Requiring a Report Setting Forth the Global Strategy of the United States to Combat and Defeat Al Queda and Its Affiliates -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

REQUIRING A REPORT SETTING FORTH THE GLOBAL STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES TO COMBAT AND DEFEAT AL QAEDA AND ITS AFFILIATES--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - February 28, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise to speak for a son of Kentucky who journeyed to Iraq to save the lives of his fighting brethren, only to tragically lose his own. On May 7, 2005, PO3 Jeffrey L. Wiener of Louisville, KY, died in combat operations near a hospital in western Iraq. The hospital corpsman was 32 years old.

``My son was a hero and died doing what he loved, helping people no matter who they were,'' says Jeffrey's mother, Diana Wiener. An emergency medical technician in civilian life, Petty Officer Third Class Wiener dedicated himself to healing others.

For his bravery in uniform, Petty Officer Third Class Wiener received numerous medals and awards, including the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

Jeffrey moved to Kentucky later in life, after growing up in Lynbrook, NY. He settled on his life's calling at an early age and began volunteering with the local fire department at 13.

Always helpful, Jeffrey eagerly assisted everyone at the firehouse with any task. What little free time he had left when not volunteering went to the school wrestling team. Jeffrey graduated from Lynbrook High School.

As an adult, Jeffrey worked in New York's Nassau County EMS and served as captain of a volunteer fire department. Jeffrey was committed to his profession as a paramedic and constantly pursued the latest training activities.

Jeffrey eventually settled in Louisville, moving to help his mother raise his younger brother David. He got a job with Jefferson County EMS and made an immediate impact on his new friends and coworkers.

Jeffrey ``was always real gung-ho, straightforward, no beating around the bush,'' says John Cooney, a Louisville paramedic who partnered with Jeffrey. ``That was his demeanor.''

Jeffrey proved his value in short order when he suggested to his supervisor that the Louisville paramedics use something called a Reeves stretcher, which is more maneuverable in tight quarters than the standard carrying board. Jeffrey was familiar with it from his time in New York.

Jeffrey's supervisor agreed and put him in charge of training everyone on the new device. Major Rockey Johnson, Jeffrey's supervisor, told family and friends gathered at a memorial service for Jeffrey that to this day the Louisville paramedics call the device ``the Wiener board.''

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Jeffrey was moved to serve his country in uniform, and joined the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2002. He then underwent special training to become a hospital corpsman.

The Navy hospital corpsman is a respected and revered position in our Armed Forces, and the most decorated rating in the U.S. Navy. Hospital corpsmen are often attached to Marine units and are trained to handle emergency medical procedures near the front lines of battle. For the man who had been eager to heal since age 13, it was the perfect mission.

Jeffrey was assigned to the II Marine Expeditionary Force and deployed to Iraq. ``He took care of his troops,'' says LT John Rudd, a Navy chaplain who served with Jeffrey.

Jeffrey made friends with his fellow sailors as easily as he had with coworkers in Louisville or New York. One fellow corpsman, who hailed from Lexington, KY, knew Jeffrey but couldn't remember his name. Jeffrey told him to call him ``Louie,'' because he was from Louisville.

Hospital corpsmen are often affectionately called ``Doc'' by the Marines they serve alongside, and Jeffrey soon earned the nickname ``Doc Wiener.''

As much as Jeffrey relished the opportunity to serve, he dearly missed his family. Jeffrey married his high school sweetheart, Maria, in 1998, and together they raised two beautiful daughters, Mikayla and Theadora.

Jeffrey's older brother Joshua also served in Iraq and was there when Jeffrey arrived. Today, Joshua is in the Marine Forces Reserve and a fireman in New York City.

Jeffrey's younger brother David is also a marine and currently on his second deployment.

Jeffrey was looking forward to what life would hold for him and Maria when he left active service. He was considering continuing his EMS work, or going to the Department of Homeland Security. And many in his family believe his true calling was to become a doctor.

Jeffrey was buried in Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, NY, on May 16, 2005. Many friends from the Navy and the fire departments and EMS departments he had worked in over the years attended. Jeffrey was posthumously promoted to the rating of Hospital Corpsman Second Class.

I know I speak for all of my colleagues when I say our prayers go to the Wiener family for their terrible loss. We are thinking today of his wife Maria; his daughters Mikayla and Theadora; his mother Diana; his father Wayne; his brothers Joshua and David; his sisters Wendi, Jessica, and Delayne; the Barberio family; and many other beloved family members and dear friends.

``Jeffrey's desire to serve in the military was prompted by his desire to be a part of bringing peace,'' says his mother, Diana.

Mr. President, no one can doubt Jeffrey Wiener's compassion after he chose to dedicate himself from an early age to relieving the suffering of others.

And no one can doubt his bravery after he donned his uniform and volunteered to tend to our fighting forces in Iraq.

