Ted Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Yes. We are trying to go back and forth. We are working together, Senator Kyl and ourselves. If there seems to be two amendments on the same subject, we are trying to deal with those issues.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Senator from Texas raised probably four or five points that I know of in the course of these discussions. We are familiar with the general subject matter. If I could have the attention of my colleagues, he had raised probably four or five issues that related to the title II. I listened to him this morning at the breakfast, and he raised a point on title II. So if he wants to, we are prepared to move ahead with the Senator's amendments. We are familiar with the general area. I know there are going to be drafting issues, but we are glad to accommodate that. We don't want the technical aspects to slow the process. So we are familiar with those subject matters. The Senator could get a hard look maybe over tonight about the particular areas and then talk with us tomorrow, and we will make sure we have the time and that we are prepared to go ahead. We are more than ready to be here. We had a good afternoon. We enjoyed it. We started on it at a quarter to 3 and worked until 6:15. We are prepared to go this evening or tomorrow or tomorrow night or the following night. We are not trying to rush anybody, but we are prepared to do business. (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I wish to address the Senate about a very important subject. Too often it takes a crisis for Congress to take action on a national need. We have had crisis after crisis on drug safety, and yesterday we learned of another. A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the diabetes drug Avandia may increase the risk of heart attacks and death. If further evidence were needed that improving drug safety is an urgent priority, yesterday's report puts the matter beyond doubt. The Senate has approved strong and comprehensive legislation to improve drug safety. That proposal should be taken up by the House and enacted without delay. Yesterday's report was based on an analysis of clinical trials conducted by a team of physicians and scientists, and I commend them for their skill and perseverance. Why isn't FDA doing this kind of analysis, and why aren't companies required to undertake additional safety tests if there are unanswered questions about their products? The simple answer is, the FDA does not have the resources to conduct these analyses itself, and it doesn't have the authority needed to require companies to perform them. The legislation the Senate recently approved corrects both of these major flaws. Our legislation requires FDA to link electronic health care databases to allow for better, faster identification and assessment of safety problems. The bill adds to the fees that drug companies are required to pay and devotes new funds to drug safety. Unforeseen risks of a drug must be caught as quickly as possible so that effective protections can be implemented before more lives are needlessly put at risk, and our legislation makes that happen. The New England Journal recommended a large prospective trial as the best way to get the answers we need. FDA should have clear authority to require such trials, and our bill provides it. Some trials studied in the journal report were included in a registry that Glaxo voluntarily maintains. The Senate bill requires the results of clinical trials to be made available to the public in a single, easily accessible database. That will help patients get information about the medicines they take, and it will help scientists identify drug safety problems faster. Information alone is not enough to protect public health. FDA needs the authority to take action where needed. Right now all FDA can do after approval is request a labeling change or request a medication guide or request patient labeling or request a review of drug advertising. Safeguarding the lives of American patients should not have to depend on requests. Our bill gives the FDA the authority to require those measures and impose civil monetary penalties to enforce them. Our legislation will make FDA, once again, the gold standard for protecting public health. It should not take a new crisis to bring Congress to act. I look forward to working with our colleagues in the House to see that this legislation is signed into law without delay.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to join my colleague Senator Hutchison in introducing the Hepatitis C Epidemic Control and Prevention Act of 2007. Senator Hutchison's leadership has been essential in developing this legislation, which will encourage programs for hepatitis C across the country similar to the programs that have been so effective in Texas. Our goal is to expand and improve health education, screening, and treatment to deal more effectively with the epidemic of hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a life-threatening disease caused by a virus and is the most common chronic, blood-borne infection in the United States. An estimated 5 million people, almost 2 percent of the population, are now infected with the hepatitis C virus. More than half a million of these Americans are suffering from chronic infection, and 30,000 more are infected every year. Those infected come from all walks of life, and their numbers are growing fast. People at greatest risk include emergency service personnel, veterans, health care workers, and intravenous drug and methamphetamine users. Hepatitis C also disproportionately affects medically underserved populations, including African Americans, Native Americans, persons of Hispanic or Asian/Pacific Island descent, and the