Tom Harkin: “Again, I appreciate the frankness of the Senator from Kansas. To be honest, I did not know about it myself. I am saying…”

“Again, I appreciate the frankness of the Senator from Kansas. To be honest, I did not know about it myself. I am saying that these things take place by a President. Quite frankly, they have a right to do so in these kinds of situations. It just seems to me that President Bush issued this Executive order, the one on the Beck decision, and the whip on the House side said that a President will do something by Executive order that he cannot get Congress to do. This is the same thing here, although in another way Congress wants to do something about striker replacement. The House passed it last year. The Senate voted 57 votes. It is only because of the filibuster rule that we were unable to pass it and get it down to the President for his signature. So again, I say to the Senator from Kansas that I think we have every right for the President to do this. It is perfectly lawful. But this is not really the place for this amendment. We are on the supplemental appropriations bill. This is not the place for this kind of an amendment. Again, Mr. President, I close my remarks by saying that we just cannot continue to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize--that is exactly what it is any way you cut it--companies that say to those same taxpayers I do not care how long you have worked here, and I do not care if you are exercising your legal rights, we do not care. We are going to permanently replace you. Well, I think it is time for us to say that we are not going to subsidize them anymore.”