Tuesday, September 12, 2006

5:58 Hutchison Amendment Agreed To The Senate passed the Hutchison Amendment to the Port Security Bill by a vote of 97 to 0.  Senator Collins said that after equal time between the majority and minority, the Senate will vote on the Reid Amendment at 12:15 tomorrow. 6:00:24 PM

5:36 Roll Call Vote in Progress The Senate is currently voting on the Hutchison Amendment to the Port Security Act. 5:38:41 PM

5:35 Lautenberg Amendment Agreed To The Lautenberg Amendment was passed by a vote of 84 to 12.  5:36:24 PM

Roll Call Vote in Process The Senate is currently voting on an amendment introduced by Senator Lautenberg. 5:05:45 PM

4:35 Roll Call Votes Expected There are two roll call votes scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. The first will be an amendment offered by Senator Lautenberg. Since 2003, TSA has been subject to a mandatory nationwide staffing cap of 45,000 full-time security screeners.  The Lautenberg amendment states that no cap on hiring screeners will be in place – and the TSA can hire in accordance with security needs and meeting a goal of less than 10-minute per passenger average wait times. Following that there will be a roll call vote on an amendment offered by Senator Hutchison which would add an additional 275 Customs and Border Protection officers at United States ports. 4:33:49 PM

2:45 Senate Reconvenes And Senator Lautenberg Offers An Amendment The Senate has reconvened and Senator Lautenberg was on the floor discussing his amendment to the Port Security bill. His amendment would provide that the limitation on the number of Transportation Security Administration employees would not apply after the enactment of the bill. Senator Lautenberg argued that setting limits on the number of security screeners the Transportation Security Administration can hire undermines security and forces travelers to wait in unnecessarily long lines before clearing security. The amendment will be voted on at 5 p.m. 2:59:55 PM

12:45 DeMint Amendment Agreed To The DeMint amendment passed by a vote of 95-0. The Senate now stands in recess until 2:15 p.m. when it will resume consideration of H.R.4954, the Port Security bill. 12:52:20 PM

12:10 Roll Call Vote In Progress There is a 15 minute roll call vote in progress on an amendment offered by Senator DeMint. 12:13:08 PM

10:35 Morning Recess Ends The period of morning business is now over. A 12:00 p.m. vote on an amendment offered last week by Senator DeMint is expected. The amendment would create a national alert system for use during emergencies. At 12:30p.m. the Senate will recess until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly policy lunches. 10:40:38 AM

10:20 Senator Santorum Voices Support For President Bush Senator Santorum was on the floor praising President Bush for his leadership in the war on terror and his conduct of the war in Iraq. He argued that this effort is not something to play politics with and suggested that we are involved in this struggle because we have ignored the terrorists for 20 years. Senator Santorum argued that it is the policy of the Democratic Party to continue ignoring the terrorists and that he felt the war on terrorism was too important to ignore. 10:23:32 AM

9:45 Senate Reconvenes The Senate has reconvened and is currently in a period of morning business. Senator Frist is currently on the floor discussing his recent trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  He is describing how he saw firsthand the medical services available to detainees which he said is better in many cases to those available in the United States. The first 15 minutes of morning business is under control of the Majority, followed by 15 minutes under Minority control. 9:56:58 AM