america today we join scouting groups across the country and in ohio in toledo in cincinnati and chillicothe in lakewood and celebrating boy scout day the boy scouts of america has a rich tradition of teaching valuable skills to the young men of this country the values which scouting instills fairness and honor courage and respect for others prepare young men to serve their families and their nation there are more than three million boys in the scouting program and in the past year alone scouts of or nearly two million merit badges and completed more than thirty three million hours of community service as an eagle scout i recognize the hard work involved in scouting and commend the dedication and commitment of boy scouts  the scouting movement across our country the journey to he goes sometimes difficult often fun occasionally disappointing and always rewarding my time as a boy scout in the end provided me with opportunities to develop leadership and organizational skills helped me clarify and articulate my guiding principles and installed a commitment to public service the emphasis on community service i luke learned with troop one ten mansfield ohio it strongly influenced my lifelong commitment to public service the memories and lessons of camp a very hand in philmont scout ranch of success and failure in earning merit badges those memories and lessons will always remain with me the scout laws a framework that continues to inspire my work to this day a scout is trustworthy loyal help freel helpful friendly courteous kind obedient cheerful thrifty brave clean and reverent and a proud supporter of the boy scouts of america i hope my colleagues will join me in celebrating boyscout day when madame president i ask unanimous consent that the following remarks appear in a different place in the congressional record madam president many present united states should not be playing russian roulette with our nation's economy and our nation's future we need to craft trade policies that deliver the long term results we need not just the short term profits a few multinational corporations want in those multinational corporations and cessna to lobby this institution to get in a state of the union address the president advocated signing more free trade deals given where past trade deals have lead this country the president's dogged pursuit of outdated trade deals would be perplexing if it weren't simply more of the same and par for the course when it comes to trade it's often the case that ideology trumps outcomes and it's always the case that special interests trump american interests but looking at where our nation is heading abdicating common sense is a luxury we can no longer afford we need to confront the problems our lax trade policies have been gendered and we need to do it now we're running a huge trade deficit when i was elected to the house of representatives in one thousand nine hundred two our trade deficit was thirty eight billion dollars  two thousand and seven it exceeded eight hundred billion dollars the first president bush said a billion dollar trade deficit translated into thirteen thousand jobs do the math and see what these trade deficits from thirty eight billion dollars a decade and a half ago to over eight hundred billion today do the math and figure out the damage these trade deficits of causes or bleeding jobs we're letting dangerous products cross our borders in land in the hands of our families and our children when we write trade deals that favor gains for multinational corporations over even handed competition for both trading partners we should be surprised when u s based companies are crippled our current trade policy betrays our nation's middle class it cripples american small business especially manufacturing and it destroys community across the communities across the country i was recently in tiffin ohio a community of about twenty thousand people about an our from toledo in northwest ohio talking with workers from american standard american standard is the company that makes plumbing fixtures and and that that most americans are familiar with these workers jobs have recently gone to mexico and china venture capitalists in this case bain capital out of boston massachusetts came in bought the company and shut it down and moved the production overseas many workers lost much of their pension and their health care that they had worked on that they had worked for for decade after decade many of these workers in their fifty's won't be able to find jobs in tiffen to pay anything close to the money they had earned many of them as i said lost their pensions lost their health care whil enriching bain capital to the tune of tens of millions of dollars these aren't trivial matters these are people workers in ohio workers across the country workers often in small towns that don't have the option of finding a job a comparable job anyplace nearby to support their families and all the monthly to benefit from the pension and the health care that they have earned that they have earned free trade is a dangerous myth a false idol trade it's never been free even the most basic of barter systems has been guided by rules today's threes today's free trade agreements are rife with rules rules that are clearly producing the wrong results for our nation deficits and job loss dangerous imports and compromise manufacturing capabilities again there are rules the north american free trade agreement sold to us a decade a half ago simply by saying this will reduce tariffs and open up markets in mexico for u s goods and in canada was two thousand pages so it wasn't simply a free trade agreement was a trade agreement made up of replete with rules that supported and helped those special interest special interest investors and com that wanted to privatized it wanted to outsource that wanted to use these rules to make more money for the companies at the expense of workers in mexico in canada and in gallup police in portsmouth and cleveland ohio i'm proud to join sen dorgan from north dakota who has been a leader on trade policy even wrote a book called take this job and ship it about trade and proposing that we take a far more pragmatic approach to u s trade policy one that's based on achieving positive results one that's based on accountability thanks to his leadership we have legislation that would refocus trade policy away from the blind adherence to outdated trade agreements and toward policies that increase u s trade that bolster u jobs that lift up our communities in that reinforce u s manufacturing in a in the in the days and years ahead in toward a trade policy that builds our nation's middle class his bill establishes concrete benchmarks for trade deals it's commonsense idea it's a prescription for us excess in the global trade arena will help us bring back our manufacturing base in this country we should pass this bill we should also take immediate steps to address the dysfunction has infiltrated virtually every aspect of our trade relationship with china china's manipulating its currency its low balling the price of its exports through government subsidies it's sending our nation's danger our nation dangerous toys and contaminated food it's generating and heard of levels of pollution the list goes on and on and on last month new page i'm a paper manufacturing company based in miami's burger town in southwest ohio announced it was shutting down plants in wisconsin in maine in my state of ohio in the city of chillicothe once the state capital heavily government subsidized chinese paper produces producers account for fifty percent of the world's market fifty percent of the world's paper producing is in china it is heavily government subsidized in china it's meant loss of jobs in places like chillicothe e in dayton and all over my state and all over this country it's not free trade that the chinese have benefited from when i say the chinese i don't mean chinese workers i mean the kind of the communist party of china the government the people's liberation army in too often u s investors who are also often complicit with the communist party and the people's liberation army and the chinese government think about that it's not free trade with china it's a racket these factors in addition to low wages in addition to unsafe working conditions in addition to the absence of worker rights have contributed the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs in our country's reliance on imports what does that mean to the future when i when i look at this chamber and i see one two three four five six seven young pages high school students that work here and i and several on the other side to that i can't see i apologize i think about what their world is going to look like in twenty years are we going to look back and say why did we give our country away why did we sacrifice our national security on our our economic security in out in outsource all these jobs and outsource all this wealth and see a declining middle class is that we're going to look back on in twenty years and say why did we let this happen how did we let this happen madam president restoring sanity to our trade relationship with china should be an immediate number one domestic and international priority for this nation last week i was joined by seven freshman colleagues in affirming that our trade policy should focus on china that is our trade priority we need to imagine twenty from now as i said what is our kind of what is manufacturing in our country going to look like this country's wealth much of it is dependent dependent on manufacturing on making things on on everything from making newsprint to airplanes being able to manufacture sure in creating wealth in small town and large city alike instead of littering our nation's path with more flawed trade agreements we should say time out no more trade agreements look back stablish this commission we've discussed that will look and both parties both houses look back at what our trade policy what nafta what kept it what p n t r with china what our other bilateral smaller trade agreements have done what have they done to our country what have they done for our country make that analysis and then fix those trade agreements and move forward it's not in the nation's best interest to rely on other nations for our defense infrastructure for our transportation infrastructure for our industrial infrastructure for creating wealth in our communities that manufacturing does in this country we do the best research and development in the world yet multinational corporations often take that research and development and do the production in other countries sure there's great jobs in research and development it's good for our country we should continue to give tax incentives for that research and development but it's more than that it's also what do you do afterwards and commercializing in producing in manufacturing these products that the research and development has generated that's the larger number of jobs that's the greater part of the wealth creation that's what's essential to providing the goods and services in our communities for police and fire and education and all that means we can't we cannot simply continue to do the r d and then farm out the production to exploit low wage workers exploit the consumer product and food safety net because that's what happens when this research and development is done in the united states in the productions moved to china it's moved there to exploit low wage labor and it's moved there as a way frankly in many cases or at least it becomes that that we end up with inferior last safe less high quality products back into our country we need to take responsibility mr president for the consequences of our inaction of our inaction when it comes to trade take responsibility for the mistakes we have made in formulating trade policy and we need to do it now you have the floor and i suggest the absence of the on the senate's agenda today economic stimulus and pfizer reauthorization as work continues behind the scenes during these corum calls that the have been taking place throughout the day today meantime a congressional quarterly today is reporting that a deal on an economic stimulus package may have been reached senate democrats will accept the later a republican offer on an economic stimulus bill paving the way for a final vote as early as today said finance committee  democrats will have to shelve their more ambitious plans including an extension of unemployment benefits and renewable energy tax breaks along with added low income home heating assistance the final bill will expand eligibility for rebate checks to include low