byrd. senator kennedy is in massachusetts recovering from brain surgery, battling brain cancer, and robert byrd, who continues to battle a staph infection at an undisclosed hospital. also inside "the washinton post," "on the cusp of historic majority, senate democrats miss the pillars." and from inside "the new york times," "senate feels an absence of health bill." chris dodd is the number 2 democrat on the health committee and has taken on the role of health care with senator kennedy. he is supported by leaders of three working groups that mr. kennedy created in november. we are going to take a short break. when we come back, congressman phil gingrey will join us to give us his perspective on the health-care debate. senator bernie sanders. "washington journal" continues in a moment. >> how is c-span funded? >> private donations? >> taxpayers? >> i do not really know. >> i do not know where the money comes from. >> federally? >> helices been funded? 30 years ago america's cable companies cr

there's a reference to senator robert byrd. there is a quote from mitch mcconnell in the peice. and also in "the new york times" -- will he be part of this debate? guest: i do not know. he was part of a conference call a week ago. he sounded good. we will be meeting today and my understanding is that he will not be there. it is not just a personal issue with people uninsured, underinsured, or paying close to $8,000, it is an economic situation. everyone is talking about general motors going bankrupt. general motors spends more money per automobile on health care than they do on steel. small businesses cannot afford to put more money into an escalating health-care costs when they would like to reinvest in their business. as the president appropriately pointed out, it is not just a crisis of the individual level, it is a major economic crisis that we have got to address. host: john webster who agrees with you sent us this tweet. guest: let me also say this. the concept of single payer is not a friendlngey idea. 15,000 doctors in this country support the single payer system. they a

. >> this place, this place would not be here without robert byrd, $150 million came to build this place. do you think roosevelt would be surprised if he saw this? >> he would love it. >> would be surprised? >> i don't think he would, because of his sense of grandeur was so large. he was creating conservationist book folders. a cartoonist join his crusade. what he was doing was creating a movement. like martin luther king created a civil rights movement. roosevelt spearheaded the conservation movement with perpetuity. for example, many of our for strangers in the west were rough riders who had served with him. he wanted to protect wild areas, to protect against poaching. he was doing law-enforcement, saying we are going to protect our air loans. he called all these places like wind cave or yosemite or mesa verde our air loans that were going to protect and police. we're training people to be conservationists in west virginia. >> if you look at the banners in this room, you have locations that was involved in. >> he saved them. >> he left when he was 51 years old. he did not live beyond 6

>> senator robert byrd to make sure -- made sure we had the funding to build it. the first bush administration and the clinton administration requested funding for the project in support of it. >> how many buildings? >> 17, on five the hundred 40 acres. >> how long did it take? >> three years. >> what can a book like douglas brinkley poe's writing about conservation and about the roosevelt to do for your work? >> a lot. it can help our employees, for them to recognize their own heritage. it helped the american public realize that this like melecio or any other historic artifacts, parks and refuges are precious heritage items. it helped us explain to the public what we do. a lot of us give stocks at parks or schools. it's useful if we can turn them over to a substantive history book like that of douglas brinkley if they want to know more about the history. >> your background, and graduated from harvard? >> in 1989 with a ph.d. in history science. >> how long have you been here? >> 10 years. this is my 10th anniversary. the best place i've ever worked. i was a profe

the statement from senator be robert byrd said the rapid and easy accumulation of power by white house staff can threaten the constitutional system of checks and balances. at the, white house staff has taken direction and control of problematic areas that are the statutory responsibility of senate confirmed officials. he's raising the same issue i was raising a few minutes ago. that is these people don't go through the confirmation process. there's no senators looking and seeing what kind of reputation these people have, what they are doing-with a -- doing -- what they have done in the past. where their area of expertise is. whether or not this is the most qualified person. whether it's a person who would meet the constitutional requirements of serving our nation. i know these are hired by the president. we don't -- it's like there's this alternate universe we are creating. we've got the cabinet. i guess you leave the cabinet and you go over to the czardoms and meet with them. maybe they all get in one room and battle it out. i don't know how it works. we'll see. but this is sizably mo

byrd who is 91 years old but senator kennedy was battling brain cancer and a quote from your colleague in the piecing it's hard to imagine a senate without them. also a story this morning inside "the new york times" and a quote from senator jack reed of rhode island saying i think we would all like to see senator kennedy here for many, many reasons, but we are going to move forward, forward without them. will he be at all part of this debate? >> i don't know. we heard he was part of a telephone conference call a week ago and he sounded good. we're going to be meeting today. my understanding is he probably will not be there. the other point that i want to make and we will talk about health care, it's not just a personal issue with people uninsured, underinsured or paying close to $8000 is what we are paying per person right now which is unsustainable. it's an economic issue and everyone is talking about general motors going bankrupt. general motors today spend more money per automobile on health care than they do on steel. in my state of vermont and all over this country small businesse

