Senate Section

E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 111 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 155 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2009 No. 74 Senate The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was appoint the Honorable KIRSTEN E. don’t have to work into Saturday. But called to order by the Honorable GILLIBRAND, a Senator from the State of New we have to do this credit card legisla- KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, a Senator from York, to perform the duties of the Chair. tion, the financial fraud. We have been the State of New York. ROBERT C. BYRD, in contact with Republicans. They will President pro tempore. have a number of amendments. They PRAYER Mrs. GILLIBRAND thereupon as- want it to come back from the House. sumed the chair as Acting President The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- There will be some amendments in pro tempore. fered the following prayer: order. I have spoken to the Republican Let us pray. f leader on that, and they are going to Almighty God, You know all about try to get us those amendments as RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY quickly as possible. Hopefully this us. You know when we sit down and LEADER when we rise up. You know when we sin morning we can set that up to com- and when we obey. Give us Your Holy The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- plete that legislation quickly. Spirit to purge us from every wrong pore. The majority leader is recog- Then, of course, we have to do the thing, that our lives will glorify You. nized. supplemental appropriations bill. I Today, guide the steps of our law- f hope that is not going to be controver- sial. It will be marked up in the Senate makers. Help them to run when they SCHEDULE can, to walk when they ought, and to today, and then we will have the abil- wait when they must. Open their minds Mr. REID. Madam President, fol- ity to look at what the House and Sen- ate did before it comes to the floor to discern Your will and make them lowing the remarks of Senator MCCON- here. ready to do it. In everything, do NELL and myself, there will be a period There are a number of issues that through them what is best for our Na- of morning business for up to an hour. Senators will be allowed to speak for will be discussed. I hope there aren’t tion and the advancement of Your any that should take a lot of time, but kingdom in our world. up to 10 minutes each, with the excep- tion of Senator FEINSTEIN, who will we will see. We pray in the Redeemer’s Name. That is our workload this work pe- Amen. control the full 30 minutes on the Democratic side. The next 30 minutes riod. I hope we can work through this, f will be under the control of the Repub- as much as we can get done today. If not, we can complete a lot of the work PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE licans. Following morning business, on tomorrow and Monday even though the Senate will resume consideration The Honorable KIRSTEN E. there will be no votes on those days. of the credit card legislation. GILLIBRAND led the Pledge of Alle- f giance, as follows: Last evening, I filed cloture on the substitute amendment and on the un- I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY United States of America, and to the Repub- derlying bill. That was under rule LEADER lic for which it stands, one nation under God, XXII. Because of that, the filing dead- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. line for germane first-degree amend- pore. The Republican leader is recog- ments is at 1 p.m. today. I hope we can f nized. reach agreement to have that cloture f APPOINTMENT OF ACTING vote today. It is scheduled for the PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE morning. If we can’t do it in the morn- GUANTANAMO The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ing, we will have to do it Tuesday Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, clerk will please read a communication morning because of the Senate sched- last night we learned that the supple- to the Senate from the President pro ule. If we complete that cloture vote mental war spending bill the Senate tempore (Mr. BYRD). tonight, we would be able to finish the will take up contains $80 million to be The bill clerk read the following let- germane amendments Tuesday morn- used for closing Guantanamo. But the ter: ing and move on to other matters we language of the bill acknowledges what U.S. SENATE, have to do next week before we take Republicans have been saying for PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, our Memorial Day recess. We want to months: The administration has no Washington, DC, May 14, 2009. be able to leave here, if at all possible, plan to safely close this secure deten- To the Senate: on Thursday of next week. People have tion facility. Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, things scheduled. But we may have to Closing Guantanamo without a safe of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby work into Friday. I hope not. I hope we alternative would be irresponsible, ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S5459 . VerDate Nov 24 2008 06:00 Jul 12, 2009 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD09\RECFILES\S14MY9.REC S14MY9 mmaher on PROD1PC76 with CONG-REC-ONLINE S5460 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 14, 2009 dangerous, and unacceptable to the tainees from their highly controlled military Force anti-terrorism officer. He said the new American people. Americans are wor- fortress at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Alex- development in the area ‘‘makes the security ried that closing Guantanamo by an ar- andria to stand trial at the federal court- plan much more complicated. You have more bitrary deadline won’t keep them as house. locations to cover, more roofs to lock down ‘‘We would be absolutely opposed to relo- with snipers.’’ safe as Guantanamo has. They are par- cating Guantanamo prisoners to Alexan- When the Alexandria jail, an eight-story ticularly worried about the administra- dria,’’ Mayor William D. Euille (D) said. ‘‘We red-brick building adjacent to the Capital tion’s reported plan to transfer some would do everything in our power to lobby Beltway near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, detainees to detention facilities right the president, the governor, the Congress opened in 1987, the area had been a city here on American soil. State and local and everyone else to stop it. We’ve had this dump. officials in places such as Louisiana, experience, and it was unpleasant. Let some- ‘‘The idea wasn’t that you were going to California, Virginia, and Missouri have one else have it.’’ house terrorists,’’ Lawhorne said. ‘‘It was a The 2006 death penalty trial of Zacarias local jail.’’ been introducing resolutions to keep Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring The 10-story federal courthouse opened a terrorists from coming to their com- in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, few blocks away in 1996 in what had been a munities. turned the neighborhood into a virtual en- field of mud. The chief judge brought bag One look at the experience that Alex- campment, with heavily armed agents, roof- lunches to work because there were so few andria, right across the river here, had top snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs, blocked restaurants nearby. a few years ago during the trial of 9/11 streets, identification checks and a fleet of Major terror trials were held in Manhattan conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui television satellite trucks. in those days, but Alexandria became the President Obama has vowed to close Guan- makes it easier to see why all these Bush administration’s courthouse of choice tanamo by January, and the government is after hijacked airplanes slammed into the communities are so concerned. reviewing files on the roughly 240 detainees. World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Moussaoui was just one terrorist. Yet The administration has strongly indicated Northern Virginia jurors and judges were the effect his presence had on the city that some will be transferred to federal considered more conservative, and officials of Alexandria was enough for the city’s courts, and a senior Justice Department offi- thought the area was more secure. current mayor to state emphatically cial recently named Alexandria, along with By early 2002, about a dozen terrorist sus- that he is absolutely opposed to relo- Manhattan, as possible destinations. pects were held at the jail, which by contract cating prisoners from Guantanamo to Alexandria Sheriff Dana A. Lawhorne, who accepts up to 150 federal inmates, and more operates the city jail, said federal security if it can. Moussaoui, who spent 23 hours a Alexandria. ‘‘We had this experience,’’ requirements for housing suspects could day inside his 80–square-foot cell, was con- he said recently. ‘‘Let someone else ‘‘overwhelm the system’’ if multiple detain- stantly monitored and never saw other in- have it.’’ ees are brought there. mates. An entire unit of six cells and a com- According to press accounts, housing City officials and some legislators are con- mon area was set aside just for him. Moussaoui turned parts of Alexandria cerned that terror trials would take years, ‘‘It was a real hassle,’’ said Alan into a virtual encampment.

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