Senate Coverage -- (December '05)

Frist sounds like he is winding up the Senate for the Session. That is, the Senate won't meet again before next year; and then it will be the 2nd session of the 109th Congress.

Summarizing the thrust of actions planned in the future, as well as actions completed in 2005. I haven't been paying close attention, but I haven't heard him assert confirmation of the judges that he left hanging in the last session. I'm thinking in particular of Myers in the 9th Circuit, who was voted out of committee in March, and has not been brought up for debate or vote even one time.

He did mention the voting on CJ Roberts.

Ohhh - In executive session, the nomination of Kavanaugh has been "dumped" or returned to the President.

He is talking about other nominations that have been held up; Intelligence and Defense positions, but no comment relating to Circuit Court nominees by name - other than Kavanaugh.

Back to legislative session, a few last minute resolutions. Congratulations to Croation; Week of Dec. 19 is "Thank our Defenders" week; recognizing 100th anniversary of (I didn't catch); commending Appalachia State for winning NCAA football championship; encouring all Americans to increase charitable giving; Passing on conference report regarding NASA authorization - he takes a break to pat KBH on the back for getting this one done; Technical correction to a conference report; Sense of Congress that Russia must protect IP rights; Honoring pilots who participated in "arm the cockpit"; Protection of alien children, including a Feinstein amendment; Sense of Senate that lenders not foreclose on hurricane affected properties; Require reporting on Millenium Goals (what is that?); Amend Title 38 to improve health care services, and health care for veterans; Waive passport fees for surviving family of deceased service members; Technical corrections in Energy Policy Act; Reauthorize funding for needy families; Technical and other corrections to bank insurance; Reauthorize junior duck stamp program; Amend Title 18 adding penalties for directing laser pointers at aircraft; amend passport act of 1920; authorize appropriations for trafficing victims protection act (sex slaves); amend ERISA; amend torture victims relief act; temporarily extend program of higher education act; adjournment resolution - Jan 3 meeting pro-forma session, adjourn until Jan 18. Leaves open the possibility of coming in if the House doesn't act on the "strip ANWR" change.

Whew. More than "a few" last minute resolutions there. He thanks "volunteers" who have stayed behind to facilitate the last minute business. All done.

What a shulb.......

Today you proved what can happen when we stand up against the abuse of power in Washington. Today the Senate kept faith with our troops and we stopped the Republican leadership from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Thanks to your powerful advocacy over the past 48 hours, the Senate today stopped the Republican leaders and President Bush from passing a bill that would have allowed drilling in the Arctic and put oil companies' profits before the needs of the nation.

While the fight is never over, we hope that these special interest provisions will now be stripped from the bill, and our troops and military commanders will get the help that they so desperately need without all the extra special interest favors the Republican leaders added to the bill to help their political allies. It never would have happened without your support.

Although we won today, it is crystal clear that President Bush and the Republicans do not share the priorities of the American people -- and we have to be ready to take the fight to them once again in 2006.

Thank you for all your support, your passion and your dedication. I'm proud of our johnkerry.com community -- and I'm especially proud that you helped to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Teresa and I wish you and your family a very happy holiday and a happy new year.

Let's keep fighting for a stronger America.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

STEVENS: Mr. President, I am going to go home, and I am going to think about this, and I am going to try to figure out what to do next year. But I know one thing, the 3 months I spent on this to try and help the people in the disaster area, with the sincere belief in the--how many of you have been to the disaster area? Did you spend a couple of days down there, as I did? Did you go and look at it? Did you see the miles and miles of homes that are gone? Did you see a great big barge, bigger than this room, on top of a schoolhouse? Did you see miles and miles of levees just laid down? Did you see the devastation as that tsunami came up that channel that man dug from New Orleans to the gulf?
Did you see that? Did you see how it devastated the land, and all the plant life is now dying because it was inundated in saltwater?
The earthquake in my State did that. I saw one town disappear. I saw a third of my city, Anchorage, disappear. You have to have had that experience to understand how I felt when I went to New Orleans.
You people didn't believe it. Many of you said I did this for political reasons, just a crass thing, pick up some money and give it away for votes. I never asked one of you for a vote. I talked to some of you about how you should vote, but I never went to you and said: You have to vote for me. You wouldn't be voting for me; it was voting for the people who would have been helped.
This has been the saddest day of my life. It is a day I don't want to remember, and I am sorry to see it come to an end. Because I am drawing the line now with a lot of people I have worked with before. I really am. I can't put in my mind the amount of time, the days I have spent with you working on your problems, and to know you said about me the things you said in the last 2 months. I say goodbye to the Senate tonight. Thank you very much.
14 . CORRECTING THE ENROLLMENT OF H.R. 2863 109th Congress - Senate - Dec. 21, 2005

