know god the giver of every good and perfect gift thank you for the favor which you have given to humanity we're grateful lord for the nobility you have placed in human hearts that enables us to toil until we pass the breaking point and still not break thank you but you have enabled us to love until even self is forgotten thank you also for those who willingly sacrifice remorse thank you for the members of this legislative body who labor to be your ambassadors of reconciliation in a divided world commit their time effort and resources to formulate public policy in keeping with your will for our beloved nation we so robert c byrd president pro tempore this president majority leader is recognized the following leader time there be a period morning business for up to one hour but the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or the designees with the majority controlling the first house republicans controlling the final house following morning business the senate will resume consideration of each are nine hundred the collective bargaining legislation will call votes are expected to occur throughout the day as present on this legislation i think it's really been  exemplary all the amendments of this point have been offered relate to labor issues and that's important isn't this a bipartisan bill we should be able to legislate on this hopefully get it completed in the near future there's a lot of pent up desire on both sides to offer amendments on all different issues and i think we would get more done if we could focus on this legislation and i indicated to center and see who  so involved in this how we would proceed on this he has been as he always is a gentleman he and senator kennedy didn't get everything worked out on this piece of legislation the things that they wanted prior to coming to the floor therefore science he feels an obligation offer some amendments to take care of some of the issues that he feels are important and i support him on that as president yes j raz thirty two is at the desk and is due for a second reading the clerk will read the resolution for a second senate joint resolution thirty two limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to certain proposed sale of defense articles and defense services to the kingdom of turning this over to the republican leader we have worked long and hard on this farm bill it is a bipartisan bill it is many struggle to get where we are but it's  involved in this it's a very important piece of legislation and the we expect to turn to the farm conference report as soon as we see it from the house we even will try to do it before it comes there if we can get a consent agreement  can limit debate on this matter and get it out of here remember this week we've got to hopefully dispose of this collective bargaining legislation we have to take care of the farm bill we have to point conferees on the budget and we also have to dispose of because we are a statutory problem on the media cross ownership issue and that is ten hours of debate on that i hope you can limit that significantly on things we need to complete this week and this week it's  for the republican leaders recognized more than a hundred years ago the hunger and journalist the arts will set the lotion of political lumet that would change the world parcells vision for a jewish child lad would not be realized in his lifetime the jewish people had remained faithful to their traditions praying and hoping for their eventual return that right was acknowledged in the balfour declaration of nineteen seventeen and reaffirmed by the mandate of the league of nations and gain twenty tw nazi holocaust made israel's establishment all the more urgent and had created among the american people a deep sympathy for the aspirations of the jewish people a stroke of midnight on this day in nineteen forty eight the modern state of israel was born and just eleven minutes later here in the air in the u s president truman recognized the new state so little time for all time the bond between our two countries but deep friendship between america and israel is natural given the many political and moral values we share but our strong diplomatic ties were far more far from inevitable historians tell us that recognition was strenuously opposed by secretary of state george marshall a foreign policy realist who valued strategic interests over humanitarian concerns in this case marshall was overridden by his commander in chief who following the holocaust saw the moral and humanitarian imperative of the jewish people having their own state despite president truman's deep respect for marshall it was a decision that truman would never regret it the u s congress it should be noted had spoken out on the issue long before recognition was even sought as far back as one thousand and twenty two congress expressed its sympathy for a sovereign homeland for the jewish people it would take two more decades for that state to come about but when it did congress and the american people were ready once you again to express overwhelming support in the decades since the birth of the modern state of israel much has this desert land has in many ways become a land that flow it with milk and honey and this it reflects the engine nudity and resourcefulness of the israeli people over time the usa over a relationship has only grown stronger bond it was originally based largely on moral grounds and shared values has been fortified by shared strategic gun trust while some arab states recognize israel most do not and israel faces numerous threats including an existential threat from iran yet on this day of celebration it is not fervent hope that israel ascents albright its birth as a state that is recognized by all of its arab neighbors safe from the threat of terror until then i know my colleagues and i will do everything in our power to ensure that the us is a relationship is robust and that the jewish state has all it needs to defend itself on this anniversary we send our best wishes and every expression of heartfelt goodwill and congratulations to the jewish  under the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate will proceed to a period of mourning business for up to one hour with a time equally divided in control between the two leaders or their designees with the majority controlling the first half and the republican controlling the final have mr president senator from ohio i thank you mr president a little more than two hours i will join members of the united states and colombia and labor organizations  news conference speaking out against the human rights abuses in colombia and speaking out against a pending free trade agreement that would ignore those abuses and in some sense accuse those abuses much of the talk about disagreement centers around the violence and the impudent punitive in colombia especially as it relates to trade unionists and for good reason international organizations in human rights groups in religious groups look at colombia's record with alarm and with urgency human rights defenders trade unionists community leaders religious leaders are today in too many cases today receiving death threats from the rearm paramilitary groups such as the black eagles in are reeling from a new wave of violence before during and after a countrywide rally and march sixth two thousand and eight against paramilitary and all forms of violence at least two march or two march organizers were killed union leaders carlos bourbon oh and carmen cecilia carvalho were killed for trying simply trying to voice their views three other social leaders were killed in events that also were associated with the march march organizers all over the country received death threats one organizers house was attacked with gunfire in february twenty ninth these human rights issues are serious yet the administration takes them in stride barely acknowledging the colombian kalter of violence and then impunity impunity in too many cases for those who committed those violent acts a short while stand with nearly a dozen brave women and men who've come to washington to give witness to the horrific danger they think this and their loved ones face every day these brave men and women face threats to their jobs threats to their families threats to their homes threats to their lives they are under threat because they've taken a stand they have fought for labor and human rights in colombia one message i want to take one thing to take back to colombia is that we're not were simply not taking what is happening to them lightly the administration may be taking it lightly an awful lot of people in the house and senate an awful lot of americans don't take this lightly will push the bush administration to take a stand against the violence occurring in colombia instead of glossing over it the president must not forsake our nation's values our profound respect for the rule of law our nation's hard won progress on behalf of labor rights and human rights and basic rights again the president must not forsake our nation's values and our profound respect for the rule of law our our hard won progress to establish labor rights and human rights and basic rights the president must not forsake our values or dismiss the sacrifices of so many the colombian government's taken steps acknowledge that we do have acknowledge that colombia government is taken steps to strengthen legal institutions and processes but the vod bottom line is the violence has not subsided murders of labor leaders continue at a pace of one per week already this year some newspapers of said well the violence is down although it's was down last year now it's back up and we should move on with this colombia trade agreement has the violence is down with when there's one one labor activist killed every single week it's hard to say well that's an acceptable level that's what people in the administration are saying that's what some newspapers are saying that that's an acceptable level of violence no mr president we should not approve a trade agreement when that when that kind of violence is aimed at too many labor activists for the sake of both our nations the united states should not sign a trade deal with colombia that short changes workers that rewards polluters that gives businesses the same power as sovereign governments in a later talk on the floor i will talk more about the part of this bill that the this trade agreement and how does reward polluters and how it gives deafness has the same power sovereign governments that is in some many cases businesses will be over and think corporations will be able to override the democratically attain rule of law or rules and regulations more on that later  absolutely back to the issue at hand with colombia we absolutely should not sign a trade deal that forgives treachery towards labor leaders today now that it says it's ok that these labor leaders are murder we will fight alongside we in this body will fight alongside our colombia labor friends for fair trade and will fight for we will fight for their efforts to end the violence now you'll senate from montana saying thank you i rise today not only as a u s senator from montana but also as a farmer who's active actively engaged in agriculture family farm agriculture and it truly is a family farm that we operate in north central montana not only to my wife sharyn i farm but when we need help my brother my son in law my son my daughter all step up to the plate and help us out we just finished spring planting in north central montana and with it comes great hopes for a great year we all know that commodity prices right now are very good but the rest of the story is this mr president diesel prices are double what they were last year chemical prices have gone through the roof fertilizers becoming unaffordable because the cost so high and that is where the farm bill steps in this farm bill that just came out of conference committee that we will vote on hopefully later today in this farm bill we raised the target price we have a disaster program that senator baucus fought so hard to get into this  so that farmers when they do have a disaster don't have to come back to washington d c with hat in hand they will have a safety net we have country of origin labeling in this farm bill with some teeth in it that i hope the next administration takes by the horns and and adopts so that people know where their food comes from it allows for interstate shipment of meat so small meat packers can ship their products across state lines which has been available before to add value to meat products or out this country it's got a non food biofuels section of which a part of that is a camelina pilot program that i'm very proud of offers farmers another crop for the rotation and helps this country become more energy independent it also has a very very aggressive nutrition program to help people who need help buying food