thirty third anniversary of the fall of south vietnam where the north vietnamese offensive that had begun in the aftermath of a vote here in this congress to cut off supplemental funding to the government of south vietnam was combined with a massive refurbishment of the north vietnamese army that allowed an invasion to kick off at a time when the south vietnamese our allies were empting to reorganize their positions in order to adapt to the reality that they were going to get markedly less funding from the united states in their effort to grow their incipient democracy i think it's important for us to look back on that event in to give credit where credit is due and also to talk a little bit about the future of relations between our country and the present government in vietnam too often in today's school systems and in the discussions that examine the vietnam war we are overwhelmed by methodology many cases we tend to assume that this was a war between the united states and vietnam nothing could be further from the truth this was an attempt by the united states to assist a government in the south that had been formed with the idea that it  would evolve into a properly functioning democracy in the same way that we assisted south korea when it was divided from north korea in the same way we very successfully assisted west germany when the demarcation line at the end of world war two divided germany between the communist east and the the free society in the west we were not successful  n that endeavor for a number of reasons but it would be wrong to assume that this was an action by our country against the country the country of vietnam it was an attempt to to actually assist that  country there's a lot of talk about the domino theory and the sort of the heightened warnings unjustified warnings about what was going on in the rest of the region with respect to different efforts that were backed by the soviet union and communist china at that point but these were actually valid concerns at the time indonesia had  suffered into an attempted coup that was sponsored by the chinese we had a hot war in south korea when north korea invaded this was a region that was in a great deal of turmoil when you look back at the european powers  had colonies throughout southeast asia had largely pulled back after world war two because of the enormous costs of that war they had shrunk back into their own national parameters  the japanese had colonized a good part of southeast asia and after world war two they had withdrawn their forces so there was a good deal of turbulence and there was a great deal of strategic justification for what we attempted to do the bottom line is number one fifty eight thousand americans were killed in action or died of possible causes during this war  should remember them with the validity that their effort deserves two hundred forty five thousand south vietnamese soldiers fought alongside us and perished one point four million communist soldiers died in that endeavor and the events following one thousand nine hundred seventy five following the fall of saigon on april thirtieth one thousand nine hundred seventy five have never really been given the proper attention in terms of how we evaluate the history of what we attempted to do a million the cream of south vietnam leaders were sent into reeducation camps two hundred forty thousand of them remained in those camps for four years or longer fifty six thousand of them died in the reeducation camps and this was the cream of south vietnam's leadership almost as many as we lost in the entire war two million vietnamese were displaced a million of them hitting the  the ocean risking their lives in order to try to reach a better life that would not be under the oppression of a government that had succeeded in conquering the south  many many of them came here many of the families whose fathers in some cases mothers had been in reeducation camps were able to relocate here and begin a different life a stalinist system took over in the north when i started going back to vietnam in one thousand nine hundred one that system was very much in place we should look to the future i believe there are two important things for us to keep in mind  this point in the evolution of our relations with vietnam the first is that over a pretty rocky period of time the communist government of vietnam has made adjustments and has made positive contribution not to say that we are in a perfectly beneficial relationship but i've been pleased since one thousand nine hundred one to participate in many of these endeavors to bring a more moderate society inside vietnam to that one point in bringing american businesses in vietnam and thailand in my view are two of the most important countries in terms of how the united states should be looking at east asia and southeast asia with on the one hand the emergence of china and the other the emergence of india and on the other other hand as some would say the evolution of muslim fundamentalism that spills over in southeast asia into countries such as indonesia malay asia in the south of the philippines vietnam and thailand are very important to us and the relationships that are evolving between vietnam and united states are healthy and i believe in the long term they're going to be successful the second thing we should remember is that there are many many vietnamese americans in this country who suffered not only during the war but after one thousand nine hundred seventy five and we tend to forget that with the reorganization of society that occurred under communist rule and i've spent a good bit of my life working to assist this refugee community in the united states but also working to build a bridge between the overseas vietnamese community and the ruling government in vietnam today and through that bridge we're going to have a much healthier society here and also much more productive society in vietnam so today i wanted to do my small part here in making sure that we in this country remember not only a struggle that had a great deal of validity to it even though it did not turn out the way many of us wanted it to but also the positive aspects of our relations with vietnam looking into the future and without a eula floor thank you senator from west virginia expression my honor as always the words and wisdom of the senator from virginia i rise in support of senator durbin's amendment which we were on prior to the speech i take it the reception  presiding officer would not be in his c the debate is not about an arcane technical pension funding will is not the issue before us about whether we keep thousands and thousands of airline employees whether they are allowed to keep their hard earned defined benefit pensions or if we're going to regulate them i mean throw them out to the p v c which has so much debt it can't even count the zeros the issue is about whether or not we're going to send additional major carriers who have so far avoided bankruptcy in these brutal financial circumstances into a dine with spiral there's a been my friend is throughout the carrier is harmless they're up against it the cliff hold them harmless adding this pension benefit to the f a a bill would defeat the whole purpose of this compromise brokered by the finance and the co committees which was done with the underlining principle that we should hold the commercial airlines harmless during these turbulent economic times which are expected to last as sacred that is why it would be unwise to load up an additional liability on airlines trying to do the right thing by their employees it would be especially wrong to cause that result in a misguided effort to put the preservation of regular order before common sense  other words going around a committee happens airline employees will pay the unnecessary price for this chance this change from current law cannot happen during these tough times of rising fuel prices and mounting financial losses this is not the time to impose tougher unrealistic pension funding requirements upon the airline industry to do so would risk more bankruptcies and for scariest to dump their pensions into the well to go on p b g c that would put in danger the economic security of workers would prefer to stay employed and not have their pensions frozen in two thousand and five when the s was considering the pension protection act on the floor we passed an amendment by voice vote that i amendment would have given all airline carriers substantial pension relief the m m a did not pick winners or losers within the airline industry not our business rather it focused on keeping their defined benefit pensions solvent unfortunately as senator hutchinson pointed out the final product that came out of the conference in two thousand and six limited the pension relief the senate sought to give all airlines led by the i'll just say he's gone and i'm not sad the ways and means chairman bill thomas the conference  report chose to choose when years and losers it gave some carriers more pension relief than others creating a competitive advantage for some carriers number of senators were not happy with the outcome of the airline in last year's war iraq war supplemental appropriations legislation dick durbin did the only thing that he had available to him to do and with the strong support of senator hu right this wrong and inserted a provision that provides that brought those disadvantaged airlines up to par and gave them the necessary pension relief that they deserved i understand that perhaps this was not the best process were  that it would have been better but it is more ideal to go through a