[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5796-5799]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          THE SENATE SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I spent the recess traveling in Nevada--Las 
Vegas, North Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, my hometown of 
Searchlight, and I also traveled to Pahrump, Reno, Fernley, Yerington, 
Fallon, and Hawthorne. These are all very different places, but not 
once in any of these cities where I met with people during the days, 
and in the evenings on occasion, not once did anyone talk to me about 
eliminating the estate tax, flag burning, or gay marriage.
  Instead, throughout Nevada I was constantly asked about skyrocketing 
gas prices. My daughter-in-law, Amber, lives in Reno with my son with 
their four children. She has never talked to me about anything 
political in the many years we have known one another. But at dinner on 
Easter Sunday, she wanted everybody to hear, including me, how fed up 
she was with gas prices. She said that this is wrong and something has 
to be done about it.
  She was speaking for millions of Americans. Even though she is the 
one who mouthed the words to me, this conversation could have taken 
place anywhere in America, at any dinner table, rich or poor. So not 
once did anyone in any of these Nevada cities talk to me about the 
estate tax, flag burning, and gay marriage. Instead, throughout Nevada 
I was constantly asked about these skyrocketing gas prices, the 
intractable war in Iraq, taxes, immigration, education, health care 
and, of course, homeland security.
  I share this short report of my trip home because I am concerned 
about the Senate schedule in the coming months, and certainly in the 
next 5 weeks. All of us in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, spent 
the last 2 weeks listening to what our constituents wanted to talk 
about, issues they care about. Now that we are back in Washington, when 
we look for these issues on the Senate calendar, they are nonexistent.
  According to what I have read in the press in the last week, the 
majority leader is clearing time on the Senate schedule for what I 
describe as pet issues of the rightwing, issues such as a 
constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration--Mr. President, I 
agree with that; I have voted for that--a constitutional amendment to 
establish a Federal definition of marriage, and the estate tax 
reduction.
  Each of these controversial issues has merit. There is no question 
about that. Each issue has a lot of merit. But do they trump gas 
prices? I don't think so. Do they trump homeland security? I don't 
think so. Do they trump a full, complete discussion on the Iraq war? By 
the way, that war, in a few short months, will have taken longer than 
World War II, in which the Presiding Officer flew airplanes. That 
American cause took about 3\1/2\ years. We are approaching that time 
with this war--a war that has already cost our country more than the 
Second World War. It is now costing us about $120 billion a year, $10 
billion a month.
  Do these issues have precedence over public education? I don't think 
so; over our polluted skies, where asthma for children is becoming 
endemic? I don't

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think it does trump that. How about our country's shaky economy? Should 
we have a complete discussion on that? Do these issues trump our having 
raised the debt ceiling to $9 trillion? I don't think so. Does a 
constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage have a higher 
priority than a debate on high gas prices? No. Does a constitutional 
amendment on flag burning have more precedence than immigration? No. 
Does a constitutional discussion on the estate tax, legislating a 
reduction in the estate tax, have more precedence, more importance than 
a discussion on health care? I don't think so.
  We have only about 15 very short weeks left in this session of 
Congress. Regardless of your position, the majority leader's 
constitutional amendments and his saying he will bring the estate tax 
matter to the floor, there are serious issues of importance to millions 
of Americans. Surely we can all agree that they are not among the most 
pressing problems facing America today and the Senate's attention in 
these few remaining weeks that we have is best focused on the needs of 
the American people.
  This morning, in a letter, I asked the majority leader to drop his 
plan to bring these partisan issues before the Senate and to commit to 
bringing the people's priorities to the floor instead. That is not an 
outrageous request. I guarantee you that if we could put this issue 
before a jury of the American people, overwhelmingly Democrats and 
Republicans would agree with my suggestion to the majority leader that 
we work on these real issues rather than these three issues that I have 
discussed.
  We need to approach these last few weeks in a bipartisan way, and we 
are reaching out to the majority to let us tackle the urgent issues 
facing our country, and there are urgent issues facing our country. 
Americans are frustrated with the direction in which America is headed. 
We are frustrated equally with the performance of the Bush White House 
and the Republican Congress.
  With just a few months remaining before we adjourn, the 109th 
Congress is going into the history books as the country's least 
productive Congress in the more than 200 years we have been a country. 
In fact, the 109th Congress is on track to exceed the famous do-nothing 
Congress of 1948, and there have been articles written on that. I am 
not making it up.
  This Congress has worked on class action and bankruptcy, legislation 
that benefits big business. I have helped with that, but we need to do 
something to help the vast majority of the American people. To check 
these off as being great accomplishments, I don't think that is right.
  The Senate, thanks to Democrats, did pass lobbying ethics reform 
legislation, known as the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. 
