All-Night Session

Floor Speech

ALL-NIGHT SESSION -- (Senate - July 17, 2007)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to say in response to the Republican minority leader, he found two amendments where we required a 60-vote margin on the last Defense authorization bill. Those two amendments did not relate to the Defense authorization bill. They were minimum-wage amendments. They required budget points of order. The Senator from Kentucky has been unable to find an Iraq amendment raised in the Defense authorization bill nor in the supplemental appropriations bill which required this extraordinary majority.

Now the Republican leader has agreed to a majority vote on the Cornyn amendment, something we offered yesterday. Now we are asking that during the course of this debate, I hope he will reconsider his position on the Levin-Reed amendment. This too should be a majority vote, an up-or-down vote. What is so frightening on the Republican side of the aisle to face a majority vote?

We know an overwhelming majority of the American people want to change this policy in Iraq. Yet the Republicans have insisted that when it comes to the key amendment--the Levin-Reed amendment, which will actually bring our troops home and end this war responsibly--in that situation, they want an exceptional majority, 60 votes, to be considered. Well, we are going to debate that and we are going to debate it long and hard between now and 24 hours from now. The Senate will be in a rare all-night session. Some of the critics of this all-night session have said that it is an effort to get some publicity. Well, if they are arguing that it is an effort to get the attention of the American people, they are right because the American people want us to debate this honestly and openly.

I happen to believe as well that the Senate spending a sleepless night is no great sacrifice. Soldiers and the families who pray for them spend many sleepless nights. It is time for the Senate to do the same. It is time for us to come to the floor and express what is in our hearts about this war--a war that has claimed over 3,611 American lives; a war which has cost us 30,000 injuries, 10,000 of them severe injuries, including amputations, traumatic brain injuries, and severe burns; a war that has cost this Nation over $500 billion and costs us more than $12 billion a month. Is it worth one night of lost sleep to discuss and debate that? You bet it is. That is why we are here. That is what the Senate is all about.

I hope the Republican minority leader, Mr. McConnell of Kentucky, having agreed to a majority vote on the Cornyn amendment--a Republican amendment--will now give us a majority vote, an up-or-down vote, on the Levin-Reed amendment. I don't understand why he would agree to one standard for one Iraq amendment and then insist on a higher standard for a Democratic Iraq amendment. I think most Americans can see through that.

I yield the floor.

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