when he arrived in Pakistan, 
was taken into custody by the Pakistani Army, and turned over to the 
U.S. forces. He said he joined the army in Saudi Arabia when he was 17, 
got married at 18, and has had a wife and stable job for almost 20 
years. He talked about his trip to Sudan during a time of floods when 
he worked with poor people. He explained what he tried to do--
charitable work for those he thought were in need. He went through the 
long description of the time he spent traveling. He was very open in 
the course of this tribunal, but at the end of the day, they said: The 
information is not good enough; you are going to be detained as a 
prisoner in Guantanamo. That was in 2001.
  In 2006, 5 years later, without ever facing a formal charge of any 
wrongdoing, without any clear investigation into the circumstances he 
described, he was released from Guantanamo and returned to Saudi Arabia 
without any explanation whatsoever.
  I suggest to those who are following the comments being made on the 
floor that if an American employee, an American citizen, or an American 
soldier was held under similar circumstances, we would have a right to 
be upset. It is one thing for us to acknowledge wrongdoing by an 
American--it can happen--but it is another thing to expect simple 
justice. And simple justice requires that someone be charged with a 
crime.
  Just a few hours ago, I was in my office and met with a reporter for 
the Chicago Tribune named Paul Salopek. Just a few weeks ago, Paul 
Salopek was in Africa doing a story for National Geographic. He 
wandered across the border from Chad to Sudan and was arrested and 
charged with espionage. He was writing a story for the National 
Geographic about local African tribes. The charge, of course, was not 
well-founded. Many people came to his assistance, not the least of 
which was Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who traveled to Sudan and 
persuaded the President to release him. But here was an American 
citizen, and many of us were concerned about his safety and future when 
we knew that the charges against him were preposterous and they didn't 
make sense.
  Imagine an American citizen being held, as this Saudi was, for 5 
years without a charge. The reason he was finally released was that a 
writ of habeas corpus was filed to ask whether a charge was going to be 
leveled.
  So now we have this debate going on in the Armed Services Committee. 
I salute my colleagues, Senator Warner, who was on the floor a few 
moments ago, as well as Senator McCain, Senator Graham, Senator 
Collins, and many others who have said they agree with the approach 
that has come out of the Armed Services Committee. It establishes a 
standard for military commissions so that the 14 or so individuals who 
are going to be tried will be

[[Page 18618]]

tried under standards that are consistent with American values and 
American justice. That speaks well of our Nation. To do otherwise would 
raise the same questions raised by General Colin Powell just a week 
ago. It would raise a question about our moral standing in this world 
if we don't live by the same standards we preach day in and day out. I 
think it is a good thing and consistent to have those judicial 
standards and principles of justice in these military tribunals.
  But the same bill coming out of the Armed Services Committee removes 
the writ of habeas corpus for all of these other detainees, the 
hundreds who are being held. So while this bill would hold people 
charged with crimes to a higher standard of treatment consistent with 
American law, the bill would completely eliminate the most fundamental 
principle of law--the writ of habeas corpus--when it comes to these 
other detainees who may never be charged. That is inconsistent, and it 
is wrong.
  We should trust our system of government despite our fear of terror, 
despite our experience on 9/11. We shouldn't lose our way and abandon 
the most basic principles and values which guide our country. Those 
constitutional principles have weathered many storms, including a civil 
war which claimed more lives than any war in the history of the United 
States. Even now in this age of terror, even now living in a dangerous 
world, let's not abandon these most fundamental principles.
  I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania for his earlier comments. I 
hope we have a chance to debate this issue at length on the floor.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to speak 
about the issue which is before us at the moment; that is, H.R. 6061. 
We voted on a motion to proceed to debate today and invoked cloture on 
that motion by getting a substantial number of votes. Now we are in the 
next phase of the rule process in which we would actually move to the 
bill, debate it, and possibly amend it.
  I voted this morning to move this bill forward because I believe it 
is important for the American people to understand that we are very 
serious about border control. If this bill serves that purpose, then 
that is a step in the right direction.
  It is not my intent to come here and say it is a bad bill. It is my 
intent to come to the Senate floor and talk about what we have done to 
date in the area of border security and that a piece of paper, a piece 
of legislation, does not a safe border make. It establishes the legal 
basis for which we build upon a foundation for safe border and border 
action, but it is the financing of it, it is the funding of the 
