Mark Pryor

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, March 6; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business for up to 1 hour with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 2663, a bill to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and that the mandatory quorum required under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of H. Con. Res. 289, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, this evening we were able to reach an agreement to have a vote in relation to the Vitter amendment regarding attorney's fees. Senators should be prepared to vote as early as 10:50 a.m. tomorrow. Today the leader filed cloture on the bill. However, it is our intention to complete action on the bill tomorrow evening. Therefore, rollcall votes are expected to occur throughout the day in relation to the remaining amendments to the bill.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Thune.

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

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Bruce Fergusson, a fellow in the office of Senator Baucus, be granted the privilege of the floor during consideration of the Consumer Product Safety Commission bill.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. I thank the Chair.

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that we yield back the time, and it is my understanding that more Senators would like to speak this morning.

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, as I understand, we are still in morning business.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 455 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to this measure be printed in the Record.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. PRYOR. Reserving the right to object, to make sure, we will go back on the pending amendment as soon as he completes his presentation.

Mr. PRYOR. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

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

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I thank Senator Stevens for his comments on the Cornyn amendment. I oppose the Cornyn amendment for several reasons, although I must say Senator Cornyn has been very fair in his dealings on this amendment. We have sat down with him. I have talked to him several times on the Senate floor. But let me give you a few reasons I oppose this amendment. I know some other Senators want to come and speak. First, we have to remember what we are doing in the context of this legislation. We have drafted a bill that contains a provision where the State attorneys general can enforce what CPSC says. We made it very clear in this statute that the State AGs must follow the CPSC. They cannot get out in front of the CPSC. One of the concerns by some in the business community, in fairness to them--not all but some in the business community--is where they have had the concern that there are going to be 51 standards; that it is going to be a patchwork, a crazy quilt of AGs running around out there. That is not what we are doing in this legislation. I believe we drafted the legislation very clearly, where the attorneys general must follow the CPSC. The CPSC remains in the driver's seat. That is very important. The second limitation on the States in this legislation is that the State AGs can only pursue injunctive relief. In layman's terms, what that means is there are no money damages. They can only pursue injunctive relief. If you think about it, given the nature of what we are talking about, I think it is going to be the rare exception when a State would ever want to use outside counsel because by the nature of what we are talking about, if they found some dangerous product that is in circulation in their State, they--in my experience as attorney general--probably will approach that business, and probably that business will immediately respond by taking corrective action. That is probably what happens 99 percent of the time because the company does not want the bad publicity. They do not want the legal headache. Once you point out to them they are in violation of some Federal law, they are going to pull those products off the shelves, whatever the case may be. So it is going to be very seldom used. But in the event the company does not do that, in every case I have ever heard of--and I used to be the attorney general of my State of Arkansas--in every case I have ever heard of, when the attorney general sues--excuse me, has to hire outside counsel to do it--those are complicated and expensive and in some cases long-term cases. This is not one of those kinds of cases. These kinds of cases will be that when they find some violation in their State, they will want to act quickly. They will not want to have to go through maybe an RFP process. Or in our State, we had a statutory process we had to get signed off on by the legislature, signed off on by the Governor. All that takes time; you have to negotiate a contract; you have to bid it. I am going to tell you right now, most States are never ever going to use outside counsel when it comes to trying to enforce CPSC rules. Another reason--and this is just a practical reason, where the rubber meets the road--they are not going to pursue outside counsel to help them because it is injunctive relief only. In injunctive relief cases, there is no money, so there is no way to pay for the litigation. I think it is going to be very seldom used. Now, I have had brought to my attention--at least one and there may be more--fee agreements that have been negotiated where there is some sort of contingent fee based on injunctive relief. Again, I have never heard of that. I do not know how you enforce that. If you do a contingent fee based on some value of injunctive relief, that money is going to have to come out of the State's hide. It is not going to come out of the defendant in the lawsuit. So there, again, I think people are concerned about this, and I do not doubt their sincerity but, really, I think you are going to see this happen very seldom, if ever. The last couple of things I want to say about the States attorneys general before a couple of my colleagues come and talk on this bill and other matters are, we have to remember who the State attorneys general are. They are elected officials. They were elected by the same people who elected us. The people in their home States trust them. They like the fact that the attorney general is out there looking after the public interest. They like the fact that the attorney general is looking after public safety issues. I will guarantee you, they like the fact they are out there making sure unsafe toys are taken off the shelves. So the people of the States, they have elected the attorneys general to do things such as this. My experience in Arkansas and in talking to other AGs around the country is the people in those States have a high level of trust and confidence in their attorney general. And they know--we may not always understand this--they know the attorney general will not abuse this right they will be gaining under our Senate bill. This Cornyn amendment smacks of micromanagement. I understand what he is trying to do. I appreciate it and I respect it. Like I said, I do not think you are ever going to see any contingent fee cases anyway. But regardless of that--maybe you will under some circumstances--let's allow the States to make that decision. Again, almost all these States have some sort of a legal process they have to go through before they can hire outside counsel. Let's let the States do it. These State AGs in most cases are elected by the people of the State. There are a few who are not. A few are appointed by the Governor; appointed in one case by the State supreme court. But, nonetheless, let them make that decision. We do not need to micromanage this. Let them do what they believe is in the State's best interest. That is what this bill is all about anyway. So I oppose the Cornyn amendment. But I certainly appreciate Senator Cornyn reaching out in the manner he has to work with us on this legislation. With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. PRYOR. I move to table the Cornyn amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. PRYOR. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 462, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate resumes consideration of S. 2663, the Consumer Product Safety Commission legislation, the Senate then resume consideration of the Vitter amendment No. 4097, with 15 minutes of debate prior to a vote in relation to the amendment, with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Pryor and Vitter or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the amendment with no amendments in order to the amendment prior to the vote.

Mr. PRYOR

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 473, submitted earlier today by Senator Stabenow.

Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate; and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.