Senate Proceeding on Jan 15th, 2009 :: 0:00:00 to 0:20:00
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Rear Adm. Barry Black: asset relief program live senate coverage now on the c-span2. in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. all mighty brought order out of chaos and

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Speech By: Rear Adm. Barry Black

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Rear Adm. Barry Black: light out of darkness bring order and illumination to our world. as our lawmakers labor illuminate the darkness of pessimism and doubt as you give them the wisdom to distinguish

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Rear Adm. Barry Black: between truth and false good and evil, better and best. lord, renew their spirits and lift their vision so that they can see now hidden from them.

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Rear Adm. Barry Black: keep them second best and let their ordered lives questions the beauty of your peace. we pray in the name of him who is the light of the world.

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Rear Adm. Barry Black: amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegience to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with libty and

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Rear Adm. Barry Black: justice for all. the presiding officer: the

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Harry Reid: clerk will read a communic to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., thursday, january 15, 2009. under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable mark pryor, a senator om the state of arkansas, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c. byrd,

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Speech By: Harry Reid

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Harry Reid: president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: senator biden is here to give the united states senate. over the many decades he served in the senate, he has given many, many speeches in the senate we all look forward to his remarks, recognizing that the loss of the senate is

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Harry Reid: significant, however, being vice president, he will still be president of the senate. and ilways rember senator bride entelling me during -- after the time he had been selected to be vice president telling me i'm a senate guy. i'll always be a senate guy. mr. president, the senate will be in a period of morning business.

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Harry Reid: it will -- we'll after the distinguished republican leader and i have finished our remarks. and following senator biden's statement, as soon as we f senator clinton will come and give her farewell address and in addition senator salazar intends to give his sometime as soon as there is

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Harry Reid: clearance on the calendar. but it will be today. at noon the senate wl resume consideration of s. 22, the 10 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled between bingaman and coburn. the senate will consider any management of amendments and proceed to roll call on the

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Harry Reid: passage of the bill. the senate will proceed to the s. 21 the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. also at 10:00 p.m. senator appointee but is will take the -- burris

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Harry Reid: office and senate appointee kauffman will be sworn to replace senator biden of delaware. with respect regarding the emergency act, the tarp legislation, yesterday we proposed a unanimous consent agreement to limited amount of debate and a

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Harry Reid: vote on the joint resolution we hope to be able to lock agreement in shortly. mr. president, just brief remarks. with all of the challenges our country face, i think we all agree on the importance of this congress to get off to a fast an effective start. in many ways i believe we're on that track.

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Harry Reid: today we'll likely pass a major wilderness bill that will provide enjoyment for generations to come. the press reports it is the most significant environmental bill a century. we're making progress on the confirmation hearings so that president-elect obama will hit the ground running.

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Harry Reid: and we have new committee assignments, today we vote on stopping a filibuster on a motion to proceed to the lilly ledbetter legislation that ensus fair pay in the rkplace. this should not be necessary it is -- necessary. it is a waste of time. our country's time. after two lislative days to get the bill here before the senate to have this vote today,

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Harry Reid: we must wait another 30 hours until we can start offering amendments on the bill. that's a waste of time. that's four days at least of wasted time and unnecessary delay. i hope that in the future we can just go to the bill. avoid the cloture filing on a motion to proceed. instead of forcing cloture motions that only waste time and delay progress. i urge my republican colleagues

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Harry Reid: to offer amendments. if they object scwhrect to parts of this bill -- object to parts of this bill, the lilly ledbetter bill, let's work on a list of amendments and get through them. i don't approve of the leader doesn't approve of the senators will have an opportunity to vote on the amendments up or down. it doesn't get any fairer -- or there may be motions to table,

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Harry Reid: but at lea have a right to offer the amendments. i think that we have an opportunity to get this congress off on right foot. i want all to know there is no attempt by democrats to jam legislation without republican involvement. i ask republican colleagues to accept my offer to work with us rather than revert path of obstruction that serve neither party nor the american people well.

