Posted on 04/04/2005 8:26:56 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
Since "Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.", I and others think it's a good idea to centralize what the goes on in the Senate (or House).
So if you see something happening on the Senate/House floor and you don't want to start a new thread to ask if anyone else just heard what you heard, you can leave a short note on who said what and about what and I'll try and find it the next day in THE RECORD. Or if you see a thread that pertains to the Senate, House, or pretty much any GOV'T agency please link your thread here.
If you have any suggestions for this thread please feel free to let me know.
Here's a few helpful links.
C-SPAN what a great thing. Where you can watch or listen live to most Government happenings.
C-SPAN 1 carries the HOUSE.
C-SPAN 2 carries the SENATE.
C-SPAN 3 (most places web only) carries a variety of committee meetings live or other past programming.
OR FEDNET has online feed also.
A great thing about our Government is they make it really easy for the public to research what the Politicians are doing and saying (on the floor anyway).
THOMAS where you can see a RECORD of what Congress is doing each day. You can also search/read a verbatim text of what each Congressmen/women or Senator has said on the floor or submitted 'for the record.' [This is where the real juicy stuff can be found.]
Also found at Thomas are Monthly Calendars for the Senate Majority and Senate Minority
And Monthly Calendars for the House Majority and Roll Call Votes can be found here.
THE WAR DEPARTMENT (aka The Dept. of Defense)
The Senate convened at 9:30 a.m. and adjourned at 7:11 p.m. Three record votes were taken.
Next meeting: Thursday, April 21, 2005
9:30 a.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business.
10:30 a.m.: proceed to Executive Session to consider the nomination of John Negroponte to be Director of National Intelligence.
Thereafter, resume consideration of H.R. 1268, the Iraq/Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill.
This is the must not miss item of the day. Place your bets now on whether or not the dems are even going to show up!
Senate Judiciary Committee
An Executive Business Meeting has been scheduled by the Committee on the Judiciary, for Thursday, April 21, 2005, at 9:30 a.m., in the Senate Dirksen Building, Room 226.
Senator Specter will preside.
By order of the Chairman
TENTATIVE AGENDA
I. Nominations
Terrence W. Boyle, II
to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit
Priscilla R. Owen
to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit
Janice Rogers Brown
to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit
William H. Pryor, Jr.
to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
II. Bills
S. 378, Reducing Crime and Terrorism at America's Seaports Act of 2005
[Biden, Specter, Feinstein, Kyl, Cornyn, Hatch]
S.629, Railroad Carriers and Mass Transportation Act of 2005
[Sessions, Kyl, Hatch]
S. 339, Reaffirmation of State Regulation of Resident and Nonresident Hunting and Fishing Act of 2005
[Reid, Hatch, Kyl]
S. 852, A bill to Create a Fair and Efficient System to Resolve Claims of Victims for Bodily Injury Caused by Asbestos Exposure, and for Other Purposes.
[Specter, Leahy, Hatch, Feinstein, Grassley, DeWine]
No live television coverage listed ..do we expect fireworks?
Not really fireworks, but if the dems just don't show up that'll be something.
I'm listening to Laura Ingraham who sounds every bit as frustrated as some of us. Who, she asks, among the Republicans is going to stand up for Bolton and the judicial nominees. She thinks not McCain.
I started cracking up once she played the Reid clip!
I hope they're going to have the live stream, all I got now is a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
You are trying to get a live stream of what?
The judiciary committee? Wish we could watch that--
Yeah, Laura Ingraham is hot today--she even got onto John Cornyn for the Republicans not being tough enough--
Good for her--I love Cornyn, but hopefully he will take that message to Hatch and Specter and Graham and the other squishy Republicans on the Judiciary committee.
Yup, no luck.
Did you guys read the article last night about how Salazar, from Colorado, had campaigned for the Senate saying he would NOT be for filibustering judicial nominees--
Why would he be asked that if voters weren't concerned, and why would he answer that way, if the voters he talked to weren't telling him NOT to filibuster?
Well, now he is changing his mind and what?, having an epiphany that filibusters are good?
Jeez, he has been a Senator for 3 months and is going back on a major campaign promise---
I am getting to where I just can't handle the integrity or lack thereof, of politicians!