necessary construction, the supplying and the training of Border Patrol 
men and women, and creating the devices and vehicles necessary to 
effectively monitor and control our borders that build a safe border.
  Step 1 is a very critical process this Senate, and the Congress 
itself, has been involved in for some time; that is, the recognition of 
a broken immigration system and an unsecured border structure in our 
country that has allowed, over two decades, possibly 8 to 10 million 
foreign nationals to come into this country illegally.
  America didn't awaken to this issue until after 9/11. It awakened 
because it found that some who had come, legally and illegally, were 
intent on delivering the citizens of this country an evil act, and that 
happened. Not only did it kill nearly 3,000 of our fellow country men 
and women, but it launched this country into a new dimension of foreign 
policy that we had not been involved in or as intent on as we should 
have been a long while ago--a war against radical Islamic 
fundamentalism and the tools they use in that war known as terrorism.
  That is where we are today. It has swept our country. It is the 
political debate of the day. It is the frustration of the American 
citizen to try to understand why we are where we are today and what we 
are doing and why young men and women bearing the uniform of the United 
States of America are dying in a foreign land or foreign lands. All of 
this issue is really one. It is a combination of understanding the 
world we live in, and that is a world that is not as safe as we would 
like it to be, and there are very real enemies out there. But it is 
also understanding a new world that we live in right here on the North 
American Continent and one that we have ignored for years; that is, 
creating secure borders and defining and designing a well-run 
immigration program that responds to our needs and our economy and, at 
the same time, is fair and responsible to those foreign nationals who 
would like to come to our country to work.
  I began to work on this issue not just a year ago, not just 2 years 
ago, but in 1999. I first looked at it through the eyes of American 
agriculture when they came to me and said: Senator, we have a problem. 
We have a very big problem. The H-2A program that supplies foreign 
national workers to agriculture doesn't work. It is broken. It is 
bureaucratic. It is nonfunctional and doesn't meet our seasonal needs. 
As a result, that Federal H-2A guest worker program only supplies about 
40,000 to 45,000 workers. But we need and have over 1 million in our 
workforce who are foreign nationals and, frankly, they are illegal, and 
we know they are. It ought to be fixed because we don't want to base 
our economy as American agricultural producers on an illegal process 
because someday it may do us damage.
  So I began to work, along with several others, to try to build and 
propose changes within the immigration laws to create a legal guest 
worker program. We were doing that in 1999 and 2000. And in 2001, as we 
all know, America's roof literally fell in as we were attacked by the 
terrorist elements of radical Islamic fundamentalism.
  America became angry and frustrated. We began to find out that our 
immigration process was broken. I knew about it. I was working on it at 
the time. What I kept saying to my colleagues in counseling them is, as 
we secure our borders, let's also redo our immigration laws to identify 
the illegals who are in our country--treat them justly and fairly but 
identify them--to see if some of them deserve to stay here and work, 
while at the same time making sure we have a system that in the future 
recognizes the need for immigrant labor in our economy and specific to 
agriculture.
  We worked on that a long while.
  This year the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill. Parts 
of it I agreed with and parts I disagreed with. I voted for it to move 
the process along because I thought it was critically necessary because 
I didn't want to get the cart in front of the horse. I wanted the horse 
in front of the cart, and the horse in front of the cart is border 
security as a first line of defense in monitoring and controlling 
illegals in our country. The second line is a legal process which makes 
sure that those who are here are legal, and those who want to come to 
work in our economy are legal. And if you don't do them both in tandem, 
I think you create phenomenal problems for our country and our economy.
  While we have been doing all of this, some would say we have done 
nothing on the border. That is why we need to pass H.R. 6061. If they 
are saying that, they are not looking at the facts, and they don't 
recognize what has happened.
  Let me read some of the facts of what we are doing. We have increased 
funding by $7.97 billion--billion--for border, port, and maritime 
security. We spent $34 billion on the border and port and maritime 
security to date. We have added 3,736 new Border Patrol agents, out of 
a total of 14,000, whom we are training and supplying over the next 5 
years. And it was the Craig-Byrd amendment of 2 years ago, at the time 
of appropriations on the floor, when real dollars went into the 
program--$500 million a year--to train those border patrolmen that we 
are talking about right here at this moment.
  So if you detain and arrest foreign nationals who are illegal in our 
country, what do you do with them? You have to hold them. We didn't 
have anyplace to keep them. We have now added

