First, there was a statement by my friend, the Senator from Arizona, that there is nothing going to be done to improve fuel efficiency under the Levin-Bond amendment. I refer the Senator from Arizona to section 801, the very first page. It…

finally, it has been suggested that the Honda manufacturing motor company is supporting the effort to get the 36 miles per gallon. Today's National Journal Congress Daily on page 9 reports that it opposes the bill sponsored by Senators…

I think when you talk about energy and fuel economy standards, the impact on jobs and safety need to be at the top of anyone's list. That is why I am pleased to join my colleague from Michigan, Senator Levin, in crafting a commonsense…

First, the Senator is aware that we did take care of one of the Oregon problems. When he pointed out we could not send a second ballot, he is aware that we did agree to change the requirement in the underlying law. I understood it was at…

I make a friendly wager that maybe quite a few of those people voted twice. I think the Senator from New York has raised a point we did not adequately address. It was a point raised by the Senator from Montana who said there has to be a…

I do not need an additional 10 minutes. I have said all the things I need to say. It is not just my view that signature affirmation or verification does not work. Professor Melody Rose of Portland State University in Oregon has pointed out…

I applaud and support the Senator's premise that we ought to make sure the registration the first time is legitimate because that is where the problem begins. Does he understand that existing motor voter law does not permit effective…

my chief of staff and my counsel negotiated 4 to 5 hours a day for 6 months, and they thought they had reached the end. If the Senator from Oregon and I are now talking about different things than what he has outlined, it would seem to…

We worked long and hard to come to a reasonable, responsible compromise... I have laid out for this body a number of times the fact that vote fraud continues to exist in Missouri and too many other States. So I proposed some solutions to…

Some of them don't even have a bank account. I think that is a rather small universe. But I am willing to make explicit what I believe is already in the law--staff on the majority side has assured us it is already in the law--that money…

we have just heard some inaccurate statements about the underlying amendment. Nobody says you have to go to a copy center. Any antifraud provisions do not hold off in this bill until 2004. They are effective upon the signing of the bill…

I rest my case. Signature verification does not work. I urge people to support the motion I will offer. Obviously this provision threatens only one thing the way it is now, fraud. It could mean increased work for those who administer…

I am glad we can begin this debate because there is much to be said, but let me go to the heart of the matter. This amendment simply guts the compromise, the key antifraud provision that was carefully negotiated over 6 months as a part of…

I have looked long, far, and wide to see any consistent pattern of prosecution of vote fraud. I just do not know that there has been any significant effort. I wonder if the Senator from Pennsylvania can inform me to what extent vote fraud…

as I think the Senator from Kentucky indicated, we were very disappointed that after working 6 months to establish a very modified, watered-down provision to help prevent fraud, the other side chose, without objection, on a party line…

I am afraid we have seen a bunch of straw men set up and beaten up talking about all of these people who do not have any of these means of showing their identity. We negotiated 6 long months, and we had input from all of these people. The…

In addition to the story about the people coming in with ballots from who knows where, an even more interesting series of facts was unearthed in a study by Portland State University professor Melody Rose who did work assessing the…

I wholeheartedly agree that many of the problems we have in elections today arise from the lack of dedicated, partisan poll workers and watchers looking over each other's shoulders in the election booth. This is where a lot of the problems…

we have worked hard and long on a bipartisan basis to try to fix a lot of problems we saw in the past without going back to look at the problems that arose in the 2000 election, the 2001 election in my State, and others. Frankly, there is…

I advocated greater flexibility for purging. But at the same time, I was asking for more controls over mail-in registrations, making sure we had live people voting once, not dead people, not dogs. We came to a compromise in our…

I know there are many concerns about voting. We cannot solve all of them in this bill. I think we have reached a workable position where we will provide assistance to States and localities to improve their voting system. If a State wants…

I am disappointed by the sounds I am hearing that it is going to be pulled. We need stimulus in this economy, and we have already adopted an amendment that I proposed, on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, to allow small businesses to…

As my colleague and strong ally, the Senator from Maine, has said, this amendment is very important to help small businesses in their recovery. We know the entire economy took a severe hit on September 11, on top of a recession that has…

Basically, if we are going to get the economy moving again, it is very important that we get small business moving. I do not know about my colleagues, but I can tell you in my State there are a very significant number of small businesses…

I make a brief statement joining with my good friend from Connecticut and my friend from Kentucky in commending to this body the election reform bill. It was not just hours but weeks, and perhaps months, we worked on this. His dedication…