homeless. It is truly a ``silent'' epidemic since the vast majority of these individuals are unaware of their infection. Millions are not receiving the care that could slow the progression of the disease or even cure it. Those who are not aware of their infection are less likely to take precautions against spreading the disease to others. Unlike the hepatitis A and B viruses, there is no vaccine currently available to prevent hepatitis C infection. It is critical to improve the screening process, so that everyone infected can be identified, obtain treatment, and learn healthier behavior. The infection has serious health effects. It can cause liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer, and is the leading cause of adult liver transplants. Chronic liver disease, most of which is caused by this virus, is now the most common cause of death among persons infected with HIV. In addition to the human costs, the disease has massive financial implications. Direct medical costs associated with care are alone expected to exceed $1 billion a year by 2010, and those costs will undoubtedly increase without better prevention and treatment programs. Greater Federal investment will play a critical role in reversing this silent epidemic. Our bill will increase public awareness of the dangers of hepatitis C, and make testing widely available. For those already infected, it will provide counseling, referrals, and vaccination against hepatitis A and B and other infectious diseases. It will also support research, including the development of a vaccine against hepatitis C. It also supports increased hepatitis C surveillance activities by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and creates hepatitis C coordinators to provide technical assistance and training to State public health agencies. This bill will have a major impact on the lives of millions of Americans who are infected by hepatitis C, and the families and loved ones who care for them. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues to act quickly to pass this needed legislation.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to join my colleague Senator Hutchison in introducing the Hepatitis C Epidemic Control and Prevention Act of 2007. Senator Hutchison's leadership has been essential in developing this legislation, which will encourage programs for hepatitis C across the country similar to the programs that have been so effective in Texas. Our goal is to expand and improve health education, screening, and treatment to deal more effectively with the epidemic of hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a life-threatening disease caused by a virus and is the most common chronic, blood-borne infection in the United States. An estimated 5 million people, almost 2 percent of the population, are now infected with the hepatitis C virus. More than half a million of these Americans are suffering from chronic infection, and 30,000 more are infected every year. Those infected come from all walks of life, and their numbers are growing fast. People at greatest risk include emergency service personnel, veterans, health care workers, and intravenous drug and methamphetamine users. Hepatitis C also disproportionately affects medically underserved populations, including African Americans, Native Americans, persons of Hispanic or Asian/Pacific Island descent, and the homeless. It is truly a ``silent'' epidemic since the vast majority of these individuals are unaware of their infection. Millions are not receiving the care that could slow the progression of the disease or even cure it. Those who are not aware of their infection are less likely to take precautions against spreading the disease to others. Unlike the hepatitis A and B viruses, there is no vaccine currently available to prevent hepatitis C infection. It is critical to improve the screening process, so that everyone infected can be identified, obtain treatment, and learn healthier behavior. The infection has serious health effects. It can cause liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer, and is the leading cause of adult liver transplants. Chronic liver disease, most of which is caused by this virus, is now the most common cause of death among persons infected with HIV. In addition to the human costs, the disease has massive financial implications. Direct medical costs associated with care are alone expected to exceed $1 billion a year by 2010, and those costs will undoubtedly increase without better prevention and treatment programs. Greater Federal investment will play a critical role in reversing this silent epidemic. Our bill will increase public awareness of the dangers of hepatitis C, and make testing widely available. For those already infected, it will provide counseling, referrals, and vaccination against hepatitis A and B and other infectious diseases. It will also support research, including the development of a vaccine against hepatitis C. It also supports increased hepatitis C surveillance activities by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and creates hepatitis C coordinators to provide technical assistance and training to State public health agencies. This bill will have a major impact on the lives of millions of Americans who are infected by hepatitis C, and the families and loved ones who care for them. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues to act quickly to pass this needed legislation.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following detailees and fellows on my staff, Mary Giovagnoli, Todd Kushner, and Mischelle VanBrakle, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the first session of the 110th Congress.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, how much time do I have?

