We have had some very long speeches by those on the other side and I thought it appropriate we respond. The ranking member of the Finance Committee had all these charts indicating that all the problems were not the problems of this…

I still ask my friend for the third time, if we have no Levin amendment, it would seem to me this newly created board would still have authority to do what the Senator is talking about.

I am just curious. I am not sure I should get involved at this stage because the Senator knows the subject so well, but this board that is set up in this proposed law, they would not have authority to do that on their own?

I cannot imagine that Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens would have the fire money in the military construction bill. We reported, as the Senator knows, another bill out of the committee, the legislative branch appropriations bill. There are…

I think the Senator really condensed what is going on in corporate America. It needs to be changed, and hopefully this legislation will help that.

I had the opportunity to chair the Military Construction Subcommittee and worked as ranking member. It is an extremely important subcommittee for the military. With what has been going on in Afghanistan, it is compounded as to its…

But in spite of all this, I want the Record to be spread with the fact that we have a good piece of legislation. I would like, as I said before, to have some of the fancier upholstery----

I say to my friend, would the Senator consider my proposal to have relevant amendments debated--and the relevancy would be determined by the Chair--for a half hour on each one of those and, at the end of the half hour, have a vote…

I say to my friend, we have been trying very hard. I have received instructions--it is probably the wrong word, but Senator Edwards has been here for 2 days, and he left here for a while this afternoon waiting to vote on his amendment…

Yes, and I say to my friend, these moneys are so important to the people of our respective States, there is no question about that. I think it is a shame, for lack of a better description, that we do not have it in the supplemental. I…

So it would be totally unfair to have a nongermane amendment that would be available for us postcloture. That is why I object. If I had to do it again, I would do the same thing. But let me say this. People can complain--and I have no…

that is my hope. One of the reasons we want to dispose of the second-degree amendment--Senator Enzi, who has worked with you and others on the underlying amendment, is going to move to table. We hope we can move to the Edwards amendment…

I am very disappointed. This is a matter that the President has talked about needing to move forward. I assume the objection is on the number of Senators in the conference. If this legislation is important, I would hope the President would…

I know there are people in the audience all around here who are being paid lots of money. They are coming here to see what is going to happen. They are being paid lots of money. They drive here in limousines and have Gucci shoes and nice…

my friend from Alaska said if something happens and one of these casks is breached, there will be an explosion. But understand, standing within 3 feet of a spent fuel rod is a lethal dose--three feet. It will kill you. It may not kill you…

What I find more shocking about the Yucca Mountain project is that DOE has no plan to transport spent nuclear fuel to its proposed repository. Secretary Abraham testified last week that DOE is just beginning to formulate preliminary…

The Senator mentioned the 260-plus companies that make up NEI. Is the Senator aware that there is a lawsuit now pending to have the Vice President of the United States divulge who he met with at those energy companies and what they talked…

I will say quickly that this document about which my friend from Alaska refers is not worth the paper on which it is written. It talks about 4,300 shipments on trains--they have no trains at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles from any train. This…

I felt so strongly about that issue that I filed an amicus curiae brief joining with the GAO to have him divulge that information. I will bet a significant number of the 261-plus companies met with him to develop the energy policy this…

Five years for them to cool down. So I say to my friend from California, all this talk about we need to have one site, we don't need to have 131 sites--the fact is, they are always going to have spent fuel at the sites of the…

a little simple math: 77,000 tons now exist. They can move at most 3,000 tons to someplace; let's say Yucca Mountain. These reactors produce over 2,000 tons. I repeat, the math is not very much. The big lie has been the fact that they say…

National Geographic this month has a wonderful article on nuclear waste. Among other things, it confirms what we have known for a long time. The nuclear reactors in America and around the world are 97 percent inefficient. That means you…

I expect to vote for the underlying bill, but we ought to, in the name of equity, apply the same principles in the underlying bill we are seeking to apply to corporations to labor unions. The amendment I sent to the desk requires union…

On behalf of the secretary of state of Nevada, who I indicated earlier worked closely with the Senator from Connecticut in bringing forward a very good election reform bill--he is very progressive, and a fine secretary of state--throughout…

our Nation is experiencing a crisis in confidence among the investing public. Americans hear on the news and read in the papers every day more and more cases of corporate executives bilking employees and investors, and of auditors who…