E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 109 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 151 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005 No. 162 Senate The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was Make them content to sow good seeds RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME called to order by the President pro in the knowledge that the harvest is The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under tempore (Mr. STEVENS). certain. the previous order, the leadership time Help each of us to be led by You be- is reserved. PRAYER yond the portals of selfishness to the spaciousness of service. Love us until The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- f fered the following prayer: we can live and love as we have been Let us pray. loved by You. We pray this in Your lov- Eternal spirit, by whose power people ing Name. Amen. MORNING BUSINESS are moved to work for the common f The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under good of humanity, keep us aware of the previous order, there will be a pe- Your presence. Strengthen us by the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE riod for the transaction of morning memory of people who invested their The President pro tempore led the business for up to 30 minutes, with the lives to serve Your purposes. Teach us Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: first half of the time under the control that You can bring order from chaos. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the of the minority leader or his designee Empower our Senators today to do United States of America, and to the Repub- and the second half of the time under Your will. Touch them with Your pres- lic for which it stands, one nation under God, the control of the majority leader or ence and embrace them with Your love. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. his designee. NOTICE If the 109th Congress, 1st Session, adjourns sine die on or before December 20, 2005, a final issue of the Congres- sional Record for the 109th Congress, 1st Session, will be published on Friday, December 30, 2005, 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 Thursday, December 29. The final issue will be dated Friday, December 30, 2005, and will be delivered on Tuesday, January 3, 2006. Both offices will be closed Monday, December 26, 2005. 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. TRENT LOTT, Chairman. ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S13689 . VerDate Aug 31 2005 02:03 Dec 17, 2005 Jkt 049060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A16DE6.000 S16DEPT1 S13690 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 16, 2005 they got. We toppled the Taliban in Af- protect our civil liberties and privacy, RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY ghanistan. We brought down Saddam and it contains new provisions to com- LEADER Hussein and dismantled his tyranny. bat terrorist financing and money The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Yesterday, under the protection of laundering, to protect our mass trans- majority leader is recognized. brave American and Iraqi soldiers, 11 portation systems and railways from f million Iraqi people streamed to the attacks such as the ones on the London SCHEDULE polls to freely choose, for the first time subway last summer, secure our sea- in the country’s modern history, a per- ports, and fight methamphetamine Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morn- manent, democratically elected gov- drug abuse, America’s No. 1 drug prob- ing, after 30 minutes of morning busi- ernment of and by the people. It was a lem. ness, the Senate will resume consider- historic milestone for the Iraqi people. The clock is ticking. We do need to ation of the PATRIOT Act conference It was a historic milestone for freedom. take action now. In just 15 days—De- report. At approximately 11 a.m, the It proved once again that every day we cember 31—nearly all of the provisions Senate will vote on the motion to in- are making progress. of the PATRIOT Act expire. If they do, voke cloture on the PATRIOT Act. It is We are fighting the terrorist enemy we are right back to where we were my hope cloture will be invoked and at home and in the mountains of Af- pre-9/11. The information walls go right that we could then adopt the con- ghanistan, on the worldwide Web and back up. We cannot let this happen. We ference report during today’s session. in the streets of Baghdad. We are co- cannot lose ground. Senators should anticipate additional ordinating our efforts both inside and The House, as we all know, acted last votes on legislative and executive outside our borders so that we never week. They passed a conference report items we must complete action on be- have to suffer another terrorist attack. with a bipartisan vote of 251 to 174. fore breaking for the holidays, includ- In the days following 9/11, we learned Now is the time for the Senate to fol- ing a number of judges and other nomi- that the enemy had been able to elude low suit. nations. As all of our colleagues know, law enforcement, in part because our The choice is clear. Should we take a we have a lot of work to do and a lot to agencies were not able to share key in- step forward in making America safer accomplish over the next several days vestigative information. Once we un- or should we go back to the pre-9/11 before we break for the holidays. derstood this awful reality, we swiftly days when terrorists slipped through I thank our colleagues for their pa- took action. Within 6 weeks of the at- the cracks? I believe the answer is tience and their hard work. We are tacks on America, the Congress passed clear, and I believe we have only one working in a bicameral way. As our the USA PATRIOT Act with over- choice. colleagues know, much of this legisla- whelming bipartisan support. The Sen- I ask my colleagues who are threat- tion has to originate now and pass ate vote was near unanimous, with 98 ening to filibuster to take a closer look through the House before coming to us. Senators voting in favor. The PA- at that PATRIOT Act conference re- We are working with the House to get TRIOT Act went to work tearing down port. This reasonable compromise that legislation appropriately. the information wall between agencies reached by Senate and House nego- f and allowed the intelligence commu- tiators may not contain everything THE PATRIOT ACT nity and law enforcement to work that each and every Member in this more closely in pursuit of terrorist sus- body would like, but it is much closer Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, later this pects. to the Senate bill that passed unani- morning the Senate will vote on the Since then, it has been highly effec- mously than it is to the House bill. It issue of whether to limit debate on the tive in tracking down terrorists and includes 4-year sunsets on the most USA PATRIOT Act. I urge my col- making our country safer. Because of controversial provisions, just as in the leagues to support the cloture motion. the PATRIOT Act, the United States Senate version. And like the Senate The PATRIOT Act passed with near has charged over 400 suspected terror- version, it includes extensive privacy unanimous support 4 years ago. Since ists. More than half of them have al- and civil liberty safeguards, as well as its passage, this commonsense law has ready been convicted. Because of the enhanced congressional oversight. proved to be one of the most useful, im- PATRIOT Act, law enforcement has As we prepare to vote on cloture portant tools we have in our antiterror broken up terrorist cells all across the later this morning, I urge my col- arsenal. If we can take ourselves back country, from New York to California, leagues to join in support of this essen- to that morning on September 11, Oregon, Virginia, and Florida.