The Senate is convened.

• Today --
  • We will continue consideration of the Defense Authorization (S. 3001).
• Spoke in praise of Senator Mark Pryor.

• Spoke on Democrat economic policy.
  • SUMMARY "the democrats pledged to push a 100-hour agenda that touted a change in ethics, an increase in the minimum wage, and to roll back subsidies for oil-and-gas industry. look at what that "direction" has led us. the price of energy has skyrocketed. our housing market has deteriorated. and the unemployment rate is on the rise. across the nation we are feeling the effects of a crumbling economy. just yesterday, steak and ale announced filing of bankruptcy and starbucks announced closing of 600 stores across america. it is time for the majority to back up and smell the coffee. it's no wonder why the congressional approval rate resignation at an all-time low of 12%"

• Spoke on Republican obstructionism.
  • SUMMARY "i think what has happened to this body is that my colleagues on the other side have made the decision that the record of george bush is hopeless, the republican message is shot, and their only salvation is to call down a pox on both our houses and try to disable this institution, try to p prevent us from doing essentially anything. it also has the added benefit of allowing the executive more leeway and it confers more power on george bush, which i think is a mistake, given the way the record has shown his judgments have worked out"
  • SUMMARY "we're facing a true energy crisis but our colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to fight for oil company profits. drilling off our pristine coasts -- and i come from rhode island -- won't produce a drop for a decade and won't significantly lower gas prices even then. these facts have no effect on our colleagues. but make no mistake about it. more drilling means higher profits for exxon"

• Spoke on Congressional mismanagement.
  • SUMMARY "high gas prices have triggered a crisis in american homes and in the broader economy. and the american people have a right to expect their elected representatives to do something about it. every single crisis is a call for leadership. and this one is no different. this was an opportunity for the democrats who control congress to demonstrate courage and resolve. they squandered it. in their hunt for more seats in congress and control of the white house they took the path of least resistance."
  • SUMMARY "seven times. seven times they tried to take us off the issue of high gas prices taunting republicans for standing on principle rather than debating. in every case republicans refused to turn their backs on the people at the pump. these laugh few weeks were a time for decision. and the democrats made theirs. when americans demanded action, the democrats played games. they changed the topic so that the man they want to lead our country wouldn't have to make a public decision about high gas prices."

• Spoke on the Flood Relief for the Midwest.
  • SUMMARY "we all recognize the need for targeted relief for the midwest. the problem seems to be the ability to get the bill up in a tamely fashion like we did in the case of new orleans. i've been hearing that leader -- democratic leadership in the house is insisting that the package be offset, which is completely different than how we responded to disasters in the past when we didn't worry about offsets. normally when we have emergencies, they're em emergencies. you get the bill passed to help the people that need it. just yesterday the senate voted against cloture on an extenders package put forward by senate democrats that purported to include disaster relief. i'm taken aback that the senate democrats would politicize the suffering of so many people just to try to get an extenders bill passed"

• Responded.
  • SUMMARY "i have never, repeat, never, voted against emergency disaster relief for any part of our country. i have felt when that occurs we need to come together as an american family and to help others, even if it didn't affect my state of illinois. time and again i have voted for that disaster relief believing the day might come when i would need it for the people i represented."
  • SUMMARY "this is a matter that should have been brought up weeks ago, weeks ago by the senator from iowa and so many others in the senate finance committee, resolved and brought to the floor but it wasn't until the chamber was. late at night that it was brought up. and i spoke on behalf of senator baucus and i objected. i did because it concerned me. just the day before we had a measure on the floor here to not only help iowa, which truly needs help, but to help illinois, to help all of the states that have encountered disasters during the course of this last year."
• Propounded a UC that the Senate call up and pass S. 3335. (Grassley objected)

• Responded.
  • SUMMARY "my speaking to leader reid about, when can i do my unanimous consent request. do you know what i was told? after the adjournment resolution. so don't say that i didn't make an attempt to do it and don't say you didn't know about it and if you wanted to cooperate with us we could have had that cooperation but there doesn't seem to be that sort of comity in the senate anymore. another point you made was, i had a chance to work for a tax relief package for flood victims. the bill you voted for and you just asked unanimous consent on did less for your constituents than the legislation we had been working on for two weeks."

• Responded.
  • SUMMARY "he certainly met with senator baucus during the course of this week and had ample opportunity to raise this issue. and it's something that should have been resolved between the two of them before senator baucus left, and i think he would understand, as i do, that that is a problem for senator baucus to be gone and to make a unanimous consent request."
• Propounded a UC to call up and pass a measure on Plain Language in Government, S. 2291 with an Akaka substitute. (Grassley objected on behalf of Bennett)

• Propounded a UC that S. 3322 be called up, modified with a Grassley amendment, and passed. (Durbin objected)

• Spoke on gas prices.
  • SUMMARY "all the power and the authority to take that action. will it be a magic wand? no. will it immediately lower oil prices? probably not. but it has the potential because of the precedence of what happened before, the recent history on this, to bring down prices. so that's something that's sh short-term that the president could do right now. i hope he would do that."
  • SUMMARY "a 361% increase in oil drilling since the president came into office and yet the price of gasoline has gone up at the same time. so this idea that oil drilling has been restricted or limited is just contrary to the facts."

