Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I thank Senators Cochran and Reid for allowing me to do this. I have been waiting for quite a while. We can get through some of these amendments. I rise again with a heavy heart to report on the fires raging in my State and bring the Senate up to date on what is happening as of my last report at 3:30 p.m: 600,000 acres of land have been burned, more than 3 times the size of Chicago; 2,000 homes have been destroyed, 18 people are dead. Governor Davis has declared Riverside County a state of emergency. Riverside has asked the President to declare a national disaster there. I have written to the President asking him to act. In San Diego, we have 30,000 people without power. Our public schools are closed due to bad air. The Cedar Fire in San Diego is raging out of control. It is threatening to merge with the Paradise Fire. The fires as of 3:30 were only 5 miles apart. The head of the California Department of Fire, Chief Chuck Mayner, said that they have not gotten all of the equipment and the help they have asked for. Senator Feinstein and I have been getting different information. It is a little disconcerting. Yesterday, I heard they got all the equipment. Today I hear they have not. We actually have heard from CDF Chief Mayner that he has not gotten all the equipment and the help. That is backed up by Jim Arta, the deputy chief. I have a list of the things they have asked for. I hope FEMA will act on this. I have met with Mr. Michael Brown. He is very open to doing all he can, but I merely want to say on the record that we need help. We need strike teams. Strike teams are a combination of resources composed of fire trucks and personnel. We need strike 2 teams composed of fire trucks designed for fighting brush fires. We need 11 engine strike teams for the Paradise Fire, 33 hand strike crews, 12 single resource dozers, two type 1 helicopters, one type 2 helicopter. We need for the Cedar Fire, in addition to strategic 1 strike teams, strike 3 teams, five type 3 helicopters, four type 1 helicopters, and one type 2 helicopter. As I stand here giving this report from just a few minutes ago, we are not getting all the help we need to fight these fires. We need it desperately. We urge everyone to work together to get the equipment into these areas. Our brave firefighters are working to save Julian, which is a town in San Diego County. The winds are making the situation worse. There were hundreds of firefighters working there. The city of Cuyamaca is 90 percent destroyed and 150 homes are gone. In Ventura, we have the Scenic Valley Fire threatening the Stevenson Ranch area. They are already asking us for a FEMA disaster center there. In San Bernardino, we still have the Old Fire. It is raging out of control, threatening Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead communities. Unpredictable winds are making things worse. I had a good meeting with a FEMA director today, and a good meeting with Governor-elect Schwarzenegger today. We are all on the same page. We all want to open disaster centers, disaster assistance centers, known as DACs, in the State. I had recommended one in each county. We will have that, plus a couple of mobile units. We are probably going to need more disaster centers because we are talking about so many miles, so many acres. Six hundred thousand acres is a lot of land here. We do not want people to have to go far distances to get what they need. I want to show a few pictures to my colleagues so you can see what things look like. This is a picture of a home burning in San Bernardino. You can see the raging fires there. Somebody's hopes and dreams are just gone. I show you a Marine Corps base in San Diego. This is Camp Pendleton. This is a hillside. You can take a look at these fires, and when I am done with these brief opening remarks, I am going to lay down an amendment which deals with helping people in terms of the quality of the air. I wanted to show that. I want to also share with my colleagues that nine of us, back in April, sent a letter to the President. I think this is extremely important. This letter was signed by Republicans and Democrats alike--two Senators and Congressmen Dreier, Hunter, Baca, Calvert, Cunningham, Issa, Filner, Davis, Bono, and Lewis--equal numbers, approximately, of Republicans and Democrats. This is what we asked the President for in April: We are writing you today to encourage your swift approval of California Governor Gray Davis' request of a Presidential emergency declaration for Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties relative to the high threat of forest fire in these regions. Due to drought conditions and infestation by the bark beetle, our national forests have been met with an unprecedented danger as the bark beetle has attacked over 415,000 acres of trees in these three counties. Because of the unique urbanization in and around forests, this infestation has created a tinder box of such magnitude that the loss of life and resources would be incomprehensible should fire break out. My friends, we