which is very very important this bill is about rural development about making rule america all it can be creating jobs and helping meet this country's energy needs creating a level of energy independence this bill is also about food security for this country you know we've been very fortunate the united states we haven't we haven't suffered the kind of of of lack of food that other countries have and it's because of farm bills of the past i believe and it's because family farmers have done such a great job meeting this country's foods demands and we need to have a farm bill that helps support those family farmers and that's exactly what this farm bill does is it perfect now but it's a pretty darn good yes this farm bill does things for people in production agriculture that it needs to do to make sure that they remain in business to make sure that this country's food security needs are met so when i read editorials in the was in that in newspapers on east coast west coast washington post boston herald dallas morning news los angeles times and the list goes on and on the talks about this farm being loaded farm bill being loaded with waste and giveaways and lard i asked the folks to write that or write these editorials for not to montana and visit somebody who's got their hands in the dirt go out to the midwest and see the kind of challenges these folks have and ask yourself is this farm relief is this farm bill really full of the kind of waste you're talking about because it is not it's a farm bill that meets the needs of america's family farmers and as i've said many times before if we lose this country's family farmers this country will change forever and not for the better so i applaud the folks who worked on the conference committee from both parties from all corners of this country to develop a farm bill that meets the needs of this country and i would hope that the members of this senate join me later on today in voting for this farm bill and send it to the president's desk miles an hour gusts as high as one hundred sixty miles an hour really caused widespread destruction across the sejour nation as you can see from the before and after photographs satellite photographs that are on this chart the devastation was particularly severe in the country's low lying delta area a twelve foot wall of water swept away entire villages leaving thousands dead and homeless bodies floating in flood waters and survivors try to reach ground on boats using blankets as sales fights broke out around the few shops that were able to provide any kind of food to the hungry people the united nations has estimated that between one point two million and one point nine million people have been severely affected and cycling cycling related deaths could reach over one hundred thousand already and more than two hundred thousand people are reported missing immediately after the cyc loan countries around the world including the united states offered emergency weeks after the cyclon this natural disaster has been made worse by the reluctance of the burmese military government to even accept international aid on the scale that's necessary instead they've ignored the plight of their own people as the entire world watches not only have they refuse most outside assistance they broadcast shameless propaganda showing the military handing out aid to the people yet reports on the ground cape governments done little or nothing to really help in fact the reports that the government the military has confiscated some of the limited aid that's been allowed to enter into the country not only is the military ignore the suffering of its own people but it's trying to push through a sham referendum at the same time can you imagine a national election in the midst of this devastation critical time and resources were used to intimidate people to the polls time and resources that should have been spent for helpless and suffering victims u n secretary ban ki moon summed up the situation when he said this is not about politics and it is about saving people's lives there's absolutely no more time to lose he continued unless more aid gets the country very quickly we face an outbreak of infectious disease that could dwarf today's crisis in a country that already has one of the worst health care systems in the world even harder for people who need medical attention to find it the environment is a rich breeding ground for infection and contagious disease we're hearing disturbing reports of badly injured people trying to address their own wounds the government's repeatedly forced to military organizations like doctors without borders to leave the hardest hit areas bodies are decomposing contamination spreading the immediate risk of waterborne diseases acute the risk of other disease from malaria and dengue a fever are growing as mosquitoes rapidly reproduce in the flooded areas existing mt attrition affects up to half the population in burma is even worse because of the flooding and cyclons mr president perhaps the world shouldn't be so surprised with this military's outrageous reaction to this disaster this is after all a government with a long well documented history of brutality to its own people in eastern burma the military has destroyed three thousand villages over the past ten years it's widely used for labor and recruited up to seventy thousand child soldiers for more than any other country in the world today burma has an estimated one and a half million internal and external refugees it's a country with a well documented history of political repression and torture two kyi a leader in human rights around the world was placed under house arrest and suffered mightily since she tried to lead her national league to a free election result and for that she was subjugated and imprisoned in her own home for up to eighteen years suchi has been awarded the congressional gold medal recognition by this congress of her singular efforts in burma to bring a new day and a new government last september thousands of months of peace peacefully protested for change in burma many of them were hunted down imprisoned and killed this military junta has ignored global calls for dialogue and into the violence earlier this week admiral timothy keating who leads the u s pacific command usaid administrator in riyadh a four landed with an american riffle relief flights in rangoon they met directly with the burmese military officials to offer help i hope this as it does help the president last week i spoke of the world taking definitive action to halt the genocide of dar for today we face a mounting humanitarian crisis in burma some including french foreign minister bernard cushion air has said the united nations should invoke the right to protect a provision that allows the world community to help those left unprotected by their governments others argue that china which also has suffered a horrible natural disaster this week should use its friendship with burma to help open the country to outside assistance and a minimum burma should view china's response to to its earthquake and which it immediately and proactively stated its willingness to accept emergency aid as an important way to work with the global community whatever the route the world community with american leadership and generosity must do more to address the  results for our economy and america's working families has been a disaster they put their theory to work and it's thrown americans out of work the middle class in america is shrinking and shot and suffering today more americans are falling out of the middle class that are working their way into it a new poll by the respected kaiser family foundation provides a sobering look at the economic situation the reality of economics in america today the kaiser foundation asked people about seven economic trends or changes what they considered serious problems forty four percent of americans said the problems paying for gasoline is a serious problem for their family's financial wellbeing twenty nine percent said the problems getting a good paying job or raise were serious twenty eight percent of americans said that problems paying for health care and health insurance were serious and hurting their economic well being those are the top three economic strains on family budgets the price of gasoline jobs good paying jobs and paying for health care they also rated some serious problems when they were asked about the strains and problems their families face problems  for mortgage or rent one out of five problems paying for food in credit card debt one out of five losing money in the stock market about one out of six we've heard a lot said about the strain that record gas prices are placing on families and our economy and yet in the midst of all of this with the knowledge of what it's doing to our economy to families to businesses to farmers big oil companies continue to rake in record profits at the expense of the american economy i'd like to take a few minutes to talk about another economic problem that's hurting america's families and businesses out of control health care cost a recent as we in newsweek contained an eye opening title the myth of the best in the world i asked him the full article be printed in the congressional record objection thank you mr president this column points out that the united states spent almost seven thousand dollars per person on medical care last year six thousand six hundred ninety seven dollars per capita that's the highest in the world twenty percent more per person than the next highest spending nation lu it's more than twice as much as the thirtieth wealthy wealthiest countries around the world in a survey of over a thousand adults the harvard school of public health and the harris interactive fund found that seventy five that fifty five percent thought the united states had the best quality care in the world the fact that we spend so much on per person may lead people to that conclusion that we have the best care after all we spend the most money and yet the facts tell us otherwise the highest cost doesn't mean the highest quality we rank below other nations and minnick many critical health outcomes there's no doubt in my mind if i were seriously ill in any part of the world i would try to find my way to the united states there's no question that we have the very best doctors the very of us medical professionals hospitals and medical technology but when you take a step back and look at the outcomes for the american people it tells a different story the five year survival rate for cervical cancer in the united states cervical cancer is worthless than italy ireland germany and many others the survival rate for breast cancer in the united states is worse than the survival rate in switzerland norway britain and other nations are asthma mortality rate is twice the rate of germany and sweden true we have the best hospitals but not the best outcomes in many instances only sixty six percent of us patients receive treatments the scientific study showed to work such as beta blockers for heart disease according to the new england journal of medicine according to a two thousand and seven survey by the independent commonwealth fund adults in the united states are more likely to forego needed health care than adults in australia canada germany netherlands new zealand and the united kingdom nearly one out of five american adults surveyed said that they have serious problems paying medical bills that's more than double the rate in the next highest country nearly a third of those surveyed had spent more than a thousand dollars out of pocket in the last year on medical costs not covered by insurance only one out of five australians and one out of eight canadian spent that much money on out of pocket health expenses no other nation came even close seven years ago the world health organization made the first major effort to rank the health systems of a hundred and ninety one nations the top two nations in the world france and the united states did not even make the top ten not even the top twenty we ranked thirty seventh in the world according to the world health organization when it came to our health care systems we have vanity in the united states that because we spend so much money on health care we must be the best in the world it's not true more people die each year from medical and surgical mistakes in the united states than in any other industrialized nation incidentally more americans die of medical mistakes each year than die from aids breast cancer and automobile accidents combined in health information technology we lag far behind by two thousand and five the united kingdom had invested four hundred fifty times more per person in public under funding of health information than the united states we ranked the highest in infant mortality among twenty three nations and near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age