The Senate is convened.

• Today --
  • We will proceed to the motion to proceed to the Medicare Bill (S. 3101).
  • At 3:00 PM we will have a vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 3101.

• Spoke on gas prices.
  • SUMMARY "to all our friends on the other side who spoke about the crushing effects of high gas prices, i'd simply add that they're right on target. high gas prices do affect absolutely everything. high gas prices hurt. and i would also add this: democrats in congress, at least so far, have no plan whatsoever to lower them"
• Spoke in honor of the anniversary of Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall" Speech.

• Spoke on Republican obstructionism.
  • SUMMARY "i'm not going to predict what's going to happen in november but the majority is going to be bigger than 51 come november because the american people see what's going on with this republican minority. the same in the house. republicans have the same philosophy: status quo."

• Responded.
  • SUMMARY "i won't prolong this back and forth other than to say it is an interesting campaign speech but the issue before us if we want to legislate, you know how you have to legislate in the senate. we had the same discussion yesterday morning. the way you don't legislate is to refuse to let the minority offer amendments"

• Responded.
  • SUMMARY "they want to do something on global warming. mr. president, here is what they want to do about global warming. e-mail on the republican strategy that we obtained says -- and i quote -- "the focus is much more on making political points than amending the bill." that's what they said"

• Spoke on Republican obstructionism.
  • SUMMARY "the majority leader has been more than accommodating, rankling even some on our side. but they don't want to do that. senator reid read the memo. they want to slow the bill down with extraneous amendments that have nothing to do with energy, because they don't want to allow a vote, even on anwr"
• Spoke on the Baucus Medicare Bill (S. 3101).
  • SUMMARY "we have to pass this bill to avoid catastrophic cuts to doctors and we know that these physicians face a 10% cut. you say, well, they're doctors, they can afford it. the trouble is if we do this cut, lots of doctors don't take medicare and our poor senior citizens are out in the lurch"

• Spoke on energy costs.
  • SUMMARY "i think more needs to be done. but i am convinced that high energy prices are an even greater cause of the economic downturn. we must act to protect our ourselves from rapid increases in oil prices and in the long term achieve energy independence. one way to help achieve both of those goals is to encourage greater efficiency. my bill would double the funding for the department of energy's weatherization program"
• Spoke on economic downturn.
  • SUMMARY "my bill would provide $1 billion in additional workforce investment act funding. that would enable us to train nearly 300,000 additional workers. the bill would also increase funding for the dislocated workers program and the youth and adult training programs"

• Spoke on gas prices:
  • SUMMARY "i continue to quote futures markets are not a dangerous force but a price discovery mechanism. they allow commodity producers and consumers to lock in the future price of goes helping to hedge against future price movements. in the case of oil prices they are a about supply and demand and the future rate of inflation"

 
Senator Sanders:

• Spoke on gas prices.
  • SUMMARY "the message here is that high gas and oil prices are having a devastating impact on continues of millions of americans in every aspect of their lives and on our economy. and as bad as it is all over this country, it is especially bad in rural areas where people have to travel long distances to work. it is especially devastating in cold states where people have get to spend a huge amount of money for home heating oil. madam president, it just seems to me it is absolutely imperative we get our act together and do everything we can to lower the price of gas and oil"

• Spoke on gas prices.
  • SUMMARY "while there are steps i believe the congress can take to help cope with higher prices in the short term, our future demands for energy independence will require us to move to new sources of fuel. americans are looking to their leaders for answers. they want to know what the congress can do to help them through these hard times"

• Spoke on the Supreme Court decision regarding enemy combatants.

• Spoke on the Supreme Court decision regarding enemy combatants.
• Spoke on energy prices.
  • SUMMARY "these people argue that this makes it totally fine to close off our oil shale and tar sands because there are undeveloped leases. with the anti-oil agenda, the more extreme environmentalists which the democratic leadership has adopted as their own energy policy, or should i say anti-energy policy, which is what i believe it to be. it is true there are tens of millions of acres of leases held by oil companies, but it is also true that they are being developed as fast as possible. but guess what? you cannot develop a lease on federal land unless you have a permit to drill. and there is a very large backlog in the permitting process on federal lands"

For all users who have not been receiving updates today,

we apologize, there was a technical issue we have since corrected.

• Spoke on the Baucus Medicare Bill.
  • SUMMARY "several years ago we passed the medicare modernization act. here we have an opportunity to improve upon and to move forward and making sure that some of these policies in medicare can continue to happen. s. 3101, the bill we tried to move forward today, contains a number of provisions that would improve care and access to care for low-income medicare beneficiaries. and a number of important provisions to support our providers in the medicare program"

• Spoke in honor of a soldier who passed in Afghanistan.

• Spoke on the national debt.
  • SUMMARY "because our political leaders in washington hide the real budget numbers from the public and fail to even mention the rising national debt, most americans are clueless as to how fiscally irresponsible congress and the administration have been. the u.s. government is the biggest credit card abuser in the world"

• Spoke on oil shale.
  • SUMMARY "there's a lot of hot air in those statements that are being made because the reality of it is that oil shale development in colorado is still a long ways away. and that's because the research and development program which we approved in this senate in 2005 in the energy act, contemplated we would enter into a research and development phase to determine whether or not oil shale could be commercially developed"

• Spoke on Republican obstructionism.
  • SUMMARY "we didn't add to the deficit. i suppose that's why the republicans by and large turned on us. they don't want to pay for the actions that they bring to the floor. they don't want to offset the costs of programs or tax cuts by actually balancing the books. they want to continue to add to our deficit. the vote came up today. nine republicans crossed the aisle to vote for us. overwhelmingly they represented republican senators who are afraid they will lose in the election in november"
• Monday --
  • We will convene at 2:00 PM.
  • We will have morning business for one hour.
  • Following morning business we will proceed to debate the motion to proceed to HR. 6049.
  • Monday we will vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to HR 6049 at 5:30 PM.

The Senate stands adjourned until 2:00 PM Monday.