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I yield such time as the Senator from Colorado might use.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I thank my friend and colleague from Colorado for his statement and his inspired leadership. We have worked on a number of different issues. I can recall the extraordinary leadership the Senator from Colorado provided last year when we debated comprehensive immigration reform. He brings to this issue a knowledge and understanding and perspective which is very special in terms of any issue, particularly this one. I have enjoyed working with him and look forward to continuing to do so. I hope our colleagues listened carefully to his message because he has demonstrated a thoughtfulness about this issue, as so many others have, a very strong, balanced judgment on these questions. I thank him, as always, for an excellent presentation and look forward to continuing to work closely with him as we move through the debate on whether we are going to take the opportunity to mend our broken immigration laws. I thank the Senator from Colorado. Madam President, today, we take up the solemn task of immigration reform--not just because we may but because we must. Our security is threatened in the post-9/11 world by borders out of control. Our values are tarnished when we allow 12 million human beings to live in the dark shadows of abuse as undocumented immigrants. Our economy is harmed when our immigration system fails to protect the American dream of a good job and decent wages. Our competitiveness in the global economy is at risk when our employers cannot find the able workers they need. Our immigration system is adrift and urgently needs an overhaul from top to bottom. The answers are not simple or easy. We cannot meet this challenge by simply building fences. We need comprehensive and commonsense solutions that meet the immigration needs of this century. We begin this debate mindful that immigration issues are always controversial. There are strong views on every side of this question because the issue goes to the heart of who we are as a nation and as an American people. But we should remember in this debate that we are writing the next chapter of American history. Immigrants made the America of today and will help make the America of the future. I am reminded of this awesome responsibility each time I gaze from the windows of my office in Boston. I can see the Golden Stairs from Boston Harbor where all eight of my great-grandparents set foot on this great land for the first time. They walked up to Boston's Immigration Hall on their way to a better life for themselves and their families. So many Americans can tell similar stories of ancestors who came from somewhere else. Some built our cities. Some toiled on our railroads. Some came in slavery--others to raise their families and live and worship in freedom. That immigrant spirit of limitless possibility animates America even today. Today, immigrants harvest our crops, care for our children, and own small businesses. They serve with pride in our armed forces--70,000 in all. At this very moment, many are risking their lives for America in Iraq and Afghanistan. Immigrants contribute to scientific discovery, to culture and the arts. They help make our economy the most vibrant one on the planet. Our strength, our diversity, our innovation, our music, our hard work, our love of country, our dedication to family, faith and community--these are the fruits of our immigrant heritage and the source of our national strength. They have made America the envy of the world. As President John F. Kennedy so eloquently wrote, the secret of America is that we are ``a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a spacious society that did not restrict their freedom of choice and action.'' Last week, we reached a historic agreement on a far reaching bipartisan immigration plan that lives up to this heritage. It involved hard negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, and it has the support of President Bush. Our plan is strong, realistic, and fair. It is a commonsense immigration policy for our times. It is tough at the border. It doubles our Border Patrol from 14,000 agents to 28,000. It hires 800 new investigators and 800 antismuggling officers. It builds more fences and more detention centers, and provides more state-of-the-art, high-tech border enforcement equipment. It is tough on employers who hire illegal immigrants in defiance of the law. Today, it is too easy for an employer to hire an undocumented worker and pay them substandard wages in sweatshop conditions. That hurts American workers. It depresses wages. It allows employers to avoid paying payroll taxes. Our bill says no more worker abuse. Under our plan, employers must verify that they hire only legal workers. If they do not, they can be fined up to $5,000 for a first offense and up to $75,000 for subsequent offenses. They can even go to jail. Our bill says that these tough enforcement measures must be in place first before we move forward with changes in future immigration. Future workers cannot come in until we have doubled the Border Patrol, built more fences, enhanced our equipment and technology along the border, and the employer verification system has begun. It is enforcement first and future workers later. Our plan also addresses the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are in America today. They have something to contribute. They are men and women of dignity. They work hard every day. They care for their families. They revitalize decaying neighborhoods. They sit in our pews on Sundays. We witnessed this recently in my own State of Massachusetts. An immigration raid in New Bedford disrupted the lives of scores of families who had laid down roots in the New Bedford community. Their children