Returned to the President, Thursday, December 22, 2005:
THE FOLLOWING NOMINATIONS TRANSMITTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE SENATE DURING THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 109TH CONGRESS, AND UPON WHICH NO ACTION WAS HAD AT THE TIME OF THE SINE DIE ADJOURNMENT OF THE SENATE, FAILED OF CONFIRMATION UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF RULE XXXI, PARAGRAPH 6, OF THE STANDING RULES OF THE SENATE. ...
THE JUDICIARY
BRETT M. KAVANAUGH, OF MARYLAND, TO BE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT JUDGE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT.
12 . NOMINATIONS RETURNED TO THE PRESIDENT - Dec. 22, 2005

My read of Rule XXXI is that all of the pending nominations will be returned, not just that of Kavanaugh, once the new session of Congress begins sometime next year. I don't understand why Kavanaugh is singled out here, unless it is to send a messgage to the President that this nominee is more unacceptable than the others that (best I can tell) will be returned to him later.

RULE XXXI
EXECUTIVE SESSION - PROCEEDINGS ON NOMINATIONS
6. Nominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session at which they are made shall not be acted upon at any succeeding session without being again made to the Senate by the President; and if the Senate shall adjourn or take a recess for more than thirty days, all nominations pending and not finally acted upon at the time of taking such adjournment or recess shall be returned by the Secretary to the President, and shall not again be considered unless they shall again be made to the Senate by the President.
http://rules.senate.gov/senaterules/rule31.php

The Senate on December 13, 2005, passed the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement. Why post this now? Because the U.S.-UAE Free Trade Agreement is likely to follow a similar pattern of "negotiation and presentation to Congress," except in the wake of the Dubai Port World buyout of P&O, and all the hullabaloo entailed therein, the U.S.-UAE Free Trade Agreement is apt to get more attention than the U.S.-Bahrain FTA got.

Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, my understanding is that the Senate is taking up the free-trade agreement with Bahrain. Of all the priorities that exist in our country dealing with the subject of trade, somewhere close to last would be a trade agreement with Bahrain. Nothing against the country of Bahrain. I am sure it is a wonderful place. I have not actually visited there. But I believe the total trade between our country and Bahrain is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 million, less than $1 billion on both sides of the ledger. ...
[Dorgan promptly segues into discussion of China and the Cayman Islands]
24 . BAHRAIN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT -- (Senate - December 13, 2005)
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Bahrain free-trade agreement is a very important agreement that reflects in this post-9/11 environment the recommendation that had been made in terms of facilitating trade to nations such as Bahrain. I am delighted we were able to both debate it earlier today and ultimately pass this important free-trade agreement.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I reluctantly oppose the legislation implementing the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement. I have nothing against expanded trade with Bahrain, and I know that there is plenty in this FTA that is appealing to the U.S. business community. However, this agreement is another example of the misplaced priorities in the Bush administration's flawed trade policy, which can best be described as a policy of ``fiddling while Rome is burning.''
If you were to ask Americans to list their top trade priorities, I think they would suggest the following: dealing with the enormous trade deficit, on pace to exceed $700 billion this year; addressing the rise of China; meeting the challenges of outsourcing and globalization; enforcing our existing agreements and rules for fair trade; and perhaps global negotiations in the World Trade Organization. A trade agreement with Bahrain would be nowhere near the top of the list; it probably would not even be on the list at all.
Yet, here we are, with the Bahrain FTA as the big trade item to close out the year. ...
The Bush administration has proposed no policies in the face of outsourcing and the revolution of globalization to ensure that America keeps good-paying jobs and remains the most competitive economy in the world. They basically say, ``Don't Worry, Be Happy.''
Instead, the U.S. uses the scarce resources of the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate an FTA with Bahrain, which has an economy one-tenth-of-one percent the size of the U.S. economy.
When it comes to enforcing our current agreements, the Bush administration has been asleep at the wheel. While the Clinton administration brought on average 11 WTO cases per year to knock down foreign barriers to U.S. exports, the Bush administration has filed fewer than three cases per year.
Instead, they have focused their energies on negotiating an FTA which is so small that the independent ITC has stated, ``the effect of the FTA on total U.S. exports is likely to be minimal.''
Meanwhile, the WTO negotiations have delayed and floundered. Ironic may not be the right word, but it is a fitting testament to this administration's skewed priorities that Senators are stuck in Washington debating the Bahrain FTA this week, and so were not able to travel to Hong Kong to provide oversight on the WTO negotiations--which could have an impact thousands of times larger than a trade agreement with Bahrain. ...
Separately, I want to address Bahrain's boycott against Israel. For decades now, the United States has had a policy to oppose the Arab League boycott against Israel. There is an entire office in the Department of Commerce tasked with implementing this anti-boycott policy. Congress has also directed USTR to ``vigorously oppose'' WTO admission for countries that engage in the boycott. In my view, it is an implicit corollary of this latter rule that the U.S. should not enter into bilateral trade agreements with countries that participate in the boycott.
Bahrain continues to participate in the boycott, however. To its credit, Bahrain has terminated participation in the secondary and tertiary aspects of the boycott. And, Bahrain has stated in a letter to USTR that ``the Kingdom of Bahrain recognizes the need to dismantle the primary boycott of Israel and is beginning efforts to achieve that goal.'' That said, it is worth noting that even the primary boycott can hurt U.S. producers. The primary boycott prohibits imports with Israeli content. So, U.S. companies that use Israeli inputs could be barred from exporting a mostly U.S.-made product to Bahrain.
USTR and supporters of this agreement argue that the quoted statement constitutes a binding commitment by Bahrain to eliminate the primary boycott. I hope they are correct, but I am not so sure. ...
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the third reading and passage of the bill.
The bill (H.R. 4340) was ordered to a third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
48 . UNITED STATES-BAHRAIN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT

