Joseph Lieberman

Mr. LIEBERMAN

Mr. LIEBERMAN. In response to my friend from New Hampshire, two things: One is, S. 4 is a direct response not just to the original 9/11 Commission in 2004, which was the basis of the Intelligence Reform Terrorism Prevention Act of that year, but it is a response directly to the appeal the 9/11 Commission issued in December of 2005 that there was unfinished business. That appeal was not only seconded but echoed and amplified by the various organizations representing families who lost loved ones on 9/11 in the terrorist attack of that day. So this legislation before the Senate now, about to go to final amendment consideration and adoption, includes improvements in information sharing--the critical question of connecting the dots before the terrorists can strike us so we can stop them from doing so. It creates a new dedicated grant fund to support interoperable communications equipment--complicated words which simply mean whether in a crisis, a potential terrorist attack, or a natural disaster such as Katrina, our firefighters, our police officers, our emergency responders can talk to each other as they were not able to do on 9/11. This is a balanced, progressive recommendation to solve once and for all by legislation the ongoing dispute about how to distribute homeland security grant funding. We have improved the security requirements of the so-called visa waiver program. We have strengthened the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board and done much else. There is a lot constructive here. One of the parts of this legislation that I believe still should be the least controversial and, frankly, not the most important but an act of fairness consistent with our effort to improve homeland security, was simply to give the transportation security officers at the Transportation Security Agency, who now can join a union but cannot collectively bargain, the same right to collectively bargain in very limited areas without the right to strike, the same rights that most other employees at the Department of Homeland Security, including law enforcement personnel, have and continue to have, without impeding their carrying out of their law enforcement public safety functions. That includes the Border Patrol, obviously at the Capitol that includes our Capitol Police, and throughout America it includes firefighters and police officers. It is unfortunate that is so much the focus of discussion about this bill because this bill is a direct response to the appeals of the 9/11 Commissioners and the 9/11 families to take constructive action to respond to the statements that the Commission itself made in 2004 and again in 2005: America is safer than it was on 9/11/01 but not yet safe enough. This bill, which is not controversial and ought to receive nonpartisan support, will make the people of America, in an age of terrorism, safer yet than they have been before. It is why I strongly urge my colleagues across party lines to support final passage of the legislation. I hope soon to be able to propound a series of unanimous consent agreements. I am waiting for final clearance from my ranking member. As soon as that happens I will rise to do so. Amendment No. 448 I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding its adoption, the Ensign amendment No. 448 be considered a first-degree amendment, agreed to, and that it be inserted at the appropriate place in the bill.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, I am very happy to indicate to our colleagues we have reached agreement on a series of unanimous consent requests that will allow us to move to final passage. I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and the Senate proceed to the consideration of a series of amendments, which have been cleared on our side and by Senator Collins on her side. The amendments are as follows: Sununu amendment No. 291; Grassley amendment No. 293, with a modification; Coleman amendment No. 341; Feinstein amendment No. 323; Salazar amendment No. 290, with a further modification; Carper amendment No. 368; Akaka amendment No. 392; Lieberman amendment No. 332, with a modification; Lieberman-Collins amendment No. 391; Lieberman-Collins amendment No. 431; Wyden-Bond amendment No. 348; Byrd amendment No. 404; Pryor amendment No. 388, with a modification; Lieberman-McCain amendment No. 411, with a modification; Landrieu amendment No. 456; Coleman amendment No. 414, with a modification; Inouye-Stevens- Lieberman amendment No. 412, with a modification; Menendez amendment No. 354, with a modification. I ask unanimous consent that these amendments be agreed to en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, en bloc; that any statements thereon be printed in the Record as if read; and that consideration of these items appear separately in the Record.

Mr. LIEBERMAN

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 13, 2007, at 3 p.m. to hold a nominations hearing.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and House Committee on Education and Labor be authorized to meet for a joint hearing on the No Child Left Behind Act during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 10 a.m. in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a hearing on ``Judicial Nominations'' on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 10 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226. Witness List: Panel I: The Honorable Thad Cochran, United States Senator, R-MS and The Honorable Trent Lott, United States Senator, R-MS. Panel II: Halil Suleyman Ozerden to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi; Benjamin Hale Settle to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington; and Frederick J. Kapala to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on March 13, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. to hold a closed hearing.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia be authorized to meet on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. for a hearing entitled, A Review of U.S. International Efforts to Secure Radiological Materials.

