Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I am asking my question. Isn't it true, I say to my friend, that this is the only way the Congress can assert itself since we have no control over what happens in the courts, that we can do something about sparing your people and the other people around this country from what California went through?

Mrs. BOXER. What we do control is this Energy bill and this electricity title. My friend is so right to try and protect his people and the people from every State in the Union from what my people went through in California and Senator Cantwell's people went through.

Mrs. BOXER. First of all, I thank the Senator for his, as usual, very concise reasoning over where we are. We are at a bit of an impasse because of what my colleague said. I want to ask my friend, is he aware that for the Kuhl nomination both Senators from her State oppose her confirmation? Is my colleague aware of that?

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mrs. BOXER. Will my friend yield for a question?

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, before Senator Feingold leaves the Chamber, I thank him for his comments. Since he is my seatmate on the Foreign Relations Committee, which in itself is an honor for me, I recall that we were very skeptical from the start about going it essentially alone in Iraq. He and I have pressed very hard to work through the U.N. weapons inspectors and to have the whole world breathing down Saddam's neck. Now, as it turned out, we essentially did it alone and we are bearing the burden of these tragic deaths every day, deaths that are almost going, I hate to say, unnoticed now, although some of us talk about the brave soldiers we are losing. When it comes to the funding of this war, we are up to $45 billion to $50 billion a year, even without the rebuild. As my friend knows, because he has been a major force for fiscal responsibility, we cannot even share that burden. Even when countries such as the Poles come forward, and we are grateful to them for sharing the burden on the ground, we are paying for it. How can we sustain these costs at a time when our deficits are skyrocketing? So we are in a bit of a mess, and I hope the President will move more forcefully toward internationalizing the rebuilding of Iraq and sharing the burden because that is the answer. That is what a real leader has to do. We all said that the 21st century would be America's century but that does not mean we do it alone. It means we lead the world against tyrants and against the war on terror. So I wanted to thank my friend before he left the Chamber. Nomination of Carolyn B. Kuhl

Mrs. BOXER. It is very interesting that you said this because when we heard from Mr. Wolfowitz in front of the Foreign Relations Committee where we had a hearing on the rebuilding of Iraq, the first thing he said matched what Mr. Bremer said, who is in charge of the rebuilding. He said: Those people over there need jobs. They need to get the economy going. They need jobs. And I say to my friend, isn't there something ironic about that, that there is a total understanding of what the folks in Iraq need, when I could say in my State and yours and all through America, this should be the priority of the President in this country.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, thank you very much. I thank my colleague from Washington for her continued leadership and information about what is a very complicated matter. It isn't easy to understand and follow all the market manipulation that occurred in our Western States. But she has explained it. I intend to do so as well. Let me say this: When the majority leader says we have to have an Energy bill, I agree we need an Energy bill. However, we need a good Energy bill. We don't need a bad Energy bill. If we have an Energy bill which doesn't attack what happened in the west coast, then I want to say to my colleagues from every State in the Union--and I will be speaking for about 15 or 20 minutes--I will tell every colleague here from every State in the Union their people could very well go through what my people went through in California.