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. reid plap? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in period of morning business. senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. there will be no roll call votes today. senators dorgan and martinez, the managers of the travel bill that's before the senate, have indicated that they're ready to move forward on amendments being laid down. we'll have a series of votes monday night. and we'll move toward completing that legislation as quickly as possible. important legislation it is. we look forward to completion of that legislation. as the debate escalates over the best way to ease the crushing burden of health care, it is easy to become sidetracked by misrepresentations or attemp teo point fingers. when we do those things, we lose sight of what is at the heart of this debate: this reform. i want to remind all of us what this is all about -- the health care debate. it's about hard-working americans. they deserve better than to

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to one hour. senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes eesm the majority will control the first 30 minutes and the republicans will control the final 30 minutes. following that morning business, the senate will proceed to consideration of the concurrent resolution relating to an apology for slavery. there will be up to an hour for debate equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees prior to a vote. we do expect that vote to be a voice vote. upon disposition of the concurrent resolution, the senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany 2346, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. we hope to reach an agreement that would allow us to vote on motions to waive points of order. a time for a vote on adoption of the conference report. but if we're unable to reef an agreement, there

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following morning business, the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to 10 minutes each. tomorrow senators should expect a cloture vote prior to our weekly caucus luncheons. this week we're going to do the best we can to complete the travel promotion act and the supplemental appropriations bill. we should be able to do that and hopefully get some nominations done and inequity week we have some other things we need to do including the homeland security appropriations bill. i've spoken to the minority leader on a number of occasions to do that. to get to this next week we need a consent agreement because the house will not act on it until probably probably wednesday next week or something like that. and that doesn't give us enough time. we need to start on it a little earlier. we'll see what we can come up with. we have announced before that five weeks after we get back after we get back from the 4th of july will be

signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business for up to one hour. then we will resume the consideration of s. 1023, the travel promotion act. the time from 4:30 until 5:30 is equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. at 5:30 the senate will proceed to a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the dorgan amendment to the travel bill. filing deadline for first-degree amendments is today at 3:30. mr. president, later today democrats will try to move forward on a bill sponsored by democrats and -- the presiding officer: if the leader will suspend? mr. reid: of course. the presiding officer: so the senate may receive a message from the house of representatives. >> mr. president, a message from the house of representatives. the clerk: mr. president, i've been directed by the house of representatives to inform the senate of the appointment and the managers on the par

signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: at 10:00 or thereabouts we'll proceed with the impeachment matter. quorum call:

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, we'll be in a period of morning business for an hour, senators will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the republicans will control the first half, the majority will control the second 30 minutes. following morning business, the senate will resume the motion to proceed to the travel promotion act, postcloture. following adoption of that motion to proceed to travel bill later this afternoon we'll turn to the consideration of the emergency supplemental appropriations conference report. mr. president, i'm disappointed that we are again wasting time on a heavily bipartisan bill, the travel promotion act. wide support by both the democrats and republicans. but the republicans forced us to have a vote on cloture to allow us to get on the bill. all the republicans voted for it. they're filibustering things that they even agree with, just to stall for time. now, mr. president, this is 30 hours we could

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. ^ mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks there will be a period of morning business for up to one hour with senators allowed to speak for ten minutes each and the republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the second 30 minutes. following that the senate resumes consideration of tobacco legislation. there's up to one hour of debate only with time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. we do hope, however, we can reach an agreement to dispose of the pending lieberman amendment and several additional amendments upon the use or yielding back of the debate time on the bill -- that's one hour -- and disposition of the lieberman amendment the substitute amendment will be agreed to, the senate will vote on a cloture vote on the underlying tobacco bill so there will be a vote around 11:30. we have about 25 nominations that the republicans have held up. they're important. i was visited yesterday by secretary salazar regarding hill

signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: madam president, with the senate chaplain, admiral black, standing by, we all listened to the prayer of one of our jewish brethren from las vegas, rabbi harlig. the chaplain, i'm sure, was pleased with the prayer. those of us here were pleased with the prayer. it was a wonderful, meaningful prayer. i want to welcome rabbi harlig for helping us open the senate and for the beautiful prayer that he uttered. rabbi harlig and his wife dina opened a center in their living room in 1990. it was -- it has grown dramatically since then, and successfully grown. there are now five such community centers in southern nevada. the organizing rabbi harlig and his friends -- i'm sorry. the organization rabbi harlig founded has taught many children and many adults and done so many good deeds for so many people. as rabbi harlig mentioned in his invocation, the day is significant. it's significant because it's the day of the chabad community -- importa

