Senate Opening

The Senate is Convened.

Opening Remarks

 
Senator Reid: (2:02 PM)

·         Today --

·         There will be one hour of morning business with the time dedicated for tributes to the Republican Leader.

·         Following Morning Business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 22, The Public Lands Bill.

·         Spoke on Senator McConnell's service in the United States Senate.

o    SUMMARY "Senator McConnell and I understand that through friendship and mutual respect, we can find common ground to achieve common goals and to reach for the common good of the American people. Common ground, common goals, common good. My wife and I are pleased to call him and his lovely wife, Elaine Chao, our friends."

 
Senator McConnell: (2:10 PM)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "Mr. President, a few months prior to this body convening last week, I was grateful to be chosen by my colleagues to serve once again as Senate Republican Leader. I'd like to thank the people of Kentucky for giving me another term in the U.S. Senate. I'm certainly privileged that Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate five times now to speak for them and for their interests. And I intend to work harder than I ever have over the next six years to justify their confidence."

·         Spoke on former Senator Wendell Ford's service in the United States Senate.

o    SUMMARY "It's because even while he attained high office, he never forgot the lessons he learned working alongside his parents on their farm. Countless times he reminded voters he was just a country boy from Yellow Creek and Kentuckians respected him for proving that a country boy could work the corridors of power, dine with kings and presidents and still come back to Yellow Creek and be right at home."

Morning Business

 
Senator Alexander: (2:39 PM)

·         Spoke on Senator McConnell's service in the United States Senate.

o    SUMMARY "It is a remarkable and rare event that he could serve longer than Wendell Ford, the man whom he just honored, longer than Henry Clay, longer than John Sherman Cooper, longer than Alvin Barkley, longer than Marlow Cook. All of us know that longevity by itself is not such a transcending virtue, but it is an indication of one of the most transcending virtues. And that is the people of Kentucky, for the last 25 years, have seen something special in Mitch McConnell, something that's good for Kentucky, in the opinion of Kentuckians, and something that's good for our country."

 
Senator Barrasso: (2:51 PM)

·         Spoke on Senator McConnell's service in the United States Senate.

o    SUMMARY "Mr. President, Senator McConnell is a champion. He is a champion for Kentucky and he is a champion for am America. For a stronger America, a better America, a safer America, and an America where any boy or girl can, through hard work and persistence, grow up to be a leader of this great nation."

 
Senator Inhofe: (3:07 PM)

·         Spoke on the Administration's request for the second $350 billion in TARP funds.

o    SUMMARY "It's clear to me and many of my colleagues that the Treasury accessing the remaining $350 billion will do little to fix the recession we're now in. It's time for the United States government to cease announcements of new programs or plans designed to inject confidence in markets. Moreover, I think confidence would be better instilled by halting the announcement of new billion-dollar programs designed to fix markets."

o    SUMMARY "I will close by noting the following event in the 20th Century of our shared history and compare them with the $700 billion bailout to hopefully bring a little perspective to the debate over the request for the second half of the $700 billion bailout. The Marshall Plan, that was a long time ago, but if you bring it up to date, that would amount to $115 billion. This is after inflation. The race to the moon, $237 million. The entire Korean War, $454 billion. The New Deal, $500 billion. The Vietnam War, $698 million. Then eight years in Iraq in the liberation of Iraq, people complaining about how much money it costs, it's less than the $700 billion we're talking about here."

 
Senator Whitehouse: (3:15 PM)

·         Spoke in favor of President-Elect Obama's nomination of Eric Holder  to head the Department of Justice.

o    SUMMARY "It is nothing new in Washington for it to be said of a nominee that he or she is the best person for a job. That happens all the time. We've all heard it. And it will surprise no one in this room or elsewhere in Washington to know that it isn't always the case. But in this case, for this appointment at this time, I believe that it is true. I believe that Eric Holder is the best person to be Attorney General of the United States."

Morning Business

 
Senator Durbin: (3:55 PM)

·         Spoke in favor of President-Elect Obama's nomination of Eric Holder to head the Justice Department.

o    SUMMARY "I can assure you that Eric Holder will bring about a welcome change in the Department of Justice and a welcome change that our nation is anxious to see. He possesses the experience, the wisdom and integrity to be an outstanding Attorney General. He's a leader who can rebuild the morale within the Justice Department and restore the faith of the American people."

·         Under the previous order, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 22, The Public Lands Bill.

