i will come to order and the chaplain dr barry black will lead the senate in prayer you have given this great land spacious skies strong leaders and wonderful freedom help us to be guardian of  bounty and use us as instruments of your providence lead our lawmakers help them to surrender to your wisdom and power may they be faithful stewards of the abilities you have given them carry their heavy burdens and deepen the will read a communication to the senate washington d c february twenty ninth two thousand and eight to the senate on the provisions of rule one paragraph three of the standing roles of the senate i hereby point the honorable john d rockefeller the fourth a senator from the state of west virginia to perform the duties of the chair time robert c byrd president pro tempor under the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate will resume the motion to proceed to h r three two two one which the clerk will report motion to proceed to counter number three forty h r thirty two twenty one and act moving the united states toward greater energy independence and so forth this president this president the minds of so many ohioans these days as people across the country my state has the unfortunate distinction of leading the nation in the percentage of property in foreclosure every day two hundred ohio families lose their homes two hundred families every single day the strides that we have made as a nation increasing homeownership in the last few years will be reversed if we don't act the foreclosure crisis is having a tremendous impact on all of ohio no city no region has been spared the past few years have seen an explosion of predatory lending the state of ohio was slow to respond while the federal government regulators in congress and the president have been even slower to respond today we pay the price is late as this summer president bush secretary paulson the bush administration indicated the problem was largely contained and it would play itself out in so long as the problem was largely contained to a high in michigan and indiana in illinois and the presiding officers state of west virginia the situation was nothing to worry about but once the problems spread from main street cleveland or main street dayton to wall street the administration suddenly became a bit concerned not overly concerned mind you for a while it changed its tone a bit but its words have not been accompanied by much action the budget submitted by president bush shows for example no signs of a housing crisis congress appropriated one hundred eighty million dollars for housing counseling last december at the urging of senator schumer and senator casey from pennsylvania and me in the banking committee but the president proposes only about one third of that for the year ahead and criticizes the reid proposal for continuing that funding and has cities see their crime rates go up and their property tax bases shrink and more and more homes and neighborhoods vandalize with hopper and aluminum being stripped from these homes the president proposes to cut the community development block grant by more than twenty percent i appreciate secretary paulson's efforts to get voluntary action by lenders and servicers that's a good thing but it's not nearly enough we've seen a rate of mortgage modifications rise from a measly one percent to a meager three percent and i have to say i'm not confident how much progress even those numbers represent my office just heard from a struggling homeowners owner in ohio whose lender offered to reduce her interest rate from eleven percent to ten percent but after penalties and late fees were added to the principal her monthly payment barely budge earlier this week a couple from lyndhurst ohio joan joined senator clo bashar in schumer and durban in may in washington to tell their story john and vicki quick and went through a rough patch when john lost his job but he found a new one they're their best to make their payments and stay in their home they've done everything as citizens and as a homeowner that we would ask but doing so is going to be impossible for them so long as they are stuck with a loan that cost more and more every six months these families millions like them across ohio america need our help instead they're facing foreclosure on one side and a filibuster on the other that is unconscionable the legislation we're being prevented from considering from the vote yesterday when our efforts were blocked would help hundreds of thousands of families like the glick and immediately you know to help the tens of thousands of communities from from ironton across the river from west virginia to to st ville to cleveland today i applaud majority leader reid for trying to act on legislation that would provide vital help to communities and families across the country under this bill which i'm proud to co sponsor housing agencies would have access to lower cost financing businesses that are struggling would get a boost cities would be helped by an infusion of community development funds big cities and smaller cities alike in families would be able to restructure their debts and get back on their feet the administration has made a lot of the voluntary efforts to date in to be sure every bit helps but the rate freeze will help only a very small sliver of people of borrowers in banks just aren't being responsive enough they say they have no interest in foreclosing on homes and that's perhaps true but they don't seem to have the capacity to work out loans with people who could afford to make payments on a reasonable loan long term i know lenders want to avoid becoming real estate owners but they don't have the ability to deal with problems that their lax underwriting standards have created and they're obviously not in the business of rebuilding the communities that this crisis is threatening that's why i think senator harry reid's legislation is so important if we can spend three billion dollars a week on the war in iraq we can find room in our budget to spend four billion dollars a year to help communities across america get back on their feet billions tens of billions of dollars to rebuild iraq ye president bush says no to four billion dollars in our own communities to rebuild our cities now the administration is arguing this constituted constitutes a bailout for lenders and speculators in order you know heigho we're going to meet these people in the courthouse all right but i assure my colleagues it won't be to record the title on some sweetheart deal anybody who tries to make the argument that cities will cities large and small alike will use community development funds to bail out lenders and speculators have no clue what is going on in communities like springfield in zanesville in chillicothe easy as we try to rebuild our communities we must do everything we can to keep families in their homes if lenders and their servicers can't keep up with the flood of foreclosures are facing to central that we permit the bankruptcy courts to serve as a backdrop otherwise the problem only gets worse consider this mr president one of the ratings agency is now predicting a fifty percent default rate for sub prime loans made in the fourth quarter of two thousand and six a fifty percent default rate for securitized subprime loans that's not lending that's putting a bet on black at the roulette table when some with somebody else's home and what happens when that bet goes bad a family's put out on the street a neighborhood is hurt a town has one more magnet for trouble the banks have trouble too nationwide banks are recovering only about sixty cents of the dollar on the dollar of what they are owed when a home goes into foreclosure in ohio that number is only thirty five cents by one estimate when lenders recover only thirty five cents on the dollar in my state on a foreclosure i don't think they have anything to fear from an alternative process that may result in avoiding foreclosure judges would only step in when voluntary efforts have failed in a family's on the ropes that's why the read bills proposal to permit the modification of the mortgages on primary residence makes so much sense we know that servicers can't keep up with the flood of damn bad loans so we need a backstop for the six hundred thousand or so families that may well end up in bankruptcy in allowing bankruptcy judges to modify a lo a primary residence just as they can do today on a loan for a vacation home or a boat or a family farm or a small business allowing bankruptcy judges to modify a loan and a prominent one a primary residence will not just keep a family in a home it will keep the bank from a sixty five percent loss on that property two years ago mr president there were a lot of slick promises made about how these loans could be refinanced today we know that's just not the case so we need to act we need to axe in so two years from now we can focus again on expanding homeowners yep under reasonable terms rather than trying to stop the bleeding was present a year before the senior senator from rhode every family in this country we are at a year ordinarily daunting moment in our history and i was disappointed to say the least when our colleagues on the republican side  block consideration of the foreclosure prevention act of two thousand and eight home household in this country is beginning to recognize the specter of decreasing house prices and for many it's not just a looming potential it's a reality and it's forcing them to consider very difficult choices in their own family lives we have had a situation over the last eight years in which the income of working families has been stagnant and in contrast prices for essential such as energy and food healthcare have gone up dramatically families across this country are being squeezed rising prices but there was one point of hope and confidence foundation at least for their hopes going forward and that was the value of their homes because it was appreciating now that's reversed dramatically and their estimate is that if nothing is done if the administration continues to block efforts through their colleagues here in the senate and the house it's nothing is done we could lose some up to thirty percent of the value of homes throughout the united states from their peak several years ago to the t would mean the loss of four to six trillion dollars in household well the staggering figures it's a figure from a macro economic standpoint that would have huge ramifications but let's step down to the reality of families what does it mean that you're a senior in high school who is going to a prestigious college is not going there they're going to find an alternative maybe a state school or another school because you're going to pay for that partially by taking some money out of your house which was worth so much if you didn't have adequate health care that was the reassurance you had that is there was a major health care crisis your family child or your spouse substantial profit and use that is the major part of your time in pieces this is what's motivating the working families in country they're now discovering around the kitchen table that their plans are being frustrated and we have to do something and yesterday this senate failed to at least consider legislation like this i think it's a telling indication of the detachment from the reality of americans lies that the and some of their colleagues here have today in my home state around and added complexity unemployment is beginning to creep up increases probably two miles or it's five point seven percent now the worst record we've had since the mid ninety's but that's another blow for the working families in this country so we must act one other i think startling statistic to me today it's been estimated that ten percent of the households in america are upside down not because of the earthquake physically but financially tempers in the homes the mortgage is greater than away from it why are you making expensive mortgage payments at that they sacrifice of others when the home is not worth it these are the real problems that people course the country are facing and it's no longer a localized problem it's no longer a section of the country this got a bad time but the rest the country's doing well nationwide for the first time since the great depression we have seen housing prices decline that is a phenomenon that has to be dealt with and ignoring that or suggesting that we're indifferent to that is i think one can assume the action of the yesterday is i think not only wrong it's bad policy in are also is bad policy because the sooner we take proactive action the more effective we will be in less than in the consequences and the pain to working and we're going to act eventually this is not going to go away the staggering numbers that senator brown pointed to the estimates that there are so many reset and so many more people the overwhelmed by these  that's not sort of you know of fiction that's the projections of the financial analysts is going to happen we have to move now and if we move we move deliberately we can eliminate some of the pain but we can certainly lessen and we also have to recognize too that we can only help those who are prepared to carry and shoulder the mortgage going forward but i think if we act we act promptly we can not only make progress but we can respond to what is becoming a overwhelming cry for relief from american families across this country in rhode island for example we've seen mortgage delinquencies increasing from sixty one hundred in the third quarter of two thousand and five to ten thousand three hundred again while as a smaller state you will have a million people so these numbers when used for jackson for high are much larger but seven and two thousand and nine we've seen acceleration and in fact we have the dubious distinction of having the highest foreclosure rate in knowing there are other parts of the country are worse but we have the unfortunate distinction and we're going to see the cost of these foreclosures rise to an estimated level of seven six hundred seventy million dollars from the end of two thousand and seven to two thousand and nine those are huge figures from a small state like mine in fact there's a forecaster estimating that the foreclosures course could total nearly one hundred four billion dollars nationwide but one of the things about these numbers and i've been looking closely at experts estimated that the sub prime crisis was one hundred billion dollars worldwide that it was over because these mortgages were no longer being issued that we were in a situation that would be almost self correct if we just let the markets work their way well that nine hundred billion now in terms of losses the financial institutions some estimates are now as high as six hundred billion dollars worldwide and they keep growing and growing and growing again i think another strong rationale for immediate action not simply letting the market take its course we are seeing not only  deterioration in the mortgage market but this liquidity crisis is treading spreading over other financing mechanism we've seen financing mechanisms for miscible bonds for example an interest rate of roughly four percent to twenty percent i've talked to a hospital in my state and asked them among many other issues what's happening with respect to their finances their rates are shooting up because their auction and it is slowing down the economy now the president doesn't think we're going to recession but frankly most everybody else does think we're going session and we have to act not only directly to respond housing crisis but also to pull this country back as quickly as we can from this pending recession and one of the i think the most important lines of approach to deal with this problem is bolstering the housing market see a recession or will be more severe and more consequential then it want to be now the federal reserve has cut interest rates dramatically we very quickly and in a bipartisan fashion passed one hundred sixty billion dollars stimulus package that will help but i don't think it's going to be sufficient unless we make significant efforts to deal with the housing problems that are affecting all americans today the administration proposed  now plan a voluntary effort to deal with the foreclosure problem and again senator brown pointed out today three percent of the tension foreclosures have been awarded through this voluntary effort this is not an effective way to deal with the huge problem that threatens the economic well being of this country and all the families of america you know there's administration is great on slogans but poor  gee an execution just a week after i was talking to them to sector the treasury at a hearing about the hope now program and i said well do you have a plan b this doesn't seem to be working he said no that will work this will have the metrics in a coordinate together we need definite help for homeowners and for communities and embedded in the legislation that senator harry reid proposed was that specific  closure counseling funds c b d money for communities to deal with the issue of foreclosure because it was one of the consequences of foreclosure is not just the individual home statistical analysis of the many years points are very clearly that the surrounding homes lose value when there's a foreclosure on the block and those homes are on the tipping point guess what they'll tip into foreclosure and i don't think i have to tell anyone in this chamber because we've seen it before once you have this growing sort of malazan a community it's red block by block by block by block until you have a community wide situation of not only foreclosure but despair i'm taking i think unfortunately an example from senator brown state but i read a few weeks ago about a community in the midwest either ohio  vinyl siding the taking out the plumbing the piping the copper piping because it's been abandoned for long communities in the heartland of this great country and the tragic case was it was a retired gentleman who was just trying to protect his frankly we're in a worse position today than eight years ago to deal with these crisis the housing prices falling productivity falling value the dollar yesterday the dollar hit a new low against the euro and i think are huge huge huge problems and because a thousand is this is ministration we don't have a surplus which we did eight years ago we are committed to a conflict in iraq which is costing us a hundred and ninety billion dollars a year and even with a change in policy there will be unfortunately not a dramatic shift in spending in the next several months because it takes time to disengage and to to change  and so we are seeing economic vulnerabilities and because i think of the misguided policies that miss this administration we have forfeited the strength that we had just eight years ago to deal with these issues and we understand too from looking across the globe at other economies that if you don't move promptly and aggressively to deal with problems like this they don't go away they get worse in the eighty's we had an s and l process and it took about two and a half to three years for first the reagan administration then the george herbert walker bush administration to deal with it and in those two and a half years experts on either side of the aisle pointed out that the cost of remediation went up and up and up and i fear that's the same situation we're going to have today  unless we deal properly immediately with this house and situation and again the vote yesterday to stop that consideration is i think very very shortsighted and unfortunate now suggested before the legislation that we would have considered the foreclosure prevention act which i'm proud to be a co sponsor deals in a very pragmatic way with many of the seizures of the current housing prices that are of immedia concern the two hundred million dollars for foreclosure counseling and part of that has to be not just the setting up the counseling but the outrage and the one of the failures i think of the of the holt in our lives that decides it's voluntary is that i don't think there's enough emphasis of going out and reaching out in a systematic basis to inform potential families that they could be assisted we have to more that it would also allow states housing finance agencies to increase their bond raise capital to buy mortgages to a century take out the current mortgage holders we negotiate the terms with the borrower and put them in a mortgage plan that they can live with on a ford in fact the president's call for that of course but he is objecting to be inclusion i presume in this legislation and then there is a change the bankruptcy code which has been carefully tailored so as not to roil the financial markets it would allow very limited category of individuals who have these sub prime mortgages to go into bankruptcy court and allow the banks to the judge  that if there is a reformation of their mortgage loan they can carry out the terms that loan this is not just giving people a chance don't have the wherewithal to take up these that opportunity percent mortgage or a or a zero percent mark so there is a very narrowly tailored exception here and as my colleague senator brown pointed out you can do that with a second home you could do that with a i think it would accelerate efforts to not only help these individual bankruptcy but i think would send a strong message to the financial community that unless they really get a gauge with working out these foreclosures mortgages there is that alternative and back to the court which if they think is so onerous then they should be even more incentivized to work with their borrowers to ensure that foreclosure doesn't take place and that new terms are neighborhood it also includes language that up i've suggested as a way to prevent this reoccurrence in the future the this type of of mortgage problems by giving borrowers timely way before they close on the loan specific give them a sion that is essential and the most specific information is the maximum payment they would pay under