regular order and have the finance committee review is that the provision problem was was going to happen however airlines need and deserve pension relief we cannot adopt the pension provision of the finance committee tax title imposed higher pension burdens upon five domestic airlines which has been discussed here this morning by various people during these tough economic times remember hold legacy commercial airlines harmless so that we'd be turning our backs on american on continental on us airways on hawaiian and alaskan air to do so would risk more bankruptcies and more job losses i think i pointed out in an earlier statement that one out of every six jobs in the airline industry across this country has been lost in the last six years in two thousand and five while we were debating the isaacs and rockefeller a lot of mehmet that granted all airlines equitable pension relief i stated on the s my goal was to protect the employees and retirees who have worked so hard to earn retirement benefit and that remains my goal today to deny disadvantaged airlines the relief they rightfully deserve in the pension protection act and which the senate voted to give them would be unfair i have the utmost respect for senator baucus and grassley i think there is a perfect team i think they did their very best and did a very good job on the whole on the pretention protection pension protection act but the finance committee and the senate should not have dictated receive the dicta of the now thoroughly retired former ways and means chairman the former house majority succeeded with their desperate efforts to achieve questionable policy goals by holding long awaited pension reform legislation hostage but that was then and this is now and we should not give the former house majority the satisfaction of achieving their desired objective over a jurisdictional squabble and that's all it is that counts i understand that it counts people lie on the floor to protect it but in this case we're dealing with something much larger we can do better and that must begin by us stepping back and invoking the quote do no harm principle america cannot afford another major bankruptcy to cripple our aviation system with all of my respect to the finance committee leadership we just cannot do one more thing to jeopardize the health of our domestic aviation industry particularly the commercial sector the rest of it is doing very well for that reason i will support senator durbin's amendment and i urge my colleagues to do the same i think floor senator from iowa i take a view opposite of what was just spoken by senator wrong sour on the amendment that is before the senate the durbin amendment number one because of a very carefully crafted compromise that was worked out when the pension reform bill was passed and number two the purpose of that legislation was to protect the within the realm of that compromise and the protection of of workers pensions and this effort distracts from it and so i'm trying to make sure that workers pensions are protected so i am going to address my colleagues to be against the durban hutchison amendment the amendment  jurisdiction over pension policy the finance committee and the health education labor and pension committees these two committees work arm in arm for all of two thousand six to get a pension reform bill together that would protect workers pensions if the proponents of this a man might succeed in their effort it will taint the legislative process with respect to one of the most important policy challenges before congress and this is strengthening retirement security the provision the proponents seek to strike is not only justified colleagues through the year long conference negotiations of the pension ag which are occurred less than two years ago but let me refer first remind my colleagues that the underlying in tampa of the pension act is to require a defined benefit plan sponsors to fully fund their pension plans and other words keep their promise to their employees and non technical terms make sure that plan sponsors are not digging a deeper hole by requiring plans to pay off their on funded liabilities the pension act requires  efined benefit plan sponsors to make contributions one to cover benefits are crude in the current year and to pay off any on funded pension liabilities or i abilities over a seven year period of time now a lot of people feel that we were not doing justice to the workers of america by giving these companies seven years to pay off these past liabilities but at least we have a plan in place that two committees of the senate worked on that was a compromise that would bring us to the point where even after seven  years workers pensions would be protected now there's an interest rate issue with a lot of pensions the interest rate used to determine these past liabilities is based upon the yield curve of high quality corporate bond rates currently the corporate bond yield curve rate is approximately six percent the pension act provided two exceptions to this general rule the exceptions were specifically provided for certain commercial airline carriers that may have had difficulty meeting the general requirements within the bill in other words we were taking into consideration airlines and that's something that was legitimate at the time so there there were exceptions for these commercial airline carriers under the first exception carriers that froze their pension plans were permitted to pay off any past pension liabilities over seventeen years now that's instead of seven years and used in the process an eight point eight five percent interest rate to calculate past liabilities and that would be instead of current law six percent right under the second exception carriers that did not freeze their pension plans were permitted to pay off liabilities over ten years instead of seventeen years if they chose the other kurt other cars and use their current six percent r instead of the eight point eight five percent interest rate during the pension act negotiations those airlines carriers freezing their plans were permitted to take advantage of the first exception we were aware at that time that these carriers pledged to make new four hundred one k contributions on be have our current and new employees and their union negotiations those airline carriers that did not freeze their plans did not need to make the same pledge for a four hundred one k type retirement because these carriers continue their pension plans these workers or these carriers continued to accrue benefits under the pension plan now the opponents of section eight zero eight don't understand or maybe they choose to ignore that this was a carefully crafted compromise which was intended to place workers of each of these carriers in a similar per position from a retirement perspective workers of carriers that did not freeze their plans continue to accrue their usual pension benefits to workers of carriers that froze their plans receive retirement benefits over fall under four one k plans under each com under each approach the carriers remain obligated to pay their retirement benefits that are cr in the current year this was a poll worker probe protested but approach that recognize the financial distress that airline industries was experience it also recognize the differences in the financial health of the carriers who froze their pension plans and the financial health of carriers who did not free their retirement pla the amendments proponents are now saying that they want the same set of rules that were offered to carriers that froze airplanes so you see what's on the books that we in the finance committee are trying to correct in this legislation is that we gave maximum flexibility airlines to choose one plan or another the one that fit whether they want t freeze or pension plans or not freeze or pension plans and not freeze an airplane to bland's substituting or over here if they froze their pension plans and substituting a four hundred one k for future maximum flexibility because these union agreements are so much different among the various airlines and the financial conditions of the airlines were very much standard we wanted to give choice for flexibility for the financial management of the corporations themselves to keep their promise to their workers and we wanted to keep our promise that congresses made under our laws that workers retirement ought to be protected so maximum flexibility ok then later on everybody agrees i mean everybody had agreed to this and then later on people want to change the rules in the middle of the game to benefit one airline over another airline so these proponents of the present law the present distraction from our compromise that was made two years ago less than two years ago will tell you that just before passage of the pension act an agreement was reached with senate leadership in that the senate would take the first available opportunity in the next congress to offer the same set of rules to carriers who did not freeze their pension plans well if that's true then why did we worry and try to make this compromise overs period of several months during two thousand that did not freeze their plans to bail increase the current interest rate of six percent to eight point two five which in their view is closer to the eight point eight five rate given the frozen pla the bill was referred to the health education labor and pension committees i don't recall chairman candidate and ranking member enzi considering the hutchison gorn and bill in the normal course of committee process i know for a fact that neither considered the corner and