sixty we are fifteenth among nineteen countries in deaths from a wide range of illness that would not have been fatal if treated timely and ineffective way we do well in reducing smoking but we still have the worst rates of obesity when you get beyond the myths and look at the studies it becomes clear the quality of a nation's health care is determined not by how much we spend by on whether whether we provide universal care that works the u s is the only major industrialized nation without universal health coverage we cannot give an assurance to every single american that they will have a doctor at hand when they need one we can't give them the insurance that they can have basic access to needed health care when they absolutely needed for their family other nations have met that responsibility we have not ironically the persistent and unfounded belief that americans receive the best health care is a major reason why we don't move toward change and don't move toward providing the peace of mind which every american and every american family deserves healthcare insurance companies spend millions of dollars to frighten americans into thinking that covering everyone with health insurance will somehow mean less coverage for others and less choice for americans who already have health insurance that's a scare tactic just look at all the other countries in the world that have better health care at much lower cost by the way when it comes to health care choice especially choice of doctors a third of americans with health insurance say they had to change doctors in the last three years because their insurance company insisted on it one out of three americans so the idea that consumers are in charge of their own health care choices is be lied by that statistic there's no reason why we can't build a better health care system in america that lowers costs covers eight i think it's appropriate that we honor this ally of the united states and reaffirm the bonds of close friendship and cooperation between our two countries of this for alliance this friendship has never been more important to the mutual security and safety of our people than it has been that it is today this friendship of course spans across oceans it is based on shared values i was pleased when congress recently reaffirmed their commitment to preserving and strengthening that alliance by passing a concurrent resolution honoring israel and recognizing its important mission and its history in the face of common threats our relationship  israel today is as important as ever we have mutual goals of defeating radical islamic terrorism fostering middle east stability and promoting freedom israel has shown an unwavering conviction in democracy justice security and peace the nation of israel and its people deserve not only our friendship and our support but our admiration as well and i extend my warmest congratulations to the state of israel and the israeli people for this important anniversary mr president on another note i want to turn to an important vote that we had yesterday in the united states senate and unfortunately yesterday morning we saw only forty two senators vote to do anything significant about high prices of gasoline at the pump this is just the latest example i'm afraid of congressional intransigence and really turning a deaf ear to the cries of the american people for congress to do something to help bring the relief at the gas pump but unfortunately it's it's just the latest example i know most of us came to washington to serve in the united states congress to try to solve problems unfortunately of the mentality seems to be inside the beltway though that we ought to spend more time shooting at each other on on a partisan political basis and not working together to solve problems and unfortunately there's more examples of just high gas prices to demonstrate this i would just point to four four areas where we've seen significant delays in congressional action that everybody had tremendous consequences on the american people first and foremost on our national security it was eighty nine days ago that the foreign intelligence surveillance act was basically expired the most recent authorization that which would have allowed us to continue to listen in to foreign terrorists communicating with each other on the telephone in a way that would allow us to detect and deter terrorist activity and to defeat terrorist activity why the house of representatives and speaker pelosi would would have would refuse to allow this important piece of legislation to come to the floor after it passed the united states senate on a strong bipartisan vote is frankly beyond me but it's been eighty nine days now since the we have our ability to detect new terrorist threats through the foreign intelligence surveillance act basically  went dark and expired secondly we it's it's now been five hundred forty days since we have failed to act on the colombia free trade agreement now free trade agreement should not be partisan partisan affairs of it's good in fact for us to have free trade agreements because it opens markets to american farmers and american manufacturers and producers for their goods in other countries and in fact colombia does about two point three billion dollars in trade with the state of texas each year it's very important to my state unfortunately when texas sells goods other agreements basically come in duty free why speaker pelosi would fail to allow this important free trade agreement to be taken up and voted on in the united states house of representatives is again escapes me this is clearly in the best interest of the united states of america it's in the best interests of my state and the people who work there at a time when we're dealing with stimulus packages because we're concerned about the softening of our economy what better stimulus could we enact then to pass this free trade agreement which would strengthen the robust markets in colombia for americans goods and produce but here we are five hundred forty days later when it's bogged down in partisan disagreements this next number is another important number i think one of the most important jobs the united states senate has just to take up and to consider the nominations of individuals who've been promoted proposed for service on the federal bench to serve in that important branch of government but we've seen that because of inaction in the judiciary committee we've on some nominees people like peter keisler who had been nominated more than six hundred eighty five days ago we've seen the nominees out of out of north carolina passed the three hundred day mark without even so much as a hearing in the judiciary committee this is another example of partisan delays that frankly i think frustrate the american people and certainly frustrate me and an example of where we ought to act where we ought to find an opportunity to come together to solve a problem and the problem is for particularly the fourth circuit court of appeals is that  many litigants simply can't find access to the courts because they're not enough judges sitting on those benches to listen to their case so whether you're a crime victim or you're whether you're a small business man or woman or whether you're just a regular citizen in that fourth fourth district we have a judicial emergency with about a third of the seats vacant and frankly it creates a lack of access to justice so six hundred eighty five days without a vote on some of the nominees in the judiciary committee and we need to do better and of course it was seventy five seven hundred fifty one days ago when speaker pelosi then running for election and before the two thousand and six election where democrats were given the majority status in both the house and the senate she said aleck does and will produce a commonsense plan to help bring down the price of gasoline  pump unfortunately the price of gasoline about the time that that she took over as speaker of the house was i think about two dollars and thirty three cents a gallon and now of course it's about three dollars and seventy five cents a gallon yesterday as i mentioned we had an opportunity to help provide relief for american families to help them deal with their family budget when it comes to the cost of gasoline but i think we we took a half step that did not do very much and what i mean by that is we did vote to quit filling the strategic petroleum reserve but if you look at how much oil that that represents that would then be available in the open market  it's roughly seventy thousand barrels of oil a day now seventy thousand barrels of oil a day sounds like a lot of oil in less you consider the amount of oil consumed globally by all the countries in the in the in the planet that's eighty five million barrels of oil a day so how much of an impact do you think it's going to have on price of gasoline at the pump to provide an additional seventy thousand barrels of oil when worldwide consumption is eighty five million well you don't have to be a ph d in mathematics to figure that out it's not going to be big and in fact it will be minuscule not completely insignificant but not very much on the other hand we had an opportunity to vote to reduce our dependence on imported oil and gas from dangerous enemies of the united states countries like iran and venezuela both of whom are members of opec the organization of petroleum exporting countries and unfortunately the congress of the senate turned down that opportunity to produce as much as three million barrels of oil a day from the united states reserves because we won't allow one authorize alaskans to produce oil in alaska we want to authorize the states with the outer along the outer continental shelf to be able to develop their own oil reserves in the outer continental shelf and we want to allow states in the west to develop the oil shale that could produce massive amounts of oil right here in america reducing our dependency on imported oil from the dangerous countries like iran and venezuela what i don't understand is if our  friends across the senate and i believe there was only one vote against that that the decision to stop putting oil in the strategic petroleum reserve but if everybody in the senate virtually agrees that adding seventy thousand barrels of oil to the worldwide supply of oil would help bring down the price of gas at the pump however minuscule that figure may be how much more what it be likely to bring down the price of gas at the pump to add three million additional barrels so worldwide supply and of course this would not be from saudi arabia it would not be for moran it would not be from venezuela be right here from the good ol usa and again how many new jobs would that create right here at home when our condo me is turning has turned soft it would create a lot of jobs in texas i know it create a lot of jobs in the louisiana and frankly create jobs all over the country but instead of taking an opportunity to really take a bold move on a bipartisan basis to increase supply of american oil and gas we find ourselves with the half steps and really relatively insignificant votes to increase production now i am glad that finally the congress has recognized that the laws of supply and demand are not inapplicable in the district of columbia matter of fact for a long time it seemed we outright refused to recognize the economic laws that apply across the planet right here in washington d so i would just ask my friends and colleagues if you're unwilling to allow us to open up american oil reserve when the price of gasoline is three dollars and seventy five cents a gallon and the price of oil a barrel  one hundred twenty five dollars a barrel when you allow us to do it when gasoline hits four dollars a gallon how about when it hits four dollars and fifty cents a gallon or five dollars a gallon or ten dollars a gallon how about when the price of oil hits one hundred fifty dollars a barrel or two hundred dollars or two hundred fifty dollars a barrel we know that because of the geopolitical  situation with the countries like iran that are no friend of the united states which is a major oil producer in part of opec that that causes the speculation on the spot market to push the price of oil higher and i believe it would have a dramatic impact on those prices and ultimately because oil represents seventy percent of the price of a gallon of gasoline it would ultimately i believe bring down the price of gasoline and provide some much needed relief listen to the conversations of new targets of foreign terrorist surveillance why we would continue to have american businesses and farmers disadvantaged by terrorists on goods and produce sold to the nation of colombia while we would white more than the six hundred eighty five days to consider the nomination of judicial nominees and allow crime victims in this small businesses and others to go