the terms of mortgage now there's a lot of discussion about people who were winking at each other across the table can't afford the mortgage but i'll take it if you give it to me but many people very honestly walked in sat down and thought they were getting a mortgage of five or six percent with a payment on a monthly basis of perhaps fifteen hundred dollars or two thousand now tough to afford but it was within their budget but lo and behold years one of the point on it because there's a lot of there's a suggestion inference so often and to be here that that that we would be rewarding for families and homeowners that were tearing trying to take put on the credit card if you have to go to emergency room or something like that and you don't have health care insurance if you have an unexpected expenditure the first thing so many families were stuck with this year's credit card rates somebody walks this and literally sells on the bill of goods and says well listen you got eighteen percent interest rates i can put you in a mortgage for two years at nine percent of course it goes up a little later the little later wasn't dwelled on so for many families this was this was not an irresponsible irrational act they will buy time literally they were hoping that this would be a bridge to a better future that they would get a raise at the job so they wouldn't have to depend on their credit card debt and by the way that when the reset came up they'd be able to refinance little did they know that many of these subprime mortgages were constructed so that there was a prepayment penalty exactly at the time the reset took place so as you try to get out of it you discover you would be paying a huge penalty but the point i miss i want to make is that we have  terms of the source of finance and train and support what we have to do is respond because i believe that's the nature of government so the genuine concerns the genuine expectations of the want to follow on the comments that have been offered by my colleague senator reed from rhode island this issue of the sub prime mortgage scandal is a big big issue it's affecting not just people who are losing their homes this week last month next month it's affecting all home values everywhere we had this unbelievable bubble exist with respect to home values but the collapse has been for separatists and it's hurt a lot of people it is especially a circumstance where the  the people who have discovered that the mortgage interest rate that they had not understood fully has been reset and they now have mortgage payments they can't possibly make their discovering their home is gone there's there's foreclosure on the mortgage but i want to talk a little about what has caused all of this this is been a trail of greed when you look at the wreckage of what's happened in this scandal you see two trails a trail of greed and a trail of tears the trail agreed by some mortgage brokers not all some mortgage banks not all good many hedge funds not all but speculators a trail of greed they were all making a lot of money this was great while the party continued and then all of a sudden it was discovered that none of this made much sense let me describe to you what was happening and why it didn't make sense zoom credit how you get up in the morning goes go brush your teeth and shave and you've got a television set there and watched television the morning and see the advertisement here's one of them a company called zoom credit here's what they were telling america credit approval is just seconds away it on the fast track and zoom credit at the speed of light they will approve your you for a car loan a home loan a credit card even if your credits in the tank zoom credits like money in the bank it doesn't matter if you're not credit worthy come to us we want to give you a loan millennia mortgage money a mortgage corporation twelve months no mortgage payment that's right we'll give you the money to make your first twelve months payment if you call in the next seven days we pay it for you our loan program may reduce your current monthly payments by as much as fifty percent and allow you no payments for the first twelve months but they're not saying of course is that that's all reset on the back end of the loan which means that the homeowner's going to pay a lot more for that that mortgage countrywide this is the biggest mortgage company in the country and by the way mr ms illo the man of the year you know he was honored by everybody made a lot of money made a big ole mortgage company bigger here's what they said you have less than perfect credit you have late mortgage payments if you've been denied by other lenders that call us that's the kind of business they're soliciting i was from the zillow he of he did real well hundred forty five million dollars or so from self i mean they all did well and here's what they did they put these mortgages out in some cases they cold call people on the phone people that were in an existing home with an existing mortgage and said what are you paying for your mortgage payment because we've got a new instrument here we want to put you in a two percent interest rate two percent here's what it will cost you don't tell and by the way there's an escrow payment just tell him what the two percent payment will be and don't tell him that you know that two percent is going to reset quadruple or quinn triple in a couple of years and they will be able to pay  but guess what this is really seductive we want to put you in a new mortgage and so a whole lot of folks went into these new mortgages unsuspecting folks went into these new mortgages it all seemed too good to be true  but in the meantime everybody is making money over you know the old story about in the old days when they were making sausage and they would take meat and sawdust and packed the sawdust with the meat to put in sausages you know packing sawdust into sausages exactly what they did here put out these sub prime loans and the sub prime loans were kind of attractive because even as they were putting people into these new instruments the brokers were making a fortune if they if they could if they could i'm i read that if they could make a one million dollar jumbo sub prime they could get as much as a twenty five thousand dollar payment up front for the broker that's a broker see and so then the mortgage company now has a a mortgage that's going to reset at a very high interest rate and so then they package this up they slice and dice it with other more just they packaged up like some sausage and when they cut the sausage up they called securitizing it then they start selling it and they can portray a much higher yield for this piece of sausage because they've got these sub prime mortgages in there but nobody knows exactly how much is sub prime and how much is real so then they sell it to a hedge fund well the hedge fund they think this is just great they're all making a lot of money i mean you know they're not making hundreds of millions of dollars the top guys are making a billion dollars or a billion seven and a year so they think well this is great money what we want to do is buy some of these securitized instruments so they do so the broker made a lot of money the mortgage company made a lot of money the the hedge fund makes a lot of money and there are some people who are buying homes as flippers you know they and the brokers were in cahoots they also were greedy and the notion was buy this home get a two percent mortgage you can flip it in two years because that housing bubble is going up you'll do nothing but make money so you had the speculators you had the hedge funds the mortgage banks the at the brokers now all of a sudden the whole thing wrecked just collapse why because it never made any sense it was a house of cards you can't be putting a lot of mortgages out there to people who can't afford them the people that can't can't abide by the terms now i've just described three companies including the largest companies as you got bad credit come to us and i've also in the commerce committee at a hearing heard testimony about how the brokers pip's went to borrowers out there who were in a home with a good mortgage and they persuaded them i think through terms that were never fully disclosed to the to the homeowner they persuaded them to get a new mortgage a new sub prime mortgage and then when it resets all of a sudden this family's done they can't possibly afford to stay in that home now here's what the carnage is this is fed ex stadium this is where the redskins play football it holds about ninety thousand people slightly less ninety thousand people last month in january last month we had foreclosures in this country in one month that meant that about twenty thousand more than seated in the stadium out of a home think of that just in one month in the next two years it's estimated there will be fifty of these stadiums full of people that will have lost their homes in this country think of that now there's a new credo here in this chamber apparently this week  it's not even new i guess it's well practiced and it is by the minority don't just do something sit there this is an urgent problem and all week long we have seen the minority decide that in two cloture motions they would insist on thirty hours post cloture what does that mean that mean that that meant that starting tuesday midday when i was on the floor with the indian health care improvement act the last thing we did this week really was to pass the indian health care improvement act on tuesday and then the minority insisted on two thirty hour periods taking us to two to the friday so that nothing could get done to try to address this housing issue try to address a very serious issue and by the way this is not just affecting the people i've just described it's not just affecting the people who would sit in that stadium hundred twenty thousand people who are out of a home as of january it affects every other home and every other homeowner the folks around that home in the neighborhood in the community their home values are impacted by homes that are now vacant whose upkeep is not guaranteed there are a whole lot of folks that are affected by this and this country's economy is affected by it in a very dramatic way another president yesterday said he was surprised when a reporter talked about projections of four dollar gasoline four dollars a gallon gasoline a reporter said mr president there are projections of three and a half dollars a gallon or four dollar a gallon gasoline and then what do you think of that the president so i've not heard those well we've got a lot of problems in this country gasoline oil prices are one the sub prime mortgage scandal another unbelievable speculation for example in the the energy markets me describe just for a moment that issue we are doing two things right now that are on an unbelievably inept and hurt every american one the department of energy at a time when oil is one hundred two dollars a barrel when the price of gasoline is bouncing up and you know there some people thinking about getting a loan to fill their car with gas the department of energy is sticking a loyal underground we have a strategic petroleum reserve it's ninety seven percent full the department of energy is taking all coming off the gulf of mexico royalty and kind payments to the federal government instead of putting out or oil in the supply to put downward pressure on oil and gas fifty to sixty thousand barrels a day right now are going underground into our donors to be saide that is unbelievably inept in my judgment why on earth when oil is one hundred dollars a barrel would you take oil that belongs to the american people and put it underground and they're going to go from fifty or sixty thousand barrels of oil a day to one hundred twenty thousand barrels of oil a day and the second half of this year i've got a piece of legislation to try to shut this down i would do everything i can to stop it oil is coming into the federal government ought to be in the supply pipeline to put downward pressure on oil and gas misses that simple i don't understand why the american consumers being burned at the stake here with gas prices and the department of energy scaring the would mean one of the thinking about now there's another thing that's happening that needs to in my judgment is a full investigation by this government oil one hundred dollars a barrel gas three dollars three and a half going to four perhaps who knows we have testimony before the senate energy committee by experts who say there isn't one bit of justification for oil being more than fifty five or sixty dollars a barrel the supply demand fundamentals in no way justify current prices of oil and here's what's happening hedge funds are neck deep in the futures market for oil speculating on oil futures investment banks are neck deep in the oil futures market in fact for the first time i understand some investment banks are actually buying oil storage now why would an investment bank want oil storage take it off the market and stuart because when prices increase you sell and you make money there is a carnival of greed in my judgment in the oil futures this is an unbelievable amount of speculation nobody is paying much attention to it's not very sexy you know i don't i know a very little reporting on that even but you got two things happening to the american consumers in this area of gas prices and the cost of energy that are just unbelievable one is when we shouldn't be to take oil out of supply that's the federal government doing that and number two we have unregulated hedge funds and most hedge fund activity as you know is not subject to regulation and an unbelievable munna speculation by hedge funds investment banks and others in oil futures that has driven this price well beyond the justification of the price of oil given the supply and demand relationship i mean that's something we have to deal with that comes on top of and at the same time that we see the wreckage that comes from this housing scandal the sub prime loan scandal now as i said before some are content to sit around here and just some their suspenders and known just act important and look important and wear their blue suits you know but do nothing i mean is that why one gets elected is that why one aspires to public service to do nothing in a time of urgency i think this economy faces great peril for a lot of reasons we have a trade deficit that's the highest in history two billion dollars a day we import more than we export we have a budget deficit that is way out of control way off track the president says well my budget deficit that i propose is four hundred  five billion dollars for this coming year no it's not he's asked to borrow eight hundred billion dollars for this coming year eight hundred billion dollars and you put that eight hundred billion dollars with a seven hundred billion dollar trade deficit you're talking borrowing in one year almost a trillion and a half dollars ten percent of the value of our economy and it's unbelievable to me this country is off track and we have to fix it one portion of it is energy one portion is trade policy one portion is fiscal policy and today i was talking about the sub prime loans scandal that is affecting housing and housing is an engine in this country housing is a very important economic engine and that's why we want to pass a stimulus package dealing with housing to try to at least and at least deal with it in a responsible appropriate way not rewarding speculators but trying to help homeowners we want to do that in a way that will begin to shore up and provide some foundation to an economy that's in trouble mr president i have said what i've come to say i think there's a lot to do it's very important for the united states senate to take action i hope next week will be a better week than last week we don't need delays we don't need stalling what we need is action w need bipartisan action working on pieces of legislation that will improve this country economy and reach out to those folks who leave the trail of tears in the wreckage of the subprime loan scandal say to them we want to see if there's a way for us to fire we can find a way to help you keep your home homeownership is a very important part of american life the housing industry itself is a very important engine of opportunity for this country's economy my hope is that we can do something important the next week that will address both of these senator can speak as well as he wishes thank you thank you mr president and yesterday i spoke about the work that we have done and the challenges we still face with regard to the energy policy of this country i return to the floor today to complete my remarks yesterday i had a complete inventory of all the things we have done in a bipartisan manner over the last three years to attempt to alleviate this great problem of american dependence upon our no oil and i came to the conclusion that we have done almost it we've done a bear a good job the problem is that almost all of the solutions that we have passed and are in place from the up to ten and sometimes fifteen years to reach fruition so that we don't feel them yet and the american people don't feel the benefits of them yet but we have done  a we have a very good litany and and chinned of things that we have done and i concluded yesterday by putting a price tag on our dependence on imported oil experts estimate that foreign oil will cost us four hundred billion dollars just this year four hundred that's thought to begin that we will send to countries just for the purchase to other countries other peoples for their own they can have it it's theirs for in exchange for the oil that we must use because we we cannot find ways to substitute and it's part of our daily lives it's such an important part that it remains there as a as a huge hammer holding us down experts estimate that the expenses that i've just stated will impact our economy in a number of ways including our trade balance i start with it in december of two thousand and seven imported crude oil accounted for sixty one percent of the national trade deficit and i think mr mr president you will note that two or three years ago it was well below fifty percent of the national debt and we were most concerned about the come about the trade imbalance that was of commercial purchases between now people and china for instance but because of the high price of oil it's turned the other way and sixty one percent of the national trade deficit is now attributable to crude oil imports or an all time high of thirty six billion dollars the trade deficit propelled by high energy prices as factored into the decline of the dollar yesterday the federal chairman  bernanke testified that the cost of energy is being passed through and reflected in increase in prices of core consumer goods and services other experts believe that increasing energy prices and lower economic growth could lead to a return of stagflation our dependence on foreign oil also has a negative impact on job creation in america the national defense council foundation concluded that imported oil deprives the united states and our economy a least two point two million jobs per year choosing to import oil to meet our energy needs  exports more than our money it also exports jobs choosing to produce energy here at home would keep our jobs here within our boundaries and help countless americans earn a good living the national defense council fact foundation has identified at several more hidden costs me mr president hidden cost of imports clothing or all related defense expenditures last economic activity reduced the mastic investment and loss government revenues and the cost of periodic supply disruptions together these total eight hundred and twenty five billion dollars per year nearly four times the amount that america spent directly on the acquisition of foreign oil in two thousand and five the money we export while flows directly into the economy of foreign nations around the world oil producing nations spend these revenues our national defense education health care social programs infrastructure financial instead and germans and to bolster their own energy security as these nations use american dollars to pay for investments and in their own futures we are forced to spend money we do not have and forgo our own priorities the fact that many of the major or oil export nations are undemocratic only makes matters worse we import much of our oil from canada and mexico and that's good unfortunately beyond north america most of our oil comes from countries such as saudi arabia venezuela nigeria iraq and around here the worldwide top oil exporting nations also include russia and iran many regions in oil rich nations are unstable many regimes that run them are unfriendly american and anti americanism  prevalent throughout the middle east the same saudi lands that are used to produce ten million barrels of oil per day also provided a staging ground for the advancement of radical islam while the state department has listed iran as a sponsor of terrorism since one thousand nine hundred four oil revenues allow that regime to weather whatever heightened sanctions we impose our reliance on foreign oil continues at our peril we pay huge sums for oil but even this premium cannot guarantee the availability of supplies a recent study identified twenty four significant oil supply disruptions between one nine hundred fifty and two thousand and three they lasted an average of six months and reduced the world's supply of oil by up to twelve percent recent events around the world  that our supply of oil is still an in credibly vulnerable to disruption in nigeria conflict over oil wealth to reduce that nation's daily output by twenty five percent last year dozens of workers have been kidnapped there near the meeting shall to suspend all of our operations in the niger delta and iraq more than four hundred sixty attacks on oil pipelines and facilities and personnel have occurred in the past four years and while those are getting better there's no question that the past has been very bad not only supply disruptions will be caused by natural events or manmade strife because much of the world's oil is controlled by irrational often unpredictable leaders venezuela's president hugo chavez recently threaten to stop spending his country's sending his country's oil to america because of a british court ruling that was not to his satisfaction the simple truth is this is a world without a spare production capacity even major production lost no matter where it occurs in boost or oil prices and even short term increases heighten the long term cost to our country people many foreign leaders are using oil as a diplomatic weapon now stablish diplomatic ties with growing energy consumers such relationships legitimatize regimes in power and that allow them to secure regional influence we have seen the putin regime use its vast resources as leverage to route eastern europe but perhaps the best example of this type of petro influence as ben venezuela chavez regime peddle influence by distributing nearly five million in financial assistance per day last year to nations that throughout latin america venezuela also made use revenues from its oil sales to subsidize bus tickets for londoners and home heating oil for america all of which was done as part of their political political use of oil nearly all of  all of our constituents can agree that america's dependence on foreign oil must end as soon as possible the people or i discuss some solutions that to the problem and that i have outlined i will provide as historical context for them let us set up our national goals and quote in the spirit of apollo with the determination of manhattan project that by the end of this decade we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy sources at that time as close quote the speech in it as that speech net imports amounted to twenty eight percent of the united states  thirty five years later imported my account for sixty percent imports have grown because the gap between domestic supply and demand have been allowed to widen and sanction has steadily increased over the years while production is doing don't i guess you all remember the speech that i spoke just quoted from twenty that i said occurred many years ago was made by then president nixon and then i indicated to you that thirty five years later that's now instead of accomplishing anything like he said we've gone in reverse to  terrible what in a terrible way in two thousand and five the united states consumed twenty one million barrels of crude oil per day but that same year domestic production hit a fifty year low results estab record for oil imports thirteen point seven million barrels per day thirteen point seven million barrels per day but not a ceiling on them according to the a are our best estimat energy information agency oil usage will rise thirty percent by twenty thirty even as alternative sources of energy account for a much greater percentage of our energy supply we will be getting a the most current information from the i a e a this coming week and things might have changed a little bit because of some of the laws that we have passed we passed some very good ones but what i just indicated is a good enough example of how bad off we are these estimates show that while our goals have been admirable and ambitious we are heading in the wrong direction as consumption rises and domestic production falls or oil imports continue to increase and our hand is weakened diplomatically militarily and economically as we debate catch phrases like energy independence energy security and energy freedom we miss the point and that is we must immediately adopt policies to reverse the course we have been on since one thousand nine hundred seventy three and that the course that our best experts estimate will continue beyond twenty thirty part of the problem is created by talking points originating in washington although the goal of the project independence was never met the same rhetoric is still used to define the challenges we face invoking apollo missions in manhattan project ignores the hard truth that an effective long term policy will not be a race to the finish line as president nixon the certitude we will need to spirit and determination of fast endeavors he said it but we didn't do it we will need our brightest minds and best science but this time we did not seek a one time goal to land the first man on the moon or to develop the first atom bomb instead we seek a fundamental shift in our own nation's powers in its economy the widening delta between domestic production and consumption will continue to swell unless we change our course throughout the  straight about these challenges we must be honest with the people and honest with ourselves given our growing energy needs and our reliance on foreign oil we should not promise energy independence within the term of office in the absence of scientific breakthroughs the strengthening of our energy security that we seek to take substantial time and effort to achieve but we can begin to move in that direction there are no easy solutions or quick picks is to our energy challenges as we debate these issues we should not propose to overhaul traditional energy industries without also addressing the likely impact that such actions will have and we should not seek to transition away additional sources of energy until new technologies are affordable available and acceptable to the public those of us in congress share a common goal to reduce our dependence on foreign oil but there are deep divisions on how to achieve it as a result congressional record is filled with legislation that undermines our ability to move toward the goal these measures were drafted with good intentions however good intentions are not enough especially when they are not matched with the wisdom and experience necessary to achieve these goals that we see as congress is in danger of failing in this regard last year billed me repeat last year congress passed an omnibus appropriation bill and that in the place of several individual bills we all would prefer the individual bills but that was not in the books i hope we do this year but i'm not sure looks like things are moving very rapidly and that direction as time gwendolyn attention was diverted away from damaging provisions that were inserted in that bill and passed with little notice aren't or no among these provisions was a martyr him on our oil shale regulations now the words that was put in the interior probably a pro creation bill that was part of this very large bill people like myself who know an awful lot about this and who should have been involved i didn't know anything about it and the mart argument that the regulations which could delay the commercialization of one of america's most promising resources that should not be done and that should not have been done we should let the research that is going on with reference to this product that could be a part of the solution to our needs take place in an orderly manner without congress coming in that in an appropriation bill and doing what they did our nation hold sixty two percent of the world's oil shale deposits this includes nearly five times the proven conventional oil reserves of saudi arabia just imagine the possibilities if we were to unleash america's ingenuity to access these resources boyles shale is just a saw a rock rock formation and it's  all just that you have to turn it from edge rock stage into liquid and one of america's largest companies has allocated large r and d budget to see if that can be done there rather upbeat about it and we shouldn't interfere and we should weigh what they are doing with the dilemma that we're in the terrible problem we have because of our dependence upon oil from overseas and as we look at whether that should be we should move ahead and proceed with that product see if it will work or not it even if there are some who think that it carries with it too many risks we ought to proceed because remember the big risk is that america will continue to be so dependent upon oil that we will grow poorer and poorer and poorer with the passage of time who wants to be for that permits just as part of the energy appropriation she was meant interior appropriation bill because they didn't have enough money to cover their expenditures they just imposed new  gas permits which will increase the cost of business and ultimately heighten the cost of energy for the american consumer as we have seen our domestic production level level off over the past several years is irresponsible to adopt policies that excel or write this trend yesterday the house democrats chose the unwise path of taxes on our domestic energy producers by eighteen billion dollars additional sound in the majority seek to make it more difficult for our military to purchase unconventional fields from our allies in canada on top of that some of the majority still seek to one do lease agreements and american companies have to produce energy in the gulf of mexico this makes no sense these backward policies prevent us from building on the success of our recent energy bills legislative efforts to open a small section of the arctic coastal plain have now been thwarted for over twenty five years much of our continental shelf also remains closed for energy leasing combined these areas contain more than one hundred billion barrels of oil and four hundred fifty million cubic feet of natural gas using old fears about energy production and ignoring new concerns about energy prices policymakers are locking up our energy potent chill it is clear that this approach has failed and that we need to find a new a new way to reach smart consensus on energy policy or to longer debate on energy has been dominated by extreme ideologies discourse has dictated either and in an either or approach which it participates in which participants are accused of being beholden to either big oil or environmental extremism in an almost equally divided senate and a time when party control is split between the legislative in the executive branch there is no better time to bridge this divide we must take action on an aggressive agenda of both new and old energy issues some of these proposals have been labeled as republican ideas and others have been labeled as a met democratic ideas we should recognize that policies to reduce our dependence on foreign oil are american ideas not partisan agendas must affirm that these policies are worth pursuing because additional steps can and should be taken to reduce the amount of energy this nation imports if you are left looking at risks versus benefits clearly the risk of not producing not producing our own our own oil and gas or new products that take place that oil or gas to minimize our importation if they are to do that is is giving to others control over our economy and is permitting our economy to weaken and for america to become poorer and poorer a strong energy policy will rely upon three types of initiatives those that increase the responsible production of domestic energy those that excel or aid to research development and deployment of renewable and alternative sources and those that significantly enhance our nation's ability to conserve energy there is broad agreement that to these three areas are critical to america's energy security i see them outlined in the measures introduced in congress and they're built upon the energy proposals of those running for president in modern politics most people would be satisfied with two three but when we missed a critical piece of the puzzle one that matters most is that in the near term and would have the greatest impact and we can safely say as i do now that our efforts will fall short of the goal i speak of those continuing disagreements over domestic production we must without delay produce more energy at home america's energy produced by our workers mice be used to power our homes business and the calls increasing domestic production will not be will not stand alone and be a stand alone solution but with with proven reserves of more than twenty one billion barrels of oil and undiscovered reserves of more than one hundred make billion barrels it is simply unacceptable that america fails to meet a greater share of our own  needs with domestic energy resources the good news is that we have the resources the technology and the support of most americans the bad news is that so far we have been almost unable to muster the political will we cannot even build consensus to inventory these areas and gain an accurate assessment of our nation's energy reserves to have a fair and informed debate we must know the extent of our resources and then we should tap them with the ingenuity scale and technology at our disposal we must listen to the people of alaska and open the arctic coastal plains to responsible leasing for the next exploration and production of oil and natural gas and water is an emotional subject for many folks so let's stick to the facts first to the critics who say that oil from anwar will take ten years to become come on line you're probably right but to use that as an argument against it it plant development is likely kucing to save for your retirement because you are not retiring next year it will take time and patience to develop the resources of that slope from experience we know that starting the process a decade ago would have ensured greater domestic oil production and when we needed it most in one nine hundred ninety five congress did pass that just a sion to do just point four billion barrels of oil and that's on the low side continued to to sit under our soil this week that they tow the average price of crude oil was nineteen  dollars a barrel that's when it was vetoed in one thousand dollars this week the price has risen to one hundred two i would say the conditions have changed enough to warrant a fresh debate as you can tell when the price has gone up so much obviously it means that america is being hurt far more by not using our own if it's available now and when the price of oil was twenty dollars a barrel congress must also open more of the outer continental shelf as we did in the gulf of mexico in two thousand and six last year an amendment that would have allowed leasing off the coast of virginia was defeated by one party line vote that vote was a step in the wrong direction onshore america offshore america holds tremendous energy potential and it is essential that the american energy industry have a greater access to explore and produce that this area i don't need to talk in a speech about how it can be done so much better now than ever before that is the obtaining of the under the offshore products for america's for americans business and americans to use and their lifestyle continuing to restrict the o c s was sacrificed billions of dollars that could be used to develop our nation's future energy supplies opening it would our supply and dollars that now go overseas to acquire oil will remain here in our economy and could best be used as alternative sources of energy the conventional fuels of the twentieth century can be used to pioneer the lives of the twenty first but we must first find the courage to put ourselves on such a pollard looking and pragmatic path equally important to increase domestic production will be measured to expedite the onshore permitting process a good example of why in alaska's natural gas pipeline permitting activities relating to permitting that project may add more than five years to its up to its timeline this is just one example but it is representative of an increasing burdensome process permitting must be streamlined not only to prevent energy producers from investing abroad but also for the sake of growing our energy production mr president i have about four pages left that choose to to introduce them in the record as if read and without objection x present that includes my remarks that were made in two parts i know they are more lengthy but i believe they are they do the first part that i gave yesterday is a good inventory of what we have tried to do here in the last it by years bipartisan and how many good things we have accomplished but it shows how far we have to go it also attempts to show badly the american economy is being influenced by high prices of oil that we must pay to get that oil fields i believe it is making us poor and it will make us poor i believe it is soon entering the bread ask that shopping bag of american the american people prices are going to be reflecting the terrible increase in the cost of oil and that's going to permeate the entire economy and make things worse for americans this is probably as bad a situation where america's economy as we have had in modern times w we must measure that fact put it into the equation when we consider whether or not we should use resources that we have here at home or developed and i've spoken spoken to in a speech i u the president you know myself such time as i may require sort of a procedure and mr president i'm here today to talk about some very positive things that the republicans in the discuss some specific housing proposals that we believe will help people who are caught in the tremendous crisis of the sub prime meltdown and the economic conditions that it imposes on them too many families in my home state of missouri and across the nation in west virginia and other areas of the country fetes they're feeling the pain of the housing crisis and they need our help now  seven thousand people in missouri delinquent on their mortgages with twenty percent of missouri's subprime borrowers behind on their payments these families like most across america can least afford higher housing costs as are being hit with heating bills higher health care costs and more pain at the gas pump that's why i'm so proud together with my republican colleagues today as we introduce the homeownership manufacturing and economic growth act or home act of two thousand and eight  housing relief provisions of the republican omak will help for folks like willie clay of kansas city missouri caught up in the sub prime mortgage mess well he's a former vietnam war paratrooper who lives mainly on government disability checks when he was recently highlighted in the kansas city star article entitled american dreams built on a shaky foundation that sub prime lo the clay lives in a kansas city neighborhood of ruskin heights a modest community of hard working families and tidy rich homes ranch homes a place where folks of modest means can share in the american dream by owning their own home in two thousand and four will you refinanced is we financed these mortgage for a total of one hundred one thousand dollars you can see from the size of that loan when he was not a rich man he was like so many other americans just looking for a little bit of money to pay off medical bills his car loan and some credit card bills when he took out a sub prime loan with an adjustable rate it started out at a fixed eight point two percent when he had no problem making these payments but then last october the fixed rate interest and and the new adjustable rate reset at eleven point two percent it is set to rise again in march to twelve point two percent and even higher in coming works when he agreed to the new loan i didn't have the education understand it well he said and he didn't explain it to me i thought if the interest rate went down your payment went down if your interest rate went up your payments stayed the same when he was also trapped with a twenty five hundred dollar prepayment penalty committing him to the loan for at least three years now will is not alone his entire neighborhood is suffering from this crisis there are more than five hundred for foreclosures in his zip code alone on willie's block there already several empty houses this is wreaking havoc on the neighborhood its property values even its basic fabric as families struggle to make ends meet that's why i believe so strongly that we need to help folks like willie clay and families across the nation the kansas city star suggested that we require tougher disclosure requirements so that borrowers have no question about the terms of the deal they believe that home buyers should count are crystal clear disclosure terms stating the loan amount interest rate whether the rate will reset under certain conditions and any prepayment penalty we heard the need to really clay and thousands of families like him across america we heard suggestions of the kansas city star and many others with ideas on how to fix this mess and we propose that we take action and this institution must take action first republican home act will help families like willie suffering now with ten billion dollars to refinance distressed sub prime mortgages our proposal would authorize state housing finance agenc you ten billion dollars in tax exempt bonds and use the proceeds to help homeowners refinance subprime mortgages secondly in order to help families avoid foreclosure and help keep them in their homes republicans will expe delivery of a hundred and eighty million dollars approved by congress in december to provide counseling and help to families in distress i was proud to co sponsor that in the appropriations bill with my colleague from connecticut senator d and as i announced earlier this week the first block of these funds has just gone out and we will ensure the remaining funds are delivered as quickly as possible third republican support helping neighborhoods like willies by providing fifteen thousand dollars tax package to purchase over the next year a home in or approaching foreclosure senator isaacson george will talk more about that we support the so called net operating loss carry back provision to help firms that suffered operating losses lower their tax burdens lastly republicans support protecting families who are applying for new loans people deserve to know and understand what they're signing before they sign it anyone who's ever bought a house and can confirm that this stack of small type paperwork written in legal ease knows what i mean i used to be a lawyer and i've been presented with those stacks of