were in our schools, many of them born in America. They worked every day in a factory making equipment for our troops in Iraq. We are not going to round up these 12 million men, women and children and send them home. That is not the American way. So our plan allows these families to earn the privilege of remaining here and working legally. They have to pay a $5,000 fine over an 8-year period. They have to work and pay taxes. They have to learn English. They cannot be criminals or national security risks and they must obey our laws. The heads of family must make a trip home for a day or two sometime in the next 8 years to submit their applications for a green card at an American consulate just like other immigrants applying to come here. Then they are guaranteed the right to come right back to America right away to rejoin their families while they wait for their green card applications to be considered. Finally, they have to get in line for their green cards behind everyone else who has been waiting to come here legally. If they meet these tests, they will be welcomed into the sunshine of America. They will have no fear in coming forward and joining the American family. They will not be deported. Instead, we welcome them as our neighbors and as our friends and as future citizens of this great land. Our plan also continues to stress family reunification--a longstanding tradition under our immigration laws. Today, if you are trying to bring your relatives here legally, you might have to wait 22 years to get visas for them. As a result of this backlog, 4 million family members of American citizens and legal immigrants are on the waiting list to come here. Our plan expedites the reunion of these families and eliminates the waiting list in 8 years. In the future, our plan continues to make family reunion the highest priority. It says if you are an American citizen or a legal immigrant, you can bring your immediate family here to join you--your wife or husband, your minor children, and your parents. Of the 1 million green cards we issue each year, two-thirds will be dedicated to reuniting these families. But under our plan, more distant relatives will no longer have an automatic right to immigrate. They must first prove that they have the skills, education, and English abilities to contribute fully to our economic strength. Finally, our plan recognizes that our economy will continue to need hardworking people who are willing to come here for a few years. We need nurses and home health care aides. We need farm workers and janitors and hotel workers. We need computer programmers and scientists and engineers. So our program will allow them to come as guest workers under a program with strong labor laws that protect American jobs and wages. Our plan is a compromise. It involved give and take in the best traditions of the U.S. Senate. For each of us who crafted it, there are elements that we strongly support and elements we believe could be improved. No one believes this is a perfect bill. But after weeks of negotiations and years of debate, this bill accomplishes our core goals. It provides tough new enforcement at the border and the work site. It allows a realistic path to family security and eventual citizenship for millions of men, women, and children already here. And it provides a new system for allocating visas in the future that stresses family reunion and national economic needs. I don't usually quote Republican Presidents, but President Reagan understood the integral role that immigration plays in our country's future. As he said so eloquently in one of his last speeches before leaving the White House: We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people--our strength--from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe new life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost. The world is watching to see how we respond to the current crisis. Let's not disappoint them. I urge my colleagues to vote to proceed to this debate and to support our new plan. Madam President, we have two of our colleagues on our side, I believe, who are on their way to the floor at the present time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I am delighted to hear the Senators. Would you like to have one speaker on our time and one on the Republican time?

Mr. KENNEDY. Is that agreeable?

Mr. KENNEDY. We have a couple Senators who are on their way over. I thank the Senator.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, the Senator is typically kind and courteous. There were one or two Senators who said they might need a moment or two, but they haven't been back in touch. If they are, I might ask for a minute or two from the Senator. I thank him for his thoughtfulness.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, as I look at it, we have 11 minutes. The leaders had indicated to different Senators earlier that they wanted 5:30 p.m., and everyone is on notice for that to happen.

Mr. KENNEDY. That is the time we were told.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I have been told by the leadership that we can extend the debate by 10 minutes--5 minutes for the Senator from New Jersey and, if necessary, 5 minutes on the other side.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I think we have 5 minutes remaining, and I yield the time to the Senator from New Jersey.

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, do we have 1 minute or so?

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, will the Senator yield for a question? Perhaps we could mention, so all the Members understand, this then is the cloture vote on the motion to proceed, which will permit the Senate to begin the debate. So a vote in favor would permit at least the debate on this issue, which is of fundamental importance in terms of our country; am I correct?