income senior citizens disabled veterans and widows of veterans will also include more restrictive language in the house passed bill to prevent illegal immigrants from getting checks the senate votes could vote later today in the health of the expected to clear the bill this week in the final deal the century the same as one that minority leader mitch mcconnell has been offering for days democrats came up one vote short yesterday as they tried to advance a far more expansive emulous package built around the measure that the finance committee approved last  week meantime house speaker nancy pelosi said that if the senate passes a revised bill she will bring it rapidly to the house floor for a vote blowsy who negotiated the house passed legislation with minority leader john boehner and the bush administration said she thought the stripped down senate version would gain president bush's approval if the bill were to come back to the house we would embrace it and the bush white house would sign it boehner said again that is what's being reported by congressional quarterly this afternoon as of about one fifty  two today and we'll find out more about this as majority leader reid speaks with reporters at two forty five eastern and we'll pass that information on to you as a quorum call continues we'll bring you live coverage of the u s senate here on c span to of h r five one four zero which the clerk will report kind of over five sixty six h r fifty one forty and act to provide economic stimulus to recovery rebates to individua incentives for business investment and an increase in conforming and f h a loan limits as further reading the man be weighed clerk will report the amendment the senator from nevada mr reid for himself and others proposes an amendment numbered forty ten strike all after the in acting as per the reading them out of the way without economy these benefits can be distributed quickly are likely to be spent it's not a matter of ideology it's a matter of economics broad range of economists agree with this even alan greenspan hardly a liberal democrat has testified in favor of expanding on a plan benefit during economic turndown expanding unemployment benefits works in this matter basic compassion long term unemployed are among the those americans with most pressing needs unfortunately there are well over a million americans who are expected to exhaust regular unemployment benefits between january to june of this year they need our help we extend the same assistance them that we have to the long term unemployed in the past and retire kannan we will benefit so i ask unanimous consent and notwithstanding the previous unanimous consent agreement that the unemployment insurance provision in the senate finance package be added as an amendment to the bill currently before the senate that of president reserving the right to object i would simply note that when unemployment exceeds a certain level there is reason to extend it but this nation's unemployment now is it under five percent which is deemed to be full employment there's no trigger attached to this proposal in a state like the hampshire employment is a three point six percent extension might actually have the opposite effect rather stimulating the economy might actually undermine the ability to create more productivity so i would object objections or present state about as five percent michigan number of other states so this would not it would apply to every state but some states so i'm disappointed that my friend objected to that but i understand the stimulus package i introduced earlier this week included a billion dollars increase for the low income energ helped build programs they know i hope is critical for many americans who otherwise will be forced to choose between heating their homes putting food on the table buying medicine or gas for the car these are people who will spend so i'm not going to dwell on the fact that the war has cost about eight hundred billion dollars all borrowed money but i understand the objection to this why he commandment and also on my best behavior today i can assure you as investments in energy efficiency sir cantwell has been a champion of these provisions there isn't enough i can say to commend her for her good work is its outstanding and these tax incentives make sense from the standpoint of our economy and our nation and create jobs for americans in the process they would reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy i've seen the importance of developing all term renewable source of energy in nevada the geothermal industr matter i'm always interested in areas where we can promote energy and alternative energy but that's not part of a stimulus package these tax credits would essentially not kick in for literally years lenny instances and aren't going to do a great deal to stimulate and therefore should not be added to this package and therefore on behalf of the leadership i object to prison the finance committee that thank you the finance committee rightfully so by an overwhelming bipartisan vote agreed to include a provision in this legislation does that's designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure filing them to refinance the president of the united states propose this new state of the union address this proposal been championed by my friend this distinguished junior senator from massachusetts senator kerry because it would add money and bonds that states could use to help address the serious housing crisis facing our country they could sell homes that were in foreclosure or refinance loans i commend senator kerry for getting this proposal added in the finance committee and makes tremendous sense and i suggest it would be the right thing to do the president supports it or said he did in the finance committee and i would hope that we could get agreement on that so i ask therefore madam president speaker of the house i will have to object s a president i don't know if any there is a mcconnell disagrees there could be i don't know who would be the best way to stimulate the economy is to get money into the hands of those whose will spend immediately and the people who need it the most that's why according to at more than one economic study the absolute best way to stimulate the economy is to grease food stamp benefits according that study for every dollar allocated to food stamps economic activity is increased by one dollar ninety four cents action again this package is worked out between the house leadership the house republican leadership the democratic leadership in the ministration and basically the purpose here is to move the package quickly and this was not part of the package therefore we have a leadership i will have to object madam president jackson is it's my understanding that there is now twenty minutes allocated ten minutes for me ten minutes for senator mcconnell is that correct senate had two obligation to improve the bill deliver a timely tempering target bill by president's day we can we've done that senate democrats and with the help of a number of republicans in the senate join together to move forward on this it's our responsibility to pass the strongest bill that we can and we've done that if we had listened to the advice of the house we would have twenty one half million seniors with nothing out of this package where to listen to the vice the house two hundred fifty thousand disabled veterans and their widows where van left behind were able to make the house bill better and i'm pleased with that result there is much more to do and that's why i ask that we focus today as we did for a few minutes on what is not being done but i think that we all have to acknowledge that the house bill has been improved significantly in the present agreeing with the house bill is not perfect i have said before madam president that i wish we had another vote we didn't and i accept that but i think we have to look at the good work that's been done i can't leave this floor without expressing my appreciation to the finance committee led by senator senate stimulus package and the foreign intelligence surveillance act we're basically about ready to finish the stimulus package but we'll we'll be back and do more things to help stimulate the economy today though i think we should feel good about what we've done fifty nine of us believe that the country needs going on the stimulus and we voted that way yesterday everybody in the senate i believe in consonance with rare exception that's true believes that we can't have the economic stimulus package and leave behind senior citizens and our wounded veterans and we haven't done that we've picked them up i'm confident that we will do better i extend my appreciation to the distinguished republican leader it's been difficult to work through all this stuff you know well it didn't work through the way that i wanted it to work through a lot better than had we just accepted the republican leaders recognize i am out of credit let me just say to my good friend a majority leader we're on the on the verge here of an act an important bipartisan accomplishment the american people  incredulity to a press conference a couple of weeks ago between among the speaker of the house the house republican leader and the secretary of the treasury indicating they had reached an agreement for a stimulus package that would be and timely and and targeted and as the speaker said temporary we've now after going through the legislative process here in the senate been able to reach an important bipartisan agreement that will be supported about a majority finest recognizing that this was an opportunity to to demonstrate to the public that we could come together to do some being important for the country and do it quickly the legislative process is frequently time consuming complicated laborious and slow and i think we have demonstrated today will demonstrate shortly when we cast this vote that we were able to put aside our differences not only here in the senate but with our colleagues in the house as well and the administration to make an important statement that we are concerned about the slowing of our economy and it we want to do something significant about it very quickly so i think this is a fine day a great day for the senate something we can all feel good about and i want to again commend the majority leader for his spirit and working this out and congratulate the senate and both parties for what i think will be perceived by the american people as a significant accomplishment for our country the majority leaders until four can this afternoon i ask consent that be the case without objection so ordered i would also ask consent madam present a time between now and then be divided between the majority and minority and that  calculating it majority leader i don't think it does but does a stream of a little bit to exactly half hour a victory and they've been before us is a victory for twenty million seniors they came of age in the great depression during world war two in a call the greatest generation they fought for their country they gave a lifetime of labor gave a lifetime of service they had a lifetime of taxes and they contribute to our congress today and now they will get stimulus checks too just like other americans today is another victory for the greatest generation today's agreement as a veteran for a quarter million disabled veterans no one can question their sacrifice no one can question their contribution they have fought for america today is a victory for disabled veterans today's agreement is a victory for the rule of law that's because the agreement ensures that the stimulus checks will go to americans it guards against any checks to people who have violated our nation's immigration laws to this agreement is a victory for our founding fathers created the that legislature with two chambers the founding father's grave the government with checks and balances today is a victory for those of us who want the united states congress to work as the founding fathers intended it today's agreement is a veteran for open government the elements of this agreement came out of the open process of the senate finance committee americans did not settle for the products of backroom deals legislation gets better when people meet in the open and debate it in the open as well that's what we did in the senate finance committee and today's agreement is a victory for open government today's agreement is a victory for moderates today's agreement is a victory for men and women of good will like chuck grassley blanche lincoln limpia snow days agreement is a victory for people who are willing to reach across the aisle and work with