Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the only amendments remaining in order to the Byrd substitute amendment No. 1373 and H.R. 2892, and that at 8:25 p.m. the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order listed; that prior to each vote, there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form; that no other amendments be in order; further, that upon disposition of the Vitter amendment No. 1467, the Dodd amendment No. 1458, as amended, if amended, be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; that after the first vote in the sequence, the vote time be limited to 10 minutes each. The amendments in order are Vitter amendment No. 1467, Dodd amendment No. 1458, Coburn amendment No. 1433, Murray amendment No. 1468, Coburn amendment No. 1434, Grassley amendment No. 1415, and Sanders amendment No. 1430; that upon disposition of the listed amendments, the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill; that upon passage, the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate and that members of the subcommittee be appointed as conferees; further, that if a budget point of order or any other point of order is raised and sustained, then it be in order for the majority manager to offer another substitute amendment minus any offending provision, but including any amendments which had been agreed to, and that no further amendments be in order; that the substitute amendment, as amended, if amended, be agreed to, and the remaining provisions beyond adoption of the substitute remaining in effect; and further, that the cloture motions be withdrawn.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the Senate just adopted an amendment that ensures that the government contracts are competitively awarded. The amendment Senator Coburn is now offering will undo everything we just did to assure that all businesses--small business, minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, businesses owned by service- disabled veterans-- will be eligible to bid on these contracts. I urge the Senate to vote no.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield 4 minutes to the Senator from Illinois for morning business.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

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

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, Senator McCain has an amendment that he will speak to in a moment. I wish to let all Senators know I appreciate their cooperation. We are working through a number of amendments on both sides that I am hoping we can get through this afternoon. Senator McCain will speak to his amendment now, and we are hoping to have a vote around 2 to settle that and several others. If Members have an amendment they are working on and have some last-minute language to work on, please get it done because we would like to finish this bill today. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Ohio for his statement in opposition to the McCain amendment. I rise as well to speak on behalf of Senator Byrd who, as we all know, is home recovering from a serious illness. The committee bill does include $39.7 million for the continued expansion of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP, Advanced Training Center. The ATC, which opened back in 2005, provides advanced firearms and tactical training to CBP law enforcement personnel and personnel of other Federal agencies. The center is expanding in phases. It is consistent with this master plan I hold in my hand. This plan actually was transmitted to Congress back in 2007 and was approved then by the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security. This master plan accommodates advanced training consistent with the mission of securing our borders. CBP employees are stationed throughout the Nation at land and border crossings, at airports, at seaports, and other urban environments with a need for practical, unique, progressive, and flexible training. There is no other training of this kind, I want my colleagues to know, and there has never been a time that it has been needed more. Senator Byrd strongly--he wants us to know--supports the Advanced Training Center and its mission and is going to continue to fight hard for the security of this great country. Customs and Border Protection needs and deserves the advanced training facility to assure that the more than 50,000 Customs and Border Protection agents, officers, and other personnel have the training they require when they are sent in harm's way. This facility is expected to train over 3,200 law enforcement and other employees in fiscal year 2009, and that is expected to grow to more than 5,000 each year. I urge our colleagues to vote against that plan. I, again, would like everyone to know we are hoping Senator Rockefeller will be back shortly. He will speak on this amendment. We are hoping to set up this amendment for a vote around 2 o'clock. Madam President, with that, I rise to offer the Dodd-Lieberman amendment No. 1458, which I understand is at the desk.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to consider a managers' package.

Mrs. MURRAY. Has all the time been used on this amendment?

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. It is about the entire region and the ability for all the different agencies to respond, is that correct?

Mrs. MURRAY. So 28 times in the last 10 years there has been a major disaster that has been responded to, whether it is a fire in the park, on the Federal land, or a border issue or whatever, so this is not just about Whitefish, am I correct?

Mr. MURRAY

Mr. MURRAY. That clarifies the importance for this emergency center. I thank the Senator.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. My understanding is over the last decade there have been 28 Presidential disasters which occurred in that region.

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to reconsider the vote and move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1378 to Amendment No. 1373

Mrs. MURRAY. Will the Senator from Montana yield?