Mrs. BOXER. Absolutely.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, the reason I waited for 2 hours this morning to speak today is to send a warning to my colleagues. Read what you are about to do. I find it incredible that instead of continuing on the present path--which is to amend the electricity title in a way that would make it better, in ways that would protect the American people from the type of scam we witnessed in the west coast, which in my State alone cost us about $9 billion, if not more, and which is responsible for about a third of the problems we are facing financially in my State--instead of fixing that electricity title, what do we have? We have an amendment filed stopping our ability to make any changes to it, and which, by the way, eviscerates all of the 21 amendments we have worked so hard on during the 8 days we have been on this bill, including amendments by Republicans and Democrats alike, dealing with biomass, LIHEAP, oil independence, clean coal, hydrogen, and so on. Even the 21 amendments we worked so hard on have been left out of this bill which is now pending, and if we go to it, those 21 amendments will be gone. I also hope that leadership is working now to straighten out where we are. We are in chaos, in my opinion, right now. When the majority leader says we need an Energy bill, I want to say we need a good Energy bill. The last thing we need is a bad Energy bill. Let's look at this bill. This bill has an electricity title which goes forward with deregulation in the face of the disaster we had on the west coast. Why colleagues would go ahead with this is beyond me. But I have to say, in California, every single member of the legislature--Republican and Democrat--years ago voted for such a bill. It was signed by Pete Wilson, who is the one who brought it to the legislature. And it led to a total disaster. So maybe my colleagues don't understand the fact that this is one where you better read every line and you better understand what you are voting for because this one could come back to bite you really hard. In the bill we have huge subsidies for nuclear power. We don't even know what to do with the waste. I see my colleague from Nevada crossing the floor. He is struggling with this. What are you going to do with the waste that lasts thousands of years that is so dangerous? We don't even know. But this subsidizes new nuclear powerplants. This bill has done nothing about fuel economy--zilch. The amendment that passed was backed, frankly, by the big auto companies, and it does nothing, at a time when we are hoping to change our dependence on foreign oil. What we have is a bill that ignores what happened to us in California. I see that my senior Senator is here. And no one knows better than she and I what this has meant to our people. And we are trying to be good colleagues to our colleagues to say: Wait. Stop. Time out. Don't go down that path that we went down. In the midst of the crisis, I got a letter from a gentleman who lives in Bishop, CA. I ask unanimous consent to have that letter printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I have one last question for my colleague through the Chair. I just want to say, as someone from a State that has been painfully hurt by the electricity scams that went on on the west coast--and I think Senator Cantwell has put it best when she relays the story that when she goes home--and I can tell her, it happens to me, too--people say: Why isn't Ken Lay in jail--Ken Lay, the head of Enron Corporation? They ask me about Jeff Skilling who came before the Commerce Committee and defended these schemes. He didn't know anything about all the schemes that came to light that hurt the people of California to the tune of probably an $11 billion theft. So I ask my friend, through the Chair, this question: We have no control over when and if ever Ken Lay goes to jail or the other scoundrels who did this to the people of the west coast by making these phony shortages and stealing their money for things they need to survive. We don't control that. The administration does, through the Attorney General's Office. I hope they are moving aggressively, but it is awful slow.

Mrs. BOXER. I want to further say to my friend, when Bill Clinton was President and Orrin Hatch was chair of the Judiciary Committee, if one of the two Senators from that particular State did not send back a permission slip--or, as we call it around here, a blue slip--the nomination never moved forward. Is my colleague aware that rule is changed by the chairman and, indeed, ignoring Senators' views? I would say through the Chair, is my colleague aware that Senator Hatch changed that rule?

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. My colleague points out that what she is attempting to do in this amendment, of which I am so proud to be a cosponsor, is to make sure what happened to Washington and Oregon and California is not going to happen to any other State, be it Kansas, be it Illinois, be it anywhere else. For the life of me, I guess I need to say to my friend, does she understand why anyone in this Chamber, knowing what happened to our States, knowing what happened to our businesses, knowing what happened to our consumers, knowing what happened, in the case of California, to our State budget because our Governor protected the consumers from these rates--can my friend understand why there would be one vote against her amendment, given what we know happened to us?

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield?

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for just a moment on this point? I am going to go into a markup and then return.

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator for her leadership on this amendment. I know there are several other amendments she will be offering. The Senator has explained very clearly what has happened to real people who are trying to pay their bills on something that is absolutely necessary for life itself. I ask my colleague a question on this point. In California, where we had this all begin, there was some ill-advised legislation signed into law by then-Governor Pete Wilson which brought this deregulation to my State. Is my colleague aware that the rates started to double, triple, and more, in our State, that our State government under Governor Gray Davis said, the people cannot afford this. He went out and said that he would, in fact, take care of this crisis. As a result, our State is in deep debt. About a third of our debt can be related directly to what the electricity companies did with their schemes that you are going to be explaining and I will be talking about later. Is my colleague aware that a third of the problem in California is directly related to the energy scam?

