Congressional Record—Senate S6129
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June 7, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S6129 bring to a close debate on Executive Cal- ate stand in recess until 2:15 today and ing on the edge of hunger each and endar No. 72, the nomination of Janice R. that the time during the recess count every day. Thirteen million of these Brown, of California, to be United States Cir- under the provisions of rule XXII; pro- hungry Americans are deemed to be cuit Judge for the District of Columbia. vided further that the vote on the con- children. Bill Frist, Arlen Specter, Trent Lott, As we know, when children are hun- Lamar Alexander, Jon Kyl, Jim Talent, firmation of the Brown nomination Wayne Allard, Richard G. Lugar, John occur at 5 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, gry they do not learn. This is a trav- Ensign, C.S. Bond, Norm Coleman, with all time until then equally divided esty that can and should be prevented. Saxby Chambliss, James Inhofe, Mel in the usual form. Currently over 90,000 schools and 28 Martinez, Jim DeMint, George Allen, The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there million children participate each Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn. objection? school day in the School Lunch Pro- The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unan- Without objection, it is so ordered. gram. The children of families whose imous consent, the mandatory quorum income levels are below 130 percent of f call has been waived. poverty are eligible for free school The question is, Is it the sense of RECESS meals and those families whose income Senate that debate on Executive Cal- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- levels are between 130 percent of pov- endar No. 72, the nomination of Janice ate stands in recess until 2:15 p.m. erty and 185 percent of poverty are eli- R. Brown, of California, to be the U.S. Thereupon, the Senate, at 12:31 p.m., gible for reduced price meals. circuit judge for the District of Colum- recessed until 2:15 p.m. and reassem- Unfortunately, many State and local bia Circuit, shall be brought to a close? bled when called to order by the Pre- school boards have informed me that The yeas and nays are mandatory siding Officer (Mr. THUNE). parents are finding it difficult to pay under the rule. the reduced fee, and for some families The clerk will call the roll. f the fee is an insurmountable barrier to The assistant legislative clerk called EXECUTIVE SESSION participation. That is why I am a the roll. strong supporter of legislation to Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the eliminate the reduced price fee and Senator from Vermont (Mr. JEFFORDS), NOMINATION OF JANICE ROGERS harmonize the free income guideline the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. BROWN TO BE UNITED STATES with the WIC income guideline. I am KOHL), and the Senator from New Jer- CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR THE DIS- proud to say that a pilot program to sey (Mr. LAUTENBERG) are necessarily TRICT OF COLUMBIA—Continued eliminate the reduced price fee in up to absent. five states was included in last year’s The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there reauthorization of Child Nutrition and ator from North Carolina. any other Senators in the Chamber de- WIC. I have encouraged the Appropria- siring to vote? NATIONAL HUNGER AWARENESS DAY tions Committee to include funding for The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 65, Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, for the this pilot program, and I look forward nays 32, as follows: past two years I have come to the Sen- to working with them on this very im- [Rollcall Vote No. 130 Ex.] ate floor on National Hunger Aware- portant issue which touches so many YEAS—65 ness Day to talk about the battle families going through difficult times. Alexander DeWine McConnell against hunger, both here in America In my home State of North Carolina, Allard Dole Murkowski and around the world. In fact, I re- more than 900,000 of our 8.2 million Allen Domenici Nelson (FL) served my maiden speech for this Bennett Ensign residents are dealing with hunger, ac- Nelson (NE) topic—one of my top priorities as a Bond Enzi Pryor cording to the most recent numbers Brownback Frist Roberts U.S. Senator. I have stated over and from the U.S. Department of Agri- Bunning Graham Salazar over again that the battle against hun- culture. Our State has faced significant Burns Grassley Santorum Burr Gregg ger is one that can’t be won in a mat- economic hardship over the last few Sessions Byrd Hagel ter of months or even a few years but Shelby years as once thriving towns have been Carper Hatch Smith it is a victory that we can claim if we hit hard by the closing of textile mills Chafee Hutchison continue to make the issue a priority. Chambliss Inhofe Snowe and furniture factories. And this story Coburn Inouye Specter As Washington Post columnist David is not unlike so many others across the Cochran Isakson Stevens Broder said about hunger, ‘‘America country. Sununu Coleman Kyl has some problems that seem to defy Many Americans who have lost their Collins Landrieu Talent Conrad Lieberman Thomas solution. This one does not. It just manufacturing jobs have been fortu- Cornyn Lott Thune needs caring people and a caring gov- nate enough to find new employment Craig Lugar Vitter ernment, working together.’’ I could in the changing climate of today’s Crapo Martinez Voinovich not agree more. DeMint McCain Warner workforce. Simply being able to hold Last year on Hunger Awareness Day, down job doesn’t necessarily guarantee NAYS—32 Senators SMITH, DURBIN, LINCOLN, and I your family three square meals a day. Akaka Dorgan Mikulski launched the Senate Hunger Caucus, But there are organizations who are Baucus Durbin Murray with the express purpose of providing a Bayh Feingold Obama addressing this need as a mission field. Biden Feinstein Reed bi-partisan forum for Senators and Groups like the Society of St. An- Bingaman Harkin Reid staff to engage each other on national drew, the only comprehensive program Boxer Johnson Rockefeller and international hunger and food inse- in North Carolina that gleans available Cantwell Kennedy Sarbanes curity issues. By hosting briefings and produce from farms, and then sorts, Clinton Kerry Schumer Corzine Leahy disseminating information, the caucus Stabenow packages, processes, transports and de- Dayton Levin Wyden has been striving to bring awareness to livers excess food to feed the hungry. Dodd Lincoln these issues, while at the same time In 2004, the Society gleaned more than NOT VOTING—3 finding ways to collaborate on legisla- 4.2 million pounds of food—or 12.8 mil- Jeffords Kohl Lautenberg tion. I want to thank 34 of my col- lion servings. Incredibly—it only costs The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this leagues for joining the Senate Hunger one penny a serving to glean and de- vote, the yeas are 65, the nays are 32. Caucus and their staffs for their dili- liver this food to those in need. And all Three-fifths of the Senators duly cho- gent work. In addition, I am excited to of this work is done by the hands of the sen and sworn having voted in the af- see our friends in the House of Rep- 9,200 volunteers and a tiny staff. firmative, the motion is agreed to. resentatives start their own Hunger Gleaning is a practice we should uti- The Republican whip. Caucus and I look forward to working lize much more extensively today. It’s with them as both houses of Congress astounding that the most recent fig- f continue to find solutions to elimi- ures available indicate that approxi- ORDER OF PROCEDURE nating hunger. mately 96 billion pounds of good, nutri- Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I It is truly astounding how so many of tious food—including that at the farm ask unanimous consent that the Sen- our fellow citizens go hungry or are liv- and retail level—is left over or thrown VerDate jul 14 2003 00:01 Jun 08, 2005 Jkt 039060 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G07JN6.027 S07PT1 S6130 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE June 7, 2005 away. A tomato farmer in western and determination made her the top such plenty in the fields, as I drive past North Carolina sends 20,000 pounds of student of her class and she is today them, to think that there are Ameri- tomatoes to landfills each day during working full time as a chef. cans, particularly American children, harvest season. Or take Bobby, who also graduated who go hungry every day not because This can’t be good for the environ- from the program. Bobby went from we don’t have the means but because ment. In fact, food is the single largest unemployment and homelessness to be- we don’t organize ourselves and set the component of our solid waste stream— coming a top graduate, now working priority of making sure these future more than yard trimmings or even two jobs and living independently. Our generations, the future leaders of this newspaper. Some of it does decompose, bill is intended to complement these great Nation, can at least have their but it often takes several years. Other kinds of private efforts that support tummies full enough that they can pay food just sits in landfills, literally food rescue and job skills that can attention in school, grow healthy to mummified. Putting this food to good make the greatest impact on indi- become the kind of leaders that we use through gleaning will reduce the vidual lives.