that the koran called the suspended about jackson and consent speak morning business the senator from illinois recognized this president at this moment in the united states senate we are awaiting a bill that is being written by senator c of connecticut the chairman of the banking committee and senator richard shelby of alabama who is the ranking republican on a committee it's an attempt to come up with a bipartisan bill to deal with the housing crisis in america we hope that this is going to be successful we're anxious for this bill to come to the floor it's needed desperately needed and we felt that at least this effort to work together on a bipartisan basis was really moving right direction just a few feet away from here in front of what we call the ohio clock out in the corridor here senator harry reid who is the democratic majority leader and senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky who represents the republican leadership i had a joint press outing yesterday and announced this this effort in the hopes that we can come up with a bill this is really overdue and it reflects the fact that we've observed over the two weeks of our easter recess that there's been a lot of activity in this country at the executive level when it comes to our economy in the housing crisis well recall that to the head of the federal reserve ben bernanke he came forward and opened what they call the discount window for nine depository banks to try to put that in common words banks across the united states which are regulated and are facing oversight by the federal government have a way of borrowing money from the federal government so that they are solvent continue to do their business but a few years back there was a change in what's known as the glass steagall law which gave non depository banks and other other words banks that  basically investment houses lending opportunities credit opportunities there's been a dramatic increase in this activity and much of that activity from non depository banks has created credit across america but it's also fueled the fires of this sub prime mortgage crisis one of the major institutions bear stearns got into trouble a couple of weeks ago and faced what appeared to be a failure or bankruptcy and the federal government stepped in at that point and put a thirty billion dollars guarantee so that bear stearns would not fail it allowed morgan chase morgan stanley chase to step forward in that circumstance and to back up their sterns at the time bear stearns as an investment house was leveraged dramatically which means that for virtually every dollar assets that they had they had thirty dollars in debt and so there was a fear that if they failed the economy the stock market and the american economy would suffer again this by way of background because this all occurred while we were back out of session and so when we returned the democratic leadership said we have to get into this housing issue from a much more local and a much more personal level if we're going to stand as a nation to back up investment banks if we're going to put the full faith and credit of america to the tune of thirty billion dollars and more behind major institutions so that they don't face the pain and dislocation that might come from their bad decisions the obvious question is what are we going to do for two million americans who are about to lose their homes if america's going to ride to the rescue of investment banks on wall street will it at least provide some shelter some rescue to those who are about to lose their homes on main street i think it should because it isn't just a matter of those poor unfortunate people facing foreclosure a mortgage foreclosure is not an isolated single family event it is just a matter of a family losing their home that last home foreclosed upon sold in your neighborhood brings down the value of your home and so two million americans facing foreclosure has a ripple effect it means that forty four million homeowners who are making their mortgage payments every single month will see the value of their homes decline as i said on the floor yesterday what is the value of my home in springfield illinois if you ask an appraiser they'll say well i'll look around your neighborhood let's see what houses are selling for similar houses and if the values comparable values are going down because there's a foreclosure a distressed sale involved the value of my home is just diminished that happens that will happen to forty four million homeowners across america because of two million mortgage foreclosures and so this has a negative impact on a lot of innocent people and innocent families it isn't just a matter of crossing our arms and saying well those folks made a bad decision they're going to lose their homes as in a darn shame maybe be more careful next time it has an impact on their neighbors on the communities the neighborhoods and it has an impact on consumer confidence over seventy percent of americans today say they will not buy a home not because they can't find financing but because they don't think it's a good investment they don't want to stretch themselves as many of us have in our lives to get into a home for fear that that invest mint of five hundred thousand dollars today may be worth only four hundred fifty thousand dollars a year from now so as a result the housing industry is flat on its back it isn't just developers it isn't just realtors it's home builders it's skilled craftsman it's the suppliers of carpeting and furniture and and all of the things that make a new home they're all hurting because of the housing industry so we returned to washington and said what can we do to stimulate the housing industry that will be positive and we came up with a package to present first counselors who are available to those facing foreclosure to tell them what their options might be to find a way out of this situation second we found tax provisions to help these homebuilders who are facing hard times get through it third we want to change the way people buy homes in america so there's more