Port Security

PORT SECURITY

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I express my disappointment at the words of the Democratic leader urging our colleagues to vote against cloture on the lobbying reform measure. This is important legislation. This legislation matters. This legislation is bipartisan legislation. It is in response to declining public confidence in the integrity of the decisions made by Government officials.

It is extremely unfortunate and unfair for this much needed legislation to be slowed down by an important but completely unrelated issue, regardless of one's views on the Dubai transaction. The Presiding Officer knows I have been outspoken in calling for a full investigation of the national security implications of this transaction, but regardless of one's views on it, this issue should not be tangled up in the debate on whether or not to strengthen our lobbying disclosure laws.

We have worked hard to produce a bipartisan bill, two bipartisan bills, that have been married to strengthen our lobbying laws. It is extremely unfortunate to hear the Democrat leader say we should get it done sometime but everyone should vote against cloture. That leads me to question whether there really is a commitment to strengthening our lobbying laws.

There is no reason we cannot proceed to the many amendments that have been filed, to debate them fully, let the Senate work its will on each of the amendments, and then clear this legislation so we can go to conference with the House and send the bill to the President's desk.

Public confidence in Congress is very low right now, maybe at record low levels. This legislation helps to promote public confidence in the work we do and the decisions we make. This should not be a partisan issue, and it has not been until the Democrat leader came to the Senate to urge his colleagues to oppose cloture.

Why can't we proceed with the measure before the Senate? It is a bipartisan measure.

My colleague, Senator Lieberman, has worked hand in hand with me on the Committee on Homeland Security to produce this bill. Senator McCain, Senator Santorum, Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold--all have been involved and have worked very hard. Indeed, yesterday we were on the verge of enacting a bipartisan amendment with the lead sponsor being a Democratic Senator. I supported his amendment. It had to do with holds being placed on bills. I thought it was a good amendment that would help increase the transparency and accountability of what we are doing.

It is unfortunate the Democratic leader is urging delay, saying we should not proceed to wrap up this bill and, in fact, we should not vote for cloture.

I urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support cloture. It is imperative we move ahead with this bill. If we do not act today to pass this legislation to strengthen public confidence in the decisions we make, shame on us.

I am not saying the issue raised by the Senator from New York is not an important issue. As I said, I have spoken time and again in favor of a full 45-day review, and we have gotten that. We need to find out the results of that investigation, have the Committee on Foreign Investment report not only to the President but to us, and then make our decisions.

I am introducing legislation to reform the entire Committee on Foreign Investment to give it a stronger homeland security and national security role and to house it in the Department of Homeland Security. That is an important issue. But it is not the issue before the Senate today. The issue before the Senate today is the lobbying reform measure, two bipartisan bills that have been put together that will help strengthen and promote public confidence in our decisions. Let's get on with the task before the Senate.

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