[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Pages 29066-29067]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have a lot to do, there is no question 
about that. But I said to one of my friends on the Republican side 
several days ago, when he was lamenting the fact that the President's 
standing was low and ours in Congress was low, I said to him: What do 
you hope to accomplish by denigrating the place you work in? You work 
here. What good is it to do that? He said: That is right, I will not do 
it anymore.
  I say to my friend from Kentucky, it is easy to find fault with what 
anyone does anyplace in life, including the Senate of the United 
States. But we have worked very hard these last 10 months to try to 
work on a bipartisan basis, to accomplish things for the country. We 
have done a pretty good job.
  We passed the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years. We passed 
a budget--a pay-as-you-go budget. No more red ink; we are paying for 
everything. That is different than the last 7 years under a Republican-
controlled Congress. We passed a law mandating how U.S. attorneys 
should be appointed, as a result of the scandal in the Attorney 
General's Office. We mandated, through legislation, equipment for the 
Guard and Reserve that they simply didn't have. We are the ones who 
pushed the President to focus on having better equipment for our 
troops, including MRAPS, these vehicles that were more mine resistant. 
We passed that and it is in the form of a law. Because of the scandal 
at Walter Reed and other places, we have worked to protect veterans; 
hurricane recovery, Katrina. Our President made 22 trips down there, 
but there was no money until we forced money into the supplemental 
appropriations bill; SCHIP, we passed a law extending health care that 
5.5 million children have to 10 million children. The President vetoed 
that.
  That is the matter before the Senate today. We are going to send that 
back to him, and I hope he will not veto it. We have made changes 
because Members on the other side wanted those changes made. Disaster 
relief for ranchers and farmers, we passed that. It is 4 years overdue. 
Wildfire relief, we have had these fires sweeping the West. We put $600 
million in the supplemental so we can make up for some of the problems 
we had.
  As far as Iraq, we have had over 100 hearings on Iraq. That is 100 
more than were held during the first 5 years of this war. The hearings 
have been good. It is true we have tried very hard to change course in 
the war in Iraq, and we have changed course, indirectly, as a result of 
the votes we have taken. It did not change it enough, but we have 
changed course in the war in Iraq.
  There will be other opportunities for us to do that in the near 
future. We have to do that. The President doesn't mind asking for 
another $200 billion of totally red ink--that is, borrowed money--for 
the war. But he is not willing to spend a few nonred dollars for 
children's health, paid for. Maybe the President is trying to protect 
the tobacco industry. I think they have had enough protection. A small 
increase in the tax on tobacco to pay for the children certainly seems 
reasonable. Stem cell research, we passed that. On ethics and lobbying, 
we passed the most significant reform in the history of the country, 
which is now law. The 9/11 Commission recommendations, there was a lot 
of talk about those recommendations. They were not put into law until 
we did it this year. We did it because it was the right thing to do. We 
reauthorized FDA. We passed WRDA--which is years and years past due--by 
a huge bipartisan vote.
  Everything I have talked about has been bipartisan, even the votes on 
Iraq. We could not get 60 votes, but we had bipartisan support on Iraq. 
We all acknowledge we can do better. Certainly, we can do better. But I 
don't think we should lament the fact that we have not been able to do 
everything everyone wants done.
  With the Attorney General nominee, Judge Mukasey, a problem has 
arisen with that nomination. It seems like we are in the ``Twilight 
Zone.'' We are in the Senate talking about whether waterboarding is 
torture, and this man cannot acknowledge whether waterboarding is 
torture. I read this morning in the newspaper the reason he cannot do 
that is he is afraid if he says waterboarding is torture, it may create 
criminal or civil responsibilities for some of the people who did 
torture people through waterboarding. We are the United States of 
America, and we are

[[Page 29067]]

concerned about talking openly about torture?
  I read a book a couple of years ago. The name of the book is 
``1492.'' It talked about how our world changed in 1492. One of the 
reasons it changed is the Inquisition. It started in 1492, the same 
time Columbus discovered this Nation, this world. In 1492, they also 
discovered waterboarding, how to torture people, mostly Jews but not 
all Jews. Some Christians who were not Christian enough were 
waterboarded.
  Maybe we will work our way through Mukasey, but no one should be 
concerned about the fact that we have an obligation and a right to talk 
about torture. Shouldn't we know where the chief legal officer of this 
country, the Attorney General of the United States, stands on 
waterboarding, on torture generally?
  I look forward to our having a good day today and accomplishing a 
lot. We don't have a lot of time left in this legislative session. We 
have at the most about 6 weeks, but I hope during that period of time 
we continue to work together for the American people. That is what the 
American people want.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me briefly add, it is not too late 
for this first session of Congress to achieve a better record. We need 
to get appropriations bills not just sent to the President but signed 
by the President. We need to get the AMT fixed so we don't 
inconvenience, to the tune of $75 billion, millions of American 
taxpayers. We need to provide bridge funding for our troops that we all 
know is needed. And we need to confirm an Attorney General. Our 
colleagues on the other side have been saying we need a new Attorney 
General all year long. Now it is time to do it.
  The record of this first session of this Congress is not yet made. It 
is not too late, but it is getting very late, and hopefully we will 
accomplish a lot in the next 6 weeks, as the majority leader has 
indicated he would like to see done.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the distinguished Republican leader is 
absolutely correct. We have to fix AMT, and we will do that. The reason 
we have been a little slow in doing so is how we are going to pay for 
it. Being an appropriator for my years in Congress, I certainly want to 
do that. We have struggled over the last several years doing 
appropriations bills.
  The Republican leader and I believe appropriations bills should be 
done, and we have to do them this year. I am going to devote a lot of 
my energy--the meeting I had just before coming to the Chamber was 
dealing with appropriations bills. I had a good conversation with the 
Republican leader yesterday about appropriations bills generally.
  He is absolutely right. We can do better. I will certainly attempt to 
do my share and do a better job.

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