E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 111 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 156 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010 No. 167 Senate The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was Sovereign God, You see all that hap- words be true and sincere and their ac- called to order by the Honorable pens in our world as You lead us by tions be characterized by honor and re- KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, a Senator from Your mercies and grace. Continue to spect. Help them to keep their prom- the State of New York. shower our land with Your blessings, ises to You and to one another, no mat- PRAYER protecting us from the forces that ter how great the challenges may be. The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- hinder freedom. Give our lawmakers Lord, enable them to walk securely in fered the following prayer: the wisdom to obey You, striving al- the path of Your will. We pray in Your Let us pray. ways to do what is right. May their great Name. Amen. NOTICE If the 111th Congress, 2d Session, adjourns sine die on or before December 23, 2010, a final issue of the Congres- sional Record for the 111th Congress, 2d Session, will be published on Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 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–59 or S–123 of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through Wednesday, December 29. The final issue will be dated Wednesday, December 29, 2010, and will be delivered on Thursday, December 30, 2010. 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. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, Chairman. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE APPOINTMENT OF ACTING U.S. SENATE, PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, The Honorable KIRSTEN E. Washington, DC, December 16, 2010. GILLIBRAND led the Pledge of Alle- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The To the Senate: giance as follows: clerk will please read a communication Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, to the Senate from the President pro of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the appoint the Honorable KIRSTEN E. United States of America, and to the Repub- tempore (Mr. INOUYE). GILLIBRAND, a Senator from the State of New lic for which it stands, one nation under God, The bill clerk read the following let- York, to perform the duties of the Chair. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ter: DANIEL K. INOUYE, President pro tempore. ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S10311 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 02:51 Jun 10, 2011 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD10\RECFILES\S16DE0.REC S16DE0 bjneal on DSK2TWX8P1PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE S10312 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 16, 2010 Mrs. GILLIBRAND thereupon as- EXECUTIVE SESSION from Congress and they demanded sumed the chair as Acting President more on election day. That is why pro tempore. today I am introducing this clean, one- TREATY WITH RUSSIA ON MEAS- page continuing resolution that would f URES FOR FURTHER REDUCTION operate the government through Feb- AND LIMITATION OF STRATEGIC ruary 18. So we have a choice. We can RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY OFFENSIVE ARMS pass this 2,000-page bill spending $1⁄2 LEADER The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- billion a page, or we can do this one- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- pore. Under the previous order, the page, clean continuing resolution pore. The majority leader is recog- Senate will proceed to executive ses- through February 18 of next year. That nized. sion to consider the following treaty is the choice we have. which the clerk will report. Once the new Congress is sworn in, f The bill clerk read as follows: we will have a chance to pass a less ex- Treaty Calendar No. 7, Treaty with Russia pensive bill, free of this kind of waste- SCHEDULE on measures for further reduction and limi- ful spending. Until then, we need to tation of strategic offensive arms. take a step back and respect the will of Mr. REID. Madam President, fol- RECOGNITION OF THE REPUBLICAN LEADER the voters. lowing leader remarks, if any, the Sen- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- I think the message was pretty clear ate will proceed to executive session to pore. The Republican leader is recog- last November. One pundit referred to consider the New START treaty. Roll- nized. it as a restraining order. In other call votes are expected to occur words: Quit doing what you have been OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS throughout the day in relation to doing. Here we are 1 month after the Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I amendments to the treaty. The man- want the American people to see some- election attempting to pass this 2,000- agers of this bill, Senator KERRY and thing. This is the bill the majority page bill when we could pass a one- Senator LUGAR, are two of our most ex- pager that would simply continue the would have us pass, this Omnibus ap- perienced Members, and they will do an government through February 18. propriations bill. It is 2,000 pages long. outstanding job of managing this legis- So we are going to have an oppor- I think the American people should lation. tunity to do this. I hope it makes sense think back to this time a year ago— The current continuing resolution on a bipartisan basis, this one-page last December—when the Democrats expires Saturday at midnight, so we continuing resolution until February did the very same thing. At that point, need to take action to consider a fund- 18, as an alternative to this 2,000-page it was a 2,700-page health care bill be- ing resolution sometime in the next monstrosity that spends $1⁄2 billion a cause, frankly, they didn’t want us to few days. page. I don’t think there is any ques- see what was in it. Only afterwards did Just an update on the schedule: The tion it is the right thing to do, and I we find out about the ‘‘Cornhusker tax package which we passed yesterday hope my colleagues decide in the end kickback,’’ the ‘‘Louisiana purchase,’’ is now in the House. They are going to that is the direction we ought to take. and all the rest. consider that very likely today. We I am going to introduce this, and I just This is eerily familiar to anyone who have the omnibus or the continuing wanted to highlight it for my col- remembers the health care debate. We resolution we have to deal with in the leagues. even have snow in the forecast, which near future because, as I have indi- TRIBUTES TO RETIRING SENATORS is reminiscent of last year. Last year cated, the funding expires at midnight JIM BUNNING we voted on health care in a blizzard— on Saturday. Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, the 2,700-page health care bill in the The DREAM Act is something we I know there are others on the Senate middle of a blizzard. floor seeking to speak, but I wish to need to work on. It is an extremely im- This bill is so enormous it took the bid farewell to one of our colleagues. portant piece of legislation allowing Government Printing Office 2 days to young men and women to join the mili- 1 Few people can say they have had the print it. It spends more than $ ⁄2 billion same range of experience and successes tary. If they serve 2 years in the mili- a page. Let’s take a look at it again. in life as Senator JIM BUNNING. In fact, tary, they would be eligible to get their Here is the bill. It spends—right at green cards. It also allows them to con- there isn’t even another Major Leaguer 2,000 pages in this bill—it spends $1⁄2 tinue their education. It is an ex- who can say he struck out Ted Wil- billion a page. It has more than $1⁄2 bil- tremely important piece of legislation. liams three times in one game. JIM ac- lion in it for the Democratic health complished that notable feat in just his We have the 9/11 health matter; we care bill we passed last year, the 2,700- need to reconsider that.