said--nine of us--we could have fires like this. We said: Most of the affected trees are on or adjacent to federal lands, making this crisis well beyond the ability of state and local authorities to manage. Therefore, it is critical that the federal government help provide financial assistance for infested tree removal from public and private lands, as well as assist with other mitigation measures. Now that the State of California has requested a federal emergency disaster declaration, your help at this juncture remains critical and would make a positive impact in these areas of Southern California. We conclude our letter: Mr. President, we appreciate the various burdens being placed upon you in these challenging days. However, we urge you to consider this matter as expeditiously as possible since these areas are in need of immediate federal assistance. In a bipartisan way, nine of us asked the President to declare an emergency, and he did not do it. We did get some small funding. It helped a little bit. But we did not get the help we needed. We begged for it. I guess if we had a crystal ball, maybe things would have been better. We all were asking for buffers around our communities. I think the importance of this legislation before us is it is our opportunity to direct funding, adequate funding, to make sure these buffers are created and the fire damage is diminished greatly. I myself want to make sure this bill is a Healthy Forests bill and is not something else, a ``cut down the forests'' bill. I will be supporting many amendments to make sure this bill is the best it can be. I do not know the fate of those amendments, but we will be going on the record very strongly. Amendment No. 2025 Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. BOXER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. BOXER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Vote On Amendment No. 2026

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the firefighter amendment No. 2025 be voted on first.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I send a second amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. BOXER. If the Senator will yield, I understood that you--and maybe I was incorrect--and Senator Reid had agreed we would vote for both amendments at 5:15. I believe that was the order.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, whatever Senator Cochran would like to do is fine. I need about 3 minutes on my second amendment, and then I will be done. The hope was, perhaps to help move it along, we would vote on each of these back to back at a time certain that Senator Cochran chooses.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I send the amendment to the desk.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. If I could make----

Mrs. BOXER. Will the leader yield for a quick question about the schedule? I thank you for your comments about the tragedy in California. I was wondering whether it would be possible, when we take up the Healthy Forests bill, to complete work on that without interruption simply because it would send a signal of hope in terms of how we are going to deal with the communities close to forests. It is a very important piece of legislation. Would that be possible? Could I get the Senator's commitment on that?

Mrs. BOXER. Through the Chair, I would like to address another question to the leader. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I just wanted to say that as far as I am concerned we will work with you to ask Senators on our side if we could have time agreements on amendments on Healthy Forests. We need to give a message of hope to people that their communities will have more help than they had in the past. I thank you very much for your expressions here in the hope we can work together and get through that bill and move on to the global warming bill which, of course, is very important in its own right.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. The last chart is frightening. EPA Eases Rules on PCB-Tainted Properties. These are the most polluted, dangerous properties. People were not allowed to sell those properties or transfer those properties until they had a plan that EPA signed off on and approved. Madam President, we need an EPA Administrator with guts and strength and the ability to stand up and say he is going to fight for the environment. The fact that he did not answer a number of my questions tells me that I am afraid that, in the room when they are debating these issues, Mike Leavitt will be a full team player with the Bush administration and not a team player for the health of the American people. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I rise as a proud member of the Environmental Committee and the chair of the Democratic environmental team. I will be voting no on the Leavitt nomination. The reason is, while I am not pinning all the terrible decisions of this administration regarding the environment on Mr. Leavitt--clearly, he was not there for those--I was very distressed that the questions I asked him were simply papered over or, in some cases--six cases--there was no answer at all. I will explain in a moment. I am going to divert for a sentence or two to again express my concern about the fires burning out of control in my State. I send my prayers to the people of my State and thank the President for declaring it a disaster area. This was absolutely necessary because we need help from all over the country. These fires are far from out, and the winds are unpredictable. Our 7,000 firefighters, the heroes of the day again, are out of breath and need relief. We cannot stand back and say the winds will dictate what happens. We have to save lives and homes. I will be going to the State as soon as I can, when it is appropriate, and offer all the help we can. My colleagues have been so kind and so good in asking questions. Right now we have lost 14 people, 1,518 homes; 501,000 acres are burning, four times the size of Chicago. It is a travesty. Getting back to the issue at hand, I do not think it is terribly comforting to the American people to hear that the questions I asked were not answered--many of them--because they know we have had many rollbacks. As Senator Lautenberg so eloquently said, I have a little scroll I could bring to the Chamber, if I were allowed--I think the rules do not allow for that--and I could let out the scroll all the way past where the Presiding Officer is sitting. It would list, in fairly large type, 300 environmental rollbacks. I was stunned to hear a Senator on the radio today say that this administration has the greatest environmental record of any President. I can't even respond to that except with the truth. The truth is, we have documented 300 rollbacks. One of my leaders on this issue, in addition to Senator Lautenberg, is Senator Jeffords. He has been fighting for clean air harder and longer and with more focus than anyone I know. He could tell you chapter and verse why we are losing the battle to clean up our air. Every time the administration calls something ``Clear Skies, beautiful forests,'' or ``lovely day,'' it is just the opposite when one cuts through it. It is essentially special interest legislation that is rolling back the progress we have made. If you go to any school in this country and ask the children, do you have asthma, does someone in your family have asthma, do any of your friends, literally almost half the classroom will raise their hands high. This is not the way it used to be. This is the time when we need strong environmental leadership. Governor Leavitt is one of the nicest people I have ever met. We had a couple of great meetings. But he essentially rolled over my questions, in many cases not even answering them at all, just as if I hadn't asked anything. Let me tell you about what happened this summer. I call this past summer ``toxic summer.'' Senator Jeffords and I held a press conference. Senator Lautenberg was there. We documented what has happened just this summer. Let me give you a quick reason why we need a real environmental leader at the EPA. ``Toxic-site cleanups slowing, report says,'' Sacramento Bee. Spending on the cleanup of hazardous waste sites is slowing under the Bush administration, and that could delay the cleanup of three dozen sites in California, including several around Sacramento. . . . U.S. is Seeking to Limit States' Influence on Offshore Decisions; California Officials Denounce the Proposed Revisions as an Effort to Bypass Court Rulings. . . . Whatever happened to States' rights? I thought this administration liked to help States. They are rolling over the States, if the States want to do more cleanup, if the States want to protect their coasts. EPA's 9/11 Air Ratings Distorted. . . . We all know Senator Clinton did a masterful job of holding up this nomination until she got some promises from the administration that she could see exactly what went on behind the scenes and how ``in the days after the terrorist attack, White House officials persuaded the EPA to minimize its assessment of the dangers posed by airborne dust and debris from the skyscrapers' collapse.'' Withholding information is sick. There is something terribly wrong with this administration. Bush Eases Clean Air Act for Industries. In one of the broadest changes to air-pollution regulations since the Clean Air Act was first approved in 1970, the Bush administration . . . eased smog rules affecting more than 500 older power plants and some 20,000 aging factories. . . . This is the issue Senator Jeffords has championed. This is another one from the Los Angeles Times, just this summer. This isn't all the 300. This is just this summer. EPA Won't Regulate ``Greenhouse Gases''; Environmental Groups' Bid for the Agency to Cut New-Vehicle Emissions is Denied. California May Sue, Saying the Decision Threatens State Efforts. Later on this week we will vote on the McCain-Lieberman bill. The administration opposes it. I ask if I may have 2 more minutes from my friend.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I appreciate the time. As I understand it, I am yielded how many minutes?