hutchison bill in the finance committee language language language that was identical to hutchison horn was slipped into the war supplemental conference agreement this action was taken without without consideration by the two committees of jurisdiction over pensions the very same two committees that work for several months during the year two thousand and six to work out this carefully crafted compromise that took into consideration the financial conditions of various airports i mean of the various airlines the desire of some airlines to freeze their pensions and substitute for a one k s and those airlines that wanted to keep their pension system going as w without any consideration to the people that it worked on this for so long and it was slipped into conference agreement now isn't that a process that we here in the senate are trying to put an end to regardless no promises were broken a promise to make the room the same aviation administration authorization bill the mark was considered by the full senate finance committee in september last year the full committee overwhelmingly reported that provision and favorably reported out of committee so proponents of this amendment cannot stand on the senate floor and cannot in good conscience argue that promises made to them or issues in an orderly process without this orderly process the democratic process that our founding fathers gave us breaks down well i didn't serve as chairman and now ranking member of the senate finance committee to let down an orderly and democratic process particularly considering the months of compromise between the house and senate that took to work out what president what that pension bill was all about for my senate colleagues i suggest that a provision that was not considered during the normal course of the committee process is making good on a promise that was made to them that i think that this  is not acceptable and for my senate colleagues to alternately contain and that the promises that were made to them were not kept i asked them why they did not speak up during the full and open deliberate and that occurred in the finance committee in september why are they now opposing a provision that was out there clear light of day for over seven months and if you had problems with the not speak to us about them or is it that the airline carriers who opposes pervasion finally woke up i don't know did they wake up to the fact that their blatant and run around congress the committee process would not go on  notice and that they wanted to find some way to one do the careful compromise of two thousand and six i'm skeptical of course skeptical is an understatement but let me turn to the policy of the provision on the finance committee bill as we have considered opponents of that provision successively increase interest rate for non frozen plans state and a quarter percent they say that the eight quarter percent rate levels of plainfield and i will admit and agree with them but it only levels the playing field in the context of calculating past liabilities so i agree that it is equitable to allow all the carriers to use a more favorable interest rate to calculate past liabilities but it is not equitable to allow carriers that did not freeze their plans to underfund benefits earned in the future and maybe get us back to the position where we are still in somewhat even regardless of the bill the law that's now on the books and this is what is going to happen if we don't do something about it right now so i  would i would like to correct the manner in which my distinguished colleague from illinois needs are on the on the four refers to the him infamous eight point two percent versus eight point eight five percent these are not earnings rates the rates are not used to determine the value of plan assets instead the rates are discount rates that actuaries used to determine the present value of pension liabilities basically the rates are used to determine how much a company has to contribute today to make good on the promise pension payments that would be due when an employee retires this is an important distinction because when a company uses a higher rate interest to project the present value the company is able to understate or i would use the word mass promise pension payments this understatement allows the company to contribute less money to the plan and less money to the plan is  is an important distinction because we're talking about protecting workers and their pension rights why would a worker support a policy that places the full value of their promise the pension payments in jeopardy my colleagues from illinois contends that the workers of the carriers in question support this practice and of course the durban hutcheson a man most workers i know ask for bigger payments or at least want to make sure that they are secure in retirement it's usually management that wants to short the work that's why we get in the trouble we're in and why the of two thousand and six was necessary but let me get back to what war supplemental actually accomplished carriers that are currently using the eight and a quarter interest rate are now permitted greater the risk to the pension benefit guaranty corporation the federal insurer the pension plans and then obviously if that comes up short the tax payers picking up the bail opponents of the finance committee provision argue that the most important risk factor for the pension benefit guaranty corporation is the financial health of a planned sponsored now this is not entirely true whether a plan is under funded is an equally important respect specifically if the company goes into bankruptcy and pushes a pension liabilities into the  is holding the bag for those on film to lie on funded liabilities well it's not the p b g c r it is the p b d c and in most extreme cases then the taxpayers might be left holding the bag so my opponents can tell half of the story yes the financial health of the plan sponsor is important but so is the funding status of the plan and what we have here is an issue of under funded i told you that from an actuarial perspective a higher interest rates means lower plan liabilities when a plan sponsor uses a higher interest rate to determine its liabilities the sponsor is really masking the plans liabilities in other words the plan liabilities are artificially understated i want to emphasize the word artificial because what we have here is a case where the carriers who oppose the finance committee provision are trying to take advantage of a special funding rule based on an artificial funding status and i went to great lengths to say to my colleagues during two thousand and six we tried to take into consideration between the two committees the labor committee and the plane answer committee considerations of the different financial conditions of the various air carriers and to give them some choice specifically if a plan sponsor used the normal six percent rate is one hundred percent funded the plan sponsor is only required to contribute money to cover the plan's current year costs if the plan is say one hundred fifteen percent funded the plan sponsor may use the excess to cover the current year's liability in some cases the planned sponsor won't have to contribute any money because the excess would cover the current year's cost carriers that are using the eight and a quarter percent are contending that because their plan is one hundred sixteen percent funded they don't have to make the current year contribution the problem here is that the one hundred sixteen percent funding status is artificial it is artificial because the eight and a quarter rate effectively mass the underfunding of the plane so i asked my senate colleagues showed a plan that is artificially funded be permitted to avail itself of a rule that is only available to plans that are adequately funded or put another way this is fuzzy funding man is fuzzy in the way that it puts the plan at risk should plans that  artificially funded be allowed to skip making their current year's contributions and in that case aren't they just digging the hole deeper well the finance committee provision says that if these carriers use the eight and a quarter percent rate which results in an artificial funding level these carriers cannot skip the current year's contributions so the finance committee provision makes good on the promise that was made to senators during the year two thousand and six this that is that we are allowing carriers that did not freeze their plans to use a more favorable interest rate to determine their past liabilities the same deal that was given to frozen plans but we're also saying however is that if you are using the more favorable rate you have to contribute to the current year's cost that's the grand compromise of two thousand and six again the same deal was given to the other set of airlines or and or other corporations to freeze their planes to do otherwise would one adversely affect active workers and to allow these carriers to deeper hole by allowing  liabilities to continue to grow moreover taxpayers can end up being on the hook for these unfunded liability mr president it all comes down to this bottom line workers retirees and taxpayers are in better shape if there is more money in their retirement plans workers retirees and taxpayers are in worse shape if there is less money in their retirement plan management wins if the company puts less money into the plan and workers retirees and tack payers lose a vote for this man is a vote to put less money in the retirement plan a vote against this amendment is a vote to put more money in retire let me