disclosure and transparency i have i've been a lawyer for a number of years before i came to congress i used to sit through these real estate closings and i would watch as the bank would bring out that stack of papers and plop it on the table in front of the new homeowners and say start signing will turn the pages you sign and they'd stop once in a while and say to the lawyer the banker what is this oh that's a federal farm got to sign it at one of the federal forms just a disclos form it's form two thirty seven off of them by the end of the day few if any homeowners knew what they were signing tech reed of rhode island has my colleague here has a simple provision that we would have a disclosure statement on the top of that stack written in english so that people could understand what's the interest rate how much my borrowing what will a monthly payment be can this interest rate go up because my monthly payment go up can i prepay without a penalty just some basics and i hope we do that there's another provision in here that i think is critically important and has become very controversial i don't understand why it's controversial i can understand why if someone facing bankruptcy once to go into court under what we call chapter eleven and to take a look at all their debts and all their income and restructure their debt so that they can pay back in a reasonable way i don't understand why you can't put your margin on your home in that court proceeding for modification you can't now you're prevented by law under chapter eleven from the court modifying the terms of the mortgage on your home but the court can rewrite the terms of the mortgage on your vacation condo the court can rewrite the terms of your mortgage on your farm the court can rewrite the terms of your mortgage on a ranch the court can rewrite the security instrument that you used to buy that boat that's out in the harbor all of those things can be modified but not your home i've asked why why in god's name would you prohibit the modification of a mortgage on a hold there is no explanation and so the provision i put in the bill said that the court would have that authority it would be required to but they'd have that authority now what's the protection here the lenders want to know if they'll be protected will they end up with a mortgage being rewritten in terms that they don't like and so here is what we put in as protection first you have to qualify to go to bankruptcy court it isn't easy we wrote rewrote the rules for that a few years ago and i don't  change at all in order to get into court it's a question what your income is what your debts are and whether you have a chance of working it out step number one step number two the real estate we're talking about has to be your home and primary residence i'm not interested in helping real estate speculators frankly they may have some advocates here but i'm not one of them i want to make sure we're dealing with home ownership third it only applies to mortgages which are in existence at the time that this bill is an act into law so it doesn't project into the future it's a specific group right now fourth this court this bankruptcy court cannot lower the principal on your mortgage in modifying it lower than the current fair market value of the home there is a protection for the lender you know that the principle can't be pushed down below fair market value i mean  footnote many of these lenders facing foreclosure would be darned lucky to get fair market value of the property if you've ever seen how these homes in foreclosure are sold if they are sold it takes a long time sometimes results in an auction and we're finding in my state of illinois people are not even bidding for fair market value so fair market value is the is the low in protection of the lender next the interest rate that the bankruptcy court can put on the modification cannot be lower than the prime rate on interest plus a premium for risk next the mortgage itself can't be a for term longer than thirty years next if in the five years after the modification in court the value of the home appreciates or goes up that increase in value goes to the lender not to the homeowner to the lender how many more protections can we build into this we have narrowed down the people who would the fly we've tried to do it in a way that is sensible and protect lenders in the process so who would oppose a bill that is that narrow in changing the bankruptcy code i'll tell you the mortgage bankers oppose the same people who brought us the sub prime mortgage crisis are now telling the members of the united states senate we find this unacceptable we don't want the bankruptcy court to have this new authority and what is their argument the sanctity of the contract sanctity when i grew up sayin holiness a sacred quality if you take a look at some of these sub prime mortgages the ones we're talking about i have i've sat down with some of the borrowers in illinois to see what they went through and what they ended up signing up for time and again these were elderly people the ones i have met who ended up signing up for mortgages which made no sense at all misled deceived into signing on to a mortgage they could not sustain personally the elderly lady who'd retired in chicago we saw a number on a television ad called the number in twenty four hours there's a fellow at the door saying you bet we're going to consolidate your debt this poor lady goes into a closing and she had limited education she had retired she was trying to save her home she signed all the papers and in a matter of a year the monthly payment doubled on her home here she is living on social security but the loser home the sanctity of the contract the holiness of the contract this sacred document the mortgage bankers want to honor son's another case this poor lady her husband dying from a serious illness can no longer climb the stairs in his home to get up stairs to the bedroom he's sleeping on the couch in the living room his wife is beside herself they're both retired she sees a nice little one storey bungalow