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am pleased to offer my support for the nominee for the Central District Court of California--Judge Dale Susan Fischer. Judge Fischer is well regarded by those who know her work. I want to emphasize the excellent process that we have in place to select District Court nominees in California. In a truly bipartisan fashion, the White House Counsel, Senator Feinstein, and I worked together to create four judicial advisory committees for the State of California, one in each Federal judicial district in the State. Each committee has a membership of six individuals--three appointed by the White House and three appointed jointly by Senator Feinstein and me. Each member's vote counts equally, and a majority is necessary for recommendation of a candidate. This nominee was reviewed by the Central District Committee and strongly recommended for this position. I continue to support this bipartisan selection process and the high quality nominees it has produced. Judge Fischer has an impressive background and has served the people of California with distinction for several years. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of South Florida. She had extensive civil experience as a private attorney before she was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1997. She currently sits on the Los Angeles Superior Court where she is well regarded for her knowledge of bail issues. She also serves as Chair of the Los Angeles Superior Court's Temporary Judge Committee, training and monitoring approximately 1000 temporary judges in Los Angeles County. The Central District will benefit greatly from the exemplary service of Judge Fischer, and I fully support confirmation of this nominee.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise today with great anxiety about what is happening in my State. You can see here behind me the view of one of the fires that is burning from the vantage point of a fireman. These fires have become the worst wildfires Californians have seen in decades. In less than 1 week they burned nearly twice as many acres as are burned statewide in the average fire year. The numbers in my statement today may already be obsolete. Things are moving that fast in terms of property damage, homes destroyed, and so on. The wildfires range from as far south as the Mexican border to as far north as Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. They have consumed a total of more than 400,000 acres or 625 square miles. To put that in perspective, that is three times the size of Chicago. The fires are devouring businesses and homes and sometimes entire neighborhoods. More than 900 homes have already been destroyed and perhaps 30,000 more are in danger. I know people are without electricity in areas throughout the State. Many are escaping with only the clothes on their backs, and families have had no time to gather anything other than their loved ones as they flee from an inferno that engulfs everything it touches. More than 50,000 people have been evacuated and the numbers continue to climb. Thirty-six evacuation centers have already been set up in the five county areas. I spent pretty much all of yesterday speaking to mayors and council members and county supervisors and to Governor Davis. I talked three times to the head of FEMA, and I spoke with Andrew Card, the President's chief of staff, who was most helpful. The message I had for the President, through Mr. Card, was: Please, move quickly, as quickly as you can, to declare a national disaster because without that, we simply cannot get these fires under control. It has taken a while, but in the last couple of hours we had our declaration. This is very important because it means the Forest Service can now go beyond its budget, because its budget is limited, and contract with departments all over the country to bring in the help we need. I have been through a lot of disasters in my State. I served on the board of supervisors of Marin County. I have seen fires and floods and earthquakes, and then, as a 10-year Congresswoman, I have seen all this. I have not seen anything to this degree where we still don't have our arms wrapped around this problem. We don't have the problem contained, whereas usually when we have these disasters, we are up here saying we need to set up the FEMA agencies where we can now go and have people get repaid and get loans for their businesses and homes, and we will do that in time. That is very important. But right now we need to put out the fires. I thank Nevada and Arizona. They have helped. They have sent between 25 and 50 firetrucks with personnel to our State. I will give you another look at San Diego. This is the harbor. You can see it just has the eeriest look to it. You can see the flames in the background. We also want to say that we have received 50 tanker trucks, and 12 air tankers are coming tomorrow. This is all good news for the people of San Diego. Supervisor Jacob was at her wit's end yesterday because she was not getting enough help. The other areas, the mutual aid, seem to be working better, but San Diego came along afterwards, and I have been very worried about them. The crown jewels of California's beautiful landscape, our beautiful forests, have been hurt. We are going to have legislation that will in fact allow us to do fuel reduction close to communities. It is very important, when we have a bill that relates to our forests, that we put the money where it is needed, which is near the communities, and that we make sure that what we do will in fact help the communities. The bill we are talking about is the Forestry and Community Assistance Act, written by Senator Leahy and myself. There are other proposals. I hope we can come to an agreement that the time is now to help our communities and to provide the resources to help them, not the big logging people, because that is the fight we are always waging. Air traffic across the Nation has been disrupted by these fires. Hundreds of flights in and out of southern California have been canceled or suspended. Our brave