Mr. LIEBERMAN

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the motion was agreed to, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion on the bill be vitiated; that the bill be read a third time, and a vote occur on final passage on Tuesday, March 13, immediately upon the disposition of the substitute amendment; that when the Senate convenes on Tuesday, March 13, and resumes consideration of the bill, all time under cloture be considered expired and the Senate immediately begin voting on those pending germane amendments; further, that during Monday's legislative session, the provisions of rule XXII shall not bar a motion to proceed made by the majority leader.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, this means that there will be no further rollcall votes today, there will be no rollcall votes on Monday, and we would resume voting on the germane amendments on Tuesday morning next week. Our staffs will continue to be available to negotiate with our colleagues on a consent list of amendments that are agreed to by all concerned. In fact, we have a list now approaching 20 amendments where there is such agreement, but there are one or two individual Senators concerned that their amendments are not on that list and they are objecting to the overall consent. We hope very much that can be worked out and we can, in any case, move to final passage next Tuesday. Mr. President, I briefly wish to thank my ranking member, Senator Collins, for her extraordinary contribution to this bill and her cooperation. As you know, we have had many ups and downs about the many amendments, agreements, objections, et cetera, but I am very pleased to say that the bill, as it came out of our committee, was nonpartisan, with a 16-to-0 vote, and one abstention, thus remaining essentially intact. That is the good news. I hope some of the amendments that have been agreed to by almost everybody on both sides can be added to make the bill even stronger as we go to conference. I thank our colleagues for their contributions and for some good debate. This is a subject of urgent importance to the American people. It is completing the unfinished work that the 9/11 Commission gave us, it is building on all we accomplished in the 9/11 legislation of 2004, and it will, in a very direct way, make the American people safer both from potential terrorist attack and from the inevitable natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. I thank my colleagues, and I yield the floor to my ranking member at this time.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from Louisiana, the amendment on loan forgiveness is on the consent list. As the Senator knows, for reasons that are certainly perplexing to me, most everybody here seems to agree on the 10-percent forgiveness for the gulf coast based on Hurricane Katrina because of the extraordinary economic impact the storm had on both governments and people and businesses in the gulf coast. There is very broad support, but there continue to be objections, as the Senator knows. I regret that, and I hope we can find a way to overcome those between now and next Tuesday. The Senator from Louisiana also knows there is an amendment on levees that is germane, and that will be one of the amendments that is up either for a vote or passage by consent on Tuesday because it remains relevant and germane after cloture.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank all our colleagues, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LIEBERMAN