smaller home but one story the bedrooms on the first floor for her husband she goes to buy a so called business advisor says to her all this is your chance to consolidate all your debt in this new mortgage do you know what the charlatan did he took percent loan this lady had from the city of peoria to put insulation in her home and consolidated it into the new mortgage so that she's now paying interest on the  the sanctity of the contract the holiness of the contract this sacred document the markets bankers say we can't touch these things my goodness they have to be protected where were these mortgage bankers three years ago when we wrote rewrote the bankruptcy code when we said that all existing contracts in america that are taken into the bankruptcy court will be treated differently i didn't hear one word about the sanctity of the contract no why because the changes in the bankruptcy code were to their advantage so now on the chance that they may have to keep a family in a home facing foreclosure they are opposing it opposing this change what a real test of the united states senate this will be if we end up letting the markets bakers the people who brought us the sub prime mortgage mess dictate to the senate about changing the bankruptcy code shame on us why in the world if we can stand up for saving and investment banks on wall street can we not stand up to save the homes of millions of people who are about to lose them across america a lot of will never qualify for this assistance in this bill i know it but for some a limited group it's the only way they can keep their homes that's what this debate is all about and i read in the paper this morning that many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said this is a poison pill changing the bankruptcy code invading this saying that t of these contracts is a poison pill we can consider i don't want to be on reason but this i want to up or down vote i want people on record i want senators to stand up and say whether they believe that families facing this kind of foreclosure with communities facing the impact of this foreclosure will have a fighting chance this just isn't my theory and certainly on what we need to do recently newsweek magazine its march thirty first issue asked a lot of prominent people in different walks of life what we should do about the economy in particular the housing crisis i want to quote a few for the record first bob rubin chief of the executive committee of citi group former treasury secretary maybe one of the most successful treasury secretaries in the history of this nation and this is what bob rubin said we should consider higher capital requirement for banks investment banks plus higher margin requirements for other investors putting up more their own money would make people focus on risk but that's a balanced and sensible statement what he's saying is when we get into this whole question about the future of our car me let us understand that there is risk on both sides and let us demand responsibility on both sides carly fiorina now she is an advisor to senator mccain campaign she's chairperson of the republican victory zero eight committee and former c e o of hewlett packard listen to what she says i think the mortgage companies and the banks should step to the plate and say we have put products out there that have harmed our customers either because we didn't explain them well or because we pushed them into homes or markets as they couldn't afford and those lenders need to sit down with their credit worthy but cash strapped customers and say how do we help you she's the adviser to senator mccain's campaign she is a person with a background in business her suggestion is consistent with my change in the bankruptcy code it's exactly what i'm saying some of the others gene sperling an adviser to senator clinton's campaign how can you have a housing led recession and have no housing based remedies he gets to the heart of the housing led recession was the catalyst for our economic problems ignoring it i'm afraid our economy won't get well very soon joseph stiglitz university professor from columbia former chief economist the world bank economic advisor to bill clinton here's what he says there needs to be an immediate write down of mortgages perhaps encourage the homeowners chapter eleven which would allow them to discharge a part of their debt and still stay in their homes that's exactly what this amendment does he goes on to say of course there's something peculiar about what's been going on while the administration has been vetoing any suggestion of a bailout for poor homeowners who've been taken advantage of an age of by predatory lenders there's been a bailout for investment banks the fed has lent money to facilitate j p morgan's takeover a bear stearns and evidently underwritten the risk it is accepted risky mortgages as collateral again putting taxpayers money at risk these bailouts for those responsible for the mess have been done in a totally nontransparent way we really don't know much about the values assigned to the collateral and what the risks are it seems fair to help poorer american households rather than putting taxpayers money at risk without even charging appropriate insurance premiums for bearing this risk is just eclipse hits the nail on the head we are ready with few questions asked to put thirty billion dollars in taxpayers money behind a failing investment bank but when i come to the floor and suggest we ought to try to stand behind a few homeowners across america who stand to lose their homes oh no the mortgage bankers won't hear of it markets l l c among the things he says he quotes a woman i respect very much elizabeth warren a harvard law professor has proposed that the government create a financial product safety commission which would lark work like the consumer product safety commission monitor lending and financial practices how in the world can the senate stop and say that we give tacit approval to the decision of the federal reserve board and the treasury department to put the credit of the