[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14742-14743]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TAKING SENATE ACTION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, on this day, in 1965, former Governor and 
Democratic Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson died. Governor 
Stevenson was the last Presidential nominee from the State of Illinois 
until this year. We have every hope and confidence that Senator Obama 
will be the next President of the United States.
  Governor Stevenson once said:

       Public confidence in the integrity of the government is 
     indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith 
     in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight . . 
     . for.

  With our economy slumping deeper into recession, our financial 
institutions facing ever-greater challenges, and two wars overseas with 
little progress or end in sight, the American people are rightly 
frustrated with their Government. But the progress we made in Congress 
last week should give the American people a renewed faith that when 
Republicans abandon their favored path of obstruction to embrace 
compromise and common ground, we can make progress.
  We passed a housing bill that will help 8,500 American families who 
lose their homes to foreclosure every day and help eliminate the 
irresponsible practices that created the housing crisis to prevent it 
from happening again. Sadly, it took us about 130,000 foreclosures to 
finally get this bill passed. The obstructionism of the Republicans led 
to 130,000 other homes being foreclosed upon.
  With Senator Kennedy leading the way, we passed the Medicare doctors 
fix by a veto-proof majority that included all Democrats and 18 
Republicans.
  We completed work on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a 
bill I opposed but the majority of Senators supported.
  After weeks of delay, Republicans surprised us by allowing us to 
proceed to PEPFAR, a bill to increase our investment in the fight 
against HIV/AIDS in Africa. I appreciate very much the decision by the 
Republican leaders to abandon their stalling of PEPFAR, which had been 
going on for months. This legislation is supported by President Bush 
and virtually every Senator. Just a handful of Republicans have blocked 
its passage. We should have passed PEPFAR by unanimous consent weeks 
ago, but now we have a chance to move forward on this legislation.
  For the small handful of Republicans who still object to PEPFAR, rest 
assured that we have done everything reasonable to assuage your 
concerns. The current version of the bill took many of those concerns 
into account, and we will allow up to 10 additional amendments. We make 
a lot out of the 10 amendments, but prior to that agreement being made 
Friday night, Senators Biden and Lugar changed the bill many times, 
trying to pacify those who objected to the bill. I am confident that 
with this agreement in place, we can have a productive debate and send 
this legislation to the President so that we can reestablish our 
commitment to the world that America will join and lead this global 
fight.
  The housing stimulus legislation we passed last week is now back in 
the House of Representatives. The White House plans to send us 
legislation to include in that bill that will support the success of 
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so that American families will continue to 
have access to home financing. We certainly wish the President had 
become engaged in working with us to address this growing crisis long 
ago, but we are eager to receive and review this legislation. Once we 
receive the President's proposal, we are determined to review it and 
act as quickly as possible. Just before coming in here, I spoke with 
Secretary Paulson. He explained, in some detail, the importance of 
moving this legislation very quickly.
  We are committed to passing legislation that will guarantee a steady 
flow of funds into the market if conditions require it so that home 
ownership continues to be accessible to American families. But we have 
to work to ensure that American taxpayers are not unfairly burdened if 
Government action becomes necessary.
  We also await President Bush's action on the Medicare doctors fix. 
When a veto-proof majority of 69 Senators joined with 355 Members of 
the House of Representatives to pass this legislation, we sent a clear 
and unmistakable message to the President: Sign this bill. Every day 
that goes by, the integrity of Medicare and TRICARE is threatened. 
Every day the President delays, senior citizens, the disabled, and our 
veterans are put at risk.
  There is a reason that all major organizations representing doctors 
and patients are desperate for this legislation to pass. Already, two 
States--Alabama and South Carolina--have told Medicare patients that 
they must resubmit their eligibility for assistance programs. The 
President vetoing this is going to slow things down even more, and 
other States will be forced to do this. If the President signs this 
legislation into law today, as he has the power to do, any further 
chaos or interruption of care can be avoided.
  If the President chooses to veto our bill, I am confident we will 
have the votes to override it. We have checked with all 9 of the 
Republicans who voted to allow us to get the 69 that--in effect, voted 
the first time this way. We checked with the 9 Republicans who voted 
earlier, and we have heard from 1 additional Republican who said he 
will vote to override the veto.
  I don't know why the President is doing this. All he is doing is 
creating chaos with senior citizens, with patients who are veterans or 
on Active Duty, and the disabled. That is a bad choice for the 
President to make--to protect HMOs and insurance companies. But the 
longer we go without this bill as law, the longer millions of 
Americans, including many of our country's most vulnerable, are faced 
with uncertainty and risk that their health and well-being will be 
jeopardized.
  Finally, we will continue to address the energy crisis this week. 
This past Thursday, I had a long and productive meeting with former 
Senator Jim Sasser, who was the moderator, and experts from the oil 
industry, the airlines, and the financial sector of this country. The 
group agreed that tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as 
President Bush's father did, would help lower oil prices. The group 
also agreed that Congress should enact tough legislation to curb energy 
speculation, with speculators driving up oil prices for their own gain 
while the American people are left paying the bill. Is that the only 
problem? Of course not. But is it a problem? Yes.
  We continue to work toward bipartisan legislation on speculation.
  Will stemming speculation solve the energy crisis? Not totally, but 
it will lower prices in the near term and bring stability to the 
market. That is why legislation on speculation is the first part of our 
plan. I would hope the Republicans would join with us. Part of their 
plan that is pending--has been rule XIV'd and is here at the desk--has 
a provision that deals with speculation. I hope they would allow us to 
move forward on a bipartisan speculation bill and pass it. Then we can 
move to other issues relating to energy. But we can't have a free-for-
all with everyone having their own pet way of solving the energy 
crisis.
  I would hope that we could move toward a bipartisan bill on 
speculation.

[[Page 14743]]

As I said, speculation is only the first part of our plan.
  For months we have urged Republicans to join us in passing tax 
extenders that will cut taxes to give American companies reliable 
incentives for investing in alternative energy sources. The tax 
extenders bill would speed our move away from oil and toward a cleaner, 
more efficient energy future using wind, solar, geothermal, and other 
renewables. It would create hundreds of thousands of good, high-paying, 
permanent American jobs.
  Just as Democrats are keeping an open mind about the need for 
increased domestic production by insisting that oil companies start 
drilling on the 68 million acres of American land they lease but are 
not using, we hope Republicans will join us in finally passing the tax 
extenders bill. We must stem energy speculation. We must responsibly 
tap into emergency domestic oil reserves. We must increase domestic 
production, and we must give American companies tax cuts to develop 
clean, alternative, renewable energy right here at home.
  With less market manipulation, more domestic supply, and incentives 
to move away from oil toward renewable energy, we can overcome this 
crisis and set our country on the path toward a cleaner, safer, more 
affordable energy future. That is the Democratic plan. We hope Senate 
Republicans will work with us to pass it into law.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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