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The Honorable Mark R. Warner led the Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which ...

Vol. 158WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012No. 169

Mr. WARNER thereupon assumed the chair as Acting President pro tempore.

Friday, December 28, 2012 The Senate met at 9 a.m. and was called to order by the Honorable Mark R. Warner, a Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The acting majority leader is recognized.

The Senator from Georgia.

[Rollcall Vote No. 236 Leg.] YEAS--73 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Boozman Brown (MA) Burr Cardin Carper Casey Chambliss Coats Coburn Cochran Collins Conrad Corker Cornyn Crapo Enzi Feinstein ...

Mr. President, we have how many minutes?

The Senator from California.

The amendment is as follows:(Purpose: To require a report on the impact of the FISA Amendments Act

The Senator from Colorado.

I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer) and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

[Rollcall Vote No. 235 Leg.] YEAS--43 Akaka Baucus Begich Bennet Bingaman Blumenthal Brown (OH) Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Conrad Coons Durbin Franken Gillibrand Grassley Harkin Heller Klobuchar Landrieu Leahy Lee ...

Mr. President, I oppose Senator Wyden's amendment also because it imposes an unreasonably burdensome reporting requirement on the DNI and is inconsistent with the purpose of FISA, which is to ...

The result was announced--yeas 43, nays 52, as follows:

The Senator from Oregon.

The question is on passage of the bill.

Proponents have 8 minutes and the opponents have 2 minutes.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I say this with the greatest respect to the distinguished chair of the committee--with whom I have worked cooperatively on so many issues--that when she said this amendment ...

Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the amendment. This amendment would require the Director of National Intelligence to issue a public report within 90 days, assessing the impact of ...

The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.

Under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is rejected.

Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?

Mr. President, I rise in support of the Wyden amendment. Before I share my thoughts, I wanted to express my respect and admiration for the chairwoman and vice chairman of ...

Madam President, I rise today to express my longstanding concerns about the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. We are being asked to extend the sunset provisions in the Act until ...

Is there objection? Without objection, the clerk will report the amendments by number.

Madam President, amendment No. 3348 is about smart government. It is about ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, while at the same time guaranteeing that Federal law enforcement agencies ...

Under the previous order requiring 60 votes on adoption of this amendment, the amendment is rejected.

The Senator has 40 seconds remaining.

Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?

Is there objection?

The assistant bill clerk read as follows:

I ask unanimous consent to recapture 15 seconds of my time.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, it is my understanding the Senator from Arizona, Mr. McCain, no longer wishes to offer amendment No. 3384. Senator Bingaman of New Mexico is in line to offer ...

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with.

[Rollcall Vote No. 239 Leg.] YEAS--44 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Blunt Boozman Brown (MA) Burr Chambliss Coats Coburn Cochran Collins Corker Cornyn Crapo Enzi Graham Grassley Hatch Heller Hoeven Hutchison Inhofe ...

Madam President, I ask for time to speak on this point.

Madam President, I am happy to see the matter dealt with, with a voice vote.

Under the previous order, there will be 4 minutes of debate, equally divided, prior to a vote in relation to amendment No. 3370, division II, offered by the Senator from ...

On this vote, the yeas are 51, the nays are 44. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.

The result was announced--yeas 35, nays 60, as follows:

I ask unanimous consent that the vote on Coburn No. 3372 be laid aside, that the Senator be allowed to speak on amendment No. 3371, and then following that, we ...

[Rollcall Vote No. 240 Leg.] YEAS--35 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Blunt Boozman Burr Carper Chambliss Coburn Corker Cornyn Crapo Enzi Grassley Heller Hoeven Hutchison Inhofe Isakson Johanns Johnson (WI) Kyl Lee ...

The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.

[Rollcall Vote No. 238 Leg.] YEAS--51 Akaka Baucus Begich Bennet Bingaman Blumenthal Brown (OH) Cantwell Cardin Casey Collins Conrad Coons Durbin Feinstein Franken Gillibrand Hagan Harkin Heller Johnson (SD) Kerry ...