united states behind investment banks that we were literally don't know their circumstances and then turn around and say we would not even let a bankruptcy court even consider changing the terms of a mortgage for someone facing foreclosure if it's a vacation condo fine if it's a far fine if it's a ranch fine it's a big boat fine but not your home you know lose your home that's what the law says today is that reasonable is that world about is that what the senate is all about are we here to follow the agenda of the mortgage bankers association that created this mess or are we here to serve the needs of families across this country struggling to keep a roof over their heads i hope that answer will be obvious to my colleagues and i hope that when we get this bipartisan bill that's being worked on very soon that includes this provision so that we can have an up or down vote this provision is limited it will not impact future borrowers in any way the georgetown law study said that will have little or no impact on interest rates to come i think it is fair for us to consider it it is supported by and many many others it has the diverse aport of jack kemp former conservative republican congressman and candidate for vice president and larry summers who was secretary of treasury in the clinton administration who written op eds and support it has the support of the credit union national association and the national association of federal credit unions who opposes it the big banks that created this mess in the first place i'm sorry they've had today they've had a chance most of them may have made plenty of money and their c e o s are going to escape unscathed from this terrible economy but for the rest of america paying the price for their bad lend practices all i'm asking is a chance a chance that in court the bankruptcy judge will allow these people to stay in their homes mr president i yield the floor the senator from maryland  first let me think my my colleague from illinois for his statements in his leadership on this issue i serve on the judiciary committee with them and i want to thank him for bringing forward this proposal i think it's critically important to a large number of homeowners who find themselves in bankruptcy to get the help that the bankers to the courts were designed to create it was to take a look at the financial ability of the person going into bankruptcy and that they could look at their assets and to make a fair arrangement for the creditor and the debtor but the bankruptcy courts they can't do that in regards to your primary residence and as my colleague points out if it's your boat you have a child mortgage on it they can work that out that your vacation home they can make or a combination for your principal residence they can't do that that makes no sense at all and i thank my colleagues for bring this forward i think it's a critical part of the legislation before us and i look forward to supporting the effort to make sure that stays in the legislation mr president two weeks ago i visited a baltimore neighborhood gardens that's near the memorial stadium the old stadium where the baltimore orioles and baltimore colts played and it's in the neighborhood where i went to high school ball more city college high school it's a middle class neighborhood but today there are vacant homes and a lot of for sale signs and the entire neighborhood is affected by our current housing crisis some are in danger of losing their homes and obviously that's the most dramatic impact that all of us here about and we want to do something about we don't want to see people lose their homes it was james travis lowell adult who first coined the term the american dream in his book the ethic of america in one nine hundred thirty one and he talked about the american dream as the opportunity to achieve in this great nation that every family should have that opportunity the most visible sign of achievement is owning your own home and it's devastating if you lose your home many americans are in danger of losing their homes today because of the housing crisis but it not only affects that individual homeowner who could lose their home through foreclosure or the inability to pay the mortgage or they just walk away from their home but it affects every home in that neighborhood there is a chicago study that showed that a single foreclosure just one foreclosure and in your neighborhood will had the immediate impact of reducing your property value by about one a half percent or about three thousand dollars on average u s conference of mayors of pointed out that the current decline in home values across the nation reflect a loss of value of over one point two trillion dollars having a major impact on property tax revenues the local government the whole community is affected by the housing crisis not just the individual homeowner the man you lose his or her home if you happen to live in a home that you need to sell you move your change of life and you need to deal with putting your house on the market maybe you have a contract to buy another house and you plan to sell your house a lot tell you the housing market not good today you're affected by the housing crisis hard to find someone who's willing to buy a home they're concerned about the declining values so everyone's affected by this housing crisis homeownership is critically important to the safety of our neighborhoods study after study shows that where you have a large percentage of homeownership you have better schools and you have less crime that was actually documented in that chicago study that referred to earlier where they showed that if there was a direct relationship between foreclosures in a neighborhood and the increase of violent crime in a neighborhood so mr president i've heard many people say look isn't this the problem of people entered into mortgages that they should have entered into are bought homes they should have bought it can afford one some cases that's true in many cases it's not but the declining economy and the housing crisis affects all of us and we have a