But as yet we have not heard a single word from the House on this 
issue. And passing important legislation such as the Honest Government 
Act has proved to be the exception and not the rule.
  Congress has not passed a budget. We haven't completed last year's 
budget, as a matter of fact, and, I might add, the ethics legislation 
we passed in the Senate has yet to be considered in the House.
  America can do better. America can do much better.
  This week the supplemental appropriations bill will be on the floor. 
It is important legislation, especially since President Bush refused to 
put the cost of the war of Iraq or the cost of helping the Katrina 
victims in his budget. Why? Can you imagine that, we are doing a 
supplemental appropriations bill on matters that should have been in 
the budget that was brought before the Congress some time ago. Why is 
it done this way? It is done this way to try to disguise the staggering 
deficits this administration has run up.
  The best example I can give to the American people is what would 
happen if they did their budgeting the way the White House does its 
budgeting. We make so much money in our household, but to make our 
budget complete, what we are going to do is eliminate our car payments 
and our house payments. That, in fact, is what the President has done. 
He had a budget, but he eliminated the cost of the war in Iraq and the 
cost of the Gulf catastrophe, and now we are coming up here in the last 
few weeks before the Pentagon runs out of money to say we have to do 
it, it is an emergency. It is not an emergency. We had a bill. We 
should have taken it up as part of our ordinary cost of Government. 
Just as I explained, how can a person who has a household budget 
eliminate car payments or house payments or any other example? That is 
what this White House has done, and it is wrong.
  But in spite of the President's budget gimmicks, Democrats look 
forward to the debate on the supplemental. We have a number of what we 
believe are tough and very smart amendments that we will offer to 
protect the American people, address the situation in Iraq, and provide 
relief from the energy crisis here at home.
  When the Senate is finished with this supplemental, Democrats will 
insist the majority leader put his partisan agenda on the back burner 
and continue to focus the Senate on issues of urgent national 
importance.
  I believe we as a Senate owe it to the American people to focus on 
their needs and not waste a single day working on partisan needs. We 
are asking in a bipartisan manner to reach out to the American people 
and say: We have something that will help you.
  What this would mean, though, is setting aside issues such as the 
marriage amendment and tackling an issue such as gas prices. The price 
of gas has increased 100 percent--100 percent--during this President's 
last 5 years in office--35 cents to 50 cents in the last month, and 
over the weekend 10 or 15 cents.
  In San Diego, I heard this morning, the highest price as of yesterday 
was about $3.10 a gallon. Nevada is not far behind. There are places in 
Nevada charging over 3 bucks a gallon for gasoline.
  Today many families are paying $100 to fill their gas tanks, only to 
drive to work, pick up the kids, and whatever they have to do to get to 
and from work--$100. People say: Why don't they buy a car that doesn't 
use so much gas? That is for them to decide, and they are getting no 
help from this administration to establish CAFE standards so that cars 
are more fuel efficient.
  It takes $100 to fill many of the vehicles in America today. These 
prices are taking an enormous toll on the pocketbooks of hard-working 
Americans. They are even more difficult for families to swallow given 
the headlines that Exxon sent their chief executive officer into 
retirement with a more than $400-million golden parachute. That is 
about a half billion dollars to retire. Golden parachute is what you 
get upon retirement, about a half a billion dollars.
  There is nothing wrong with corporate profits. I am all for Americans 
having retirement security. But does anyone think it is fair to have 
consumers pay $100 a week to fill their fuel tanks and the big energy 
bosses fill their bank tanks with hundreds of millions of dollars?
  We on a bipartisan basis need to work to provide consumers relief at 
the gas pump. It is much more important than measures to appease a few. 
We ask, on behalf of America, that the majority move to legislation 
that allows us to pass a Federal law with teeth and resources to go 
after price gougers regarding fuel, the profiteers, the energy market 
speculators.
  We ask the Republican majority to debate a windfall profits tax. With 
a windfall profits tax, we can take big oil's excess profits and give 
them right back to consumers in rebates or use them to build 
alternative and renewable fuel facilities.
  If the greedy oil companies won't invest their billions in profits in 
delivering affordable domestic fuels for America, then maybe America 
needs to take some of the windfall profits and put them to better use.
  I worked a lot putting myself through school. I worked for Standard 
stations. I worked for Chevron Oil. I worked in all kinds of gas 
stations pumping gas, changing oil, lube jobs, and tires. My brother 
ran a service station for many years. Back then, oil

[[Page 5798]]

companies made about 4 or 5 cents a gallon on gasoline. Gasoline then 
was cheap. Now with gas $3 a gallon or more, they still make the same 
amount of money. The service station operator still makes the same 
amount of money on $3 a gallon. He makes 3 or 4 cents a gallon. So when 
you fill up the car with gasoline, don't be mad with that corner 
service station because Exxon and all these other big oil companies are 
the greedy ones taking all the obscene profits. They are not going to 
the guy you are going to ask to wash your windows or to fill up at tank 
No. 6 and you pump it yourself.
