Executive Session

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Mr. WYDEN. I thank my friend. I think he has made a number of important points about judges. The fact is, there is an alternative path. I think about how I have had a chance to work with my colleague in the Oregon delegation, Senator Smith. We have gotten judge after judge confirmed because we have felt, while some consider it quaint, that you ought to try to work in a bipartisan way. We have not applied an ideological litmus test. I think what the Senator from Florida is saying is that is the kind of approach we ought to be pursuing, to try to find common ground to get the Senate together.

As I begin my comments this morning, I will say that I think a lot of Americans look at what is going on now on the floor of the Senate and say that it is sort of like the great wall of China, an almost impenetrable barrier surrounding a forbidden community where their voices just go unheard.

I know what I hear from my constituents-I have open community meetings in all of Oregon's counties-is awfully different than essentially what the Senate has been doing through the night.

For example, what I hear about is how medical costs are just gobbling up everything in sight. I hear, for example, about how the crushing small businesses, scores of them dying to cover their people, have been unable to do it. I hear about providers, physicians, and others leaving the system because of inadequate reimbursement. I hear about so many who are not poor enough for Medicaid, they are not old enough for Medicare, and they fall between the cracks. Again, there is an alternative approach to all of the partisanship.

The senior Senator from Utah, ORRIN HATCH, has worked with me for a number of years now on the Health Care for All Americans Act. It is absolutely critical that the Senate get moving on this issue because we all understand that there is a demographic tsunami coming. Millions of baby boomers are about to retire in a few years. All of the problems we are seeing today are going to be multiplied three or fourfold.

Yet the Senate isn't tackling that kind of issue because, in effect, things have ground to a halt over exactly the kind of polarization the Senator from Florida has talked about.

I would hope that as we wrap this up, we understand that nothing important is going to get accomplished in the Senate unless there is an effort to work in a bipartisan kind of fashion.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. WYDEN. I am happy to yield.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. On that point, we have been fortunate to have a bipartisan approach in Florida with regard to the confirmation of judges as well. My senior colleague, Senator Graham, as Governor back in 1978 to 1986, was able to get the legislature to pass a series of panels called the Judicial Nominating Commission. This would be composed of lay people and members of the bar, leaders of the community who would receive applications for a vacant judgeship, and then that committee would screen them, interview them, look at their credentials, and nominate three, and then the Governor would select. That is still law today.

When Governor GRAHAM was elected to the Senate in 1986, he started to institute a similar situation, but rather by custom instead of law, in the confirmation of nominees to the Federal bench. It has worked well, while there have been two Senators of the same party and, indeed, while Florida has had two Senators of both parties. Indeed, the judicial nominating commissions formed back in Florida nominate three for the vacancy. The Senators sit down and interview all three of those. Now we are operating under a system that we have worked out with the existing Governor of Florida that it will be six nominees for the vacancy.

Senator Graham and I sit down and interview all six, and we make a recommendation to the White House if we have an objection.

Otherwise, the White House then goes about and selects which one they want. It is a way of working this in a bipartisan fashion, with a bipartisan commission; and all of our judges have gotten through without controversy.

The fact is exactly what the Senator from Oregon says. If you put your mind to it and you want to be bipartisan, you can have this process work, work efficiently, work effectively, and work timely in order to have good, fair, and open-minded judges.

Mr. WYDEN. The Senator from Florida is being logical. Heaven forbid that logic break out sometimes in this area that is often called the "logic-free zone"-this area surrounding the Capitol. It just seems that in so many of these areas, the institution just takes leave of its senses because both of us have described a bipartisan way to deal with the issue of judges-an approach that works in Florida and has worked for Senator Smith and I in Oregon. I do not think the Senate has the time or luxury for a lot of this pettiness.

I mentioned the health care issue with Senator Hatch that I have felt strongly about since my days as codirector of the Oregon Gray Panthers. This demographic revolution is coming on us, and the prescription drug issue we are tackling now is vitally important. But if there is one thing the Senate has learned, health care is like an ecosystem. What you do in one area affects all other areas. Senator Hatch and I have pulled together an approach that has now gotten the support of the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO to get back on track for what, regrettably, was not finished back in the early 1990s. In the health care area, you see an alternative path.

I see my good friend from Virginia here, Senator Allen. He and I are working on at least five major technology issues right now on the question of Internet access, and we are working in a bipartisan way with the States and localities to ensure that the Internet medium is allowed to grow and prosper. We have come together on nanotechnology, and we are working together.

I want to give some additional time to the Senator from Florida because I know his schedule is short. If you look at the big issues of our day, including the health care question, where I have outlined what Senator Hatch and I are talking about on so many issues that are social and ethical; and the technology question, where it just seems fitting that the Senator from Virginia is here, Senator Allen, my friend and partner on so many of these technology issues, the Senate has a choice either to listen to our constituents and take the bipartisan approach that will lead to real solutions or continue what is seen by most Americans as just small food-fight-like exercises.

I want to give additional time to my friend from Florida because of his schedule. I appreciate, particularly, his outlining, as we have tried to do in Oregon-Senator Smith and I working together-the kind of bipartisan approach that the Senator from Florida has described in his State for choosing judges.

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Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Virginia, who is one of my favorites here. I have the privilege of serving with him on a number of committees.

Back to what I was saying, if we would stop this excessive partisanship-you cannot get things done with this excessive partisanship. Especially, you cannot get it done in a Senate that is basically split down the middle, 50-50. I think it is 51-49 now. So if you are going to get anything done, we ought to be Americans first, not partisans first. That is what part of all this fight is. That is what part of this all-night session has been.