firefighters, more than 7,000, are frantically working in conjunction with the California Department of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service, California Highway Patrol, the Red Cross, and now, happily, FEMA, which are very much involved to contain these fires. Many are still raging out of control. I want to be back here as soon as I can to talk about how we can rebuild our communities. But today we are talking about fires that are raging out of control. I thank White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. I thank FEMA Director Michael Brown. I did try to call Tom Ridge. Unfortunately, he was out of the country, but I spoke with his people and again with many of the local people. In closing, let me say that my heart is with the people of San Bernardino County where two major fires are burning: The Old fire--by the way, we think arson was to blame for that fire. I have written to the Attorney General and will call him in the hope that he will invite in the FBI to get to the bottom of who would do such a deed. The other fire in San Bernardino is the Old Fire, 24,000 acres. The Grand Prix is 52,000 acres. In San Diego, there were three major fires. Everyone is struggling to make sure they don't merge. We do have 48,000 customers without power in San Diego. In Otay, 35,000 acres are burning. The Cedar Fire in San Diego has been the deadliest one: 9 deaths, 300 homes destroyed, 150 in Scripps Ranch. The Paradise Fire in San Diego: 160 structures were destroyed, 75 cars, 2 deaths, and so far not contained. In Los Angeles County, it is the Verdale Fire, 9,000 acres. In Ventura, there are two major fires, Simi Valley and Piru. We are very worried about those. And at Riverside, there is one major fire. The Governor has not yet asked for an emergency declaration in Riverside, but it may come to that. If it does, I am very hopeful that the President will act on that request as well because we have lost six homes in Riverside, and the size of the fire there is 11,000 acres. This declaration by the President is welcome news for us. We need to put aside all politics now. We have an outgoing Governor. We have an incoming Governor. We all have to just join hands in this because our people are scared. They are filled with anxiety. They want this over. They want to go on and rebuild their lives. I join with my colleague in expressing my condolences to those who have lost family. My deep hope is that we will contain these fires. We will save additional lives, we will shelter those who have been displaced, and we will rebuild. I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Fine.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I did not hear what the unanimous consent request was.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, it has been a year since we heard the terrible news of Paul Wellstone's death and trudged through, with broken hearts, the days and months that followed. Kind, compassionate, a voice for those without a voice, a bundle of energy, Paul Wellstone was unique, he was priceless, he was irreplaceable. When we learned of Paul's death, our grief was magnified by the deaths of the two women he loved most--his wife Sheila and his daughter Marcia--and by the deaths of his devoted aides, Tom Lapic, Will McLaughlin, and Mary McEnvoy. Their loss still cuts deep. I vividly remember flying back from California to speak in the Senate about Paul, and being overcome by a sense of profound loss seeing the black shroud and flowers over the desk he loved, the launching pad for his extraordinary, impassioned speeches. I want to read some of the statement I made that day, as what I said then remains true for me now. ``Paul was never afraid to speak out when it might be unpopular, nor was he afraid to be on the losing side of a Senate vote. He had courage. And when you told him that, when you said: `Paul, you have courage,' he shrugged it off. He would say something like: `What else could I do? It's just not right!' He would say that--determined, brave. ``Paul was a powerful man. His power did not come from his physical stature. He was strong but he was slight of build. His power did not come from generations of family wealth. He was not a man of moneyed wealth. His parents were immigrants: Leon and Minnie Wellstone. His power did not come from political connections. His connections were with regular people. ``Let me tell you where his power came. It came from a fierce dedication to justice and truth and honesty and righteousness. He gave comfort and he gave hope to those he touched. And he gave them some of his power--the power to see the possibilities of their own lives. Paul died on his way to give comfort and hope to those facing death. He was flying to a funeral service.'' As his staff wrote at the time of his death, ``He was a passionate visionary who never gave up hope that we could make the world a better place for everyone; a committed fighter for social justice who gave a voice to the voiceless; a man with a huge heart who lit up a room--and the hearts of others when he walked in. He was a man who valued others for who they were, not where they came from, or what they wore, or their position or social status. He was dedicated to the little guy in a business dominated by the big guys.'' You cannot speak about Paul Wellstone without speaking about the center of his life--his wife Sheila, his children and grandchildren. Paul and Sheila were partners in the truest sense, and shared almost 40 years of love and affection for each other. They were inseparable, and it was obvious to anyone who saw them together, they were deeply in love. They were also partners in public service, and in their shared sense of idealism, values, and purpose. They died as they had lived-- together, even probably holding hands. Paul and Sheila adored their daughter Marcia, whose radiant smile could light up the darkness, and doted on her very special child and their grandson, Joshua. They reveled in their sons David and Mark, and were enormously proud of David's entrepreneurial spirit and the gift he had