make sure i said that right a vote for the amendment is a vote to put less money in the retirement plan a vote against a vote to put more money into the repair i'm playing so if you vote for the amendment you're putting workers retirees and you ought to be concerned about tax payers most of all at risk i hope my colleagues join me now opposing r fifty seven fifteen an act to ensure continued availability of access to the federal student loan program for students and families is their objection to proceeding without objection so ordered mr president i ask unanimous consent to ken kennedy n z amendment which is at the desk be agreed to the bill as amended be read a third time and passed motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate and any statements related to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place is a thread without objection so ordered mr president returning to the pending legislation i really respect greatly the senator from iowa i know he may have to leave but i do have to tell you that i disagree with several things he said first the point he's raised about why wasn't i in the finance committee stating my position i'm not a member of that committee and i don't know the procedure that was followed by the committee i will tell you that in this fed federal aviation administration authorization bill this is the only pension provision so to think that there is this is a pension belt and we should have forewarned that airline pensions would be part of the discussion of keeping america's skies safer and air travel safer it came as somewhat of a surprise i learned of this memo last week i've known for a long time the position of the chairman and the ranking member in opposition to my position on this issue and i knew that the day would come when we would you would revisit it but there are several things here which i think have to be said first freezing a pension plan may not sound like much unless you're a retiree a frozen pension plan which is what we're talking about here with some airlines would disqualify new employees from qualifying for the pension and restrict the airline from expanding any benefits under the retirement plan that's a frozen plan that is what happened with several airlines as they faced and went into bankruptcy they froze their plans they said their right to retirees times are tough we can't cover new employees and we can't give you anything more it's frozen now they were given pretty good treatment by the finance committee in fact they were given the most preferred treatment of any corporations in america they were allowed to fund their pension plan over a longer period of time than any company in america seventeen years and they started with an imputed assumption of eight point eight five percent in terms of that as the senator from iowa called it the discount rate or others the interest rate but they were given this preferred position it applied to two airlines northwest and delta now what about the rest of the airlines they were put in a different category in their situations airlines like american airlines did not freeze their pension plans new workers came into their pension plans benefits could be improved in their pension plans and they were told you will not be given the preferred treatment given to those the three their pension plan it seems like it's upside down it would think you would think that we would be benefiting those companies that are trying to do better by their employees but instead we went the other way and said we limit their catch up funding in liability to ten years and the imputed interest to eight point two five percent not as good a deal and in the world of hundreds of millions of dollars a very expensive difference between frozen pension plans and those that were still active defined defined benefit plans so now comes the argument with this new amendment in the federal aviation administration authorization bill that we have to freeze the current level of contributions being given by the airlines let me give an example what that means in the instance of american airlines they have not only funded their liability to one hundred percent they have added more in despite the tough economic times their funding level is one hundred fifteen percent it isn't as if they're trying to pull anything over on their workers retirees they're putting more money in than they're required to even in these tough times the effect of this amendment if it's not removed is to hold them at that hundred fifteen percent contribution what does it mean to the airline like american it means a billion dollars over five years it means two hundred million dollars more each year to keep the funding level way beyond the hundred percent that's necessary now if these were prosperous times and these were companies that were making money having been records of profits you might be able to make that argument i'm not sure how but you might be able to make it but exactly the opposite strew i think the senator from iowa knows well as i do how many airlines have gone bankrupt first time i met the senator from iowa we were flying together on ozark airlines goes back a few years and then we were flying together on t w a ery it goes back a few years and those airlines are gone and in the last few weeks another five airlines are gone this is a very risky business with the cost of jet fuel and so to say well this won't hurt the airlines another two hundred million dollars a year just to have them keep over funding their pension liability i think is to ignore the obvious as dangerous as it may be to have an unfunded pension plan it is even more dangerous to be working at a company that goes into bankruptcy i've been with companies that have gone through this p b g c they don't always come out whole at the end of the day there are limits to what the p b j see would pay in terms of outstanding benefits to workers they could end up with less so what we have here is a circumstance where the finance committee is really wanting to roll the dice they want to bet that american airlines in general not the american airlines but american airlines in general the don't have frozen benefit plans are going to start making a lot of money they seem to think that the price of a  oil is going to go down they think that the cost of jet fuel is going to go down they think these airlines are going to be flush with cash and be able to over fund their pension systems well that is one possibility which would have to say look at what's happened over the last several weeks not very likely more likely that airlines will continue to face the pressure of increasing energy and fuel costs more airlines will be flirting with bankruptcy they'll be struggling to meet the bottom line united airlines lays off a thousand workers last week a five hundred million dollar loss of the first quarter i think it's the largest they've ever sustained things don't look that rosy what senator hutchison and i are saying be careful don't t the pensions of so many workers don't bet the farm even in iowa corn farm on the possibility that things are always going to get better for the airline be conservative be careful but protect the workers in the meantime so as you listen to the senator from iowa close and say well if you want to put more money in the pension system vote against this minute amendment if you want to take money out vote against it or vote for it i would just say to the senator there's only one problem with this argument one hundred  fifty thousand of the hundred eighty thousand workers affected by your amendment support the durbin hutchison amendment they believe it is far better to maintain the current system of funding not jeopardize these airlines so that they might go into bankruptcy have fair funding that make sure that these retirement benefits can continue to be paid that is a fact when senator baucus the chairman of the committee came to the floor earlier he said he just wants to level the playing field well the current law is already unfair the field is far from level and section eight zero eight makes this inequity even worse even worse it tips the flip a playing field heavy on the side of delta and northwest at the expense of the other airlines the five that would be hit with this i urge my colleagues if we're going to err on the side let's err on the side of caution and caution tells us good funding of the pension liabilities in a difficult economic climate with with airlines going to bankruptcy like to explain why the thirty thousand foot view is that if an act it would have posed significant in an unfair burden on airlines that have done the most to provide for a secure retirement for their former employees or the rich employees that will retire this amendment will make sure that congress does not jeopardize the pensions of fifty thousand of my constituents in texas who depend on the airline industry for their retirement their nest egg that they will retire on when they leave active duty it would also if if  this amendment is passed it will relieve a significant competitive disadvantage that some airlines not coincidentally couples that headquarter in my state american airlines and continental would operate under if the finance committee proposal were to prevail so that's why i support striking section eight zero eight of the f a a authorization bill section eight zero eight would undermine the ability of some airlines to maintain their commitment to their workers at a time when our economy is becoming a softer and more questions than answers are apparent with regard to what our economic future at least in the short term is going