documents and they're so overwhelming that unless you have a half a day to spend you're never going to read them and even as a lawyer i'll tell you they're not the easiest things to understand our proposal will require a plain english will be and how much a new payment will be i doubt that willy clay was ever told that his mortgage rate could go up over twelve percent that's unconscionable i don't think they ought allowed to raise rates the adjustable rates beyond what they disclose in the initial disclosures to the borrowers they need to be notified of any prepayment penalty and they will be reminded that there's no guarantee they can refinance their loan before the introductory rate expires these are the very things that willie and thousands of borrowers did not understand when they agreed to their loan hopefully this will protect future families who want to share in the american dream now in contrast to the democratic plan republicans will avoid making homeownership more expensive especially for low income families through harmful bankruptcy changes that increase the cost of borrowing or encourage costly litigation if my colleagues on the other side succeed and well we're going to use bankruptcy to write down all the mortgages and essentially destroyed the basic terms of the contract guess what will happen what will happen is that nobody will get a loan at a reasonable rate anymore any rates that are offered to homeowners will have to have a risk premium built in probably one and a half percent or more each each quarter of a percent will mean five hundred thousand families can't get a loan so that would mean that if this proposal coming from the other side is implemented some six point six million at least families will be denied the opportunity to get a home loan because of the risk built in by a congressionally mandated cramdown of the interest rate terms breaking the terms of the contracts which have been signed republicans will also oppose plowing billions of dollars into big government programs that don't help our neediest families now w oppose adding more dollars to programs that are still flush with funds they were given in december we want a responsible affected and fiscally conservative package that can be adopted without wreaking havoc on our economy without destroying our budget yet helping the people who most need help right now we are threatened by the position of the majority leader of being shut out from offering any amendments we want to move forward we want to move forward on a responsible plan that allows the republicans to decide what amendments they will offer we are not going to be told by the majority leader back he is the one who decides what amendments we offer wears are never worked in the senate telling a senate telling a block of senators a minority senators voting nine of us that we can't offer an amendment unless we get the approval of the majority leader there's a body on the other side of the capitol that may be able to do that but the strength of this body is that really don't get crammed down on the amendments we can offer i've talked with a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and they agree our proposals make sense we just want to have votes on the proposals we think that are effective conservative fiscally and will not will not endangered the homeowners that we seek to help if we can work together and i believe there's plenty of opportunity for a bipartisan compromises on housing proposals that will help families like willie clay and neighborhoods like ruskin heights mr president i would ask unanimous consent to remove the quorum call without objection thank you thank you mr president i have one unanimous consent request for our committee to meet during today's session of the senate has been approved by the friend who just spoke my friend from missouri i was surprised and that this is all being debated now in the car untaxed of the fact that yesterday our republican colleagues stopped us from proceeding to the very measure that everyone is now talking about and wanting to make changes and improvements to there are ideas that my friends from missouri talked about that i think are worthy of discussion and debate and those some i mean very well support but the reality is that we're here today because colleagues on the other side of the aisle stopped us from even proceeding to have a debate so it seems to me it's a little disingenuous to say we want to be doing all of these measures and we agree there's an incredible sense of urgency about what is happening now is to families but yet at the same time rather than proceeding to the bill and offering amendments offering an amendment to remove a provision if it's there is concern on bankruptcy which i i happen to disagree and i think that it's very difficult to explain to people why they're a cation home of iowa vacation home which i hope to have some day in beautiful northern michigan that that would be covered by bankruptcy provisions but my home my primary residence where my children grew up where i raised my family would not be protected so i don't understand that difference but that's a debate worth having and if our colleagues had allowed us to go to the bill we could have had that discussion we could have that debate about whether or not that provision should be in the bill so i come to the floor today to urge colleagues and senator reid has renewed his motion for us to go to the bill we can't begin to deal with an issue which colleagues are saying on both sides the aisle is incredibly important they have a great sense of urgency to it if we are not allowed to go to the bill so that this will minds me of time after time in the senate where we as a majority have brought forward urgent issues that affect american families and american communities and ask that it be brought to the floor that we have an opportunity to debate and take action and we have been blocked time and time again in fact a record seventy two times now seventy two times which is more than the two year average of any other congress in the other united states senate session to your session we now have to the floor next week to support senator reid's motion to be able to go to the debate and to be able to look at a variety of issues that need to be addressed on this this critical critical issue we all know that for a majority of americans as a present i know in west virginia's in michigan that when folks want to get into the middle class the first thing that they do is go out and buy a home that equity in a home to be able to save to equity in a home no more rent no more renting they going to buy a house i know in michigan that's step one for people people working very very hard to get that home for their family to be able to save for the future and that's the primary way that people in fact in this country do save for the future to be able to build up that equity so that they can use it to offset the cost of college for their children to be able to save for retirement to be able to use it in a medical emergency which is happening way too often now in our country so equity in the home no that you can invest in having your home is a basic part of what we are called the american dream in this country and that is in great jeopardy right now for too many families eighty seven thousand people willing to for closure this last year just in michigan eighty seven thousand people and we have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country right now and that has happened for a variety of reasons we talk a lot about the  financial mortgage arrangements arms adjustable rate mortgages that are coming due an interest rates going up that's certainly part of it we also have another piece that is very true in michigan and my guess is around the country that relates to predatory lending practices and i have a very large number of great mr gagne and who are african american or from other minority communities who could be in a prime rate mortgage right now what were sold or some subprime mortgage and were put into a much more fragile situation with less accountability  we know of situations where senior citizens have been followed home from detroit from a church in detroit getting relationships with our seniors where they've been talked into totally refinancing their home paid for their house had no mortgage payment but were told that if they wanted to refinance they could get that new furnace they needed they could refix that fix the roof they could pay for those medical  bills that they needed to pay for and they were placed into a situation through predatory practices that has now jeopardize their ability to even have their home and then we have another factor which i believe is the largest factor going on right now which is the underlying fundamentals in the economy and the fact that too many people are losing their jobs or seeing their incomes go down and certainly in michigan for us it's different than these arms resetting for i've is about the fact that families are losing their jobs families are going from a middle income job of twenty five dollars an hour to fourteen dollars an hour and trying to figure out having to pay the bills and keep a roof over their head for their family i happen to believe that the best emulous is a good paying job and that  that that's something of also great urgency that we need to be spending our time on and i'm very very proud of the fact that as we move forward into a discussion in the next two weeks our values and priorities through the budget for next year that we will be laser focused on jobs and what we can do to help people keep and to be able to get the american dream by working hard and having a job and and creating opportunity for themselves and their families but what we have right in front of us right now is the opportunity to do something immediately to help people we have a bill that includes a number of things some of them the president talked about in his own sta union and we as a good idea we've incorporated it we're talking about adding to the number of pre foreclosure counseling offices and we've heard from lenders we've heard from families and communities now that most thing is to help people before they lose their house before they're ninety days behind when someone thinks they may be having a problem or they know that in six months this we're going to be faced with this situation of of their payments going up to start now and work with lenders we also know that most people not most but many don't want to answer the phone when cars the lender cause they they're worried about what's going to happen and don't think they have any way out and so they just wait by helping people with counseling we can stop a lot of this on the front end helping people be able to refinance we also know that for that are trying to do that it's tougher now because we have this complicated situation going on where they go to a lender they get the mortgage that's been sold and they don't know who owns it so who do you talk to  when you're trying to figure out how to make some accommodation to refinance so having counselors we've put money in the budget currently the share was a priority for our our majority but adding two hundred million dollars to be able to help people on the front end be able to work their way out of this is very important also allowing state housing agencies to issue ten billion dollars more in refinancing bonds to be in state and local communities to be able to how we finance homes is incredibly important and something that has been widely supported on both sides of the aisle we also have said that community development block grant money should be able to be used to purchase and rehab foreclosed properties to be able to again help communities we have to stop this we have to stop this where it is i think we can help create some certainty in the markets by  helping families right now and and creating also some confidence in the markets going forward and that can be done by using the c b mi g dollars for communities to be able to help them be able to refinance and help people stand their homes and we've also a balanced approach address what's happening on the business side for homebuilders we included in our original package in the senate  to go to go back a couple of years to a better time and be able to address some of their issues so there's not the pressure to sell their their inventory the unsold homes at the moment to be able to allow them a little breathing included that in this provision as well to be able to support the industry itself so this is a very balanced package that took the input of the leadership of the banking committee in the finance committee and looked at proposals that are bipartisan that had been brought forward by the president by a number of people to put forward something that will help  we don't pretend that it's it is the magic bullet i wish there was one i don't think there is but it is a a very reasonable approach that has been put forward and so here we are we have this  situation where colleagues now on the other side of the aisle the leader on the other side of the aisle come forward the package and says this is what we want to do we need to be able to pass these measures but yet has blocked us from even getting to the housing issue from the the bill is blocked us from getting there and i have to say mr president this this reminds me of one other issue that's very related and certainly is critical for for me in mission again that has also been blocked time and time again and was a part of our original stimulus package that we did in the senate which i'm very proud of i think that was a very very good proposal and i was proud of the work that we did but in that proposal and we did something else is very important right now for middle class workers and families and that is we extended unemployment compensation benefits for families viewed as one of the top two ways to stimulate the economy if you're unemployed you are going to take every dollar that comes in the door to pay the mortgage keep the lights on in the heat pay for food and do the things that you need to do for your family and we know it's stem itself and we also know from a moral standpoint it is the right thing to do to help families so that has been blocked as well and i see them related because we have now people who have van unemployed for longer periods of time than they ever wanted to be who are in these situations now maybe they want to keep going they did a home equity loan and now that's not working and they find themselves in a situation of foreclosure one of the ways that we can help on housing is to give people some stability in their income now i've heard colleagues and we debated this on the other side of the aisle saying well it is encouraging people not to work i would love to have the president or the secretary the treasury or colleagues come in if they've not talked to folks in their own state they are welcome to come to michigan and talk to folks who want desperately to work and are working for very very minimal wage jobs right now to try and keep going but nationally we know there are seven point seven million unemployed people today that are competing for four million jobs which is why i say the best long term stimulus is a good paying jobs and i'm glad our budget going to focus on jobs but the reality is that if we want to help stabilize families right now there are hundreds of thousands of people millions actually people right now in a situation where extending unemployment benefits for thirteen weeks an additional thirteen weeks for high  high unemployment areas is exactly what needs to happen and i hope we are going to address that as part of what we are doing here as well in two thousand  there was an extension of unemployment benefits and the national unemployment rate is roughly the same right now it was five percent then it's nationally four point nine now we hear from the bureau of labor statistics and from goldman sachs that by the beginning of next year the national way it's going to be six point five percent six and a half percent nationally now i'm in a unique situation because i'd take that because our rate right now is seven point six percent in michigan so i'd take six and a half percent but the reality is that we are seeing a dramatic rise in unemployment in more and more families are going to find themselves in a situation of not being able to pay the mortgage not being able to do the things that they need to do for their families and i think this is a fundamental issue for families for middle class families we're talking about people who work who find themselves in situ way ssion because of a multitude of issues that where the job is not there anymore and helping them be able to continue to keep their family together and keep their house is incredibly important and i'm very hopeful that some point i have seventy two thousand people in michigan that are scheduled to lose their unemployment benefits by june  over ten thousand people a month they're losing their unemployment benefits and we don't have the jobs for them at this is incredibly serious and i'm one more time congress not to block that when it comes to the floor it's a very important part of the economic picture for people and it's time for us to get about the business of fixing the economy of supporting the  efforts that are going on that in the economy for businesses for individuals for families for communities there's a great great sense of urgency that we need to have because that's what families feel every single day and i'm hopeful that when senator reid brings up the next motion in front of us to be able to go to a bill to deal with housing that colleagues will have that same sense of urgency and join us in being able to do that thank you mr president i would suggest the absence of course if the echo some of the colleagues some of my comments to the comments i should say of my distinguished colleague from michigan and others who have lamented was the senate did yes today we have a situation mr president across the landscape of this country in which our economy is headed on the shawls of a recession if not some economists believe we are there already and the very essence of that recession which hurts american families in real terms stands from the housing crisis that exists in this country and the administration said oh no no that's an overexaggeration wall fortunately we haven't even seen the crest of that phenomenon and the reality is is that just says the administration hit the snooze button then instead of responding to the young calming crisis and limiting its scope yesterday our colleagues on the other side of the aisle did exactly the same thing in opposing the majority leader's opportunity to make sure that we address the housing crisis that exists in this country in a way that not only saves american families from having the american dream become an american nightmare but also at the same time in dealing with the very cor of where this a commie is headed in a negative direction and turning it around that's what yesterday's vote was all about mr president everyone except president bush and some of his colleagues seen you understand that we are in some various serious economic situations i saw the president's press conference yesterday even as gas prices in some parts of the country are already at three dollars and sixty cents a gallon when he was told that was going to do when it hits four dollars a gallon he sa what or dollars a gallon well i guess if you never have to pay for gas you're totally disconnected from the realities of average americans i guess that's where we're headed so he doesn't seem to understand that we have a serious economic situation but let's get real it isn't largely those of us in this body who really understand what's going on it's the american people across the landscape of this country  feeling the effects of this downturn firsthand they're all the ones receiving foreclosure notices they're the ones struggling to balance their checkbooks and they're the ones reaching out to congress for help now yesterday the majority leader tried to bring up a bill to help those struggling in this economic downturn and yesterday republican members of this chamber blocked that bill in essence blocking help for those american homeowners who are on the verge of losing their homes the foreclosure prevention act gets to the heart of our economic crisis that's the housing market and as i and others have said in the banking committee this downward spiral of the housing market is the reason we are facing such a difficult economy we cannot think that we will get the nation back on track without legislation to address the weaknesses in the housing market the bill that republicans blocked would have done one major thing he families in their homes now beyond the economy this goes to the very heart of our family's ability to grow and prosper oh madam president oh my oh my is where we are brought when we are first born from that hospital it's home to where we come to home is where we are nurtured as we grow up home is where we get to celebrate most of the time our birthdays is where in fact we also share moments of sorrow home is where we often take care of a sick or dying loved one home is the very essence of the american dream and beyond what it means to us in our families in the context of the development of our lives home is also the single foundation of the american individual americans economic ability to prosper it is the single biggest asset that most americans will have in their lifetime it is the asset that they will use very often to borrow to be able to educate their child and son to college it is the asset that they may draw upon if they have a significant illness it is the asset that they will rely upon as they grow older and seek retirement now what it means so much to us as a society both in the personal context of what home and the values that surrounded me and it wouldn't mean so much to us individually and collectively as communities and as a nation in terms of our economy it is unthinkable that we could