[[Page 18619]]

9,150 new detention beds out of a total of 27,000.
  We are now building 370 miles of fences in the congested urban areas 
along our southwestern border with Mexico. We are doing it right now. 
The legislation before us simply talks about it. Concrete is being 
poured, wire is being strung, and double fencing is being created as we 
speak. Why? Because many of us thought it necessary 2 or 3 years ago to 
get started in this process that is critically important right now.
  In the area of border tactical infrastructure and facility 
construction--and by that we are talking about surveillance equipment, 
electronics, sensing devices--$682 million is being spent. The numbers 
go on and on and on.
  Why I am here talking about this is because we are today building a 
border system to secure and control our borders.
  Just before the Easter recess, I was one of those privileged to be at 
the White House to talk to our President about our chairmanships. I am 
chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. And that afternoon the 
President said to me: Well, Senator Craig, how are things in Veterans?
  I said: Mr. President, I don't want to talk about veterans today. I 
want to talk to you about something that I think is critical and 
necessary that we do now.
  He said: What is that?
  I said: I think you need to declare a state of emergency on our 
southwest border, nationalize the Guard, assemble our National Guard on 
the border and close it.
  He looked at me with a bit of surprise. He said: How can you propose 
that? You are the advocate of AgJOBS, Senator Craig. You are the guy 
out there promoting reform in immigration right now.
  I said very simply and very clearly: Mr. President, we have to build 
credibility with the American people that we have lost because our 
borders are not secure and we have not controlled them.
  Now, all of us and all who may be listening know the rest of that 
story. There are now 6,000 Guard men and women deployed to our 
southwest border, and that allows us to more effectively utilize the 
Border Patrol along our border and to spread our Guard out into the 
broad expanses of a 2,000-mile border which are maybe less dangerous 
than the congested areas where the greatest numbers come across. Our 
Guard men and women are not policemen. Our border patrolmen are. They 
are trained. They are officers of the law so they can detain and 
arrest. But at the same time, the combination of using our border 
patrolmen, our National Guard men and women, and our Border Patrol is 
the right combination.
  The reason I talk about this and set this idea in front of my 
colleagues is to express what is really going on out there; that is, 
this country is investing heavily on the southwestern border as we 
speak. We are spending billions of dollars. Fences are being built, and 
there are literally thousands of our men and women on that border 
securing it.
  Is it working? Yes, it is working. Is our border closed? No, it is 
not. It is a 2,000-mile border across arid, desolate, and oftentimes 
extremely rugged terrain, and we will have to continue to invest to do 
that.
  Let me tell my colleagues and show my colleagues the proof of what I 
am saying. The border is closing. My colleagues will remember that 
cart-and-horse analogy I used a few moments ago, where if we didn't 
close the border and get a comprehensive legal process to bring migrant 
workers into our country for the sake of agriculture and other 
industries, we could do real damage to our economy. So the border is 
closing, but we haven't passed a comprehensive reform bill. In fact, 
the politics would suggest we can't get there right now. And most 
assuredly, the U.S. House of Representatives, in my opinion, did the 
wrong thing this summer. They went out and condemned the work product 
of the Senate when they should have been at a conference table trying 
to work out our differences. They should have been trying to solve the 
very real problem that is now embodied in all of these press releases 
which are pouring in from across the country that speak of the crisis 
in American agriculture. It is a crisis born out of the reality of what 
I have just talked about: that a border that should be closed and 
secured is, in fact, closing and being secured.
  Let me start with Idaho: ``Potato Growers Struggle Without Immigrant 
Labor.'' The potato harvest is now just starting in the State of Idaho. 
The packing sheds will soon be full as that marvelous Idaho baking 
potato begins to sell in the world market. There aren't enough people 
available this year to help harvest those potatoes, and many of those 
people who are not available are migrant workers. The reason they are 
not there is because they can't get there. The legal system can't 
function quickly enough to get them there, and those who were coming 
illegally aren't coming because the border is closing.
  Another press release: ``Potato Growers Face Labor Shortage.'' That 
is just in Idaho where tragically enough, and in a real sense, we 
probably have 30,000 or 40,000 illegal foreign nationals working in 
agriculture and other work areas every year, and our unemployment rate 
is 2.5 percent, which means we are at full employment. But we need that 
kind of labor, and it is not coming.
  Now let me continue--but only for a moment because other colleagues 
are here on the Senate floor to talk about this issue--down through 
these press releases. My colleague from California is on the Senate 
floor. She represents the largest, wealthiest agricultural region in 
our Nation known as the great San Joaquin Valley. There is no other 
agriculture like it in the world. If you haven't been there and 
visited, it is simply worth your time. Every fresh fruit and vegetable 
known to any consumer in this country is grown in the great San Joaquin 
Valley. I have always marveled at that agriculture. It is also true the 
Senator from California and the San Joaquin Valley probably host more 
illegal workers than any other area in our country. What is happening 
there today is that crops are rotting in the fields. Fruit is not being 
picked. Vegetables are not being harvested. That kind of agriculture 
that is intensively hand labor agriculture is suffering. I am told by 
some we could literally lose the raisin industry of our country, and 
that would be a tragedy if the politics of the Congress will not allow 
us to get to a legal system to allow that type of workforce to exist in 
our country today.
  I could walk my colleagues through hundreds of press releases and the 
stories now being told by American agriculture of nobody there to help 
them pick their crops, to supply the marvelous vegetable stands of the 
produce sections of America's retail food industry with the abundance 
that we have all known. We saw it start in February in Yuma, AZ, in the 
great Imperial Valley where billions of dollars' worth of vegetables 
are picked in February and March to supply us--lettuce and celery and 
all of those kinds of things that we are used to. A third of it didn't 
get picked this year. That is a crop that is worth $3.2 billion at the 
farm gate, and a third of it rotted in the fields because we in 
Congress couldn't get our act together. That is a tragedy and it is a 
shame.
  It is believed between now and the end of harvest, or between now and 
next year, American agriculture could literally lose billions of 
dollars' worth of fresh produce that would go to the supermarket 
shelves of our country for all of us to eat, all of us. And if it isn't 
there and there is a limited amount, you know what happens. The price 
starts heading up.
  Those producers of those products tell me they have advertised in 
their communities, they have pled with people to come out and work. 
They said they would increase their salaries substantially. But nobody 
is there to do the work. Americans do not do stoop labor anymore. It is 
a reality that we ought to face. Yet we have not been willing to face 
it.
  Yes, we need a fence and we are building it. Yes, we need border 
security and we are accomplishing it, and we have not finished. 
Clearly, for the safety and security of this country our

[[Page 18620]]

