Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. I have an objection to that. I have to withdraw the request.

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I renew my request, but I ask that all references to votes be deleted. We have no agreement on how many votes there will be. We believe there will be four, maybe five, maybe six.

Mr. STEVENS. Senator Byrd is first in line. Amendment No. 1886

Mr. STEVENS. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators Feinstein and Crapo be added as original cosponsors to amendment No. 1864. Amendment No. 1864, As Modified

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I send amendment No. 1864, offered by Senator Domenici and others, to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask for consideration of the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 1825

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I yield 3 minutes each to Senator Bond and Senator Mikulski concerning amendment No. 1825.

Mr. STEVENS. No objection.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. STEVENS. Could we make the inquiry as to who intends to speak after the Brownback amendment so Members might know how long it will be before the vote on final passage?

Mr. STEVENS. We have no objection to that, but I do not want to indicate--we have not had any requests yet from this side. We will have to determine that. But it will mean a vote on final passage will start sometime after 4 o'clock. I yield the floor.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I merely point out we voted now on this subject, further reductions, reconciliation moneys, six times today. We have finally agreed to reduce by $1.6 billion, as much as the House has. I think this would be a further redundant reduction and I urge the motion to table. I yield the remainder of my time. Has the Senator yielded the remainder of his time?

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, has the vote started?

Mr. STEVENS. I was willing to agree to go ahead with the Senator's speech, if he wishes to do that.

Mr. STEVENS. So there is no misunderstanding, I make the motion to table this amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. STEVENS. I ask that be set aside so the Senator may speak.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, the Senator's speech demonstrates the greatness of our country in terms of freedom of speech. I could not be more proud to stand where I am standing today to support our President and to support our people in uniform and those who are part of this authority trying to restore freedom and democracy in Iraq. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here. I have no real background that ever gave me thought I would ever be here. But when I hear speeches like that, I know why I am here. I believe in this President. I believe in this military. I voted for this intervention. The Senator from West Virginia did not. I am urging the Senate to support this bill, $66 billion for our men and women in uniform and $20.3 billion--they have taken $1.6 billion out--but nearly $20 billion for the operation to try to assure there is a new government in Iraq, Iraq committed to freedom and committed to work with the United States in trying to bring peace to that region. If there is a volatile part of the world, it is the Middle East. We have been involved in strife there longer than I can remember. I remember when President Eisenhower sent troops into Lebanon. This has been a thorn in our side as long as I have been involved in government. That is over 50 years. Again, the Senator is entitled to his point of view. I saw those intelligence reports. I believe there were weapons of mass destruction being thought of and being prepared in Iraq. I believe they had chemical weapons. I believe they were trying to buy uranium and sought a new weapons program as they did before the Iraqis destroyed that first program with their famous raid on Iran which was 15 years ago. I don't understand people who say this was a falsehood. Think of the young men and women in Iraq. They are watching this program. They get it on C-PAN. They get it on the Internet. Think of what they are thinking when a Senator says they are over there because of a falsehood, because the President of the United States lied. I don't believe he lied. I believe he told the truth. I believe he is now on an important mission around the world. I have never heard a President criticized so much when he was overseas as this President has been criticized. He is on a mission to China. He is on a mission to many places in the Pacific. I believe the Senate should vote today in support of this bill. Those who vote against this bill will be voting against supporting our men and women in the field. They are still in harm's way. That is one point on which I agree. There are too many people still being killed in Iraq, but they are being killed because there is too much confusion over there. There is not the ability to bring about the control we should have. We need a civilian force from the Iraqis. We need to stand up a new army for the Iraqis as we are trying to do in Afghanistan. This is an important move of the United States, a move to establish freedom in the Middle East. We are dependent upon oil now. I wonder how many know that within 10 years we will be dependent upon Qatar for liquefied natural gas. They have 1,000 times the amount of natural gas we have in our State of Alaska, and we have half the natural gas in the United States. That region of the world will be important to the United States for 50 to 100 years from now. Our future depends upon having people there who understand freedom, who seek freedom, who seek stability through governmental control and are willing to make agreements and keep them and not willing to build up armaments such as Saddam Hussein did. He was a threat not only to that part of the world, he was a threat to the whole world. I said I believed he was a new Hitler, and he would have been a new Hitler. I urge the Senate to vote for this bill, to vote for it and vote to support the men and women in uniform who have fought the war we asked them to fight.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, there is still my minute and a half left of time.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I thought I had a minute and a half left on Brownback.

Mr. STEVENS. And 10 minutes for Senator Corzine, and there be a vote in relation to that amendment upon the expiration of that time, with no amendments in order to this amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. I call to the attention of the Senate there will be a normal time limit on this amendment. All amendments thereafter will be limited to 10 minutes, with 2 minutes equally divided, 1 minute each before each amendment. I urge Senators to stay in the Chamber so we can move on this bill as rapidly as possible.