Trent Lott

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn).

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Brownback) and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Sununu).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. I believe I do have the right to at least explain my reservation.

Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I do object. I would like to ask if the distinguished majority leader will give me an opportunity to at least respond to some of the things he had to say. I think that would be the way we usually do business around here.

Mr. LOTT. If the majority leader yielded the floor, I seek recognition.

Mr. LOTT. Does the majority leader yield the floor?

Mr. LOTT. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I have been waiting 1 hour to respond to some comments that were directed at me.

Mr. LOTT. I had hoped that in this debate and in this Congress, we would be able to maintain some semblance, some modicum of courtesy. But it appears we have lost it all. I have been in Congress 35 years. I have been in the Senate 19 years. I have been in a variety of positions. Never before have I been denied or did I ever deny any Senator the opportunity to have a reservation on his right to object to a unanimous consent request. Now that has occurred. So that courtesy, one of the few remaining ones we have left in this institution, is gone. Let me correct some of the things that have been said here that the record will show, certainly, in the debate. The other side speaks about a new standard for 60 votes. That is interesting. During this Congress, 47 clotures have been filed. In the 106th Congress, there were 71; 107th, 72; 108th 62; the 109th, 68. This is not a new phenomenon. It has occurred all the time, regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats were in the majority. Even Senator Reid said twice this year: In the Senate it has always been the case you need 60 votes. I don't have 60 votes-- The particular issue he was referring to-- 60 votes are required for just about everything. That was what Senator Reid had to say earlier this year. We are ready to vote. We could have a vote on this amendment, the Levin-Reed amendment, right now. We are ready to go. We can have the cloture vote that would be scheduled in the morning in an hour, to be fair to everybody, so we could have wrapup statements. Everybody knows we can have that vote now, or 5:30 or 6:30, or in the morning. I have been involved in these all-night discussions. Interestingly, the last time we had one of these so-called all-night debates, it was because the Democrats wanted to require 60 votes to confirm a Federal judge, which had not been the practice throughout the history of this great country. I understand about the 60-vote requirement. Nobody is surprised by this. We have already had 60-vote votes taken on amendments on this bill. First, before the majority whip leaves, let me ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote scheduled for the morning occur at 5:30 this afternoon.

Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I have not yielded the floor, so I wish to go ahead and complete my remarks on the broader issues that have been raised here. We debated in March and April and May whether we should confirm General Petraeus, whether we should go forward with the funds that our troops needed to do the job, and whether the surge could go forward. The vote was 80 to 14 in May to go forward with trying to bring down the violence, get control and, of course, encourage the Iraqi government to do more. We confirmed General Petraeus unanimously. They are already saying the surge has failed when, as a matter of fact, the troops that were supposed to be involved in that effort have only been there for some 3 weeks. So I think it is premature and unfair to the men and women who are there on the ground doing the job. We need to have the debate, allow both sides to have their say, but it is going to require 60 votes, and then we can go on to the underlying bill. This is the Defense authorization bill. Every year we pass the Defense authorization bill. Yet I think we have had maybe one amendment even considered that has to do with the underlying bill, which provides funds and authorization for our troops for the equipment they need, the supplies, the ships, the planes, the pay raise, and quality of life. That is something we have to come to terms with. We have to have a debate on amendments that affect this bill. We could work out how to do that. Somebody said amendments are being blocked. As a matter of fact, Senator Levin and Senator McCain are clearing amendments right now. The process is underway. So I would say I am very disappointed in the way this issue is being handled. I must say I am even surprised we have allowed it to deteriorate to this level, but I think we will get through it. The Congress is not going to precipitously mandate that our troops begin to be withdrawn. We are going to go forward and allow them the time to do the job. In September and October we will debate this issue again, as we should. But to come back again after having just voted in May to allow us to go forward and say here we are in July and the surge has failed, I think that is a terrible mistake. I yield the floor.

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Craig), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint), the Senator from North Carolina (Mrs. Dole), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Ensign), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel), the Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kyl), the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Lott), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Martinez), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Roberts), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Specter), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Stevens), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner).

Mr. LOTT

Mr. LOTT. The following Senator was necessarily absent: the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo).