Senate the Senate Met at 10 A.M
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 108 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 150 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2004 No. 133 Senate The Senate met at 10 a.m. and was refuses to leave any task half done. APPOINTMENT OF ACTING called to order by the Honorable LISA Empower them with a diligence that PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE MURKOWSKI, a Senator from the State will never offer You less than their of Alaska. best. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Lord, strengthen our military for the clerk will please read a communication PRAYER battles of today and tomorrow. Stand to the Senate from the President pro The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- at the right hand of freedom’s warriors tempore (Mr. STEVENS). fered the following prayer: and lift up their heads. We pray this in The assistant legislative clerk read Let us pray. Your mighty Name. Amen. the following letter: Sovereign Lord, You are our God and strong deliverer, a refuge for all who U.S. SENATE, f PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, call on Your name. Send to us the Washington, DC, November 18, 2004 power and grace we need today to glo- To the Senate: rify Your name. Give us the purity of PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, heart that will shut the door to all The Honorable LISA MURKOWSKI led of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby evil. the Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: appoint the Honorable LISA MURKOWSKI, a Today, bless the Members of this I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the Senator from the State of Alaska, to perform body. Keep their feet in the path of in- United States of America, and to the Repub- the duties of the Chair. tegrity that they may walk securely. lic for which it stands, one nation under God, TED STEVENS, Develop in them a perseverance which indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. President pro tempore. NOTICE If the 108th Congress, 2d Session, adjourns sine die on or before November 20, 2004, a final issue of the Congres- sional Record for the 108th Congress, 2d Session, will be published on Monday, December 13, 2004, in order to permit Members to revise and extend their remarks. All material for insertion must be signed by the Member and delivered to the respective offices of the Official Reporters of Debates (Room HT–60 or S–123 of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through Friday, December 10. The final issue will be dated Monday, December 13, 2004, and will be delivered on Tuesday, December 14, 2004. None of the material printed in the final issue of the Congressional Record may contain subject matter, or relate to any event that occurred after the sine die date. 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By order of the Joint Committee on Printing. ROBERT W. NEY, Chairman. ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S11441 . VerDate Aug 04 2004 00:08 Nov 19, 2004 Jkt 039060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 8633 E:\CR\FM\A18NO6.000 S18PT1 S11442 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE November 18, 2004 Ms. MURKOWSKI thereupon assumed will need to cooperate with our col- I yield the floor. what the Chair as Acting President pro tem- leagues across the aisle to produce re- f pore. sults, which is what we were sent here, RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME f of course, to do. Soon Republicans will fill 55 seats in The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- RECOGNITION OF THE ACTING this Chamber. That is a nice number pore. Under the previous order, the MAJORITY LEADER but it is not 60. And it often takes 60, leadership time is reserved. as we all know. Frequently—actually The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- f pore. The Senator from Kentucky is most of the time—it takes 60 to get re- recognized. sults in the Senate. MORNING BUSINESS So to our Democratic friends on the The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- f other side, let me say we want to work pore. Under the previous order, there with you. The voters expect us to work SCHEDULE will be a period for the transaction of in a bipartisan manner to make our Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, morning business with Senators per- country more secure, our economic op- today we will begin a period of morning mitted to speak for up to 10 minutes portunities more plentiful, and our business which will extend well into each. common values more respected. To do the afternoon. A number of Senators The Senator from New Jersey. that, we need your support, and we will have indicated they will come to the work to earn it. f floor and pay tribute to our colleagues Last week, Senator LIEBERMAN, a who will not be running for the 109th BIPARTISANSHIP good friend of mine and a good friend of Congress. We certainly want to accom- many of us in the Senate, came to my Mr. CORZINE. Madam President, modate those requests and have set hometown of Louisville, KY, where he first, let me say that it is this Sen- aside time accordingly. spoke at the University of Louisville, ator’s personal desire, following the At the close of our business this my alma mater, where he gave an out- comments the Senator from Kentucky week, we will print those tributes to standing speech. In it he said: has so ably given, that we came here to honor our departed colleagues. If Sen- try to make things better for the world ators are not available to come to the It is critically important that we put first things first, and national interests ahead of in the years beyond and for our chil- floor to deliver their remarks, they are our party interests. dren. So much of what he talk about— invited to submit those statements for I commend the Senator from Con- whether it is Social Security or the the RECORD. Again, they will be printed necticut for his exemplary spirit of Tax Code or our needs and in foreign as part of this larger document to goodwill. I think that is a good guide- policy—does require that we work to- which I just referred. post for all of us as we begin the 109th gether. As a reminder, the majority leader Congress in January. I commend the Senator for his com- has filed a cloture motion on the mis- I say to my Democratic friends that ments. We do have to work together as cellaneous tariffs bill. That cloture we are all willing to work with them in we go forward. vote will occur tomorrow morning. We that same spirit which JOE LIEBERMAN In fact, one of the things I want to expect cloture to be invoked; therefore, outlined. Together, we are going to ac- talk about, and why I came to the Sen- we hope to finish that conference re- complish great things of which this ate, one of the areas is where biparti- port at an early time on Friday. body can truly be proud. sanship and joint effort has been funda- In addition, as everyone is aware, we We will have hard tasks ahead of us. mental to raising an issue, framing it, continue to await completion of the The Social Security system is a speed- and getting it in front of the American Omnibus appropriations bill. It is still ing train heading for a brick wall and people. I come to the Senate today to our hope and desire to finish our work really must be set right for future gen- talk about the genocide in Darfur, on Friday, if at all possible. erations. The tax system is burden- Sudan, and what we, the United States f some and unfair and must be re- of America, are going to be doing about invented to fit our 21st century econ- it. BIPARTISANSHIP omy. We have to finish the job in Iraq Today, the U.N. Security Council is Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, so we can bring our troops home safely meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss after this month’s historic election, a and with honor. Sudan and to seek the end of the civil lot of political pundits are ardently We have tackled tough challenges be- war between the north and the south. trying to figure out what the results fore. Working together—Republicans This is a good thing and I congratulate may have meant. I have been in poli- and Democrats—successfully reformed Ambassador Danforth, in particular, tics for a period of time, so I would like the welfare system and put millions of for his personal efforts in making this to share my point of view on the mat- Americans on the path to self-reliance possibility real and tangible.