This Senate is humbled by PO3 Jeffrey L. Wiener's service and sacrifice. His family and friends are blessed for knowing him in life. And his State and Nation are stronger for his efforts in freedom's cause.

LOUISVILLE SCULPTOR ED HAMILTON

For more than 30 years, Americans have set aside one month every year to remember in a special way the contributions of African Americans to our national life. Black History Month has its roots in an old February tradition of celebrating the life and work of Frederick Douglass, the great writer and abolitionist. But its expansion over the years has given us an opportunity to recall the many other Black men and women whose personalities enliven our Nation's history but whose stories were often overlooked by those who recorded it.

Today, Black History Month is also an occasion to draw attention to outstanding African Americans of our own day--people like Ed Hamilton, one of America's great artists I and one of Kentucky's favorite sons.

As a boy growing up on Walnut Street in Louisville, Ed learned the value of hard work and the importance of family from his Dad, a businessman and a World War I vet. And from his Mom, he learned to think big. ``You can do anything,'' she always said. And so, roller-skating around the tight-knit neighborhood around the Hamilton family home at Walnut and 7th, Ed would learn to dream.

It is one of the ironies of history that so many great artists and thinkers barely ever left their hometowns. The whole world opened up to Shakespeare in a tiny town in England. Rembrandt saw all of history on the faces of merchants in Amsterdam. The Divine Comedy was written in exile. And for Ed Hamilton, Louisville has always been enough.

Ed and his family have lived in the same house on 43rd Street for decades. And all of his sculptures--from the Amistad memorial in New Haven to the African American Civil War Memorial monument here in Washington--were brought to life in the same Shelby Street studio. ``Louisville has been my lifeblood,'' he says.

Ed's memories of post-war Louisville are vivid--right down to the sharp smell of the stockyards and the sweet smell of hops that floated from the breweries. He remembers spending too much time at the Lyric Theater--and being fascinated as a young boy by a bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln at the public library on 4th and York.

It was the seed of his life's calling. Next year, more than half a century after Ed gazed at that bronze statue of Lincoln outside the public library, Kentucky will celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth with a new statue of Lincoln, this one by Ed, at Waterfront Park in Louisville.

Ed's life didn't always follow a straight path. As a kid, his mom wanted him to be a doctor. But a teacher at Parkland Middle School saw his talent as an artist and decided she wasn't going to let him waste it. So she called his Mom at home. ``I think Ed's got something,'' she said, ``and I want to help him develop it.''

At Shawnee High School, other teachers did the same. Ed developed a love for sculpture--and for a pretty girl named Bernadette--during his time at the Art Center School. They got married. And for the last 40 years, Bernadette has been his confidante and special muse.

Early on in their marriage, Ed taught ceramics and sculpture at Iroquois High School. He enjoyed the work. It was a stable job. But everything changed after a chance encounter in 1973. That's when Ed met Barney Bright, the only man in Louisville who actually earned a living as a sculptor. ``Barney invited me into his studio,'' Ed later recalled, ``and my entire life changed.''

Channeling the entrepreneurial spirit of his parents, Ed decided to set out on his own. And after a few years of working on abstract pieces and some impressive but minor liturgical art, the big breakthrough came. It was a commission for a bust of Booker T. Washington at Hampton University in Virginia. Ed always told Bernadette they didn't need to move to a big city for his work. If he was good enough, he said, they would come to him. Now they were.

When the Hampton commission came, in the early 1980s, Ed had never been on a plane before. So when it came time to visit the school, he took a Greyhound bus. It stopped in every town and hamlet for 600 miles. When they told him he had the job, he called Bernadette to tell her the good news and to tell her he was coming home in a plane.

Other important commissions followed: a statue of Joe Louis in Detroit; the Amistad Memorial in New Haven; York, the slave who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their western expedition, in Louisville; and then, the Spirit of Freedom monument in Washington, an epic work that teaches thousands of Americans each year about the vital role the slaves played in the Union victory in the Civil War.

The movie ``Glory'' focused on a single regiment of Black soldiers. The Spirit of Freedom honors all 200,000 of them, including nearly 24,000 from Kentucky alone. This fighting force of former slaves made up about 10 percent of the Union Army. Twenty percent of these brave soldiers and sailors died in battle.

The Spirit of Freedom was 6 years in the making. Ed says he used to dream about it in his sleep. The final product features 3 soldiers and a sailor on one side. On the other side are the grandparents and parents of 3 children, one of whom is on his way to battle. Another child is an infant.

The message of the statue is clear: When the war began, everyone in the family it depicts was a slave. When the war ended, they were free. Some had lived their entire lives in bondage, but their children would not. Black men had helped secure a life of freedom for themselves, their families, and future generations and helped unite a country.

The Spirit of Freedom is a tribute to the soldiers who fought. It's also a special gift to their descendents. One woman, who came from Seattle to see it, sent a letter to the museum's director when she got back home. Here's what she wrote: ``I don't know what I expected when I came to see the memorial, but when I came up out of the escalator and this statue rose in front of me my eyes were filled with tears.''