responsibility to help and to do something that's positive with our economy and the housing crisis now this is not an isolated situation but what was happening in this baltimore neighborhood in maryland the foreclosures in our state have increased since june where marilyn ranked forty at the nation doing fairly well competitively to now eighteenth in the nation in the number of foreclosures there was a thirty nine percent increase in foreclosures in the last quarter in the state of maryland now the mortgage bankers association tell us naturally that the third quarter of two thousand and seven was not only a record number of foreclosures it was the highest ever recorded in the number of foreclosures in this country nationally it's estimated that two point two million sub prime mortgages entered into between hundred ninety eight and two thousand and six are in jeopardy of foreclosure during the next two to three years representing one hundred sixty billion dollars of potential loss of wealth the national realtors association has told us that home sales have dropped for the six consecutive months home prices are down they quantitative twenty two thousand between february two thousand and eight and february two thousand and seven of the client of a percent our economy is hurting it's not just the homeowner let me just give you one example housing starts are down new housing starts are clearly down difficult to see investors moving forward with building new  residential homes where we have a glut on the market of existing homes so what does that mean well i was talking to some people who work at the light truck transmission facility located in whitemarsh maryland general motors well they're in danger of losing jobs because the people that work in the building sector of homes use light trucks and they're not buying as many like trucks because the business is down this is affecting jobs their land and jobs in each one of our states the bottom line mr president is that congress needs to act we need to act quickly the fed act quickly to protect wall street we have to act quickly to protect  main street there's a lot of question as to whether the fed did the right thing or not for bear stearns but they acted quickly while we have middle class communities middle class families that are in danger of losing their homes if congress does not act quickly we need to act quickly to help middle class families that are caught in this economic downturn the underlining bill that we're talking about i'm proud to co sponsored the provisions that are included in this bill i think it's a very important bill includes him for visions that i think will really help the people in our states first that provides counseling services two hundred million dollars to help another half a million families get counseling now one of the figures that i find just shocking isn't about hale of the vacant homes we have the day people have just walked away from their mortgages walked away from their homes they haven't even tried to work out their financial problems they haven't sought counseling they haven't talked to the mortgage company they haven't made any effort to try to save their homes they think there's no possibility reality there may be possibilities we should be providing the wherewithal so that people who are in a distressed situation can get the counseling help that they need when i had my lai gathering in the baltimore neighborhood there are representatives from the difference counseling services that are available to the people baltimore healthy neighborhood st ambrose housing aid center these are people that have found the number people seeking help doubling and tripling since the middle of last year they're being overwhelmed today by the people seeking help they need a federal partner they asked me specifically whether this part of the legislation can be in acted quickly they need the help to keep the centers opened and expand the center's i remember i said he had the people aren't thinking down to them so if the number of people who could use counseling actually stepped forward there wouldn't be the counselors available to handle this that's why it's very important for the federal government to be a partner in providing adequate counsel and independent information to homeowners as to what their options may be the second provision of this bill allows for the refinancing of subprime mortgages by giving our local revenue authorities additional revenue beyond help from the federal government ten billion dollars so that they could be more actively involved we know we have a credit crunch by knows that can find mortgages they can find ways of financing well this will help by using revenue bonding authority with very little cost to taxpayers  say that because in many cases the local revenue bonding authority wopper rating under the state will be able to go in and purchase a distressed mortgage at market value while market value is less than its full value  because the person who made the loan is going to get a fair value for their investments could be a lower value and they want what's a fair value we're not bailing out the investor what we're doing then is giving the homeowner an opportunity to have that mortgage refinanced through the state revenue bonds authority at a fair amount at a fair return allowing that homeowner to be able to stay in his or her home protecting the home for the family not protecting the investor not protecting the person who made the loan but protecting the homeowner that's what we should be doing and that's certainly a tool that i hope all  would would support and we need to get that done quickly because of the credit crunch the the bill between two thousand and five and two thousand and six it's interesting there's a lot of talk about the individuals whether they were went into this with their full knowledge of the problems but let me tell you there's been a lot of people who've been victimized by the practices that are out there there are many people who could have gone into traditional mortgages that wanted to subprime mortgages