[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5147-5148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SBIR/STTR REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2011--Resumed

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the pending business.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 493) to reauthorize and improve the SBIR and 
     STTR programs, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       McConnell amendment No. 183, to prohibit the Administrator 
     of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any 
     regulation concerning, taking action relating to or taking 
     into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to 
     address climate change.
       Vitter amendment No. 178, to require the Federal Government 
     to sell off unused Federal real property.
       Inhofe (for Johanns) amendment No. 161, to amend the 
     Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the expansion of 
     information reporting requirements to payments made to 
     corporations, payments for property and other gross proceeds, 
     and rental property expense payments.
       Cornyn amendment No. 186, to establish a bipartisan 
     commission for the purpose of improving oversight and 
     eliminating wasteful government spending.
       Paul amendment No. 199, to cut $200,000,000,000 in spending 
     in fiscal year 2011.
       Sanders amendment No. 207, to establish a point of order 
     against any efforts to reduce benefits paid to Social 
     Security recipients, raise the retirement age or create 
     private retirement accounts under title II of the Social 
     Security Act.
       Hutchison amendment No. 197, to delay the implementation of 
     the health reform law in the United States until there is 
     final resolution in pending lawsuits.
       Coburn amendment No. 184, to provide a list of programs 
     administered by every Federal department and agency.
       Pryor amendment No. 229, to establish the Patriot Express 
     Loan Program under which the Small Business Administration 
     may make loans to members of the military community wanting 
     to start or expand small business concerns.
       Landrieu amendment No. 244 (to amendment No. 183), to 
     change the enactment date.
       Paul motion to commit the bill to the Committee on Foreign 
     Relations with instructions to report the same back to the 
     Senate forthwith with Paul amendment No. 276 (to the 
     instructions on Paul motion to commit the bill), of a 
     perfecting nature.

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I rise to oppose the Paul amendment on the 
President's constitutional authority to order the use of military 
force. This amendment is flawed because it doesn't allow the President 
to respond militarily to a completed attack and only allows action to 
stop an actual or imminent threat to the Nation.
  The amendment would in effect make it illegal for the President to 
unilaterally order the use of military force to protect U.S. interests 
except only in situations that involve preventing an actual threat to 
the United States or an imminent threat to the United States.
  Numerous Presidential decisions to order the use of military force 
over the last 30 years would not meet the standard of the Paul 
amendment.
  For example, under the Paul amendment President Ronald Reagan would 
have acted illegally in 1983 when he unilaterally ordered the invasion 
of Grenada, which did not involve an ``actual'' or ``imminent'' threat 
against the United States from Grenada.
  Similarly President George H.W. Bush would have acted illegally under 
the Paul amendment when he ordered the 1989 invasion of Panama. 
President Bush justified the Panama invasion based on protecting the 
lives of U.S. citizens, defending democracy and human rights in Panama, 
and countering drug trafficking, not on an ``actual or imminent threat 
to the nation.''
  Also, President Reagan's ordering airstrikes against Libya in 1986, 
11 days after Libyan terrorist agents bombed the LaBelle discotheque 
and killed or wounded over 100 U.S. soldiers, might have been illegal 
under the Paul amendment. The President's response to Libya's 
sponsorship of terrorism arguably would not have met the standard of 
``stopping an actual or imminent

[[Page 5148]]

threat to the nation'' because the tragic act of terrorism had already 
happened days earlier.
  Finally, according to this amendment, President Obama acted beyond 
his constitutional authority when he authorized the use of deadly force 
by Navy SEALs to rescue Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates on 
April 10, 2010.
  There are numerous other examples over the past decades when 
Presidents have ordered the use of military force to protect U.S. 
interests, but where such actions would not have met the standards of 
the Paul amendment.
  I urge my colleagues to vote to table this amendment.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the Paul 
amendment is the pending business; is that right?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken). The motion to commit by Senator 
Paul is pending.
  Mr. REID. I move to table that and ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a 
sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays are ordered.
  The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 90, nays 10, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 50 Leg.]

                                YEAS--90

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Conrad
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Kerry
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lugar
     Manchin
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--10

     Collins
     DeMint
     Ensign
     Johnson (WI)
     Lee
     Moran
     Paul
     Sessions
     Snowe
     Toomey
  The motion was agreed to.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I 
move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

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