borders are more important than nearly anything else. But if you cannot 
feed your country, if you are going to lose your agriculture, if you 
are going to cause bankruptcies that are no fault of the farmers 
themselves, then you are doing some very real damage--along with your 
unwillingness to recognize the reality of a law that no longer works 
and a work product we are trying to accomplish at this moment.
  We will probably have to go through an election. We will probably 
have to get the politics of the election out of the way before the 
House and Senate will come to the reality of the problem that is 
clearly before us today because we are just a week and a half from 
adjournment or recess until after the election.
  The kind of comprehensive work that we should have been doing in 
August and we should have been doing in September turned into politics 
and not constructive work. I hope the House bill in front of us is not 
an extension of those politics and politics alone. I hope it really is 
meant to fit into a total package of border control and comprehensive 
immigration reform that allows this country and our economy and our 
hard-working agricultural people a legal, transparent, and open guest 
worker immigrant labor force. We need it. We have always needed it. We 
should not be denying its reality today.
  The Senate attempted to accomplish that. We argued mightily on 
immigration reform on the floor of the Senate for nearly a month, and 
we do not all agree because it is in itself a very contentious issue. 
It has all aspects of the American culture and the American emotion 
tied into it. But as we studied it I think a majority recognized the 
reality of doing the right thing. The horse and the cart have to be 
connected. Border control and border security is the first line of 
defense, and a legal structure behind it that gives employers a legal, 
identifiable workforce is necessary and appropriate, and they have to 
be connected.
  Let me close with this thought: We do not reform immigration laws in 
this country, we let them go. Politically we will not handle them. But 
we will continue to tighten a fence until our 2,000-mile land border is 
complete and the border closes. There will be a new phenomenon emerge 
in the port of Los Angeles along the coast of California, and they will 
be called ``boat people.'' Because those who want to come here to work, 
once we have created the fence across the land surface that they now 
trek, will find another way to get here. Somebody in a fast speedboat 
will charge $1,000 a head and they will pick them up in Mexico and 
shoot them around the water and across the waters and into the 
coastline.
  My point is simply this. You have to have two things that work here 
to make it work. You have to have border security and you have to have 
a law, a law that works, so when that employer hires a foreign 
national, the ID card is real and they know they are hiring a legal 
person. I am not going to put American agriculture or any other law-
abiding employer at risk when they need people to get the harvest out 
unless we do so in a way that says we will sanction you if you hire 
somebody who is illegal, but we are going to make sure that you have a 
workforce that is legal and has the kind of transparency of ID and 
uncounterfeitable documents that are critical and that are in the 
Senate bill.
  Those are some of the issues we need to talk about and we are going 
to ignore now until after the election. Here are the press releases. 
Billions of dollars will be lost in American agriculture this year and 
American consumers will pay an increased price for the quality produce 
they buy on the fresh fruit shelves of our country. It is a reality. It 
is happening as we speak.
  I thought it was important that I come to the floor to talk about it. 
Most want to simply ignore it because the politics of the issue is 
simply too difficult to deal with. It is not too difficult to deal 
with. We can do both as a great nation. We can secure our borders. We 
can improve our immigration laws. We can provide a legal and necessary 
guest worker/migrant worker program for the segments of our economy 
that speak to that type of workforce. It is our responsibility. I hope 
we do not shirk it or turn our back on it.
  American agriculture, along with a lot of other segments of our 
economy, will suffer if, in fact, we do not have the political will to 
accomplish the right and responsible issue and things at hand.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise to congratulate the 
distinguished Senator from Idaho on his comments. I subscribe to them 
100 percent. I congratulate him and thank him for the leadership he has 
provided on the AgJOBS program. I don't think there is anyone in the 
U.S. Senate who knows more about what the needs in agriculture are 
across this great land than Senator Larry Craig. He has been consistent 
and he has been devoted. I think his expressions here today are really 
the expressions of virtually everyone in the Senate who knows what is 
happening in their own State with respect to agriculture today.
  I also rise joining you, Mr. President, as a member of the Judiciary 
Committee, and the one who moved the AgJOBS program on to the 
immigration bill that is part of the Senate bill. I come here with a 
plea and that plea is, if there is going to be a border security bill 
before the full U.S. Senate, add the AgJOBS bill to it, because it is a 
crisis and it is an emergency and there is a practical need to do so.
  It just so happens that there are two amendments at the desk that 
would do this. There is a Republican amendment on AgJOBS sponsored by 
the Senator from Idaho, and there is a Democratic amendment on AgJOBS 
sponsored by the Senator from California. They are one and the same. 
They could be easily added by either one of us and either one of us is 
willing to cosponsor the amendment of the other. The reason is because 
it is in fact an emergency.
  This is harvest season out in all the great States. I was once told--
Senator Craig, you know him well--by Manuel Cunha, of the Nisei Farmers 
League, just for raisins alone in my State, it is 4 counties and it 
takes 40,000 workers to harvest those raisins.
  The Senator mentioned that California is so large in agriculture. I 
want the President to know that it is a $31.8 billion industry. That is 
in 2004. It is an enormous industry. We have 76,500 farms in 
California. I am asking every one of those farm owners to weigh in at 
this time. Let the Senate know that there is now an opportunity to see 
that you have a certain, stable workforce. Weigh in with the Senate and 
say: Put AgJOBS on the border security bill.
  We have 1 million people who usually work in agriculture. I must tell 
you they are dominantly undocumented. Senator Craig pointed out the 
reason they are undocumented is because American workers will not do 
the jobs.
  When I started this I did not believe it, so we called all the 
welfare departments of the major agriculture counties in California and 
asked, Can you provide agricultural workers? Not one worker came from 
the people who were on welfare who were willing to do this kind of 
work. That is because it is difficult work. The Sun is hot. The back 
has to be strong. You have to be stooped over. It is extraordinarily 
difficult work.
  For a State as big as mine, there is an immigrant community which is 
professionally adept at this kind of work. They can pick, they can 
sort, they can prune, they can harvest--virtually better than anybody. 
This is what they do. This is what makes our agricultural community 
exist.
  It is very hard for a farmer to hire a documented worker. It is very 
hard to find that documented worker. So if they are going to produce, 
they have to find the labor somewhere.
  My State produces one-half of the Nation's fruits, vegetables and 
nuts. One-half comes from California. We produce 350 different crops. 
We have an opportunity now, with this bill, to get adequate labor for 
this harvest season on this border security bill.
  We know the votes are here in the Senate. We know the votes are in 
the House of Representatives. We know the

[[Page 18621]]