The amendments are as follows:

Under the previous order, there will be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment No. 3393, offered by the Senator from Maryland, Mr. ...

I have no objection.

The Senator from Maryland.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Montana for withdrawing his amendment.

The result was announced--yeas 52, nays 43, as follows:

Under the previous order, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 1, which the clerk will now report by title.

Mr. President, I just want to say to the Senator from Oklahoma, there does seem to be a dispute in the printing. But whatever it is, we are going to ...

Madam President, this is the result of a compact that, to my knowledge, has not been brought before the Foreign Relations Committee. It commits us to direct spending permanently for ...

Mr. President, it is unfortunate that we couldn't sustain this budget point of order because it truly is an emergency situation, particularly in the West. We have seen the number ...

All time has expired.

Mr. President, I have no doubt there was significant damage in the past of fisheries both on the west coast, Alaska, and on the east coast. But a large portion ...

The Senator is correct that this bill is full of reforms that he and I and others have worked on. But every one of these reforms has been agreed to ...

Without objection, it is so ordered.

I thank the Chair. Amendment No. 3350

Mr. President, amendment No. 3371 is a good government house cleaning for FEMA. FEMA determines disasters based on a declaration process that is based on a per capita income--or per ...

Madam President, I object to the voice vote and ask for the yeas and nays.

For the information of all Senators, we are going to have two votes before we break for our caucuses--the Republicans have a caucus, we have one. So we have two ...

The legislative clerk called the roll.

Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, I move to waive all applicable sections of that act for purposes of the pending measure.

The bill clerk called the roll.

The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

Mr. President, the Sandy supplemental appropriations bill provides $3.5 billion in funding for new construction projects through the Corps of Engineers. Part of that $3 billion is toward reducing future ...

Madam President, this amendment, No. 3350, is to provide additional funds for wildland fire management. The summer of 2012 was a bad fire year, the third worst on record--9.2 million ...

The Senator from Louisiana.

The result was announced--yeas 40, nays 55, as follows:

Mr. President, simply what this means is this--and I am really asking for Senators to pay attention because they are very keenly interested in the schedule. I thank the distinguished ...

If I might discuss with the leader and get the consent of the minority, the Senator from Oklahoma has a series of amendments. I wonder if we could debate the ...

Madam President, the Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Coburn, has asked that he have a chance to get his own paperwork together because he has extensive remarks. I am going to ...

To the Senator from Oklahoma, I apologize. I am sorry for the delay. We will move forward to further debate on the second amendment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute on the Tester amendment withdrawal.

All right. Amendment No. 3371.

Regular order.

Don't we now proceed to the McCain amendment under the consent agreement, for debate? It was to be Senator McCain or Senator Lee?

Provided, That such amount is designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

Don't create one disaster in trying to solve another. Please vote no.

The Senator from Kentucky.

Mr. President, President Kennedy once said:

Is all time yielded back?

Mr. President, if the Senator from Texas will yield for a moment, I don't want the gavel to come down during her presentation.

I just want to say to the Senator from Oregon, and all the other Senators who face agricultural disasters, we on the Appropriations Committee would like to work with the ...

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Frank Lautenberg be added as a cosponsor to the Reid substitute.

If the Senator would suspend, the time for the vote has now arrived.

Mr. President, given that the emergency designations in this amendment have been stricken, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment No. 3367.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute.

Mr. President, I understand we will now be going to the Reid substitute; is that correct?

Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote?

Is there objection?

Mr. President, I will vote in support of the legislation before us because we have a responsibility to help our fellow Americans who have lost homes and businesses through no ...

The Senator from Iowa.

The question is on agreeing to the amendment in the nature of a substitute, as amended.

The Chair is determining which section the point of order lies against.

I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), are necessarily absent.

The Senator from Montana is recognized.

Mr. President, as we debate the Hurricane Sandy Supplemental bill this week, it is critical that we ensure taxpayer dollars go to help those impacted by this devastating storm and ...

Under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is rejected.

The Senator from California.

The legislative clerk read as follows.

