senator udall can going to take over and senator boxer will be next. senator hutchinson and then it's all up to senator udall from new mexico. he's going to fix the whole problem. >> senator lautenberg, on your way out the door, i just want >> on your way out the door i just want to thank you very much for this hearing, sir. and high-speed rail is critical. it was just really critical. i want to pick up on senator thune's comment about the funding. senator tim, i just want to pick up on your point about the funding. it is very critical. this $13 billion standing alone just endoscope far, but in my state we had an election about putting a $9 billion funding package and people voted by which is kind of remarkable given the latest notes that we had. so the people there really understand it, and our system i think most everybody in this room has been to my state. it will eventually connect to sacramento, our state capitol to san diego in the south. that is the first phase will be between los angeles and san francisco and points in between. i also want to p

kent: senators mccaskill, klobuchar, whitehouse, udall, shaheen, kaufman, martinez, demint, barrasso, wicker, johanns and risch. the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: the resolution on will meet at a time to be determined. the presiding officer: the senate will take proper order and notify the house of representatives and counsel for judge kent. mr. reid: mr. president, i would ask in an orderly fashion that senators approach the desk for signing of the resolution. of the impeachment before they leave the chamber. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call : quorum call:

udall: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: mr. president, i rise today to honor a proud son of almagordo, new mexico. army specialist chris kerth died on thursday, june 4, after his vehicle was struck by an antitank grenade. he was 23 years old. in iraq, chris was responsible for escorting convoys, but this job description conveys none of the risk or the courage involved in the job. the military can secure a town or a base, but somebody must still travel the roads that cannot be secured. christopher kerth was responsible for undertaking this act of courage. chris knew how dangerous this job could be when he began his last mission. he was on his second tour of duty, and he had just recovered from a neck wound that won him the purple heart. but for chris, success was defined by keeping his fellow soldiers safe, and that's what he died fighting to do. the values reflected in this duty are as important in peace as they are in war. his job was to protect his fellow soldiers to be

john salazar from we were colorado was a no vote despite work from mark udall. >> what was minority leader jonbenetter up to in the process? the house filibuster? >> he has the right to speak as long as ept. >> he was reading through the bill. he had some points through the pioli. it was a 309-page management amendment until waxman and company didn't roll out until 3:00 in the morning. that bill came out, and there were a lot of questions about what was in it and who had read it. joan boehner read allowed what was in it. he made sure his points were heard. as the votes were being cast later, you heard the republicans chanting b.t.u. on the floor. that is a reminder of the 1993 democrats and house took under president clinton's urging. a lot of people said that vote in 1993 led to the republican takeover in 1994. the republicans are trying to bring back some history. the arizona republican said today this was the first step for the democrats to go back into the minority in 2010. >> darren samuelsson. thanks for bringing us up to speed with the process so far on the energy and climate change

. >> senator udall. as the good governor was saying to me, who was that guy that built our 110-mile-per-hour service, i said david gunn, it's the only good thing he did for amtrak. but that's not true, i want to say that because david and i are friends, i talked to him a couple of days ago, i accused him from using the turbo money from the project in new york to get that done. but i know he got pennsylvania money. i think what tom is talking about is sab lutely true, with an exception. that is that the culture in this country is not a train riding culture. in the northeast corridor, about 43 million people live within 40 miles of where we operate ocela. it is a success. in 2000, we had about 37%, this was before it started, of the air-rail market was with rail. today, in 2008, we have just the opposite of that. we have 63% of the rail-air market. that's with service that's two hours and 45 minutes. from new york to washington. and on north end, from new york to boston, it was at about 20% and is now, or

senators as follows: reid, pryor, whitehouse, inouye, feingold, dodd, burris, durbin, murray, tester, udall of colorado, klobuchar, reed of rhode island, baucus, merkley, lincoln, cantwell, dorgan. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i ask the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask now that we proceed to a period of monk business, senators allowed to speak -- of morning business, senators allowed to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, let me just say a brief word on the cloture that was not invoked on the travel bill. i hope that everyone understands what obstructionism is. this is obstructionism at its best, and it goes along with what the republicans said they wanted to do and that is stop everything. as indicated in "roll call" newspaper last week. this is a bill that saves the government money, almost a half a billion dollars over ten years. it would create in the first ye

i might also add a point that was raised by senator udall of new mexico. judge sotomayor is no stranger to this chamber. she was nominated first for the district court bench by president george herbert walker bush and then nominated for the district court by president clinton, and that's an indication that we have seen her work before, we are aware of her background. the last point i would make, and consistent with the senator from california, is that judge delayed could be justice denied. in this case, if we continue this hearing for a record-breaking period of time, which has been requested by the republican side, it will mean that we will have a vacancy on the supreme court when it begins its important work this fall. what chairman leahy has asked for is reasonable. it is consistent with the way judges were treated under president bush at the time the republicans had no objection or complaint about it. this is a reasonable timetable and i urge my colleagues to support chairman leahy. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: morning business is closed.