without their day in court just for the same to talk about the crisis we face in terms of gasoline and energy prices and the need for us to act in terms of this true crisis that affects every louisiana family i represent every american family that this body represents this president when this new congress led by democratic leadership took office and the g prices gasoline prices were supposed to be a top priority at the time the price at the pump was two dollars and thirty one cents and yet today it's risen to three dollars and seventy six cents a gallon that's a sixty one percent increase well if this was such a priority at two dollars and thirty one once it was had this dramatic increase the fastest the most dramatic the most onerous on the consumer in history why isn't this leading to action the simple the simple reality is it's not this congress has been tangled in inaction unable to take significant action on this issue and that pass to end for the good of the american people now  my colleague from texas reiterated this is an overly complicated price is set by the equation of where supply meets demand that's economics one hundred one that's the first lesson of economics and so we need to do everything we can to reduce demand mitigate worldwide demand which is clearly increasing particularly from rapidly growing countries like china and india and we can do that through conservation and fuel efficiency and new sources of energy but we also need to increase supply and we need to do both of those things at once because our energy picture is so challenging and so dire so i rise to join my colleagues who are saying we need to act we need to break out of this gridlock we need to act on energy prices which affects all american families unfortunately we've had that opportunity in the last several weeks and once again the senate has passed on the opportunity to shut down the opportunity to take real action again this is an enormous challenge and we need to do everything we can both on the demand side and i support those measures increased energy efficiency increased levels of conference conservation development of new technology and new energy sources we've done a little bit of that we need to do more but we also need to act on the supply side increasing our supply of energy particularly our domestic supply which increases our energy independence lass's our dependence on unfriendly foreign nations several weeks ago we were on an f a a bill and i had an amendment at the deaths that would constitute real meaningful action that was very simple it would have a stablished a trigger at the price of one hundred twenty six dollars per barrel of oil and when the price reach that mark and were perilously close already then the trigger would have been cold and we would have been able to explore and produce off america's outer continental shelf where we have vast resources of energy but we would only do that with two significant cabinets was two significant demands the first is that the host state involved wherever we were proposing drilling the host state would have to want that activity the governor and the state legislature would both have to affirm that they wanted to produce off their coast very important very fair respecting state sovereignty and state rights and secondly would have built upon provisions we passed several years ago to give those host states significant royalty sharing so that anything produced off their coast thirty seven and a half percent of that revenue of that royalty would go to the state for the state to use on its top priorities whether they be highways or higher education or in the case of louisiana coastal restoration hurricane protection hurricane evacuation routes that was a very sound policy we set a couple of years ago as we opened up new areas of the gulf and my amendment which i have at the desk for the f a a reauthorization bill would have expanded on that good policy initiative but unfortunately we couldn't have a full debate on that amendment we couldn't have any vote on that amendment because a democratic majority leader filled the amendment tree took up all opportunity for a moment for him selfe and block all other amendments from coming to the floor now that's really unfortunate on any issue it's particularly unfortunate again on the top concerns of the american people when prices at the pump are sky high continuing to rise when that risen from two dollars and thirty one cents a gallon at the beginning of this democratic congress to three dollars and seventy six cents a gallon today a dramatic onerous sixty one percent increase but as president yesterday we had another opportunity to break through the good law gridlock and act and it was by adopting the mcconnell domenici and them that amendment propose a number of measures including something very similar to my veteran moment regarding the outer continental shelf two minutes as you six minutes spanking mr president that mcconnell domenici amendment proposed a number of measures including something very similar to my proposal with regard to the outer continental shelf it would have dramatically expanded our domestic supply it would have done something real and concrete and meaningful and had a significant impact over time on the price at the pump and yet again the senate refused to refused to move forward with that significant proposal that would do major things on the supply side and would couple it with other acts as we are taking and further actions we need to take on the demand s instead we did something extremely modest we said ok for now we're not going to continue to fill up the strategic petroleum reserve once supported that move it's true that will free up seventy thousand barrels of provisions of the mcconnell dimension memon all of that extra production and supply domestically would have meant three million barrels in contrast to seventy thousand and yet again the democratic leadership in the senate overall refused to act refuse to really address this issue the most serious that americans are facing today the one that fits their pocketbook over and over and over again causes them real concern about their family budget how they are going to make it as president i urge the senate to get out of this do nothing attitude i urge the senate to act on this crucial issue for all american families and again mr president this isn't brain surgery this is economics one hundred one supply and demand and it's not either or we need to do everything we can to lessen demand and i support those measures to increase efficiency to increase efforts a conservation to increase new technology efforts that will lead us to new fuel sources that's absolutely necessary but it needs to be coupled with action to increase supply particularly domestic supply by tapping those vital reserves particularly on our outer continental shelf i would join the senator from texas and asking if we're not going to do it now at three dollars and seventy six cents a gallon when are we going to act we're going to wait to four dollars when are we going to wait to five dollars we need to act now this is a serious issue for all americans this hits the pocketbook of every american family we need to act now and we need to act not with political  pure rhetoric we need to act with measures that really have an impact both on the demand side and the supply side and i hope the senate and the congress move to doing that president i'd like to briefly turn to also speak on israel's sixtieth anniversary it's a very very important day for a truly remarkable country and a remarkable people who in a mere six decades of existence have built a vibrant successful modern democracy out of almost nothing when i was still a student i have had the opportunity to visit israel with my sister sh college friend who had moved to israel after graduation even back then i was very young i couldn't help but be impressed by the determination and perseverance of all the people i met and their effort to build a vibrant democratic state to create a safe secure homeland for all a g s no matter where and they have originally been from around the world i had a second opportunity to visit israel as a member of congress many many years later it was a very different sort of trip very different i ten or a very different set of meetings and when i was a student but i left with the same strong feelings of respect and admiration and for all the people of israel the same recognition of their determination and unflagging faith in their nation and countrymen their belief in the importance of their mission has not faded at all in the years between my visits what makes today especially notable is that today is the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the state of israel and there's wonderful hote in this celebration of the sixtieth anniversary and there's also sober appreciation of the challenges that remain on the hopeful side on the oppressive side is that in a mere sixty years as i've said israel is creator nation characterized by strong democratic principles a compassion and determinant turn to determine people innovative industry especially in technology medicine and science a competitive global economy in six mere decades israel has built all of that tremendous innovation tremendous economic prosperity and progress virtually out of nothing virtually out of the sands of the desert become a beacon of freedom and democracy in a region that has very few examples to speak to israel of the only fully developed democracy in that sense it represents to all peoples what can be achieved when people come together in a common cause set aside public safety officers employed by state on their political subdivision amendments and getting to the senate's a business just a mr president just once again to mention the organizations that support our public safety employer probably cooperation act  the international association of firefighters the union of police associations we have pointed out we have this week is set aside in our nation and has been set aside since one thousand nine hundred sixty two to give special to our servicemen and women in the police organizations in this country who have lost their lives in the line of duty it's a very special solemn  ceremony which they participate in and it's we're mindful obviously of their service every day but it in special especially this this week and we very grateful for their strong strong who are for this legislation they've studied it analyzed it looked into it and support it the national association police organizations and a great many other organizations have supported this this legislation are first responders the people that are the organizations that speak for firefighters speak for police offices speak for the first to respond us yesterday we had a good debate about the bail and i think we're off to a good start and i'd like to take some time today to set the record straight as to what the bill does do and what the bill doesn't do fundamentally mr president this bill is about choice who should make the choice whether public safety workers get a union the federal government state government or the workers themselves right now we have a where the government makes the choice twenty six states give workers the ability to form a union if they want one twenty four states deny workers that option these twenty four state governments think they know better than the workers themselves what is best i just agree our public safety offices are on the front lines every day fighting fires stopping crime saving lives they know best how to protect the public they know best how to keep a job keep safe on the job and they know best whether they need a union to represent their interests the cooperation act gives this choice to the workers it says that the states have to provide a path that workers can use if they decide they want a union if the burka's don't want a union fine they don't have to walk down that path but the state has to make it available and let the workers choose just as it is with the right to vote individuals a don't after vote but they have the right to vote there in the state making that judgment we recognize that as a fundamental right and we recognize it as a fundamental right here the current law states make the judgment decision alexander amendment it will fall the states make the judgment and decision the corker amendment makes it under our cooperation act it's the workers themselves framework established they make the judgement do they want it dealt they want it and we abide by the outcome that's a rather basic and fundamental difference mr mr president it's not going to be hard for the states to build this path all they have to do is to provide for four core rights one the right to form join a union to the right to sit down to talk at a talk at the table three the right to sign a contract that both parties agree and for the