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: i ask that the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. senators will be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the majority will control the first 30 minutes and the republicans will control the next 30 minutes. following that morning business, senate the senate will resume the motion to proceed to s. 1023, the travel promotion afnlgt there will be within hour for debate prior to the cloture on that motion to proceed. senators should expect a vote to begin as early as 11:45 today. the senate will recess, as we do on every tuesday, from 12:30 to 2:15 for our wkly caucus luncheons. mr. president, every day, like every senator, i get mail from men and women across my state. people

signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: mr. majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators to be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes each. republicans will control the first 30 minutes and the majority will control the next 30 minutes. the senate will be in recess from 12:30 to 2:15 today to allow for weekly caucus luncheons, to continue work on an agreement to continue the legislative branch appropriations bill, to be able to reach an agreement senators could expect votes in relation to that bill during today's session. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the "help" committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 1777. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1777, an act to make technical corrections to the higher education act of 1965, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate proceeds to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent

>> senator robert c. byrd made sure that we had the funding necessary to build the place. but both the first bush administration and the clinton administration requested funds for the project and supported the project. >> and how many buildings are here? >> we have about 17 buildings on about 540 acres. >> how long did it take for it to be built? >> took us about three years. >> what can i book like douglas brinkley's writing about conservation and about theodore roosevelt do for the kind of work you do? >> it can do a lot. first, it can help our employees enjoy more and recognize their own heritage. it helps the american public realed that just like mona lisa or any other historic art fact, these parks and refuges are really historic items and it helps a lot of people realize what we do. a lot of us gives talks at schools that last for an hour or so. really useful if we can turn it into a substantive history book like doug's. >> your background. i know you graduated from harvard -- what year? >> i graduated from harvard? 199 with a ph.d. in history and science. >> how lon

. >> this place, tell me if i'm wrong, it wouldn't be here without robert c byrd, a west virginia place, $150 million came into build this place, all done specific to this requirement here. do you think roosevelt would be surprised if he saw this? >> he would love it. >> would he be surprised, though? >> no, i don't think he would because his sense of grandeur was so large. i mean, he was creating conservationist foot soldiers. i talk about the cartoonist who joined his crusade. what he was doing was creating a movement, roosevelt. it would be like martin luther king creating a civil rights movement. roosevelt was spearheading the conservation movement for perpetuity. many of the first rangers in the west were rough riders who served with him. he wanted to militarize areas because he was able about poaching, people stealing petrified wood. he was doing law enforcement and saying we were going to protect our heirlooms. he would call these places like wind cave or yosemite or mesa verde national club which he created. they're training people how to be conservationists in west virginia. >>

signed: robert c. byrd, president pro tempore. ^ mr. reid: mr. president, following the remarks of the leaders the senate will be in morning business for one hour with senators allowed to speak for up to ten minutes and the majority controls the first 30 minutes and the republicans control the second 30 minutes. then the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 1256, family smoking prevention and tobacco control act. last night, cloture was invoked on that matter and we also agreed last night that we would have a vote in relation to the burr substitute amendment at 4:30 p.m. today and i hope we can reach an agreement to consider other amendments prior to the vote in relation to the burr amendment. senators will be notified if any other votes are scheduled. staff is working now trying to come up with a list of amendments we can vote on. the senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 for caucus luncheons. mr. president, h.r. 31 is at the desk and it is my understanding it is due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the bil

senator roberts? >> no. >> aye by proxy. >> did senator coburn vote? has he voted? >> no . >> senator bingham votes no by proxy. >> senator sanders, did you get that? >> yes. >> did you get that? all right. >> vote is ten ayes. >> it is not agreed to. all i can say is my nose counting was correct. >> it sure was. where are we here at this point now? are there any additional amendments? >> mr. chairman? >> senator casey. >> i just wanted to get back to the fraud and abuse section for a couple of moments. i know senator enzi had some comments before. we were dealing with senator mccain's amendment so i wanted to just respond to a couple of things. first of all, i wanted to commend the way senator enzi, along with our chairman has conducted himself in this whole process over these many days and weeks, and grateful for the way he approached this bill, as difficult as it is. and as much as there is conflict on a lot of major elements. with regard to the fraud and abuse section, i wanted to do a couple of things very briefly. this will just take a few moments. one is to h

>> aye. >> senator roberts. >> aye. >> senator kennedy? >> no by proxy. >> ten ayes. it appears to be nay. the amendment is not agreed to. here's where we are and senator coburn is leaving. i was hoping to get done by tomorrow midday, but we're going to finish, so i -- i don't want to keep people in the evenings if we can't consider amendments, but i don't know -- we have the fraud and abuse section now to go to and about -- >> there are eight people here, mr. chairman? we have eight, i know, and i think we ought to keep working at the thing. >> do it. >> i don't have amendments. do we have amendments? >> mr. chairman, i just want to thank all of the senators as we finish our first title, many across the aisle working with us to get this done and i appreciate all the work. >> we thank you immensely and thank you staff as well and, first of all, for taking the number of amendments and getting agreements on as many. i think roughly half of the amendments we found agreement on, and that was -- it doesn't take as much to hear about the agreements as it does to hear about