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

Mr. LIEBERMAN

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I now call for the regular order with regard to the Sununu amendment, No. 291.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, that is where we will keep the Senate for some period of time as we hope people on both sides can reason together and come to some meeting of the minds that will allow us to complete work on the more than 50 amendments that are pending and in a state of suspended gridlock and, unfortunately, standing in the way of the adoption of the 9/11 bill that is before us. I will repeat that this bill came out of our Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with a nonpartisan vote--16 to nothing and 1 abstention. It has matters that are critically important to our national security and our homeland security. It would be a shame if its passage here and movement to conference with the House, which has already passed companion legislation, is held up because of the parliamentary and procedural gridlock the Senate is in now. I hope my colleagues on both sides can, as I said, reason together to break that gridlock so we can complete work on the pending amendments and proceed to final passage of this legislation. Pending that, the Sununu amendment, No. 291, will remain the pending business. Mr. President, I now suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, as the Chair knows, and Members of the Senate know, the Senate is unfortunately in gridlock at this moment on this important bill because of disagreements as to how to handle several of the amendments. The trouble is the essential bill that came out of our committee, on which the distinguished occupant of the chair is a member, is intact. It does a lot to support first responders at the local level, to increase information sharing within our Government to avoid the failure to connect the dots that preceded 9/11. It is full of very important unfinished business that came from the 9/11 Commission Report. Unfortunately, in addition to the 50 amendments pending and the refusal of some Senators to grant consent to go on to hold votes on amendments on which we actually have bipartisan agreement, yesterday the minority leader came to the floor, and in a unique action--it is not seen around here too much--filed a cloture motion on four amendments that were pending. That will now keep us, barring some break and agreement between our leaders, in this state of suspended animation until tomorrow when the vote is scheduled both on the cloture motion filed by the Republican leader and the one on the overall bill to bring us to a conclusion filed by Senator Reid, the majority leader. What is very important is to focus us back on what this is all about and, hopefully, to shake us all up to remember that we are responding to, in this legislation, 5\1/2\ years after 9/11, the unfinished business of our Nation to protect our people from another terrorist attack. Obviously, we are building on what we did in the 9/11 Commission legislation that passed in 2004, but there is more to do; we all agree. I am about to read a letter into the Record. I hope this letter will be read by every Member of the Senate and bring us back to what this is all about and honestly force us to reason together to get over this momentary gridlock to do what is important for our country. The letter is addressed to the Republican leader, the Honorable Mitch McConnell. It comes from a number of the leaders of groups established by family members of victims of 9/11: Carol Ashley, mother of Janice, 25, member of Voices Of September 11th; Mary Fetchet, mother of Brad, 24, founding director and president of Voices of September 11th; Beverly Eckert, widow of Sean Rooney, 50, member of Families of September 11; and Carie Lemack, daughter of Judy Larocque, 50, cofounder and president, Families of September 11. Obviously, the names I mentioned, the first names and ages, were among those who were killed by the terrorists on September 11. This is a letter from these four family members of September 11 to Senator McConnell. The letter reads as follows: March 8, 2007. Hon. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Senator McConnell: As family members who lost loved ones on 9/11, we support full implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations. We are writing out of grave concern that your recent introduction of highly provocative, irrelevant amendments will jeopardize the passage of S. 4. It is inconceivable that anyone in good conscience would consider hindering implementation of the 9/11 Commission recommendations and we strongly disagree with these divisive procedural tactics. Just as the Iraq war deserves separate debate, so do each of the amendments you offered. S. 4 should be a clean bill and debate should conclude this week with a straight up and down vote. Each day that passes without implementation of the remaining 9/11 Commission recommendations, the safety and security of our nation is at risk. Tactics such as those you are contemplating, aimed at endangering the 9/11 bill, sends a signal to America that partisan politics is alive and well under your leadership. Both parties must work together to pass this critical legislation. We, the undersigned, understand the risk of failure all too well. Respectfully, Carol Ashley, Mother of Janice, 25, Member, VOICES of September 11th. Mary Fetchet, Mother of Brad, 24, Founding director and President, Voices of September 11th. Beverly Eckert, Widow of Sean Rooney, 50, member, Families of September 11. Carie Lemack, Daughter of Judy Larocque, 50, Co-founder and President, Families of September 11. This letter should be read by every Member of the Senate, not only with regard to the cloture motion that was filed yesterday but, frankly, also to some of the normal posturing and game playing that is going on by different Members, blocking agreement and moving forward on the bill unless their particular amendment is agreed to. It is time for us to wake up, focus on what is really important and get this bipartisan bill, S. 4, Improving America's Security Act, adopted as soon as possible. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. While the Senate awaits resolution on the parliamentary and, I suppose, political gridlock in which we find ourselves, I thought I would say a few words to remind my colleagues of the background that led to this particular legislation, S. 4, which, I repeat, came out of our Homeland Security Committee with a unanimous, nonpartisan vote of 16 to 0 and one abstention and is before us now. I go back to August 21, 2004. On that day, the 9/11 Commission's official mandate as an independent, nonpartisan commission ended, 1 month after the release of their final report. But the 10 Commissioners, the 10 citizens who were members of the Commission and responsible for its extraordinary work--the findings, the recommendations, many of which we adopted in legislation that followed in 2004--the 10 Commissioners decided to stay active in the public debate over the Commission's recommendations that fall. They made a real contribution to continuing to remind us why adopting--certainly considering first and then adopting--their recommendations was so important. They testified before Congress during the latter half of 2004 and played a critical role in helping bring about the passage and enactment and the signature by the President of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The 10 Commissioners understood the importance of keeping the spotlight on the implementation of their recommendations. They concluded that without their persistent attention, there was a risk that we in Washington would lose focus on the difficult challenges that had been highlighted in the Commission's report and that we would go on to other work--not that, obviously, we would lose our care and concern about terrorism. So these 10 Commissioners formed the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, an independent nongovernmental group that held a number