and it's particularly true in minority communities between two thousand and five and two thousand and six fifty percent of all the mortgages sold in the african american community were sub prime fifty percent to african americans forty percent of latinos a point is this mr president there were neighborhoods that were targeted for subprime mortgages that could have qualified for traditional mortgages and these individuals have been victimized and by allowing our revenue bonding authorities are our local housing authorities to be able to do more to restructure those mortgages i think is the right thing for congress to do i hope that we will provide block grant authority to give block grants to communities that have been impacted by foreclosures as i said earlier it's you have a foreclosure in the community the entire community is impacted by the need to do something to help it was very impressed when i talked to the people at st ambrose when they explained to me that when you have a foreclosed property the house gets the tear rates and the neighborhood needs help and this will allow federal block grant to the community will allow it to get the housing in the condition it needs in order to put buyers new homebuyers into these houses that's another i think very positive thing we can do to help communities the legislation provides the relief from bankruptcy that my friend senator durbin talked about the provision i strongly support i don't need to go through all the provisions that he went through but it's targeted started to residential mortgages that are in bankruptcy is targeted to mortgages that are currently in existence it's targeted to those who can financially of afford or are refinancing structure is targeted in that if there's a resale and there is money that comes in that would that would hide the lender held harmless the money goes first to the lender all this is targeted relief to provide some degree of equity in the mortgage proceeding between mortgages that are taken out for our vacation homes and our large boats to those that are for residential mortgages as senator durbin pointed out a bankruptcy you can adjust the mortgages for your vacation home and your chattel mortgage on your boat but cannot today on your residential mortgage that makes no sense at all and we should certainly include that provision and there's provisions in this bill that will provide disclosure so that moving forward homeowners have much more information before they enter into a mortgage i want to refer to another provision that i intend offer as an amendment to the underlining legislation when we get an opportunity and that is to provide a tax credit for first time homebuyers i think we need to do something to stimulate the housing market from the  view of more people willing to come out and buy a home senator durbin pointed out that today there are people reluctant to buy a home who want to buy a home but they're worried that the value may decline well if we give a tax credit put money on the table i think it's much more likely that individuals are will want to take advantage of that that will help stimulate the economy with the exact sector that triggered legislation that i'm going to propose is going to be targeted going to be for principal residence only i think that's what we should do it will be middle class will have an income cap so that it will be used by those who really need the help it will be first time home buyers today it's estimated that forty percent of our market is first time home buyers in baltimore city we know it's about two in baltimore is about two thirds are first time home buyers so it's to go to that part of the market that needs the help that we need to get back into the market it's temporary it will expire in two thousand and eight because we want people moving now going back into the market now this is not a new concept it's been used in the nation's capital we provide a tax credit that's helped three to four thousand homebuyers a year i think was a good policy for the for the nation's capital i think it's a good policy now for our country on a temporary basis i do acknowledge that there are several my colleagues that are interested in this legislation have a slightly different approach and i hope that we can come together is under step in alice been interested in a housing credit for for many years under isaacson has come forward with his proposals and i hope that we all will be able to work together to bring forward a tax credit proposal that can really help stimulate our economy mr president we need to act now two months ago a bipartisan action in this body we passed the economic stimulus package and we did it quickly and that's what we needed to do what we need to show the same commitment on the housing crisis we need to work it out by voters a matter to help middle class families save their homes and to help our economy i urge my colleagues to take this legislation up quickly let's consider the amendments let's move forward the senator from iowa thank you mr president i've had the opportunity in the last several years that i've been in the senate to look into how drugs fro companies may be improper me influencing mental medical care it's no secret that drug and device companies have substantial financial relationships with the health industry and specifically with physicians in addition to multimillion dollar royalty payments and lucrative consulting contracts i've found that drug and device companies often provide perks to doctors as these would include things like expensive trips lavish speaking fees and other benefits that are too numerous to mention at this point these relationships as you might expect could motivate doctors to modify their treatment practices it could motivate doctors  do practices that may not be in the best interests of the facia because these financial relationships are so common i've had the help of senator kohl of wisconsin in the entered auction a bipartisan bail called the city of physicians payments sunshine ag we introduce that latter half of last year now this