Ed has two big binders of letters just like these at home. This one, from a woman in Louisville, is typical: ``Dear Ed: How wonderful for you to make history come alive for generations to come. Now you are making history yourself as a sculptor and an African American. It is all wonderfully earned and deserved.''

Ed's gotten a lot of awards. In 1996, he was given the Governor's Artists Award in the Arts. In 2000, he was made an honorary doctor of Humane Letters at Spalding University. In 2001, he was inducted into the Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians. In 2004, he was made an honorary doctor of arts at Western Kentucky University.

But he wears his fame lightly. Locals are surprised to see him walking down the aisles at Kroger. And he always answers his own phone. ``I don't believe my own press,'' he says. ``This is all fleeting.''

Speaking once about the Spirit of Freedom statue, Ed called it an ``honor'' for him to pay tribute to the thousands of Black men who gave their lives in the service of freedom but who were not allowed to march in the victory parades after the war was over.

In this Black History Month, it is an honor for me to pay tribute to Ed Hamilton on behalf of all Kentuckians and on behalf of the many thousands of people across the country who have been touched by his special gift.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. I thank the Chair.

Reserving the right to object, Madam President, I would ask the majority leader if he would modify his consent request that if cloture is invoked on the motion to proceed and the Senate does indeed proceed to the bill, there then be up to five amendments per side related to housing and economic growth.

Mr. REID. Five amendments per side?

Mr. McCONNELL. Related to housing and economic growth.

Mr. REID. Madam President, I am anxious to try to work something out. We have Republicans who have indicated to me they have amendments to offer. I have Democrats who have come to me and actually given me the language of amendments they want to offer. So it is not as if Republicans are the only ones who want to offer amendments to the housing stimulus package.

So the answer to the question is yes, but I just cannot give carte blanche. I will be as fair and reasonable as I can be. That is pretty wide. It does not require germaneness. It does not require relevancy. All it requires is it be related to housing and something dealing with the economy.

If cloture is invoked on this matter, I want to legislate. I think this bill, which I think is so essential to the American people, would be a much better piece of legislation if it were bipartisan in nature. So I don't know if that gives the Republicans enough comfort, but I will try to be fair. I want to try to work this out. I think the number of five is fine. They suggested three. I think five is fine. I am not going to be trying to micromanage what they do, but I think it is something that, in fairness, the Republican leader would want to see what amendments were going to be offered and he would have the ability to say no to that. I think I should have--I have an obligation, a right, to look at what they do.

I will repeat: I can't do any more than say I will try to be as fair as humanly possible. I acknowledge the legislation has some controversy, and that being the case, there should be amendments allowed on it and I will do my best.

Mr. McCONNELL. Consequently, I gather the majority leader is objecting to my request that he modify his consent.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, momentarily we will be having a procedural vote, a cloture vote on a motion to proceed to what has been styled a housing bill. I will be urging my colleagues to oppose the cloture motion to proceed to the housing bill.

Having said that, it is my hope that at some point during the vote we will be able to negotiate between the majority and the minority a process for fairly considering alternatives, and I have had some discussions with the majority leader to that effect.

In fact, I offered a consent earlier this afternoon that there be up to five amendments per side permitted, if we turn to the bill. It is still my hope that at some point we will negotiate a process by which we can have fair consideration of alternatives.

Now, my colleagues and I just completed a news conference at which we laid out a comprehensive growth plan for America in a variety of different areas that most Republicans believe would advance the economic security of our country. Portions of that proposal might well be offered as an amendment to the underlying bill, were we to be permitted to do that.

It is my hope that the majority leader and I will have further discussions after this vote about a process by which we might be able to turn to the bill that would be fair to both sides. After all, I know there are some bipartisan discussions going on that will improve the bill. Senator Carper has been in discussion with Senator Martinez and others on both sides of the aisle with suggestions that might have bipartisan support that are not a part of the current proposal upon which we will have the procedural vote shortly.

So until such time as we can get an agreement that is fair to both sides, and gives other Senators who have ideas an opportunity to offer those ideas and have them voted on by the entire Senate, I urge my colleagues to oppose cloture on the motion to proceed to the proposal as it stands right now.

Hopefully, at some time in the near future we will have a chance to amend it, to modify it, to offer new suggestions to it to improve it, and maybe have the same kind of experience we had on the FISA earlier this year where we came together on a bipartisan basis and passed something overwhelmingly.

We had a similar experience at the end of the stimulus package in the Senate. We came together at the end and passed a package overwhelmingly. There is no good reason we cannot have an amalgam of both Democratic and Republican ideas added to this proposal that would strengthen it, make it more bipartisan, make it more likely that it would become law.

So for the short term, I would urge my Members to oppose cloture on the motion to proceed. Hopefully, we will be able to work out some kind of process for handling this in a fair way.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source