to look like it would reduce the financial flexibility of airlines precisely at a time when they need it the most now i think a little refresher on the current recent history is important because what's actually happened is in two thousand and six the pension protection act was passed and to be blunt about it what happened is it benefited airlines like delta and some others around the around the country where american and continental were basically told to wait they'll be an opportunity later on to come up come back in to take care of your concerns and to level the playing field is and not and eliminate the preferential treatment was given to some other at airlines during the pension protection act of two thousand and six so patiently we waited and last year's supplemental appropriation bill was the vehicle that we used to to correct the inequitable treatment  created for airlines like continental and american in the pension protection act of two thousand and six the act included language that is in the supplemental appropriation bill language out of s one ninety one that i introduced with senator hutchison and as i said it corrected the inequity that was earlier created in the pension protection act of two thousand and six but now section eight  eight in the finance committee provision would simply undo of the corrective action that congress undertook in the supplemental appropriation bill that i mentioned a moment ago it should not be part of the bill i would also say that it is really about improving and modernizing the air traffic control system in this country why would we be messing with the pensions of fifty thousand texans who depend on these two major airlines for their retirement benefits in this bill it just makes no sense and i believe it's unfair and would really reverse the corrective action that we were able to accomplish in last year's supplemental appropriation bill i worked hard along with my colleagues that i mentioned to make sure that those folks who work in the airline industry will have a pension when they retire and i'll continue to do so and i sincerely believe that passing the finance committee provision section eight zero eight would jeopardize their retirement benefits would could in all probability result in more airlines becoming bankrupt with tremendous on certainly injected in terms of how their pensions would be protected at a time when airlines and their employees are facing enormous challenges congress should not pull the carpet out from under their feet and get into the business of simply picking winners and losers by giving some airlines preferential treatment over other allies i want to express my gratitude to the senator from illinois senator durbin and my colleague senator hutchison for their leadership on this issue i'm proud to join them in this bipartisan amendment which i hope which would strike section eight zero eight of the f a a authorization bill as i've described and would i think make sure that what we do here is keep the level playing field not jeopardize the pensions of consent to speak for fifteen minutes on the energy crisis facing our country objection thank you as the president i think virtually everybody in america understands that our economy is in extremely difficult straits that the middle class is collapsing that poverty is increasing and that one of the immediate fact is that is driving so many americans over the edge is outrageously high energy prices and this impacts every community in america but it especially impacts rural states like the state of vermont where work is a force to drive long distances to work  end up spending an inordinate amount of money at the gas tank it is not uncommon in my state's my state for people to travel one hundred miles a day to work and back and if you just do the arithmetic you will find that in many cases as oil prices and gas prices have risen people today up paying a thousand dollars a year more than just a year and a half ago to fill up  tanks and if you're a worker earning thirty or thirty five thousand a year and you got a three percent increase in your wages but it's pretty good in some cases all of your wage increase is not going down that gas tank and you got to pay high health care costs  educational caused by a property tax causes you're in a lot of trouble which is why the middle class in america is in fact shrinking significantly not only is there are a major crisis in terms of what's happening at the gas pump there is also severe worry about what happens next went up when people have got to fill up their home heating oil  furnaces and stay warm in the winter in states like vermont and i can tell you mr president that all over my state a lot of senior citizens and old and other people are extremely worried about how they are going to stay warm next winter with the price of home heating fuel soaring to the degree that it is meanwhile while price at the gas pump is soaring while home heating oil and diesel fuel  the profits of huge oil companies are going up to record breaking levels hedge fund managers make billions speculating on oil futures and opec continues to function as a price fixing caught tell in violation of world trade organization rules as the president the average price for a gallon of gas recently hit a record breaking three dollars and sixty cents a gallon which has more than doubled since president bush has been in office the price of diesel fuel is now averaging over four seventeen a gallon which is more than a dollar thirty six higher than it was just a year ago and the price of oil is well over one hundred fourteen dollars a barrel these prices say it all and what they say is that we have a national emergency on our hands and it is absolutely imperative for the united states congress to begin to act in order to lessen this birth this onerous burden on tens of millions of our families and these record breaking or oil and gas prices at the pump are impacting not only consumers of oil and gas but obviously our entire economy they are impacting family farmers they are impacting small businesses they are impacting airlines grocery stores restaurants tourism and of course the price of food this national oil emergency demands both short term and long term mr president one of the issues that concerns me as i hear people getting up here and say well long term we've got to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy there is nobody here in the senate who believes that more than i do i think we are on the cusp of a major transformation of our energy system i think we need an apollo type project to invest heavily in wind solar geothermal energy efficiency i think we can do that and in the process we can create millions of good paying drop we have made a start in that direction but we have not gone far enough but to say that we might focus on long term solutions does not mean that we can ignore the immediate crisis yes we have to break out of dependency on fossil fuel but that is not going to solve the problem for a worker in vermont who is paying three dollars and fifty cents for a gallon of gas today we have got to address his and her problem as well so it's not evil all yet we break out the pendency on fossil fuel to move to sustainable energy but yet we address the crisis of today and we tell workers all over this country that we understand they cannot afford to pay outrageous prices or gas now mr president as you well know there have been dozens literally dozens of ideas from both sides of the all good ideas as to provide an understanding of the crisis as to why or oil prices  soaring and also very good ideas as to how we might solve the problem and i applaud all of those senators who have come up with ideas but it seems to me if we're going to be successful in helping the average american we've got to come forward with a comprehensive package it's not good enough to say well i have an amendment in this bill and i have some language in that bill which may come about two years or may never come about and i've got something over there what we need is a comprehensive piece of legislation which understands that the cause of this crisis is not just one thing it is a multi pronged problem which is causing oil prices to soar and also on the senate we're not going to solve this crisis through one simple action that we need a series of actions but we have got to bring our solutions together in a comprehensive package which says to the american that if that package is passed or oil and gas prices are going down that's what we need to do and i've been working with a number of my colleagues in order to do just that with the president  briefly talk about what i believe should be in that package is about four provisions that i think could play a major role in lowering gas prices today first mr president we need to impose an excise tax on the profits of the oil and gas industry the american people simply do not understand why they are paying record breaking prices at the gas pump while exxon mobil has made dollars but it's not just exxon mobil alone we have see b p just come in the other day with a sixty three percent increase in their profits shell made a huge increase in their profits over the last since president bush has been president the five largest oil companies in this country have made over five hundred and ninety five billion in profits and that number is only going to go up as the oil companies report last quarter's profits just last year alone the major oil companies made over one hundred fifty five billion dollars in profits so people are sitting home and the saying i can't afford to fill up my gas tank to