President would sign the bill. Why not do it? Why not do it? Both 
Senator Craig and I want to plead with the leadership of the Senate, 
allow us to put this amendment up before the Senate. We can limit our 
debate. We know the votes are there. Let me ask the Senator, when this 
matter came before the full Senate; that is, before the immigration 
bill, how many votes did you have for the AgJOBS program?
  Mr. CRAIG. I believe when there was a clear and clean vote on AgJOBS 
alone there were 53 who voted for it that day and there were 4 absent 
who would have voted for it. I believe there are between 58 and 60 
votes for the AgJOBS provision and bill the Senator speaks to.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I actually believe, if I might respond, that there 
are 60 votes because of the amendments that we made in Judiciary--which 
certainly brought me along, and I wasn't there before.
  Mr. CRAIG. That is correct.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. And I think it brought others along as well.
  Mr. CRAIG. If the Senator will yield, she makes a tremendously 
important point. The original AgJOBS bill that brought the vote I just 
spoke to is not the bill before us now. The amendments that the Senator 
has brought and the amendment that I brought--because the Judiciary 
Committee itself changed some of it at the Senator's guidance and 
direction, and on the floor we added additional amendments--added the 
safeguards and protections and fines and the requirement of paying back 
taxes, to cause that illegal, who might become legal through this 
process, certain responsibilities that were not in the original bill.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. That is correct.
  If I may, through the Chair, I would like to ask the Senator one 
question. He mentioned the H-2A Program which in my State has not been 
a widely used program. This is a reform, also, of the H-2A Program, to 
make it more broadly applicable across the line. Is that not correct?
  Mr. CRAIG. The Senator is absolutely correct. It identifies and deals 
with those agricultural workers who have been here for 3 years or more, 
who are undocumented, who could become legal. That is step one. Then it 
deals with a reform, streamlining of and a more usable H-2A Program, to 
implement an effective guest worker program.
  The point the Senator is making I think is very important for the 
Senate to understand. If we were to pass AgJOBS tomorrow, if it were to 
become law, many agricultural workers who were once in the field 
working but may have moved somewhere else in our economy with the 
opportunity to become legal would return to agriculture. It is not 
letting more across the border. It is causing those who have moved to 
construction and housing and other places to say, Gee, you mean I could 
become a legal worker if I went back to agriculture and stayed there 
for 150 workdays?
  The answer is yes. There could be a near immediate relief brought by 
the passage of the AgJOBS provision.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. The Senator is absolutely right. I think he has made 
an excellent point. We know that many of the workers in agriculture who 
are undocumented have gone on to work, for example, in construction, in 
the service industry, in the restaurant industry, in the hotel 
industry, and so on and so forth. But they work in the shadows. They 
work with fear today.
  The program that the Senator and I are speaking of is not just a pile 
of programs. This is a 5-year sunset program. But you would see how it 
would work. You would then have documentation of every individual that 
is legally working in that program.
  In my State of California, growers are reporting that their 
harvesting crews are 10 to 20 percent of what they were previously due 
to two things: stepped up enforcement, a dwindling pool of workers, and 
the problem that ensues from both.
  We have an opportunity to put AgJOBS on this bill, a modified AgJOBS, 
reforming the H-2A program, pilot AgJOBS for 5 years. I will explain 
very quickly how that works. I think it is important that people 
understand this.
  The first step would require the undocumented agricultural workers 
apply for a ``blue card,'' if they can demonstrate that they have 
worked in American agriculture for at least 150 workdays over the prior 
of 2 years. The second step requires that a blue cardholder must work 
in American agriculture for an additional 5 years and work 100 days a 
year, or 3 years at 150 workdays a year; again, a blue card, biometric, 
would be documented. For the first time you would know who the worker 
is. The farmer would have certainty that he can hire that worker. If 
the worker meets this expected work requirement, they will then be 
eligible for a green card. Employment would be verified through the 
employer-issued itemized statement, pay stub, W-2 forms, employer 
letters, contracts, or agreements, employer-sponsored health care, 
timecards, or payment of taxes. The program is capped at 1\1/2\ million 
blue cards over 5 years. It will not have an annual cap.
  I have explained it. My State alone has a million agricultural 
workers. How many does Idaho have? I ask he Senator through the Chair.
  Mr. CRAIG. We are not quite sure. We believe it could be between 
35,000 and 40,000.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Senator very much. That may be a much 
smaller amount.
  But virtually every State represented in this Chamber can come 
forward with a like amount of people. Virtually every Member in this 
Chamber can come forward with problems they are having with harvesting 
at this particular point in time.
  I am told there are problems harvesting citrus in Florida, apples in 
New Hampshire, strawberries in Washington, and cherries in Oregon. In 
Wyoming, it has been reported that the labor shortage played a central 
role in the eminent closure of the $8 million Wind River Mushroom Farm.
  Let me quickly run through a couple of other things.
  Perhaps the most impacted are the organic farms, which are highly 
labor-intensive. Hand-picked crops such as at Lakeside Organic Gardens, 
which happens to be in my State, are suffering as fields go untended 
and acres have been torn up because there is no one to harvest them. 
The situation is so bad that this particular farmer, Dick Peixoto, has 
been forced to tear out nearly 30 acres of vegetables and has about 100 
acres that are compromised because there is no one to weed them. He 
estimates his loss so far this season to be $200,000. That is worse 
than anything he has seen in 31 years of farming.
  Some fields in the Pajaro Valley in Santa Cruz County are being 
abandoned because farmers can't find enough workers. Farmers in that 
area say there are 10 to 20 percent fewer workers available to harvest 
strawberries, raspberries and vegetable crops. That is the great Pajaro 
Valley that produces artichokes and acres and acres of row crops. They 
say we have sustained strawberry and raspberry losses due to shortage 
of labor.

       Strawberries lost are approximately 100,000 cartons for the 
     fresh market, raspberries approximately 50,000 cartons. Due 
     to the shortage of labor, we were unable to harvest 900,000 
     pounds of lemons and 128,000 pounds of grapefruit.

  These are some examples of what is happening. You can pick up 
newspapers, the San Jose Mercury News, headline: ``Worker Shortage 
Crippling Farmers.'' It goes on and depicts it.