Mr. President, I respect my colleague's desire to get this matter done, but the language he is advocating is already in the Farm bill. We need to get the Farm ...

I will speak within that period of time. Thank you very much, and I thank both Senators.

Mr. Leader, you are talking about Sunday, right?

Mr. President, we wish to thank the distinguished manager of the bill for her courtesies and for her skill in managing this bill, and her sensitivity to the need for ...

The regular order is the Paul amendment on the debate time, amendment No. 3410.

Mr. President, this is a budget point of order against this being an emergency. If a person is a farmer or a rancher and their property or the property they ...

Is there any time remaining for the Paul amendment?

All time is yielded back.

Mr. President, I rise in support of amendment No. 3410, which would take the spending for Sandy relief and spend only 1 year at a time and would offset that ...

Mr. President, I guess we have 5 minutes?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to call up amendments Nos. 3376 and 3410 en bloc.

Mr. President, I understand there is no more time necessary on this amendment, and we call for the vote.

On this vote, the yeas are 55, the nays are 40. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is rejected. The ...

Under the previous order, there will now be up to 8 minutes of debate equally divided prior to the votes in relation to amendments Nos. 3382 and 3383 offered by ...

The Senator from South Carolina.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, I commend the Senator from Indiana, Mr. Coats, for the work he has done on this bill. He has proposed changes to the bill to balance our help ...

I would like to thank the Senator from South Carolina for his remarks. He summarizes what we on both sides of the aisle would say about this compelling national security ...

The substitute amendment has been amended, and now, as I understand the order, we will move to final passage.

Mr. President, I thank the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee as well as the ranking member because as soon as our leaders get back from the White House I ...

Under the previous order, there will be 8 minutes of debate equally divided on amendment No. 3355 offered by the Senator from Arizona. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.

Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk will report the amendment.

Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment No. 3376 offered by the Senator from Kentucky, ...

To further extend my point of order, I ask that the budget point of order lie against both emergency designation provisions that are contained in amendment No. 3367 to amendment ...

Is there objection?

Under the previous order, the motion to invoke cloture on H.R. 1 is withdrawn.

Who yields time in opposition?

[Rollcall Vote No. 242 Leg.] YEAS--48 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Baucus Bennet Boozman Brown (MA) Burr Chambliss Coats Coburn Corker Cornyn Crapo Enzi Graham Grassley Hatch Heller Hutchison Inhofe Isakson Johanns ...

I appreciate the Senator withdrawing his amendment. Had he not, I would have had to oppose it. It basically waives the Davis-Bacon requirements instruction for the Sandy rehabilitation projects. It ...

Mr. President, I am delighted to partner with Senator Blunt and Senator Stabenow on this important amendment which addresses the disasters that occurred this last summer in terms of a ...

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) and the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint).

Mr. President, first, I wish to say I appreciate the true concern my colleague from Indiana and those who have put this amendment together have shown. He is not just ...

Mr. President, a point of clarification for our colleagues, if Members could understand: We are going to vote on the McCain amendment now and then we have four more amendments.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, one of the things I have learned from the Energy and Water Subcommittee, which is the committee that handles appropriations for the Army Corps of Engineers, is how ...

No time remains for debate on the Paul amendment.

Amend the title so as to read: ``An Act making appropriations for disaster relief for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes.''.

The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.

The amendments en bloc are as follows:

Mr. President, I would ask consent for 2 more minutes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an amendment to the title of H.R. 1, the text of which is at the desk, be agreed to.

Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment No. 3367, as further modified, offered by the ...

[Rollcall Vote No. 245 Leg.] YEAS--46 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Blunt Boozman Brown (MA) Burr Carper Chambliss Coats Coburn Collins Corker Cornyn Crapo Enzi Graham Grassley Hatch Heller Hoeven Hutchison Inhofe ...

I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Reid), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are ...

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from West Virginia for his deeply moving and heartfelt sentiments concerning our dear and departed comrade, Senator Inouye, a unique man. Never will the ...