not get progress on a bill that saved the very essence of that american dream and yet that's what happened yesterday in the senate the bill that was up provides funding for counseling in order to reach and help families at risk of losing their homes many american families are sitting around the kitchen table looking through their mortgage bill and their finances and those bank notices many of them has turned to their credit card to float their personal debt and they all lost madam president they don't know where to turn and these counsellors that were part of the bill could help offer them real solutions and options to help them from a a foreclose doesn't that make sense does to me that's what the bill allowed the bill also provided funding to allow communities with high foreclosure rates to access an existing programs community development block grants which these funds communities can purchase for close properties for rehabilitation renter resale now for some who have said in this debate well you know those bars are responsible for making their own decisions has nothing to do with me well for every foreclosed property in a neighborhood those who have their properties jason two or nearby within that neighborhood have a decreas having a series of foreclosed properties as we have seen in some parts of the nation in communities abandoned does not fit and benefit anyone it decreases surrounding home values it attracts pine and vandalism the bottom line is that for closers destabilize neighborhoods the funds of this bill which republicans did not allow to move forward allows communities to stop the spiral before it starts doesn't that make that's the bill's most controversial piece and there are many others many others that i think were pretty universal that should have been supported but it's most controversial piece that by my good friend senator durb bankruptcy provision would in essence change the bankruptcy law to give judges the discretion to modify loan terms for a primary residence and that since where you call home right now the law allows for modifying those loan terms for vacation homes something that is your primary residence so you can have a vacation home a timeshare you can have any any other second home under existing law or if you have some financial trouble you can actually get the bankruptcy judge to modify those terms but when it comes to your whole or home your principal residence the place where you nurture and grow your family although you can't do that doesn't make sense that we have greater value or a vacation or secondary home and less value for the primary residence of american families that would be the equivalent of something along the line that you could get a modification on camp david but you couldn't get any modification at sixteen hundred pennsylvania now of course in this particular case that example just to create vividly for people of the what we're talking about in either case the president doesn't have to pay mortgage on either of those properties they're owned by the american people but my point is here is the primary residence can't get any help secondary residence you can get help doesn't make any sense the thing is that most americans don't have a camp david and they're asking for help just to save their house on main street this makes sense now the majority leader and senator durbin and others worked out a compromise to make sure that this provision that was in the bill was even more narrowly tailored more narrowly tailored how so under their compromise the only families that could request a court ordered change to their mortgage are families that would otherwise lose their home to foreclosure but that was uneven they went on it went beyond that and they said all need those families that can pass a strict means test their ability to pay in bankruptcy and therefore can prove that they can afford their current mortgage or alamo and that wasn't it they went beyond that is it only families that are currently struggling with what type of mortgage any mortgage you know all the nontraditional and sub prime loans the very essence of the types of mortgages that have created the crisis in america that was spun out there in a way attracting people into mortgages without the appropriate credit counseling that they should have never been attracted into anyhow so the universe was further limited further limited and furthermore to give the lead there are some additional guarantees if that family after the bankruptcy judge made some decision to make an accommodation in that loan sells their home after that mortgage modification any increase in the home value would go back to whom the lender so would have a chance to recoup the loss in that home value now let me just say there's going to come a point in time but i hope that lenders understand that as values continue to go down and down and down that  foreclose on a piece of property they're not even going to get that which they in fact loans against isn't it far better to be able to sustain a family in their home and to help that value reestablish itself over time and grow and be able to make the lender more holes than to put that family out on the street lenders will come to that conclusion at some point so these provisions each time more and more and more narrow so that we were talking only of a universe of those people who are being hurt had no financial ability to pay the mortgages that they should have never gotten into that was offered by the industry to lure them in lower interest rates and then skyrocketed afterwards and with the ability to recoup any value going back to the lender all conditions that don't exist on a secondary residence the other things i just talked about are part of the larger relates to secondary residence they're all about only this limited primary universe and of course anyone who got a conventional mortgage anyone who did not get a sub prime mortgage or a non traditional mortgage they were totally under the existing law are going to continue to be under the existing law so we had a narrower universe so this provision that was in the bill blocked by republicans was not to harm the banking industry has not added to her mortgage brokers it was added to help homeowners save their homes this provision is one of the only ways that we can help a significant number of homeowners without without costing the taxpayers a dime it would help more than six hundred thousand families in bad loans keep their homes across the landscape of the country and it would help all over fourteen thousand families in my homes ative new jersey avoid foreclosure that would be a savings of almost five million dollars in home values but if we don't do anything if we just sit back we risk losing much more in new jersey over the next two years we expect more than fifty seven thousand homes to be lost to foreclosure that means fifty seven thousand families will have to hand over their keys to their homes fifty seven thousand families who will be forced to say goodbye to the place where they were nurtured and comforted a place where they live a good and bad place where they came home to every night a place they call home and in the words of families can go what it feels like to lose a home they will feel like they will have lost everything but this isn't even just about those homeowners or close properties have a ripple effect on surrounding homes and the community at large in new jersey these fifty seven thousand foreclose homes could cost a ten thousand dollar decrease in the home prices of over two million surrounding homes and overall that loss would be about nineteen point six billion dollars in home values and that's jest in my home state the fact is no one is immune from the repl effect of this housing crisis the potential loss to families and communities in new jersey and across the nation is far too great for us to sit this one out i personally cannot stand by while members of the chamber play games with my hosts day and with the american dream of millions of people along cross the landscape of this country electively we have much too much to lose i don't know if other members of this chamber don't watch the news day don't get the same memos but for closures are going to happen nationwide if we don't do something analysts and dissipate that two million american families will lose their homes over the next two years and forty million of their neighbors will see their home values decline due to projected foreclosures when they when those neighbors see their home values decline as a result of it their ability to borrow against their home for their kids college education to have the buffer in case of a major illness in their family and themselves their ability to retire all of those things will be affected all of those things will be affected there isn't time to play games and use delay tactics longer we delay action the more homes we risk losing approximately twenty thousand families lose their homes every we think about that every week twenty thousand families see the american dream slip away these families are struggling they're trying to pay their mortgages but they cannot most of them cannot sell or refinance many of them have found themselves that in fact the value of their properties are  than in fact the mortgage amount they need other options and they're looking to the federal government and those who lloyd them the lenders in the first place for help the fact is that help simply isn't the loan servicers who could modify themselves would have to wait for a bank or judge would have to wait for the congress to act under existing laws and the abilities to perform long services who could modify loans to make them more affordable just simply aren't doing so in sufficient numbers a report by moody's found that loan servicers have only modified three point five percent of mortgages that increase to higher rates these are opportunities to keep people in their homes and instead of dealing with the higher rates maybe adjust those rates in a way where they would still get a barber who can continue to pay for the value of that home to build up and they just wouldn't make as much as they had lured these individuals into a report by the center for responsible lending estimates that the administration's plan that has been put out there as a solution to this problem to streamline modifications is only going to help about three percent of homeowners three percent so are we willing to say as the member of the banking committee i asked the secretary of the treasury secretary paulson when he was before us about two weeks ago and yesterday chairman back to the chairman of the federal reserve are we willing to say that ninety seven percent of the projected two million homes that are going to be lost in america that that's a market correction that we're willing to accept that ninety seven percent of those two million homes that will go in foreclosure but that's acceptable as a societal value you know a lot about family values you know i don't know of any greater family value than the place we call home and a place to call home and we will to say that we will in our overall economy has stepped a ninety seven percent foreclosure rate as it relates to the nature of our economy and where it's headed an economy that is stagnant in terms of growth but rising in terms of consumer costs on gas notwithstanding the president's lack of knowledge of it on energy costs as a whole on rising food prices and lowering home values willing to say it so willing to say ninety seven percent of two million families well that's a market correction yet we've heard so many rush to get the federal reserve reserve to respond to wall street and the concerns of shareholders how about homeowners  homeowners that's simply not good enough thousands of new jersey families have already gone into foreclosure tens of thousands more are behind on their mortgage papers and payments how many more are we going to watch to have their american dream turned into that american nightmare that so many are facing let me put a face on these testings charmaine kerryman a resident of the nile in new jersey she came home last fall to end eviction notice kept to her front door param and like so many others had an adjustable rate mortgage that had reset not once but twice rising from seven and a half percent to eleven percent and she was on the verge of losing her home luckily her story has a happy ending a community development organizations similar to those that we want to help to the community development block grants opportunities is buying her home from the bank and working out a pain schedule that she will be able to stay in her home and make responsible payments but there are too many families that unfortunately cross the landscape of new jersey in our country who are not realizing that opportunity that foreclosure notice taped to their door will soon be replaced by a padlock on their door the foreclosure prevention act which i was a proud and  offers real solutions for the american family our neighborhoods and the entire economy it would help stop the blue bleeding in the foreclosure crisis so i asked members of the chamber to think about these families when hopefully they have an opportunity to vote again because what happened yesterday was embarrassing now i know there are some camouflage that that is being offered that well we weren't allowed weren't going to be allowed to offer certain types of amendments the reality is majority leader made it very clear all relevant pertinent members that we're going to be allowed but families that are struggling that are at the end of their rope twenty found twenty thousand families a week losing their homes don't want to hear about some amendments that ultimately had nothing to do with the very essence of the housing crisis as the reason why they are getting put out of their homes all we're saying is come to the table offer relevant amendments let's have a real discussion about how to help families avoid foreclosure we're twenty thousand families losing their homes every week with ten million on the near horizon with an economy that is bleeding dramatically and that could go if we do not stand the hemorrhaging into a deep recession that would have long term consequences for us as a nation both as individuals families i mean it is and collectively as a country it is not something that we can afford to play procedural games with a madam president i look forward to next week having a new opportunity i'm sure mines reflection and understanding of the grave consequences before us and an opportunity to rescue not to do a government bailout but to rescue i appreciate my colleagues on the floor the senator from alabama for allowing me to proceed him and i really appreciate that and i want to follow up on the remarks of our my colleague from new jersey our senator menendez who has really been just an extraordinary leader and so many ways and particularly on this housing issue and i thank him and want to associate myself with much of his remarks i came to the floor today this morning to speak about the housing situation but to try to bring some comparisons if you will between the difficulties around the country and in some places just downright despair in some parts of the country because of the foreclosure situation and bankruptcy pending bankruptcies and to remind my colleagues that there's still a tremendous need down in the gulf coast relative to a housing crisis and the importance of trying to stay focused while we're trying to solve problems all over the nation to please ask my colleagues not to lose not to lose lose sight of the difficulties that we're still having in counties and taxes in parishes in louisiana and in counties in mississippi and to some degree counties in florida now i know it's two thousand and eight the storms of katrina and rita and wilma are long in some people's memories can you know but not in ours because these storms in many ways were just like yesterday not just the hurricanes but the levees that broke and caused unmitigated disaster and despair through our communities so i thought it would be very helpful and it's madam president with you in the chair it's interesting that the first community i want to speak about is is michigan detroit livonia and dearborn which i'm sure you're very familiar with it happens to be the county that has the highest percentage of foreclosure in stages of foreclosure in the nation this chart will show you the top ten counties in the nation and the numbers of homeowners that are facing bankruptcy or foreclosure the number of homes is really is is striking is startling and if you think about bankruptcy the damage is not just done to the family losing their home or to the individual but it's to the neighborhood and if it is so concentrated as it seems to be in some particular counties it has a very dramatic economic  facts on the whole community and i think that's why democrats and i know that that's that some on the other side are sensitive to this but that's why we're trying to fashion a package that recognizes well we don't want to bail out improper behavior we most certainly don't want to bail out illegal behavior we most are we don't want to give aid and comfort to fraudulent practices we most certainly need a housing bill that recognizes that bankruptcy is not just an individual and loss of home foreclosure catastrophe for our family but it has impacts on the community and particularly in michigan where some of this is probably associated with a downturn in manufacturing jobs people are not only losing their jobs losing their homes and while the causes of our losses were very different it wasn't due to an economic downturn it wasn't really due to lending sub prime lending practices are problems were due to the federal government levies collapsing when they should have held and wiping out thousands and thousands tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of homes which i'll get to in a minute but just for the purposes of my brief remarks this morning these are the top ten in the united states you can see in michigan california nevada in las vegas another county san bernadino in california and you've heard people say that this crisis is really limited to places within about seven states but i'd like to show you for comparison the top counties parishes in the gulf coast this is really and an extraordinary comparison and if i could ask the staff to hold up the other chart right next to this one so people can see as you can see we're talking about the mortgage crisis in the country in four point nine percent in michigan and four point nine percent in stockton california and next to it are the actual numbers so forty one thousand two hundred seventy three people in michigan are in that particular county or in some process or in some part of the foreclosure process and here down let's just say in miami florida two point seven percent doesn't sound like a big percentage and it really isn't a large percentage but it's twenty five thousand families that's a lot of families but let me show you in the gulf coast what has happened to us over the last two years and if you please keep holding that up in st bernard parish this is the major  severe damage this is the percentage of homes that were unlivable seventy eight point four percent in cameron parish which is a small parish in southwest seventy one point eight percent and hancock county mississippi sixty nine point eight percent in plaquemines parish in louisiana fifty seven point five percent orleans fifty five point nine harrison county mississippi thirty four jackson county mississippi thirty four same tammany twenty five jefferson parish nineteen and were million parish thirteen there no percentages like this anywhere in the country and my point is that while i'm glad to be part of the housing bailout for the country and i'm proud to try to help other regions and i most certainly understand  the disaster associated with foreclosures and particularly if they're not really of your making you took out the right kind of loan you put your money down but you lost your job or your child got into a an unfair you know an accident a terrible automobile accident because you don't have health insurance you've got to file for bankruptcy and people are taking your home and that's the last thing people should be doing we should be helping pay medical bills and getting people jobs and not taking their home so i'm not here to about reckless behavior but i most certainly think congress should step up and help middle class families that are struggling to keep their homes but for comparison's sake i just want people to get their eyes on what we are still going through in the gulf coast we have parishes where seventy eight percent of the homes are unlivable and people are struggling to keep these homes and what the federal government has done is been substantial but it is not adequate and it is not enough we have sent one hundred fifty thousand dollars down to many of these families some of them still haven't seen a penny some of them had to deduct their insurance from that we still don't have tax relief for the hundred fifty thousand dollars of community development block grant so people in addition to maybe not receiving their full complement not getting their full insurance money are now being pushed to a higher tax bracket because this congress has failed yet to give them tax relief that they desperately need so as i conclude and i thank my colleagues for letting me make these remarks please let us remember that as we put this housing relief package together for the nation let us think about what can be done in the counties in mississippi florida texas and louisiana where in some places fifty percent of families or more have have lost their homes now some people are back some people are struggling but you might have a neighborhood let's say in st bernard i was down there just last week where there's one homeowner in one house that is fixed and inhabited every other home on that block is vacant now think about that this person is happy to be back in their house but when you ask