a bill that is going to correct them with the stakes that we made in this enormous highway transportation bill that was passed several years ago it's going to make a very important correction so that the department of transportation can proceed to investigate the status of our highways our bridges our transit systems because the bottom line is as we get ready for our next with bill and mr president you're such a key player on our committee you know this is well as i do we see bridges collapsing we need to know the extent of the problems we're facing and because of a problem in the bill  account that had to be go to the account that we needed to fund these investigations and studies was oversubscribed which is a fancy way of saying we have to figure out another way to complete our work and that is taking care spells so we really need colleagues to help us we we are not adding one dime at all to the spending on transportation systems and highways all we are doing is making technical corrections to make sure that some of the projects that have been stymied because let's just say the environmental report came in and said what we can't do you know alternative one we have to do alternative to an alternative to was not authorized we will allow it to move forward i did a press conference today with both the the management and the labor of the building trades and the construction workers are hurting out there we know we're in a recession this is a mini economic stimulus bill we're not suggesting it's a cure ok any means it's a small bill but it will unleash a billion dollars across this great nation of ours and when unleash a billion dollars spending what it means is that tens of thousands of workers will get jobs and they're there doing important things here fixing bridges fixing roads building transit systems all the good things that make our nation work so i'm here it's about two twenty in the afternoon we've been on the floor since early monday frankly this bill could have been done in an hour or two we are willing very willing to take the amendments that there are and work with the authors of those amendments we may have to just have an up or down vote because frankly we're not going to entertain anything that changes the law because this is just a technical corrections bill but if there are things we can do to accommodate our colleagues we're happy to do and i say we i not only mean the democratic members of the committee but the republican members of the committee senator inhofe has been working with me very closely on this and we feel really good about our work together we managed to get a word a bill through water resources development act in seven months after it languished for seven years and we feel we can do this too and that we had actually override the president's veto now the president sent us a little note he doesn't love this bill there's one thing in it he doesn't like a well the fact is the one thing he doesn't like was signed off on by republicans and democrats on the banking committee has to do with how do we prioritize transit projects and this desire of the committee to put this in the bill is a reiteration of safety lou really doesn't change anything it just stresses it the president doesn't like it but i'm hopeful he's not going to veto he didn't say veto he just said he didn't appreciate that that guidance that we're giving him but we don't we don't feel to be totally we feel we can we can get this to his desk and just think about how good we feel  to know that that people who are really her hurting can get jobs back that's really what it's about right now and frankly companies that are really hurting can get contracts so again this is a a no brainer for want of a better term this is something we should do we should do it quickly and i stand by ready willing and able to get this work done so i don't see anyone else on the on the senate for wishing to speak so i will yield the floor and decision as to whether or not we can legislate on a technical questions but it is really too bad that we can't move forward we have so much to do and aspiring to meet what the american veterans health matter we have to deal with with a long list of things and mispresent we're so being stopped from doing that today we're stopped from going yesterday were stopped from going in on thursday so i want the record of least this obstructionism of the republicans who've been carried to a fine art they're doing a great job they're basically obstructing everything stalling for time to maintain the status quo we have seven plus years of this administration which is brought this country down not up we have an economy this staggering we have a housing crisis that we've  during the great depression but not since then we have a war that's causing us five thousand dollars a second and the republicans want to maintain the status quo the only thing they talk about here is let's have the bush tax cuts go on a little bit longer let's do tort reform is present it's no longer become a serious debate on legislation it's a serious debate on how to keep attention away from the failed presidency of george bush i would hope that we can we we can have a vote of love in thirty a night takes a majority vote is all it takes them with word on this legislation until then we can do nothing we cannot legislate until the thirty hours used up we will never need sixty five or seventy filibusters a conducted here in the senate was present my math is good enough at this instantaneous to tell you how many hours we've eaten up on days just like this doing nothing just letting the statutory thirty hours run out and during that pretty time we really can't do anything they know that but i think the american people are going to recognize come november what has happened here in the senate  i rise today to talk about an issue that is very important to the hardworking men and women of our great country and that's tax reform i believe that the federal tax burden is excessive and overly intrusive reform of the i r s and the current tax system is long long overdue if our democratic colleagues have their way the tax code will continue to big said see them overly intrusive  recent years it has become abundantly clear to me that we have lost sight of the fact that the fundamental purpose of our tax system is to raise revenues to fund our government and its current application the us tax system distorts the economic decisions of families and businesses leading to an inefficient allocation of resources in him during economic growth our taxes and has become unstable and unpredictable frequent changes to the tax code have caused voluntarily that have caused volatility that is harmful to the economy and creates additional compliance costs the tax system was originally intended to be an efficient simple system designed to raise revenues for our national defense social programs and vital government services over the current tax system is now so complex that approximately one hundred fifty billion dollars to spend each year by taxpayers and the federal government just to make sure taxes are tallied and paid correctly this is an enorm expense and is a waste of resources at present the united states has instituted a tax system that ports basic economic decisions punishes wise and productive investments and rewards those who work less and borrow more as it stands the quagmire that is our existing tax code penalizes savings contributes to the ever increasing cost of health insurance and undermines our global competitiveness more disturbing is the fact that americans spend more than three point five billion hours doing their taxes which is the question of hiring almost two million new i r s employees more than twenty times the agency's current work force them a day on average americans spend the equivalent of more than half of one workweek that's twenty six hours on their taxes each year not to mention the amount of time they work to pay the taxes themselves at the end of the day despite our lengthy codified tax law there's no evidence to suggest that americans really know how much they should be paying taxes in any given year or why our tax code should aspire to be clear and transparent rather than multiverse and convoluted everyone should be able to have a basic understanding of the tax code knowing how and why they are taxed the tax code is constant phase ends and phase outs are a nuisance at best and a negative force at worst in the daily economic lives of american families and businesses moreover taxpayers with the same income families situation and other key characteristics often face different tax burdens this differing treatment creates a perception of unfairness in the tax code that has l six president ronald reagan a true visionary in this area signed the tax reform act of one nine hundred eighty six which reduced marginal individual rates from fifty percent to twenty twenty eight percent and increased the standard deduction reduced the top corporate tax from fifty percent to thirty four percent and in doing so this reform act simplified the tax code broadening income tax base allowing for lower marginal rates and current tailing the use of the individual tax shelters bought in the one nine hundred eighty six act was a step in the right direction unfortunately did not produce a long lasting transformation of our tax system today our tax system bears little resemblance to the simple low rate system promised by the nineteen eighty six reform this is due to constant tweaking over the years more than one hundred different acts of congress have made nearly fifteen thousand changes to the tax code public opinion polls indicate that americans believe taxpayers should not have to pay more than one fourth of their income to the government the current tax code hardly reflects this perspective depending on the level of income the amount of deductions and the type of family one's income can be taxed at twenty five percent twenty eight percent thirty three percent or thirty five percent i support broad based tax reform and a simplified tax system is my belief that any reforms to the current tax system should benefit the middle class the vast majority of taxpayers are the middle class and they have borne the burden of the current system by was an member of the colorado legislature we implemented a five percent flat tax for colorado i believe we should take a similar approach on the federal level well i would be willing to consider a flat tax or sales tax or other plans on the federal level it is important that any replacement plan be simple and fair replacement system must provide tax relief for working americans it must protect the rights of taxpayers and reduce our collection abuse but most importantly a new system must eliminate the bias against savings and investment and the bias against economic growth and job creation no one can deny that our tax code is in dire need of reform its complexity lack of clarity unfairness and disproportionate influence on behavior has caused great frustration our current tax code has been shaped by goals other than simplicity by intentions other than helping the taxpayer plan ahead by objection jack these other than expanding our economy not only has a failed to keep pace with our economy frequent changes have made it unstable and unpredictable years of hodgepodge government interference and ad hoc meddling has left our tax code in shambles but we cannot change the past we can learn valuable lessons from the same and remedy our mistakes if we do not take steps to mean that they simplify and reform our tax code it will become more complex more unfair and less conducive to our economy's future growth small reforms are not enough a total overhaul of the existing system is the only chance we have of writing this wrong and getting our economy and our deficit back on track raising taxes in my mind is not an option our democratic colleagues seem to believe that raising taxes or doing nothing about taxes is the best policy just last month democrats proposed raising taxes on the average american family by two thousand three hundred dollars per year earlier this year democrats proposed passed a proposal calling for the largest tax hike in history the democrats continue down this path of tax increases and a do nothing tax policy more and more american families will suffer and mr president it's important to to point out at this point that a do nothing on the tax code means a tax increase is going to happen within the next several years to a do nothing policy on taxes will allow for the expiration of the several key tax provisions that will further the reach of the a m t all alternative minimum tax and we will see a tax increase of more than one point two trillion dollars over the next ten years in a time of economic uncertainty raising taxes and taking money out of the pockets of the american people should not be the goal of the united states congress we must act now we have a responsibility to our constituents in this nation to resolve the predicament that our current tax system has put us in if we here in congress do not act sooner rather than later in reforming our tax system it will continue to become more transportation technical corrections bill which will we'll be discussing this week and i will offer later on i motion to recommit was some considerations i would like to talk about regional bill this is it a lot of us were part of moving this through congress of transportation bill obviously important at a time when roads and bridges across the country are in desperate need of repair and funding widening lot of safety features are needed there were over six hundred literally directed earmarks in the original bill and now the correction bill involves five hundred of those  the work they've done on transparency to this legislation while i strongly believe that we should put an end to the practice of earmarking if the senate is going to earmark it must do it in a trance band parent manner and i really believe that the chairman and ranking member here have set an example for all the committees on at least getting the information out in a way that people can look at it and debate and it's all right for us to disagree on whether we like earmarks or not but in this  can do it with full disclosure of what's actually in the bill the american people deserve to know how their elected representatives are spending their money and the way this bill handles earmarks disclosure helps us do just that the senators from california and oklahoma have disclosed as the sponsor recipient in the purpose of the earmarks in this bill in addition to letters disclosing that the sponsors have no financial interest in the particular earmarks i was also pleased to see that the disclosures were made in a timely manner so that we could review them before we began consideration of the legislation they've got they've really gone beyond the requirements of the senate rules and i applaud them for their commitment to transparency and i hope that the other committee are equally committed to transparency mr president my colleagues have asked on the floor that this bill is needed so that states can move forward with planning and construction of authorized projects from the last highway reauthorization bill is as really with all large bills there were typos in other areas in this bill  technical correction bill that we're discussing this week was designed to correct those technical problems and i think that's something obviously we need to do oftentimes with most of our legislation but instead of just correcting errors from the last reauthorization bill the committee decided to rewrite public law into add to contract authority as well as add to spending levels for certain projects and essentially adding new earmarks to the bill the president's statement of administrative policy regarding this techno correction bill contains strong language critical of this legislation and let me just quote some from that essay p the administration notes with strong concern that the majority of the bill is devoted to earmarks the bill modifies hundreds of earmarks from a bill that passed in two thousand and five affectively creating new earmarks including a stand along section as me a stand alone section that would provide mandatory funding for magnetically the presence of excessive earmarks in the two thousand and five bill created significant inefficiencies in the allocation of resources to fund transportation infrastructure and this is from the department of transportation the effort through r eleven ninety five to modify these earmarks from an author is a that passed only three years ago is a further reflection of the inefficiencies of the earmark process therefore the administration urges that these provisions be removed from the bill and that's affectively what my motion will address when we offer it later in the week the administration and again quoting from the administration's position on this bill the administration urges congress to restrict the bill to true technical changes for example in addition to those noted above both senate proposed substitute in the underlying bill contain substantive changes to statutory provisions regarding waiver procedures for buy america requirements that should be removed from the bill because they are not technical corrections in addition section one hundred four of the substitute would repeal section one eleven d of title twenty three of the us code which allows idling reduction facilities at public rest areas in interstate right away as this provision is a policy change not a technical amendment repealing this section of the us code would eliminate a beneficial initiative first proposed by this administration this present we've heard for the past months and will continue to hear today that members of congress know what's best for their district no better than some unelected federal bureaucrat if a member of congress knows what's best for their district then why debating a hundred thirty eight page so called technical correction package suppose some of these are drafting area arrows and i do not deny that there should always be room for some error and legislative process at a cost of well over twenty billion and now nearly five hundred changes in the technical correction package a two thousand and seven report by the department of transportation the office of inspector general requested by senator tom found that the o t earmarks have increased in number by a thousand one hundred and fifty percent from one nine hundred ninety six to two thousand and five an incredible increase and as we can see a number that has been very difficult for us to manage effectively here in the congress this administration has projected that the highway trust fund will have a negative balance of three point two billion by next year two thousand  if we continue on the path of outspending the receipts in this account so piling on the additional authorization levels to projects in this technical correction bill only further deplete the highway account and cause the highway trust fund to be bankrupt sooner than projected i know the case has been made that this technical correction bill does not increase the overall amount but as we went back through this and found numerous earmarks that were no longer needed or even wanted instead of moving that money to savings we moved it to earmarks and new earmarks and to add two additional earmarks at a time when we really need to be trying to save money to overcome the the projected deficit a congress needs to take a time out and examine the country's infrastructure priorities instead of relying solely on members of congress transportation remarks of most concern many of the earmarks requested and funded in highway authorization bills are neither the most effective or efficient use of funds many of them such as an earmark for removing the apollo theater had nothing to do with transportation senators and house members have picked particular projects for funding that they know will result in their gaining political support they will get more votes in their reelection campaigns for bringing home the bacon but for but funding will be redirected from highway projects where it's most needed this is why i have proposed this motion to recommit again which i will bring up later when we're on the bill that would send this bill back to the committee and require that the bill be reported back to the senate with an amendment that eliminates any provision in the bill that increases spending for earmarks that are contained in the safety bill increasing spending for existing earmarks is simply not a technical correction in such provisions do not belong in this legislation which is intended as we've talked about before according to its title just to correct the technical aspects of the bill here just a few examples of present provisions in this bill that are not hundred thousand for an intersection project in pennsylvania by striking the eight hundred thousand designation and increasing the earmark to two point four million that's not a technical