senator udall? >> thank you, chairman. great to have you back and senator hutchinson, thank you for your amendment on the floor that i think provided -- that tried to provide a more orderly process to dealership closings. we need to ask tough questions regarding geel dealer closings. there's no doubt that it's become an integral part of the stroir. if you ask any american, they'll remember fondly their first car, even if it's just the old family truck. it's tough for me to believe we're here today with two of america's automakers in bankruptcy. for folks across the country, jobs depend on chrysler and gm. because of the workers and thousands of others who depend on the auto industry, i support efforts to get the auto companies back on their feet. but i'm concerned about the process. i want to make sure that we're going to save as many american jobs as possible and taxpayers are going to see a return on their investment. there are towns that depend on local dealership for jobs and economic activity. we need to keep those co

udall: and it's true in particular when you're talking about water. we have a tendency to take water for granted since we're so used to it always being there when we turn on our faucets or showers or we want to water our yards. and we tend to use it inefficiently. we let the faucet run when we're brushing our teeth or we water our lawns in the middle of the day when evaporation are at their highest. but when you grow up in the desert, as i did, you'll learn to treasure water. everything in the west is shaped by it, and you know that it might not always be there when you need it. and this will become, particularly in my part of the country, but i think in the presiding officer's state as well, more apparent as we see lower snow packs and decreasing precip ation. and we already in the southwest, because of climate change dynamics and drought cycles are experiencing those situations. water is the lifeblood of the west. recent droughts in the southeast of our great country remind us that no one's immune from water shortages. and it's with an eye to those

provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. 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 re

as you know coming from colorado, the presiding officer, senator udall, america has so much to offer our travelers, whether it is the mountains of colorado, or as senator kaufman is here, the beaches of delawa delaware, whether it's stunning national landmarks like the grand canyon, mount rushmore and the statue of liberty. whether its our oceans, our lakes, our rivers, our mountains, forests and beaches, whether it's the scenic country towns or the bright lights of the big cities. and whether it's centers of fun and entertainment, like las vegas or disney world or duluth. from the heartland to the coast, every state has an economic stake in the tourism industry, which is now a major part of the american economy. throughout the united states, many communities have discovered and developed economic potential. i keep using the example of duluth because at some point in the 1970's, the economy was so bad there, they actual had a billboard so that when you drove out of town, it said, "the last one to leave, please turn off the lights." well, that billbored isn't there anymore, as -- bill

and, on the other hand, if you are 50 years of age and had a cancer operation we don't want to cover udall because we're going to lose money on new and becomes a very complicated process to cover you and not cover them. and what we have got to say is we're all in this together and we're all going to get coverage and going to do that delivery system and the most cost-effective way and put more money into disease prevention and more money into primary-care 60 million americans today and you can believe it to not have access to a doctor on a regular basis of what happens when they get sick and other go to the emergency room at expensive care or sit in and up in the hospital and the nature of private insurance is not to address those needs because many don't have a whole lot of money so we need to simplify and a comprehensive system and i believe we can do that. >> host: will senator baucus told a hearing on the single-payer system? >> guest: what he indicated to the people was to apologize, he thought he should have done that and he thought wasn't 100 percent sure that at this stage in the pr

udall: mr. president, every year thousands of people travel to comely to to enjoy some of the most exciting recreational opportunities in the world. although my home state's known for its skiing, we're a summertime destination with four national parks, five national monuments and 41 state parks for travelers to enjoy. visitors can go whitewater rafting down the colorado river or hike and climb in the magnificent rockies. we have wildwest ghost towns, historic railroads and american indian cultural sites to visit. now, obviously travel and tourism is an incredibly important sector of colorado's economy. for every $1 million spent in colorado by test and i can international travelers -- by domestic and international travelers, 11 jobs are created. travel and tourism alone generated $13.7 billion in revenue in 2007 in colorado alone and almost 150,000 coloradans owe their jobs to that industry. and that's why, mr. president, today i rise to express my support for the travel promotion act of 2009. i

and i -- i know that the presiding officer, senator udall and i will continue to pursue this repeatedly over the coming days until this issue is resolved and she can be confirmed. i believe once permission is given for her nomination to be voted on, i think she will be overwhelmingly confirmed. and that's as it should be. but due to the arcane rules that we operate under here in the senate, the republican members have chosen to hold up this nomination, very unfacial, in my view, and i -- very unfairly, in my view, and i think we will have to revisit it again in the next few days. mr. president, let me ask unanimous consent that robert burnham and terry chin of my office be granted privileges of the floor for the pendency of s. 1023, the travel promotion bill. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: