SENATE COVERAGE -- (APRIL '04)

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 if it gets hot).

So if you see something happening on the Senate/House floor you don't have to start a new thread, you can just use this one also if you have a thread that pertains to the Senate, House, or pretty much any GOV'T agency please link your thread here.

C-SPAN what a great thing. Where you can watch or listen live to most Government happenings.

C-SPAN 3 (most places web only) carries a variety of committee meetings live or other past programming.

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.]

[Page: S4198] GPO's PDF

Mr. BYRD.:...........This is a coequal branch of Government, Mr. Bush. As a coequal branch of Government, as the body in which the Constitution vests the power of the purse, Congress requires the truth from the President, from the executive branch, from the Pentagon, from the Defense Department, from the State Department, from the White House. This is what makes recent allegations in Bob Woodward's new book regarding the redirection of appropriated funds into clandestine appropriations for the war on Iraq so disturbing, and the American people ought to be disturbed. The American people ought to ask questions, and their representatives in this body ought to ask questions. If the President, as alleged in this book, made the decision to wage war against Iraq and secretly spent appropriated funds to prepare for that war without prior consultation with Congress, then the letter of the law, the intent of the law, the spirit of the law, and the constitutional power of the purse have been subverted This would be not only a very grave breach of trust on the part of the executive branch, on the part of the administration, but also a very grave abuse of power.

Mr. President, I hope with all my heart that Iraq will emerge from the current chaos to become a free and democratic nation. I hope with all my heart that the sacrifices that America's military forces have endured in Iraq will be validated by reality, and not justified merely on the basis of wishful thinking. The path forward is not yet clear, but this I know: President Bush led America into a preemptive war that was neither dictated by circumstances nor driven by events. President Bush led America into a war of choice, a war that might well have been avoided with patience and prudence. Would that we could read that ``April is the cruelest month'' without reflecting on the cruel and terrible toll that the war on Iraq has taken on America's men and women in uniform in Iraq during this bloody and sorrowful month of April.

It is said in the King James version of the Holy Bible that of those to whom much is given, much is required. Mr. President, much is required of this administration and this President with regard to Iraq. The American people expect answers, the American people expect a judicious strategy, and the American people expect a well-thought-out military and diplomatic campaign. On all fronts, the American people have been let down. A President who wages war and manages the aftermath of war by the seat of his pants is not what the American people either expect or deserve. I fear that is what they are seeing in Iraq.

This President, having blundered into this war in Iraq, does not have much time left to get the stabilization of Iraq right. We have spent our blood and treasure in Iraq, and it is now time--past time--to aggressively explore ways in which the burden on Americans can be mitigated. It is time to abandon the go-it-alone attitude, the go-it-alone, cocky , arrogant attitude established by this President.

It is time--long past time--for the President to admit to mistakes made, to forsake his divisive either/or rhetoric, and to seek a way out of the deepening morass of Iraq with the full partnership of the United Nations, the region, and the international community.

President Bush needs to drop all pretensions that the war in Iraq and the battle for stability are going according to plan. Only by accepting the fact that a bold new direction is needed to untangle the mess in Iraq can this President extricate the United States from what is fast becoming a quagmire. It is time for the President to set aside his pride and to convene an international summit on the future of Iraq, composed of representatives of the Iraqi people, their Arab neighbors, NATO, and the United Nations. Then and only then will the Iraqi people be in a position to chart their own future with the help of the international community. Then and only then will the United States be able to relinquish ownership of the tiger that it now holds by the tail.

America must alter its course in Iraq to deal with the volatile vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. America must be prepared to fight terrorism wherever it rears its ugly head and not be lulled into the false belief that attacking terrorists overseas will stop them from attacking America on its homefront. Above all, Americans must never be cowed into believing that questions are somehow ``unpatriotic'' or that Presidents, even wartime Presidents, are ever above answering them. And finally, Americans must remember that in this country there are no kings.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

DOMESTIC NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION -- (Senate - April 22, 2004)

[Page: S4281] GPO's PDF
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Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I have up to 10 minutes, but I do not believe I will use that, if anybody is wondering.

I rise to speak about a disaster that has occurred within the last 24 hours in the country of North Korea . We now have on the wire service recognition of the fact that there was a train wreck in North Korea where two trains ran into each other. It appears that between 1,000 and 3,000 people were killed. One report says 1,000 and another report says 3,000. In the meantime, the North Koreans have cut off the telephone lines to the area and have closed the border, so considering the nature of the country, I do not know when we will find out how many.

The reason I rose to talk about it is because the substances that we have been told were in those trains do not come close to the explosive power of liquefied natural gas. They are some kind of a liquefied petroleum and another product like propane, and it must have been sufficient power for this to ignite and blow up.

Why would I bring this subject up on the Senate floor? Well, I say to my colleagues, the Nation we live in has been on such an absurd path with reference to diversifying our energy resources that we are currently thinking about using liquefied natural gas in large quantities to take the place of natural gas, which is getting higher and higher in demand and less and less in terms of supply. I believe we ought to get on with producing as much natural gas from our own sources as possible. I believe the natural gas from the State of Alaska ought to be brought on board and we ought to help pay for the pipeline which will be the largest and most expensive construction job in our history, but it will transport voluminous quantities of natural gas and it will be ours.

It will not be liquefied natural gas from Algeria, Tunisia, or wherever it comes from.

We are inviting the opposite. We are inviting States, principally in the eastern part of the United States--at least it is not the West or the South again. But I would like to make sure other parts of the country understand that if they have been holding out and not wanting us to get this energy bill passed because they think this is some easier way--like we can solve this with wind instead of natural gas--you know it just is not true. We cannot produce enough wind energy to take the place of the natural gas shortage we are going to have if we don't get on with producing it as fast as we can, in as large quantities as we can, and from safe sources, safe in terms of reliability and safe in terms of the environment.