go to work and exxon mobil and conoco and shell and all these other big oil companies are making huge profits what is the congress doing about it well up to now the truth is the congress is doing nothing about it obviously the president is not doing anything about it but i think most people understand the president and vice president are never going to do anything to represent the interests of ordinary americans but the question there is what do we do about it and i think that the time is now that we should move forward with an excise profits tax if we enacted a twenty three percent excise tax on oil company profits that would bring that about thirty five billion dollars this year that sum of money would be enough to provide a six month suspension in federal gas and diesel taxes and w by almost thirty seven cents a gallon and up to forty eight point eight cents for diesel during the next six months is not going to solve all of the problems you know but if you can afford to get to work right now it will help but having an excise profits tax on the oil companies are only one of the things that we should be doing congress in my view has got to also address on those an area where there is very strong evidence that speculators both in hedge funds and in all the financial institutions ah driving the price of oil to outrageously high prices and what we have got to address is undoing the so called enron loophole mr president this loophole was created in the year two thousand as part of the commodities futures modernization act at the behest of enron lobbyists a provision in this bill was inserted in the dock of night with no congressional hearings specifically the enron loophole exams electronic energy trading from federal moderns laws virtually overnight the loophole read over the counter energy trading from federal oversight requirements opening the door to excessive speculation and energy price manipulation because the president of course nobody knows exactly what the impact of the enron loophole is but we knew do know that huge amounts of money are being made not simply in the production of oil but in driving oil futures prices up and let me just quote from steven simon who was a senior vice president of exxon mobil on april first two thousand and eight recent testimony before the house and he said and i quote the price of oil should be about fifty to fifty five dollars per barrel and the quote right now it is more than double that and here attributes the addition of the almost doubling of the prices to speculation that is taking on taking place closing the enron loophole with subject electronic energy markets the proper regulatory oversight by the commodity futures trading commission to prevent price manipulation and excessive speculation and i would like to applaud senators levin feinstein byron dorgan and all of its were focused on this issue so in addition to an excise profits hacks on the oil companies we must go after the speculation on the pot of people within hedge funds and in the financial institutions industry who are simply playing games making money and driving the price of oil up those are two important steps that we must take to lower the price of gas and oil in this country thirdly of this the president  administration must stop the flow of oil into the strategic petroleum reserve and in fact release oil from this federal stockpile at a time of record breaking prices it simply makes no sense to continue to take oil off of the market and put it into the strategic petroleum reserve and this is not just my opinion we have seen staff at the strategic petroleum reserve recommend against buying more oil with a stroke in the spring of two thousand and two this is not a new idea the truth of the matter is that this is an idea that has been used before the democratic and republican administrations for example when president clinton ordered the release of thirty million barrels of crude oil from the spro in two thousand the price of gas fell by clicking cents a gallon in just two weeks and when the first president bush released thirteen million barrels of crude oil from sprawl in one nine hundred ninety one crude oil prices dropped by over ten dollars a barrel so this is an approach which has been used in the past it has been working in the past and it's something that we should do right now so that's the third provision that i think we should undertake her book and in terms of where i think the comprehensive package should be we must begin to address the opec cartel the president i hear a lot of folks around here will talk about the wonders of the free market and capitalism and free enterprise and all of that stuff but every member of the senate understands that by definition opec is a cocktail that's what they all they are a group of oil producing nations who come together to control or oil production to limit oil production and therefore to off their surely raise the price of oil that is what a cocktail is and that is what opec is doing well it seems to me in that regard we have got to do two things number one i think that the president must file a complaint with the world trade organization because the truth is that opec itself is a violation of the rules of the d w t o which is presumably about creating of the free flow of goods and free trade and i think on the surface opec is in violation of those of rules and agreements and the second thing that we must do is to tell people in saudi arabia and kuwait people who american soldiers have died for in one nine one with saddam hussein invaded kuwait and say to them you know friendship is a two way street we protected you in one thousand nine hundred one and now the united states  and much of the world's economy is currently in serious problems and what you saudi arabia have got to do is increase the production of oil my understanding is that right now saudi arabia is producing less oil than they did two years ago and there are experts who believe that saudi arabia can produce almost two million barrels a day of oil was and the currently producing so mr president that's where we all where we all right now is we have a national crisis we have working people suffering and wondering about how they're going to be able to afford to get to work or keep warm in the wintertime at the same time is a loyal companies are enjoying record breaking profits and at the same time as speculators are making billions and billions of dollars in profits now it is no secret everybody knows that the oil and gas industry are enormously powerful everybody understands that these people have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the last ten years on law being and we know that a lot of us audit work at this very moment we know that these people have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions  reality and that's the american political system that's the way it is so system we've got to change but that is the way it is i think the time is now for the united states congress and for the united states senate to begin to stand up to these very powerful special interest interests i think we need a comprehensive energy approach and i've outlined that i think we need a long term approach moving away from fossil fuels the sustainable energy i think we need a short term approach and i've outlined the full provisions that i believe that should be in it and mr president let me just conclude by saying this the crisis that we are facing as a nation is not just that energy crisis it is a crisis as to whether or not the american people faith in their own government in the people that they elect and it is no secret that both the president's approval ratings are perhaps as low as any president in american history and the approval ratings of this congress are even law that's the simple reality we are a democratic society and when people have problems they look to their elected officials to respond to those problems and hopefully to address them if we can't do that i'm not quite sure why we argue if the oil companies and the gas companies are so powerful with all of their money and their lobbyist in a campaign contributions that we can address the crisis facing working americans well maybe we should rethink about what we do here but i think we can do something and i've outlined what i think is a series of ideas that if passed would address in a very significant way this crisis and just as i look forward to working with my colleagues to president mr president as i come to the floor to speak this afternoon millions of americans are struggling to hold onto their homes in the wake of the foreclosure crisis thousands of them have lost their jobs just in the last couple of months and millions more are finding it harder just to get by because sky high oil prices are forcing many of our families to pay more at the pump more at the grocery store and more in their power yet all of these working families are scrimping so hard today the economic downturn hasn't even registered for one thing and of america big oil the major oil companies report their profits this week and they are seeing record increases conoco phillips reported first quarter profits of four point one billion dollars that beats their previous record by six hundred million dollars and shell and b p are also reporting huge gains mr president americans don't have to look very hard to figure out where the responsibility lies why our companies are see seeing their profits or while working families are watching their bank accounts bottom out over the last seven and a half years republicans have backed an energy policy that does very little but gives big oil