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

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I understand this amendment is acceptable to both sides.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote and I move to lay that motion on the table on the last vote. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 9, 2009, at 2 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Arizona for offering this amendment. Indeed, Loran-C was established after World War II as a navigational tool for our mariners and aviators. The President has proposed to terminate Loran-C stations on October 1, 2009, with the justification that the federally supported civilian global positioning system is now the primary navigational tool and the Loran-C is no longer needed by the Armed Forces or by the transportation sector or by the Nation's security interests. The Office of Management and Budget has also told us that many agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Defense, do, as the Senator stated, already have backup systems for GPS. I want to set the record straight about what this committee mark does have in it that is before us. It does provide for the orderly termination of Loran-C beginning January 4, 2010. So the underlying bill does terminate the Loran-C program, and it does so in a way that allows the Coast Guard the time to inform the public and provide for the orderly termination of that program. The committee bill continues operations of Loran-C until January 4, 2010. Then the program is terminated. Contrary to the sponsor's statement yesterday, there is not $35 million in this bill for Loran-C. This bill does have $18 million. The President in his request did include no funding to pay for the cost to terminate these stations. According to the Coast Guard, which has provided us information, they do need this funding to remove the high- value equipment and electronics hazardous material. They need it to remediate the environmental concerns and to fund a variety of measures to secure the sites until they are fully decommissioned. This money is not to continue the operation of Loran-C. It is to terminate it in a way that is proper and makes sure that while we remove these stations, we are doing it in a responsible way. What we do in the committee mark is to make sure that the Coast Guard doesn't have to take away money from critical missions--search and rescue or drug interdiction or marine safety or environmental compliance--to terminate this program. We did include funding so that the Loran-C stations could be shut down responsibly. The administration has sent us a statement of administration policy. I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the Senator and I are on the same page. We want to terminate this program. But we have a responsibility, as oversight, to make sure that we do it in a way that mitigates any problems that are out there. We have high-value equipment. We have electronic hazardous materials that are out there. The Coast Guard--whoever is responsible--has to remediate the environmental concerns. They need to secure these sites where the Loran-Cs are. That is what this funding is for, to make sure it is done responsibly. If we do not provide the funds in this amendment, the Coast Guard will be required to take the money to do that out of other very important missions that many of us care about, whether it is search and rescue or drug interdiction or marine safety or threats of terrorism. We do not want the Coast Guard to have to take away that money to do that. I want to specifically say again, the amendment before us, the way it is written, strikes the language that the President requested to provide for the orderly termination by providing authority to sell the Loran-C assets. If this amendment is adopted, they will not be able to sell the Loran-C assets and thereby save taxpayer dollars. I understand where the Senator is coming from. I know his past concerns about this program. We are going to shut it down. That is what this amendment does. The commandant, who is, in our language, being asked to certify, goes at the behest of the President. As the Senator from Arizona well knows, the President has said he wants the program shut down, and that is what this committee is trying to do, in a responsible way, to save taxpayer dollars in the long run and specifically to be able to sell the Loran-C assets so the taxpayers can regain their money at the end of the day. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. It says: The Administration appreciates the committee's support for termination of the Loran-C radio navigation system. The administration supports the committee's aim to achieve an orderly termination through a phased decommissioning, beginning in January 2010, and the requirement that certifications be provided to document that the Loran-C termination will not impair maritime safety or the development of possible GPS back-up capabilities or needs. So the administration has said that the committee is complying with what they have asked us to do which is to terminate the Loran-C program. The aim of the amendment is unclear to me. What it actually does is strip the Coast Guard of the authority we have provided in the underlying bill to terminate a program that will indeed save taxpayers $36 million a year. The way the amendment is written, I oppose it because it will take away what the committee has written in here to terminate the Loran-C program, as the President has requested, in a responsible way, to do it in a way that we deal with the mitigation that needs to be done when we remove equipment such as this. The amendment that has been offered will actually strip the Coast Guard of the authority to do just that. The committee bill does what the Senator is asking us to do. It does it in a timely and responsible way and does terminate the Loran-C program. I urge colleagues to support the committee amendment that does it in a responsible way. I yield the floor.