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Harry Reid: so i would help as soon as this vote takes place today that we can not have to wait 30 hours or five hours or any amount of hours, let's just start legislating on the bill. people can offer amendments today after we get the votes out of the way. they can offer votes tomorrow. i hope that we can do that. we can always as we have done in

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Harry Reid: the past,f there is a sers of amendments, we can stack the votes to vote at a more convenient time for everyone. i hope that we can do that. now, mr. president, finally, let me just say about vice president-elect joe biden. senator joe biden. joe biden.

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Harry Reid: everyone knows about courage, his wonderful family, his remarkable career in the united states senate. we know that he overcame a tremendous difficult personal tragedy during the first few da after his election. i'm not sure many could have had

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Harry Reid: the strength that he had to conquer and then, of course, he got sick many years l back. it was when tim johnson was in the hospital, in a coma that joe bidenisited him a and talked to that there will be times, as he's recovering that, he may be

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Harry Reid: embased by his inability to speak very well. joe biden, one of the great orator's in the history of the country, no one would have eve have known that he had a problem very similar to tim johnson. he

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Harry Reid: build tim's ability to come back to the senate. we here know his wonderful family. now because of his exposure to america, our country h introduced to this great family. we know that he is in his seventh term of the senate. he has been a chairman of the

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Harry Reid: judiciary committee and he's a champion of rights for women, environment and a strong military and the role of when i think of joe biden, though, mr. president, i have known him here since i came to the -- to the congress in 1982. later. but in all of this time the

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Harry Reid: picture in my mind is during the heat of the presidential campaign i'm driving down capital of the state of nevada, carson city, and i look out on the corner there, and there is joe biden in carson city, nevada. he had a number of people around him. i stopped the car, i got out.

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Harry Reid: and gave joe a handshake and a big hug. it was so joe biden to be there. he was there pressing flesh and talking to voters. the people of nevada have come to know and love joe biden for that very reason. he's is at one of the sandwich shops

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Harry Reid: that came from delaware to nevada, capriati's, it was a delaware-based sandwich shop, they all have pictures of joe biden in it. he's a regular kind of guy who shows up on street corners to talk to people. i will always rember with gratitude the kindn to me when i first arrived in

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Harry Reid: the senate in 1986. i will be forever grateful that he was one of the first colleagues to support my candidacy for democratic whip. he was in my office. he called in his s but he said, i take no more calls on this. reid's my man. well, i've always been his.

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Harry Reid: i'm a senate guy, just like joe biden. we can't get that out of our blood. i wish him well. he's going to be a great representative of our country. and i'm able to say to joe biden, you're

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Mitch McConnell: my friend. mr. mcconnel the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i too shortly want t make some remarks about our good friend from delaware as take up his new responsibilities. but, first, a few about the next item up on the agenda is the -- is the

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Speech By: Mitch McConnell

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Mitch McConnell: so-called ledbetter legislation. let me say to my good friend, the majority leader, i intend to vote for cloture on the motion to proceed. he and i have had a number of constructive conservations privately and he again today publicly that we're going to make an effort to get the way it used to, which is that bi

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Mitch McConnell: and so i have said is to my colleagues, i would say to my good friend trust you and believe you that we're going to get on the ledbetter bill. we're going to have amendments and have votes and then dispose of the legislation in the normal way. with regard to the substance of that particular measu

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Mitch McConnell: the gross distortions that voters heard about this legislation in the runup in the no dbetter bill, as written, is neither about women nor fairness, and it's not about whether pay discrimination should be illegal. pay discrimination is illegal.

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Mitch McConnell: and it rather this bill is about how long the statute of limitations on pay discrimination suits should be. last night republicans began to outline a proposal for addressing this question in a way that's fair for everyone. senator hutchison's bill the right balance. it says the clock suldn't run

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Mitch McConnell: on out someone who has been discriminated against until he or she discrimination. this way the focus is where it should be, on the injured party. the unfairly targets business owners who may or may not have discriminated against a man or woman on the basis of pay years

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Mitch McConnell: or even decades ago. its primary beneficiaries are lawyers who want major settlement out of every company that fears t expense or the publicity of going to court. this bill is unfair to business owners who in many cases will no longer have the evidence they would need to defense and it is unfair it the

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Mitch McConnell: millions of are worried about losing their jobs in the current economic downturn. job creators have enough to worry about at the moment. adding the threat of never-ending lawsuits is a new burden that the federal government shouldn't even considering at this particular time. no right-thinking american would defend discrimination of any

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Mitch McConnell: kind in the workplace or anywhere else and it is unfair to the public touggest that those who oppose this bill endorse discrimination. it degrades our public discourse and it degrades the legislative process. as written because it will paralyze businesses and add an even greater strain on workers than they currently face.