other people of goodwill even if they belong to another political party there's a graham is a victory for people of courage we're willing to buck their party's leadership to buck to ministration and for a better america today's agreement is a victory for people willing to stand up for what they think is right senator grassley and i remember we stood with us today is agreement is a victory for a better more effective economic stimulus economists agree that consumer spending fueled by tax rebates can boost america's economy and americans over age sixty five spend ninety two percent of their incomes in any given year they will spend their rebate checks quickly and that will boost the economy quickly most of all today's agreement is a victory for the american people today's agreement will speed rebate checks to the overwhelming majority of american giving them needed tax relief today is a victory for the american people i thank my colleagues the support in this package i thank my colleagues for their help that crafted along the way urge t that we're here today in large part because this is a bipartisan agreement we stood together we did not want buckle down and what we did not want to a cave into the house in the white house because we wanted something a little bit better little bit better and we stood up together we get the most rebate checks that they expected and they deserve to receive thank you mr president thank you senator from iowa is recognized first of all following on where senator baucus left off i thank him for his remarks and i would be glad to associate myself with them and put his words in my miles that i would say the same thing about him a pleasure work for them but more importantly pleasure to have this opportunity to say that a product that we've worked on that was an expression of fifty nine members of the united states senate weighs finally going go to the president united states so i say that about senator baucus her personally but i also say for those people who are listening nothing in this city ever gets done in a bipartisan way we are proving to the rest of the nation that everything in washington is not partisan and we eventually get things worked out in a bipartisan way and add to that that nothing gets done in the united states senate unless it is bipartisan and then i would add a second point and that second point is that a week before the house of representatives passed their product the house of representatives republican democrat leaders reached an agreement with the white house of a perfect so called perfect package that was going to stimulate the economy and get to the president immediately and it was something that the united states senate ought to go along with without question and then in a speech a week ago i spoke here about the function of the senate to distil and cool and observe say like the senate of france as an example or the house the lords of the washing of london we are the united states senate representing our constituents and are not a rubber stamp body and the constitution was written with the senate to give day greater deliberation to legislation than what the house of representatives does and this action right now is a perfect example of what we're set up to do as a united states senate and that perfect piece of legislation that we were told was so perfect after went through the process of twenty one members of the united states senate finance committee looking at it came to the conclusion that there were about three things wrong with it twenty million seniors citizens left out if you to stimulate the economy including low income seniors in the concert as consumers in america with the need to spend money  as as one of the chief stimulants and then we don't honor the house of representatives did not honor the disabled veterans of america the way they showed up i should say the low income disabled veterans of america the way they should and then the second one was the possibility very real possibility of only people that are here illegally maybe being able to qualify for a rebate check so all of that shortcomings that perfect piece of legislation worked out between the white house and the democrat leadership of the house of representatives as intelligent as those people are and they are intelligent really was not so perfect so the senate denis work and here we are so i'm pleased that we are prepared to finish the job on the economic stimulus package this very day in fact just within a few minutes one week ago today i spoke at length about the improvements the finance committee made and the house bill that can prove months were on the structure of the rebate finance committee members added twenty million low income seniors several hundred thousand disabled veterans are about to be able to get participate in the rebate checks illegal immigrants will not be benefited from the rebate checks and they should not be and i know that's a no brainer but it's something that you've got to make certain is in law because it will happen all of these changes are a result of the work of the under the leadership of senator baucus twenty one members coming together to do what needed to be done to correct the house fail now this took a while but my leaders saw the light of the finance committee improvements and now my understanding is that the house and the white house agree with us as well through the process will approve a truly bipartisan buy cameral bill the american people will witness in this process a deliberative body deliberating as we should but doing it  madam president the best bill would be the full finance committee bill that bill would have provided more business tax relief more incentive for investment a probably longer the certainty of more creation of jobs and of course we had an in energy investment package in it well those will come up another time my colleagues that favor those things are not going to be left out in the cold of the house and the white house did not want these provisions in this bill so in the interest of compromise those provisions are dropped but not dropped out of sight i want to thank our leaders for accepting after some reluctance the finance committee changes we have a better product because the because the chairman of the of the the the committee process has worked committee members made this a better deal and i think chairman marcus for easily leadership you know before if there's nobody we're going over that side but when we come back to this side senator alexander would have five jump start the economy we cannot delay we need to move forward very quickly because of the action that this chamber will take later here today we will see one hundred million americans receive tax rebate checks in the mail that then help us jump start the economy but as senator baucus and senator grassley have pointed out we have taken a package from the house and have significantly approved it significantly improved it in two major ways first the twenty one million seniors will receive social security who are left out of the house package will now be receiving those tax rebates in the mail so it is important to note that this is a very important step in the standing up for the elders of america for whom we have so much respect the second major improvement in this legislation is that we also have honored our disabled veterans two hundred fifty thousand disabled veterans who were left out of the house package out of the package negotiated with the how white house we have included those in this legislation so in that way such a station represents a very very significant improvement upon the package that came over from the house i may also say that this is a business friendly package because the product of the finance committee will put money in the pockets of small business men and women as well as large businesses so that they can invest in equipment so that they can create jobs and they can help start getting our economy from going further into the ditch and back on solid track but having said that madam president i also think it is incumbent upon all of us to understand that this is a short term fix and that there are longer term economic and fiscal problems that face this country that need to be grappled with would be my hope is one united states senator that in the days ahead we move forward and embrace a phase t of economic recovery for this nation i believe that number one on that agenda of this every covering program should be a focus on housing legislation that will help us address the major issues that are being faced across the country including in the state of california where my good friend senator barbara boxer was describing to us what is happening with a foreclosure rate which is going to be i think six times higher this year that it was last year in my state of colorado one in three hundred seventy five homes in foreclosure in my state of colorado there's a significant decline in real estate values across the country it's projected the every body's home is going to decline on average by fourteen percent so housing i hope is immediately on our agenda that we move from there we get a good farm bill secure food and fuel security for our country and thirdly that we embrace the finance committee package on energy legislation that will help us get to that new frontier of a clean energy economy for the twenty first century so like for us to change the way we do business in washington d c they would like for us to come here and focus our attention on big problems that affect everyday americans whether it's helping each american have a health care insurance whether it's keeping our jobs from going overseas whether it's a three dollar price of gasoline and work together in a principled way that to solve it they don't mind are having big debates on big issues about big principles like liberty versus security on terrorism what they don't like is playpen politics where we bring out the charts and hire the campaign strategists and in degenerate into what ought to be in a kindergarten or in a political campaign well i'm pleased to say that this is a good way to begin the year the way this has worked out because the president and the house of representatives deserve great credit for agreeing quickly on a timely targeted proposal to help our economy be stimulated and move a lot they made it temporary so that it was wasn't any more of an infringement on the budget and they said it was was to friends and i'm very madam president very proud of the united states senate but i don't think it's such a bad idea every now and then to concede that even president bush and the house of representatives are not wrong all the time they actually sent us an excellent package gave us a good start and what we have done is essentially except the house package speaker p boehner the president negotiated and we've improved on in a couple of important ways involving seniors and disabled veterans all of us agreed about that almost all of us the republican leader suggested we do that a couple of days ago so i think i think there's plenty of credit to go around here and i would start by giving it to the president the house of representatives of course we should thank the finance committee for the work it did republican leader for his suggestion w senator stevens that we add disabled veterans and seniors which he made a couple of years ago and feel good that by the end of this week as senator mcconnell said earlier this week we will have sent to the house and hopefully t president a piece of legislation that will help taxpayers keep more of their own money help small businesses keep more of their own money and in doing that help create jobs and create additional spending that will stimulate our economy we had disagreement here in actually a very good way the finance committee recommendations included a number of proposals that many of us felt amounted to an excuse to spend rather than economic stimulus we voted on that yesterday and we took most of those off but that doesn't mean that they were wrong to make the suggestion it just meant we didn't agree with them so we put those things aside for now we'll debate them later and we'll go forward with this bill a those include long term low tax rates whether it's marginal rates or dividends or capital gains those include senator isaacson's proposal to give a tax credit to those who would buy foreclosed by thousand dollars for three years so we can get the consumer back into the housing market it would include proposals to senator hutchison and ensign and others have made in the america competes act which we passed together democrats and republicans now we need to implement it so