The result was announced--yeas 41, nays 54, as follows:

If a person is a farmer or a rancher, saying this is not an emergency is cold comfort. Saying this will be addressed in the farm bill is cold comfort. ...

The Senator from Mississippi.

The clerk will call the roll.

Sunday. We have another vote that has been set up, Baer. That is a simple majority.

Mr. President, I am told by the manager of this bill, Senator Mikulski, that she thinks they can complete work on this legislation, the supplemental, in the next couple hours. ...

[Rollcall Vote No. 247 Leg.] YEAS--41 Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Blunt Boozman Burr Chambliss Coats Coburn Cochran Corker Cornyn Crapo Enzi Graham Grassley Hatch Heller Hoeven Hutchison Inhofe Isakson Johanns Johnson ...

The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

The question is on agreeing to amendment No.

The Senator from Utah is recognized.

Mr. President, is there any time remaining in opposition to the Paul amendment?

Provided further, That individual grants shall not be subject to a non-Federal matching requirement: Provided further, That such amount is designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement ...

The Senator from Texas.

Mr. President, I understand that amendment No. 3383 is now in order.

The result was announced--yeas 48, nays 47, as follows:

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

I thank the Senator.

The Senator is correct. Coming from a State that received a major disaster declaration due to the damage it sustained in Hurricane Sandy, including damage to the Rhode Island National ...

Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment No. 3391, offered by the Senator from Indiana, ...

[Rollcall Vote No. 244 Leg.] YEAS--3 Heller Lee Paul NAYS--91 Akaka Alexander Ayotte Barrasso Baucus Bennet Bingaman Blumenthal Blunt Boozman Brown (MA) Brown (OH) Burr Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Chambliss ...

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we call up amendment No. 3373, as modified.

The amendment (No. 3395), as amended, was agreed to.

The legislative clerk called the roll.

Mr. President, when they say it is not an emergency, look at what happened with this hurricane. We lost 120 American lives. We lost 340,000 homes. We lost 200,000 businesses ...

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we now move to a period of morning business, with Senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I rise today with a heavy heart to bid ``Aloha'' to an extraordinary colleague and a dear friend, Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

Mr. President, at the end of each session of Congress, the Senate takes a moment to acknowledge and express our appreciation for the service of those retiring Members who will ...

Mr. President, although the Newtown community is very much still in mourning, I stand here today to remember 20 innocent children and 6 remarkable adults. I am hopeful that the ...

The following communications were laid before the Senate, together with accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as indicated: EC-8730. A communication from the Acting Principal Deputy Secretary of ...

The following bills and joint resolutions were introduced, read the first and second times by unanimous consent, and referred as indicated: By Mr. NELSON of Nebraska: S. 3712. A bill ...

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss legislation that I introduced to make technical corrections to the Dodd-Frank Act.

SA 3439. Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Mr. Lee, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. Begich, Mr. Franken, Mr. Webb, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. ...

Is there objection to the request? Without objection, it is so ordered.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 475, S. 3454.

Mr. President, earlier today, we were successful in passing H.R. 5949, the FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012, with strong bipartisan support. I am pleased that we are now ...

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to this matter ...

(The text of the amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of Amendments.'')

Without objection, it is so ordered.

The amendment was ordered to be engrossed, and the bill to be read a third time.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

The amendment (No. 3443) was agreed to, as follows:

The bill (H.R. 1464), as amended, was passed.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

The bill was read the third time.

The amendment (No. 3442) was agreed to, as follows:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1464 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no ...

Today the Senate is enacting provisions sent to us by Representative Conyers, Chairman Smith and others to repeal a shortsighted limitation passed in 1994 to limit Secret Service protection of ...

I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 6620 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

The bill (H.R. 6621), as amended, was read the third time and passed.

Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent to proceed to

Earlier this Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives came together to pass the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, the most comprehensive change to our Nation's patent laws in 60 ...

There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.

Mr. President, there will be two rollcall votes at approximately 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. President, passing this bill was a very fine accomplishment. Of course, we Senators get up and stand and are very proud of it, as we should be. But without ...

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Without objection, it is so ordered.