Jeff Bingaman

Mr. BINGAMAN

Mr. BINGAMAN. That is contrary to the information I was given. I thank the Senator for yielding for the question.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I know the Senator from Georgia has an amendment he wishes to speak to and offer and proposes to withdraw. I will yield in a moment for him to do that. But let me ask unanimous consent that following his statement and his action, the votes in relation to the pending amendments occur in the following order: DeMint amendment No. 930, Coburn amendment No. 918, Coburn amendment No. 921, Coburn amendment No. 922, and Kohl amendment No. 942; that no amendment be in order to these amendments prior to the vote or to this final Kohl amendment prior to the vote; that prior to each vote in the sequence listed here, there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that after the first vote in the sequence, the remaining votes be 10-minute votes; further, that provisions of previous orders governing these amendments remain in effect.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, let me take the lead in opposition to the amendment. This is the amendment that would set up a new 60-vote point of order on any appropriations bill that comes to the floor with anything contained in it that could be designated a congressional earmark. Unfortunately, the definition of congressional earmark set out in the amendment is very broad. It basically says: If you are specifying money going to an entity, either in the language of the appropriations bill or in the report accompanying it, and it relates to items being authorized in this legislation, the objection could be made that you had to have 60 votes. So you would have one set of rules for most appropriations bills and a different set of rules for appropriations bills that would include appropriations relevant to this competitiveness bill. It would be a very bad policy. I urge colleagues to oppose the amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Kohl amendment No. 942 be the pending amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I am informed that additional debate on this amendment is not needed and that there is no request for a rollcall vote, so I ask we proceed to a voice vote on this amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I believe we can proceed to the second rollcall vote, which is the Coburn amendment No. 918. Amendment No. 918

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, this amendment is one which I think would be bad policy, a bad precedent for us here in the Senate. It basically puts a hard and fast, drop-dead date on any legislation contained in this bill and says there is a sunset provision so that any program authorized here, any kind of activity permitted under this legislation, would be prohibited following that date in 2011. It is not the kind of sunset we would normally adopt on legislation. I don't think it is appropriate here. I urge colleagues to oppose the amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. 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.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of the previously ordered amendments, the only other amendments in order be Senator Landrieu's amendment No. 975, Senator Dorgan's amendment No. 958, and a managers' amendment, which must be cleared by both managers; that after disposition of the above amendments, the bill be read the third time, and the Senate, without any intervening action or debate, vote on final passage of S. 761.

Mr. BINGAMAN

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, we have a managers' package of amendments which have been cleared and which are at the desk. Some are in modified form. Let me go through the list and then ask consent for their approval: Amendment No. 915, as modified, by Senator Grassley; amendment No. 916, as modified, by Senator Grassley; amendment No. 924, as modified, by Senator Obama; amendment No. 926, as modified, by Senator Menendez; amendment No. 944, as modified, by Senator Coleman; amendment No. 950 by Senator Baucus; amendment No. 951 by Senator Baucus; amendment No. 952, as modified, by Senator Baucus; amendment No. 957, as modified, by Senator Hatch; amendment No. 958 by Senator Dorgan; amendment No. 965, as modified, by Senator Murray; amendment No. 970, as modified, by Senator Feingold; amendment No. 975 by Senator Landrieu; amendment No. 977 by Senator Murray; and amendment No. 980 by Senators Alexander and Bingaman. I ask unanimous consent that these amendments, as modified, if modified, be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, let me use the minute in opposition to the amendment. The Senator from Oklahoma may wish to speak in favor of his amendment. This is the amendment to strike the funding and the provisions in the bill for the Advanced Technology Program. In my view, this would be a very bad step for us to take. I know there are some Members who do not believe this is a worthwhile use of taxpayers' dollars. I am not one of those. I believe the Federal Government should partner with industry to assist in the early stages of technology development, and particularly that is important when we compete with other countries that spend heavily to assist their industrial sectors to compete in world markets. So I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. I yield the floor.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 956