  We ask the Republican majority to bring before the Senate legislation 
that will secure America's energy future so we can put an end to the 
cycle of higher and higher gasoline prices. If the majority so moved, 
the Senate could develop a more aggressive national energy policy that 
would deliver affordable, clean energy from domestic sources now, not 
in 30 years or whenever the oil company CEOs decide the time is right. 
We cannot produce our way out of the oil problems we have. We in 
America, including the oil they say is in Alaska, have less than 3 
percent of the reserves in the world. We can't produce our way out of 
our problems. We have to look to alternative energy sources.
  It is terrible to think that American consumers are sending billions 
and billions of dollars overseas to pay for oil and some of that money, 
I am told, may be getting into the hands of violent anti-United States 
groups.
  Even if that is not true, wouldn't it be better if we were like 
Brazil, a country that is areawise bigger than the United States with 
lots of people? Brazil is energy independent. They produce oil, but 
they also have determined that they are not going to import oil. And as 
of this coming June, just a few weeks from now, they will be totally 
energy independent. They started a number of years ago an alternative 
energy program, and it worked.
  Brazil, this huge country, heavily populated, large in area, is 
energy independent. Think what America would be if we did not have to 
use 21 million barrels of oil a day, over 60 percent of which we 
import. Brazil is an example. It can be done.
  National security is another issue that deserves considerable time on 
the floor in the remaining months. I am confident we will ultimately 
pass the supplemental for our troops, and the majority has pledged to 
bring the Defense authorization bill to the floor. I heard that 
earlier. That was the plan before we left for our recess. I hope that 
is true. Bring it to the floor, when? Do we want to wait, as we did 
last year, until the fall, leaving our troops, veterans, and families 
without the resources they need? I hope not.
  Unlike last year, I hope the Defense authorization bill will not be 
pushed aside for other less important business. The troops are 
depending on us. It is so important. It was wrong to wait as long as we 
did last year. It sets up pay for the troops and what new equipment 
they need. It authorizes what the appropriators must come forward with 
to help our brave men and women.
  I also hope we can pass last year's intelligence authorization bill. 
Interesting. Now, more than any other time, we are dependent on our 
intelligence for our security. What does that mean? It means our spies, 
our satellites, the other activities we do to make America safe. But 
because of the majority, we have not brought an intelligence bill 
before the Senate. Why? Because they are afraid amendments will be 
offered on prison abuse scandals and on how intelligence was 
manipulated prior to going to war. We have not even had an intelligence 
authorization bill. Right now we are in danger of not passing that 
important bill for the first time in 28 years because Republicans have 
been unwilling to hold the Bush White House accountable for its conduct 
in the war in Iraq and the war on terror.
  For the first time in 28 years, we are not going to take up this most 
important bill dealing with the safety and security of our Nation. I 
ask: Is it important we do that? Is it more important we do that or 
talk about same-sex marriage or the estate tax which will affect a 
fraction of a percent of the American people, a tiny fraction of the 
American people? I think it is more important we deal with 
intelligence, the intelligence authorization bill.
  Health care: Shouldn't we dive into health care and talk about it? 
That is something when you go home--and home can be anyplace in our 50 
States--whether you are a big company, a little company, a rich man, a 
poor woman, it doesn't matter, people are concerned with the cost of 
health care. Surely we can agree that health care problems in our 
country are far more important than a handful of amendments to please 
the rightwing.
  We need a real health care debate, not a 2- or 3-day minidebate. The 
majority leader said he will bring to the Senate floor a health care 
bill, the Enzi bill. He said we are going to do it during this work 
period.
  The Enzi bill threatens existing coverage for everyone who has State-
regulated health insurance. It is touted as a cure for the problems 
small businesses have in providing coverage to their employees, but it 
would actually expose small businesses to fraud and leave self-employed 
individuals with the same, if not more, problems than they have right 
now.
  We all agree small businesses need health care relief. All businesses 
need health care relief. But the Enzi approach is not the way to move 
forward. Senator Durbin has a bill in committee that will provide small 
businesses with the same kind of options Senators have. Why don't we 
bring them to the floor and debate them together and find out what is 
the best of the two or what is the best mix of the two. With the Enzi 
and Durbin bills we can, and we can also consider other problems facing 
our health care system, such as lowering drug prices, health care 
costs, expanding coverage, and fixing the President's botched Medicare 
drug program.