that we can give more incentives to outstanding teachers help low income students take more advanced placement courses bring in more talented people from other countries who get graduate degrees in science and technology and allow them to have a green card and stay here and create jobs in the united states is said of going over see we've got some work to do on on controlling runaway litigation all that has to do with job creation in america and we could have said yes we'd like to have that on this but we agree we'll set that aside for now but those are the long term objectives that we have and we look forward to the debate on those issues and those steps so i want to congratulate the majority leader and the republican leader the finance committee and others who worked hard on this i want to thank the house and the senate i mean the house and the president for sending us a good piece of legislation and i would ask my colleagues to consider this we may want to send the house something sometime that we hope they pay us so why not give them some credit for sending us something that substantially we agreed with and with a couple improvements we believe is better for the people of this country  yesterday we were all very saddened when we fail to get the full senate finance committee stimulus package passed here we lost by one vote because republicans filibustered and they forced us to get sixty we got fifty nine votes for that package but it wasn't good enough so now today our republican friends happily are joining us on two elements of that package and they're adding it to the house proposal i am very pleased that twenty million senior citizens of our nation will get a check as part of the stimulus package our stimulus package the senate's i thank the senior citizens and their organizations for calling all senators and telling them it's outrageous to leave the seniors out i am beyond pleased as well that two hundred fifty thousand disabled veterans will get a check as part of the senate stimulus package and i thank the veterans and their organizations for calling senators constantly in their offices to say make us part of the package to have left them out would have been it seems to me  outrageous on its face just as it was outrageous that when the president suggested his package he wanted to leave out more than thirty million americans who didn't file tax returns just paid payroll taxes and acted as if that those working americans don't deserve to have a check i want to thank speaker pelosi for fixing that problem that was a huge problem she did fix that problem and now we fix the more problems but let me be clear democrats want to do more and we were stopped again today from doing more and let me go into that because i third here on the floor as the republicans objected to request after request after request to add the rest of that senate finance package to the stem alice bill senator reid said we need to have low income energy assistance we know that the cost of heating is very high and we know that people are suffering under the burden of paying it oh no that was a jested to that was objected to then we said there are some states that have very high unemployment rates and we see this high unemployment rate beginning to hit many states we want to extend unemployment insurance to the long term unemployed let me just say those are the people who would go right out and spend those checks at the corner store which is just what we wanted to oh no our republican friends said no then we ask unanimous consent to help the homebuilders get a tax break they are struggling under the horrendous situation we find ourselves in today in the housing market oh no there was objection from our republican friends then we asked through senator re green energy tax breaks so the folks who are out there who are trying to build us the khana me and get us off foreign oil can get those tax breaks republicans said no and then we were asking if they would allow us to put in here a program as a president bush himself indorse is housing revenue bonds to help in the housing crisis the republicans said no so my colleagues we're all very happy that seniors and the disabled veterans are going to have a smile on their face tonight but we are far from done and we democrats are going to fight i come from a state that has twenty five percent of the default i can tell you when i go to the towns in my state and we had five roundtable discussion the terrible situation that our mayors are facing that are it's our facing that our counties are facing we need to do more and we democrats are not going to give up this is phase one thank you very much and i yield the floor president senator from tennessee is recognized i'm going to yield to myself two minutes since there's no other republican sensate of my distinguished friend from california who is chairman of one committee that i little puzzled about why when we come to a good conclusion and we stand up in compliment the democratic members and the majority leader for a good job and adopt the provision of the recommendations of speaker pelosi a great friend of the senator from california and someone i admire greatly why she feels it necessary to stand up and began to make a political speech about republicans saying no republicans have said yes and democrats have said yes and we're saying it for the country and you know for an answer since you mention me particular would yes i would be glad ok i'll be happy i speak the truth i speak the truth i stood next to senator reid and he made a request on all of those issues i outlined like he extended unemployment and tax breaks first for solar etc and republican side objected i speak the truth i am very happy that we've joined together on two aspects of the proposal but the truth is there's more to the story and we have more work to do and i hope that the fact that i mention this is to sort of spur you want to say come come to the table with us again and let's do more that's the reason i said what i said well i heard the  you're certainly entitled to say whatever she wishes to say but if she wants to bring it up we'll begin with the fact that the speaker of the house and the republican leader and four hundred members of the house now it was not the intention of the speaker of the house i soon to throw grandma from the train by sending us an economic stimulus package it was her intention i believe to send us a targeted timely proposal that would be temporary and that the american people could look at and say the congress in a bipartisan way has come to a good result they've got many opinions but they've decided what to do and they'll discuss the other issues on down the road i i would like to give the speaker of the house credit for that not criticize her for leaving out seniors not criticize her for leaving out disabled veterans not criticize our friends on the other side of the out finance committee for living out widows of disabled veterans which was happened in the first draft i see no benefit of that i think it's much better to do what my friend alex haley the late alex haley used to say find the good in praising and i think there's a good deal to praise here so so i'm not certainly objecting to the to the senator's right to say whatever she wishes she's eloquent and she's effective and she works in her committee in a very good way i'm just i would just like to see the tone of the debate on the senate floor a change so that it is possible from time to time when we do accomplish something together that we recognize we have different opinions and we can give credit to other people and when we do we often succeed i think the majority leader the republican leader the finance committee t speaker of the house the president and the republican leader in the house deserve a pat on the back for this there are many other issues to discuss down the road i'm i can think of some things that i would criticize the democratic majority for for all of our colleagues i've gone home i have listened to my constituents who are deeply concerned about the state of the economy today we are concerned about the high housing crisis about the rising cost of fuel and gas about the rising cost of health care the economic crisis that is facing many people today was reflected in the economic numbers that we've seen coming in over the last quarter we came back here a month ago united to make sure that we did what everyone agreed a temporary targeted package to get money back into the economy quickly and today we are about to do that but i have to say and i heard my colleague from california say the speaker of the house speaker pelosi did a good job in the limited amount of time with the agreement that she had to do to get a package here the senate doing the job of looking at it carefully and saying what do we need to do to improve this to make sure it work very highly commendable the package that we voted on last night had a number of very important provisions extension of unemployment insurance that like eat for millions of families who are very concerned about being able to heat their homes the energy package that my colleague senator cantwell worked hard to put in to stimulate jobs and bring jobs in critical regions of aren't of our nation and deal with the energy crisis as well those we're all the diplo disappointed on this side that but for one vote would be part of this package that would then go back to the house and we hoped to be signed by the president but because we responded by one fote vote we are here today saying what can we do and we're delighted that our republican colleagues have come with us to say we can do better and we added money to make sure that thousands of seniors across this country as well as disabled veterans would millions of  seniors as well as disabled veterans would be able to be a part of this economic stimulus families that are really struggling today so we did agree with the republicans and i commend our leader senator harry reid as well as max baucus the minority leader as well as senator grassley who have worked hard over the morning hours to come to this but i would say to the senator from tennessee we can express our disappointment that but for one vote we feel we could have had a better package but we are pragmatic on the side we believe we need to move forward we know that we cannot face days and days of delay we know we need to get this done and we have come together with democrats and republicans to move a package that i believe is in the best interest of the country at this time i would also want to say madam president that this is not the end of this debate this is our answer to get quickly a short economic stimulus but we are committed on this side and with a number of republican senators who joined us last night and that vote to continue to work to do a long term economic stimulus this crisis started with a housing issues that became the face of this crisis as millions of homeowners are losing their homes across the country and facing foreclosure we are committed to continue to move forward to address that housing crisis in a smart pragmatic way to make sure that we can do everything to help those families and to get this economy back on its feet we are committed to work with our colleagues from michigan and california and other states who are facing high unemployment to get extended unemployment insurance benefits for those families who are now facing very real crisis in their homes and with their ability to put food on the table we are committed to continue to try and get that one last vote for an energy package that will mean that our  will be brought here to the united states to create new alternative energy that will help not only job creation but our energy crisis as well so madam president i'm here to commend all of us for coming together in a few short minutes voting to pass a quick temporary relief that is well needed in this country but also a commitment from all of us to continue to work to make sure we address the long term economic stimulus wow thank you madam president i have the floor  senator from new york is recognized thank you madam president and i want to join my colleagues here in saying this is a very fine day for the american people it is a good day and i want to thank everybody who came together on this issue particularly senator reid and senator baucus who are steadfast leaders as we began to put together a stimulus package and i also want to thank my colleagues in the house led by speaker pelosi for that as well let me just say madam president we do have a serious economic crisis most economists would say we're headed to recession it's unfortunate that recession