of meetings in 2005 to follow up on the implementation of the Commission's recommendations. This group, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, held a series of public meetings to which I have referred in 2005 to gauge progress on implementation of the legislation that resulted from their initial report. In the fall of 2005, later in the year, they issued a series of report cards on intelligence, homeland security, and foreign policy that graded the Federal Government on its implementation of their recommendations. On December 5, 2005, these Commissioners, now joined together in what they called The Project, issued their final report summarizing their grades on the implementation of the 9/11 Commission's 41 recommendations. I can't say that I agreed with all their grades, but they were certainly sobering and should also have been motivating for all of us. The Project issued 1 A, 11 Bs, 9 Cs, 12 Ds, 5 Fs, and 2 incomplete grades. That calculates out to a C-minus average--not exactly the type of grades that would make us happy if our kids brought them home, and obviously the kinds of grades that should make us not only unhappy but agitated and anxious to raise them up when the grades deal with our national security, our homeland security. The cochairs of the 9/11 Commission who went on to be cochairs of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean and former member of the House of Representatives Lee Hamilton, vice- chair, issued a statement on the release of the report where they lamented the progress and its implementation. I quote from the Kean- Hamilton statement on December 5, 2005. They said: We are safer--no terrorist attacks have occurred inside the United States since 9/11--but we are not as safe as we need to be. I continue quoting: We see some positive changes. But there is so much more to be done. Many obvious steps that the American people assume have been completed have not been. Our leadership is distracted. ``There is so much more to be done,'' Chairman Kean and Vice Chairman Hamilton told the Nation that day at the end of 2005. That is why our Homeland Security Committee took up the call and why we reported out S. 4, which is before the Senate today. Chairman Kean and Vice Chairman Hamilton went on in their remarks to discuss areas that had not been adequately addressed. They focused on interoperability for first responders around the country, effective screening of visitors to the U.S. against the terrorist watch list, homeland security grant allocations, and they bemoaned what they called ``the lack of urgency about fixing these problems.'' Their statement then continued: Bin Laden and al-Qaida believe it is their duty to kill as many Americans as possible. This very day they are plotting to do us harm. On 9/11 they killed nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens. Many of the steps we recommend would help prevent such a disaster from happening again. We should not need another wake-up call. I continue--this is all Kean and Hamilton: We believe that the terrorists will strike again. If they do, and these reforms have not been implemented, what will our excuses be? While the terrorists are learning and adapting, our government is still moving at a crawl. Tough words from Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton. The terrorists are learning and adapting faster than ever. We saw evidence of that last August in the United Kingdom when a terrorist plot to blow up planes using liquid explosives--those planes heading toward the United States--was thankfully disrupted. We see evidence on the Internet today which terrorist groups are using increasingly to find new recruits, to develop new capabilities, to share information, and to propagandize about their latest exploits. They are moving, these terrorists, at a rapid pace. We not only must keep up with them, we must move ahead of them and move more rapidly than they are. Chairman Kean and Vice Chairman Hamilton went on to discuss responsibility for addressing this challenge. They said: The first purpose of government in the preamble of our Constitution is to ``provide for the common defense.'' We have made clear time and again what we believe needs to be done to make our country safer and more secure: The responsibility for action and leadership rests with Congress and the President. Of course, I agree, and I presume every Member of the Senate agrees, the responsibility rests with us and with the President. We have a choice to make as we debate this bill. We can bear the burden and responsibility of action and leadership and carry out the essential reforms that will strengthen our Nation's security or we can forego our responsibilities and take a chance with the homeland security of our country and its people. That is a risk that I know no Member of this Chamber wants to take. In the final chapter of their book, ``Without Precedent''--that is the name of the book, ``Without Precedent''--which recounted their experience leading the 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton repeat this last statement and conclude with these powerful words: We now call upon our elected leaders to come together again with that same sense of urgency and purpose. We call upon Republicans and Democrats to work together to make our country safer and more secure. The American people deserve no less. That is from Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton. They are absolutely right. They deserve no less. The American people deserve no less. So we have come together on our committee, and we are moving very rapidly on the Senate floor, beginning last Wednesday through this week. We have had some good, healthy debates, disagreements, but resolved with votes. The bill as it came out of our committee is in strong shape. It would be a tragedy if we let the procedural differences, the personal concerns about individual amendments, the inability to reason together to stop us from passing this bill and passing it urgently. I am confident that we will be able to do it, but the sooner the better. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I note the presence of my friend and colleague from Pennsylvania.

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

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I note the presence on the floor of our colleague from Arizona. I yield the floor to him at this time.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, first I thank my friend from North Dakota for his empathy for what the Senator from Maine and I are going through. There is a particular syndrome here that probably psychiatrists someday will analyze. But anyway, so far we are surviving it. It is frustrating. I support the amendment of the Senator from North Dakota. It makes eminent sense to me in every way and it is certainly relevant to this bill. We have a process where we are trying to put together a group of amendments from both sides, and yet there are few people whose amendments haven't made it to that list who are refusing to consent. This is one of those moments of Senate gridlock, but we are going to continue to work at it. I in particular want to reassure the Senator, my friend, we are going to try to continue to work to get his amendment passed.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I wish to notify our colleagues who are watching, or their staffs, that there is good news to report. There has been a break in the gridlock, and I soon will be propounding a unanimous consent agreement that will provide for a limited period of time for debate and then votes on four amendments that have been in dispute, perhaps one or two judicial nominations after that, and that will open the way for Senator Collins and me to move to adopt several other amendments we have been working on and on which there is bipartisan agreement, and those we can do by consent. So, in a few moments, I hope we can come forward to offer this light which suggests a breakthrough as we head to the cloture votes tomorrow. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.