 
Senator Specter: (4:17 PM)

·         Spoke on the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

o    SUMMARY "As is well-known from the news reports, the Israeli action was taken in response to shelling by Hamas on Israel over a protracted period of time. Israel's action was legal under international law, Article 1 of the United Nations Charter expressly recognizing the right of self-defense under circumstances where a nation is attacked. And that was the factual matter there."

 
Senator Coburn: (4:26 PM)

·         Spoke against S. 22, The Public Lands Bill.

o    SUMMARY "If you go to President-Elect Obama's website, what you will find is some very significant things that both he and I have worked on over the past four years. And he has a plan. It's called the Obama Plan for Restoring Fiscal Discipline. It's a good plan. And what does it include? It includes conducting an exhaustive line by line review of federal spending and eliminating government programs that aren't performing, or that are wasteful, or are obsolete, or duplicative...unfortunately, the first week we're back in session we're doing exactly the opposite of that. So here we have President-Elect Obama who next week will become President Obama and one his main goals we are working to undermine in the Senate today."

o    SUMMARY "We offered a total of 13 amendments, which we would have probably accepted five or six, less than an hour debate on each one of them and we could have been finished with this bill. We could have accomplished it last Thursday or Friday. But because we don't want to have to take tough votes, or we want to protect a Member from a vote on some piece of pork that was put in a bill, we've decided that no votes on any debate on any amendment is the standard for this body. It's not a good day for the U.S. Senate, but, more importantly, it's a terrible day for this country because it says that even though we have great hope and promise of change by an incoming President that his own party is going to step on that."

Morning Business

 
Senator Sessions: (5:10 PM)

·         Spoke on the Administration's request for the second $350 billion in TARP funds and the economic stimulus package.

o    SUMMARY "I'd like to focus on this question first: What is the best thing we can do for America in the long run? The responsibility of the Senate, where the saucer is supposed to cool, what should we do and how should we approach this issue? Let's be frank. The stimulus bill, the recovery bill, I believe they're calling it now, may well provide some stimulus to the country and help us do some recovery. I'm not sure. But I would say this: At its bottom, it is a spending bill. It spends money in order to create jobs, to create projects that might create jobs and that this is a theory behind the effort to stimulate the economy."

o    SUMMARY "I don't hear anybody saying that we need to be cutting spending. Not on the majority side here. We're talking about education, health care, highways, expanding the number of military personnel. All of these things cost money. I don't see any realistic prospect that we'll see a huge reduction in spending."

Senator Bill Nelson: (5:50 PM)

·         Spoke on the Florida Gator's National Championship victory. 

o    SUMMARY "It's good that we have athletics that add so much to a university setting, that bring out more of a university personality in addition to the studies, the academics, the research that we are so privileged to have in our American universities. And so, indeed, this Senator is here to say, all hail, Florida, which comes from the Alma Mater. All hail, Florida. This time again the Gators are the National Champions."

 
Senator Stabenow: (6:05 PM)

·         Spoke on the economic stimulus package.

o    SUMMARY "It's not that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle haven't supported spending money. They have been supporting spending money for eight years. The question is: What are we going to spend it on? And for whom? The majority of Americans have seen their standard of living go down, their jobs go away, their house go away, their opportunities go away while some have done very, very well under a particular kind of spending over the last eight years. so, Mr. President, what I suggest, this is not about whether or not we spend or invest or use federal dollars. It's about our values and priorities."

o    SUMMARY "I've had so many people in Michigan say to me with all the debates going on, where's my bailout? I'm sure you have heard it. Small business owners, 'where's my bailout?' And individuals. I suggest what we now are debating is the American people's bailout, the investment in America. The people of this country have resoundingly rejected the policies of the last eight years that is gotten us where we are today. That's what elections are about. And people have said very loudly, we don't want the same policies, we don't want the same people espousing the same policies going forward as we have seen in the last eight years."

Morning Business

 
Senator Reid:

·         Propounded a UC that all post cloture time on The Public Lands Bill be yielded back.

·         Tomorrow --

·         There will be a period of Morning Business for up to one hour with Senators allowed to speak up to 10 minutes each.

·         Following Morning Business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 22, The Public Lands Bill.

·         There is a 2:30 PM filing deadline for first degree Amendments to S. 22, The Public Lands Bill.

The Senate stands adjourned until 10:00 AM tomorrow.

The Senate will recess tomorrow from 12:30 until 2:15 for the weekly policy lunches.