could have been avoided because the housing crisis is at the bull's eye of that recession and unfortunately this administration with ideological handcuffs around its wrists was unable to intervene and so the crisis spread housing prices declined and then the consumer stopped buying we had a very weak christmas season housing prices declined foreclosures and increased and there's a credit freeze so that many who wish to build and create commercial projects businesses that wish to borrow can't get the lending they need and as a result madam president we stand here at the precipice of a fairly soon the year economic downturn and we must do everything we can to make sure that there's that the severe effects of that that downturn are mitigated today's package does that early on we enunciated on our side three goals that a stimulus package be timely be targeted and be temporary the package today meets all three of those goals harry reid's promised speaker reid promise a leader reid promised that we would get a package to the president's desk on february fifteenth that we wouldn't let squabbles dilatory effects get in the way the package is on track to be signed by february fifteenth so that checks can be sent out to the american people as quickly as possible and they because they're most of them hard pressed will spend those checks and get the economy revved up we added to the package the house gave us a very good start and make no it the senate package is based on the house's basic structure but we fought hard to include twenty one million senior citizens two hundred fifty thousand disabled veterans they are now included in the package and it's a better package than the one that passed the house package in the house was good the package that's passing the senate is better it could have been better still it could have been best but our colleagues on the other side of the aisle again in those ideological handcuffs said we cannot spend money tax cuts are ok spending isn't well you know i know that's part of the old time hard right philosophy it's outdated now but it's economists tell us for instance that spending on unemployment insurance is the quickest way to get money into the economy the checks will flow hopefully in the spring but they can't flow more quickly because the i r s needs to gear up its computers and they're busy with tax returns and tax refunds if we were to extend unemployment insurance we would mainstream money into the economy much more quickly and unemployment insurance gives the biggest bang for the buck a dollar seventy four for every dollar spent tax breaks are good but they give about a dollar ninety and so if one were not ideological didn't care of the money went to the rich the middle class or the poor but just said let's get the economy going unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance would be included in the package but the ideological predispositions of the other side not listening to a condom miss martin feldstein testified before our finance committee a conservative economist worked for republican presidents said unemployment insurance makes sense but they refused to do it we made a valiant attempt we tried we were blocked by the other side one vote we tried to bring lie he funds in those of us from northern states know how hard it is to heat your home with the price of oil and gas through the roof they said no housing as i said is at the bull's eye of this crisis we tried to bring in mortgage revenue bonds which the president himself supported but those on the other side said no so good better that the house package good the senate package better it could have been best except our colleagues on the other side of the  to block let me say two other things in conclusion madam president i ask unanimous consent for two additional minutes not to come out of democratic time just two of minutes added on  checks will not solve there are problems with housing and we are putting together a good housing practice package that will include not only mortgage revenue bonds but assistance for loan supervisors loan counselors who will help people restructure help to get fannie and freddie encourage fannie and freddie to get money in so mortgages can be refinanced and the conforming loan limits which should pass in this package that will help our housing area we also will put together a package that deals with infrastructure a time honored way of getting the economy moving and hopefully with some local assistance to help states with their increased medicaid burden and energy assistance so that not just lie heat but also the kinds of things the senator from washington state senator cantwell has pioneered tax breaks for green energy to create jobs and keep jobs here we will put a tape together a package that will do all of that we expect they'll be resistance from the other side the only thing that will probably stop that is if the economy hurdles south even further and the second thing i wanted to say is this some ask me outside well did you do this for power ticks absolutely not we tried to craft and i know well because i'm on the finance committee more closely with senator baucus we tried to craft a package that would give the economy bang for the buck but if today members on the other side of  because they voted no that's what democracy is all about there were real choices here real choices some said yes some said no we should be held accountable by our constituents for that that's what democracy is all about so while it was substance totally substance i can tell you that having been there that motivated our package the political chips will fall where they may this is a great day  american people a day to try and improve our economy i'm proud of what we have done and we'll work hard to make it better i yield the floor madam president senator from tennessee madam president in response to the comments of the center of new york i simply would would say that it is reassuring to hear the chairman of the democratic senatorial campaign committee come to the floor and say let the political chips fall where they may while denying that he had any political motive in his comments  i try to keep i tried to begin the remarks here after the majority leader made a an excellent talk and the republican leader made an excellent talk by complimenting speaker pelosi by complimenting mr boehner by complimenting the president by saying that senator and to fix a problem that apparently needed fixing by leaving out widows of disabled veterans they offered that we all agreed that that was a good result i guess the senate floor is always appropriate for whatever any individual sender may wish to say but sometimes i wish that it were more about substance and less about politics and this is an opportunity where we can talk more about substance we have our princip differences of opinion on where we go from here but we have agreed on the temporary as a senator of new york said good from the house better from the senate i agree with that now when we get the best when we get the best we'll fast i assume we're going to be arguing from principles and we're going to say to make this economy better for the long term we need to limit runaway lawsuits and he may say we don't i don't mean that that'll make him politically squirm i soon he actually believes that we may say that we want to continue tax cuts and he may want to raise taxes should he say that i don't intend to try to make him politically squirm i  sume he just believes that perhaps we can agree that we ought to implement the america competes law which we work together to pass last year perhaps we can agree that we ought to increase the number of h b t visas so talented foreign people can come do research and work and then stay here and create jobs here instead of overseas in india when it comes to an energy package i may say more nuclear power and someone on the other side may say less but i don't that to make them squirm politically so i like the fact that we can come here and compete like his characterization of i may say so of good better best because i think if we have an economic stimulus package that the right kind of competition is to say they have an even better and then we'll have to go to work and come up even better one than that but i reject the notion that what has been done here is to cause republican senators to squirm we feel pretty good about avoiding turning this bill into an excuse to spend more money but we respect the fact that those on the other side have a genuine belief that spending more money is the way they would prefer to go over the long term so i guess i'm expressing a little bit of disappointment in the tone of the debate here at the end that's all i'm expressing but i thought i ought to express it is that i'm letting this go on and on in the s just so the republican side has eleven minutes and seventeen seconds remaining the democratic side eight minutes and six seconds senator from michigan i would ask unanimous consent for one minute from the majority's time without objection so thank you very much certainly we come here today supportive of what has been done to this point congratulating the house for beginning this process on which we can build but i think it's very important that we make it clear what has happened here we had the majority of the senate that supported something that would have gone farther something that would have been better in my judgment and it was stopped by a filibuster and our inability to get one vote one republican vote to join with us just stop the filibuster and so what does that mean it means millions of unemployed middle class americans are left out unemployment benefits one of the top two areas that economists have agreed upon just to make the economy left out because of one vote from our republican colleagues we just need one more vote to include that jobs of alternative energy production we literally have businesses saying they will bring jobs back from overseas to this country we lost that by one vote those jobs will stay away plants we are told will not improve and may in fact close certain projects because of the loss of one republican vote help the homebuilders and the homeowners at the heart of this crisis help for other employers struggling to invest and keep americans employed we lost this by  one vote and that is what is so unfortunate here today thank you madam president thank then president senator from illinois i recognize my understand how much times last six minutes six minutes and seventeen seconds and one of the request i have five minutes does senator from arkansas i'll just take four minutes in the chair would notify me so the senator from arkansas has heard two minutes plus you know it is interesting here that the american economy is suffering from some ailment that leads us to believe it's headed to recession and so how are we going to treat this ailment this fever well we're trying to come up with some medicine in a hurry before it gets worse the federal reserve lower the interest rates in then we understood we could do our part in congress on a bipartisan basis let's try to do something now before something worse happens we know are bad it is all of the people who are unemployed the stock market in trouble housing in shambles across america the housing industry flat on its back and so we try to come up with something quick temporary and targeted to get this economy back on its feet and i give credit to both the house the senate or the house republicans and democrats for reach an agreement something is a bill in and we sat down in the senate and said can we improve it is there a way to put a little more republican vote we had all the democrats and eight republicans we needed one more we couldn't get it done so today we decided that we had to take the best parts of it that we could on a bipartisan basis and pass it and i'm glad we're going to do that you know as i go around this country people say the same thing over and over you stop squabbling on capitol hill and get down to work when you try to do things together today we will what the senate finance committee did is improve the house bill and give us a chance to help this ailing economy gets back on its feet what if this isn't enough medicine what if it's the wrong medicine i think we're going to go back to some of the things that were rejected last night unemployment insurance lawyer read the list one point two million americans are going to see their unemployment insurance benefits in this month we want to extend their protection there's some who came to the floor in the other side and argued against that oh they say if somebody is unemployed you have to