Thank you. We need all the help we can get. Mr. President, what I have heard this afternoon on the floor of the Senate is nothing short of incredible. The Senator from Washington came to the floor and asked to bring an appropriations bill…

It is interesting that when you offer to the Republicans the opportunity to have a farm bill and debate the issues on the bill, they reject it. They want to debate a lot of other things. They want to bring up a lot of other issues. I…

Hans Peterson made a calculated decision. He felt that he would have better treatment if he went into the French judicial system and left the United States. I think that it was a clear calculation on his part. I hate to see him benefit or…

we are all aware of the current healthcare crisis in our nation. Health care spending continues to rise at an unsustainable rate, constituting 16 percent of the Federal budget. Health care costs have increased 78 percent since 2001, more…

What will it take to end this war? How many lives? How many limbs? How many broken families? How many innocent victims? The Senate has an opportunity, with this next vote, to start to bring this war to an end and to start to bring our…

we are nearing an important milestone in the development of an ambitious project to develop new, environmentally friendly ways of using coal. FutureGen is a joint venture between the Department of Energy and an international, non-profit…

This war, in its fifth year, has claimed almost 3,900 of our best and bravest soldiers. Some 30,000 have been injured, more than 10,000 with amputations, burns, and traumatic brain injuries, serious injuries that they will struggle with…

they say in life you can really judge a person's values by where they put their wealth. Certainly, we all love our families, and we think nothing of spending a lot of money on our children. We all value our health, and we go to great…

I will tell my colleagues the Senator from Maryland probably recalls that over the last 10 years or so, this has kind of been an area of real bipartisan cooperation. We may fight like cats and dogs over everything else, but we said: Come…

I just have one question for the Senator from New Hampshire. As I understand it, the President is going to ask for $196 billion for 1 more year in the war in Iraq, not paid for. So would the Senator be voting against the President's…

I ask that my colleagues take note of the fact that the Defense appropriations legislation which is before us is critically important for our Nation and for close to 200,000 American servicemembers fighting wars in two foreign countries…

Can the Senator tell me how many Presidents in the history of the United States of America have proposed tax cuts in the midst of a war?

the Senate is now taking up the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to be the next Attorney General of the United States. It is a nomination which has become controversial. Judge Mukasey has served his country in many different ways. He…

Organ transplantation is one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of medicine. No longer is it considered experimental. Today, transplants are accepted as the best treatment for certain diseases, including End Stage Renal…

I rise today supporting the override of the President's veto of the Water Resources Development Act, known as the WRDA bill. We have waited for this bill for a long time. Senator Boxer of California and Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma worked so…

there are reports in the newspaper about the approval ratings of politicians and political institutions. Certainly, the President has had some problems, has had better days. His numbers are low. The numbers for Congress, in many respects…

it is my great honor to serve in the Senate and represent my State of Illinois. It is a singular honor and responsibility. Unlike the House of Representatives where I was honored to serve for 14 years, in the Senate we are often called on…

we have seen an increasing amount of attention on the growing problem of community and hospital-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infections. The CDC estimates that in 2005 in the U.S., 94,000 people…

I thank Senators Lautenberg and Lott for their hard work in bringing this important bill to the floor. They have worked on this issue for years and have always done so in a bipartisan manner. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this…

we are now more than halfway through our fifth year in this war in Iraq. We find ourselves stuck as an occupier in a Middle East civil war. Thousands of our sons and daughters have been killed or injured. The total financial cost may be…

someone asked me once how I would describe my politics. I told them: I believe in the Gospels of Saint Paul. Paul Douglas. Paul Simon. And Paul Wellstone. They were, in my opinion, three of the best public servants I have known. I had the…

the bill before us is a very important bill for our country. It is the reauthorization of the Amtrak operation which serves Illinois and most of our Nation very well. It is one of the most successful modes of transportation in terms of…

The DREAM Act is a bill which I thought about and introduced years ago, and it has finally reached this moment of truth where it comes to the floor of the Senate. The reason why this bill will be noticed is that literally thousands of…

What are we talking about? We are talking about children. We are talking about children who are brought to this country by their parents. Since when in America do we visit the sins and crimes of parents on children? If a parent commits a…

during the course of preparing this bill for the floor, I have been working on both sides of the aisle. I hope the vote in a few minutes will evidence that. I have had a constructive conversation with Senator Hutchison of Texas and Senator…