Senate Opening

    The Senate is Convened.

Morning Business

 
Senator Reid: (12:09 PM) Today --

·         Senators will be allowed to speak up to 10 minutes each during Morning Business.

·         Spoke on S. 22, a bill to designate certain land as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, to authorize certain programs and activities in the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes.

o    SUMMARY "That because of a Senator's not allowing us to move forward on this legislation last night and throwing every procedural hurdle in the way of these bills, which is now in the form of one bill, we're going to have a vote Sunday morning here in the Senate."

·         Spoke on the 50th anniversary of Senator Byrd's service in the Senate.

o    SUMMARY "I don't want this day to go by without having acknowledged the 50th anniversary of the service in the United States Senate of Senator Byrd. Senators will be coming to the floor today to talk about Senator Byrd's 50 years of service and we'll later have that available for the public and individual senators."

The Senate Stands in Recess until 2:15 PM.  

Morning Business

 
Senator Cardin: (3:06 PM)

·         Spoke on the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

o    SUMMARY "Hamas sometimes cares more about inflicting damage on Israel than protecting the welfare of its own citizens. Hamas poses a critical challenge to the region's peace process. Labeled as a terrorist organization by holding seats in the Palestinian government and acting as the controlling authority in Gaza, the organization's leaders encourage violence and cling to the belief that Israel itself should be destroyed. Questions remain as to whether or not the organization should even be included in the peace negotiations, but the fact remains that the threat Hamas poses to Israel is an obstacle to any negotiation efforts."

o    SUMMARY "I urge Israel and the Palestinians to take advantage of current efforts to broker a sustainable cease-fire and negotiate a peaceful settlement. Any such cease-fire must include Hamas ending its rockets and mortar attacks, recognizing its neighbor's right to exist, renounce violence and honor all past agreements in order to achieve and move forward a two-state solution based upon mutual peace and security."

 
Senator Klobuchar: (3:12 PM)

·         Spoke on the Technological Infrastructure of the United States.

o    SUMMARY "This is about creating immediate jobs. We can get that with technological infrastructure and creating jobs that leaves us with something that will move the economy forward. This technological infrastructure, whether the electricity grid or whether it be the broadband that I've spoken about today is our rural electrification. It is really our interstate highway. It is our generation's chance to build the infrastructure in a way that will fit the changing needs of this country and allow us to compete on a world stage."

Morning Business

 
Senator Leahy: (3:57 PM)

·         Spoke on the 50th anniversary of Senator Byrd's service in the Senate.

o    SUMMARY "I've said many times, Madam President, on the floor of this Senate that there's only 100 of us who have the privilege at any given time to serve here and to represent 300 million Americans. Bob Byrd understood and does understand that, better than most of us ever will."

o    SUMMARY "Senators come and go. All of us will at some time leave this body. But those Senators who do the most to uphold and keep the functions and the history of the Senate alive are the ones who will make it a better place for the next generation of Senators. Senator Byrd has authored histories of this Chamber but, then, he has lived the history of this Chamber."

 
Senator Feinstein: (4:08 PM)

·         Spoke on the Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act.

o    SUMMARY "What this bill would do is require the President to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay within 12 months. The need to close this facility is clear. Along with the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo has been decried throughout the world. It has helped our enemies recruit. It has reduced America's credibility worldwide, strained relationships with our allies, and created a misguided dual legal system. Additionally, the Supreme Court now has ruled four times that the procedures put in place at Guantanamo are illegal."

o    SUMMARY "We have powerful expert testimony that the Army Field Manual techniques work against terrorist suspects. The manual's use across the government is supported by scores of retired generals and admirals, by General David Petraeus and by former Secretaries of State and National Security Advisors of both parties."

o    SUMMARY "You can have a set of interrogation practices, and dependent upon who administers them and the length of time that they are administered and the combination in which they are administered, they could have very different effects on an individual. There are surely areas where paying contractors makes practical and financial sense. Interrogation, a form of collecting intelligence, is just not one of them."

 
Senator Wyden: (4:24 PM)

·         Spoke on the Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act.

o    SUMMARY "All too often for the last eight years, the Administration has engaged in complicated legal gymnastics to justify terrorism programs that are in my view of questionable effectiveness and questionable legality. Today the incoming chair of our committee, Senator Feinstein, is helping us with this important legislation, the Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act, helping us to right the wounds and show the country that with smart antiterrorism policies, we can effectively fight the war against terrorism, and at the same time, restore our moral authority and protect our values."

o    SUMMARY "The fact that our worst enemies have horrifying and barbaric methods for dealing with prisoners does not, in my view, make these methods useful or legitimate. I also want to say that I am confident that President-Elect Obama is not going to engage in many of the practices that we have seen in the last eight years. But, I certainly want to pass legislation that codifies these important principles and makes sure that none of his future successors engage in these practices."

Morning Business

 
Senator Whitehouse: (5:01 PM)

·         Spoke on the Lawful Interrogation and Detention Act.

o    SUMMARY "We've heard arguments that you can't really rely on military interrogators. They don't really know what they're doing. They're amateurs. They need the limitations of the Army Field Manual. By contrast the interrogators of the C.I.A. and of our intelligence community are experts, and are much more sophisticated and adept and don't need to have the Army Field Manual restricting them as if it is some sort of learner's permit for interrogation. Well, if you look at the facts, the reverse is actually true. It is the military that has officers with literally decades of experience interrogating enemy prisoners."

 
Senator Harkin: (6:05 PM)

·         Spoke on the 50th anniversary of Senator Byrd's service in the Senate.

o    SUMMARY "He truly is a living legend in this institution that he loved so dearly and defends so fiercely. The "Almanac of American Politics" says and I quote, "That Robert Byrd may come closer to the type of Senator that the Founding Fathers had in mind." I couldn't agree more. He is a person of wise and mature judgment, a patriot with a deep love of his country. He's passionately loyal to the Constitution, and a fierce defender of the roles an prerogatives of Congress and Senate in particular."

Morning Business

 
Senator Reid: (7:05 PM)

·         Spoke on the upcoming business before the Senate.

o    SUMMARY "We're going to be in a weekend session, as all Democratic Senators have been told and Republican Senators have been notified. We earlier anticipated the vote would be early Sunday, but I've worked with the Senate staff and we are going to be protected with post-cloture time by having that vote at 2:00."

o    SUMMARY "This is one matter that we'll finish early next week. It will be the result of 164 bills that have been held up. We're going to move then to Lilly Leadbetter, an important piece of legislation. We'll move then to important health care legislation. It doesn't take care of all the problems, but it will solve a problem for millions of our children. Then we're going to move to the economic recovery plan."

The Senate stands adjourned until 10:30 AM tomorrow.

The Senate will recess from 3:30-4:45 for a Democratic Caucus meeting.