[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19278]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ALL-NIGHT SESSION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to say in response to the 
Republican minority leader, he found two amendments where we required a 
60-vote margin on the last Defense authorization bill. Those two 
amendments did not relate to the Defense authorization bill. They were 
minimum-wage amendments. They required budget points of order. The 
Senator from Kentucky has been unable to find an Iraq amendment raised 
in the Defense authorization bill nor in the supplemental 
appropriations bill which required this extraordinary majority.
  Now the Republican leader has agreed to a majority vote on the Cornyn 
amendment, something we offered yesterday. Now we are asking that 
during the course of this debate, I hope he will reconsider his 
position on the Levin-Reed amendment. This too should be a majority 
vote, an up-or-down vote. What is so frightening on the Republican side 
of the aisle to face a majority vote?
  We know an overwhelming majority of the American people want to 
change this policy in Iraq. Yet the Republicans have insisted that when 
it comes to the key amendment--the Levin-Reed amendment, which will 
actually bring our troops home and end this war responsibly--in that 
situation, they want an exceptional majority, 60 votes, to be 
considered. Well, we are going to debate that and we are going to 
debate it long and hard between now and 24 hours from now. The Senate 
will be in a rare all-night session. Some of the critics of this all-
night session have said that it is an effort to get some publicity. 
Well, if they are arguing that it is an effort to get the attention of 
the American people, they are right because the American people want us 
to debate this honestly and openly.
  I happen to believe as well that the Senate spending a sleepless 
night is no great sacrifice. Soldiers and the families who pray for 
them spend many sleepless nights. It is time for the Senate to do the 
same. It is time for us to come to the floor and express what is in our 
hearts about this war--a war that has claimed over 3,611 American 
lives; a war which has cost us 30,000 injuries, 10,000 of them severe 
injuries, including amputations, traumatic brain injuries, and severe 
burns; a war that has cost this Nation over $500 billion and costs us 
more than $12 billion a month. Is it worth one night of lost sleep to 
discuss and debate that? You bet it is. That is why we are here. That 
is what the Senate is all about.
  I hope the Republican minority leader, Mr. McConnell of Kentucky, 
having agreed to a majority vote on the Cornyn amendment--a Republican 
amendment--will now give us a majority vote, an up-or-down vote, on the 
Levin-Reed amendment. I don't understand why he would agree to one 
standard for one Iraq amendment and then insist on a higher standard 
for a Democratic Iraq amendment. I think most Americans can see through 
that.
  I yield the floor.

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