right to go to a neutral third party when they have disputes and they can make the judgment whether they want arbitration when they want whether they want fact finding no requirements they can make those judgments they can make those the decisions they make they make the judgment now apart from these four things all of the details of the collective bargaining system are left up to the states states have the flexibility decide whether to exam small communities they decide to how workers can select a union through card check elections are vote we understand the states make those judgments and decisions states can decide how workers and employers should resolve disputes through arbitration mediation fact finding or some other mechanism if the state decides not to pass a law providing a framework for bargaining or if the state law does not for the forecourt rights federal labor relations authority will step in to ensure that workers have these rights but that's only if the a good deal of discussion about the role of this authority and how we don't understand what this is all about and how this is going to change federalism in the very simple mr president very very simple what this legislation does do and what it doesn't permit our first responders sacrifice so much for us each day at least we owe them is the ability to choose for themselves whether they want a union we owe them at least that much dignity and respect and that's what the cooperation act provides i hope this explanation will ease the minds of many of my colleagues i think there's been a lot of misconceptions about this bill floating around and i hope this explanation can alleviate some of those concerns we heard a lot of talk yesterday about this bill imposing washington's will on the states was that is not true i happen to think that unions are good for workers but nothing in this bill imposes my opinion or the opinion of my colleagues on public safety office under this bill congress doesn't make the decision whether public safety offices have a union instead firefighters police offices have the choice that is where the decision will be made now several amendments were filed yesterday that would give the state and local governments the employers the opportunity to opt out of the requirement of this bill but these opt out provisions actually block the right of the first responders they would allow the state and local governments to cut off public safety officers rights we should let police and firefighters decide whether they want to exercise their rights to have a union that's what does bill would do send her out xander and send he said people in their states are happy without unions that's true then it is likely that nothing would change if those public safety offices feel their voices are being heard that their concerns are being addressed and they will choose not to form unions nothing in this bill forces them to a different choice send alexander and send and he should put their assertions to the test and pass this legislation if they are right nothing will change but if they are wrong public safety offices in tennessee and wyoming will both for unions to get a  in the workplace we also heard that washington was imposing a one size fits all federal system on the states this is another misconception at every turn in drafting this legislation senator gregg and i went out of our way to give states the flexibility to adopt a collective bargaining law that works for them under this bill congress won't tell tennessee or wyoming or any other state how to implement the law states can choose how to comply as i mentioned states only have to provide the most basic rights other than those basic rights states have the flexibility to adopt a system that works best for them i would note that several of the amendments filed yesterday would take these basic choices away from the states and mandated federal rule on issues like right to work or carjack that's not what this bill should be about the flexibility for states is important as long as the core rights are there states also have the flexibility to completely control costs under this bill if this control means there is no risk of unfunded mandates my colleagues across the aisle love to talk about charges of unfunded mandates but it simply doesn't bit here this bill comes with no and i repeat no price tag nothing in this bill tells the state and local governments to spend any money nothing says they have to raise wages nothing says that they have to improve benefits or shift money from local priorities into public safety governments are free to write their own contracts at the bargaining table say state and local governments are free to offer bargaining proposals that are consistent with their local fiscal needs they cannot be forced to agree to any terms they don't want or cannot afford in addition to being able to protect their interests at the bargaining table state and local governments can also save guard their financial interests through legislative process the bill explicitly allows state and local legislative bodies to retain the right to approve or disapprove funding for a contract by requiring an agreement be presented to a legislative body as part of the process for approving such contract a memorandum or understanding that means simply this mr president that elected representatives have the final say on spending we understand that the bill explicitly allows the state and local legislative bodies to retain the right to approve or disapprove funding for a contract by requiring an agreement i quote be presented to a legislative body as part of the process for approving such contracts or memoranda or understanding elected representatives have the final say on spending remember also mr president that under this bill public safety offices have no right to strike no requirement a binding arbitration that means no one can force a contract on the state and local government under this bill the other side's additional argument that there will be costs associated with just implementing any new state law is a red herring the cost will be minimal all state and local governments are ready have human resource departments in place in addition collective bargaining often creates new efficiencies that actually save money by good miami florida where the local fire fired a union worked with the city to reconfigure the emmis services and ended up saving taxpayers a great deal of money on top of all the safeguards for state and local governments we've adopted and additional safeguards for states smallest communities in addition to the protections i've just outlined the bill a states governments to exempt the smaller communities if they want if a town has fewer than five thousand residents or employees fewer than twenty five workers the state can say our law doesn't apply to you you could say mr president that this bill is really is a reasonable way to extend the choice of whether to have a union to our nation's public safety offices we've taken extensive steps to protect state and local flexibility to ensure that they will not be burdened by these procedures a final argument that we have heard about states rights yesterday was that this bill violates states rights under the constitution this argument is simply false the bill is carefully crafted to comply with the current supreme court cases on the ability of congress to regulate state governments the throughout our history our federal government has set a core labor standards like minimum wage and overtime rules that apply also to states where because we understand that minimum wage overtime apply to state workers they applied to them in massachusetts they apply in tennessee bargaining rights are no different i don't think anyone in this chamber would argue that the state government should not have to comply with the basic standards per hitting them from discriminating against workers based on race or gender the same is true for collective bargaining rights bargaining rights our civil rights to moreover there is a strong federal interest in the performance of state and local for its responses we have an increasingly federal approach to national security we have created a department of homeland security and appropriate forty billion dollars for that forty billion dollars for all land security and the last time i looked at the map of all the states fell within that criteria in terms of being protected in our post nine eleven world this national response to terrorism increasingly depends on coordination with state and local public safety offices it is more appropriate than ever for the federal government to ensure that public safety offices are working as efficiently and as effectively as possible by encouraging strong partnerships between public safety offices and the cities and states they serve this bill advances the government's interest improving homeland security finally and my colleagues have tried to scare even those states that have good solid collective bargaining laws into believing that their laws are on the line in truth more than half of the states in the country will not be affected by this bill is i just cried a minute ago so the bill doesn't require that state laws have specific provisions only that they provide the basic protections i just outlined the federal labor relations authority which will make these determinations not some secret aside it's a long standing federal agency staff by dedicated career service servants and presidential appointees who are confirmed now by the senate not greatly different than the national labor relations board for example in summary mr president you can see that this bill is not an aggressive intrusion into state government that was portrayed yesterday in addition mr president i want to address some of the other individual concerns raised about the bill that are misleading and misplaced first this bill will not encourage strikes in fact this bill provides additional safeguards to prevent strikes it specifically says that a public safety officer may not engage in a strike work slowdown or other action that will measurably disrupt the delivery of measure emergency services there is no room for interpretation that is an ironclad ban on any action that will impair public safety is the language specifically says that a public safety office may not engage in a strike work slowdown or any other action that will measurably disrupt the delivery of emergency services more importantly it creates a mechanism for public safety offices and their employees to communicate and build strong partnerships that enhance cooperation decreasing the likelihood of strikes it's an insult it's an insult mr president to public safety offices to suggest that they will strike it's been decades since there's been a police or firefighter strike in this country police and firefighters in most states already have the right to bargain and there's been no problem with strike these brave men and women take their duty to serve the public very seriously so seriously underscore that this bill will not harm communities that rely on voluntary firefighters lead legislation explicitly applies only to employees which means volunteers are excluded any suggestion that cities and towns of four going to be forced to bargain with and possibly play their volunteer firefighters is wrong what's more we included language supported by the national voluntary fighter council to ensure that professional firefighters can continue to volunteer in their off duty hours this language outlaws contract provisions that would prohibit an employer the from engaging in part time employment obama terry activities during off duty hours that includes part time or volunteer firefighting send n z says that isn't clear but it seems pretty clear to me and my colleagues across the aisle also attacked this bill yesterday is hypocritical because it's inconsistent with how our federal government treats its own workers again this criticism is untrue and mislead federal workers have bargaining rights they also have a say in their wages the law allows them to petition the government each year federal law enforcement of offices are an example of how well collective bargaining rights and the public safety go together whether congress should give federal public safety offices the right to directly bargain over wages is an issue for another day we don't need to resolve that question now what to do the right thing for the state and local offices we also heard complaints about the process that brought us to this point listening to the debate you might think that this bill was a new idea never explored or never debated that again is simply false this bill has been around for a long long time was introduced in one thousand nine hundred nine almost ten years ago by senator wine and then by  centigrade it is also had strong bipartisan support my colleagues across the aisle would