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I have come to the Senate floor several times this year to eulogize our young men and women who have died during the war in Iraq, as well those who have been killed during the postwar period. Today, I want to honor and remember three additional Americans who were from California or were based in California who have died since the war officially ended. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David J. Moreno, age 26, of Gering, NE, was killed July 17 in Iraq. David was assigned to the Naval Medical Center, Fourth Marine Division Detachment, San Diego, CA. Marine LCpl Jason Andrew Tetrault, age 20, of Moreno Valley, CA, was killed in Kuwait on July 9 in a vehicle accident. He was assigned to the 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Twentynine Palms, CA. He was the quarterback for the Moreno Valley High School football team. He loved the outdoors, and told his family that he was looking forward to returning to California's beaches and seeing the Pacific Ocean again. Marine LCpl Cory Ryan Geurin, age 18, of Santee, CA, was killed in Iraq on July 15. He graduated from West Hills High School in suburban San Diego and was the captain of the school's wrestling team his senior year. Cory was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Twentynine Palms, CA. Mr. President, 58 individuals who were from California or based in California have died while serving our country in Iraq. The people of California, as well as all Americans, mourn their loss. I continue to pray for the safety of all of our troops and hope that they will soon be reunited with their families. I also continue my call for burden sharing in postwar Iraq so that American soldiers will not be singled out.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. What I said was your support was not enthusiastic, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I wanted to answer your point that you were worried about how to collect this information. I want to tell you that our States have very clearly documented----

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I thank the committee very much. I cannot tell you how much I look forward to the day that the Department has agreed on a particular system, and that we can begin the installation of the system I think will send a very good message to the flying public. We will stay on top of this until we see it through. Amendment No. 1331 (Purpose: To investigate the expenses caused by Secret Service activities)

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

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, will the Senator withhold his request?

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Chair. I wanted to thank Senator Cochran for his support, although not enormous support, but support for this amendment. Senator Cochran, I want to address your comments, and I thank you for your support, although I say not the most enthusiastic, but nonetheless I am very appreciative.

Mrs. BOXER. I am happy to do that, Mr. President. I wanted to mention to Senator Cochran, because he made some criticism of how we would get these numbers, that it was very easy for the highway patrol in my State to compile the numbers because all of our States are in a budget crunch and they all have to document the numbers in their States. So all the Secret Service has to do, or Department of Homeland Defense, is to simply ask our States for these numbers. I can assure the Senator from Mississippi that our States are reeling, they are hurting, and it would be very simple for them to do this. I have not placed this letter into the Record because of the concerns of the Senator that these numbers should be classified. I do not agree with that, but I respect it. So I am not going to place this in the Record. The bottom line is it would be very simple for our States to document these numbers, and I hope I am proven right. I will discuss this with the Department of Homeland Security because clearly the purpose of my amendment is not to cause anybody any extra trouble. It is simply to be fair to our States, our police departments, and our first responders. Again, I want to thank Senators Byrd and Cochran for agreeing to this amendment. The reason I want to have a record vote on it is clear. This is the first time we will ever be asking that this be documented. So I wanted to have a solid vote on it so it would not get lost in the shuffle. I have no need to speak any further. I am most appreciative that both of these amendments appear likely to be agreed to. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I start by thanking the chairman and ranking member for their support of this amendment. Basically, we have a wonderful Secret Service unit in our Federal Government. They are very professional and they do a wonderful job in protecting our dignitaries, both foreign and domestic--whether it is a President, Vice President, a Presidential candidate, the Vice President, their families, or the head of a foreign power. It is absolutely a fact that they are the best there is. A lesser known fact is that when those dignitaries visit our States-- Arkansas, California, Missouri--our law enforcement personnel are asked to help the Secret Service and, of course, they do it. But they don't get reimbursed for the cost of doing that. This is beginning to sting our people at home. My amendment will simply let us know the extent of the problem. I have a letter from the California Highway Patrol, and they tell me that last year they spent over $700,000. I hope we will have a unanimous vote on this. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. I move to reconsider the vote.