And following the above, the next day ...

[Congressional Record: December 14, 2005 (Senate)]
[Page S13563]
PASSAGE OF U.S.-BAHRAIN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, over the past several years the Congress has worked hand-in-hand with the administration to foster greater peace and stability in the Middle East through trade. We have concluded and implemented free trade agreements with Israel, Jordan, and Morocco. We recently concluded negotiations with Oman and negotiations are ongoing with United Arab Emirates. Perhaps soon, we will launch negotiations with our good friend and ally, Egypt.
Yesterday, with the passage of S. 2027, the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, we took another historic step forward. Once this agreement enters into force, 98 percent of our agricultural exports to Bahrain will enter duty-free and 100 percent of our two-way trade in industrial and consumer products will be duty-free. The agreement sets a new standard on services, with broad commitments by Bahrain to open their service sector to our exports.
Passage of the U.S.-Bahrain FTA will help advance the President's goal of achieving a Middle East Free Trade Area, MEFTA, by 2013. This visionary agenda is a key element in our efforts to help foster economic growth and prosperity in an important region of the world. It also reflects keen appreciation by the Bush administration of the 9/11 Commission Report recommendation that ``a comprehensive U.S. strategy to counter terrorism should include economic policies to encourage development, more open societies, and opportunities for people to improve the lives of their families and to enhance prospects for their children's future.'' ...
20 . PASSAGE OF U.S.-BAHRAIN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION ACT

One can view Feingold's "anti-U.S.-Bahrain FTA" just below Grassley's approval.

The bigger picture is MEFTA. A number of Middle Eastern countries are in the process of negotiating Free Trade Agreements with the U.S., and later this year (2006), the Free Trade Agreement with UAE will be on the Senate's table for discussion.

On Jan. 19th [2006], USTR Ambassador Rob Portman and Omani Minister of Commerce and Industry Maqbool Bin Ali Sultan signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries. Oman is the fifth Middle Eastern country to have negotiated an FTA with the United States, following Israel, Jordan, Bahrain, and Morocco. In addition to eliminating its tariffs on U.S. products, Oman will provide substantial market access across its entire services regime, provide a predictable legal framework for U.S. investors operating in Oman, provide for effective enforcement of labor and environmental laws, and protect intellectual property. The NAM has supported the agreement as part of an effort to develop a network of FTAs with the Middle East. While two-way goods trade between the United States and Oman was less than $800 million in 2004, a Middle East FTA would be the equivalent of an FTA with the 6th largest U.S. global market. The European Union has more favorable access to many Middle Eastern markets than the United States does, and the Oman agreement is another step in leveling the playing field for U.S. companies.
http://www.nam.org/s_nam/sec.asp?CID=202174&DID=233750

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