have us go through more hearings debate before we act we don't need more hearings we've already had a hearing in the health committee in fact we've mark this bill up twice once in two thousand and one and once in two thousand and three we even voted on the bill before in two thousand and one our nation's first responders have long wait i have waited long enough  the basic rights in this bill we should make them wait any longer they don't make us wait when we need them and we should not have them wait any longer as president  suggestion of my colleague and friend from massachusetts senator kennedy and looked very carefully at the record of yesterday's proceedings and here are a few things worth noting in response to my remarks and those of senator alexander we were repeatedly told yesterday that it was perfectly all right to federalize the state and local lake the relations of states like mine and senator alexander and at least twenty others to in effect tell those states that the democratic decisions of their sovereign governments and their citizens simply didn't count that the only the federal government knows best and that the federal government will tell those states that their what their law must be and how they must conduct their labor relations with their own employees in essence the citizens and legislatures of a near majority of states are being told by the proponents of this bill that they know better what will work for those states as senator alexander put it so well yesterday this bill is really about states like massachusetts or new jersey telling states like mine or his and at least twenty others how best to deal with their employees and how to fashion their own state law in the total absence of any need to do so i completely reject notion however for those that support it they owe it to themselves to at least be consistent in their approach they are not all they would deny and their majority of states the right to determine what they believe to be the best approach to public sector labor relations within their on chely defend the right of a small minority of states to deny public employees the most fundamental democratic rights in the workplace five states new york new jersey illinois new hampshire and massachusetts all home to the sponsors of this bill have called card check laws they have card check laws for their public employers and workers those states have decided that this is the way they intend to conduct labor relations among their employees i respectfully disagree i believe that approach to be anti democratic and it's certainly contrary to the federal labor policy which preserves for workers in the private sector the right to a democratic secret ballot in deciding the question of unionization however we're told by the proponents of this bill that this most fundamental of workplace issues is a matter of state choice while at the same time being told that any state's choice to elect a different system of labor law than that imposed by h r nine eighty is not denying workers a secret ballot election on unionization is somehow a matter of local choice but deciding to utilize and meet and confront a system of labor management relations or to decide the issue by local option is not the inconsistency in a pack receive that position is nothing short of stunning it's utterly indefensible at least that issue is addressed by senator hatch's amendment that amendment will at least end that hypocrisy by expressing expressly overturning anti democratic card check laws for public sector employees in new york new jersey new hampshire illinois and massachusetts but we shouldn't impose federal law on states at all if we're going to do it we need to do it consistently now last mr president i want to note that yesterday my colleagues and a great friend from massachusetts indicated that if the bill were half as bad and he reiterated again today half as bad as i had indicated in my remarks he'd be against this well take my friend of his word but don't ask that he take me at mine late yesterday the leaders in the senate received a letter from michael bloomberg the mayor of new york regarding h r nine hundred eighty i want to remind everyone that new york has a full collective bargaining statute covering public safety officers i also want to remind everyone that we are told by all the proponents of this bill that because of this new york would not be affected by this law here's what mayor bloomberg had to say in his letter to leaders reid and mcconnell i am writing to express my serious concerns about legislation before the senate which would alter the current state of collective bargaining between the city of new york and a number of its unions the legislation has the potential to harm both new york city and new york state labor relations as you are aware the public's if the employer employee cooperation act of two thousand and seven is a bill that would significantly expand the jurisdiction of the federal labor relations authority f l r a into the labor relations between state and local governments and their public safety officers though the bill may be well intentioned its fundamental problem from the point of view of new york is that it does not clearly distinguish states like new york that have long provided collective bargaining rights to their employees from states that have not under the bill states with long histories of collective bargaining face the risk of having their labor relations with public safety officers federalized to the detriment of long established public policies for over forty years the new york city collective bargaining law and the new york state public employees fair employment act also referred to as the taylor act have provided  lead legal framework for public sector collective bargaining in the city of new york there have been extensive administrative and judicial review of virtually every aspect of this legal framework the bill has the potential to undermine this long established framework one problem is the bill's treatment of the ability of public safety employees to strike the new york state taylor law currently contains a clear and unequivocal prohibition on all strikes by public sector employees and explicit penalties such a substantial fines against individual members for violations of the no strike provision the language in the proposed legislation before the senate is less clear the city is very concerned that section six of this bill can be read to prohibit only a strike that would measure bleed disrupt the delivery of emergency services this language while it may not be intended to limit the prohibition in this way is an invitation to misinterpretation and litigation in addition the same section could encourage employees to refuse to carry out services that many believe are not required under the mandatory terms and conditions of employment in situations where the public safety might be immediately affected by such a refusal mayor new york goes on to say another serious problem with the bill is that it gives f l r a the authority to decide what must be collectively bargained new york has  longstanding legal precedent regarding what are mandatory permissive and prohibited subjects from collective bargaining under section four of the bill such a long established legal precedent could be overturned by the f l r a a notable example is th disciplinary procedures for police officers and firefighters including due process are provided for in the new york city charter and administrative code and are prohibited subject to bargaining the new york court of appeals confirmed as recently as two thousand and six that these procedures may not be subject to bargaining but the bill would give the f l i r a their authority to decide otherwise i think that's a point we made yesterday a decision by the police commissioner for example as to whether or not discipline should be brought against the police officer involved in the shooting incident is something for which he remains fully accountable to the public it is of grave concern that the city with the city that it could be forced to bargain over such procedures as a result of an improper finding by the f l r a and such public accountability would thereby be lost even if the f l r a does not interfere with precedent that restricts bargaining in sensitive areas like discipline the bill at a minimum would provide an additional means for such precedent to be challenge repeatedly in federal court resulting in an extended period of uncertainty in the final analysis the bill could significantly affect the ability of the city of new york to ensure the safety of the public in the integrity of the central government services and is likely at a minimum to involve the city in costly and disruptive litigation in federal court any remedy of these concerns should be even statutory language not merely  legislative history given the serious concerns the proposed bill raises for the city of new york i oppose the bill in its current form sincerely mayor michael r bloomberg  mayor so as i showed yesterday there are more than twenty states we argue over a couple of them that will definitely be affected by this and even those who were said not to be affected could be affected they recognize that calls were getting letters were having shared with us indicate that that's a concern of those out there that have to deal with these kinds of problems and the gaps that the bill provides and the new authority of this federal labor relations authority which hardly anybody's had deal with in the past it's not even equipped to handle what's in the bill so mr president this is an ill conceived and badly drafted bill that would not only overturn the law in a near majority of states and disregard the democratic will of the legislature people in other states it would plainly disrupt the law and labor relations policies of every state this is the price that's paid when the proponents of a bill pending pander to special interests and circumvent the regular order of this body an attempt to advance fundamentally flawed legislation the sad truth mr president is i do not believe this bill can be fixed i certainly do not believe it can be fixed on the floor of the united states senate it should have been addressed in committee  we're left with no choice so we continue today to take up the floor time in the u s senate trying to fix irretrievably broken totally unnecessary piece of special interest legislation is it any wonder that the american public polls congress and such low disregard i haven't had a chance yet to even even talk specifically on the employee a bill of rights amendment and the enfin mandate option that is a vehicle take that opportunity at this point in time  yesterday and the senator from utah senator hatch offered a public employee bill of rights amendment many of my colleagues has spoken about the tremendous service america's public safety employees give to the public and i think that one hundred senators here really believe that and really want to help in every way possible the public safety employees do their job that i'm a little concerned that occasionally we think that only through collective bargaining will anybody listen to a suggestion of a public service employee i've never seen that happen i'm not saying that it couldn't happen somewhere in america but you know if they if they're suggesting something for safety i think people will listen now a lot of times we don't think of the things for safety until after a tragedy like charleston and then we think about what could have been done and that shared with the nation and i think a lot of that is put into place not through collective bargaining through common sense you want to protect the lives of the people that work for you and that's that work for the people of the united states that work for the people in the communities and the toughest job in america is i  think is being a mayor because you're right there with the people they can grab you by the shirt collar used to not have any kind of security and explain to you no uncertain terms with the think it and usually they've got a pretty good idea not just complaint but a complaint coupled with this suggestion now i know that on any given day one of these officers could be asked to put his or her life on the line and they do so courageously i agree with my colleagues and individuals who choose these careers deserve respect gratitude and special treatment but the underlining men meant what actually result in diminishing the rights of public safety employees who are not currently unionized once the workforce is unionized even employees who do not wish to be a part of the union will have paid directed from their paychecks and spent in a manner outside of their control and they'll have little ability to question or alter the legal representation that's been established with or without their support amendment merely balances