Do you know what. The folks out there in America-and I think all of you know this-don't like these partisan food fights.

I would like the perspective of the Senator from Oregon on that.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I think the Senator from Florida and I have tried to spend our half hour talking about specific ways in which the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, can come together to find common ground. Let me repeat them as we move to the end of our half hour. The Senator from Florida and I have talked about an alternative approach on judges, which works in the State of Florida and in the State of Oregon. I have talked about the health care issue, the issue that I feel the most passionate about, going back to my days when I worked with the elderly, and the wonderful help I have gotten from ORRIN HATCH, trying to focus on getting the country ready for this huge set of population changes that is coming. I thought it was very fitting that the Senator from Virginia was here, Mr. Allen, who has worked with me on technology issues.

A fourth area-something that is fresh in the Senate's mind-is that just a few days ago, we got 80 Senators-far more than anyone could have imagined-to support a major natural resources bill dealing with the forest fire issue. This is something of enormous concern in my part of the country and, obviously, all Americans. Our hearts go out to the people in California where they have had this terrible tragedy. Senator Feinstein and Senator Cochran-I always wanted to work with Senator Cochran on an issue as chairman of the Agriculture Committee. I haven't had the opportunity until now. He could not have been more constructive and helpful. I think that is why the Senate got 80 votes for that forest rebuild.

So I think the Senator from Florida is setting the right tone and certainly, in our 20 minutes, on the question of judges, health care, technology, and on the question of forestry, the two of us have shown that there is an alternative to a lot of the smallness, a lot of the harshness that we are seeing dominate this debate.

I thank my colleague for all of this extra time, and I believe the tone he is setting is one that will respond to what I hear the country talking about, and certainly what I hear people of Oregon talking about at our 36 town meetings in every part of the State.

Mr. NELSON of Florida. If the Senator will yield, I want to discuss another subject where partisanship gets in the way, and that is putting our fiscal house in order.

The Senator will remember about 2½ years ago, the wonderful optimistic view that we had of the Federal budget, where we were sitting on a budget surplus in the year 2001-something in excess of $250 billion in that 1 year, with a projected surplus over the next decade that was going to allow us to pay down and almost pay off the entire national debt, and still have enough left over in order to enact a substantial tax cut, and still have enough left over to start new programs that were needed, such as the adequate funding of the bill that we ultimately passed but did not adequately fund-the No Child Left Behind Act-and modernizing Medicare with a substantial prescription drug benefit. We had the opportunity to do all of that and still be fiscally conservative and fiscally responsible in not invading the Social Security trust fund, letting that Social Security trust fund surplus pay off the national debt over the next decade.

Instead, 2½ years later, we are looking in this fiscal year at a budget deficit-not a surplus but a deficit-of a half trillion dollars. That means we are spending $500 billion more than we have coming in in tax revenue. What do we do? We go out and borrow it. Who do we borrow it from? We borrow it in part from the average American citizen when we buy Treasury bonds. Do you know what surprises people? We end up borrowing it from countries such as China and Saudi Arabia.

If we are going to get out of this fiscal briar patch, it is going to take bipartisanship. The excessive partisanship gets in the way, just like it has gotten in the way of having us in session all night for that side of the aisle to make their point of view, and our side of the aisle to say that we have taken up 172 judges and approved 168 of them.

This country has its challenges and we have not even talked about Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror. But it certainly has its challenges with this fiscal mess that we are in of bleeding to the tune of deficit financing of $500 billion in this fiscal year.

Again, I thank my colleague. What he represents, my colleague from Oregon, and our colleague from Louisiana, who is with us-what they represent is the bipartisanship of reaching out and trying to bring people together and build consensus. That is what we need to do when we are dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan, the budget deficit, the environment, education, prescription drug benefits, and the approval of judges.

Mr. WYDEN. Will my colleague yield?

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Yes.

Mr. WYDEN. I think you have given us an ideal way to wrap up our half hour. I want to tick off yet another area where we have outlined an opportunity for an alternative path. We have spent our half hour describing a way in Florida and Oregon where you can deal with judges in a bipartisan fashion. We have talked about health care issues. Orrin Hatch and others have helped me, as have other Democrats. I think that has been constructive and a real path to try to deal with what is coming in 2010 and 2011.

Senator Allen was here and we talked about technology and the fact that the Senate got 80 votes a few days ago for forestry legislation-an unprecedented bipartisan vote. Finally, the Senator from Florida puts us on this question of fiscal responsibility, another avenue for cooperation between the parties.

I think about the outstanding work done by the Senator from Maine, Ms. Collins, who chairs the committee overseeing the operations of Government. She and I have been very concerned about the lack of openness in competition in the contracting process for these reconstruction contracts. It looks, given the events of this week, as though you are going to get more information out of Baghdad than you are going to get out of Government agencies in Washington, DC. There wasn't a shred of partisanship with respect to how we tackle this issue. So I think what we wanted to do in our half hour of time-the Senator from Florida and I-is not just talk about everything that has gone wrong, but to outline on specific issues an alternative path-a path that shows that we are listening; that the notion that somehow Washington, DC, is like a great wall of China, an unpenetrable community for the American people doesn't have to be that way. Whether it is judges, health care, technology, forestry, or the fiscal morass that the Senator from Florida has talked about, we want people who are listening this morning to know that we do think there is another way for the Senate to do its business.

I say to my friend from Florida, we came to Congress essentially together in the other body and then here. I have really enjoyed this and particularly the tone that I think he set out when we began-that the Senate needs to do better, and if you want to get anything important done-which is why we are sent here-it has to be bipartisan. I thank my colleague.