Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator. We are doing everything in our power. This shows the American people right on the floor of the Senate the way Senators have been working with us. I wish to say to my friend I am so proud he is on the Environment and Public Works Committee and how he has looked after his State. He has some very important things in this bill. As a matter of fact, his work on the extreme weather title is very important and would allow us to prevent these terrible floods before they start. Yes, we are looking at things such as this in every State. We are trying to do everything in our power to meet every Senator's needs. Sometimes what happens is it is kind of like that pop-up game. Something pops up over here, and it is OK, but then something else pops up over here. It is the legislative fix we are trying to meet and get to here, the legislative fix so every State feels comfortable. This is an important bill. There is no other bill that deals with the Everglades. There is no other bill that will deal with the Chesapeake Bay. There is no other bill that is possible that would allow us to move forward with these important flood control issues, because when we ended earmarks, we had no way to authorize any programs. This Boxer-Vitter bill is not just an important bill, it is an essential bill. We need to move forward. The extreme weather title I talked about that Senator Sanders helped us write will require the corps and the National Academy of Science to jointly evaluate options for reducing risks related to future extreme weather events. Let me say that again. Right now the corps is not authorized to look ahead and say, given the extreme weather we are having, what is it we can do across this country to prepare. This study will give us a roadmap to that. Without this bill, we don't have it. Without this bill, we have no reforms in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. People are paying good money into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for dredging our ports. Yet the full amount of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is not going for those uses. We make moves toward capturing more of those funds. The smaller ports have a good title, the Great Lakes, the seaports that are large donors such as Los Angeles and Long Beach make progress. I think it is a win- win. Our bill is certainly not perfect. Every one of us could write it in ways that benefit our States even more, I think there is no question, starting with the chairman of the committee. But we have to deal with everybody's issues, everybody's concerns, everybody's problems. We support 500,000 jobs in this bill. There are very few bills that come before us that could make that claim. I think we can show the American people we can work together. We have this one last stage, and we are working so hard. I wish to say to my staff--who are still working. My staff and Senator Vitter's staff have worked nonstop. I am talking about Saturday, Sunday, last night. They were still in the office at 11 o'clock. I just want to praise them. People don't see that. People don't understand these bills don't magically appear. Dealing with every Senator, I think everyone knows every one of us has a very strong personality. They truly care about their States and fight for their States. It is tough to try to preserve everyone's rights and everybody's wishes. We have to work with Senator Mikulski in a very good way and Senator Shelby. Senator Landrieu has worked hard on this bill, and now she has an amendment we are trying to dispose of. I hope we will get the approval to do that. Once we finish our work, Congressman Shuster, Chairman Shuster over in the House, needs to pass a bill or could take up our bill and pass it. When I read this list to you, I didn't even get to all of the names. This is one of the broadest coalitions I have ever seen behind any piece of legislation. It is a huge and important coalition. It represents America. It is people who work every day at building the infrastructure, utilizing the infrastructure, and making sure our homes are safe from flooding. The list includes the National Governors Association. It is a rarity to have that kind of a list. At this point, we are supposed to vote at noon, and we will be back to you with some further comments. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. While we discuss how we are going to proceed, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. I ask unanimous consent that the time during quorum calls be divided equally.

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

Mrs. BOXER. If my friend will yield, through the Chair, I think he has covered it. Basically what I want to make sure people know as they go to their various conference meetings this afternoon is that we have a very fair list. I think it probably has more Republican amendments than Democratic amendments. We have done everything to reach an agreement. But I also want to support my leader. If there is objection to this important list of amendments, we will go straight to cloture. I want everyone to understand, without this bill there will be no more water infrastructure projects because there is no path forward. Since we ended earmarks, this is the one bill that will make sure there is a path forward. Without water infrastructure earmarks you cannot keep commerce moving at the ports, you can't do flood control, you can't restore the Everglades or the Chesapeake. I strongly support what my leader is doing but I also hope colleagues will please allow us to move forward, make the cloture vote unnecessary. But we are going to have that cloture vote, if necessary, at 2:30.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. What is the order?