them what is the value of that house before the storm it used to be four hundred fifty thousand but today that's a very interesting question what is the value you of a three bedroom brick home on a block where every other home is empty but that's how badly people want to live in their neighborhoods and communities and this is not places necessarily below sea level some of these places i'm describing are above sea level they're not even in the flood plain but when those levees broke you didn't have to be in a flood plain to get flooded so i thank my colleague and i'm going to end my comments here i have some specific suggestions for additional relief tax relief for the road home we need it for the people that have lost their homes and we have some other suggestions for this housing committee as we  you madam president i wish you the best and helping out one of your counties and we look forward to helping them but please don't forget that for those of us and i don't have alabama numbers but the hurricane did hit alabama but we do have those numbers on another chart but for those of us in the gulf coast this is critical and yes another hurricane season is starting this spring so let's get some help to these people and and then fashion a bill that we can all pass that will bring some real relief to american homeowners everywhere and i yield the floor and i thank my colleagues again and i'm from alabama and i thank my colleague from louisiana and for raising some of those area was hardest hit by a low battery area particularly this is not long ago and just now we're seeing houses come back it's really been sad i think that it's taken this long moving on to three years and you wonder why we couldn't make that happen earlier in a lot of money had been spent on interim housing and other things that hadn't been spent in a way to go directly to the housing to building new housing inside the barriers and right we would have a risk in the future which it would mean a lot better off i think i know it's hard but that been there and i've seen how hard it is to move the process in a faster tanami our country faces a fiscal crisis and the last we take action we're going to see dramatic damage to our economy in the years to come with the retirement of the baby boomers our current spending levels for social security medicare and medicaid in particular are simply unsustainable absent reform social security trust fund is expected to be exhausted by twenty forty one the managed care part a trust fund will be exhausted in twenty nineteen only eleven years from now and the cost of federal programs these programs will actually  the current budget the resulting deficits will be some large that many predict that the government will not able to borrow itself out of the problem so we did need to take some steps now moving to a period of time when our ability to fund the entitlement programs plus our general expanded two years will be beyond our year's budget i've served on the budget committee for a number of years last year we had a budget and it was a bit discouraging and we've added discursion budget for some years some would say partisan but i think we might as well talk about it because i tried to the last election our democratic colleagues vigorously attacked the republicans for not fixing you were in the majority they said after school situation and there was in truth much merit to those criticisms i don't think the republican majority did a very good job and people were not happy about it and it was a factor in the last election in fact in the last election two thousand and six when my our democratic colleagues promising to do better achieved a majority in both houses of congress polling data showed that the american people felt that the democratic party's proposals and be better able to confront this deficit problem we were facing than republicans and so it was a factor i think in the last election i would note that out of the last several years substantial progress was made about the deficit and we don't need to be too negative here the deficit fell from four hundred thirteen billion in two thousand  hundred sixty two billion last year that's more than half well more than half we reduced it and africa lee was very very hopeful that we we could just first the congress voted fall one hundred seventy billion dollars stimulus package to send them a body checks and other things one hundred and seventy billion dollars last year deficit was just just one hundred sixty two billion this year we added on top of all of our spending another one hundred seventy billion dollars single dollar the one hundred seventy billion dollars proposed is paid for by more debt it's borrowing it's going to be a debt that we will carry and our grandchildren will carry frankly and we'll pay interest on so this year's budget is going to look bad and go debate difficult because we've got another hundred and seventy billion dollars and that is more than debt of all last year secondly we still have very considerable expenses around the war on terrorism and that that hit but that was included in than i like to see them taxed and we tax upper income people with even higher marginal tax rates down we are taxed lower income persons and when the economy doing well and somebody should do a better study about this i think than has been done today when the economy is doing well upper income people tend to do very well and so their business is maybe they own tin of twelve this or that outlets in some city and and in the economy is booming and the c e o comes home and owner any makes three hundred thousand dollars a year and he pays a thirty five percent of that marginal rate income tax to the federal government now the economy slow down instead of making three hundred thousand he makes hundred in hundred thousand looks like a lot of money of it certainly won't benefit the u s treasury nearly as much because the marginal rate will be lower than thirty five percent you'll only be banging on one hundred thousand dollars so i just say we've created a tax system that's tied itself to growing economy and we're not in a growing economy this year looks like the economy is going to slow down and can and this is troubling so we can't hurt jack the same level of revenue the united states government that we had the last several years which had been surging it was thirteen percent levon percent ten percent the last three years in growth so we are facing a difficult issue  doing said these things last year this is the chairman of the budget committee so for those of us who are concerned about spending sign me up on sixty minutes we need to be tough on spending quote i think most of it is going to have to be on the spending side of the equation given the magnitude of the baby boom generation close quote i think we should of spending close quote well those were some promises that were made last year they've also promised and made a big to do about the tax gap now the tax gap was simply this well we don't want to promote in our first budget last year there was the first democratic budget tax increases so what we'll do is we'll use aside same current tax right and what we will do is just collect more and get those people that are cheating and we had reports from  that was not going to work and we had experienced senators like senator grassley the chairman of the finance committee said that's not going to work senator gregg fall much  budget committee and now ranking republican on that committee said it's not going to work all but they used that say when the budget was passed this extra income day projected would be received into the treasury as a result of in hands in force but by the hour as that that's going to help them's allow them to spend more money and not increase the debt ok that's the debate we had last year when we passed a budget a commitment that they would and raise more money back electing from those who are not paying as much as they're supposed to pay  fifty one forty nine organized with a democratic majority here and we passed a budget act a number of years ago because we couldn't pass budgets because of filibusters to eliminate the filibusters and you majority in the senate ought to be able to pass a budget it out also is a document that says something about the priorities and the direction that the majority wants to see the country go how they're going to get there it's a very important finding doc year when we passed the budget but they insisted that they would come out as it is in history now will tell us what happened looking back it's clear even in a period of good economic growth last year  the promises that were my were not kept they told us that they would cut the existing spending and reduce the right of increase in spending a year last year  the majority attempted to add twenty three billion dollars to president bush's discretionary spending request which already reflected a sixty billion dollars increase of president bush is budget all war supplementals excludes ohs entitlement programs and he proposed sixty billion dollars in increases in our colleague passed a budget in the senate that was a twenty three billion dollars increase above that so contrary to cutting spending i would suggest mark colleagues didn't fulfill their promises but actually proposed a budget that was  increased spending fifty percent more almost thirty forty percent plus more than president bush proposed over that five out over a five year period that budget would have hiked non defense discretionary spending by two hundred five billion dollars but we did have somewhat of a battle last year and as the trade omnibus bill came through at the end of the year that monstrosity president bush threatened to veto and he forced a two percent across the board reduction in spending and republicans in the congress backed him up on that veto threat and that was achieved at the end and it appeared that we had a spending program that was more can the president bush's sixty billion dollars increase and then to an eighty three billion dollar as proposed by my democratic colleagues but it wasn't all that good frankly because as has been the case for decades there are other  options to get around your budget gimmicks and in devices bob using the emergency spending that designation last year the majority party was able to spend an additional twenty four billion dollars anyway making it an emergency you say if you have a budget and you agree to commit to that budget and you propose legislation that goes above that budget is subject to a sixty point of water and you have to have sixty votes at least before you can spend it but if you can get enough votes you can get sixty votes you can just declare something an emergency and you can put the money in the emergency spending with sixty votes and it doesn't chant against the budget you see a card you declared emergency so that's on top of the deficit budget that we have now also there were great promises that any new spending programs would be offset how do you offset a new spending program you can cut spending somewhere else or you can increase taxes that's why they do it so they have often and that's the pay go rule that has been so much ballyhooed here by our college hope my colleague will just think about this i don't take no pleasure in this i've seen republicans do this too but this is a really a blatant spending over five years about thirty five billion dollars but in in the calendar the fiscal year two thousand and thirteen that budget that spending level was decreased by eighty five percent now i ask you why why would you increase dramatically this funding for this ast year program and then in the out year twenty third dange slash it by eighty five percent you know the reason they score the cost of it over five years so for four years would have a dramatic increase and the fifth year they projected a dramatic eighty five percent reduction and the question is why would that why was that done so it would fit within the skull or the five years ago or what is really going to happen does anybody in this senate think that in two thousand and thirteen we're going to cut the children's insurance program by eighty five percent of course not this is a gimmick say it was a gimmick to make it fit within the budget to appear not to be in violation of the budget when in fact we know you couldn't possibly reduce that program by not only does the pay go program failed to control spending it will put us on an almost guaranteed path to large tax increases  under the democratic budget passed last year any existing tax cut level any existing tax  right is considered a tax cut so to extend the dividends extend the capital gains extend the lower right for lower income workers amounts to under their definition tax cut it takes sixty votes under this pay go rules to pass a tax cut president clinton said he opposes these tax cuts that president bush had and i think that represents the majority view of my colleagues so we're looking at a period of time that we could see the additional increase in taxes and to keep them at the current right they will score it as a  cut and usually the pay for this definition by reducing spending are increasing taxes somewhere else and we're not going to reduce spending because we've already seen that the majority party has about the budget that is spending more than proud that bush proposed and he proposed an increase in  it goes up at a certain right but i say if you extend the current tax right that's a tax increase a tax cut they provide an incentive and and now with regard to the tax gap and it would be pretty humorous frankly if it weren't so serious their proposals on this tax yeah this idea that they are going to raise more taxes by having the i r s increase collections was one of the wow this political cameras that this senate seen in quite a number of years as i indicated budget on the assumption the money would come in and it was going to write these three hundred billion dollars over five years just enhance collections so we are soon to that we're going enhance tax collections about three hundred billion dollars over the next five years last year when we passed a democratic budget but what we see now is the best estimate we have is by the average of closing the tax yaps is not going to raise three hundred billion dollars it will raise two hundred million dollars over five years forty million dollars a year hardly enough to impact the overall deficit situation we're in at all and the house has passed legislation that actually is going to widen the tax gap unfortunately  recently while our colleagues promised to enact a middle class tax relief but that has been not been done they are men no action to extend the marriage penalty tax  rates we have the day that one thousand dollars per child tax credit that we have the ten percent tax break for it the ten percent tax bracket for low income workers or any can a state tax reform so we've had that talk but we haven't passed it and we're heading to the point where we're going to be a pay go deal to even extend these current rights they're going to score that as a tax increase and demand the know where we going to get the money for so the capital gains reduction that virtually every our economy agrees resulted in increased revenues to the government from capital gains taxes go back to your marginal rate of for many people over thirty percent and does anybody think that that's going to help the stock market to increase double the rate for  taxes if you have to pay so the best course we have is that we're heading toward a nine hundred billion dollars tax increase that will impact directly and everybody indirectly one hundred sixteen million tax payers and what about entitlements i'm the majority party talked about doing something about entitlements senator conrad i believe truly believes we should do something about it he's worked hard at it but he has never gotten the support on his side of the aisle to ever make a dent in it we've got to think about entitlement spending we are at this point in time in title  spending so security medicare medicaid exceeds the exceeds half of our budget half of what we spend and that number is growing some have it up to one hundred percent and a number of decades unless something were to change in the least president bush consistently has offered programs to improve and contain the growth in these programs they talk about it saw security reform and he was the door was slammed shut my colleagues when they even discussed it he's talked about medicare medicaid nobody would talk about that last year it was absolutely not a part of last year's budget and so i think this is increases annually in medicare medicaid why don't we think we can't wait begin to reduce that growth right and bring it more close to the inflation right to three percent and maybe four percent in two thousand and six and the years before was we weren't passing our appropriation bills on time they had too much pork in them stuff was put in in the dead of night and you didn't have a chance to read it and do anything about it that was valid criticism of the republican majority what happened this past year after our colleagues won the majority claiming they were going to do better did i do better well we have thirteen twelve appropriation bills each year we should enact each one of them individually they should be brought up on the floor they should be an opportunity to offer amendments and they should be voted up or down right now that's not the way it goes we had this past year of the largest omnibus bill in over twenty years the majority sent us near christmas a sixteen hundred page on the most package that combined into one bill allowed one of the twelve appropriations bills and his feet hit this floor there was no time to read it we didn't know what kind of pork up policy had been added to it and we were challenged to vote for are not and it was five hundred fifty five billion dollars that's worse than we've had in terms of an omnibus package in over twenty years and frankly the majority leader's and that's senator reid  october first it's our responsibility to have a the appropriations avails passed before the beginning of the fiscal year october first because he's throwing in the towel before we even get there and frankly as an aside i really truly believe that we will do much better if we went to a two year budgeting in two year appropriations like over half the states have i think that would help us in this process because this happens every year and it's getting worse it seems every year so we'll soon have the new budget resolution it'll hit the committee next week i'm a member of that committee and i'm interested to see but it was a failed and unhealthy budget last year that was moved forward by how democratic colleagues i'm afraid this one is not going to be much better noticed that democratic presidential candidates by just telling the american people and my colleagues next week will be again a defining process next we a majority party will offer a budget and of the budget rules with fifty one votes they're able to pass this budget and the democratic majority has fifty one votes so they can pass the budget they want but we need a zen i'm in it because it will tell us and america what their priorities are what their commitment is how willing are they do sacrifice to make sure we have fiscal responsibility in this country and based on last year's budget i'm afraid is not going to be any better and based on the fact senator aide says he doesn't expect we will finish the appropriations process until after november elections i don't sense any commitment to do better than the republicans did when they had the majority any and certainly this year their performance was worse and i would expect this past year their performance was worse and it doesn't look like it's going to be any better in the future well thank the chair for this opportunity to share my concerns and i hope that we can be about these matters because a majority party knows it has a very serious responsibility when it cements a budget we knew it when we had the majority and i sat on the budget committee and we know senator conrad and his colleagues know they have that responsibility they also know they have the votes to pass it and so therefore they can be no excuses there's no way to hide are you going to do anything about entitlements are you going to create a mechanism that guarantees tax increases and are you going to submit a budget and that projects a large bending increases and filled with gimmicks to had even goal number one should be figuring out their plans what are their tactics what are their targets how do we do this we use our technological advances and vantages to get this information that's what the five the modern and modernization bill allows us to do the congress has been working on five on modernization since april two thousand and seven over three hundred days ago but i guess three hundred days is not enough time for a bill of this magnitude right but wait the constitution the united states was written in only about one hundred fifteen days and that included travel time on horseback for the founding fathers so the entire constitution of the united states was written in one third of the time we spent on five of modernization the most important bill in this whole two year congress and maybe one of the most important bills in history congress has plenty of time has had plenty of time t given that the executive strategy in this instance is paramount the next president's decisions whoever that may be will be critical like many people have watched many of the presidential debates and one thing amazes me out of at least thirty two presidential debates and forums the candidates have yet to receive one question on pfizer the most important piece of legislation certainly in the last number of years but certainly in this congress not one question on the foreign intelligence surveillance act and what we're trying to do here so here we are continuing to talk about the most important bill in the entire one hundred tenth congress which is apparently