bill is not aimed at stopping money flowing to the doctors the results of which i've just spoken about but it ought to throw a little sunshine on this  and that whole sunshine shown on this issue i think will go a long ways towards curbing bad behavior and i'm proud to report that the bill is gaining support from several companies and from many physicians in fact famous companies like medtronic a company named zimmer recently announce support and i expect even more companies to come on board very soon now you might say these companies coming on board you know than than a they must like  this that is not going to do any good well it'll do a lot of good and i think companies coming on board at this point are just recognizing that if they're in a public debate on this issue where there is evidence that their payments to doctors may influence practice that that's not going to stand up in the theater of public debate and so they ought to help their public relations out and get behind this legislation they know it is the right thing to do and i hope that my colleagues in the senate will look at this bill and see it as well as the right thing to do since last summer i have been investigating dozens of physicians to see if they are reporting their outside income to universities that they're affiliated with these physicians are at public as well as private universities and are working in institutions of higher learning across the united states today i'm going to report on the action of just one physician i do this to explain how industry payments to medical experts can affect medical practice last summer new york times ran an article about several drugs called atypical anti psychotics these drugs are very powerful and the new york times reported that there was only prescribed for children in the cases serach well this drug became widely prescribed to treat children for bipolar disorder in the year two thousand and five and it is important to examine this drug because we have paid billions of taxpayers dollars for serach well in the last few years under programs various programs that the federal government has that provides help for people that can't otherwise afford it now this very scription happened after a group of experts decided that drugs like seroquel worked in kids and then p guidelines in the journal of the american academy of child and adolescent psychology psychiatry but this panel based this guidelines on a single half of them dropped out of the study because of bad side effects the lead author of this study was dr melissa bell a professor at the university of cincinnati after reading about this story i sent a letter to the university of cincinnati and asked to see dr de bell's reports on outside income i found out that d received over one hundred thousand dollars from asker zeneca in two thousand and three the year after she did this study the following year the company paid her over eighty thousand dollars these payments were first touch things like lectures consulting fees services on advisory boards and reimbursement for travel related cos after the universe sent me these records then asked astra zeneca to account for money that the company had sent to dr double the numbers after they all came in and just simply did not add up between two thousand and five two thousand and seven dr bell all reported about one hundred thousand dollars in outside income to her university but i found out that astra zeneca had paid her over two hundred thirty eight thousand and obviously one hundred thirty eight thousand dollars of reported income is a big difference and of course  will ever know the full accounting of this a money paid between astra zeneca and the the professor so here her own university her very own university which is supposed to be monitoring her conflicts of interest didn't even know about these additional payments it seems to me that they did what many universities around the country do they trusted their faculty to provide accurate information even worse i found out that dr did by all receive grant money from the national institute of health and according to federal regulations universities are supposed to monitor conflicts of interest when their researchers receive national institute of health grants obviously the university is engaged in the according to the letter that i received from the university of cincinnati dr did ballo fail to report other money after that she also received from during the big drug companies so it and where do you think the address of m s c associates is well you probably have figured it out the department of psychiatry university of cincinnati this situation is unfortunate in so many levels it is unfortunate for the university of cincinnati relying on the representations of its faculty it is on fortune that for patients who once believed their doctor were not for sale and it is unfortunate that we're in a day and age where a veil promoting transparency for millions and millions of dollars going from great big drug companies to eric an doctors is necessary in other words i'm saying to my colleagues in the senate the bill that senator kohl and i put in last year that's picking up steam even from companies in the medical business shouldn't had to be introducing the checks and balances that are out there between universities between the n i a and universities that get their grants ought to be enough to make sure that the ethics are properly filed this information is available and most importantly the information is public because this is the public's business and the public has a right to know whether or not people that doctor them might have a financial interest in the tree that's prescribed for them now i have given you just one example of a doctor who has been receiving large amounts of money from drug companies in this area as in many others i hold a little bit of sunshine will go a long ways and that's what the cold grassley legislation is all about the fact that a physician can promote a drug to other doctors and receive and i fund me while hiding a very clear conflict of