Mrs. BOXER. We are working on our finite list, and we expect to make our unanimous consent shortly. I note the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. For the interest of Senators, we are going to very shortly propound a consent agreement that has been cleared by Senator Vitter and myself and we will see where that takes us. If it needs to be modified, we may well do that, but I want Senators to know it is our hope we can avert a cloture vote at this time. I ask unanimous consent the following amendments be considered and agreed to en bloc: Baucus No. 847, Boxer-Vitter No. 899 as modified, Inhofe No. 895, Wicker No. 894, Inhofe No. 867, Boozman No. 872, Thune No. 912, Cornyn No. 880, Murkowski No. 904, Klobuchar No. 884, Wyden No. 870 as modified, Cochran No. 911 as modified, Carper No. 882, Murkowski No. 903 as modified, Durbin No. 906 as modified, Levin No. 893, Collins No. 898, Cardin No. 861 as modified, Brown-Graham No. 907, and Wyden No. 896; further, that the only remaining amendments in order to the bill be the following: Inhofe No. 797, Barrasso No. 868, Sanders No. 889, Johnson and Landrieu--Johnson No. 891, Landrieu No. 888, Coburn No. 815, Coburn No. 816, Boozman No. 822, Merkley No. 866, Udall of New Mexico No. 853, and Hoeven No. 909; further, that no second- degree amendments be in order to any of the amendments prior to votes in relation to the amendment; that the time until 5 p.m. be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees for debate on all of the amendments; that at 5 p.m. the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order I have listed; that all after the first vote be 10-minute votes; that there be 2 minutes equally divided prior to each vote; that the following amendments be subjected to a 60- affirmative-vote threshold: Sanders No. 899, Johnson No. 891, Landrieu No. 888, and Barrasso No. 868; finally, that upon disposition of the Hoeven amendment No. 909, the cloture motion be withdrawn, the Senate proceed to vote on the passage of S. 601, as amended.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, it is my understanding, listening to my friend from Pennsylvania, that he objects to the Landrieu amendment. It is also my understanding that Senator Landrieu would like to be heard on this matter. Then I will propound a new consent request. I ask she get the floor and I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I think everybody who is listening to this understands that there has been a disagreement here--a pretty tough one. I have to praise Senator Landrieu for saying: Look, I am going to bring this fight back another day. She has told me she would be willing to support a new, modified request--the same one I made about 10 minutes ago--and take out Johnson amendment No. 891 and Landrieu amendment No. 888. I believe the new request will be acceptable to all in the Senate. I renew my request with that change--the deletion of Johnson amendment No. 891 and Landrieu amendment No. 888. I ask unanimous consent that we move forward with this agreement at this time.

Mrs. BOXER. If I might respond to my friend's request, the American people need to know that we are dealing on this Senate floor with a bill that is the Water Resources Development Act. This bill is about improvements in flood control so we don't have anymore Hurricane Sandys. This is also about port-deepening and about 500,000 jobs. This is about restoring the Chesapeake Bay and the Everglades in my friend's home State. What a beautiful spot that is, I say to my friend. It is not about the IRS scandal, although I could not agree more with my friend. Anyone who would play politics at the IRS is doing a disservice to this Nation. I am happy to look at this law. They ought to be canned. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an inquiry which took place by the IRS into a church in my State--the All Saints Church--in the district of Adam Schiff be printed in the Record.

Mrs. BOXER. Republicans and Democrats at that time asked for investigations into this, and this is from 2005. I ask unanimous consent that an article that talks about the investigation of the NAACP that involved the IRS in 2006 be printed in the Record. This is a continuing scandal. It is outrageous, and I think anyone who goes after a liberal group should be canned. Anyone who goes after a conservative group should be canned unless there is reason to do so. But it appears they are not following the rules of nonprofits, which is they cannot be political. I ask that those items be placed in the Record only to remind people that this is a bad and terrible thing that has happened, and it has been a while. I object to the request that we place such an urgently important matter on this long-term bill. It is going to take a while for us to get it through the House. We don't know when the conference will come back. I object to the unanimous consent request to turn a bill like this into a bill about the IRS scandal.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, it is my understanding--and I ask the floor staff to correct me--is it so that we just now passed the first number of amendments that don't require votes? Was that just done in the unanimous consent? Is that correct?

Mrs. BOXER. I am very pleased with that. We had about 15 of these amendments--quite bipartisan. Half of the amendments were Democratic and half Republican, so that is good. Now what we are going to do is take up the amendments that require votes. It is my understanding that Senator Vitter wants to speak on the Barrasso amendment, which is fine. I say to my colleagues through the Chair that they now have approximately 2 hours to come down and make the case on their votes. Senators Inhofe, Barrasso, Sanders, Coburn, Boozman, Merkley, Udall, and Hoeven is where we are. If they wish to be heard, then it is time to come over and be heard. At this time, I yield the floor.