companies tax breaks and special favors meanwhile our middle class families today are print paying the price and they know it in the first months of the bush administration oil prices average twenty nine dollars and fifty cents a barrel almost eight years later that price has quadrupled it's almost one hundred twenty dollars a barrel this week when president bush first took office americans were paying just a dollar forty six a gallon to fill up their gas tanks last week gas prices prices average of whopping three dollars and sixty cents a gallon now mr president i went home last week like i always to washington state where drivers are paying even more a gallon of gas in seattle washington costs three dollars and seventy cents up in bellingham near the canadian border three dollars and eighty cents now families across my state are telling me they're cutting back on everything from shopping errands to summer vacations and they're pretty angry that they have to pinch their pennies while oil companies are making record profits when i travel around my state gas prices are one of the first things people come up and talk to me about and they have written me confluent countless letters about this for example there is a stay at home mom from yakima washington who wrote me that she worries every single day because her husband now has started riding a motorcycle to work instead of his car in order to save money on their gas bill she wrote to me and i want to read it to you she says it is a nerve ing to think of him riding his motorcycle after working a ten hour plus shift it does not seem fair that my middle class family has to choose between paying the doctor or putting gas in our car while oil companies are making record profits unquote that's what she wrote to me now mr president high gas prices aren't just affecting our drivers industries from shipping to trucking commercial fishing in my state are all hurting and our farmers in washington state are especially concerned we have thousands of farmers in washington state they grow everything from apples to wheat and they have to plow their fields and harvest their crops cutting back is not an option for them they have no choice but to absorb the cost of fuel one woman from southern washington farming  goldendale just wrote to me that she and her husband are finding it really hard to pay for groceries she wrote and i want to quote what she said she said we the little people are struggling meanwhile the gas companies are netting billions when is it going to start something needs to be done to stop the nonsense unquote that's how farmer's wife from southwest washington sees it now mr president republicans have supported the energy policy of tax companies for  the tax breaks for the companies because they say oil prices would be higher without them but even president bush said that was not true in april of two thousand he and six he said and i quote congress have got to understand that these energy companies don't need unnecessary tax breaks like the write off of certain geological and geophysical expenditures or the use of taxpayers money to subsidize energy's companies research in the deep water drilling unquote that was president bush now the reality is that not only have republicans allowed or oil companies to make record profits while great gas prices have soared but their policies have made us more dependent on foreign oil than ever before and that's put our economy and our national security at risk and the amount of money we have sent to opec countries like saudi arabia has skyrocketed from forty one billion dollars to a hundred and forty billion dollars since two thousand and one and just this week the president of opec said oil prices could go as high as two hundred dollars a barrel now mr president i come to the floor to talk about this today because over the last several days we've seen a parade of republican senators coming to the floor complaining about high gas prices and in many cases they have been blaming democrats for failing to address this crisis over the past sixteen months they're bringing out charts that show the price of gas when democrats took over congress and the price now and they ask all of us to simply forget the real reason for this crisis and that is the misguided energy policy this administration has pursued for over six years but i have to tell you mr president the people in my state and the american people are not going to forget they're not going to forget that it was this administration that asked orlin gas companies to write that energy plan they are not going to forget that the only real idea coming from the other side is to drill our way out of this problem and there won't forget that this isn't in mint administration closer to the or oil and gas industry than any in u s history now we're not going to forgive either and that is why we are fighting for change we've already won higher fuel economy standards and new investments in renewable energy sources we all know we need to do more we know that americans cannot rely on big oil to solve our energy problems mr president people in my home state of washington are worried they're worried about the future they want to be sure that their kids are going to have economic security and they want a solution to our energy problems that is going to keep us safe and protect our environment for the long term democrats have been fighting for policies that will help cut our gas prices help to create jobs and help keep our air and our water clean and importantly our nation secure and we're going to keep up that side we know it's not going to be easy that oil companies and those who support him aren't just going to give up on the status quo still i hope that our friends on the other side of the aisle will see what i see when i go home americans have had enough and i hope they will join us in investing in america's future re senator from massachusetts where there are a proceedings on the current be suspended without objection mr president with each passing day families are confronted with the growing challenges stemming from  lagging economy we've had a surge of bad news and there's almost also almost certainly more to come people have done everything right they've worked hard all their lives they've been good citizens they cared for their a community many of served in the military they bought homes to which to raise their families and to flee pay the mortgage every month but now they're seeing everything they've worked for everything they've saved for everything they've sacrificed for all placed at risk families are stretched to the limit by stagnant wages and soaring prices they're seeing the values of their homes and retirement savings plunge and they wonder if they could afford to put gas in the tank in order to get to work now there is a danger that their children will be the next victims of the economic crisis what started as a crisis in the housing market has spread to the banks and beyond but we must for a line there and not let the crisis in the markets become a crisis for students struggling to pay for college and access to the american dream if we allow that to happen we not only limit the horizon for a new generation of americans but we'll damage the long term economic health of america as well more than ever a college degree is the key to the door of opportunity for individuals to choose and sending more of our students to college is the key to our international competitiveness in the global economy yet students are facing new obstacles as they pay for their education the credit crisis in the mortgage market has rippled throughout the lending industry and has begun to affect student the full scope of the problem isn't clear yet but we can't afford to wait for a full blown crisis before we act students are applying now for loans to cover the full term and i'm very pleased that the senate acted earlier today to ensure that loans they need will be available and i don't forward to prompt action by the house already almost fifty lend is have completely dropped out of the federal program together they make up almost fourteen percent of the federal student loan market we need to make sure that we've done everything we can to protect students in case that downward turn continues in the first line of defense for students and families is the direct lo program it's insulated from the turbulence of the credit markets because the federal government provides that capital directly to students without having to pay a bank or other middleman i've urged colleges across the country to sign up to participate in this program to protect them from any problems in the credit markets but we need to take additional steps to shore up what the alternative federally subsidized local programs to help program in their short term as an additional backstrap against so most unacceptable disruption in the fine financial aid process later this year the legislation the senate passed today protect students from the problems in the credit markets by ensuring they will be able to access the federally subsidized loans first mr president it ensures that private lenders will continue to participate in the federally subsidized program by giving the secretary of education the authority to purchase outstanding federal loans in order to provide lenses with the capital needed to make new loans to students for the upcoming school year second as a backup for students who still have trouble obtaining a loan the bill facilitates students access to lender of last resort loans these loans are provided to students through existing state operated guarantee agencies using