punish him you have to pressure them to go back to work ever try to live on an unemployment check i've run into people who do it and it isn't a rosy life i think people are looking for jobs and finding them very difficult to locate i think we're going to return and many of the things rejected last night by the republican side will be part of the second dose of medicine for this kind of me this economy needs to get well we need to give the right medicine in the right amounts for it to happen this is a good start with one more republican vote last night i think we could have given a full spectrum of medicine to put this economy on the right track if our efforts fail now with this stimulus package we need to come back and put back into the law the things that were defeated last night by the republicans and more we need an economic recovery package for america i'm sick and tired of sin and bill use of dollars over to iraq to rebuild hospitals and schools and highways and not do the same thing in america we've got to focus on putting americans to work with good paying jobs with decent benefits so that building spending again in this economy starts charging forward again for too long we have ignored working families and any economic recovery plan has to focus on those working families first and that's why i hope that we pass this soon monitored carefully and if we do more let us respond as quickly as we can i reserve the balance of my time for the senator from arkansas started in the house was then very quickly they baptise their committees and they really back past the consideration of the senate until we got the package and so what we tried to do was to do our very very bad to improve upon that package and white that we felt like was really really not only stimulate the economy but do justice to the american people as our feet to the conversation that happened before me from the senator from tennessee and the senator from new york here i don't think what we're talking about here is whether we're just going to you know as i have to take up whatever we can do we tell the american people to do our very very best here to do the best we can to stimulate the economy and make sure that we're including every american in a part of that stimulus package and i think that's what we tried to do in the senate finance committee under the tremendous thoughtful leadership of chairman baucus and senator grass we came up with a plan that yes not only look at what we could do in those rebate making sure that we equitably distributed those dollars not just to those that were included under the pelosi bush plan but also to include seniors the chairman  ranking member found a way to include saying you're qualifying yourself a security income for rebate income threshold but they also looked at the crisis epicenter the the how large issue they looked at the unemployed that were getting ready to fall off the rolls and who are working families that need to take care of their kids and and their aging parents they looked at new job creation they were new level energy sources what an incredible way for us to begin to reinvigorate the economy to make a quick hit in jobs that were already in existence that we're probably going to leave if we didn't do something about it and i joined my colleagues senator snowe was very proud to join senator snowe is that i regularly am to author an amendment  veterans disability income as well we want to add veterans disability income to make sure that our disabled veterans would also get a rebate check because i know looking out there they need it just as well you know i'll be glad is that to to to give a minute of our time to the senator from arkansas she'd like to finish your remark mr president if if we could if the senator would be so gracious that would be very much pressure and i thought our side of the as always my neighbor from tennessee is gracious and a tremendous gentleman but mr president here in washington we often get into the business of debating policy specifics and we lose sight of what it's all about and just before we finish this debate i want to remind people what it's about a gentleman like james frey who lives in west memphis right across the border from the gentleman from tennessee he has served in the united states army from one nine hundred seventy two to one thousand nine hundred seventy seven and led him around the random around the world and two or three times he said but change his disability makes it hard for him to work and to get bad day to day he gets three hundred fourteen dollars in a disability check that he receives from the v a each month which is his primary source of income and now because of the modifications we've made here in the senate james and other folks like him will qualify for that rebate how could any of us argue that james frey who has served our nation very courageous proudly should not be included in this package today that he would not appreciate the opportunity to receive a stimulus check and that it would not put it back right back into the economy this is a good package mr president we had hoped that we would do our very best but it is a good package and we want to make sure that as we take this step to stimulate the economy in this great nation that we will prepare ourselves for the next piece of recovery that we can offer a recovery pace that will be more long term more substantial in making sure that we deal with job creation and some of the other crises that exist it's going to be good for our economy now it's going to be good for our working families and good for seniors good for our veterans and due to some additions i think from the other side also good for the widows of veterans so i appreciate the fact that we're moving forward on behalf of the american people i want to say thanks to my a colleague from tennessee for a few a few remarks i believe all the democratic time is is used in most of ours is used in the vote is scheduled for fourteen and i'm not mistaken let's start from the beginning here once again  the first order of business when congress convene and the president made his state of the union address was to say to the american people we see that the economy is slowing down and we want to do whatever we can from washington even though we realize this is a huge economy fifteen trillion or so dollars a year we want to see if there is something we can do quickly that will stimulate the economy and the president and the democratic speaker of the house and the republican leader of the house with the agreement of of the majority and minority leader of the senate took at and in very short order they reported in the house passed with only thirty five or so dissenting votes provisions that would give about one hundred fifty billion dollars two thirds of it straight to individual taxpayers middle and low income so they could keep more of their own money spend it and stimulate the economy and about a third of it to small businesses in america so that they could keep more of their own money and create new jobs that was sent to us the senate finance committee worked hard on that in and and came up with some recommendations one of those recommendations was to add seniors another was to add disabled veterans that recommendation was an idea that senator stevens of alaska and senator mcconnell of kentucky thought was a good idea and in their own amendment offered that on the floor then had a vote yesterday which represent a philosophical difference of opinion most on the other side wanted to spend another forty billion dollars most on this side thought that was an excuse to spend so we resolved that as the senate always does unless you can get sixty votes or a consensus we can't go ahead so the ones who wanted to spend more didn't win for now and we kept that we kept the package at about the same spending level that it was adding as virtually all wanted to do seniors and disabled veterans and their widows so in a very short order we have a result and i'd like to end my remarks as we come towards a vote about where i started earlier which is that this is a conclusion that deserves i hope will earn the respect of the people the united states because it was fashioned in the house the senate has largely respected the work that they've done we believe we've improved it we're sending it back we're doing this in a provision that's a timely and targeted and temporary way and then we'll move on both sides will to offer our long term solutions for how we can continue to make this economy stronger the only differences of opinion there may be more spending there and there may be more tax cuts here there may be more r reservation of runaway lawsuits here unless there but we can have those arguments they'll be principled arguments and hopefully they will show that the united states senate and the united states house when it sets its mind to can work with the president on big issues and get results i think the toward mr president unless there are other republican senators who wish to speak we'll back our time mr demand mr dodd mrs dole voting in the negative allard and bye bye bye mr lugar i smith mr smith i to nelson mr nelson of florida i kennedy mr kennedy  saying here on the previous sort of the clerk will read the bill for the third time h r fifty one forty and act provide economic stimulus through recovery rebates to individuals incentives for business investment and an increase in conforming  mr brown mr brownback mr bonnie mr burn mr feingold mrs feinstein mr kyle mr lieberman mr martinez mr mccain mr nelson of nebraska mr obama mr pryor mr reed of rhode island mr reid of nevada mr roberts mr rockefeller mr salazar mr sanders mr shelby mr smith mr cochrane  ms present what we have done here is the staffs are working out a consent agreement that we're going to have three recorded votes we're going to be able to dispose of two other votes by voice and then we are working toward it's not done yet but we're working towards that maybe being all the votes we would have tonight and then what we would try to do on what we're not trying to do the only way we can get from here to there is get it done is tomorrow we still have a lot of debate left in this matter because of the work we spent dealing with the stimulus package so today we would do all the votes we can now we are going to have a thing indicated at least five members we get rid of i think that will leave about five we will then have debate there's a number of amendments that there still like six hours of debate left on miller's they would complete that debate hopefully get or read a lot of tomorrow what they can't do tomorrow they would do on monday then tuesday morning we would start our final votes on this we're going to have to do there's a cloture vote involved in this also but i think the time we can work out the time factor on the cloture vote and have final passage on there sometime on tuesday i've asked senator rockefeller to we have a pretty good idea what will be in the final package that comes out of here and so i think it would be to everyone's benefit that he and sen senator bond inspector will work with their house counterparts to see if they can come up with a package to bring back to us what we're facing with this because of that constrain in time is with all that's gone on even though i've complained a few times and i think there's no need to point fingers now we're where we are and we have to complete this quickly as we can and try to finish this bill include conference correct well now mr president we have we just lost one of them so now we're determined to roll call votes in two that will be accepted by voice so we're two steps forward one back but we are making some progress so the answer is yes we'll have two  i were just speaking a moment ago about the other piece of legislation that we hope we might finish when phase is completed and next tuesday or wednesday the indian health care improvement act which we started on on the floor of the senate i would ask the senator might we expect to be able to bring that up for a day we believe we could finish that in a day next week i say to my friend is there anything that can be done on it tomorrow or monday i mean it is has the date on all the amendments been completed mr president i believe that we have worked through most of all areas of controversy where we're waiting i believe senator coburn has some amendments that he would like some votes on but i think we've made a lot of progress and both sides of the aisle hoping we can include that next week to be completed on the floor of the senate i say to my friend distinguished senator from north dakota because that is there a way that we could have a consent agreement you think that would give us that there will be very few votes required i think senator coburn has some that may require a couple of votes but by and large i think we've worked through most of the issues and as i said senator kyl senator thune and that side have been working with me but i would very much like to get  whatever list or whatever time agreements we need so that we could bring that up we really do need to finish that next week following the disposition of pfizer if it's possible i ask my good friend of the very reason to vote we're going to have a short time if you could work to see if we could have a specific number of limits how much time is left on them and they are completed final pass deserves mr leader i've been working with north dakota and while we have not surveyed all of the members on this side i believe that the issues that are well known to us have surfaced the three key issues have mostly been worked through as i understand and senator coburn i believe is willing to put a time agreement on the amendments that he has all of which is to say that i believe unless there are some folks on our side that have not come  forth and will search it will will enquire that it should be possible to get a time agreement with specific amendments that is not very long in this and that would result in the bill being included in relatively short time but what we do need to survey the rest of our members isn't a matter of great urgency to the people that we represent it's the law overdue that we get to get this done and so i will do everything i can on our side to make it possible for us to limit any further amendments or  anything that might further delay moving to a final vote on this but i appreciate the the leader's indulgence and would along with the colleague my colleague from north dakota just simply ask that when we complete action on this that we move to that bill find to my three originally we thought this bill would take one day and we know it's been bifurcated because of other things and i would really think that the florian's then another day a few days on this we have to do everything we can to see if we can come up with a tight agreement to give us a way to get to the end of this so we have final passage that we don't need to speak as i have about the drastic need for this in indian territory we need to do this so i hope that my friends is certainly bipartisan piece of legislation we can work out some tight time agreements and as part of the final passage mr president i might just say the leader again i don't know of any reason why that cannot be done there is certainly no intention on our side to take a long time or slow it down but seven north dakota would verify that i have work to try to resolve issues that were outstanding it is my belief that this can be done within a time period that is acceptable to you mr leader majority leader has a unanimous consent request pending is or objection without objection to order president this president i think the majority leader for requesting ten minutes morning business is present the state of illinois is home to some of the most dynamic and innovative financial services in the world for the futures market chicago is a global leader i pay particularly close attention to the vitality of these markets that's an important part not only of the economy of my home state but of the economy of our nation and the work in the futures market have a direct impact on everything from pork bellies to currencies to the price of oil i'm deeply disturbed with what has taken place this week within the department of justice relative to those teacher markets as we have been told the staff at the justice department recently wrote a memo to the part of treasury questioning the structure of clearing and settlement services in the u s futures industry the staff has referred to concerns about restraint on competition and other issues what is troubling about this disclosure is that the department of justice staffers apparently are claiming that they were simply commenting on a treasury proposal regarding the overall competitiveness of america's financial  comment period on the treasury proposal ended two months ago two months before the department of justice released this memo and it's been more than six months since that same department of justice approved the merger  chicago mercantile exchange and the chicago board of trade well people say so what bureaucrats release memos who pays any attention to those well let me tell you what happened yesterday when this memo became public the stock price of the commercial of the chicago mercantile exchange stock declined by over one hundred dollars in one day that reduced shareholders market capitalization by almost six billion dollars a memo from the department of justice to the department of treasury linked to the dow jones press service which became public cost the chicago mercantile exchange in one day market capitalization of almost six billion dollars there was no justification for this memo the comment period was closed the department of justice had acted on the merger and there was no reason to release it i've joined with my colleague congressman emanuel and sending a letter to attorney general to casey and secretary paulson calling on them to not only look at the substance of this memo but also the circumstances by what right did this staff memo issued in the first place are released to the press i want to just quote one of the commissioners of the commodity futures trading commission that's the government agency responsible for regulating these markets this is what the commissioner said the department just a staffer letter has unfortunately roiled the markets and this is precisely the kind of behavior that government regulators are supposed to take ordinary care and attention to avoid he's right i think that that letter was entirely inappropriate and the fact that it was leaked to the press and i don't know where whether it was leaked to justice or at treasury is something that should be investigated i don't want to read too much into this but someone who understood the impact of the market and decided to short the stock could made a lot of money yesterday i'm not saying that occurred but that's how serious it is that the stock would go down one hundred dollars in one day because of this action today the stock has started to recover i'm glad but still we have to answer at the federal level why this ever occurred these markets are ready for to be regulated and examined and they should be we want transparency and public trust at every single level and we know that competition in this market goes far beyond the united states these are now international and global markets and the chicago mercantile exchange is one of the leaders in these markets they should be closely regulated closely watched and should be subject to all of the laws and regulations concerning transparency but when some staffer at the department of justice can take a potshot at this global market and cost them almost six billion dollars of market capitalization in one day i think we have a right to demand accountability i'm joining with my colleagues in the senate and in the house in calling on this of ministration to look into this matter as quickly as possible i hope to find out why this comment letter was filed two months after the treasury department deadline if the member was meant to be related to that effort and i hope to find out if the department justice considered its influence on the markets prior to drafting this letter or leaking this letter or whatever was done i hope there isn't more to this story than the justice department staffers are claiming but i wonder and that's the reason i've written to these two leaders in the administration asking for a timely response mr president i yield the floor suggest the absence of be called back up the files a bill is that correct that would be the regular order if if the proponent of the amendment is ready i would suggest that  of that act and for other purposes from wisconsin thank you mr president this is the amendment that we call use limits m m m m a number three nine one five this amendment gives the feis a court the option of preventing the government from using information on s persons it is collected using targeting or minimization procedures that are later found to be illegal as the legislation now stands if the government uses procedures that are later declared unlawful there's nothing to stop it from using the information it collected illegally this doesn't make any sense and it takes away any incentive for the government to develop lawful procedures the first time around it's also not consistent with the approach suffice it takes to other illegally collecting information if the government conducts emergency surveillance that is later found to be improper faisel already prohibits the government from using that information importantly under my amendment information about foreigners or information that indicates a threat of death or bodily harm could always be used by the government even if it were collected under illegal procedures and the fights in court also has the discretion to allow the government to use illegally collected information about u s persons so it's an extremely modest safeguard a very reasonable amendment i would urge my veto it says by requiring analysts to go back to the relevant databases and exact certain information as well as to determine what other information is derived this requirement places a tremendous burden operational burden on the intelligence committee i agree and the remainder my time to the chairman senator from west virginia  under the new authority there is no need to add another penalty to ensure compliance with the requirement of the statute the amendment gives the statute cards very little discretion to determine whether non disclosure is the appropriate remedy nondisclosure could be required even if the amendment is particularly significant foreign intelligence information of us preventing that or if there is only a minor deficiency in the procedure that cannot be corrected within thirty days that's a very short way of saying that i opposed this me and that the time until five twenty five p m the for debate with respect to these amendments on locke and upon the us really back in time the senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order listed above that there be two minutes of eight prior to the second vote and th of time we determine this senate then proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order specified with two minutes of debate prior to votes equally divided control than usual form and any sixteen votes feingold and suggested that we have four minutes equally divided on the on the next boat so that he can have two minutes and the chairman and i have  do i have on the use one that's a member center from wisconsin have two minutes as president just again i want to respond to the senator from west virginia's argument that this amendment would somehow impose a burden because it would require the government to identify information about u s persons resident i want to be clear these use limits kick in all honestly if the government proposes to disseminate and use the information in which case the bill's minimization procedures already require the government to identify information about u s person so i can't for the life of me figure out what the senator is referring to when he refers to the new b imposes no additional burden at all present is not yet been made i ask for the  mr conrad mr kennedy i of florida i smith mr smith no conrad mr conrad i ok i'm sorry are there any senators in the chamber who have not voted or who wish to change their vote if not the a's are thirty nine and the knaves are fifty six the amendment is not agreed to the majority later motor reconsider that vote laid out on the table without objection ms pr tuesday how much time before the vote we've got you down for twenty minutes that both men are to be recognized for twenty minutes on tuesday for every call post closure but that objection there are now four minutes evenly divided before the next vote to yield time president senator from wisconsin reversed argument number thirty nine thirteen was approved by the senate judiciary committee of the senate come to order senate come to or could you please take your conversations off the floor center from wisconsin and it's co sponsored by several of our colleagues it simply ensures that the new authorities contained in this bill are not used to engage in what is known as reverse targeting of americans here at home