at being a good father, and Mark's skill with Spanish and his talent as a teacher in the classroom. All of their grandchildren-- Joshua, Cari, Keith, Acacia, Sydney, and Matt--delighted them and brought boundless joy to their lives. Today we say to Paul again: We will give comfort and hope to those you left behind by doing all that we can to continue your legacy and your dream. What a gift you gave us all. You are impossible to replace. We will always miss you. (At the request of Mr. Daschle, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President this bill includes many projects that are important for my State of California, and I wish to take a minute to highlight those projects. For the Bay Area, $113.75 million in new funding is included for transportation improvements. The projects include $100 million for the BART extension to the San Francisco International Airport and $4 million for upgrades to the Muni System. In addition, the bill includes: $3 million for AC Transit-CalWorks Job Center. This funding will continue successful Job Access programs and expand those services further for CalWorks recipients; $750,000 for the City of Palo Alto Intermodal Transit Center. These new funds will go toward the planning and design of a new regional intermodal transit center in Palo Alto. There is $1 million for Oyster Point Ferry Vessel. Funding will be used to build a ferry vessel to serve a new ferry route between San Mateo County and downtown San Francisco. This route will serve over 2,000 passenger trips daily. There is $1 million for the Zero Emissions Bus--ZEB--Program. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will use this funding to move away from using clean diesel technology to even cleaner Fuel Cell technology. There is $4 million for the Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Corridor. These funds will be used to extend the BART system to Santa Clara County. For the Sacramento region, $5.5 million in new funding is included to improve transportation. Most of these funds--$4 million--will be used for job access to help under-served communities get to work. The remaining funds will be used to improve the Intelligent Transportation System. For the residents of Los Angeles, $12.1 million is included to improve a variety of transportation projects, including $5 million for LA Eastside Corridor Light Rail. The new funds will be used to develop a six-mile, nine-station light rail system running through Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, and East Los Angeles. There is $2 million for Alameda Corridor East. This funding will be used to help reduce traffic congestion for residents and businesses in the Alameda Corridor East and improve the shipment of goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. There is $3 million for the MTA Bus Program. These new funds will be used by MTA to make bus service in Los Angeles County more efficient. Improvements will be made to Metro Rapid Bus facilities and new technology will be utilized to upgrade traffic signals for more efficient bus service. There is $2.1 million for LA Metrolink San Bernardino Line: Platform Addition and Extensions. These funds will be used to improve commuter access and safety. The project consists of constructing new platforms, extending current platforms, and improving pedestrian access. For transportation projects in San Diego and the surrounding communities, $113 million is included. The new funding includes $65 million for the extension of the San Diego Trolley's Blue Line from the Mission San Diego Station to an Orange Line connection near Baltimore Drive in La Mesa. The approximately 5.9-mile line will run adjacent to Interstate 8 and add four new stations. This extension will increase the efficiency of San Diego's public transportation, while reducing congestion and providing an environmentally-friendly alternative for commuters. The new funds also provide $48 million for the North County Transit District's Oceanside-Escondido Rail Project. This project will convert 22 miles of freight rail corridor into a light rail system running east from Oceanside to Escondido. During our current time of economic uncertainty, all of these projects will help strengthen California's economy by improving infrastructure and creating new jobs. These improvements will move products and people more efficiently, while also promoting a cleaner and healthier environment. In addition to the various transportation projects, this bill includes $50 million for a new Federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles area is experiencing an increase in cases that is stretching the existing courthouse beyond its limits. Currently, the Los Angeles court complex operates out of two separate buildings located several blocks apart, which causes delays, security concerns and general confusion. The two buildings cannot accommodate expected growth and high security trials--making them inadequate to handle modern judicial needs. The need for a new Los Angeles Courthouse is great. In order for the courts to effectively serve the public and provide adequate security, we need to provide them with the resources to get the job done. The construction of this courthouse is a step in the right direction. I thank Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Murray for their support to help improve California's transportation system.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today, I have a long-standing commitment to a remarkable project in the ongoing downtown Los Angeles redevelopment effort. Therefore, I am unable to be present for the votes today in the Senate. However, if I had been present, I would have voted ``no'' on the motion to table the Dorgan amendment. I would have voted ``yes'' on the motion to table the Feingold amendment. I would have voted ``yes'' on both the Thomas and Mikulski amendments. I would have also voted ``yes'' on the motion to waive the Budget Act with regard to the Dodd-McConnell amendment. Finally, I would have voted ``yes'' on final passage of the Transportation appropriations bill.