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Mitch McConnell: we support a business climate that creates the conditions for harasses the millions of men and women in this country who support themselves, tir families and their workers by owning and operating small businesses. republicans have a better proposal and good -- and other good ideas to help american workers. i believe we need to get on the

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Mitch McConnell: ledbette minutes ago, and have an open debate about it so that the american people can hear the republican alternatives and the senate has an opportunity to vote on more than what our good friends on the other side have offere now, mr. president, turning to the issue of the moment, which

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Mitch McConnell: is the celebration of the career of our good friend from delaware and wishing him well in the future. i rember being sworn in in january of 1985, thinking i had gotten to the senate at a pretty rly age. i was 42 years old. and i think i got here at a pretty early age.

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Mitch McConnell: at the same day i was third term. he was barely old enough to vote when he got here. and we year, but you got a 12-year head start on me, i would say, mr. president, to my friend from delaware, and has had an extraordinarily distinguished career.

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Mitch McConnell: when we think about senator bide his demeanor, his friendliness. he can have a good rip-roaring debate without being disagreeable, as he's been a pleasure to work with. and i say that has rarely

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Mitch McConnell: side as he has. we say goodbye today to an outstanding individual who's been really a fixture in the senate for 36 years, and a friend to everyone in the chamber. and he's now, of course, had -- he's going to enjoy an even

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Mitch McConnell: greater achievement as he becomes the vice president of the united states. i rember right from the beginning discussing a few minutes ago, that senator biden everybody feel comfortable. although we're born in year, as i indicated, he

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Mitch McConnell: certainly got here at an early, early age, and it has allowed him to spend most of life in the united states senate. now, america got to know joe pretty the last year. they got a chance to witness his humor, his compassion, and,

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Mitch McConnell: his they learned firsthand he's his not entirely undes reputation for loquaciousness, andhey met his wonderful family. barack obama decided he what he saw in jo biden as well and invited him to be his running mate in what turned out

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Mitch McConnell: to be a spirited presidential campaign. and so next week, after the peaceful transition of power from one political party to another that has distinguished our biden will become the 47th vice president of the united states. this inaugurat first time in almost 50 years

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Mitch McConnell: that two senators moved directly into the officesf and vice president. and so no matter what outcome some of us may have hoped for in the election, i think my colleagues and i can feel a little institutional pride at that accomplishment. sworn in as president and vice

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Mitch McConnell: everyone knows by know joe's famous loyalty to his amtrak and his regular commute by rail 80 minutes each day from his home in wilmington to the capitol. and we know of his commitment to being home with his family every night. and i'm sure every single one of my friends in this chamber has a story to tell of working with joe.

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Mitch McConnell: for my part, one of several efforts joe and i worked together on was the palestinian antiterrism act passed in 2006, after the election ofhe hamas-dominated government in gaza, joe recognized, as i and others did, the threat that that situation posed and continues to

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Mitch McConnell: pose as we see up close the last week. the threat that all of that poses to peace in the region. thanks to his efforts, we were able to pass and have signed into law this important bill which restricts u.s. and foreign assistance to government unless and until it takes terror and publicly recognize israel's right to exist.

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Mitch McConnell: that bill was the rig thing to do to confront terrorism. i'm proud of my wor with joe biden on that, and i know he is to i've also w tightening sanctions on the dictatorial illegitimate regime ruling in burma. among other

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Mitch McConnell: lantos act restricts the importation of burmese j america through other countries. that takes every lucrative source of profit from the burmese regime. joe's well versed in these issues and many others thaofrpbgz his years on senate foreign relations mmittee with much of that time as either chairman or ranking member.

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Mitch McConnell: i know his particularly proudf his role in pushing for nato expansion in central and eastern europe in 1988 and 2003. we'll miss joe's presence as one of 100. it will take some getting used to to have a senate witho but the good news is he's not going very far. obviously senator biden's