The Senate is convened.

• Spoke on the economy.
  • SUMMARY "what we're seeing on wall street today is yet another fallout from the bush and now mccain economic policies that failed our country. the bush administration failed to police lenders and neglected to protect consumers. that led to the subprime crisis that has cost millions of american families their homes and continues to wreak havoc on neighborhoods and financial institutions throughout america. this bush-mccain "anything goes" approach that the bush administration has called free-market economics, but has amounted to nothing more than willful neglect for american families has resulted in -- i repeat -- millions of lost jobs, millions of lost homes, with enormous price tag for the american taxpayer to accompany that"
  • SUMMARY "during this work period i hope congress will show some leadership by joining with some direction from the president, which we don't have, by passing an economic stimulus plan that creates jobs and invests in our economy."
  • SUMMARY "we have an economy, we talked about a little bit here today how very, very shaky it is. but if we extended the tax credits for renewable energy, we would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. and, mr. president, these aren't just jobs where the sun shines a lot. these are jobs every place in america."

• Spoke on the Defense Authorization Bill (S. 3001)
  • SUMMARY "i am pleased to advise the chair and other senators following this proceeding, we have a significant package of amendments on which, as we use the phrase around here, both sides of the aisle agreed upon. but i will leave it to the chairman to address that issue. i believe i'm under the instruction of my republican leader at this time i'm not able to agree to a u.c. request, but i do hope that can be resolved very quickly"

• Spoke on the Defense Authorization Bill (S. 3001)
  • SUMMARY "we're working together to try to come up with a unanimous consent request which can get the approval of this body. we need members to come to the floor to try to work with us on those amendments so we can -- where roll calls are going to be necessary. we can fit those in at some point tomorrow. prior, hopefully, to the vote on cloture. but as the leader has said here, we need to have a unanimous consent agreement in hand prior to that cloture vote."

• Propounded a UC to call up his amendment on intelligence (Bond Amdt. 5387) to Defense Authorization (S. 3001). (objected)
  • SUMMARY "our very distinguished, articulate majority leader has said that it's not his fault if people can't get votes. i believe that we should note that he has filled up the tree. a procedural move that denies a vote on any non majority leader approved amendment"
  • SUMMARY "we have seen from the 9/11 commission and most other observers of the legislative process that the one area of 9/11 commission recommendations on a bipartisan basis that has not been adopted has been to combine the intelligence authorization and appropriations process. and i am here today to offer some amendments that would affect that coordination and i join with my other colleagues who have indicated they refuse to acquiesce in a u.c. agreement until such time as we can work out a reasonable accommodation."

• Spoke on violence in Darfur.
  • SUMMARY "i rise today to introduce a resolution calling for a stop to the illegal flow of arms into sudan and an expansion of the united nations embargo on arm sales to sudan."
  • SUMMARY "since the government of sudan can still receive many weapons as it wants as long as the government in khartoum promises that the arms are not going to be used in darfur, which of course it makes those promises and then completely ignores the them. as sudan's main weapons suppliers, china and russia, then turn a blind eye to the fact that their weapons that they sold are being used to kill the innocent civilians in darfur and the weapons continue to flow into the country"

• Spoke on his amendment on Iranian sanctions (Dodd Amdt. 5485) to Defense Authorization (S. 3001).
  • SUMMARY "i have an amendment that i filed, madam president, with the appropriate leadership, for leadership -- floor leadership on this bill dealing with iran sanctions, comprehensive sanctions and accountability and divestment. it's called the comprehensive iran sanctions accountability and divestment act of 2008."
  • NOTABLE "the recent decision to impose additional financial sanctions on iran is a positive development that exerts further pressure to that end. the approach embodied in this bill that i'm offering and talking about this afternoon is targeted and strategic, maximizing the economic leverage, which is what we need, of the united states, our partners and allies in europe and elsewhere and the international investors while avoiding the risks of a more indiscriminate approach."
• Spoke on Hurricane Aid to Cuba.
  • SUMMARY "the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, and i have introduced on a bipartisan basis -- we hope this might be something awful our colleagues could support as well -- and that is to respond to the devastation these storms have caused on the island of cuba"
  • NOTABLE "mr. president, it's no secret that the u.s. embargo on cuba has been, at least in my view, a dismal failure. and it has only worked to harm the cuban people. apparently some in the bush administration believe that holding firm on embargo policy even during a humanitarian disaster will discredit fidel or raoul castro and participate in their down foul. when human suffering as massive as we see in cuba today after these hurricanes, there's no room in my view for such cynicism."
  • SUMMARY "the amendment that senator lugar and i have introduced today addresses only the immediate humanitarian crisis and only on a temporary basis. for a period, madam president, of 180 days, our amendment would lift prohibitions on americans with families in cuba to travel to the island to provide help during the crisis. secondly, only for 180 days our proposal would ease restrictions on the cash remittances by any american to a cuban people at this time of extreme need. only for 180 days. thirdly, our proposal would expand the definition of gift parcels that americans are authorized to send to the cuban people or to the nongovernmental organizations over the next 18 to days to include, medication, clothing, hygiene items and other daily necessities. and fourthly, the bill would allow the cash sale using mechanisms similar to those already in place for the sale of agriculture products to certain items ! that cubans need to rebuild their homes, again, for a limited period of 180 days."