• Spoke on human rights in China.
  • SUMMARY "i think i speak for the entire congress to say it is vital that the president express in the strongest terms possible to the chinese that they need to address the human rights issues that have been so troublesome to the rest of the world. as i indicated, we have a list of 807 political prisoners currently detained in chinese jails that we have information about. that's 807 that we have information about. we maintain a database with over 4,400 people who we believe represent political prisoners in the country of china. a good number of those on the database likely have died while in prison or are missing."
• Spoke on gas prices.
  • SUMMARY "wring out the speculation, the excess speculation from the commodity markets. 71% of what's happening in the oil futures market has nothing to do with people that want oil. they don't want a can of oil. they don't want a five-gallon can or a quarter. all they want to do is trade paper and make money that. market is broken"

• Spoke on energy prices.
  • SUMMARY "democrats and republicans can come together on a bipartisan basis and come up with more sensible tax policies so that we don't have a tax system that, in effect, creates incentives to drive up the price of gasoline. we have put out this proposal, mr. president. it's on my web site. we call it a discussion draft."
• Spoke on the Healthy Americans Act.
  • SUMMARY "it comes to about $250 billion a year. it goes out the door this way. and to have it go out the door in a way that so wildly favors the fortunate and encourages inefficiency at the same time just strikes me as bizarre. so i thought that yesterday under the leadership of chairman baucus and senator grassley, a conversation was started about a topic that i think is central to this issue of fixing american health care. if we do it right, there is the opportunity for expanding coverage in a progressive way."

• Spoke on energy.
  • SUMMARY "i've been in the house of representatives and the senate now for about a little over 15 years. and one thing you can count on that i've seen over and over and over again, is you can always count on republicans to stand up for big oil."
  • SUMMARY "what the other side never talks about, is not just do we want to go after speculation, we want to open up the strategic petroleum reserve, we want to urge the justice department to go after the increasingly immensely profitable oil industry on price gouging, but we also have a very specific long-term energy plan."
• Spoke on infrastructure.
  • SUMMARY "the f.h.a. estimated that one-third of that cost could be prevented through existing corrosion-control technologies. there are many bills pending before this congress that would lessen or prevent future corrosion of our nation's infrastructure. s. 3319 requires any proposal to the department of transportation for bridge construction or modification or renovation to include a corrosion mitigation and prevention plan."

• Spoke on the housing market.
  • SUMMARY "so i urge my colleagues if they're interested in doing what they can for their constituents in the month of august is to find the time to talk about this program, let your constituents know that it exists, urge them to step forward, urge your lenders to be in touch with borrowers to see if we can't avoid the kind of continuing foreclosure issues that are going to make our economic recovery difficult. i'll end on this note. the heart of our economic problems, whether it's the unemployment problems, the staggering lack of commercial development that's going on, the problem with student loans, all of it relates back to the foreclosure issue. and the sooner we can stop this hemorrhaging of foreclosures in the country, the quicker we're going to get back on our feet economically."

• Spoke on gas prices.
  • SUMMARY "i know we heard a lot this week, a slogan, "find more and use less." it reminded me of the slogans i hear from the oil companies when they put commercials on television and spend hundreds of millions of dollars saying things like bebeyond petroleum but we are just keeping the addiction to oil. so i know, mr. president, it's not the time to worry about big oil. they just posted astronomical second-quarter profits"
  • SUMMARY "we will never, ever be able to effect the world oil price even if we drilled in every corner of god's creation in the united states, we would not be able to affect the world price of oil. so americans can do the math. they know we need to be aggressively putting new policies in place that will make us a 21st century leader in new energy solutions and that's what we should be doing here in the united states senate"
• Performed wrap-up.

• Spoke on Senate gridlock.
  • SUMMARY "i always would eagerly reach across the table to find common ground wherever possible. i guess, mr. president, i learned that in the courtroom in working cases. you know that you have to be willing to compromise in the la law, as do you in politics. i have strong -- i have a strong conviction that's true"
  • SUMMARY "i feel a lot disappointment, though, mr. president, when i think back upon this work period and wonder what might have been. what might we have accomplished if our republican colleagues have decided to dance with us more often than fight with us. we could have gone a long way toward solving america's energy crisis. yesterday was a microcosm for what the senate failed to do. democrats came to the floor to offer seven different energy initiatives. our plan would tackle every piece of the energy puzzle. increasing supply with more domestic production."
  • SUMMARY "also, mr. president, on the week we get back, in september, we are going to have an energy summit, of democrats, and a bipartisan energy summit. to see if there is any way that we can work together to move forward. move forward on things that are so important to this country. having multiple-year energy tax credits so that we can wean ourselves from the fossil fuels and look to the sun, the wind and geothermal for energy. i certainly hope we can do that. republicans have said no to every proposal that we have made."
• Performed further wrap-up.

The Senate stands in recess with periodical pro-forma sessions until September 5th, 2008

then stands adjourned until September 8th, 2008