not important enough to come up during over fifty hours of discussion with our next commander in chief but i did hear an interesting comment during the most recent debate a decision to utilize military strikes to kill al qaeda terrorists in pakistan with the same inglese supported and that's the irony of the situation it's ok if we kill terrorists overseas with missiles but we can't listen to the phone calls of new terrorists without demonstrating quote probable cause and gloat but we have to ask what probable cause is and why it exists at all that will tell us to whom it belongs probable cause is a check on government power rooted in the due process guaranteed by the constitution who may claim such due process protection under the constitution of the united states under the united states constitution that is united states citizens not foreign citizens overseas we're constantly hearing from leadership in congress about the need to quote bring people together unquote yet at every turn they seem to be willing to set aside bipartisanship if favor of the preferred policies in favor of preferred policies of extreme political organizations if democrats really want to change the tone in washington they are going to have to at some point say no to the more radical elements of their base with the current stalemate on fizer modernization legislation we've seen both political parties blaming each other for the delay we've heard notions that we are not in any danger due to the lapse of the protect america act while our opinions on this issue will remain in better disagreement the solution to these problems is not quite easy in fact it should take about fifteen minutes to solve this problem here's the answer it's just four words let the  that's it it doesn't take a genius to come up with a solution all of it is fierce will go away in the bipartisan majority the house will approve the bell if given the chance to do so is this a novel concept the house of representatives have been voting on bills and seven hundred eighty nine over two hundred nineteen years ago when we ever be in a situation as complicated as this again where the solution to every problem is allowing our elected officials to vote back on december seventeenth on this very floor ask one of my delicate democratic colleagues if he agreed with me that should the five the bill pass it would be one of the best examples of bipartisanship in the whole one hundred tenth congress maybe in the whole history of this body he agreed with this notion and months later this worthy goal came to fruition in the senate as well know the senate approved the fivesome modernization bill by a super majority a super bipartisan majority veto proof margin senators from both sides of the aisle and gauged and lengthy and informative debate and came together to pass a bill that met the goals of modernizing phys ed this rare demonstration of unity came to a crashing halt on february fourteenth rather than allow a bipartisan majority of the house to vote and pass this bill to vote on and pass this bill the house leadership refused to allow a vote on this bill the house senate's last legislative day before their week long recess period debating and voting on a contempt resolution to further a partisan fishing act the expedition that has led to no credible evidence of wrongdoing house democrats have been sitting on these resolutions since july for over two hundred and one days as of that day yet they determined that they were so important that they superseded the needs of our intelligence community and the needs of protecting the american public so a bipartisan majority of the house was ready and eager to vote on this bill and was prohibited from voting on this bill while numerous lawmakers stated that they would stay in washington including me for as long as it took to get this bill passed the leadership from this house from the house that this body forced them to go on vacation so they were prohibited from voting on a bipartisan bill to protect our country but were mandated to take a recess period you want to stay and vote on this bill too bad we would rather you take some time off go back to your districts take it take a break don't worry about our intelligence community they have all the tools they need that's what the house members heard that's what the media seems to have spread and friends have printed from time to time these representatives did not need to be patronized they needed to be given a chance to vote the attorney general the chief law enforcement official of the united states and the director of national intelligence the person response who is responsible for our intelligence in this country saying that the lapse of protect america act caused us to previously mis information these officials have more institutional knob knowledge on this topic than anyone in either body and they dispute the notions that quote the intelligence community has everything it needs unquote with all due respect to all of us who serve as politicians i'm going to trust in the would but we can have that heaven forbid democracy is free it would be free to run its course so rather than vote on this bill we're hearing that the house leadership wants the conference this bill conferences a resolving disagreements between chambers but remember a bipartisan majority from both chambers have no disagreements on this bill there are no disagreements to resolve the two in the majority in the senate and the house  conference is an entirely inappropriate in this situation i've also heard an argument that the house needs more time to review the immunity provision the immunity that would protect these companies that patriotically cooperated with us in collecting the information that is protected american citizens who are now sued in forty different lawsuits for hundreds of billions of dollars i want to make sure everyone is perfectly aware of the immunity provision and has been publicly available and completely and over it for thirty one hundred thirty three days it has not been hidden it's been available to everyone in congress and it's been available to the world on the website of the senate intelligence committee it only takes about three minutes to read it it should not take one hundred thirty three days to analyze while putting our american public at risk i'm also amazed at the false descriptions floating around around about the terrorist surveillance program the t s p which is the program the president described in december seventeenth under center seventeenth two thousand and five during the radio address we've all heard the terms were in this wiretapping mastic spying or eavesdropping bill the list goes on but let's look at what the president actually said during his radio address on december seventeenth two thousand five quote in the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation i authorized the national security agency consistent with u s law and the constitution to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al and related terrorist organizations before we intercept these communications the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks unquote i don't see anything in this statement about domestic spying i thought the devotee definition of the word quote domestic unquote was pretty clear if the program intercepted communications in which at least one party was overseas not to mention a member of  then it seems fairly obvious that the calls were not domestic look at this charge is this such a hard concept to grasp last time i flew overseas i didn't fly on a domestic flight i flew on an international flight and there's a big difference between domestic calls and international calls my last phone bill sure showed a big difference in the price between the two is that a domestic call when a foreign terrorist call somebody  country or when our country somebody in our country involved in terrorism calls of terrorists in a foreign country hardly quote domestic spying unquote may sound catchy  mysterious but it's a completely inaccurate way to describe the terrorist surveillance program or the pfizer modernization bill why don't we describe them as we should international spying isn't that a more accurate description i guess accurate descriptions take a backseat to terms which inside fear and distrust in our government but what about quote warrantless wiretapping unquote doesn't this sound like a bad thing perhaps we should raise the fourth amendment to the constitution you notice that not all searches require a warrant every member of the public who is up in the gallery watching us today and throughout this country watching this this session went through a warrantless search well at least up in the gallery went through a warrantless search to get into this building every time an american comes into the united states at the border they go through a highly intrusive warrantless search every time  american gets on a plane they go through a warrantless search every time an american goes to see a rally or speech from the president of states that's exercising their own first amendment rights they in many cases have to go through a warrantless search and a good reason for it remember foreign citizens overseas receive no protection from the fourth amendment so called warrantless wiretapping unquote in this instance is perfectly constitutional and addition let's look at what the foreign intelligence surveillance court the highest court to look into this issue previously said in a two thousand and two case this was the true one case it's in three ten f s third seven  authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information we take for granted that the president does have that authority and assuming that is so buys that cannot encroach on the president's constitutional power and coat unquote that's one of the few formal cases out of the five accord that given the staggering amount of misinformation in the public how many people have incorrectly stated that the government can listen to all all of their phone calls read all of their e mails fired american families overseas even spy on our own military members overseas how many of these false representations have been made by our colleagues and by others these accusations are completely false are meant to incite fear of nonpolitical intelligence analysts who serve regardless of who the who the president is or who is or is not the president isn't this really fear mongering terrorists killed three thousand americans on september eleventh and killed hundreds of other people in madrid london bali kenya they have sworn to kill more they have said that quote the streets of america shall run red with blood casualties will be too many to count and the next wave of attacks may come at any moment unquote they recently called for the parent present of the these terrorists recently called for the present united states to be quote received  with roses and applause but with bombs and booby traps unquote during a recent presidential trip overseas so they wish death on all americans except their own terrorists and threaten the  who may be in our country and they threaten assassination of the president the united states and yet if we acknowledge their threats if we try to prepare for these attacks we are accused of politics of fear but there is no problem when numerous individuals completely lie about how our government protects our country nobody is calling these tactics quote fear mongering unquote so it's perfectly acceptable to question the integrity of thousands of americans who have taken an oath to defend the constitution the united states and who have dedicated their lives to preventing our great nation from suffering these terrorist attacks i'm sorry to break it to people but aren't intelligence analysts have more important things to do then look at someone's transactions and listen to phone calls from the jones family and their family vacation in italy i guess i shouldn't be surprised by these conspiracy theories given the vocal lunacy expanded by people who think the september eleventh attacks were and the quote inside job unquote and we have those in our midst too not in the senate thank goodness at least not that i know of the five the modernization bill should be the best example of how meaningful legislation becomes inactive this bill passed by a veto proof majority in the senate it came out of the senate select committee on intelligence of which i served a tainted two or should be thirteen to two it's bipartisan it is supported by the intelligence community community and it has the support of the executive branch isn't this about as good as it gets when a bill has support from all of these elements there is really no excuse for it being held up the house leadership has indicated that it intends to unveil a quote compromise unquote buys the bill apparently house democrats are using an unconventional definition of the word quote compromise unquote what they call the se into the program why not the n s a the national security agency to look at these programs went down to the white house seven of us to be read into the programs down there what they call the senate bill no one not the administration or anyone in the senate got everything they wanted with the senate bill it is a compromise is that everything i want to know are there things in there i wish we didn't put in there yes but it is a compromise  alcides had to make concessions before a final solution was rage thirteen to do and the committee bipartisan sixty eight or whatever in the senate bipartisan that madam president is precisely what the compromise is all about i simply don't follow the logic of rejecting a bipartisan result which is what we already have in favor of a more partisan solution and calling it a quote compromise unquote i can only assume that when house democrats say quote compromise unquote they really mean something else capitulate i'm talking about those who are not supportive of the bill mr and who have delayed this bill who have put this country at risk as we all know we can still do what was done up till and that may not even be true but let's assume it's true that we can still do what was done up to the demise of this bill and the ending of this bill but we cannot get the further information that we have to have this time on without that bill or without the president taking back his right to have warrantless surveillance which i think he has well mr president madam president i don't intend to capitulate on this issue and i have the representatives in the house who share my view will weigh in with the house leadership and other democrats who have been holding this up to the detriment of the citizens of the united states of america i've been to this floor countless times and discussed by some modernization and i will continue to do so i will continue to fight for this cause because it's right thing to do and especially since so many of us in both parties have come together to support the senate bill in and which supported in the house if the chance doing our work here in the senate we should be working toward the legitimate bipartisan agreements on the issues that matter most to americans that is what our constituents send asserted to of course in an election year particularly a presidential election year we unfortunately slide into a silly very little gets done instead of listening to each other and trying to come up with common sense solutions there is a temptation to use the senate as an arena to make one's opponents look bad usually the flowers of that silly season did not bloom until the summer president we are still in the month of february we need to be getting the work of the american people done we are in a time of legitimate economic distress there are very different ideas about how to deal with this economic slowdown there is nothing wrong with these various differences of opinion the majority seems to think that the principal way to deal with an economic challenge is to spend money to be clear they think that the answer is to spend taxpayer money and make no mistake if there is not enough taxpayer money to go around the solution to an economic slowdown for the majority is to raise taxes conservatives have a slightly different understanding of what it takes to get the economy running again when the companies that americans work for are loath to invents invest it hurts employees when they don't invest these companies do not create more jobs and when the economy is weak it makes it more difficult for an entrepreneurial american to take the necessary risks and obtain the credit required to start a new business that will employ employ people in his or her community so conservatives think we should do more to encourage business investment capital formation both sides want to do what they can to get the economy humming and most sides think that there are different ways to accomplish this sounds like enough fraternity for compromise to me but i think that some of my colleagues are more interested in an issue than a solution we should not elevate politics above solutions congress needs to come together conservatives believe that their policies will work effectively to help the economy and the families that depend on good jobs and economic grows and we're not asking very much we're simply asking that our ideas be taken seriously and we should be taken seriously even in the most liberal of states members of this body have many conservative constituents is it really too much to ask that those ideas  be given an opportunity to debate and on the senate floor it shouldn't be i'm not sure heard that the majority is interested in that debate twice this week the senate minority voted to proceed to bills offered by the majority leader and my colleague from wisconsin senator feingold the after after voting to proceed to those bills we were accused of blocking debate on the bills we helped to bring to the floor now that really is a classic the majority cast twenty one votes against proceeding to a bill the majority leader himself wanted to proceed to debate the minority cast the votes to allow that debate and then the minority stands accused of delay a similar pattern has occurred with the housing bill the majority rushed a bill to the floor they bypassed the relevant committees they have bypassed the regular order in their haste they made a small mistake with the legislation well maybe it was not that small majority intended to spend two billion dollars on counseling for distressed homeowners they have actually made this a two hundred billion dollar approach to legislating we could have had a consensus instead a majority never consulted with a minority as this bill was being put together in our view we have a much better plan it includes titles that would address taxes capital markets housing and tort reform we would keep taxes low we would extend the two thousand and one and two thousand and three tax cuts preventing a looming tax hike the highest in history by the way and making sure that working families did not get socked with thousands of dollars in extra taxes when these tax cuts inspire in two thousand and ten we would increase the value of homes and prevent an unfair tax on their sales we would have to keep jobs at home by encouraging job creation we would help for and prevent foreclosures five providing credit stability we would maintain the value and security of neighborhoods by encouraging the speedy sale and renovation of foreclosed homes and we would protect small businesses from the threat of excessive and frivolous lawsuits and let me tell you when i talk to businesses businesses that are subject to incessant litigation tort reform is the top of their list of things that we should do it hurts companies large and small and we need to do something about it i think if we had been invited to the table to discuss this bill had it been a party to the head and we had been a party to the negotiation or even been allowed to offer amendments we could have worked something out on this bill we could have found on the ground common  bipartisan i know that's what the american people want we've been hearing a lot of a common ground these days whenever i turn on the television i hear someone telling us about the need to change our ways in washington i hear about the need to bring people together we certainly have our opportunities that's what this body's all about i suppose except it doesn't seem to be working here but i feel that these opportunities are being miss president we do not need to be consumed we do not have to be consumed by partisanship in two thousand and five and two thousand and six congress accomplished a number of very serious policy reforms we passed a bankruptcy reform class action reform energy and highway bills casket and other trade bills and the most significant reforms of our pension laws in over thirty years and those bills not only became law because of d negotiation and compromise where both sides had an opportunity to weigh in through amendments regular order and serious debate the senate was able to pass consensus bipartisan telling us they're going to bring up a bill and we might allow you to bring up an amendment if we agree with the amendment or if we know we've got the votes against it come on this is the stuff of the mediocre  madam president leadership demands a willingness to listen to both sides it requires compromise and openness to other ideas and people who deserve to be heard in this body the american people made their position clear they're tired of business as usual in the coming months i hope to work with the majority on the issues of importance to the american people i think i'm known as the one who helps bring both sides together on a wide variety of bills over the years the thirty the minority is going to live with that very long and how does that add up to consensus or bipartisanship or getting together so this last week has not been very promising nonetheless my hope is that congress will be able to accomplish important reforms for the american people even in this very volatile and very partisan election year madam president i on energy