       Morgan Hill: Farmers are reporting a shortage of labor to 
     harvest crops forcing them to take huge losses. The impact is 
     mixed, varying with the amount and type of crops a farmer is 
     growing. Those growing more fragile crops such as 
     strawberries and peppers have been scrambling to find enough 
     workers to pick the harvest.

  This goes on to say they cannot harvest their yields. Labor pains 
increasing for the great San Joaquin Valley that Senator Craig spoke 
about. Manuel Cunha said symptoms of labor shortages are showing up 
with fewer pickers in the Valley's orchard.

       Between the tree fruit guys, the crew sizes are varying 
     from a crew of 20 to 22, down to 9 to 15. What is happening 
     now is we are starting to see a trend going toward table 
     grapes. The Valley is starting to get into the

[[Page 18622]]

     table grape harvest in the Arvin area. The word I am hearing 
     is that the table grapes may take workers from tree fruits 
     because the free fruit workers are only working so many hours 
     in the day because of the demand. Union-produced labor 
     shortages became more pronounced in the coming weeks with the 
     start of the raisin grape harvest.

  It goes on like this in article after article.

       The Farm Bureau Federation of my State: Headline: ``Labor 
     Shortage Teeters on Critical Edge.''

  As the border with Mexico tightens, and Congress continues to drag 
its feet on passing comprehensive immigration reform, farmers and labor 
experts say that the California farm labor pool is rapidly shrinking. A 
lag in reporting labor statistics makes it hard to pinpoint exactly how 
short the labor supply really is, but many growers put the gap again at 
about a 10 to 20 percent shortage Statewide.
  This goes on and on, report after report.
  There is rarely a time where issues come together and it is possible 
to move aggressively on something such as this. This is one of those 
times. AgJOBS has been debated on the floor of the Senate. It has been 
debated in the Judiciary Committee. It has been amended. It has come 
out of part of the immigration bill.
  Senator Craig and I have worked to see that the amendment at the desk 
remedies all the problems that were brought up in the last floor 
discussion. It is ready to go. It can be added to this bill. It will 
pass in the House.
  Why won't the leadership allow this amendment? It would be one thing 
if there was not a crisis out there. It is another thing if there is a 
crisis. And there is a crisis. Everyone in this body knows that. 
Everyone knows farmers are scrambling. Everyone knows farmers are 
losing their crops. Everyone knows there is produce on the ground that 
can't be harvested. Why don't we do something about it? And everyone 
knows that agricultural labor in the United States of America is 
virtually dependent on undocumented workers. This is a way to document 
them. This is a way to enhance security. This is the way to get the 
workforce for our farming communities that we need.
  I went to ports, and I saw boxes and carton after carton of export 
products at the ports. We depend on exporting our fruit. You can't do 
it if you can't harvest it. What happens when the prices begin to rise 
in the markets? And they will. Lettuce that can't be harvested, 
tomatoes that can't be harvested, almonds, raisins, grapes. We had a 
chance to do something about it, and you have Senators standing here on 
the floor saying we could do something about it now, it will pass, it 
will be signed, it will go into law.
  AgJOBS is the one part of the immigration bill about which there is 
uniform agreement. Everybody in both bodies knows that agriculture in 
America is supported by undocumented workers. As immigration tightens 
up, and they begin to pull people and deport them, as farmers have 
trouble finding them, as they hide in the shadows more, the result is 
our crops go unharvested.
  We are faced today with a very practical dilemma and one that is so 
easy to solve. The legislation has been vetted and vetted and vetted. 
Senator Craig, I, and a multitude of other Senators have sat down with 
the growers, with the farm bureaus, with the chambers, with everybody 
who knows agriculture, and they have all signed off on the AgJOBS bill. 
Why don't we pass it? What kind of a plea will be heard? How many 
farmers have to be ruined to prove a point that I don't understand, 
that I can't fathom, that I can't believe we turned down this 
opportunity to solve a real problem.
  If you want a Republican amendment, it is at the desk. If you want a 
Democrat amendment, it is at the desk. They are both the same.
  I am simply here to say, Mr. Leader, let this come to the floor. Mr. 
Leader, take the steps that can save American agriculture right now. 
Leader, pass this bill which has be vetted, which has been debated, 
which has been discussed in both Houses, several committees and on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate. Simply bring this amendment to the floor. 
Don't fill the tree and now allow this amendment.
  I say once again, the 75,000 farmers in my State, if there ever was a 
time to weigh in, this is it. If there was ever a time for you to pick 
up that phone and call every Member of this body and anyone you can and 
say, Hey, I am a farmer, and I can't find labor to harvest my crop, 
this is a bill that can help me, and I want you to pass it now. In my 
State, 76,000 farms. If half would do it, if a quarter would do it, if 
a tenth would do it, we would get this bill passed. For farms in other 
States, this is your moment. Stand up, weigh in. We are, after all, a 
representative democracy. We represent people. We represent States. 
These people and these States have weighed in, in the press, and said: 
We are in trouble. We need help.
  Now is the time. I say to the Republican leader of the Senate, do not 
turn your back on the farm community of America. This community needs 
undocumented labor to plant, to prune, to clear out weeds, and to 
harvest. That has been the case for years. Give it certitude. A pilot 
program; 5 years; 1.5 million blue cards over the 5 years; specific 
requirements; taxes paid; filing with the Government; fines paid. But 
people can work and harvest the crops. I say to the Members of this 
Senate, it would be a terrible tragedy if we turn our backs on the 
breadbaskets of America. We have an opportunity. It is so simple. Just 
enact this AgJOBS program now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow the distinguished 
Senator from California and the distinguished chairman from Idaho. They 
make a compelling case. I represent an agricultural State in the great 
State of Georgia. I understand the difficulties they have outlined. 
They have also given me a couple of points to follow on to demonstrate 
how important it is that this Senate, in fact, embrace comprehensive 
reform but do it in a two-step process where we ensure our borders.
  The distinguished Senator from California made the following 
statement: The reason we have so much illegal immigration today is 
because Americans don't do the jobs or won't do the jobs. I submit that 
is partially right.
  The reason we have so much illegal immigration today is because it is 
easier to get into the United States illegally than it is legally. At a 
time of war on terror, that is a huge problem. We owe it to ourselves 
to fix our immigration system in a tandem, in-step process that 
guarantees security and then reforms immigration to meet the demands of 
American business, American agriculture, and American industry.
  We do not find anyone trying to break out of the United States of 
America. They are all trying to break in, for a very good reason. This 
is the land of hope, opportunity, and promise. We have to return to the 
day where the way to come to this country is legally and not illegally. 
The best way to do that is to make illegal immigration into this 
country untenable. The way to do that is go from making promises to 
actually causing reality to take place on our border.
  I support the motion to proceed on this House bill, H.R. 6061. I 
support Senator Sessions' amendment to the original bill in the Senate 
to put up a barrier. I support authorizing them. But I remind my 
colleagues in this body that we do two things that start with ``a'': we 
authorize and appropriate. An authorization is a promise, and an 
appropriation is a commitment. It is time in terms of securing our 
borders that this Senate and the body across the hall made a commitment 
and made border security a reality.
  I commend Chairman Judd Gregg on the tremendous work he has done. 
Chairman Gregg is precisely correct. We are making progress toward 
securing the border. However, we have not closed the deal. We have not 
finished the appropriation. We have not gone from the authorization 
commitment that it will take to do so. Until we do, we can never have a 
meaningful immigration reform program.