Well, if you do start hearing something ---please let us know!!!
I bet there will be fireworks today!!
Yes, please. I am being distracted by actual work that has to get done, but I'll be checking in. Judging from the call ins to Laura's show, people are pretty angry about the dem behavior and the pubbies roll overs. We won, doggonit, and it wasn't with middle of the road, squishy folks. I am beyond tired of being courted for my vote and then being ignored after the elections are over. (Minor rant over.)
Still getting a beeeeeeeeeeeeeep....
I know the dems know that Byrd did the same thing in the past, which I'm sure(I hope) will come out---
So, they are using the talking points --abuse of power, power hungry, power grab, unbridles power--
Anything to get people to think that these poor, poor, dems are just being stepped on all the time....
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, when Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001, the Enhanced Border Security Act of 2002, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Congress recognized, on a bipartisan basis, the need to provide more people and more resources to patrol and secure our borders.
The PATRIOT Act called for tripling the number of Border Patrol agents and Immigration and Customs investigators on our northern border. The Enhanced Border Security Act called for an additional 200 investigators a year--on top of the PATRIOT Act increases--for fiscal years 2003 through 2006. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act authorized the hiring of an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents and 800 new ICE immigration investigators, and provided for another 2,000 detention bed spaces per year for 5 years. Together these laws reflect a consensus in the Congress that more needs to be done. But a consensus and a series of authorization bills produces only promises of progress, but promises do not make our borders more secure.
In written testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on February 16, the Department's then-Deputy Secretary, Admiral James Loy, cited recently received intelligence as the reason for his concern about the threat facing the Mexican border. He said the intelligence ``strongly suggest(s)'' that al-Qaida ``has considered using the Southwest border to infiltrate the United States. Several al-Qaida leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons.''
On March 10, 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said:
There is no secret that al-Qaida will try to get into this country. ..... They're going to keep trying on our southern border. They're going to keep trying on our northern border.
In his December 6, 2004, letter to Congress urging final passage of the Intelligence Reform Act, the President said:
I also believe the Conference took an important step in strengthening our immigration laws by, among other items, increasing the number of border patrol agents and detention beds.
Remarkably, despite the threat to our borders as enunciated by senior administration officials, despite the clear intent of Congress in three separate authorization laws, and despite the President's commendation of the intelligence reform conferees for increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and detention beds, the President included virtually nothing in his budget to actually hire and train those Border Patrol agents or to hire and train immigration investigators or to purchase or construct detention facilities for illegal aliens.
Our citizens are concerned about the security gaps along our borders. It has reached such a fever pitch in some locations that private groups, such as the self-proclaimed ``Minutemen,'' are banding together to form watch groups along the borders to act as additional ``eyes and ears'' and report suspicious border crossings to the Border Patrol for appropriate response. While perhaps not reaching the level of vigilante activity, this is a clear expression of the frustration felt by many citizens along the border areas that the Federal Government is asleep at the switch and failing to address a key Federal function.
Even our military is concerned about border security. According to an April 7 CNN report, Marines preparing for combat in Iraq or Afghanistan have lost significant amounts of training time because undocumented immigrants from Mexico have constantly wandered onto a bombing test range at the Marine Corps air station near Yuma, AZ. The range has been shut down more than 500 times over this past 6 months for a total of 1,100 training hours lost. Last year, more than 1,500 illegal immigrants were caught in the training area. In the first 3 months of this year, more than 1,100 have already been apprehended.
Today, I am offering a bipartisan amendment, cosponsored by Senator Craig of Idaho, that will fund the real work of securing our borders. The amendment provides $389.6 million for border security, and the amendment is paid for by reducing funding for diplomatic and consular programs the Department of State has indicated is not necessary until fiscal year 2006.
The amendment begins to address the security gap on our borders by funding the hiring of 650 new Border Patrol agents, and this number may fall short of the authorization goals set by the various acts, but it is a responsible level which Customs and Border Protection can meet in the coming months.
During an April 4, 2005, interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Robert Bonner said, ``The Border Patrol is almost ..... being overwhelmed by illegal immigration. This is like a sinking ship with a hole in it. You've got to plug the hole. You've got to stop the illegal migration into the United States. .....''