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as always, we thank the Senator from West Virginia for insisting that Senate decorum be enforced. All of us understand his devotion to this institution and to its ability to function in an effective and efficient way. He reminds us, and we need to be reminded at times. We thank him. I remember Jennings Randolph making those points time and time again about standing at one's desk. That was back at another time, but I certainly remember his service to the country. So we have some idea of the way we are going to proceed, I have been notified, although I haven't had an opportunity to talk either to Senator Specter or Senator Kyl or others on the other side, that we have two amendments at least that are going to deal with the temporary worker provision, one which would effectively strike all of the temporary worker provisions that will be probably offered by the Senator from North Dakota, and another amendment which will be the amendment to reduce the number of temporary workers from 400,000 to 200,000. Those were amendments similar to the ones we had the last time we had the immigration bill. We had a good discussion, and we will have that debate, but we don't expect, obviously, that we will be voting this evening. We are prepared to involve or engage in the debate or discussion, if those Members want to, but it will be our hope that those amendments would be done in a timely way for tomorrow. It is a good way to get the debate started because it is an issue that is broad enough in scope that certainly those of us who were here during the last debate remember it quite clearly. Others can understand it quite well because it is a fairly obvious issue. It is about what is going to be the number, whether we are going to have a temporary worker program and whether we are going to have temporary workers at this dimension, 400,000 reduced to 200,000. I hope that will be the beginning of the debate. We will talk to those Members to try to give the membership as much notice as possible to address those issues in a timely way. They have indicated their desire to start with those. We would expect that to be done.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Arizona for his comments and for his general assessment of the circumstances we find ourselves with. I can certainly give the assurance to the people of Arizona that Senator Kyl is a person of extremely strong views, who has felt very deeply about the positions he has, but is a person who believes in comity and respect for other views. He understands you can fight for your views and still compromise without compromising your values. I respect Senator Kyl for that position. As has been pointed out at other times, this has been a long, complex, difficult process, but it is one for which I share with Senator Kyl that failure is not an option. This country cannot tolerate a continued border system which is fractured, which it is today, and with all the uncertainty that exists, whether it is on the borders, or the exploitation of workers, or in terms of the lives of many of the people who are here. We have tried to fashion a program, and we are going to work together to try to see that it is successful. I thank the Senator for his comments, and we are looking forward to getting good discussion and debates on these issues.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. I ask unanimous consent that until 7 p.m., there be a period for morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to hold an off-the- floor markup during the session of the Senate on Monday, May 21, 2007, at 5:30 p.m., in S-216 of the Capitol, to consider pending committee business. Agenda Nomination Howard C. Weizmann to be Deputy Director, Office of Personnel Management. Post Office naming bills (1) S. 1352, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 127 East Locust Street In Fairbury, llilinois, as the ``Dr. Francis Townsend Post Office Building''; (2) H.R. 1402, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 320 South Lecanto Highway in Lecanto, Florida, as the ``Sergeant Dennis J. Flanagan Lecanto Post Office Building''; (3) H.R. 625, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 4230 Maine Avenue in Baldwin Park, California, as the ``Atanacio Haro-Marin Post Office''; (4) H.R. 988, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 5757 Tilton Avenue in Riverside, California, as the ``Lieutenant Todd Jason Bryant Post Office''; (5) H.R. 437, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 500 West Eisenhower Street in Rio Grande City, Texas, as the ``Lino Perez Jr. Post Office''; (6) H.R. 414, a bill to designate the facility of the U.S. Postal Service located at 60 Calle McKinley West in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, as the ``Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez Post Office Building.''

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am delighted to join Senators Dodd, Biden, Collins, Kerry, McCain, Clinton, Leahy, Smith, Schumer and Obama in support of a Senate resolution commending the extraordinary success of achievement last week in the peace process in northern Ireland. Ten days ago, on May 8, I was in Belfast to witness the dawn of a new day in the history of northern Ireland--a day that reaffirmed that peace is possible, even in the face of tragic history. It was an honor to participate in a White House delegation to Belfast and to join Prime Minister Blair of Great Britain and Prime Minister Ahern of Ireland, who have been powerful forces for peace and reconciliation, as former foes in northern Ireland took the oath of office and agreed to share power on an equal basis. This success could not have been achieved without the courage and determination of the political leaders of northern Ireland over many years in securing a new way forward and forming a new government that offers hope for a brighter future for all the people of that land and a healing of the terrible wounds of the past. The courageous example of the people of northern Ireland, who have chosen peace and reconciliation, also offers a lesson of hope to other troubled areas of the world. The resolution we are introducing expresses the strong support of the United States for the new power-sharing Government. It recognizes the contributions of British and Irish and American leaders whose efforts over the years have been indispensable in to the formation of the new Government and the achievement of lasting peace and stability in northern Ireland. May 8 will long be remembered as a historic day for peace in northern Ireland. All friends of Ireland in the United States commend the First Minister of the new Government, Reverend Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party and the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein for coming together in peace to begin this new era of hope for all the people of northern Ireland, and we wish them continuing success in meeting the challenges that lie ahead. The United States stands ready to support their new Government. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.