[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18370]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           RESTING THE TROOPS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am sorry the Republican leader would not 
yield for a question. My question would have been, the 60-vote 
requirement for this amendment so that our troops have time to rest 
before they are redeployed into combat, this 60-vote requirement which 
the Republican leader says is routine and normal, I was going to ask 
the Republican leader, in the two previous Defense authorization bills 
brought to the floor of the Senate, how many times did we impose a 60-
vote requirement on amendments to that bill? The answer is none, never. 
It was always a majority vote. Now the Republican side has said: We 
insist on 60 votes for every amendment to the Defense authorization 
bill. Those following this debate, watching it either in the galleries 
or on C-SPAN, may wonder what is the big deal. Why? What is the 
difference?
  The difference is obvious. We are about to consider a debate on the 
war in Iraq. This Senate is evenly divided. With Senator Johnson 
recuperating, it is a 50/49 Senate with 50 Democrats and 49 Republicans 
on the issue of Iraq. One of the Democratic Senators votes on the other 
side. So on any given issue, it is 49 to 50, closely divided. Now the 
ranks on the Republican side are breaking and changing. We now have 
Republican Senators who are stepping out and publicly saying they 
disagree with the President. At least five of them have publicly said 
we need to change the direction of our policy in Iraq. Do the math. If 
we start with 49 and pick up 5 Republicans, we have 54. That is a 
majority. We could start carrying amendments to change the policy of 
the war in Iraq. The Republican leader knows that. So how does he 
protect the President's position? How does he stop the will of the 
Senate? By imposing a new standard of 60 votes. Now it takes 60 votes, 
not just a majority. For the last 2 years, a majority was good enough 
when it came to every amendment on the Defense authorization bill, 
including amendments about the war policy in Iraq. But not this time. 
This time, Senator McConnell has come up with a new McConnell standard 
when it comes to the Iraq war policy, that it takes 60 votes in the 
Senate.
  The Republican leader can come up with procedural obstacles also. He 
can make it more difficult. He can continue to slow down the debate on 
ethics reform. He can slow down the debate when it comes to the war in 
Iraq. But there are a lot of Senators on this floor on both sides who 
are going to stick to this task. We are not going to give up that 
easily. We understand what is at stake. We have lost over 3,600 of our 
best and bravest American soldiers. For us to prolong this debate, to 
set up these artificial obstacles in order to perpetuate a policy which 
is taking the lives of our men and women in uniform, is unacceptable.
  The Senator from Kentucky, of course, has his rights under Senate 
rules. I respect that. But to impose this new standard of 60 votes and 
then to say on the floor that this is routine and normal is not a fact. 
That is why I wanted to ask him that question. In the last 2 years, a 
majority vote was what was used on the Senate floor over and over again 
when it came to these important issues. We should return to that same 
majority standard.
  I would say to the Senator from Kentucky who tried to defend the 
President's position, he should go back to his State, as all of us 
have, and speak to the families of the soldiers, understand what they 
are going through. Of course, every family of a soldier overseas is 
lost in prayer and worry every single day about their loved one in 
battle. But this administration, this President sends these soldiers 
over again and over again without rest, without retraining, without the 
equipment they need in battle. That is unacceptable. That is not a 
standard we should allow when it comes to our defense of America.
  Senator Jim Webb, who has offered this amendment, is a ground-combat 
veteran of Vietnam, as is Senator Hagel, another cosponsor of this 
amendment. They and Senator Inouye, a veteran of World War II, know 
what it is like to put on that uniform and risk your life in battle. 
What they are asking for is time for these soldiers to come home and 
have a chance to be with their families, to rebuild their lives, to 
rest, try to put their lives back together, reassociate themselves with 
their families, retrain, and be ready if they are called again. What I 
hear from the Senator from Kentucky is: That is unacceptable. This is 
the President's call. He can keep sending these men and women over 
again and again, even though it is more dangerous every time they are 
sent into battle without appropriate rest and training.
  When it comes to the vote, the Senator from Kentucky tells us a 
majority of the Senate is not enough; we need 60 votes to give our 
soldiers an opportunity to get the rest and retraining they deserve. 
That is unfortunate. It is part of the obstructionism we are now seeing 
every single day from the Republican side of the aisle. That isn't why 
we were sent to Washington. If five or six Republican Senators want to 
join the Democrats in trying to change the policy in Iraq, they should 
be given that chance. Using these procedural obstacles is unfortunate 
for this country and certainly unfortunate for the soldiers.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Mexico is 
recognized.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized 
for up to 12 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Bingaman pertaining to the introduction of S. 
1766 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BINGAMAN. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Georgia is 
recognized.

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