We are going to hear more about this. I am sorry that I come to the Senate floor with such drastic statements about energy and the destruction of people and property because of this collision involving energy sources. But I can tell you, what the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has been suggesting we do is so much less risky than this, this fuel that exploded, that I almost wonder what is it going to take to bring us to our senses.

There are Northern and Eastern States saying, once they hear about LNG, they don't want it either. But I can tell you, there is not going to be any gas for parts of our country and it is not going to be imported from the West to the East; it is going to be brought to where it is needed. We are going to see people who are now talking with permittees who want to build plants, refineries, bases where you can harbor and hold liquefied natural gas.

Unless one of those trains had LNG, and I don't think it did, we haven't seen anything yet. If you killed 1,000 and wounded 1,000 and blew up a town with two trains running into each other and one of them was not LNG, then whatever we know about will be less volatile than LNG. So we could be looking at a more disastrous situation.

I also suggest while we are talking about terrorism, just think of that. If we have to bring in shipload after shipload of natural gas, just think of what we are going to have to do to make sure it is not part of a terrorist plan to blow up part of our country.

I for one hope we don't have to bring very much in, but I am sure, with what has been going on--and I am sure the occupant of the chair shares my concern--we ought to be very careful. We ought to take on the issue of, can we get some nuclear powerplants built in a safer way than in the past? Can we produce some truly clean coal-burning plants? We can bring solar, wind, and geothermal on. We can give them subsidies, all that are in this bill which we will not bring up today.

I think for those who are looking at that terrible country, terrible in terms of the nature of the existence of the people in North Korea , we can do nothing but shake our heads in fear and trepidation. I just finished reading a book about North Korea . As a Senator from a free country, to just read what is going on in that country just scares me to death. How the people can be so ravaged, so disgraced as human beings by that regime, and then to have something like this happen to them makes me terribly unhappy to be part of leadership in this world, that we can still let that eyesore of terrible proportions exist. Here is another one--3,000 people. Just absolutely pathetic.

I yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Check out some of the things said in the House yesterday. 108th Congress (2003-2004)Search

Search John Kerry, house, by date.

1 . JOHN KERRY DOES NOT BELONG IN THE WHITE HOUSE -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

2 . DISPARAGING REMARKS BY JOHN KERRY -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

3 . JOHN KERRY SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO AMERICAN VETERANS -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

4 . JOHN KERRY AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF? -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

5 . JOHN KERRY'S ACCUSATIONS AGAINST AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN VIETNAM -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

6 . TROUBLING REMARKS BY JOHN KERRY -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

7 . KERRY PLANS TO ELIMINATE SMALL BUSINESS FEDERAL CONTRACTS -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

8 . IN DEFENSE OF JOHN KERRY -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

9 . CREDENTIALS NEEDED FOR THOSE ATTACKING JOHN KERRY -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

10 . ATTACKS ON JOHN KERRY SHOULD NOT BE COUNTENANCED -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

11 . CALLING SENATOR KERRY ``HANOI JOHN'' IS SHAMEFUL -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

12 . REPUBLICANS ARE UNWILLING TO MEET THE COMMITMENT TO VETERANS -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

13 . NO BOUNDARIES -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

14 . KERRY, HIGHLY DECORATED VETERAN -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

15 . KERRY, A DECORATED WAR HERO -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

16 . DANGEROUS DUTY FOR KERRY -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

17 . PRAISE KERRY -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

JOHN KERRY DOES NOT BELONG IN THE WHITE HOUSE -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

[Page: H2297] GPO's PDF

--- (Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on this day in 1971, JOHN KERRY showed his true colors; and they are not red, white, and blue.

Before the Senate, before America, and before the world, he blasted our Nation, chastised our troops, and hurt our morale. He famously declared that soldiers tortured innocent Vietnamese and that America was the worse violator of the Geneva Conventions, not Vietnam.

In 1971 when JOHN KERRY had the freedom to stand up to defy duty, honor, and country, I just emerged from 4 years of solitary confinement, where the Vietnamese did not adhere to the Geneva Conventions.

What he did was nothing short of aiding and abetting the enemy. A person like JOHN KERRY does not belong in the White House.

Is it any wonder my comrades from Vietnam and I have a nickname for him similar to ``Hanoi Jane''? He is called ``Hanoi John .''

Senate Floor Schedule for Monday, April 26, 2004.

1:00 p.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business.

2:00 p.m. : Resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.150, the Internet Tax Moratorium bill.

Today in the Department of Defense, Monday, April 26, 2004

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld have no public or media events on his schedule

Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for Coalition Joint Task Force 7, and Dan Senor, senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority, will conduct an operational update from Baghdad at 9:30 a.m. EDT. This event can be viewed in the Press Briefing Room. Media wishing to attend must be at the Pentagon North Parking Entrance no later than 9:00 a.m. EDT for escort.

Freepmail me if you want on/off this ping list.

10:00 am EST C-SPAN1

Senate Committee
Iraq Ambassador Nomination
(John Negroponte)
Foreign Relations

I'm SURE the Dems won't make this into a Bush bashing session.

Today in the Department of Defense, Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld hosts an honor cordon to welcome Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini to the Pentagon at 10:30 a.m. EDT. The cordon will be held on the steps of the Pentagon River Entrance. Media must be at the Pentagon North Parking Entrance no later than 10 a.m. EDT for escort to the cordon.

Me thinks the subject of hostages will come up.

Senate Floor Schedule for Tuesday, April 27, 2004.

9:30-9:45 a.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business.

Thereafter, resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.150, the Internet Tax Moratorium bill.

Freepmail me if you want on/off this ping list.

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