  And if we are going to talk about health care, isn't it about time--
isn't it about time--we got to stem cell research? We are approaching 
May 24, the 1-year anniversary of the House passing their stem cell 
bill, and we still haven't seen it in the Senate. Ask any of the 
Nevadans with whom I visited if they are more interested in seeing the 
Senate spend its time on issues of stem cells, an issue that offers 
hope to millions and millions of Americans suffering from heart 
disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig disease, diabetes, or if 
they would rather see the Senate spend its remaining days debating 
same-sex marriage? The answer is obvious. I hope the majority leader, 
who said he supports stem cell research, will allow us to move forward 
with the House bill. Stem cell research offers hope to millions of 
Americans, and the Senate must not stand in its way.
  Immigration. President Bush likes to point fingers on immigration and 
many other issues. I repeat: President Bush likes to point his finger 
on immigration and many other issues. Isn't it about time we move 
beyond that? Isn't it about time we pass comprehensive immigration 
reform that will secure our borders and secure our country?
  Before we left for our 2-week break, we had a bipartisan immigration 
deal that was blocked by a handful of Republican Senators. That 
arrangement would have sealed our porous borders, given 12 million 
undocumented workers a reason to come out of the shadows, and provided 
personnel to enforce our laws, so existing ``employer sanctions'' would 
be more than just words. It also had a very important provision to take 
care of guest workers.
  The Senate can move forward on immigration if the President will 
stand up to those in his party who are filibustering reform and tell 
them to quit standing in the way of America's security.
  It is my understanding that the President gave a speech in Orange 
County, CA today. By the way, that is where San Diego is, where the 
highest gas prices are in the country, and maybe he should have spent a 
few minutes talking about that. Speaking about immigration, the 
President said he wants to do something about security. We all want to 
do something about securing our borders; everybody

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does. Is that a stand of integrity and courage? No. Everybody wants to 
do something about protecting our porous borders. The President says he 
wants to do something about a guest worker program. What? What does he 
want to do? It is easy for him to criticize. What does he want to do? 
Let us know what he wants to do. He is the leader of his party. He 
never got involved in the immigration debate until the two votes had 
taken place, and then he was a great finger pointer.
  It is interesting. In all that I have heard when the President talks 
about immigration, what does he say about the 12 million who are here 
who are undocumented? What does he want to do? His party is split. What 
does the President of the United States want to do? What does he want 
to do on security? He wants to protect our borders. So do we. What does 
he want to do with guest workers? Rather than just words, tell us what 
his program is. He has a staff of thousands. Have a few of them come up 
and tell us what the President wants on a guest worker program. It 
appears he doesn't want anything. But does he want us to do anything 
with the 12 million? Let him take a stand on that.
  The Martinez bill that came before the Senate was not supported by 
any of the Republicans. The Martinez bill had a provision for 7,000 new 
workers via Immigration and Naturalization, and their sole function 
would be employer sanction enforcement. I thought that was a step in 
the right direction. Does the President want that? Does he want 
stronger employer sanctions? I repeat: What does he want regarding 
immigration? I think he has to move beyond security, because all 100 
Senators want that.
  Finally, if we are going to do taxes, let's do something that will 
make a difference for those who need it. Talk to any economist and they 
will tell you that in America today, the rich are getting richer, the 
poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is being squeezed. Could 
we spend a little bit of time here on the Senate floor talking about 
tax relief for the middle class, this vanishing breed we have in 
America? It is not much of a distinction anymore to be a millionaire; 
it is whether you are a multibillionaire. That is what gets some 
attention. A millionaire is not much anymore; there are lot more of 
them. The poor are getting poorer and poorer, the rich are getting 
richer and richer, and the middle class is being squeezed.
  We could start this tax debate by fixing the AMT, the alternative 
minimum tax. AMT was originally established to ensure that millionaires 
paid their fair share. But because AMT income levels were not indexed 
for inflation, it has essentially become a tax increase for millions of 
middle-class families. That was never its purpose, and we should fix it 
and fix it quickly.
  Tax fairness should be the Senate's focus, not immoral, unfair tax 
breaks that will benefit a privileged few, which is further 
exacerbating the problem we have in America today where the rich are 
getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is 
getting squeezed, squeezed, squeezed.
  So in the weeks ahead, we are ready--the Democrats are ready--to work 
with the majority on the real issues facing our country. Let's spend 
some time here debating these issues, legislating high gas prices and 
immigration and improving our Nation's security. We want to put 
politics aside and take up the real work facing our country.
  With the right priorities and the right commitment from the majority, 
we can move America in the right direction and give the people the real 
solutions they need. America can do better, and we can do it together. 
That is what we need: bipartisanship, working together on America's 
problems.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sununu). The Senator from West Virginia.

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