Mrs. BOXER. The Eastside LRT project will provide vital transit service for tens of thousands of people, many of whom do not have access to an automobile. Almost 20,000 people are expected to ride the line once it has opened, providing a much needed transportation alternative and congestion relief in one of the lowest income areas of Los Angeles. I understand that the Eastside LRT project is expected to receive its FFGA in the coming months, which will enable construction to move ahead rapidly. Senator Feinstein and I urge you to give every consideration to fund this project according to the levels that will be recommended in its forthcoming FFGA.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I, too, thank everyone involved in this debate on both sides because I think it has been a very enlightening debate. I have been on the Senate floor about this bill many times. This particular debate brought out so many issues. I also thank the many women who experienced this procedure, who were able to come to Washington on many occasions to tell us what their world was like when they found out late in the pregnancy that something had gone horribly wrong and the doctor told them that their baby could never live outside of their womb and the doctor told them if they did not have the procedure that is being banned in this bill, they could suffer a stroke, they could suffer paralysis, they could lose their fertility. These women came out and put a face on this issue, a real, human face; many of them very religious, many anti-choice, who said this was an excruciatingly difficult choice, but they knew it was right for themselves and their baby. What we are about to do today--and I have no illusions; I know this bill will pass--we are about to ban a procedure that doctors say is needed to save the life and health of a woman. If I went up to you on the street and I said, I know there is a medical procedure that is sometimes necessary to save the life and health of a woman, would you want to ban it or would you be willing to ban it except for those occasions when it is necessary. I think and I know most Americans would do the humane thing and say absolutely, we want to make an exception for life and health. That is not what is done in this bill. The doctors tell us this is a dangerous piece of legislation. The doctors tell us this is an unconscionable piece of legislation. The doctors tell us that women's lives and health will be put at risk if we pass this. I happen to believe, on issues such as these, we have to turn to the women themselves who have faced this agonizing decision, and to the doctors, the OB/GYMs whose job it is to bring life into the world. Well, when we have done that, they have told us not to go this route, that if we are going to ban the procedure, always to have an exception, always for the life and health of the woman. Yet this Senate is going to turn its back on the women of this country, turn its collective back on the doctors of this country, and basically outlaw a procedure they say is necessary. When the President signs this bill--and he will do so--it will be the first time in history any President of either party has banned a medical procedure that is necessary to save the life and health of the people of this country. I think that is a historic moment, and I think the people of this country will understand all of the ramifications. There is no question about that. To make it clear, I will reiterate what many of my colleagues who are pro-choice have said. We believe Roe v. Wade was rightly decided. We believe it balanced all the interests that were before the Court. We believe when the Court said, in the very early stages of a pregnancy, Senators, Congress people, stay out of this decision, they were right. When the Court said, in the late stages of a pregnancy, the State can control what occurs in an abortion, but always with an exception for the life and health of a woman, we believe that is right. Now the other side tells us: Oh, well, this bill has nothing to do with Roe v. Wade. It does not in any way challenge Roe v. Wade. Well, that is just untrue on its face. The Court has already ruled in the Nebraska case that when you do not make an exception for health, when you have vague definitions, that is violative of Roe. What we are doing is passing a piece of legislation that will be signed with great fanfare, and it will be declared unconstitutional across the street. Instead, we could have joined hands across party lines, we could have joined hands across ideological lines, we could have banned every single late-term abortion with an exception for life and health, but the other side refuses to do this--refuses to do this. I do not understand how you can stand here and say you are doing the right thing by the women in this country and not make an exception to protect the health of a mother. I hope many of us will vote this down. I have no illusions in the final vote, but it has been an excellent debate. I hope America was listening. I thank you very much.