[[Page 18623]]

  I suggested, Senator Cornyn has suggested, Senator Sessions has 
suggested, and Senator Feinstein just made the statement that this is 
truly a national emergency. If it is, it is truly a time for an 
emergency supplemental from the President of the United States to fund 
those things we have all agreed it takes to secure our border.
  For the sake of clarity, I will go through those for a second: 6,000 
more Border Patrol agents, which, by the way, can be accomplished and 
trained in 24 months; barriers along the border in those geological and 
geographic areas that demand barriers, as in southern California years 
ago. We know how much that cost. That can be accomplished in 24 months. 
We need the ``eyes in the sky'' referenced in H. Res. 6061, the 
seamless ``eyes in the sky'' so our manpower can be multiplied 
tremendously because we have unmanned aerial vehicles patrolling our 
border, all 2,000 miles of it, night and day. We need to fund the 
judicial and prosecuting authority along our border to the southwest to 
see to it that when we make a case, we prosecute. Lastly, we need to 
build the detention facilities that end the practice of catch and 
release.
  The beauty of going ahead and making the commitment to do it is, 
immediately upon doing so, those who are here illegally will comply 
with whatever program we come up with because they will know they can 
no longer go home. When the border is secure, it works both ways. We 
can do that. I have not met an American citizen yet in this debate 
which has been raging for the better part of the last 5 months in the 
Congress of the United States who wouldn't consider granting legal 
status to someone who is here illegally if they have cleared the 
terrorist watch list, if they have demonstrated they have a job, but 
they don't want to do it until they are sure our border is secure.
  History is a great teacher. Twenty years ago, Alan Simpson, from 
Wyoming, was the author of the American immigration reform bill. The 
American people were clamoring to do something about the 3 million 
undocumented and illegal workers who were in America in 1986. People 
along our borders were clamoring for border security. We passed the 
Simpson bill. It promised border security. It granted amnesty to those 
3 million.
  The reality was, we delivered on the amnesty. We looked the other way 
on border security. And today, we have a 12 million-illegal-aliens 
problem. If we do a wink and a nod to border security now and reform 
immigration to attract more, all we will do 20 years from now is have 
an untenable number of 20, 25, or 30 million.
  So H.R. 6061 sends a great message. I might add, the reason it got 96 
votes with no dissenting votes on a motion to proceed today, most 
Members of the Senate have gone home. Most have talked the last 5 
months to their constituents. Most know the American people want the 
border secure. It is a good political vote to authorize those barriers, 
those fences, and this appropriations. However, it is ultimately our 
responsibility to see to it that we authorize and appropriate border 
security and do it in tandem with a reformed immigration program.
  By the way, I am always amused by how everyone said we have to get 
this new reform program in place and don't make the barrier be a 
trigger for it. That won't work. The truth is, it takes just as long to 
get the reform program workable as it does to perform those items I 
just delineated to secure the border. In fact, the verifiable, 
nonforgeable, biometric ID that we need, we know we can do it in 18 
months and have implemented in 24 months. That happens to be exactly 
the same period of time it takes to get the job done on the border.
  It is time we start parsing on the edges. It is time we stop making 
this a chicken-or-egg proposition. It is not a chicken-or-egg 
proposition. Reform of immigration can only take place after we have 
secured the border. The work it takes to secure the border is exactly 
the time period it takes to prepare for the new situation of legal 
immigration.
  We are close to a great opportunity to respond to the American people 
and do what is right. I commend my colleagues who come to the Senate 
and support 6061. It will send a great signal. But it is only a 
promise. We need to deliver a reality.
  I ask unanimous consent that this letter to me from Richard A. Smith 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                September 5, 2006.
     Hon. Johnny Isakson,
     U.S. Senator.
       Dear Senator Isakson: I write to inform you of the grave 
     concern I have with respect to both Houses failure to pass 
     immigration reform legislation. I cannot imagine what more 
     you and your colleagues require to motivate Congress to take 
     action on this pressing matter of national security. More 
     than a full year has passed and still not a shred of evidence 
     that the House or Senate fully appreciate the concern this 
     country has over illegal immigration. The impression is that 
     government has completely failed its citizens on this 
     pressing issue.
       My vote and support, will go to the party that can address 
     this critically important national security issue. The United 
     States of America is being invaded by a foreign country 
     without firing a single shot and our country's elected 
     officials are apparently incapable of coming to agreement on 
     a solution. I could not be more disgusted with Congress over 
     this issue. You and your colleagues are urged to act on this 
     pressing issue.
           Very truly yours,
                                                 Richard A. Smith,
                                                Bernardsville, NJ.