that the menu ation of self determination by establishing a public bill of rights that amendment will do three things it guarantees the right to vote by secret ballot it guarantees the to limit the right of public unions dues collection authority to non political uses and it guarantees that financial transparency will be there by ensuring that public safety employees in all states have the right to vote on whether they are unionized by secret ballot the senator's amendment guarantees for public and safety employees the same right that private employees now have in many of the states in a democratic society nothing is more sacred than the right to vote and it's undeniable that nothing insurers to leave truly free choice more than the use of a private ballot the possibility of course of or threatening behavior towards employees who may not wish to form a union is even more concerning in the context of public safety employees who rely on coworkers to reduce the deadly risk they face routinely in the course of their work as the amendment would also limit the right of public unions dues collection authority to non political uses those that choose public surface often accept lower pay than they might make in the private sector because they are dedicated to public service let's not insult that choice by allowing labor bosses to take money from that paycheck and spend it on purely political causes that the employee does not support i believe public employees should have the same protections from fraud and abuse as private employees this amendment would empower public employees by allowing them to observe how their dues are being spent and the other financial dealings of their unions it does this by bringing public unions under the requirements of the labor management reporting and disclosure act that's a one nine hundred fifty nine law interacted with bipartisan support including then senator john f kennedy public employees who pay union dues especially those that are compelled to do so against their wishes are no less entitled financial transparency and fraud protections than the private sector employees covered under the law today in regard to the amendment that senator alexander raised yesterday i don't think there's any doubt that the bill's mandates would increase costs for states  localities that are either now unionized or do not allow bargaining to the extent required under the law and will therefore be subject to new rules we've heard some argument that oh yes this has to be approved by  legislative body there's also a little clause in there about what the federal labor relations authority can do with any agreements come up i assume that would be if they didn't think they were tough enough now the costs i'm concerned about go far beyond any increased pay or working cost scheduling cost the bills most burdensome mandate falls on small towns that will have to assemble collective bargaining resources and capability on short notice and we keep looking at this five thousand figure like it's magic five thousand is a very small town with a lot of difficulty maintaining the federal requirements that we already have on the community which they're adequately doing or they get fined but we're going to impose one more on them and i don't want people to think that it's really five thousand the bill says five thousand or twenty five  employees it's not always clear what they have to hire people to do in these towns but there are a lot of a lot of facilities that we just take for granted you know we expect to turn on our water and have the water there we expect to flush the toilet and have it disappear we expect to set our garbage out and have somebody pick it up we expect the streets to be in good condition so they're safe a lot of places we expect sidewalks to be there so that pedestrians don't have to be on the street  can have in some municipalities the provision of electricity gillette wyoming was so isolated and had so few people at one time that nobody wanted to provide electricity so the city provided it and that's been the growing in to tea with the employees but it always required quite a few employees for doing the the poll work and the meter work and the and the electrical work that was necessary  so twenty five employees is pretty easy to get to in a small town so five thousand or twenty five employees don't forget the twenty five employees part so the cost i'm concerned about go beyond the increased pay in the work scheduling costs the most burdensome mandate falls on the small towns and i change that definition small towns if i could do that will allow them to assemble collective bargaining resources and capability but it has to be done on short notice and new areas that they've never been involved in before they will now be expected to do i think that means since the union will be able to bring in a negotiator that the city will have to bring the town in wyoming five thousand is a first class city that the town will have to bring in some different help to help with the negotiations at least train and know how to negotiate and that will happen on both sides so this requires actions such as hiring labor law experts  stablish in contract with arbitrators all resources that may be in short supply since small towns across this country will be facing the same mandate at same time as a former marriage led i know what it's like to balance a municipal budget when the federal government imposes costly new mandates and provides no funds to pay for them it's very frustrating for the mayor and the council and anybody that works for the city what i became mayor was a boom town and the town had recognized the need to have better sewer treatment facilities and we deployed the federal government we've gotten a grant and just as i took office this new sewer treatment facility went online and the inspector showed up and said you know your town's grown so much that you're violating the capacity of your sewer system and since we provided the money for it we're going to find you so i need new sort of treatment facility i needed several million dollars worth the new sewer treatment facility so i went back to the sources federal government said look that that one wasn't adequate because of the growth we've had and it's that i'm sorry you already got one grant you wind up at the bottom of the list now so thousands of communities across the united states probably rightfully got to be ahead of my community but that didn't stop the fines now fortunately i got a judge who said yes we have to fine you but we're going to make you pay that money into a fund to build a new sewer treatment plant that helped a little bit because we still had the money to do something but we were still being put under this federal mandate which you know it's a good idea you need to do adequate sewer treatment that's that's very important but how do these small towns afford that and then there are thousands of them and they're all going to be put under this law at the same time and there aren't enough people trained to help them train to do this so the burden falls on the taxpayers the taxpayers  officials who will pursue their priorities and collect taxes at a level to cover the cost of those priorities well that's partly right you don't always have the right to increase the taxes are state limits in many of the states in this country that say how much you municipality can tax so that may be closed out and this bill upsets the order by imposing federal priorities on local taxpayers with no way to pay for it and local governments don't have funny money gimmicks like the federal government increased costs have to result in increased tax such a sales tax and property tax or decreased services so which of those twenty five employees are we going to get rid of in order to meet the costs of this bill you can say it's not a federal mandate because we have some definitions that explain what a true federal mandate is but  i think that the towns will consider it to be a federal mandate and so will the people who are taxed or lose services or who are taxed and lose their jobs this is a choice i believe we should leave to local amendment would leave it up to them by allowing senator alexander's amendment would leave it up to them by allowing localities to opt out of the bill's requirements if they determine it will increase local property taxes compromise public request here the senator from south carolina and the man at the desk and ask first consideration is is there object in objection to setting aside the men senator masters i surely will not object but i can just see the objection is heard the clerk will continue to hear by move to bring to a close debate on the pending amendment number forty seven sixty three to h r nine eighty the public safety employer employee cooperation act of two thousand and seven amendments strike the word title and add the following one educational assistance for members of the armed forces and veterans section one hundred one short title this title may be cited as an enhancement of recruitment retention and readjustment through education act of two thousand and eight section one of two findings congress makes the following findings one the world war two era g i bill assisted almost a million members of the armed forces in readjusting to civilian life after completing their service to the nation with the support and assistance of america's colleges and universities the g i bill provided incentives that transformed president majority leader is president i thought things were too good to be true that we would have a debate on a bipartisan bill you know we could there's a lot of things we can do to bring presidential politics into what's going on here in the floor i really think this isn't a war this is a bil that's been worked on for a long time senator kennedy senator gregg have worked in good faith to bring this to help firemen and police officers i had a group of police officers in my office day they were so excited about this bill because we're doing something to help them we have been through this before i i told mike enzi last friday through staff that i wouldn't fill the tree on this i wanted to see if we could work in good faith for once without the republicans playing their petty politics but obviously we can't do that now is it any wonder i ask it any wonder that the republicans have lost three special elections for house seats it's no wonder the american people understand what this republican led congress has done led by this man in the white house now mr president is it any wonder that in a poll yesterday in the washington post the democrats have a twenty one percent lead on the republicans on being better able to handle the problems of this country it's no wonder because this is what we have they are not serious about anything we have seventy one filibusters been filed this congress we've tried to break we've had to break seventy one filibusters so i tell my friend senator kennedy chairman kennedy ranking member enzi that is obvious we can't complete this legislation it's obvious the games are being played now can you imagine on this bill dealing with people who are first responders nine eleven who are the people rushing into that building to die firefighters and police officers and they've asked for some help from us for example in nevada i've we have a situation where the state legislature said local law enforcement officers can bargain collectively but isn't entering this state can't highway patrol officers can't those people that are capital policemen in that it cannot that's what this legislation would do it would direct attention to some of the problems that law enforcement has in this country and we're not going to be able to do it because we are working now  have to vote on whether or not there should be a holiday gas prices i talked to a woman a prominent yesterday fifty miles out a las vegas she moved to front because should be cheaper to live she works in las vegas well that was a bad bet she made because she has a diesel vehicle yesterday it cost one hundred almost one hundred thirty dollars to fill that with diesel fuel and she has to fill it once a week so we have a situation here where now we're going to start debating the energy policies of this country and we're happy to enter into that debate because we know that the energy policy this country has been set by dick cheney he met with oil companies as all secret they protected themselves even through the supreme court that we would know who they met with and what they met with but it's obvious the policies they came up with has been a real big boon to the energy companies making more money than any companies in the history of the world so if you have my republican colleagues want to debate energy we're happy to do it but we wanted to work on is something to help police and fire and i'm very disappointed i have paul i don't apologize