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, we inadvertently left a cleared amendment off the list I read describing the managers' package. I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 956 be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I share my colleague's concern. We must ensure that the funding increases for the Office of Science at the Department of Energy are sufficient and that they are allocated to specific years so that there is a nexus between the needs of each of the various research programs and the amounts provided for each fiscal year. I will be pleased to work with my colleagues in conference to refine further these authorizations.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I will support efforts to authorize this important program which the Senate has so often voted to support, consistent of course with our ability to get a conference report that the Senate can pass. I thank Senator Levin for bringing this matter to the attention of the Senate.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, we did inadvertently leave one additional amendment off the list that I read describing the managers' package. I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 973 be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, let me say very briefly that I very much appreciate Senator Reid's leadership in setting time aside and making this a priority for the Senate, and Senator McConnell as well. And, of course, I acknowledge the great work Senator Alexander has done at every stage in this process. He has done a terrific job, and he has been the persistent impetus for getting this legislation to this point and deserves great credit for it. Senator Domenici does as well. He took a very strong leadership role in the last Congress and again in this Congress in getting this done. Of course, Senator Ensign and Senator Lieberman have been real leaders on the issue, and Senator Mikulski, Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens, Senator Hutchison, Senator Kennedy, and Senator Enzi. All of them have played a major part. This is multicommittee legislation and multi-Senator legislation. It is bipartisan, as was said. It is a good step for the Senate to be taking. I appreciate everyone's cooperation and help.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, let me speak again about the extraordinary effort that went into this legislation and talk particularly about the staff work that has brought us to this point. I think everyone involved in this legislation knows this represents many days and many nights of hard work by staff people in our personal offices as well as on committee staff. We have seen a great example of how the staffs of the various committees can come together and produce a good product. I will reiterate the leadership among Senators for this work. Senator Alexander, of course, deserves tremendous credit. Senator Domenici deserves tremendous credit. Senator Lieberman and Senator Ensign have both worked very hard on this legislation and deserve great credit as well. I know Senators Reid and McConnell acknowledged their good work. We also, of course, could not have done this without the leadership of Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi on the HELP Committee, and without the leadership of Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens, Senator Mikulski, and Senator Hutchison. There are several others I am sure I should have on the list as well because this was a combined effort. The three committees that put this legislation together were the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, under the leadership of Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi; of course, the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee under Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens; and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The portion of this legislation that came from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee was reported out when Senator Domenici was the chairman in the last Congress. I was proud to work with him in doing that. I can recall the effort the three of us made--Senator Alexander, Senator Domenici, and myself--to persuade the President to make this a priority. He did make it a priority. Of course, he deserves credit for that as well. Let me also talk for a minute about individual staff members on both sides of the aisle who worked very hard to make this a success--from the Commerce Committee: Jean Toal-Eisen, Jason Mulvihill, Chan Lieu, Beth Bacon, Jeff Bingham, H.J. Derr, Floyd Deschamps, and Christine Kurth; from the HELP Committee: Missy Rohrbach, Lindsay Hunsicker, Michael Yudin; from my staff: Carmel Martin, David Cleary, Anne Clough, Beth Buehlman, Roberto Rodriguez, and Ilyse Schuman; from the Energy Committee: Bob Simon, staff director Jonathan Epstein, who has been working with me tirelessly on this legislation, Sam Fowler, and, of course, our general counsel, Kathryn Clay, and Melanie Roberts; on Senator Alexander's staff: Matt Sonnesyn and Jack Wells are the two with whom I am most familiar who have worked so hard; from Senator Lieberman's staff: Rachel Stotsky, Craig Robinson, and Colleen Shogan; and from on my staff: My legislative director Trudy Vincent has been extremely involved and helpful in getting this legislation completed. I wish to acknowledge the great work done by Jason Unger and Mark Wetjen on Senator Reid's staff and by Libby Jarvis on Senator McConnell's staff. This is legislation which could not have come together without the good work of all of these people whose names I have mentioned. They can be proud of their success in this venture. Of course, this is only one hurdle in the process. It seems, in the legislative process, no matter how many hurdles jumped, there is always another ahead. We now have to find a way to reconcile any differences we have with the House on this set of issues. We hope we can do that successfully in the near future and send the bill to the President. Again, I particularly congratulate Senator Alexander and Senator Domenici. I know Senator Alexander has some comments he wants to make. I yield the floor.

Mr. BINGAMAN

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 5:30 p.m.

Mr. BINGAMAN

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.