interest ought to be very disturbing to all of us and that's why this bill is very needed because nobody is watching this money and it is having a bad effect on medical practice as evidence by the zeneca before closing i want to give this compliment to the university of cincinnati this university has and continues to be very cooperated in this mr president senator from pennsylvania mr brandon i rise today briefly to speak on behalf of senate resolution four nine four which is a sense of the senate resolution that i introduced yesterday calling upon the international community to fulfill previous pledges to provide reconstruction assistance and the toorak i'm joined in introducing this resolution by my colleague senator corker from the great state of tennessee and i'm honored to have his support is very simple it is long past time for other nations is specially iraq's neighbors to carry through on past promises and deliver the type of assistance that can help stabilize iraq and allow for an orderly redeployment of u s combat troops from iraq over the course of the next two weeks the senate will once again return to the order arac war and the debate over future u s military presence in that country it is no secret that there is a sharp divide in the congress over the next steps in iraq we have some fundamental differences and it is essential that we debate these differences in an open manner however there is some common ground that all of us can find when it comes to wrack i think we can agree that america has already sacrificed too many of our finest and bravest young men and women in this conflict we recently marked the grim toll of four thousand four thousand americans killed in combat there including one hundred eighty three natives of my home state of pennsylvania but the united states is also bearing the majority of the bird and when it comes to financial assistance to the iraqi government for reconstruction activities we bear this burden even though other nations in multilateral organizations including the world bank in the international monetary fund have pledged pledged but failed to implement significant sums significant sums towards iraq's reconstruction the united states bears its burden even as we spend millions of dollars every day on our military presence in iraq that is not right and it cannot continue our resolution calls upon other nations to carry through on previous pledges of reconstruction assistance to the iraqi people that have been largely ignored the resolution as it has been inspired by two recent reports a december two thousand and seven report from the general accountability office we know as the the g a o and they generate two thousand and eight report from the inspector general for raqi reconstruction the two reports document the following facts just too but there are alarming and disturbing the united states has already spent roughly twenty nine billion dollars on reconstruction assistance to iraq with another sixteen and a half billion dollars in the pipeline having been authorized by congress that's fact number one twenty nine billion spent sixteen have billion on the way as of last october international donors have pledged a combined total of approximately sixteen billion to support iraq's reconstruction but only seven billion of the sixteen has been actually disbursed to the iraqi governmental entities this is a less than fifty percent return when it comes to carrying out their previous pledges many of which date back to the year two thousand and three now there are some plausible explanations for why reconstruction funding is not float as quickly as we would like certainly corruption in the iraqi government remains a serious problem the hazardous conditions in many parts of iraq impeded reconstruction projects but the same constraints apply to the us government in our reconstruction funding there is no reason why the united states has spent more than four times what the rest of the world combined combined has spent when it comes to reconstruction assistance to the iraqi government i don't need to remind anyone in this chamber or anyone in the country of our economic challenges here at home that we face exacting i should say a significant toll on our nation's treasury and so the united states cannot afford to continue to subsidize reconstruction assistance to wrack while other nations remain on the sidelines but the lack of participation by other international donors especially iraq's neighbors incurs diplomatic and political costs as well when the united states is seen as the principal source of reconstruction funding in iraq and when those reconstruction activities falter it is america america that is unfairly blamed in the eyes of the iraqi people five years after we invaded iraq much of the nation continues to experience power shortages and rolling blackouts and the iraqi people view the state of affairs as america's responsibility that is why the iraq study group more than a year ago now recommended multi lateral support for iraqi reconstruction including quote greater involvement by and with international partners who should do more than just contribute money they should actively participate in the design and construction of projects unquote so said the iraqi study the iraq study group more than a year ago mr president madam president it is all too rare for a democrat and a republican to find some shared ground today on the issue of iraq the fact that two members of the senate in this case both members of the foreign relations committee from different parties have found common cause on one aspect of our presence here to tell you something there's no reason why the united states already having borne off in terms of military resources and explosives of our bravest men and women lost no reason why the united states should continue to be on the hook for the majority of reconstruction funding in iraq reconstruction funding for rack is important and it is time that iraq's neighbors major international organizations and other nations step up to the plate madam president i yield the floor