correction on page nineteen we amend an earmark in current law that provides federal funds for widening two blocks of popular street from park avenue to thirteenth street and williamson county illinois by striking that description and insert serving the following new earmark which is to construct the connector road from rushing drive north to grand avenue in williamson county it's not a technical correction that's a new project six million we double the earmark amount page twenty nine amends an earmark in current law that provides two point seven million for upgrades to an interchange in pennsylvania by striking the two point seven million amount and increasing the earmarks to three point two million page thirty five and i've just got a couple more of these amends the new york earmarking current law that provides for may and for miller highway improvements by striking the existing earmark in excess inserting the following new earmarks and this is important to listen to do we go from a highway here to inserting this new earmark p stairs seating landscaping lighting and other transportation hands man activities along riverside boulevard and at riverside park south this is not a technical correction and it's one of the reasons we're not rebuilding and improving and maintaining bridges in america because we're focused on things that are not basic infrastructure paid sixty three and sixty four man's a new york earmarking current law that provides five hundred thousand for designing construction of an access road to plattsburgh international airport by striking this description and inserting the following new air mark preparation demolition disposal  restoration of alert facility on access road to plattsburgh international airport so we found we didn't need the money in one area but we found a new area instead of saving it like we apparently need to do with the deficit we have in our transportation trust fund the most glaring example of a non technical correction made by this bill is the mag lev section which provides ninety million over two years in mandatory spending for a rail project from nevada to california under current law this project was simply between two cities in the vatican but this technical correction bill paves the way for extending this project all the way to california and leaves the federal government on the hook for paying the price tag how will this project expand federal spending well first it jams all the funding into the last two years which increases the baseline from thirty million in two zero nine to forty five mi and the way we fundings here are based on year to year they slimed it turns the funding from an authorization to direct spending in the original bill it allows the funding of a project now it requires the funding of a project that extends the federal project from primitive that a to anaheim california and it involves the federal government in a dubious construction project that will created and create an unwanted transportation mode the cost of which will likely expand considerably in cost and just one other point we have along this same route a private company that has raised billions of dollars to build a high speed rail from nevada to california without any taxpayer money are rolling government should be to make the private sector work not to replace it and to compete with it with taxpayer dollars in addition increasing federal funding this provision inserts the government into a business that appears to need no propping up from taxpayers  press reports indicate that the maglev route is nearly identical as i mentioned before to a completely private funded financed rail project which is estimated to cost between three and five billion dollars this legislation which would use taxpayer dollars to fund a government project that is in direct competition to an existing privately funded effort the government does not need to be replacing private sector involvement in two thousand and five a los angeles times had this to say about maglev and i quote the long running debate over maglev trains is a battle between faith in reason they have to rely on faith because there's very little evidence of the practicality of the systems only one commercial high speed maglev train exist covering in one thousand mile stretch from shanghai to pudong international airport last spend so much money especially if it's taxpayers when you might get more for bang for the buck out of cheaper alternatives that the premier land has gotten this far is a tribute to the power in determination of the senate majority leader to the munich airport citing escalating costs germany's transportation minister told reporters that it was not possible to finance the project since the cost had more than double i guess is anything's possible when it's taxpayer money like clearly building it in an unproven experimental project where private money is already accomplishing the same thing does make does not make very much sense in this transportation bill not only will this experimental rail provision of eventually cost billions in federal funding and insert the government into the private market was it where it doesn't belong it would most likely also be bad for consumers according to my last check of on the internet the nonstop flights from los angeles to las vegas are one hour in ten minutes and cost only one hundred eighteen dollars for round trip as fifty nine dollars each way and i asked my colleagues how much these maglev trips will cost are we absolutely certain it will cost less than fifty nine dollars each way if not why would not consumers fly i would hazard a guess here that if we were asking members of the senate to invest their own personal money in this project that not one would reach for their wallet but this  taxpayer money that we're spending on something that none of us would do as individuals even the administration is weighed in on this provision stating the bill modifies hundreds of earmarks from a bill that passed in two thousand and five affectively creating new earmarks including a standalone section that would provide mandatory funding for magnetically levitating rail administration urges that these provisions be removed from the bill colleagues we're not talking about technical corrections here these provisions increased funding for existing earmarks and create new earmarks for opponents of this legislation will argue that the bill spends no new federal dollars in fact even saves taxpayers a few million dollars and while that is true the bill accomplishes this by our sending funds left in the treasury that were never used by a few earmarks previously authorized congress however it's clear to me that this bill is just another way for congress to create new earmarks increasing spending for existing earmarks without actually appearing to be doing just that in addition by shifting existing funding from one earmark to be used for a completely new earmark this bill also creates new projects which now rely on federal government to continue their funding in the future in the long run this legislation encourages wasteful washington spending through the broken process of earmarking now here's an example of a true technical correction included in this legislation on page twenty four of the bill there provision that would strike the word country and insert the word county in an earmark for a new county on with the island in washington state the current law refers to this road as new country road which was a mistake and in this bill would correct that error by inserting the word county clearly this is a true technical correction and represents the spirit of what this bill was intended to accomplish which is to correct technical errors contained in current law another argument we hear is that earmarking federal tax dollars is our constitutional obligation our colleague dr coburn wrote an excellent article entitled founders vs por addressing this bogus claim will not read the article in its entirety but i would commend it to you and to all of my colleagues it contains some excellent quotations which i will share the thomas jefferson in a seventeen ninety six letter james madison regarding federally funded local projects said that other revenues will soon be called into their aid and it will be the source of a turn all scramble among the members who can get the most money wasted in their state and they will always get the most who are the main asst in the seventy ninety two letter to alexander hamilton conveying what he believed to be the public's perception of government george washington cited worries about the quote increase in the massive debt quote which had quote furnished effectual means of corrupting such a portion of the legislature as turns the balance between the honest voters hamilton madison madison on fiscal matters responded that every session the question whether the annual provision should be continued would be an occasion for punishes coddling and corrupt bargaining the importance of transparency in government operations was also recognized by jefferson in eighteen zero eight he wrote the same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our money for unexplained projects for beds it in the disposition of public money and as i said before i doubt very seriously if any member of this and senate would invest their own money in an unproven technology overall out where there's always ready going to be private competition jefferson also recognize that large amounts of spending would inevitably lead to outside efforts to redirect the money he wrote in one thousand nine hundred one about the need to reform the waste of public money in thousand drive away the vultures who prey upon it george washington notas noted in seventeen ninety two that no mischief is so afflicting and fatal to every honest note as the corruption of the legislature congressional proving approval ratings as we all know are now at record lows because tax payers do not believe that we're being honest or open about how we spend their money one might argue that earmarking is a simple system or a simpler system there's really no bureaucrats no cost benefit analysis no hearing just a big pie that sliced up into pieces of varying sizes with the senior members getting the biggest slice but this is no way to run a government or country this bill proves that the some simplicity or so called simplicity of the system is not all it's cracked up to be one of the changes in this bill involves removing an earmark that was not even wanted but was secretly put into a bill after the bill it already passed now that this sort of technical correction that we're passing these kind of technical corrections right now why did it take so long to identif that wasn't wanted or needed fortunately in this bill we do remove it and senator coburn has the minute that will force an investigation of this bizarre process by which an earmark finds its way into a bill that already has passed and i  look forward to the findings of that bill encourage my colleagues to support it i applaud the committee again for providing earmark disclosure more earmark disc disclosure than we've seen out of most committees senators boxer in an off are to be comm for their effort that they have made to comply with the letter in the spirit of the law and as i said i hope all the committees will follow example however this bill does not have a committee report in that sense senators have been denied the tools we customarily rely on to decipher massive catch all bills like this for example without a changes in existing law document which is contained in all committee reports where they are radically supposed to go through each ear mark in try to figure out what it is amending since it almost certain that few members will actually do this beyond projects they inserted in the bill personally the bill is largely a series of meaningless paragraphs for example section one hundred five of the bill is sixty three pages containing three hundred eighty six earmarks these earmarks contain such alumina aiding descriptions as in item number seven fifty three by striking two point seven million and inserting three point two may that's all we know unless we go back to the original bill to figure it out earmark description for this one simply says it is from  safety section or it gives us the section that i'm in so even with the list of earmarks in one has no idea what this an amendment does without going to the underlying bill so we've got a lot of this in here  but the bill highlights the fact that this is a terrible way to write legislation where we all decide the different projects we want in for some in a single bill this bill demonstrates to me and the american people that earmarking is out of control and that the process is inefficient we're spending time on the senate floor to pass one hundred thirty eight pages of fixes to mistakes in arrows relating to existing earmarks colleagues we have much more pressing needs and deserve our time and attention such as providing health insurance to the million of uninsured across this nation making health care more affordable and passing the defies a reauthorization bill that will protect our homeland instead we're spending precious time fixing earmarks hardly a high priority to taxpayers that are disgusted with the way their hard earned tax dollars are being wasted now so i urge my colleagues to support this recommitment again it doesn't strike any earmarks that are in law it allows all the technical corrections that are included in this bill but it simply says we would eliminate any new earmarks in this bill and any increases in existing air marks i think that's what a technical by the senator from south carolina i would then a s u nabs consent that the senator from georgia be recognized for up to five minutes to talk as if in morning business and then of the followed by the senator from north dakota without mr president let me first thing my colleague from south carolina for acknowledging that the process that was used in this technical corrections bill was a very open process one in which all of the changes were open for public review and scrutiny well identified and a process in which any member or any parson could evaluate the merits or demerits of what we were attempting to do second let me point out that this is a technical corrections bill on the wrist of response to two one of the projects specifically that the senator from south carolina has recognize has talked about but that is a normal process when we pass a large bill to go through a technical corrections process in order to correct mistakes that were made or clarify or its priorities changed to deal with the regions to make sure that the federal programs are properly targeted to the neat this is a technical corrections bill and third let me point out that the regions have come to us asked for clarifications or modifications of projects within the area not increasing the cost and i thank senator from south carolina for pointing out that this legislation does not increase costs in fact it will save some money i've appreciated him pointing that out so we're in agreement on the all those points we're going to save money it it corrects mistakes that were made and it deals with regional priorities that have been requested to us consistent with prior authorizations of congress let me as a bomb i just point out one project and that's the maglev project and i don't want to make the merits or demerits of the maglev project because i don't think i would be appropriate on a technical corrections bill but where this senator from south carolina is is incorrect is that this is a technical correction of the prior actions of congress it provides contract authority that's what we intended to do in the safety lou act so this is not anything new maglev the areas that are involved with the same areas that were previously identified it doesn't expand the project and makes it technical corrections as far as contract authority itself what the senator from south carolina is debating is the merits of maglev and this is the wrong bill th fate that a warning by the senators own admission this is a technical corrections bill and we should be just talking about whether the language here is what was intended by congress in its previous action and clearly it was to make sure that we do it right based upon previous actions so i hope the senator from south carolina would he does own advice and that is let's make the technical corrections bill really deal with those types of issues and i'm afraid his amendment would not and by what he is now explain to us he wants to eliminate some of these projects that's not with the purpose of the technical corrections bill with the and i can understand members being somewhat concerned about that approach i'm proud of the work of the typo corrections and things like that this bill is vitally important to move forward so we can move forward on vital transportation projects that affect every one of our states and i would urge our colleagues to support the committee and support the process the very open and fair and transparent process that was used by the committee in developing the changes that are in this legislation and that mr president i would yield the floor mr president senator from georgia mr today to commemorate some a moment in our nation's history on this day and one hundred forty seven jackie robinson broke the color barrier to major league baseball after years of segregation jack roosevelt robinson was imagine jackie was very talented and did extremely well at all sports at u c l a jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters and for sports basketball baseball and track it was even named all american and football jack enlisted in the united states army in world war two and following is discharge in one nine hundred forty four war he played a season in the negril by a baseball league and a couple of years in minor league ball in one nine hundred forty seven following jackie's ass standing performance in the manner league's brooklyn dodgers vice president branch rickey the saturday was stand n a great major league which had not had an african american players since eighteen eighty nine when jackie first on the brooklyn dodger uniform he led the way to the end of gratian of professional athletics in america in his first year here twelve home runs and helped the dodgers when the national league pennant that year robinson led the national league in stolen bases and was also selected rookie of the year robinson succeeded in putting racial conflict and prejudice aside to show the world what a talented individual he was his success in the major leagues open the door for other african american players jackie robinson himself became a vocal champion for african american athletes civil rights and other social and political causes baseball robinson became active in business and continued working as an activist for social change he was the first african american inducted in the baseball hall of fame and in one nine hundred ninety seven his number was retired by major league baseball mispresent akon recall as a small boy being a brooklyn dodgers player in the main reason i was it because my older brother was a new york yankees fan and the perennial world series game was between the dodgers and the yankees so it was a natural rivalry that my brother and i had and i have very vivid memories of watching jackie robinson play ball on t v and having  great admiration and respect for him as an athlete it was jackie robinson who paved the way for so many great athletes today and little did he know back then in nineteen forty seven that he'd be followed by the likes of ledo be willing maids in my good friend hank aaron but what a great inspiration he has been for all of america and today honor the man who stood boldly against those who resisted racial equality and not acknowledge a profound influence of one man's life on the american culture jackie robinson's life and legacy will be remembered as one of great importance in american history and with that would you before a president someone is is by any chance watching the proceedings of united states senate this afternoon they may wonder what on earth is happening or not happening here and more likely what is not happening and it's become customary that when we try to do business in the senate in recent months we discover they there is a filibuster required cloture petition to be filed and almost everything the bill what we're on on the floor of the senate today sixty five filibusters in this congress now why would someone require a cloture petition to be filed in order to break a filibuster on a motion to proceed to a technical corrections the only conceivable reason to do that and stop the senate from doing anything and i guess those that have been doing this in the minority party been pretty successful now wiping our brow wondering why we can't move if we weren't doing this what would we be doing well if we didn't have a minority that insists on a motion to proceed a filibuster of cloture petition and thirty hours post culture what would we  doing what we'd probably be doing some worthwhile things it's not that the underlying bill isn't worthwhile it is it should be done quickly and easily to technical corrections bill but what for example could we do well i thought because it's april fifteenth it's a day that a lot people recognize as a a day of obligation to pay their taxes i would just mention perhaps a few of the things that we could be doing on the floor of the senate if we had a bit of cooperation and if we could get the minority party to agree and in every one of these cases of certain we could not but let me describe what we might do just on the tax code well the g a o government accounting office or accountability office found that fifty nine of the one hundred largest publicly traded federal contractors for the federal government that is companies that do work for the federal government fifty nine of the one hundred largest has established hundreds and hundreds of subsidiaries located in offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes to the united states of america they want to contract with our government they want all the benefits you can get from being a contractor for the government but they don't want to pay taxes to this country and i discovered this some long while ago and actually comes from an enterprising reporter named dave evans from bloomberg and i mention that because it's important he did some really interesting work he discovered that in this building in the cayman islands he went there he discovered in this building in the cayman islands a five story white building on church street there are twelve thousand seven hundred  forty eight corporations that call it home legally now they're not there it's their post office mailing address for the purpose of saying that they are in the cayman islands to avoid paying u s taxes now if we were not spending our time just at parade rest or posing as part of plants or because the minority doesn't want to move ahead on anything anything not even a motion to proceed on a technical corrections bill are there other things we could do you know we could solve this  could say that if you're going to run to a tax haven country and run your income through a tax haven country to avoid your obligations to the united states maybe you don't need to contract with the federal government maybe maybe you don't need to get the federal government's business or perhaps on tax day we might say we'll close this tax loophole just like that if you're not doing substantive business in the tax haven country we will not recognize you as having gone to a tax haven country and you'll pay taxes as if you never left our country well if we weren't seeing all of these in terminal delays perhaps we would pass a piece of legislation that i have offered previously and that is to say to american companies if you shut your plant fire you workers and move your operations overseas you're not going to get a tax break anymore and someone might say or they get a tax break for that they sure do sure do let me give an example everyone's written in a radio flyer little red wagon almost everybody i assume those made for hundred ten years and in illinois in chicago illinois is a radio flyer little red wagon was created by an immigrant who came here and created a big business thing is after hundred ten years these radio flyer little red wagon aren't manufactured here they're gone on there in china every radio flyer little red wagon is now manufactured in china and by the way the company got a tax break to move the jobs to china or something i've spoken about often on the floor h bicycles of the bicycles twenty percent of the american bicycle markets made in ohio by workers that were making eleven dollars an hour plus benefits well not anymore they all got fired in ohio and all these jobs are in  china poppy bicycles are made by people that work twelve to fourteen hours a day seven days a week for thirty cents an hour you know what the workers at huffy bicycle did the last day of work as their plants were closed down as they pulled out of their parking space the workers left the pair empty shoes where their car used to park and it was their poignant way to say to the company you can move our jobs to china but you're not going to fill our shoes well this company gets a tax break for moving commercials of dancing grapes advertising for the loom underwear problem is there's no food in the room underwear made in america anymore because they all went offshore to be produced and the company by the way got a tax break to do it why because this specific company did that no because companies that shut down their american manufacturing plant and move their jobs overseas get a tax break from this country it's the most pernicious thing i have ever seen and i've tried three times to correct it on the floor of the senate and i would ask people to look up the votes and find out who's standing up for american jobs american workers perhaps we could do that on tax day maybe fix that problem and say at the very least let's stop subsidizing so the tax go the shipping of american jobs overseas well here's another thing that we could probably do if the minority weren't requiring the cloture petitions and engaged in sixty five filibusters which take up dead time and i should just point out for anybody watching or listening nothing can be done during this period we're in  thirty hour post cloture period on a motion to proceed not even on the bill on a motion to proceed to a bill on a technical corrections bill so this thirty hours is dead time designed by the minority because they don't want us to do anything we probably could do this on tax day we have a a system in our tax code that allows almost unbelievable tax breaks to some companies i want to this have to be a street car in germany  owned by an american company why because their experts and street cars in germany know because they get big tax breaks when they do this this is a sewer system in germany walk over the bank walk over the a bank a us company was buying sewer systems in germany now think of that you think it's because they're experts in sewer systems now you think they want to sewer system they want to move it to the to american no no not at all they want to buy sewer systems in europe so they can avoid taxes in the united states because you buy a sewer system from a european city and you now own it you can actually depreciate it and then lease it back to the city and everybody makes money except the american taxpayers and the federal government loses money maybe it's since it's tax day we could we could shut down this tech scam although the president has threatened to veto legislation that shut down these tech scams reasons i don't understand but if we could try we could decide you know if working folks pay taxes maybe but everybody else can pay taxes perhaps we could pass a piece about the station that says that those on wall street that are getting what is called carried interest some of the wealth people in the united states should pay a higher income tax rate than fifteen percent almost everybody pays a higher income tax rate than fifteen percent but those that are making the biggest money on wall street in the form of what is called carried interest they're laughing all the way to the bank they get a fifteen percent tax rate perhaps we could change that president perhaps another thing we could do this afternoon if we weren't forced to thirty hours of dead time as we could we could deal with what the internal revenue service is doing by farming out tax collections and need to be made these are people that zero tax is farming it out to debt collection agencies in the private sector now this is going to be hard for anybody to believe or understand but here's what they've done this administration is so anxious to privatizing farm out everything they've gone into the internal revenue service and let's take the farm out this collections of taxes owed so they've contracted with a couple of companies and they spent eighty eight million dollars in two thousand and eight and they collected they projected they would collect twenty three million they actually only collected nineteen so they spent eighty eight million dollars and they only collected one hundred million dollars so they lost forty three million dollars i mean it's unbelievable up how can the internal revenue service contract with a company it's going to lose money collecting taxes and by the way they also predict they're going to lose money the second year this year that we're in so i have piece of legislation that says stop that if they the national taxpayer advocate that works at the i r s said had they invested that money instead for collectors in the internal revenue service they would have raised one point four billion dollars instead they lost forty three million dollars in that incredible maybe we could maybe work on that pass that legislation today see if we can find some deep reservoir of common sense here's what the national taxpayer advocate said in testimony before the congress had that money been spent for a collector or series of collectors the i r s they would have raised one point four billion dollars instead they invested seventy one million up here and returned thirty two million dollars ok so they lost money here with the debt collection private debt collection agencies and they done it down here invested the same money they would have made one point four billion dollars so they missed it by about one point three nine six billion dollars does anybody care currently not we're in thirty hours dead time on a motion to proceed to a technical corrections bill guaranteeing nothing can be done on the floor of the united states senate and then present a couple of other things that we might consider when we're thinking what could we do this afternoon in this dead time this is a photograph of mr ollie he's the c e o the chief executive officer of a firm that receives three hundred million dollars in u s army contracts now that's mr f from deval is twenty two years old his dad actually started a shell company back in the ninety's and then he took over and he says he was the only employee except it's less a vice president the vice president is a massage therapist he's twenty five years old so here you have a twenty two year old chief executive officer and a twenty five year old massage therapist running a company in miami and they get three hundred million dollars from the united states department of defense to provide ammunition to the afghans anders so let me just describe where they are they're in this building now they don't own this building they're just in a little part of this building in an unmarked door so you've got a twenty two year old a twenty five year old massage therapist working out of an unmarked office in miami florida miami beach florida and they're supposed to with three hundred million dollars provide ammunition to the afghan fighters on behalf of the u s defense department here's a picture of the ammunition some of it is emanation from china in the one nine hundred sixty s you can see what it looks like and the afghan fighters were saying wait a second what are you sending those bullets that don't fire now i must say that the new york times deserves some real credit three people wrote the story in the new york times i can tell from the story they traveled around world to get the details of this story and we didn't do it we should we should have done it in something called the truman committee the truman committee was created in the second world war run by harry truman bipartisan by the way started with fifteen thousand dollars in the save the american taxpayer fifteen billion dollars going after waste fraud and abuse in defense contractors three times we voted on the truman committee here in the united states congress three times it's been turned back by the minority now i will come later and give a longer presentation about defense contracting in the most unbelievable waste fraud and abuse in the history this country but we don't need more than the picture of the president of this company who got three hundred million dollars i've asked the general for the army sustainment command who's responsible for that how do you justify this how on earth do you justify this sort of non since it's after all money that belongs the american taxpayer isn't it so that a president the question that i started with today is what could we be doing in thirty hours of dead time if the minority had not required there be a cloture petition and had not affected we filibustered here on a motion to proceed to a bill that's going to get overwhelming support i just don't understand it finally we could do something about the price of oil or gasoline while we're on the floor during this dead time if we weren't prevented by the minority and by the way prevented by a president threatening a veto pen oil and gas well look today is tuesday and our federal government while all is one hundred thirteen dollars a barrel today and that puts upward pressure on gas prices and some are going to the bank with a big smile on their face with a large major integrated oil companies because they're making a massive amount of profits and then other people are wondering do i have enough money to fill my gas tank to be able drive to work tomorrow i'm a going to do that so all of this is going on today on tuesday our federal government is putting seventy thousand barrels of oil sweet light crude underground in the strategic reserve and they're going to do it every single day all year long seventy thousand barrels a day stuck underground decent idea it's ninety seven percent filled why on earth would we when or oil is one hundred thirteen dollars a barrel why would we continue through this bush and cheney administration to put oil underground and thereby put upward pressure on gasoline prices and oil prices it makes no sense at all so perhaps where this dead time not required by the minority we could work on that or perhaps with respect to the price of saline and oil we could work on increasing the margin requirements for those that are speculating in the futures market the commodities futures market especially for oil is an unbelievable carnival of speculation you know it takes fifty percent of the funding to get to work on margin stocks there's a fifty percent margin requirement to put down but if you want to buy oil god bless you five to seven percent you want to control one hundred thousand barrels of oil tomorrow seven thousand dollars will do that that's what the margin is and so as a result you've got unbelievable speculation in these markets driving up the price well above that which the fundamentals of oil supply and demand would justify perhaps we could do something about saying to the exchanges there must be increased margin requirements to stop this speculation this speculation is hurting our country it's driving up the price of oil driving up the price of gasoline in a manner that is completely unjustified so stop the speculation stop putting seventy thousand barrels of sweet light crude underground every single day maybe those would be two things we could do at a time when we are required to file cloture petitions the stop a filibuster and things like a motion to proceed minutes unbelievable to me that we find ourselves in this position there is so much to do and it is such an important work and yet here we find ourselves with the american people looking in on the united states senate and wondering what on earth are they doing well what we're doing is what we are required to do by the rules when one side decides that it wants the united states senate to be a parade rest almost all the time we have such big challenges in our country i've mentioned energy i've mentioned fiscal policy i've mentioned health care such big challenges that ought to be our agenda this country deserves better and our agenda is in my judgment something that the american people expect us to make progress on they don't x act as if i might just close as i started they don't expect us to see every single day in every way a filibuster on the floor of the united states senate even and motions to proceed as the last thing the american people should expect from a congress that are to come to from vermont and a cover i want to commend my friend from north dakota is exactly right the middle class in our country is in deep trouble some would argue the middle class is collapsing and the people of our country are looking to washington for us to get something done and what they're finding is a filibuster on a corrections bill and in the activity in every single area that faces working people to our website about what the collapse of the middle class means to them personally i think it's one thing for those of us to give a speech to use huge numbers to talk in an abstract way it is another thing to hear directly from people in terms of what is going on in their lives and what i promised that i would do and continue to do is read some of these very poi e mails that i receive mostly from vermont sometimes from other parts of the country where people are simply saying look this is what is going on in my life today i thought i was in the middle class but i no longer am and so about a president what i just want to do is read a few of the e mails that i received to put what we ought debating and discussing here in a very personal tone in the real words of real americans this is the collapse of the middle class as described by ordinary people we received a an email from an older couple in the state of vermont and this is what they write the woman writes quote my husband and i are retired and sixty five we would like to work longer but because of injuries caused that work and the closing about factory to go to canada we chose to retire earlier now with oil prices the way they a we cannot afford to heat our home unless my husband cuts and splits wood which is a real hardship as he has had his back tuesday and should not be working most of the day to keep up with the not only that not only that he had that only that he has to get off two to three times each night to keep the fire going we also have a two thousand and three cough that we only get to drive to get groceries  go to the doctor or to visit my mother in the nursing home three miles away it now cost us eighty dollars a month to go nowhere we have forty two thousand miles on a five year old call i have medicare but i can't afford prescription coverage unless i take my money out of an annuity which is supposed to cover the house payment when my husband's pension is gone we also only eat two meals a day to conserve this is a sixty five year old couple in the state of vermont in the two thousand and eight and madam president i suspect this story is being told all over america is another story about a woman who lives in just counting shouldn't count she writes first of all i am a single mother of a sixteen year old daughter i own a condominium i have worked at the hospital for a sixteen years and make a very good salary in the high forty thousand dollar range i own a two thousand and five tons of civet i filled up my gas tank yesterday and it cost me almost forty three dollars that was at three dollars and twenty two cents per gallon if prices stay at that level it will cost me a hundred and sixty dollars per month to fill up my gas tank a year ago it would have cost me approximately eighty dollars per month i now have to decide what errands i really need to run and what things i can do over the phone or the internet but the other issue is if i use my cell phone too much during the month my bill will increase and that will cost me more money i feel as though i am between a rock and a hard place the matter how hard i try to adjust my budget for the month i am watching my purchases in the grocery store in the bottom suppose walk closely because of increased prices i am not sure that i can afford to take a some of the cation this year i usually take a day off during my daughter's spring vacation so we go shopping in the hampshire somewhere i have already cancelled those plans but this year i am hoping that i can take a few days off to someone to go to maine we will see how the gas prices all of the summer but i hear it is going to get worse not much hope for someone on a tight budget and of leta here we have somebody who asked not seeing more than be able to take a few days off with her daughter to go shopping somebody who works very very hot can't even do that because the price of gas is soaring here is a nother email that comes from a woman living in a oldtown in vermont this is what she writes yesterday i paid for our latest home heating fuel delivery eleven hundred dollars i also paid my two thousand dollars plus credit card balance much of which bought gas and groceries for the month y husband and i a very nervous about what will happen to walk when we are old although we have three jobs between us in part hundred three b retirement plan we have not saved enough for a realistic post work life if we survive to wild life expectancy as we approach the traditional retirement age we are slowly paying off daughter's college tuition loan and trying to keep our heads above water we have always lived frugally we buy used cars and support rent groceries recycle everything walk or call pull one possible and plastic our windows each  fall even so if been when our son decides to attend college we will be in deep debt at age six the buy p s please don't use my name i live in a small town and this is so embarrassing and of course well it is not embarrassing that is the story being told from one end of this country to the other people who thought that after working their entire lives they would be able to retire with a little bit of security and a little bit of dignity i'm now wondering in fact whether they will be able to survive at all after working your whole life and being frugal you should not have to retire in debt dependent upon a credit card now let me just read an e mail that i received from a young person and the e mails that we received from people were young middle age and old each in its own way a work of poetry because it comes from people's hot it is appointment it is true this is what a younger person in vermont vermont writes quote i am twenty three years old i have about thirty three thousand of education debt plus twelve thousand of credit card debt and only make about twenty six thousand dollars a year plus benefits i barely make enough to support myself and whenever unexpected other expected expenses come up i end up having to use credit to cover it i feel like i will never catch up and now everything is getting even more expensive it seems hopeless meanwhile i listen to the news on how the rich are getting richer and it is making me hate this country i am not an economics expert but i know the things could be done differently to help people like me to work hard and get little in return instead of rewarding those who have the ability to use their money to make more money and the quote well we just heard senator dog talk about the huge tax breaks that go to some of the wealthiest people in this country people who don't pay their taxes because they moved to the cayman islands and set twenty for the phony front offices and this writer who may not have a ph d in economics hit it right on the head this young man these old people all of the people that we should start worrying about not the wealthiest people in this country who are having a very very good let me just talk briefly about a woman and this is another angle another piece of reality she writes and i quote as a couple with one child earning about fifty five thousand a year we have been able to eat out a bit buy groceries and health insurance contribute to our retirement funds and live in a relatively comfortable life financially we've never accumulated a lot of savings but our bills were always paid on time and we never had any interest on our credit card over the last even though we've tightened our belts not eating out much watching purchases of the grocery store not buying extras like a new t v repairing the washer instead of buying a new one and we find ourselves with opus seven thousand dollars of credit card debt and trying to figure out how to pay for braces are awesome i worked if the hours per week to help earn extra money to catch up but that also takes a toll on the family life not spending those ten hours at home with my husband and son makes a big difference for all of us my husband hasn't had a raise  three years and his employer is looking to cut out any extra benefits they can to lower their expenses which will increase ours and of course now here is a woman will have to work longer hours in order to try to catch up and she can spend time with the husband and her family which is what her life is about how many millions of people are in the staying boat madam president what is not usually talked about on the floor of the senate is the fact that here in the united states our people work longer hours than do the people of any other industrialized country not talked about terribly often is that to make ends meet now in the vast majority of middle class life you need both the husband and the wife working long hours and despite those two incomes people have less disposable income today than thirty years ago in a one income family but when you talk about the collapse of the middle class one of the manifestations of it is that people have got to war and scratch and work so hot that they have family lives that siri right in this case a woman cannot even and the time she would like with our son and her husband here is just a few more letters e mails this comes from a veteran from the state of vermont quote the real killer is the price of heating fuel up here in northern vermont we need heat in the winter with a military pension i make too much to get any assistance we've got a two point eight percent pension increase in january and the price of heating fuel has increased by about fifty percent we have to cut back on food in order to stay warm thank you and of quote somebody trying to live on a military pension goes up two point eight percent price of home heating fuel saws not making it and this is another short email that we received quote the company i work freeze which means not even a cost of living increase can be expected this year this will be tough for us as we were counting on at least a cost of living increase in a year where the cost of living  groceries fuel would gasoline  let me just finish up about a president by reading an email from another young vermonter and this is what he says quote as a graduating law student i am particularly concerned with  potential reduction of jobs available to me i am leaving school with a great amount of debt and student loans and credit cards and entering the on certain job market i currently pay a tremendous amount of money and rent i would like to work in poverty law for those jobs only pay about thirty six thousand so it isn't unlikely going to happen in the code so here's an example of a young man who goes to law school wants to work in poverty law that because his debt is so high in the interest rates data so i you know on guy has a choice in korea is and this is happening to young people all over our country madame president the middle class in america are is collapsing poverty is increasing and the gap between the very very wealthy and everybody else is growing wider and today we have by far the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth we are the only country major country on this planet without a national health care program cost of college education very high by the oil companies make huge profits out people can't afford to fill up their gas tanks as senator dorgan said a moment ago but time is long overdue for this congress to stop fung sought focusing on the real issues facing ordinary americans the time is now for us to develop the courage to stand up to the big money interests of the thirty five thousand lobbyists who surround us every day of the big campaign contributors who want benefits for the wealthy and the powerful we have an obligation to stand up for the middle class and i hope we today is a day for filing income tax i think it's appropriate that we remind each other here about a lot of taxes years that are very important that we have to decide this year next year in the following year or we're going to have the biggest tax increase in the history of the country and we're taking opportunity on april the fifteen's to talk about those when i was chairman of the senate finance committee i work to get through our narrowly divided senate the biggest tax cut in a generation we reduced income tax rates for individual tax payers we created the first ever ten percent bracket for lowering com workers so that they didn't have to pay as much tax as they would at the fifteen percent bracket on their first dollars earned we reduced the marriage penalty because we don't think it ought to be pay more taxes because you're married and we created a deduction for college tuition and we also passed a deduction for schoolteachers buying supplies for their classrooms now you can go on with a lot of other provisions in the in those tax bills but they've all had good economic consequences and we ought to consider that they should not sunset now i'm at work and we're in a lot of us are work to make sure that there's tax relief is extended if it is allowed to expire americans will be hit with the biggest tax increase in history now that's one thing but it's quite another thing that this is going to happen without a vote of congress and other words on that magic date of suns we go back to taxes levels of taxation that they were before january first two thousand and one and we automatically without a vote of congress and up with the biggest tax increase in the history of the country now people say well we're just going to continue existing tax law well they need to be intellectually honest and tell people that when they're doing that they're going to allow the biggest tax increase in the history of the country we can intervene we need to intervene and it's my goal to intervene the last thing that families need the last thing the small businesses need the last thing that investors ne a tax increase but that's what will happen this year and in two thousand and ten if congress doesn't act last week the senate demonstrated support for extending current law tax relief without as when it voted on energy tax incentives things that are meant to make the united states more tax or more energy efficient and less dependent upon foreign sources of energy that same approach that was demonstrated last week extending current tax law really without offsets should rightfully apply to other expiring tax provisions including research and development tax credit the individual tax provisions that i've already mentioned i'll be working hard to see that that that does happen so that taxpayers don't get hit with even higher taxes i learned a long time ago that you can't raise taxes high enough to satisfy the appetite of congress to spend money and stopping the tax increases that people say were not really voting tax increases were just allowing the president all which means that the biggest tax increase in the history of the country will happen without of the vote of the people well we can do something about it we ought to do something about it and stopping these tax increases ought to be a major goal maybe taxes should not be lowered and nobody's talking about lowering taxes but we ought to keep the present level of taxation because it's been good for the economy and it's been good for the taxpayers because we do not see a revolt  in the minds of revolt going on by taxpayers as we have seen in recent years in the congress united states are you before under cloture what it means of course is that we're doing nothing good speeches on important topics but we're not considering legislation we're not debating a bill we're killing time which turns out to be the major occupation of the united states senate for the last year and a half why because the minority party the republican party has a strategy is a strategy of using filibusters to slow down and stop any bill from passing in the united states senate and today we are seeing that strategy in the extreme the bill pending before the senate is h r eleven ninety five in the annals of legislative history in the senate this will not go down as a great piece of legislation this is not a bill that was worked on for years by senators and their staffs conceived with grand ideas to change this great country this is a bill which by and large changes punctuation in the federal highway bill a bill that we passed several years ago and then when we carefully read it afterward said we got some of this wrong this shouldn't have been a trail it should have read road this section th referred to wasn't exactly accurate it's another section in so we created a technical corrections bill a bill that just cleaned up the federal highway bill this technical corrections bill is now being filibustered by the republican side of the aisle they want to stop us from voting on a technical corrections bill they want to delay our consideration of even this housekeeping bill and you ask yourself why frankly because they don't want to take up legislation of even greater importance this is an important bill don't get me wrong by cleaning up the old federal highway bill we can move forward on highway projects we can spend a billion dollars creating good paying jobs right here in the united states four to five hundred different projects across our country forty thousand new jobs that's good but these are all destined to occur we're just making sure that the language is clear enough to move forward and we're really not generating a lot of controversy and debate are we about this bill two or three little amendments that we could take care of in a matter of an hour that's about it but what's happened is that the republican minority is trying to stop the majority party the democratic party from considering in passing important legislation in the history of the united states senate this grand body this deliberative body in the history of this institution the record number of filibusters in any two year period of time was fifty seven until the republican minority decided to take on the strategy so far last year in the first few months of this year there have been sixty five republican filibusters this congress and still counting they've broken a record who cares well i think a lot of people should care you heard the senator from vermont get up a few minutes ago he talked about his genuine concern about working people in his state it talked about the impact of this economy on average working families he talked about the impact of gasoline prices three dollars and fifty cents a gallon and higher he talked about the impact of food costs going up on families all across america the cost of health insurance the cost of college education the cost of daycare for kids he talked about the fact that the majority of families have not seen an increase in real income over the last seven years of this administration and he feels as i do that the senate should be dealing with that issue what's keeping us from doing so the filibusters from the republican side of the aisle sixty five and still counting a record number of filibusters so senator mcconnell who is the republican minority leader in the united states  was asked a question at a press conference today the reporter said to senator mcconnell about his republican caucus are you in the caucus prepared now to start slowing down work on the floor and legislation in response and he answers quote what we're on the highway technical corrections bill it's open for amendments we were discussing various amendments in our lunch earlier and i assume amendments are going to be offered and dealt with that was his answer and unfortunately that's wrong we're not considering amendments to this bill because we're still under cloture on the motion to proceed that doesn't expire until eleven thirty p m tonight so if senator mcconnell really wants us to consider amendments to this bill and get it finished he needs to walk out on the floor and agree to a unanimous consent to move to this bill immediately and consider it then his statement to the press this afternoon will be accurate but i silly does it is not accurate we're stuck stuck on cloture stuck as we have been time and again by this republican minority i for one believe that they have pushed it to the extreme of filibuster on a technical corrections but can you think of anything else man a president that we might be considering well how about the policy in the war in iraq a war that claimed to american lives yesterday a war that has taken over four thousand and twenty five of our best and bravest it is injured more than thirty thousand and it's cost this country over seven hundred billion dollars that continues to cost us ten to fifteen billion dollars a month a war that claims the lives of our soldiers ruins the morale of many troops who refuse to re enlist a war that are stretched our military to a breaking point is it worth a few minutes of debate here on the floor of the united states senate the policy of this country toward the war in iraq how about the war in afghanistan a war that was designed to go after those responsible for nine eleven to capture osama bin laden a war which is stalled because we've dedicated so many resources to iraq a war which we must win so that al qaeda and the taliban do not resume their control over this poor country a war which sadly has not resulted in the capture of osama bin laden more than six years after the terrible tragedies of nine eleven is that worth a few hours of debate on the floor of maybe a resolution maybe a discussion about policy i think it is but we can't get to it because a republican filibuster stopping us maybe we should spend a few moments talking about our dependence on foreign oil and what we can do to bring down gasoline prices across america how we can work on a bipartisan basis to find renewable source stain a bill sources of energy that fuel our economy without killing our environment is that worth a little debate here on the floor of the united states senate most americans think it's an important issue but sadly we're stuck with a republican filibuster again maybe we could spend some time bringing the bill out of the the committee on the environment the cap and trade bill a bipartisan bill by senators warner a republican o virginia senator lieberman a democrat independent democrat of connecticut maybe we could bring that to the floor and talk about a way to clean up this world's environment so our kids have a fighting chance they have a plan that they can live on so that we can devise with american ingenuity a system using our free market to make this a cleaner planet is that worth a few hours of debate on the floor maybe a few hours of debate on the children's health insurance program that the president has vetoed not once  twice a program to extend health insurance coverage to some children in america who are not poor enough to qualify for medicaid not lucky enough to have parents with health insurance is that worth a few hours of debate on the floor i think it is those issues and so many others are the ones the american people expect us to be talking about right here in washington but instead we have a bill with grammar and punctuation trying to clean up a federal highway bill of several years ago that is being filibuster by the republican side of the aisle this is shameful it is such a waste of this great institutions time but it is a specific design strategy by the republicans to slow down the business of the senate and to stop us from considering the critically important legislation for america i would say to senator mcconnell who said that we're on the highway technical corrections bill and it's open for amendments it will be open for amendments when senator mcconnell comes to the floor and gives us his consent to stop the filibuster and to give us a chance to pass this bill as we should have last week and move on to more important legislation legislation the american people ask us to consider sixty five republican filibusters us congress and still counting the grand old party the republican party the g o p now has a new name it is no longer the g o p grand old party from the republicans in the senate we've learned that it is the graveyard of progress that's their idea of the role of the united states senate any proposal for change any proposal for progress they want to kill and this graveyard is going to speak back to them in november i think the american people have had it with the obstructionism the slow downs and the obstacles that we're seeing here in washington the voters get their chance in november i hope they'll join us i hope they'll send more senators to washington who are prepared to not only debate but vote for change senators who are willing to say put an end to these mind numbing filibusters and get down to work roll up your sleeves and do something to make life better for working families do something about this energy crisis make this planet safer place for our kids to live on do the responsible thing when it comes to spending and start bringing american soldiers home that's what we should be doing and instead we're stuck in another republican filibuster and you'll  office thank you madam president today this tax day people all across america are heading to the post office to get that all important april fifteenth postmark ok not everybody waits until the last minute but there are enough procrastinators among us and it's sort of a rite of spring the first week in washington brings the cherry blossoms the fifteenth fifteenth of the month brings long lines near midnight in front of the main post office just a few blocks from the floor of the united states senate for some taxpayers two thousand and seven was a very good year huge fortunes were made on wall street by people who correctly bet against the housing market and some of those very wealthiest people were given huge tax breaks that the middle class never saw the for the people that live in all those homes those homes that wall street people were betting against in some sense two thousand and seven was a very tough year the homeownership rate is actually fallen over the past six years both nationally by slight amount in close to two percent in the midwest what is extraordinary madam president about this fact is  a period when lowest interest rates since the eisenhower administration with the economy expanding with interest rates at record lows homeownership should have expanded instead it shrunk the reason is another trend that has received too little notice by the nation's newspapers than the nation's media economic growth simply put his not benefited most americans instead income and wealth are more and more flowing to the most affluent in our country the middle class meanwhile must work harder and longer to try to maintain its standard of living real wages have been in decline for the past several years the only way a lot of families have kept up  is first the insurance the entry of more women into the workplace women in greater numbers second workers in this country working longer and lower hours overtime if they can get it two jobs sometimes even three jobs in third the only way sami's of kept up is by taking on more and more debt the second strether the third strategy can be a recipe for disaster sooner or later the bills come d you can't borrow your way very long to a decent standard of living economic security begins with economic opportunity that means good paying jobs of any kind means the kind of training that enables workers to diversify their skills and take on new challenges it means high quality primary secondary and yes higher education our nation's the wealthiest in the world overall economic growth has been strong working families should should be thriving by and large they're not working families are struggling to find and maintain good paying jobs to keep their health benefits to keep their pension benefits if they have them and those benefits those health and pension benefits are being scale back it costs more and more as people painfully know every day to fill the gas tank people are borrowing in record amounts just to cover day to day costs so many ohioans from gallion to gallup police are struggling the center for american progress looked at some ski statistics over the past five years and found that average job growth rate that the average job growth is one fifth the rate of previous business cycles the average job growth is one fifth twenty percent the rate of previous business cycles wages have been flat twenty twenty eight percent of middle class families have the financial incentives the financial resources to sustain themselves through a period of unemployment the average family took on debt equal to one hundred twenty six percent of disposable income just to manage its day to day expenses having witnessed the weakest economic expansion in modern history in other words the growth in our economy  expansion our economy was weaker than the expansion of the economy at any time in record in in in recent history we now find ourselves in a recession once again so we didn't have very strong growth when things were supposedly good where profits were up where there was economic growth but it wasn't spread around very well now we find ourselves in recession once again we've had three straight months of job losses consumer confidence  state consumer confidence is understandably shaken our nation can't afford to take these statistics in stride just hoping just hoping that the precarious financial position of working families is a temporary phenomenon linked to the ebbs and flows of our economy because it's not our economy as a whole is losing ground as our trade deficit skyrockets energy health care costs spiral upward good paying jobs are too often shipped overseas as our federal deficit climbs higher and higher and higher yet when congress tries to address any of these problems we find ourselves faced with filibusters one after another after another in veto threats when we tried to react to the housing cri last fall republicans objected when we tried to tackle the topic in february republicans objected facing we faced a filibuster and even today the president threatens to veto the bill passed by the senate sixty five filibuster as senator durb busters it means we haven't been able to do what we ought to do on education on health care one infrastructure and most importantly on the war in iraq today as an example we're simply trying to pass a technical corrections bill to a highway bill in yet our republican colleagues are filibustering and slow walking the legislation once again sixty five filibusters madam president we spent three billion dollars a week in iraq with no questions asked how a burden can rob us blind but we have heard our gaze but try to build a road or a bridge or some other public works in the united states you'll meet with filibusters you'll meet with delays you'll meet with obstructionism by the  other words taxpayers are paying three billion dollars hundreds in building hundreds of water systems spending that money with iraq with with al a burden in back to all the hundreds of water systems in iraq where the money goes to these contractors instead of the modern that money coming back to local businesses in building water and sewer systems and defiance in finley and brian and napoleon in paris virgo hile places that are  squeezed in barely able to do to afford not really able to afford the reconstruction of their water and sewer systems at the in that that we need we should be doing a lot more construction and a lot less abstraction our roads and bridges in too many cases are falling apart if my colleagues don't like a project they should make their case and offer an amendment instead of the obstructionism instead of blocking these issues instead of their sixty five filibusters american people are tired of this kind of delay their taxes should pay for a government that will work on their behalf rather than only on the behalf of the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country we can't continue down a path madam president that undermines the middle because you know this this bill that that is before us is really a job producer and it's a tremendous support for can i have the chart from the back there and i just wanted to make sure my friend was aware says i have to ask him a question when i asked neil of the support that we have we don't need that we don't need and and the thing is when you unleash a billion dollars five hundred projects that have been tied up for technical reasons it's going to create jobs and so i want to ask my friend if he was aware of the broad base of support we have and i'm going to read these to you supporting this this technical corrections bill which will free up some five hundred highway and transit projects american association of highway and transportation officials that means the department of transportation for all fifty states urging us to move american highway users alliance millions of highway users throughout the country american public transit association that means transit systems from across the country american road and transportation builders association that's more than five thousand members of the transportation construction industry associated general contractors more than thirty two thousand contractors service providers and suppliers council of university transportation cent more than thirty universal transportation centers from across the country the national stone standing gravel association companies they produce more than one hundred two percent of crash zone and seventy five percent of sand and gravel used in the united states annually and the national asphalt and pavement association more than a thousand one hundred companies who produce and paved with asphalt the point is that when we do this where we really in many ways creating a bit of a stimulus here and these are the very companies and the workers who are really suffering right now because of the economic downturn so i want to before my friend left the floor to thank him and allison and to ask him if he was aware of the strong support for this bill the other their strong support i appreciate the comments from the senator from california their their surprise drunk support for the spill not just those groups you mentioned but i had in my office today a group of a building trades people who from from mansfield in lima and cleveland and and dayton and columbus and they were talking about the kinds of jobs good paying jobs here in home here in our states that work on road crews operating engineers and laborers and all kinds of workers that are pay decent wages in that injects it really is a stimulus is under from california said it injects money right into our economy immediately it's these are ready to work projects these are ready to go projects we need to fund them so that that that we can work immediately to create these jobs which will spin off and create other jobs and if we're going to do any kind of real stimulus but but it's the same we'll start we've had sixty five filibusters from republicans to stop us from moving forward on everything from health care to education and to ending the war in iraq to jobs programs like this and this is this is the best kind of jobs program the best kind of economic development program not only will it will it create these jobs immediately but it makes it much easier for economic development people in communities to bring new business there because the infrastructure is stronger and better and more modern so i thank the senate my friend would continue would you know that i was with he was or have something else because he is not on the committee of jurisdiction but i know he's going to be very interested to hear this in this bill we correct a real problem the organization that does the evaluation of our nation's bridges highways and all of our byways have run out of funds the fun that they use has been over subscribed so what we do without adding any new funds is enable them to get funding and to continue their work as we get ready for the next highway bill which is coming to us next year so i want to make sure my friend was aware as we get ready for the new highway bill we need to really know the condition of our highways we've seen collapsing bridges and that's another reason it's so important and i think my friend with standing next to the chart here you know i'm very hopeful by this evening a we're going to see some relenting i mean i've been on my feet on the floor here you know since monday morning i don't mind that it but it is wasting time the truth be known we have a few members we can get to them we can wrap this up and then my colleagues all over this country can go home and say you know we've we've done something but i want to specifically know if my colleague was aware of this particular the holy father who just a few minutes ago i landed in our country for his historic visit and i just feel tremendously honored that i will have the opportunity to live to see his arrival ceremony at the white house tomorrow and then of course to be with him i presume with the president as we celebrate mass with him at nationals stadium is a momentous and historical cation and i know i speak for many of us as i say the holy father welcome to the united states of america we're delighted that you're here we hope that his message of spiritual renewal of hope of peace as one that will resonate with the american people and this president is another matter which really is a reason for the need arise and has to do with the colombian free trade agreement and it is  great importance to me personally as something that i believe requires the attention of this congress and something that was time has come for us to act and make a determination there's been a great deal of attention focused on the future prospects of this trade agreement with colombia and the core question is whether we think people in the united states should be able to effectively compete in colombia what's at stake is whether we want to create jobs in the united states whether we want to create additional well here in the united states and whether we want to export more goods and services to colombia the fact of the matter is that a free trade agreement with colombia benefits all of the stakeholders involved it is good for the united states it is good for colombia but it also it's good for the western hemisphere the u s would reap immediate benefits of a free trade agreement with colombia and our level of exports one of the strongest and more positive areas of our economy today i know the senator from ohio is to the senator was just speaking about the economic hard times in our country and i i know and respect him greatly and i'm not sure he agrees that this is a good agreement for us to sign but what a better way of improving economic circumstances and to export and sell more of our goods to a country who wants to be our friend and our partner by leveling the playing field and eliminating the terrorists and products we export to colombia this agreement would benefit those responsible for the eight point six billion dollars in merchandise the united states exported to colombia last year currently more than nine thousand companies export products to colombia of those eight thousand are small and medium size farms in the absence of a free trade agreement these firms must pay up to thirty five percent when sending their goods into colombia and the other side of the equation more than ninety percent of imports from colombia into the united states arrive here duty free this agreement will immediately eliminate terrorists or more than eighty percent of american exports of industr goods and then reaching up two hundred percent over time this is an agreement that will bring more business to american firms and it would bring higher demand for products from farmers in louisiana machinery ma workers in alabama transportation equipment providers in illinois and electronics makers in california my own state of florida home to what we like to think of as the gateway of the americas in miami was responsible for two point one billion dollars  exports to colombia in the year two thousand and seven the second largest export total in the nation the free trade agreement would benefit the more than twenty eight thousand five hundred companies in my state who provide products in the area such as computers  machinery manufacturing and transportation equipment trade agreement makes sense economically but also it makes sense from a national security standpoint it strengthens our relationship with a key latin american ally and demonstrates our commitment to supporting nations who choose their leaders through fee free and fair democratic elections and who support the rule of law in fact the united states southern command which oversees our forces in central and south america sees the colombian free trade agreement as a critical component of our nation's latin american policy a few days ago i had occasion to see here admiral stavridis who is the head of the southern command  testifying before the senate armed services committee and i asked at most every this whether he felt the colombian free trade agreement was an important component of our overall policy for the region and it would add to our ability to increase united states influence and security in the area and he wholeheartedly agreed more recently a group of southern command south com military leaders including general peter pace expressed their support of the agreement in an open letter to congress these officials know of the diplomatic opportunities this trade agreement represents especially given the unique perspective on the current climate in central and south america in their letter they are firm passing this agreement will build upon columbia's recent advances this is a quote we'll build upon columbia's recent advances to enhance the long term prospects for peace stability and development in colombia close quote they also argue it is in our national interest and again quoting our national interest to help colombia along the road toward democratic consolidation and economic development stress and as an ems consent to submit this letter for the record without objection can be remains one of our strongest allies within the region london is the strategic center of latin america a lot of the andean countries geographically it is in a precise important spot in the region it is a country of forty million people is a very significant country fostering this important relationship whole strategic importance to advancing our security and economic interest in south america and also with a colombian government colombia's congress voted twice in favor of passing this trade agreement it would honor the commitment we made when was signing the agreement last year and would provide greater stability and security to the colombian people as their quality pro progress that has occurred in colombia in recent years colombia has had a violent history i can recall recall in younger days when i used to travel to colombia frequently  was not only a beautiful and wonderful country but it was perfectly free to go throughout the country over the years the violence brought on the people of colombia by the fark revolutionised forces of armed forces of colombia  have wreaked havoc upon that country and it was to the point where violence was incredible but six years ago as president i'll really deliver his inaugural address mortar shells landed in the ceremony near the presidential palace in bogota and it killed fourteen people and wouldn't add another forty that is to the level where violence that got in this country these events and crimes against labor organizers work come common prior to his presidency he came into office in the year two thousand and two since that time violence has dramatically decreased in colombia and the colombian government spread since it's been felt in cities and towns across the nation and let me point out that one death of an innocent civilian one death of a union leader organizer is one death too many it should not be any but we know we live in a violent world and columbia has seen more than its share of violence but up point of this chart mr president which i believe is accurate in pointing out the actual figures when it comes to union leader violence is not is the high point of this in the year two thousand and one this is before president even was president and then comes his presidency and look the dramatic drop since his presidency down to where it is today this isn't just violence against union leaders president river has been effective in pacifying the country the violence against unionist has declined eighty six percent during his time in office from two thousand to two thousand and seven and the reason for this decline is presently was that tension and response to concern over these attacks the president stablish an independent prosecutor unit and created a special program to protect labor activists they can actually seek protections in the government and be provided with armored vehicles with protection for union halls and personal protection for them as they go about the country it's really significant progress in other areas of colombia as well which is improving the lives of the colombian people really think it's astonishing to see the homicides are down forty percent kidnappings are down eighty three percent and terrorist attacks are down seventy six percent now this is a result of what in fact has been a very successful partnership one of those moments of bipartisan agreement that the president and i so often yearn for here in this congress started under president clinton was support from republicans continued and of president bush with support from democrats with a plan colombia this is the in a way of helping the colombian government of the colombian people to continue to strengthen their democracy president w reelected to office with over sixty percent of the colombian vote and he is a democratically elected leader who is fighting an insurgent group who seeks to destroy his government and the democracy in colombia by means violence when we stand with president or even when we stand with the duly constituted government and elected by the people of colombia we're standing on the side of those who respect democracy freedom and human rights when we talk about the kidnappings these kidnappings have not been limited to poor peasants although that has been part of it but it has also included government officials ms veteran court who has gained international notoriety as efforts by the french government to free her she was a presidential candidate in the midst of a presidential campaign when she was kidnapped members of the congress of colombia businesspeople they have shown no mercy today as rumor that they maintain about seven hundred kidnap victims with them in the jungles of colombia colombia's foreign minister is someone who was a victim of kidnapping who escaped and who after five years or maybe more in the jungles of colombia has regained his freedom but all of the news in colombia are turning in the right direction public school in rome and in colombia has increased ninety two percent child mortality rate has decreased dramatically as the government has turned its focus to human rights but also living conditions the number of tourists visiting colombia has doubled in the last five years colombia is on the rise colombia's enjoy a better quality of life because of the fact that they've been living in a country that is more peaceful and for that i think the colombian people are very grateful to the united states there is no country in the region that is more pro u s that is more pro american there's so much more wants to interact and work with us and hansen that relationship will continue to bring prosperity at a time when colombians continue to face of the stabilizing forces of terrorism you see there's a second aspect to plan colombia it isn't just about building a colombia military importance that has been there's a second phase to this which is about people it's about job generation it's about job creation that is why it's so important to enter into this free trade agreement so that the united states investment dollars my flow to colombia and help generate jobs in colombia ass we increase jobs in america as well one of the most prominent narco terrorist organizations operating within their borders is the fark the l n is another one this farkas band of terrorist supports the brand of terrorists much like al qaeda the greatest enemy of stability the same sort of political and economic stability provided by trade agreements such as these they oppose colombia's democratically elected government that would love nothing more than to return colombia to the days of corruption chaos murder mayhem it would be  wise to invite a ban on this vital alliance in the face of a difficult time for them at trade agreement with colombia the united states would deal a blow to those attempting to hinder colombia's growth to those who offer a misguided vision of the future of the region to those who hear their cry the fact is there is a battle of ideas going on in in the us in the hemisphere and this battle of ideas is one in which we cannot shrink from what we must engage in by entering in this agreement we would join a growing list of partners within the region who have demonstrated a commitment to free and fair elections to human rights and to strengthening trade relations with us we have a  very strong partnership nafta which i must confess i find it a little difficult to understand how a trade and it has created jobs all over america could be faulted for jobs going to china and i can really believe that in a serious note those who would seek to be the president of our country would walk away from the trade agreement but the fact of the matter is that this trade agreement is one that would enhance and advance the interest of the united states i don't believe in a country where we would be afraid to compete with those abroad i believe in the america that is proud and strong and can compete with anyone in the world we cannot just shelter within our shores we cannot just retreat to fortress america those days are gone we created the global trade that we live in today and to retreat from that would be misguided and a mistake over the weekend both the new york times and the l a times ran pieces urging congress to ratify this important and historic trade agreement according to the new york times and i quote rejecting or pulling out putting on ice a trade agreement would reduce the united states credibility and leverage in colombia and beyond and the l a times characterized the house's decision to help them halt the vote by stating it was about the u s economy and it wasn't about colombia it was politics it was politics now i don't want to dwell on that issue because i believe the best way for this to take place is for us to continue to work together in a bipartisan fashion to try to bring about an agreement that would be good for america good for the region good for colombia good for the united states good for our people good for their people this is a kind of trade agreement that is a win win and when we look at nafta i was talking about that and then moves to central america and the dominican republic we have captain that is creating and generating jobs in that region we have a free trade agreement with peru to now have panama and colombia also join and that would create a powerful and mighty trade alliance korea aiding and generating jobs and exports from the united states to this region i was meeting this morning with a gentleman who is hoping to be the next ambassador of the united states two hundred s and i ask him how has kept or impacted our relationship with honduras and he said that of several billion dollars a year of trade between us and hundreds that had increased united states exports to wonderous by eighteen percent eighteen percent that's good for america that's good for american jobs so i would hope that they'll be cooler voices to prevail it would give us a chance to vote on this important trade agreement has been signed by colombia and the united states for well over a year there's never a perfect time for these agreements i believe the votes are there i believe it's time to allow the votes to take place instead of utilizing procedural maneuvers that at the end of the day are not particularly democratic  president i would hope that we can move forward to consider this agreement to study the elements of it to see the merits of it it goes beyond beyond stating the obvious that this is something that not only would help economically but it would also be a tremendous boost to our relationship to this region of the world knows all too often feels forgotten that all too often feels like our eyes are focused elsewhere in the world who are always our closest neighbors who are always our own people who each and every day signify more and more to us a great many people of colombian heritage who live in the state of florida and in other states of our country great contributors to the american experiment i'm proud to have them among my constituents i know that in the southern part of my state this is a big important issue is one that whose time has come i hope the speaker with reconsider my hope that we will move forward with this important trade agreement yield the floor mr president from minnesota mr president i rise in support of passing the bill that's on the floor that's the safety lou technical corrections bill when you look at the bill that is the of the magnitude of the safety lou bill and it's extraordinary important in our condo me there are bound to be some drafting errors and issues and i'm glad that we're taking the time to correct these errors so we can continue to strengthen our national infrastructure and are coming to me as a member of the environment and public works committee i applaud senator boxer's leadership and getting this bill to the floor this bill is a step in the right direction as is congress's focuses more and more attention on our national infrastructure so i urge all of my colleagues to support this bill as well as future afeard to strengthen our national infrastructure as you and i know as being a senator from colorado at the presiding officer is we believe there's a new economy in the future here it's the energy economy but if we're going to move forward to the next century economy we cannot be stuck in the last century's transportation system i believe that when you invest in infrastructure mr president you invest in the american economy rebuilding mainstreet means revitalizing main street the federal highway administration estimates that for every one billion dollars of federal highway investment it creates over thirty thousand jobs so when we rebuild our roads we strengthen our economy as you know a bridge collapse one day in the middle of minnesota it was something no one could ever be leave what happened in the middle of our major interstate highway system as i said that day a bridge just shouldn't fall down in the middle of america especially not an eight lane interstate highway especially not one of the most heavily traveled bridges in our state and especially not at rush hour in the heart of a major metropolitan area and especially not in my front yard as you know mr president as you've seen the area of that bridge i was only eight blocks from my house unfortunately it has taken a disaster of this magnitude to put the issue of infrastructure investment squarely on the national agenda and it is long overdue the sudden failure and collapse of the i thirty five w bridge has raised many questions about the condition and the safety of our roads and bridges in fact we just had a bridge that was similarly designed to shut down in st cloud minnesota about an hour and a half away from the bridge that collapsed was designed by the  same designer had the same problem with the bent gussets and as you know the investigation is still going on into the exact cause and triggering events which led to the collapse of the i thirty five w bridge but the fact that a bridge was closed down so near and the state of minnesota has now decided to replace that bridge rather than repair it shows that this is not just an isolated incident critical investment in the maintenance and construction of our nation's transportation is imperative strengthening and maintaining our national infrastructure must be a national priority at the moment our priorities are not in the right place we spend twelve billion dollars a month in iraq with no end in sight but at bridges fall down in the middle of america we have tax cuts and tax cuts for the top one percent but it's getting harder and harder for the middle class to get by we need to better prioritize our national spending a robust well maintained upto date highway system is vital to the continued expansion of our kind of meets it is in fact an essential driver of our economic prosperity as president kennedy once said building a road or a highway isn't pretty but it's something that our economy needs to have and nowhere is this truer than in rural america in minnesota the relationship between highways and the economy is really most obvious in our rural areas transportation is absolutely essential to their viii viability and to their vitality real minnesota is now in the midst of an economic revival that promises to grow even stronger we're seeing this all over america with the energy revolution whether it's wind or solar or geothermal or whether it's ethanol or bio diesel as our nation demands greater energy independence and security the rural parts of our country are poised to benefit enormously with the further development of homegrown energy i believe we need to be prepared to maximize the opportunities offered by this renewable energy revolution it is only just beginning to emerge but it promises major and economic and technological changes for our country already the development of wind farms and of ethanol plants has rejuvenating many rural areas of our state we're now third in the country when it comes to wind energy but at the same time these wonderful new industries are placing new demands on our transportation infrastructure now here's just one example demand for ethanol has increased dramatically  congress has pushed it we are now with corn ethanol but we know also expanded to sell you atsic switch grass prairie grass other forms of biomass for the first six months of two thousand seven ethanol production in the united states total nearly three billion gallons thirty two percent higher than the same period last year currently there are one hundred twenty eight after now plants nationwide with total annual production capacity nearing close to seven billion gallons an additional eighty five plants are under construction as we know this is just the beginning we look at places like brazil that are completely energy independent because of what they've done with sugar cane we know the corn isn't the only answer that we're going to expand into other kinds of  do know is that this is going to place demands demands that we want to have on our nation's transportation infrastructure total ethanol production in the u s is projected to exceed thirteen billion gallons per year by early two thousand and nine if not sooner what does that mean in terms of transportation well this means that an average square mile of land in southern minnesota which now generates the equivalent of eighty loaded semi trucks per year could soon produce double that one hundred sixty loads of grain per year as more homegrown energy is produced rural roads and bridges will have greater demands placed on them as well rural rail i've had members of my own state of minnesota constituents come up and show me these old rail ties that are breaking down i've seen myself the bridges that are in need of shoulders i've seen the highways that are in need of repair some of our roads are in such disrepair in minnesota that they've actually been letting them go to dirt we've going the opposite because they don't have the money to repair them the ethanol plant in benson minnesota now has over five hundred twenty five fully loaded semis hauling either corn or other forms of biodiesel from their plan every week this is a forty five million gallon facility after the facility their production falls about in the middle of minnesota sixteen ethanol plants as semi hydro alex is a company in rural south western minnesota that manufactures the bases for the wind towers that you see all over across southern minnesota i visited the company they basically started in a barn and they're building these huge win towers the heavy trucks that bring the steel to the company put an understandable heavy burden on the road they travel and are putting their durability to the test the u s department of agriculture estimates that truck freight in rural america is going to double double by the year two thousand and twenty the continuing trend toward greater reliance on trucking to support these industries raises concern about the wear and tear on rural roads and bridges many of these roads and bridges were built before this trend was evident who ever thought they'd be carrying these huge when towers no one ever thought it would happen but it does they were not designed for this type of traffic much of the rural road network in the united states was constructed during an era of slower travel and lighter vehicles current traffic which is heavier and wider is accelerating the rate of deterioration and made these types of roads less serviceable in many important grain producing states like minnesota more than forty percent of the major highway system is rated as being in less than fair condition our transportation systems needs to support the development of these industries so we need to look at the full spectrum of transportation options and i truly appreciate senator boxer's leadership on this looking not just at truck travel not just at roads but also at mass transportation and other ways that we can transport our goods to market with more than half of our state of minnesota total population now living in the seven county twin cities metro area the need for more transportation options has become very clear to all of us not just about the rural areas in our state increasing traffic congestion has become a major threat to this quality of life and our prosperity costing precious time and money for both commuters and businesses there's enormous support in our safe for something called north star rail that will bring people basically from the twin cities to the area of saying cloud big like to be exact a st cloud the area i explain where the bridge had just been closed down because of safety concerns and if you drive that ninety four interstate right now i can tell you you waste so much time sitting in traffic you  your stomach when there you are there in rush hour we need that mass transit and legislators and people who originally completely opposed to this project are now standing up in the front of the line because they know how important it is for their constituents this is a case where i have to tell you the constituents were there before the elected officials and led the way to try to get this north star rail in and because of the federal help it's now getting built the bottom line for any business is that you lose money when your people and your products get stuck in traffic and you also lose the ability to attract top notch talented workers if they must contend with the aggravating and time consuming traffic jams to combat this threat we must commit to broadening our transportation options developing the right mix of multimodal solutions to serve our emerging needs while maintaining our existing systems and highways this mix of course includes not just rail but rapid bus trans high occupancy toll lanes anything we can do to try to move the people to the places they need to go our nation has faces challenge before a half century ago and we succeeded in building a new modern transportation system for a new modern economy at the heart of it all was the interstate highway system in his nine hundred sixty three memoir mandate for change one nine hundred fifty three to one nine hundred fifty six president eisenhower famously said that quote more than any single action by the government since the end of the war the one that would change the face of america is this transportation its impact on the american economy the jobs that would produce in manufacturing construction the rural areas it would open up was beyond calculation he was right it is our responsibility to restore eisenhower's vision of  transportation infrastructure that works for all of america i can tell you this firsthand from my heart having see what happens when you don't invest like you're supposed to having seeing a major bridge just fall down one day in the middle of america having seen the promise in the rural parts of our state of the new energy revolution but then hearing how they can't get their goods to market because they've got a bunch of single road highways when they have trucks that they're trying to bring when towers and when they're trying to be part of the solution to this energy crisis it's our responsibility mr president to restore that vision that eisenhower had to build this transfer station transportation infrastructure in our country and that's why i'm so california sitting here i'm listening to senator clover char and i'm so proud of her work the committee that i'm fortunate enough to chair the environment public works committee this committee is so interesting because we do everything from global warming legislation protecting endangered species up to rebuilding the infrastructure of our nation on the public works side and it's kind of an interesting divide because when it comes to rebuilding the infrastructure we more support right now then for protecting the environment where senator warner i'm global warming has frankly been our hero on the other side of the aisle joining with us but on the infrastructure center and i' have worked very very closely together and with the help of members of the committee such as senator quote which are we're making progress and before the good senator we've the floor i want to make sure she was aware of something in this bill that is so crucial and is really very much apropos to her reminding us about the bridge collapse in minnesota we fix an oversight in safety lou that resulted in a particular  oversubscribed that account was the surface transportation research development and deployment accounts now what did that do it's a very fancy name basically that particular account research into the status of our infrastructure it it takes a look at our infrastructure tells us you know what do we need to do to keep up do we need do we to reinforce our bridges for example that's one of their one of the things they look at the appraisal of our highways how do we fund transit what's the physical condition of our roads  eight what's their performance level and it is so crucial that we have the information my colleague from minnesota wrote the carbon registry belgrade as part of our global warming bill because she knows before you can solve global warming you need to know you know how much carbon and other greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere well we can't really write a new highway bill in zero nine unless we know the status of our roads our freeways our bridges our highways so that's why this bill is so important and mr president we've been here for two full days now you know i've been ready willing and able to take any and all amendments we said the bill is close we're