fights or requires a government to get a court order when it is wiretapping americans on american soil reversed targeting refers to the possibility that the government will try to get around this requirement by using these new authorities to wiretap someone overseas what the government is really trying to do and is really interested in is in the american with whom that foreign person is communicating the bill pretends to ban reverse targeting but this ban is so weak as to be meaningless it would allow reverse targeting as long as the government can claim it conversations off the off the floor into the cloak rooms and in wisconsin about as president the amendment says the government needs an individualized court order when a significant purpose of the surveillance is to acquire communications of a person inside the united states the director of national intelligence has testified that this practice reversed targeting is a violation of the fourth amendment that's what the d n i says this amendment merely codified that constitutional principle i strongly urge my colleagues to support this important moment  center from west virginia says if we're if we're targeting folks overseas that in effect we have to we have to get a five a court approval for each and every times if that professionals they're very very serious about it d n i the attorney general hamper u s intelligence operations currently authorized because every single person would have to have a court order and when you're collecting overseas that becomes kind of a burden the technical details turning such intelligence operations are classified the concern is that the restriction would prevent the government from doing intelligence collection against a foreign city or a foreign neighborhood in a foreign city in advance of a military operation or in perhaps in pursuit of a cell the amendment is unnecessary the fourth amendment but senator find little wants to replace this test one that one would make the analysts engage in mental gymnastics trying to figure out if a significant purpose is to target someone inside the u s this significant purpose so's an additional concern and it's the analysts who gather and examine intelligence need clear rules not an ambiguous significant purpose standard this would the adoption of this is so serious to the operation of our analysts that the d n i and the attorney general would recommend a veto if it's adopted we worked hard and we have a good bipartisan bill that significantly adds to the protections of civil liberties we need to pass this bill i join with my colleague from west virginia the chairman and urging our colleagues to oppose the amendment second the majority leader is present we've made progress on fice and we have more progress to make it if it pears to me that this will be the last recorded vote we have a number of other majors we're going to try to appreciated ones good hard work this week and look for the next week mr cochran mr and no way mr martinez mr mccain mrs mccaskill mr mcconnell mr menendez mr roberts mr rockefeller mr sessions charcoal lautenberg leahy levon not tall skinny murray nelson of florida reed of rhode island say under schumer stabbing out tester whitehouse and wyden senators voting in the it are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote on this the i's are thirty eight the nays are fifty seven the amendment is not thank the chair and i thank my colleagues very i'd like to call up amendment number thirty nine forty one rockefeller bond pending court to conduct a review of the petition from an electronic communication service provider challenging a directive from the government and review a petition by the government to enforce compliance with its directives i think that having the court conducted conduct expedited reviews of these petitions whether from the provider or from the government is in everyone's best interest these questions are are essential to be resolved one way or the other for the protection of the private partners as well as to the protection of our national security as long as challenges of enforcement proceedings remain pending before the court the intelligence community cannot and intercept terrorist communications through that provider those are not unreasonable requirements rather they reflect the judgment of this body and the other that in the area of national security important decisions that go to the heart of our intelligence collection should be made on an expedited basis the d n i and the attorney general of advised us they strongly support this amendment because it would quote ensure that challenges to directives at the titians to compel compliance with directives are adjudicated in a manner that avoids do delays in critical intelligence collection unquote and we couldn't agree more i hope we will be able to accept this amendment and i yield the floor to my distinguished chairman mr president from west virginia  my remarks only to our only to indicate strong support for this amendment it's a wise modification as far as i know there is are none who dissented from it and i think it's  i hope it will be accepted all time as yield back the question is on the amendment as modified on favor say aye opposed no the eyes appear to have it the eyes do have it the amendment is not only the fact that everything that could be said and kind of all the amendments had been said but i believe we've given everybody a chance to say it and the good news is that when tuesday comes around  have short time agreements and proceed to vote on these critically important amendments and then we hope cloture and cloture is invoked final passage with everybody had an opportunity to express themselves and again i personally express my thanks to the leadership to the members of the committee who stood with us in our staff and i think our colleagues for letting us come to this position where we see this senator in the course of this year i have said this senator has spent six months working on the children's health insurance bill with staff as is always the case doing so much work that they sleep two or three hours a night including weekends and she's nothing we've had in a sense the same process on the it's very complicated because it's mysterious and it's because it's a very delicate subject and it requires this very very impossible balance between intelligence collection for the screw the nation and the civil liberties of the people it becomes even more complicated and there were a lot of people who are voting with a lot without with their hearts in their throats because they were not necessarily read into the program or the intelligence that was involved but nevertheless was a senate bill and i'm extremely proud of the way that the vice chairman and others to actually the leader and the minority leader have conducted this took quite some time to get it going and i do believe i see the light also at the end of the tunnel i think if we do our work on tuesday we'll have time to come conferences for the house and to send a bill to the front in any event i'm grateful to kill each of the staff whose work is never mentioned enough and to the process which in our system of government works its way one way or another mr president senator from utah as president i ask unanimous consent that i might be allowed to proceed as if in morning business for the next five minutes without objection this president this afternoon i and a number of others who have been supporting governor mitt romney for the presidency of the united states met with the governor and his good wife and to have a post mortem following his announcement that he was suspending his campaign was perhaps the first member of this chamber to announce my public indorsement of governor romney so i want to be among the first to extend my congratulations to senator mccain who has now by virtue of governor romney's suspension of his campaign locked up the republican nomination we all have our understanding of senator mccain's persistence and his determination to go forward in what he considers to be a good cause there is never been a demonstration of the importance of that persistence quite as dramatic as his comeback from this campaign we can remember the time when all of the pundits and frankly all of the rest of us myself very much included wrote off the mccain campaign assuming that senator mccain campaign senator mccain was lying dead in the gutter by the side of the road i remember talking to some of his supporters here in this chamber at that time who said the mccain campaign is reeling and we don't know whether it's going to ever come back and i remember the rumors that flow around this town where people said we can't raise any money for the mccain campaign no one wants to contribute to a lost cause and john mccain perhaps alone maybe add the support of his wife i assume he did said no i'm going to go forward he picked himself up took him self off to new hampshire and did the same kind of thing he did eight years ago when he ran against president bush in this case he not only won new hampshire but he was able to expand that to wins elsewhere to the point where we have the result here today so he deserves our congratulations as we recognize this truly extraordinary political accomplishment on his part i would share with my colleagues this comment from governor romney as those of us were supporting him from both the house and the senate were gathered around him and talking about this he shared with us this particular insight he looked at what had happened he sat down with his supporters they looked for all of the reasons why he should feel good they pointed out that he had won four million votes in the various primaries and caucuses and senator mccain had won four point seven million so in terms of the voters who supported him he wasn't that far behind he had won eleven states senator mccain had won thirteen so on that basis he wasn't that far behind but the cold calculating reality of it was he was very far behind as far as the delegates were concerned and so he said to his advice as hers and his political consultants what would it take for me to win the nomination and they said to him very bluntly you must destroy john mccain that was not his word i don't remember his exact words but you must go negative to use the vocabulary of the political consultant in such a way as to make it impossible for john mccain to proceed with the confidence of the american people and governor romney said i'm not going to try that even if it might work i don't want to try that i don't want to do that and he made the decision that was announced here today so along with my congratulations to senator mccain on his extraordinary achievement and his assuming the position now as the obvious republican nominee i also want to congratulate my friend romney on the graciousness with which he recognized what was happening and his willingness to withdraw now rather than drag the party on into a protracted f that would make it very difficult for senator mccain to take control of the levers of power in the party and organize themselves for the fight in the fall these are are two good men each one of different views each one a very different background each one of which would bring a different set of talents to the presidency each one of which has now exposed himself to the fire of the consider the following nominations executive calendar numbers for forty two to four fifty one except for fifty and all nominations on the secretary's desk in the air force army marine corps and navy  confirmed on block that the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table on block upon confirmation the president the immediately notified of the senate's action in the senate resume legislative session without objection this president ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes it business today it stand in recess until nine thirty a m tomorrow february eighth that following the prayer and the pledge of allegiance the journal of proceedings be approved to date the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and the senate then resume consideration of s twenty two forty eight the foreign intelligence surveillance act as under the previous order without objection was present today we were able to achieve a milestone in the senate session and able to reach an overall agreement to have all remaining amendments to pfizer debated tomorrow and monday there will be no roll call votes tomorrow or monday however senator should be prepared to vote when the senate convenes at ten a m on tuesday if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that it now stand in recess under the previous or