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

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise now to speak in opposition to the Barrasso amendment No. 868 and to explain why. Before I talk about why I hope the Senate will defeat this amendment, I wish to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working so closely with me and with Senator Vitter. The underlying bill is a very good bill and it protects every State. We look at every State's needs. Whether it is flooding, whether it is preserving fishing, whether it is about ports, whether the ports are inland or coastal, medium, small, or large, we have gone out of our way on both sides of the aisle to accommodate Senators. I wish to speak about Barrasso amendment No. 868, which will be the first amendment to come before us. It is an anti-environmental rider. Now, here we go again, again and again and again. There is no reason to bring these anti-environmental riders onto every single piece of legislation that goes through here, but yet that is what we face. So I agreed that we would have a vote on this in the spirit of good faith because it certainly is not germane to this bill. It is not. It has to do with the Clean Water Act. It does not have to do with the Water Resources Development Act. This Barrasso amendment says the guidance that has been developed by the Army Corps of Engineers and by the Environmental Protection Agency as they get ready for a rulemaking after a Court decision is null and void--without a hearing, without giving the corps a chance to explain their guidance, without giving the EPA a chance to explain their guidance. Without looking at the Court's decision his amendment would say the guidance is blocked because he does not like the guidance. Well, trust me. I am sure I do not like everything in the guidance either. But let the process go forward. The guidance is necessary so there can be a rulemaking, which is essential. Right now there is nothing but chaos after the Court's ruling. People do not know what the Clean Water Act covers. So the Army Corps, working with the EPA, has issued some guidance. It is not the final rule, it is guidance. The Barrasso amendment throws the guidance out, throws it into the garbage can, says it cannot be used. If anything like it is ever used, there can be no rulemaking. The Barrasso amendment stops, therefore, the rulemaking. He may not say it explicitly, but if you cannot use any of the guidance, any of the work that has been done, then you cannot have a rule. Let me tell you who opposes not having a rule: the business community. The business community opposes it. Everyone opposes it. Everybody wants a rule. The vague restriction will make it impossible to initiate a rulemaking, to define what waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. The Barrasso amendment locks into place the current confusion created in the wake of two Supreme Court decisions. He does it by prohibiting any future update of the Clean Water Act regulations or related guidance. Industry associations and 30 Republican Senators who are opposed to the guidance developed by the Obama administration have called for a rulemaking. They have called for a rulemaking. The letters were just sent to the EPA last month. What we believe to be absolutely accurate is if you throw out the guidance, if you vote for this Barrasso amendment and you say no guidance that looks anything like this will ever be used, there can be no rulemaking. For decades the Clean Water Act has provided broad protections for the Nation's waters. The Barrasso amendment stops the corps from restoring these longstanding protections, leaving many waters at risk. Let me tell you what that means. Streams that provide drinking water for up to 117 million Americans may not be covered by the Clean Water Act. That is dangerous for the people because there is all kinds of pollution that gets dumped into these streams. There are 20 million acres of wetlands that provide flood protection and serve as wildlife habitat. There will be no rules governing them because of the way the Barrasso amendment is written. Any effort to clear up uncertainty that has resulted in delays and confusion and slowed efforts to hold polluters accountable will be null and void, can have no effect. You cannot use the guidance. You have to throw it away. If anything comes forward that remotely resembles it, you have to throw it away. Then you cannot make a rule. This is harmful. In closing, I want to talk about from what harm we want to protect the people. We know some of the dangerous pollution that gets dumped into our Nation's waters sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident. But we have chemical pollution and all kinds of industrial pollution. It includes such chemicals as arsenic--very dangerous for people. I will have more to say on the specifics, but we know there is waterborne disease. People get very ill if the drinking water is not good, if the swimming water is not good. The warmer our waters are getting, the more dangerous it is. Certain organisms that live in these warmer waters never existed before. We had a case in Ohio where a child got deathly ill because the water was so warm it attracted these different kinds of bacteria and organisms. So when I stand here, I speak from the heart. All of us do. But I know we should not vote on something that precludes us from protecting the health and safety and the lives of our people who are the most vulnerable, the children--the children, the pregnant women, the elderly. My goodness, if we are here for any reason, it would certainly be to do no harm to them. The Barrasso amendment does a lot of harm. It does not belong on the Water Resources Development Act, which is about building projects to protect people using flood control. It is about dredging our waters. It is making sure commerce can move. This is an anti-environmental rider. It does not belong on this bill. It is dangerous for the people. I urge my colleagues to vote no when the vote comes before us. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Will the Senator yield for a unanimous consent request?