  Mr. ISAKSON. I will not read all of it, but this is an American 
citizen who wrote this letter today which I think illustrates the 
critical need for securing our border and ensuring it is done before we 
open the gates.

       More than a full year has passed and still not a shred of 
     evidence that the House or the Senate fully appreciate the 
     concern this country has over illegal immigration. The 
     impression is that government has completely failed its 
     citizens on this pressing issue.
       The United States of America is being invaded by a foreign 
     country without firing a single shot and our country's 
     elected officials are apparently incapable of coming to an 
     agreement or a solution. I could not be more disgusted with 
     the Congress over this issue. You and your colleagues are 
     urged to act on this pressing issue.

  I don't know how many letters have been written that contain thoughts 
almost identical to those of Richard Smith, but there have been lots of 
them. They are by far the preponderance of the communications to this 
Congress and this Senate.
  Let's get H.R. 6061 up for a vote. Let's pass it. Let's make another 
promise toward border security. But let's come back in a timely 
fashion. Let's secure our borders and make the commitment and the 
investment that will take place. Let's reform our immigration process 
so the way to come to America in the future is the right way, not the 
easy way because we looked the other way.
  Anders Bengsten was the father of my grandfather, whose name was also 
Anders Bengsten. He was a potato farmer in Sweden. When the famine hit 
in 1903, he emigrated to the United States of America. In Scandinavia, 
you don't keep the last name you had there; you take your father's 
first name, Isak, and add to it ``son.'' That is why most Scandinavians 
are Isakson, Ericson, Johnson, and Olson. He came to America and became 
Anders Isakson. He fled because of the potato famine. He landed on 
Ellis Island. He came legally. I have gone to Sweden and gotten the 
embarkation and legal papers. I have them at home.
  My father was born in 1916, while Anders was still here legally but 
as an immigrant. My father is an American citizen today because of 
birthright citizenship. I am a citizen today because Anders Isakson 
bore that son in 1916. The proudest thing I have on my wall in my den 
at home is the May 3, 1926, documents that made Anders Isakson a U.S. 
citizen when he completed his process, 23 years after coming here 
legally as an immigrant, to become a citizen of the United States of 
America. There is not a person in this room who respects immigration 
and the right to come to America and the promise of Ellis Island more 
than I do. I am a living testimony to its promise.
  It is time we return to a pathway to citizenship that is legal. It is 
time we

[[Page 18624]]

stop looking the other way and letting people come to America the easy 
way and the soft way, and say to those who are learning our language, 
studying our history, those who are pledging allegiance to our country 
and disavowing their previous allegiance, those who are coming the 
right way ought to be the stars in the crown of American immigration. 
It is time we secure our border. It is time we reformed our immigration 
so the numbers coming reflect the demands of our economy. It is time we 
stop making promises. It is time we start delivering. America is too 
important. This issue is too critical to the American people.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                           ComAir Flight 5191

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the people of Kentucky are still 
reeling from a terrible tragedy that struck less than a month ago. On 
August 27, ComAir flight 5191 crashed shortly after takeoff at Blue 
Grass Airport in Lexington. Forty-nine people perished.
  Grief has descended on scores of families and into countless lives 
because of this devastating event. I know I am joined by all 
Kentuckians in extending sympathies and prayers to the families and 
loved ones of the victims.
  As we continue to grieve, people throughout the Commonwealth are 
looking for answers. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun 
an investigation into the cause of this crash and what recommendations 
can be made to improve future aviation safety. I think we have an 
obligation to make sure their investigation proceeds smoothly and 
thoroughly and concludes in a timely manner so that all the questions 
can be answered as completely as possible. I have been personally 
briefed by the NTSB on the status of the investigation and intend to 
follow it very closely.
  I spoke to the President about the crash, and he offered the entire 
State his prayers and is devoting the resources of the Federal 
Government toward the investigation.
  I also expressed concerns to the Transportation Secretary nominee, 
Mary Peters. She is aware of our concerns and the need for a thorough 
investigation conducted in a timely manner. Today, she will have the 
opportunity to update the committee as well. We also need to hear what 
changes need to be made to our aviation system to prevent catastrophes 
in the future.
  Mr. President, it is impossible to overstate the sorrow that has 
draped over so many lives in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Most of the 
passengers on flight 5191 were from my State. In a variety of different 
places across the State, it is rare not to know someone who knew one of 
the victims.
  As Kentucky continues to heal, we will take a deep breath, refrain 
from jumping to conclusions, and finish a thorough and complete 
investigation.
  Kentuckians have drawn together during this crisis to lend each other 
strength. I am proud of the outpouring of aid and voluntarism that the 
residents of the Bluegrass State have shown their neighbors. Grief will 
be there for a long time to come, but sympathy and support will be 
there too.

                          ____________________