The agency responsible for enforcing our immigration laws, known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, has been forced to endure a hiring freeze and funding shortfall for more
[Page: S3984] GPO's PDF
than a year. Vehicles are not being replaced. Body armor is not being purchased. Travel to pursue immigration investigations has been curtailed. ICE continues to lose personnel, and the agency has not been able to fill those positions because of a hiring freeze. Through the end of January alone, ICE lost a total of 299 personnel.
My amendment--and it is cosponsored by several senators--would give ICE the resources that are so vital to beginning the process of hiring and training the personnel it needs to enforce our immigration laws.
This amendment also provides funds for deploying unmanned aerial vehicles along the Southwest border. The Border Patrol has tested and operated, for a limited period of time this year, unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, along the Southwest border. Using funds provided to it by the Congress, the Border Patrol conducted successful tests using UAVs to assist in the surveillance and detection of individuals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally. The operation, known as the Arizona Border Control Initiative, used these drones to monitor and patrol a 350-mile long swath of the desert border. More than 350,000 illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. were apprehended during the operation. Regrettably, this program was shut down on January 31 of this year. The funds provided in this amendment would allow for the immediate resumption of these surveillance and detection operations.
Finally, the amendment includes funds for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, NM, to train the new personnel.
The case for this amendment is clear; the need for it is critical; and the support for it should be bipartisan. This amendment is focused and targeted to address key border security shortfalls. The Border Patrol's role is to apprehend those illegally entering this country. They also work with ICE investigators to crack down on illegal immigration. They then turn over those who are here illegally to ICE, which needs the detention bed space and to deportation officials to hold, process, and then remove these individuals.
We must start now. This cannot wait.
The job of our immigration officers is staggering, and their resources are meager.
Along the 2,000 miles of land border with Mexico, the United States has deployed only 1,700 agents at any given time. That is one agent, just one, guarding more than one mile of border.
Of the 10 million illegal aliens in the country, 2,000 interior enforcement agents are charged with locating and arresting them. That is one agent, just one, charged with locating and arresting 5,000 illegal aliens.
Of the 10,000 border patrol agents authorized in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, the President's budget included funds to hire just 210. Of the 4,000 interior enforcement agents authorized, the President's budget included funds to hire only 500 of them. Of the 40,000 detention beds authorized, the President's budget included funding for a mere 5 percent of them. However, in every case, the very modest proposed increases for 2006 will barely make up for the 137 border patrol positions lost during the first two quarters of fiscal year 2005, the 299 ICE personnel lost and the 2,000 detention beds that do not exist, for lack of funding.
We ask how and why illegal aliens continue to pour into our country, and the answer lies in every border patrol increase we do not fund, every agent we do not hire, and every illegal alien we release due to lack of detention space.
This is our opportunity to reverse that sorry record. This is our opportunity to strengthen our border defenses. This is our opportunity to support a substantive, concrete effort to address the alarming rise in illegal immigration.
Sir Edward Coke wrote that a man's house is his castle, for where shall a man be safe if not in his own home?
The United States is home to 296 million people. They, by right, demand that their Government secure their castle against the unknown threat seeking to infiltrate its sanctuary.
I urge adoption of the amendment. It is cosponsored by Senators CRAIG, BAUCUS, DORGAN, LIEBERMAN, OBAMA, LEAHY and FEINSTEIN.
I yield the floor.
Looks like they showed up and voted...
From Sen. Cornyn's office:
WASHINGTON – Nearly four years after she was first nominated by President Bush to serve on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to send the nomination of Justice Priscilla Owen to the full Senate. The committee voted 10-8 along party lines.
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_04_17_corner-archive.asp#061236
What great news. I am stunned. Just to prove I am never quite satisfied and always nit picking, I wish they would have sent up Janet Brown from the 9th Circuit. The dems are going to try to trash them both, but the squirm factor may be a bit greater with Brown.
Brown is the largest vote getter in California, a blue state..so how the heck is she out of the mainstream..?
Specter up now talking about the Judges.....sounds like Myers might be the first up.
Today?
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