[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19423]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT 2008--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the Homeland Security appropriations bill, H.R. 2638.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it is my 
understanding that the majority leader plans to take up this bill next 
week, not this week; is that right?
  Mr. REID. I would really like to take it up now. That is why I asked 
this consent. I am sorry if there was some confusion in that regard.
  Mr. McCONNELL. It was my understanding the majority leader was 
planning to go to a reconciliation bill next and then try to get 
unanimous consent to go to this next week.
  Mr. REID. The only reason I was doing that, of course, is that there 
was an inkling from your floor staff you would object to us going to 
this immediately.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I am going to object in the short term, and we can 
discuss it privately because I think there is a chance we can do that 
shortly. But for the moment I will object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The majority leader is recognized.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am hopeful and confident we can work 
something out in this regard.
  In order to protect our country, and all of us, I move to proceed to 
the consideration of H.R. 2638 and send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  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. 206, H.R. 2638, the Homeland Security 
     Appropriations Act, 2008.
         Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, Mary Landrieu, Daniel K. Akaka, 
           B.A. Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Ted Kennedy, Max Baucus, 
           Pat Leahy, Ben Nelson, Byron L. Dorgan, Debbie 
           Stabenow, Jeff Bingaman, Charles Schumer, Dianne 
           Feinstein, Herb Kohl, Patty Murray.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would also say, and hopefully we won't 
have to do this, I am cautiously optimistic we can avoid this, but I 
will ask unanimous consent that in case we can't, the mandatory quorum 
call under rule XXII be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now withdraw the motion.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is withdrawn.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, let me just say a few more words. We have 
been prevented from acting on the 9/11 recommendations. I should say 
that now we are in conference, and I am so appreciative of that. I 
understand Chairman Lieberman is going to hold his first meeting 
tomorrow. It took a while to get there, but that is important. But we 
also need to change the course in Iraq, and that didn't happen, and so 
now we have this.
  We have all seen and heard reports that our intelligence community 
has concluded that al-Qaida's strength has grown to its 9/11 levels, 
and the statement of the Secretary of Homeland Security that he has a 
gut feeling we are at greater risk of being attacked this summer by 
terrorists. In spite of all this, we have just seen an example of 
obstructionism that has slowed down and prevented the Senate from 
consideration of this bill today.
  The latest obstruction would delay important investments. This 
Homeland Security bill does lots of things. We just finished the 
immigration debate. This is not as good for border security as the 
immigration bill would have been--I don't expect we will do that debate 
today--but it does do some good things. This bill hires 3,000 more 
Border Patrol agents and provides 4,000 more detention beds. When 
someone is picked up, they will have a place to put them. This provides 
$400 million for port security grants. This bill provides $1.83 billion 
for State and local first responders. And one other example is that 
this bill provides monies for the purchase and installation of 
explosive detection equipment at airports.

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