really not adding not anything new because we want to keep this bill the exact same cost as the safety loop or we're not adding anything we're really in essence just making technical corrections to make sure that we don't stein me a billion dollars worth of projects which is going to create tens of thousands of new jobs and we're going to free this particular we're going to free that the frozen level of this research because they can't research anymore they can't do any more research on the state of our infrastructure one unfreeze that so here we are for two days just standing on our feet begging our public and friends not to filibuster this bill what is the point everybody wants this bill i don't except maybe one senator who doesn't like one provision in it but we have a vote to proceed i think it was ninety three to one so everyone wants this bill is bill doesn't add any new spending it just unleashes a billion dollars of important projects that's why we have extraordinary support i don't have to charge here you know from all of our construction trades people with the management side the labor union side the workers side we have it all and we have the heads of all the transit agencies across the country and their week they all want this bill so it's a it's a very impressive oh good we have it back i'm going to show one more time because you know when you hear who's backing us and they're not just backing us quietly they're on the phone they're calling members they're saying let this bill go you know this is what my kids when they were young would call a no brainer this bill this bill makes eminent sense the american ca sion of highway and transportation officials from all fifty states support us the american highway users alliance millions of highway users the american public transit association transit systems from across the country american road and transportation builders that's more than five thousand members of the transportation construction industry associated general contractors that's thirty two thousand contractors council of university transportation centers more than thirty university transportation centers from across the country the national down sand and gravel association these are the companies to produce more than ninety two percent of crushed stone and seventy five percent of sand and gravel used in the u s annually and the national aswell pavement association more than eleven hundred companies to mr president you know these are the folks who are suffering right now these are the folks who have gotten caught in this recession that we're in and these are the folks who are calling senators and saying please let this bill go senator boxer supported senator  bill so i'm calling our republican friends please please please relent please let us get going people are counting on you they need the work they need the jobs our country needs the infrastructure built this doesn't cost a penny more these are funds that are sitting in the trust fund so i'll be glad to yield to my credit with the senator yield for a question as for how long have you been trying to get this bill through i know you've been waiting how many it's been months since we first to have passed the one year ago and we passed in the committee june two thousand and seven so this isn't something that you know this is been around and we've been asking senator reid and he wanted to bring it up but it's getting caught up in other matters it's been a long time i mean it seems to me when there's so much bipartisan support that our colleagues on the other side of the i would try to advance this bill and because i know in our state they they see this not only as you talked about as a way to make to figure out when we've had this tragedy figure out do an analysis of what we really need to meet our transportation needs but they also see it as investment and you know we were unable in the stimulus package to get some of the things that we wanted on the democratic side so we did get the checks in the mail the people but long after those rebate checks are cash we need a long term investment strategy in this country that invests in jobs and so i want to thank you senator boxer for bringing about peace to the bell i was very focused on the they are nuts and bolts in the bread and butter of the roads and and the wear and tear on the roads that we all think about when we're driving down the highway but we also have to think about this as an investment strategy so i thank you for bringing out that important and happy to do it and i would say to my friend and i'm glad she asked me when we passed this bill out of the committee june  seven june of zero eight is that the part and and the house also passed lyrica so this is a long time in coming you know and you're so right we we all talked about the need to  to make sure there are good jobs for people and this is a mini stimulus package right here and there are there are five hundred important projects that will move forward and this means real jobs real jobs in the u s today when you're building a road here you're building a road here and this is important so that's why it's unusual to see you know all of these folks team up together we had a press conference this morning management and labor  together saying please so here is an opportunity this is nothing negative to say about this bill as far as i'm concerned you may have wanted two projects you wouldn't vote for but the fact is they have come from the members of congress who know their districts and know their state i was very glad the center did a mint called and said he was pleased with the way we did our disclosure under the new ethics rules that our committee had set a standard i was very happy to hear from him about that he said he did it right he made it public everybody signed on to whatever project they requested very open very transparent very necessary bill so mr president i guess i'm talking to colleagues who may be in their  offices and i'm saying specially to my republican friends come and join us let's do something good for the people this is very important for your state so you have you know the american association of highway and transportation officials that's department of transportation for all fifty states calling on nasa act there's no reason to hold this up we are wasting precious minutes we are wasting precious hours we are wasting precious days we have a lot of other work to get done and my goodness i don't understand filibustering this bill which again is within the budget doesn't add a penny more than we were supposed to spend and  i just i'm a little perplexed as to why we're sitting here a tenth sex at night we can't get anybody to come here and offer an amendment but i am ever hope for mr president because it's my nature that people will realize as they go home mr alexander here in the senate senate in a quorum call are waiting for a member to come to the floor and speak on the other side of the capitol the house has been working today on a number of suspension bills also an i r s tax collection measure you can watch live house coverage on our companion network c span and later on tonight on c span three its history programming focusing on albert einstein tonight that starts at eight eastern time on c span three here in the senate members have been working on changes to the two thousand and five highway bill and congressional quarterly reports and this way the senate debating legislation today that would make changes to the highway bill including a provision that would extend the route of a rail project before the senate largely bipartisan bill billed as a technical correction the bill but the inclusion of policy changes and shifts and funding brought strong opposition from the white house at the plate and monday but the president the matter before the senate now that it's currently being blocked by the minority is a bill that would permit work to proceed on hundreds of highway and transportation infrastructure projects creating tens of thousands of construction jobs and pouring a billion dollars into our economy this is timely legislation to repair our roads and bridges now while our economy needs the work yet this bill is scold in this body because republicans in the senate will not allow it to move forward unfortunately we have seen this movie too many times the minority has engaged in less than sixty five filibusters in this congress an astounding number that lays bare the minorities lack of interest in solving the real problems america faces what a record sixty five filibusters the most ever that is what the minority has to contribute to the problems that america is facing a number of our republican colleagues have come to the floor of the senate to speak today but we've heard very little in the way of substantive or reasonable objections to the highway bill instead what we've heard is a lot of talk about taxes well of course taxes are on the minds of many americans today it is after all april fifteenth filing day the deadline for federal and state tax returns to be filed so today we should remember that the work of government doesn't just cost money it costs our money and for that reason we should add ask how this government is spending our hard earned money and whether the priorities reflected in the federal government's spending are truly the right priorities for our people and for our time these are difficult days today families throughout my state of rhode island and all across this country are reading their bank statements opening their bills reading their local newspapers finding that the looming downturn in the economy leaves them struggling to make ends meet everywhere we look prices are rising from the groceries that feed our families to the gasoline that fuels our cars every day more americans face the disaster of foreclosure every day more americans face the nightmare of catastrophic health care bills in these days of insecurity the people of this country are looking for answers for solutions for a new direction democrats in the senate are working overtime to provide that new direction we've passed an economic stimulus package legislation to address the housing crisis and a budget plan to put our government back on the path to surplus and cut taxes for middle class families we know that we need a change of course and most particularly a change of leadership in the white house to get our country back on track but senate republicans today are making it clear that they don't agree instead of putting working families first instead of getting our infrastructure repaired they want to protect the massive bush tax cuts for the wealthiest americans a fiscally irresponsible policy that left our country trillions of dollars in debt and instead of a budget that focuses federal government spending on our children and our veterans senate republicans want to stick us with the status quo pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into an endless war in iraq without spending a dime here at home to fix the very real problems that face american families senate democrats support common sense tax cuts for middle class families including targeted help for families with children or seeking to adopt a child indeed the budget resolution we passed earlier this year would provide those tax cuts in a fiscally responsible way without digging our country deeper into debt but president bush and his republican allies in the senate want to extend the extravagant portions of the two thousand and one two thousand and three bush tax breaks that are weighted heavily towards the wealthiest americans seventy one percent of the value of the tax cuts in two thousand nine will go to the wealthiest one fifth of americans twenty eight percent of the value of the tax cut goes to the top one percent a group who incomes average around one point five million dollars a year clearly people who are hurting and need a lot of help from our government right now almost nothing at all goes to the lowest earning fifty families who are in fifteen thousand dollars a year or less this is the george bush idea of fair tax policy and the president's insistence on forcing through these cuts without making up for the lost revenue to defer that pain to later generations to our children to our grandchildren with not only cowardly leadership it left our budget in precarious straits the bush tax cuts cost a staggering one point nine trillion ours and they account for twenty five percent of the seven point seven trillion dollar bush debt the seven point seven trillion dollars bush  is the difference between the nonpartisan congressional budget office projections as president clinton left office compared to the budgetary nightmare that george bush created seven from rhode island a trillion dollars is an unthinkable amount of money in a small state like rhode island i don't really know what seven point seven trillion is so i've tried to scale it for myself and i have here in my hand a simple penny a simple penny if this simple penny was a billion dollars now even in rhode island a billion  big money if this simple penny was a billion dollars seven point seven trillion mr president is a stack of these simple billion dollar pennies that is thirty nine feet high takes us right to the top of this room with a simple penny being a full billion dollars it is an astonishing burden for this country to have to bear it is the responsibility of george bush and the republicans and we have to get serious about it but are the senate republicans willing to get serious about it know if they have their way the wealthiest americans will continue to profit to the tune of trillions of borrowed dollars while those most in need receive virtually nothing according to the center on budget and policy priority is the poorest americans and the lowest twenty percent of income earners would receive less than zero point five percent of the value of extending bush tax cuts between two thousand and nine and two thousand and eighteen the top twenty percent on the other hand would receive a staggering seventy four percent of the value a total of nearly four trillion dollars over that ten year period and of course this is bush tax policy so the greater the benefit the higher the income the greater the benefit of close to one point two trillion dollars and bush tax cuts would accrue to the top one percent of american households households with annual incomes of more than a million dollars a year those alone would receive eight hundred thirty four billion dollars eight hundred thirty four billion dollars in extended bush tax cuts the reckless fixation on tax cuts for our wealthiest folks that the bush administration has pursued is driving us to a bad place to a divided america with two  a gilded economy for the wealthy worried struggle for everyone else that is not good for america in fact that is not america but this doesn't seem to bother our republican friends they've hitched their wagons to the big winners in the gilded economy the oil companies the pharmaceutical companies the billionaires and the two economies well that's just fine with them so long as their friends are winning  mr president that is not good for america in fact that is not america not the one we know and the tool that they've used over and over and over is think they'd want their role to be more productive than being the biggest filibusterers in american history you'd think they would want a more productive record and legacy than that but no they want to dig a seven point seven trillion dollar hole and then filibuster the folks who are trying to get america out of it it is so clear that senate republicans would prefer to engage in overheated and overhyped tax rhetoric than they would roll up their sleeves sit down and get to work on legislation solving the real problems working are facing across our country each day i will tell you it is clear and it is disappointing i thank the chair i yield the floor i suggest the absence mr alexander be terminated without objection already that his record is present the record has been made clear today that we wish we had been things legislating we haven't been i've had a number of conversations with my distinguished counterpart banned were not been approved by the senate going this last few months as you know one day last week we approved five judges one circuit court judge and four district court judges we thought that and right direction what are we going to do the rest of this year you know the there's the thurmond doctrine that says after june i will have to take a real close look mcconnell in our conversations talked about all the their various judges that could be brought up should be brought out maybe right up and we went over the different circuits and talked in some detail are our wives are friends he's just a good person i think the world and so i call so there be no misunderstanding he came over my office following the telephone conversation and after the telephone conversation hurley came to my office and we visited again about the judges and we believe that we need to make more progress and judges as we've said before mr president we do not want a minority to be treated the way that we were treated during the clinton years and we've done a pretty good job when this is at this time we probably approve ninety percent of president bush's judge lots and lots of jeju well over one hundred judges we've approved so the republican leader asked me what can you do before our memorial day recess and what i've told him is that we're going to do our utmost when i  i would like to be able to guarantee that i can't guarantee a lot of things happen in the senate but i'm going to do my very best i want to live up to what i'm saying here on the floor right now  leahy knows i'm here speaking before the american people today i tend to send a mechanic and so we're we're going to do our very best to approve three circuit court judges by memorial day and that's not the best i can do which ones i've told senator mcconnell your number of alternatives we could have he knows them by name i know them by name i don't want i don't choose to go over them name by name this time but we have a number to and i believe this is a correct characterization of where we were and i'm sure akin to disabuse me of the notion of that's not a correct characterization of where we were that we felt at the very least president bush with regard to circuit court nominees should be treated as well as president reagan president bush forty one and president clinton were treated in the last two years of their president george w bush ends up the last two years of his presidency similarly situated the president reagan president bush forty one and president clinton the average number of circuit court judges approved for all of those presidents was seventeen president clinton was on the low end of that at fifteen as of today april the fifteenth we have approved in this congress seven  judges now to except for last week there had not been one since last september i'm sure the majority leader would agree with me that we're running dramatically behind we know there's an election coming up in the fall and the majority leader mentioned the so called thurmont rule which it that some point here will probably be implemented in indicating that it won't be any circuit judges approved we currently  have before the committee two judges one from north carolina and one from south carolina one from north carolina and shown up as a unanimous well qualified from the american bar association and has previously been confirmed to his current position as a district court judge about the back on both of these judges one from north carolina and one from south carolina we anticipate that there will be a nominee from the state of virginia who will have blue slips return and in the near future of two nominees from the state of michigan his blue slips will be returned as we all know in michigan there are two democratic senators in virginia there is one democratic senator and one republican senator in south carolina and in north carolina there are two republican senators the chairman judiciary committee has made it clear that he's not likely almost certainly not likely to move  nominee from a state for which there are no blue slips so we have blue slips and on north carolina blue slips and on south carolina both nominees have been waiting for quite some time so there are nominations ready to go what i've said is there's a great interest on my side in saying three circuit court nominees confirmed by the united states senate before the memorial day recess the majority leader is indicated that he's comfortable with that we've not sort of picked the candidates but let me suggest that it would be unfair to discriminate against a state which has two republican senators with blue slips on and it had nominees for pending pending for quite some time in favor of nominees only  recently with blue slips and are only recently nominated the principle should be the same regardless of whether a state is represented by two republicans two democrats or one republican one democrat of the blue slips around the blue slips around and if their nominee is otherwise qualified and non controversial what i would hope and i would say to my good friend the majority leader i would hope he would share my view that we shouldn't discriminate against a nominee from a state with two republican senators who have been the nominees have been having been pending for quite some time in favor of our recent nominees who happen to be from stage with two democratic senators or one democrat one republican senator i wonder if my brother majority leader has any observation about that we have a number of places from which juice we can we can move matters to the floor and we have north carolina south carolina rhode island maryland we have today two from merriment so we have a wide range to choose from and i say to my friend from kentucky no it shouldn't be just because you have two from the same party from one state that should not and they're not our party that should not cause i'm not to have their nominee approved as i indicated last week when we got in discussion about this we should measure the quality of nominees not the quantity of nominees we're today talking about the quantity of nominees we also have to be concerned about the quality of these nominees we should confirm capable mainstream experience nominees were the product  bipartisan cooperation and with this committee to get something out of the committee it has to be bipartisan but i guess it doesn't have to be that's how we'd like it so mispresent we've done a pretty good job last year we the very countries who judge one of the senators on the judiciary committee decided she would vote with the minority as a result of that a controversial judge was reported to the floor and ultimately approved and so mr president  we're going to work very hard to get arrive three judges by the time of our break it is five weeks from now i believe i  when i got this job that if the nominations of judges are important to my friend the republican leader there important to me i have some knowledge of difficulties with judges here on the floor having survived as the democratic leader of the so called nuclear option so i understand how people feel strongly about judges democrats feel strongly about them republicans feel strongly about them now when center what was the men and women who have lifetime appointments are extremely important and that we should even though senator lott might be right able people outside washington don't care about judges i care about judges republican leader cares about judges and i addressed quickly that's the chairman judiciary committee in the case of the fourth circuit spend a clear to judicial emergency it's one third of a can the nominee from north carolina just to pick an example is not controversial as a unanimous well qualified from the a b a the blue slips are back and both north carolina senators and my only point to my good friend the majority leader was that it would seem not to be fair when you've got a nominee pending for a long time who is not controversial upon which the blue slips have been returned where there are two republican senators for that nominate to be in effect moved to the back of the bus while you fairness i believe in the case of both north carolina and south carolina with a judicial emergency existing on the fourth circuit you could make a strong case that they should be dealt with first under the chairman's judiciary committees all in standards but in particular so i don't know why we couldn't meet the goal that the majority leader has set out here of doing three circuit court nominees before memorial day there's no reason not to there  importance of doing something about that he's expressed that publicly and privately also in this overall process let's make sure we understand there are vacancies out there in the circuit court that we have no nominees for we are waiting for  them and i say to my friend as i've said before i'm going to do everything to work with the judiciary committee senator leahy said that he would do that too there would be i think we can say that we would work very hard to make sure that there are no holdovers that is if somebody is reported out do our very best to make sure that they don't waste that week on that i'm going to do what i can to fulfill what i've said here i'll do everything within my power to get three judges approved on our circuit before the memorial day recess who knows we may even get lucky and get more than that mr president and we have a number of people from which to choose and maybe the president can send us down a few more names on some of those vacancies that are that are there now but i don't know what more i can say and to say what i have said i have to work with the committee within the rules that they have and is completely qualified and upon which to blue state blue slips have already been returned and has been pending for a long time does a majority leader share my view that those type nominees from states with two republican senators should not be discriminated against and trying to do our response made our responsibility or we've only confirm seven circuit judges throughout this congress where we're a long way from coming anywhere close to what president clinton got it fifteen as president i hope the record will reflect the smile on my face because fact is we had four years two democratic  and those nominees of president were even given a hearing more than sixty one even given a hearing they were pocket vetoed for lack of a better description so yes i think if you have two senators in the same part they should not be discriminated against and when i have indicated in fact i mentioned their names their names are matthews and conrad and i have spoken to senator leahy about firstly talking with today and of course we'll take a look at th misread i certainly understand what the intention of the majority leader is we need to discuss this further i guess privately but certainly i understand his intention i know he is a person who operates in good faith i trust him we've had a good relationship over the last period during which we've been in our respective positions i guess the calculation i have to make or at some point is what is the likelihood of this occurring because there is a deep seated unrest on our side related to this low number of circuit court judges i think that's understandable it is a paltry number in comparison to how president reagan president and president clinton were handled in a similar situation but i understand that the representations that good friend a majority leader is made is as far as he prepared to go today and can to live up to what i've said here this last five or ten minutes with the senator you know my leader yield to me for advice and you know i'm i just was the police to see this dialogue back and forth because frankly i've been wondering as the chairman of the environment committee what was going on we have a very straightforward bill on the floor i didn't understand we have a few amendments the very happy to do with them we've got every group in the country every construction group management labor every one we have every state asking us to do this bill i didn't really understand frankly why we were waiting around and i just wonder i would ask my leader and i'd be delighted to hear from republican leaders well given this just had back and forth in these i know the senator from nevada has as well as anyone here and when he gives his word like this and said i'm going do everything i can listen i think that's as good as it gets around here and i'm just hopeful and i asked my my leaders tell me and republican leaders well senator inhofe is here i'm here were very anxious to move our bill forward five hundred transportation projects not one new penny of added spending all unleash a billion dollars worth of jobs i'm wondering whether you could just let us know here tonight what are the chances that we're going to be able to move forward ninety five an actual men the safe accountable flexible efficient transportation equity act and so forth and for other purposes or from california if i just might say that you know i'm very pleased that we're on this bill senator inhofe and i haven't wasted the time we've been talking with our colleagues and i think it's far as for the interests of all members at this point we don't expect any any votes tonight but we certainly do hope in every way possible that we'll start disposing of the amendments in the morning we'll be here about ten thirty we urge our colleagues to come down to offer their amendments will debate them we'll have our votes on them and we'll get something done for the american people and so i would yield the floor at this time i think my ranking members here and i'm delighted that  i think the chairman of the committee with this is going to we have spent a long time and i think it's very important for all of us on both sides of the aisle to understand that what we are considering here is not the the transportation reauthorization bill of two thousand and five that was done that's history that's behind this technical corrections bill is common with every bill that every major piece of legislation that that comes along sometimes  in the case i'll just go ahead and say in my case of oklahoma we had a major project that was it was about two hundred dollar project home according to our transportation commissioner and the transportation department of oklahoma that same amount of money could be better spent doing another doing the same project another location that takes a technical change and there's no difference  say to all my good friends and there's no one who's more conservative than i am by all ratings for my last twenty two years in both the house and the senate there is there are no new projects there's no ne getting some kind of an earmark or something else in it i've often said of all of the systems that we use in washington to to accomplish things probably the transportation system is the best we have and i don't know of anyone who really complains about paying into the highway trust fund when they get gasoline and they want to be sure it's going to go to building highways and repairing bridges determination as to where that goes it's the states are making those those decisions that i would trust fund there are some states where the money is not doesn't go straight into transportation they've been robbing balances in the highway trust  are conservative this is something that really works well if there's any function of government that needs to be addressed and has to be addressed at the federal level it's our roads and highways we have states like montana big states that have very few people but you still got to get across and you have a congested eastern states that have just the opposite situation and that's why way back in the  here's the dilemma that we have right now we have authorized a lot of projects that are not nearly enough but a lot of projects that we authorized in two thousand and five if we don't have a technical corrections we're up against the wall now where we can't get anything more done and we've given our word to people all throughout the country that we're going to improve bridges we're going to try to save lives and it's virtually stopped because we have certain things that corrections that need to be made i would say also that if i had what we dealt with on that very large two hundred eighty six over a period of two thousand five through two thousand and nine that is a lot of money but that doesn't do anything more that it doesn't even maintain what we already have we don't have a lot of new stuff in there and there's not a person america doesn't know that it's a crisis now so when these members of this committee or this this body if you don't think it's a crisis call your wife at home and or your husband and they'll tell you it's a crisis it's worse every year so we it's not something that we can make a decision today it all come to our good senses and get it done and it'll be done tomorrow it's a long lead time it's a complicated process but it's one of the things that has worked well and and i know there are a lot of people who want to say satisfy some constituency that says that you're spending too much money but you tell that constituency that you know to go out and drive in the traffic for a while and see what kind of serious problems that we have i have often said and i follow this myself we all have different priorities in this body and that's what makes it a representative body i've often said that we need to number will and take care of our nation's security have a military that can defend our country number two take care of the of the infrastructure that we have and move forward with that number three and this is kind of a pet thing with me and i think anyone who has previously been a major mayor of a major city unfunded mandates is another area that i feel th governing body should be paying attention to but we have a bill we have a bill that is working now we are improving highways and we are adding lanes but we've come to a stop and i think anyone who we're going to be coming up against another bill next year that when this runs out in two thousand and nine we're going to be reauthorizing for the next five years or seven years or maybe even longer but this has to be done and we need to get it done now now we do have several minutes i understand the concern for the the senator from south carolina he's made his his statements and he's done so very eloquently and frankly i agree with almost everything he says only thing i disagree with is that this bill isn't creating new projects isn't created isn't spending new money and we need in his state as well as my state and off if the states to get on with this and i hope that people realize that this is not these are concern that i know i heard him to come down to the floor to bring it up debate it and let's vote in get that and then my junior senator has a concern over something it is a process that happened didn't happen here but it happened in the in the other body now i agree with and it's something that was egregious needs to be investigated and i think it should be and i think there are a lot of different ways of doing it and i wanted to join hands with him and get this done  so we to my knowledge only have those three things that are out there that are holding and posting this and i would invite those three authors to come down and i think that we are while we're not going to be having votes tonight we can start debating these tonight senate in a quorum call still we're waiting for a member to come to the floor and speak taking a look at what's going on elsewhere the u s house was working on an i r s tax collection measure today and just a short time ago passed that  taxpayer assistance bill in the house of representatives and members now on general speeches and you can watch live house coverage on our companion network c span and on c span three later on at eight p m eastern time and c span three history our programming this evening focusing on that albert einstein again that starts at eight eastern time on c span three here in the senate working on changes to the two thousand and five highway bill work continues this evening and expected to continue into tomorrow our live coverage continuing on c span two on another front congress now is reporting that senate democrats reiterated their call today for a stimulus package that would extend unemployment benefits and provide other domestic spending to help boost the economy senate majority whip dick durbin said that beyond extending benefits any additional stimulus bill should include additional help for the slumping housing market trade adjustment assistance and infrastructure projects he warned that a recession is looming again that's from a report from congress now as afternoon our live senate coverage continues here on c span t month president bush sent up another trade agreement to the house of representatives this trade agreement a bilateral trade agreement with colombia he calls it a free trade agreement a term we use around here not sure why we use that term except it sounds good because these trade agreements generally are i don't have in front of me it's not printed yet it was actually too thick to bind in its original printing is about seven or eight hundred pages nafta the north american free trade agreement which the presiding officer opposed some fifteen years ago as i did was even longer than that the way that they sell these free trade agreements is they say that we're eliminating the tariffs on these on these on the on the trade relationship between in this case colombia in the united states colombia is colombia still has tariffs on american goods we have eliminated mostly eliminated tariffs and colombia goods so if we were to pass a trade agreement a real free trade agreement it would be  four five six pages long and simply eliminating the tariff schedule making a real free trade agreement but these aren't really free trade agreements that president bush has sent us nor are they free trade agreements that presidents in the past  really hundreds and hundreds of protect pages of protectionism pages of pages outlining protections for the drug companies protections for the energy companies protections for financial services companies banks and others protections for the pharmaceutical industry that's what these trade these supposed free trade agreements are it's interesting that those of us who oppose these tree trade agreements because they don't protect our communities frankly are called protectionist just because we want if we're going to write these free trade agreements and build in protections for the drug companies and the oil industry and the other energy companies in the financial services companies in the banks and the insurance companies we also should build protections for our workers in new jersey and ohio should build protections for our communities in lima and mansfield and tiffen ohio should build protections for food safety should build protections for consumer products safety but that's not what they do but what's most curious about these trade agreements that the president has set up in this case the most recent colombia is that it really reminds me of the old einstein saying that  the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different outcome we've seen and in my fifteen almost fifteen plus years in the house of representatives now the sen the same roughly the same period that i was the presiding officers had we seen our trade deficit go from thirty eight billion dollars in one nine hundred ninety to thirty eight billion dollars to in excess of eight hundred billion dollars last year now it's hard to know exactly what that means but from thirty eight billion deficit that means we buy thirty eight billion dollars more in this country than we sell to other countries now it's eight hundred billion dollars more we buy in this country than we sell to other countries that's a huge amount of dollars obviously and that eight hundred billion dollars it was it was sort boiled down by the first president bush who said that a billion dollar trade surplus or trade deficit translated into thirteen thousand jobs so if you're if you have a trade deficit a trade surplus other words if you're selling more than you're buying as a nation of a billion dollars according to president bush the first it would add up to about thirteen thousand new jobs net gain of jobs in your country but if you have a billion dollar deficit it means it's a thirteen thousand dollar job net job loss in your country so we have not a billion dollar trade deficit but an eight hundred billion dollars tra deficit so so do the math what does that mean in lost jobs it means that means it means an awful lot of lost manufacturing jobs in my state from from cleveland to dayton to line to to to canton to kant to rivendell to all over our  state it means a lot of other lost jobs not just manufacturing jobs when american standard shuts down in tiffin ohio when a company shuts down in bucyrus or shuts down in ashland it means there are fewer firefighters means there are fewer school teachers that means there are fewer restaurant workers and fewer realtors in fewer people that serve those jobs those people who had those manufacturing jobs so it's pretty clear that these trade agreements in addition to other damage they've done they clearly we have a trade deficit goes from thirty eight billion eight hundred billion just a decade to half it's clear they've done significant damage to our to our country and more simply most importantly to our communities into our families and i would just close mr president on on something specific unique to colombia to the trade agreement in colombia we know that colombia is that there's been a significant had significant numbers of of murders committed against against union activists and collide in colombia some of said i heard someone say today that there have been