today and went yesterday and can a consent request the speeches be put together possible and this is part of the speech and i made today i didn't get it finished on the subject add a few more thoughts to my previous remarks on energy i spoke yesterday of the recent energy bills that congress has passed and the growing cost of our dependence on foreign oil this morning i urge my colleagues to reach agreement on a comprehensive energy policy that uses our own resources to meet our energy needs knowing full well that what i recommended and suggested are all difficult because there are political differences i that we set them aside understanding that there is too much at stake for the american people for us to let pass let these pass but without getting together and seeing that we do them all the issues we have to consider in this congress some may wonder why i a poke a star energy three times in the past two days the answer is simple it is february the twenty ninth oil is selling for nearly one hundred and two dollars a barrel and gas prices are up twenty cents in the past two weeks alone the start of summer driving is still three months away but consumers are already being squeezed by a near record energy prices more than that they should be a story we talk about on both good and bad times because our dependence is growing great and it is not matched by our policy we must rethink our policies to match the modern challenges we face as i and cade our nation has a great quantity of oil locked up off our coasts the needs are permafrost and within our sha these areas these areas can provide a stable supply of energy as we transition to alternative fuels but boy is not the only resource that can be developed at home and depended upon to meet our energy needs we are fortunate to have vast reserves of coal some two hundred seventy billion recoverable tons which would last for two hundred forty years at their current rate of consumption that at coal can be turned into fuel that help meet our transportation manufacturing and electrical power at the same coal that i just spoke  can do that because of the emissions that result when coal is converted to energy we will need cleaner methods to ensure the protection of our environment to maybe this is an opportunity our nation has a proud heritage of innovation and there's no reason to believe that strong word that record will not continue in the future as our most abundant and affordable fossil resource we cannot simply cross coal off the list and the serious efforts to strengthen our energy must include cold one of our best prospects is to advance the development of coal to liquid fuels as an alternative to oil coal to liquid fuels may have merit it will reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide nitric oxide articulate matter and other pollutants when compared to conventional fuels coal to liquid fuels have been commercially demonstrated in other countries can be moved through existing pipelines and can be using existing vehicles commercialization of this resource will create investment in rural communities thousands of good paying jobs and cheaper energy for american consumers despite this boateng chill two amendments to advance this type of fuel were defeated on party line votes in the most recent energy debate i put them in this speech and offer them again because maybe the price of oil which i just told you on the twenty ninth day of the month has now reached to gone up twenty cents in the last two weeks maybe that kind of a problem will cause a change of mind with reference to coal to liquid future generations of automobiles will be powered by advanced battery the government should redouble its efforts to ensure that that research development and deployment of these technologies reliable and rechargeable batteries will be critical to the zoo cess of hybrid vehicles which hold her mendis promise for reducing the amount of oil consumed in the transportation sector the policy i've spoken to these past days are just a few of the options available to us we should also increase the number of flex fuel vehicles on the road and the number of stations that offer blended fuels we should offer incentives to existing refineries and encourage the expedited construction of new ones to reduce the amount of gasoline we import we continue to lament that i refinance capacity is improved all existing site at existing sites we have not built a new refinery in thirty years again these are just samples of the policy options available to congress as we seek to chart a more responsible path forward as a member of the senate energy committee for an nearly thirty of my thirty six years in the senate and a chair or ranking member for much of the past decade i obviously has strong views on energy policies that will but the ones that will best serve our nation but i also recognize that we must work together to find common ground we did this in part on energy policy and we could do it again because of dependence on foreign oil are enormous and increasing the consequence of removing money from mine economy and sending it to too often volatile or oil producing nations are becoming clear hugh positives will ever be drawn from this arrangement when we import oil we export our jobs export our well we strengthen regimes that are intent on undermining our interests opposed to the spread of democracy in unwilling to extend some of the most basic freedoms to their people when we import oil we threaten our national security and our economic strength as we look ahead we must remember that for today and the foreseeable future we we should put out of our american energy resources to use this is it my final year in the united states senate it's a privilege and an honor to serve the people of new mexico in this country but it's not just the end of my time in the senate that approaches the time to reduce our growing dependence on foreign oil is also upon us it is my sincere hope that we will use this year and the future to work together on policies that will move us toward our energy security goals this will require us to set aside our differences and make decisions at together it will require us to come to the table with open minds and some positive intentions it is in  q defined by bitter partisanship but this so this won't be easy but given the stakes our national security our economic rank our standing in the world that's exactly what we must do  my friend the distinguished senior senator of new mexico he has been a great senator and i have worked together on issues that only we know about because of the sensitive nature of what we did dealing with the nuclear stockpile we have as the chairman and ranking member of the energy water subcommittee on appropriations we worked for years as chairman ranking member whatever our of the majority in the senate was and i think we've done a good job so that our nuclear stockpile is safe and reliable i just hope that those who follow us recognize how sensitive important this is and also on other issues with our great national laboratories two of which are located new mexico i think the senator and i have done some really good work to protect basic science which so much of it comes from these laboratories and of course and livermore in california and we've done some of the great experimental work at the nevada test site so i will personally i look forward to working with this wonderful senator for the next ten months but also we'll miss him a lot and i hope that we are able to pick up another vote and we will have one soon on allowing this country to go to more alternative energy we missed by one the ability to do that there was some concern about what some of the offsets were so i hope my friend with all the persuasive powers that he has my colleagues on the other side of aisle work to see what we can do to come up with that vote even though i am not a big fan of coal i understand the longtime work this man has done trying to develop some other way of lessening our dependence on foreign oil sol in short i express my friendship appreciation to the senator from new mexico and look forward to the next ten months and hopefully in the next few weeks working something else who can get long term tax credits for a new a by energy which will work in new mexico and nevada we have great natural resources there which are not being used because of the inability of the financial world to invest because they need the incentives for long term tax credits to do that i don't matter present i'm going to now move to another subject and that is the foreign intelligence surveillance act democrats and republicans are united in our resolve to fight terrorism democrats no less republicans want to provide our intelligence professionals with the tools they need while protecting the privacy of law abiding americans both the house and the senate passed bills to strengthen the  seventy eight faisel was born intelligence surveillance act house passed its bill in november we passed our bill a couple of weeks ago since senate passes the chairman of the senate  have been working very hard to resolve differences between the two bills democratic staff have been meeting and exchanging ideas and propose language but i'm sorry to say the republicans and instructed their staff not to participate in these negotiations yesterday the president held yet another of his increasingly belligerent news conferences demanding that the house of reps and has passed the senate's faisel bill he doesn't want to negotiate he doesn't want any negotiations between the house and senate and he's  such he simply wants the house to bend to his will to pass the bill that he favors that changing a single word present so there's a majority in the house the senate bill that may or may not be true but what we do know for a fact is that there was a majority in the house the bill they passed last november that's why we need negotiation we would much prefer to be negotiating on a bipartisan basis not just being done with democrats a new face a law that nation for some hopeful signs that we can do this may be possible yesterday house and senate members finally from both sides of the aisle had a productive meeting with the general counsel to the director of national intelligence i urge president bush to engage in a more constructive manner in this effort to pass a new face of bill and to allow and encourage bipartisan negotiation as we move forward there's no reason not to extend the patriot act to ensure there are no gaps in our intelligence gathering capabilities even admiral mcconnell the director of national intelligence has testified to such an extension would be valuable but the present threatens to veto an extension and our republican colleagues continue  present ask us to extend it he's a reason we haven't extended our president so i urge the president withdraws opposition i will now ask consent to take up and pass s two six explore a bill that extend the patriot eight three s two six explore which is a thirty day extension the protect america act for the bill read third time passed most we consider to be laid on the table and there be no enervating action or debate is there objection injections heard part of president while democrats and republicans joined last month to pass the economic stimulus package we agreed that was an important first step in addressing our country's economic challenges agreed that was only a first step that we must do more to help america all americans are struggling madam president we we must do more to help americans struggling to meet can't make ends meet yesterday democrats tried to take that next step we brought to the floor a genuine effort to help families and neighborhoods whether the growing housing crisis the republicans in the senate block our legislation to help struggling american families just as they've done time and again another important legislation why did they choose obstruction or american families at risk to lose their homes several more alexander my friend from tennessee and us few others said here on the floor that all republicans wanted was an opportunity offer amendments anyone following this debate would know that my republican colleagues was given some very bad information or that his or their staff watch none of the floor deliberation on this issue i have said numerous times both publicly and privately that both sides want to offer amendments that's democrats and republicans and both sides should have that opportunity i've said that privately to the republican leader and publicly here on the floor and in many press events i told him fax in a mcconnell more than a week ago that we intended to allow both democrats and republicans to offer amendments i've made that commitment several times on this issue on the floor my words are available for anyone to review in the congressional record there's only one reason why republicans were not able to offer amendments they refused to let us move procedurally to the legislative posture where amendments could be offered madam president we have here before us the republican filibusters you'll note that we keep changing the number because they keep coming seventy two republican filibusters seventy two last year in less than one year the republican minority broke all records for a two year congress in the number of filibusters and we have another on the housing stimulus package republicans decision to deny the ability to even take up this bill to pry both sides opting to offer a single amendment as i said yesterday why would you stop us from going to the bill i said you can offer amendments if you don't like what happens you still have forty nine it only takes forty one of the to stop us from doing anything why would you stop us this stopping so we want to slow things down that's the whole purpose they do not want this minority to allow us to do anything i guess the directions come directly from bush and cheney my colleagues talk on and talk all they want to about amendments but the record the trays the rhetoric yesterday's republican press conference that was before the a lot better present the republican held a press conference saying what they thought should be done with the housing problem now listen to this as report and in the new york times and other places here is their solution according to a public press conference they held before the vote yesterday to stop us from going forward here's what they want to do tort reform now that's going to really help the housing crisis tort reform and the other thing they want to do is lower taxes now that is so bush cheney that we look and we find that's why we're in the trouble we're in today when the president took office there was a surplus over the next ten years of seven trillion dollars that is gone as indicated by nobel prize winning economist stiglitz yesterday he says that the war has and will cost us three trillion dollars so instead of standing on the side of struggling families and our risk homeowners republicans in the senate once again chose the side of bush and cheney big banks and big business republicans want us to continue to help those who contributed the foreclosure debacle in the first place yesterdays prevention of our going forward to legislate was a victory for the people that are causing all the trouble to begin with and who are the losers middle class america the people trying to stay in a home republican all turn to our housing plan i report calls for the it's almost laughable madam president the presiding officer is a lawyer she's been to court a few times prosecuted people knows what's going on in the civil side and their solution to the housing crisis is tort reform how can how they say that with a straight face and that's not me read about it in today's press and more tax cuts neither has anything to do with the housing crisis the republican housing plan consists of tired programs from of dusty bush cheney playbook torture evolved from and bush tax policy neither have anything to do with housing the housing plan democrats propose offers real solutions of the crisis that families and neighborhoods are facing all across the country i did a had another con conversation with the chairman of the banking committee one of the more senior members of this if your counterpart dick shelby wants to work out anything on this stimulus housing crisis let's work it out the housing plan democrats propose offer real solutions the crisis that families and neighborhoods are facing all across america missouri nevada new mexico all over our plan helps families keep their homes by increasing pre foreclosure counseling funds our plan expands refinancing options for homeowners stuck in bad loans our program funds the high needed communities purchased rehabilitate foreclosed properties and madam president this is a proposal that the president talked about in his state of the union message which is blah yes so you try that one on we try to get this in our previous stimulus package something the president talked about in the state of union address you know i guess from his speech back at the white house someone talked him out of it our legislation helps families avoid foreclosure in the future by improving loan disclosures and transparency during the regional loan refinancing financing process jack reed of rhode island is the one response for this provision of our legislation mens a bankruptcy code to allow home loans on primary residence be modified only in certain circumstances with very strict guidelines now madam president if the republicans of the present don't like that provision offer an amendment to take it out i've said that publicly you don't  it off remember today get out maybe get some democrats to join with you i think it's a pretty good bet but no so i say to my republican colleagues who talk about their desire to help talk is so cheap the americans the american public deserve better than tort reform and extending bush economic policies to handle the foreclosure crisis now facing our country republicans have been able to hold on to the status quo and block us from moving america forward because of our razor thin majority for ten months last year was fifty to forty nine because tim johnson s he's back he's at one hundred percent so the majority now is fifty one to forty nine but that's still pretty narrow but the republicans have been doing everything they can to maintain the status quo in addition to blocking our housing plan we have seventy one other things that they have blocked tax incentives for alternative energy madame something as simple as allowing medicare to negotiate for lower priced drugs they stopped us from doing that better economic stimulus bill for example to provide for the extension of unemployment benefits stops on them and time and time to stop us from moving forward on changing what's going on in iraq our razor thin majority has allowed republicans to block legislation with little effort because remember we need sixty to get anything done but i say to my republican friends through the chair to my friend one of the more senior members of the of the senate my friend from new mexico enjoy it while you can enjoy it while you can the american people are seeing what's going on they're saying how you are maintaining the status quo enjoy it while you can because our majority come november is going to grow so continue to block because it's not going to be there forever it's not going to be there very long neighborhoods and families who are struggling mightily through the housing crisis can't wait until then so i urge my republican colleagues to join us to reconsider support a housing plan that actually addresses housing not tort reform not lowering taxes and eases the suffering of millions of american families productive ten minutes each that jackson i now move proceed to count the number five eighty two s two six six three the consumer products safety reform act i send the cloture motion to the desk clerk o report we the undersigned senators in accordance with provisions a rule twenty two of the standing rules of the senate here by move to bring to a close the debate on the motion to proceed to counter number five eighty two as twenty six sixty three of the consumer product safety commission reform act signed by seventeen center is with and will be happy to try to work something out with them but i repeat more than a week ago we had to cater our willingness to do this all the plaintive cries we've heard generous enough this man deserves far more than that and i hope some day when now in the next few months someone asks me in detail because there should be a historical account of proceed to counter number five eight five s two one four six clear road part counting every five eighty five s twenty one forty so it's a little to authorize the administrator of the environmental protection agency to accept as part of a settlement these all emission reduction i'm speaking on energy and you third coal i want you to know that i have spoken to many other sources of energy do for that but i thought that in recapping what we own that you could not have a you must include coal in that and that's why you saw it there not to not to give it special and emphasis beyond which it's entitle to basically say madam president i would send a man she have been involved in producing huge amounts of money for research into clean coal and i think we should continue that research right now i am totally unsatisfied as to where we are with clean coal technology but we should spend more money because we have great resources maybe someday we mr buckley we've all watched him on t v he has news of words which were not developed in searchlight nevada but he was he had a great knowledge of the english language and was always such a gentleman even though many of the things he said were not in keeping with some of the things i believe and we'll all miss him and i think many of the tributes written to him for example in today's newspaper there was a wonderful piece written by george will that resolution ninety six expressing the sense of the senate that harriet woods will be remembered as a pioneer in women's politics