my friend from wyoming we on this side wanted to finish this legislation but we have a cloture petition filed on the mccain proposal and i i just i'm forced to acknowledge that probably he's trying to anything  flawed candidate and he's wrong on the war and he's wrong and economy but it's too bad he's still interfering with what we're trying to do here to start doing some serious legislating he meaning john mccain and the senator from mr president have before the leader departs the floor i want to just thank him again for his strongest support for this legislation that is so important to our first responders to our firefighters and our police offices in this country we have seen this parliamentary gimmick that has taken place offered by the republican leadership that is a some understanding that we'd have an opportunity to address those amendments during the course of the day they're all related to this legislation but i don't know oh no the games are going to be played and we're saying to the firefighters of this nation and to the police officer the nation and the first responders of the nation your interest the safety and secure thirty of our communities across the nation should be put aside in favor of some political gimmick by the republicans later here in the united states and that's what this is about make no mistake about it every firefighter ought understand it we're here now at no time ready to do the public's business ready to take a vote on these issues but also know the all in support of what senator webb is doing why not just have that done after this bill is over why not have it done after that why didn't the republican leader come on up and speak to the democratic leadership proposed let's do that at the end of the w it friday saturday sunday and monday maybe send a mccain a come back for maybe won't do it after we finish this bill but now we're going to insult and this is an no mistake about it i've been around here long enough to know when the end cells are being played and this is in this is saying your interest is not as important as a political that's what's happening that's what's happening who are these individuals forty billion dollars we spend on homeland security forty bedu dollars we're spending on homeland secure who are the people that employment homeland security there our firefighters our police officers our first responders in all fifty states they believe they have ways of doing it better than it's being done at the present time i do too know so democrats and so do a few republicans and we want to work through the political process to get the paternity to have that done but i don't know we're not going to do that we're going to play games that say it's wednesday it's noon time we're just going to play about it who the target is who the target is and the republicans are saying we will not take the time we will not take the time to let the senate work its will in terms of the firefighters and p maybe the the leadership on the other side can tell us whether senator mccain approve this strategy if we can find that out i think the police and fire fighters of the country would like to know whether the proposal you can get away with without believing that he does and he's been an architect you don't just go around and get sixteen signatures you know you have to go around here and get all those at this thing has been in the in the in the cooking for a period of time this is didn't happen although it looks and you know they duck in the cloakroom and then they run out and and and do that all that business is been going on this is a conscious act and one will have to assume and that senator mccain is absolutely against it and i hope he's able to talk to the firefighters and the police office in the first responders by interrupting does fail that spell that is so essential to the security homeland security why interrupt that spell but we're in the process at least we thought so that we're going to be moving ahead to get some votes on these that particular measures  no no effort at all to try and talk to the leadership certainly not to expect although for the first twenty years or so i was in this body people used to do that they used to talk to people and tell them what was going to come on  that but i don't expect that anymore but you would have thought that least talk to the leadership that has responsibility so mr president i just hope that each and every one of the firefighters police officers first of responders who have been working on this legislation for years and i just want to mention about how long you've been there was introduced on may twelfth one thousand nine hundred nine july twenty fifth two thousand we had a health committee hearing september nineteenth two thousand and one we had a committee markup and reported out november six the health committee and the other myself we report this bailout we finally have a chance to debate this get a good debate yesterday and we're prepared to deal with the amendments on a matter of vital national security for our country and for and respect for those who are our first responders who have done so much but the answer is no mr president the majority leader is president  all except the nine ten new senators that we have remember the time that i lived on the senate floor for six years i was here from the time we came in session till we left with no exceptions and i tried at that time to be as fair to the republicans as the democrats if someone asked for more time on our side with the republicans not being here they automatically got that time that's why mr president what having a good debate and we were we were going to be working from the idea that we would try to improve this bill if you and i said specifically senator enzi said that he wished he had more time to do some committee work and he wanted to do some work out here more power doing that's what he should be able to do and i complimented everyone for the way this bill was being handled and you know the sad part about it i say to my friends sir mcconnell was standing right there we had a am i never try to avoid a phone call from my republican counterpart i'm always try to be available and i would say this i would never do to him what he did to me this it is the mccain effort to change the jim webb bipartisan g i bill of rights because it's too generous so this idea is is about the same as the gas tax  holiday he doesn't like the g i bill of rights because too generous now i'm wondering do we want to debate arac on this bill because we're happy to do it we're happy to debate intractable civil war that's costing the american people five thousand dollars a second every day of the week every week of the month every month of the year five thousand dollars a second no weekends off no holidays five thousand dollars a second of borrowed money do we want to debate the iraq war if that is is that we want to do on this bill that was set aside to deal with firefighters police officers first responders those people that came to my office today some in uniform some plain clothes because that's what they do some of where their uniform to work every day some do other work that they can't wear the uniform they're under cover but no i apologize to everyone i thought we were on the mccain tax holiday but we're no we're on now on the g i bill of rights mccain effort because it's too generous they've bipartisan bill of jim webb that he wrote himself bipartisan nature is too generous according to john mccain with knowledge we were happy to debate that if that's what this body needs to do is start the supplemental debate a week early will that we can do that to i in a in a timely way this is what i'm gathering here you know we're going to do it next week any way you want to a week early fine so as i gather this here we have the majority leader has indicated that they are prepared to go for a time within the mccain amendment a time limit on the web amendment and then have a photo of them to should do it here and do it in a in a prompt way and also would understand that we would be able to continue to the consideration of this but as i understand we're not getting from the other side i say to my friend not only was an amendment filed but until lord cloture was filed at the same time on that amendment now what would happen every piece of legislation around here if you offer an amendment and the person walks in and protection same time that's a little funny way to do but maybe the republicans love this filibuster thing so much they broke the record the two year record ten months and maybe they want to really you know  to do is just relax your little bit we're going to and i'd suggest the opposite corman just second we'll talk a little bit see if there's a way out of this i hope there's a way out of it for the benefit of the police and fire and first responders of this country they're in the re in town this week because there's going to be a memorial for those that were killed this year and police officers who were killed this year in service to their counties their cities their states they are here and part of the reason they're here and know for the question yes i think the majority leader's made his case as to what the status of the situation is by do believe we should not shut off the debate in the sense of not allowing those of us would like to express where we see this where we see the situation sitting tall to be able to speak that's why i would like to have an opportunity i say to my friend and he is my friend mr president we're not going to have any more discussion on this piece of legislation until we figure a way to help mr alexander i could answer some of the questions that have been asked only by one side objection or waiting for a member to come to the floor and speak senators working today continuing to work on a bill dealing with organized labor rights votes expected through the day today the bill would allow public safety officials including firefighters and police officers the right to unionize and municipalities with populations greater than five thousand some republican lawmakers have expressed their opposition to the bill arguing that it would impose a federal mandate without providing any federal funding assistance to the states also the white house has threatened a possible veto on the measure other work possible today includes of votes on the new farm bill which house lawn hers are considering today you can watch that house debate on our companion network c span the associated ripper press is reporting on another republican loss today in the house the story reads it's becoming a disturbing trend for republicans losing traditional g o p strongholds to democrats in some hard fought congressional races it happened again tuesday as travis childers beat greg davis in a special election to replace republican roger wicker who served in the house in one thousand nine hundred four and was appointed to the s senate to fill the seat vacated by trent lott childers when will give him the chance over the next several months left in the seats two year term to build a fundraising and publicity advantage as he heads into november's general election he will again face davis as well as two other opponents childers when gives democrats a two thirty six to one ninety nine edge over republicans in congress the story continues that tom cole chairman of the national republican congressional committee said the mississippi race showed that republicans must be prepared to campaign against democrat challengers who are running as conservatives even as they try to join a liberal democrat majority again that from an associated press story earlier today where alive the senate coverage continues when a quorum call now again the senate working on an organized labor rights bill for public safety officials our live coverage here on c span to senate still in a quorum call re still waiting for member to come to the floor and speak on the collective bargaining bill that senators have been working on today a collective bargaining for public safety workers including firefighters and police officers senate may also see the farm bill conference report on the floor later that measure being considered in the house this afternoon the house is live on our companion network c span on c span three a couple of live events coming up today at two eastern time we play to bring us special state department briefing on u s assistance to me in mar and china me m r of course struggling through the recovery efforts after a psych loan and china with the recent earthquake and a three eastern today a senate hearing on operations of the national archives that's also on c span three looking ahead to tomorrow a programming note here on c span two at seven a m eastern time president bush addresses the israeli knesset a look ahead to some of our programming and our live senate coverage continues here on c span t