Mrs. BOXER. We have a vote locked in at 5 p.m., so the Senator can speak up until 5 p.m.

Mrs. BOXER. I ask unanimous consent that at 5 p.m., the Senate vote in relation to the Inhofe, Barrasso, and Sanders amendments as provided under the previous order; that following the vote in relation to the Sanders amendment, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes; further, that when the Senate resumes consideration on S. 601 on Wednesday, May 15, it resume the voting sequence in the previous order with all after the first vote being 10 minutes and all other provisions of the previous order remaining in effect.

Mrs. BOXER. For the information of all Senators, it is our expectation that the Inhofe amendment will be the subject of a voice vote. If that occurs there will be two rollcall votes this evening, and the remainder of the votes will occur tomorrow. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, shortly we are going to vote; I believe it will be a voice vote on the Inhofe amendment. It is not a controversial amendment; everybody agrees to it. Then we will proceed to the Barrasso amendment which I have spoken about before. I wish to urge my colleagues to be very careful on this one because it has unintended consequences. The way the Barrasso amendment is drafted, it tries to say, in advance of a rulemaking, that if the rulemaking includes any infrastructure from the guidance that has been put forward by the corps and the EPA--if it even contains anything like it--``the rule will be considered as having been vacated.'' That is a quote. So the bottom line is, the Barrasso amendment is such an overreach that we will keep the whole issue of waters of the United States in chaos--and it is in chaos. We received letters from business people begging us to allow the rulemaking to go forward, but because of the way the Barrasso amendment is drafted, essentially we are not going to ever have a rule. So why is it important to have a rule that is very clear and explains what waters are covered under the Clean Water Act? Let me tell my colleagues why. Without protections of a rule, dangerous pollutants could be put into our waterways. This isn't just hyperbole. We are talking about toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and lead. We are talking about toxins that cause cancer and harm the health of infants and children in particular. Who are the vulnerables? The infants, the children and the elderly and those who are disabled. They are the ones who are the victims of filthy, dirty water. I am not saying my friend Senator Barrasso wants to get people sick. I am not saying that. But I am saying there is an unintended consequence of the overreach in this amendment which is pretty clear to all who read it. It says if the draft guidance that has already been looked at is included in any way, shape or form into a final rule, then the whole rule is thrown out on its face and that leaves the situation in chaos. Say I come to the Presiding Officer and say: I am going to write a book about mathematics. The Presiding Officer says: That is very exciting, but there is only one thing. I am your publisher and you can't put one single number in the book--not a 1 to a 2 to a 3. You can write a book on mathematics, but it can't contain any numbers. That is the most ridiculous situation. But this is the essence of the Barrasso amendment. It is telling people who are going to write a rule that they can't take anything that was put in the draft guidance and put it into that rule. It makes absolutely no sense. I want to protect people from toxics such as lead and arsenic. Without these safeguards of the rule, our drinking water supplies would be more at risk and the laws of these protections would increase the risks of dangerous floods in downstream communities because it would eliminate wetlands protections. One of the things I learned when I was a county supervisor a very long time ago is that wetlands kept in their natural state and enhanced are the best way to have flood protection. When I went to Louisiana after Katrina, I was struck by the fact that the whole community understood the importance of the wetlands, because they absorb the floodwaters. So now, because we are not going to be able to define what is a body of water that falls under the Clean Water Act, we are going to have a major problem with our wetlands. We are going to have a major problem with our rivers. We are going to have a major problem with our streams. We are talking about enormous bodies of water that are unprotected now because there is no rule. Under the Barrasso amendment, my opinion is-- and it isn't just my opinion--there will not be any rule because if the rule picks up anything in the guidance at all--anything substantially similar to the guidance at all--it will be automatically overturned. I wish to say to my friend, if he doesn't like a rule, he has the CRA, the Congressional Review Act. He can wait until he gets the rule. Don't prejudge it. Don't say the rule is vacated. That is pretty dictatorial to people who are in charge of protecting our water supply. Nobody wants our kids to get more cancer. Nobody wants this to happen. We have to protect streams that provide drinking water for up to 117 million Americans. We have 20 million acres of wetlands that provide flood protection, improve water quality, and serve as wildlife habitat. So the hour of 5 o'clock is upon us. We are going to vote on the Inhofe amendment first. Then we will turn to Senator Barrasso for a moment to make his case, and then I will have 1 minute after that. So at this time we return to regular order. I note the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I call up Inhofe amendment No. 797.