capital advanced by the secretary of education third the bill says students who rely on higher cause non federally guaranteed loans by making additional low cost federal options available to them and their families the bill raises federal loan limits for undergraduate students by two thousand dollars this legislation also makes it easier for parents to take out a low cost federally subsidized loans of a home for their children through the plus loan program the bail ensures that parents affected by the current mortgage crisis can still obtain these loans and allows parents to delay repayment on these loans until after their child graduates from school that's very important that factor that is delay of the repayment till after the child graduates is a major help and assistance to families so we're increasing the amounts that are going to be available at the lower rates to college students and then increasing these possibilities for families and extending the period of time that will help those families in terms of the repayment schedule finally this bill help says students decrease their student loan gets levels by expanding access to existing grant program the academic competitiveness grants under this bill an additional one hundred thousand students can receive up to four thousand dollars more a year in a grant aid we need to get these safety nets in system is not about banks bottom lines as the cost of college has tripled over the past twenty years the federal student aid system of grants and loans has made the dream of college a reality for millions of students who could not otherwise afford it in one thousand nine hundred three less than half of all graduates had to take out college loans but in two thousand and four airlie two thirds had to b and they're also trying to pay pay off their debts in the future years and this has a not very important adverse impact in terms of their students and their ability to spend the time that they need to students relied on federal student loans the average debt of these students was over eighteen thousand dollars so the best way to help students and families afford college is to increase the grant aid or aid up front means fewer loans and less debt on graduation day that's why congress acted last year on our promise to rage the pell grant to five thousand four hundred dollars by two thousand and twelve an increase of thirteen hundred fifty dollars over the level of which had stagnated under the this administration and as a result students eligible for the maximum pell grant will have to borrow six thousand dollars less in loans over the course of their college a career that's a very important a relief to those those families the legislation we enacted last year also made federal loans less costly for students by cutting the interest rates in half or undergraduates in addition we help students manage their d tapping monthly loan payments at fifteen percent of their income they go into public service and their loans will be completely forgiven if they stay in the public service for a period of years but all these benefits will be meaningless of students kind of change the loans they need a dip a for college so i want to thank my senate colleagues for supporting this legislation urge our colleagues in the house of representatives the president to act quickly so that our nation's college students do not our slumping economy together we can ensure that the students get the assistance they need to go to school so their dreams don't turn into nightmares caused by the volatilities of our credit markets i we've had hearings on this legislation we also had field hearings as well on this subject matter gained a good deal of information we've worked very closely with the administration with secretary spellings we're grateful to her for her the senate we have followed a longstanding tradition of trying to work and find common ground in education a policy to benefit to students and we've done it a i think a good job on that over the period of the years and that this legislation which is basically the stopgap legislation meant to deal with the challenges that we're facing in the credit markets and that students will face the credit markets will respond to that need we are at the alert for any additional the changes that are going to be necessary as we move along we're going to be monitoring this extremely closely in the days and weeks ahead and  we welcome ideas and suggestions and recommendations from the students and from parents as well as from all of us about how we can best to ensure that this is going to work continue and we'll be able to make sure that thank you mr president i rise today to address a serious issue and that is the dramatically rising cost of energy and its impact on american families the problem of rising gas prices compounds the pain felt in the american economy just today we learned that the economy had stalled to a paltry point six per cent growth rate if you factor out the highest ten percent in income the remaining ninety percent of americans are clearly experiencing a recession only people at the very high end the wealthiest the best educated by and large are experiencing significant increases in income and when you factor that out everybody else is experiencing decreases in income the vast majority of americans mr president are already in a recession and they don't need any statistic to tell them that it's also obvious from today data that the entire economy has stalled the last time we had two significant quarters like this we were battling a recession in the one nine hundred ninety s and americans are being squeezed at every possible pressure point at the gas pump going to talk about that later the grocery store by their mortgage company and by their employers just because president bush won't say the word doesn't mean americans aren't feeling like we are in a recession and if you look at income numbers for most americans that is absolutely true it is a long time it is long past time for the president to work with the congress to help get this economy and american families back on track and mr president if our president president bush simply gives the cheers and brings out the same old saws we know he doesn't want to work with us he's simply trying to say well i'm out here talking about this but there's no real solution imagine the solution to the oil crisis is anwar the alaskan oil reserve which has been defeated even in a republican controlled congress which wouldn't produce a drop of oil for ten years and would bring no relief to the american driver but i guess if it's better than saying nothing at least if you're the president of the united states now with regular gasoline prices in states like mine already over three dollars and seventy five sit down cents a gallon over four dollars a gallon in many other states and with the entire national average threatening to surpass four dollars a gallon this summer it's no surprise that americans are outraged as they hear about record profits for both the big oil companies and opec and sometimes i wonder if there's any difference because  c in the big oil companies are almost always include gas prices are sixty three cents higher than last year more than double in the time since president bush took office and they show no intention of slowing down shockingly our very own president responded with a surprise to a question at the end of february about the likelihood of four dollars a gallon gasoline by saying that's interesting i hadn't heard that well mr president i hope you hear us now because gas is at four dollars a gallon already in many places in america and it's only going higher and the only people who are happy about four dollars gasoline are big oil companies and opec in the middle east now we know that the reason prices keep going up of course is in good part world demand is increasing we know too that in the long run we will not be able to reverse this price increase if we don't have a real energy policy and in fact mr president we have that no energy policy since president bush took office if you think it's energy policy to just say let the oil companies do what they want you're sadly mistaken and that's why we have four dollars a gallon gasoline this administration's energy policy is simply of by and for big oil and opec of course their partners their buddies benefit and so in the long run we need a comprehensive plan we need conservation that's the cheapest and easiest way to get lower prices and we need new production new production of alternatives and also in a reasonable and sound environmental way new production of fossil fuels here in america but we are also looking for some short term ways to reduce the price of gasoline because even should we embark on a long term energy policy that makes sense and i'm hopeful under the next administration we will the new president she or he will make sure that happens there are things that we can do at least can attempt to do in the short term because people can't wait for five six years to begin reducing the price and even if tomorrow we were to implement comprehensive policy wouldn't be enough wouldn't happen quickly enough so what can be done in the short term well one of the most important things that could be done quickly in the short term is to increase supply  existing reserves and the one country that has ample supply and is held back is our good ally and i use that word in quotes the saudis the saudis should begin to understand that their relationship with america is a two way street they want our weapons they want our troops to provide them with protection but then they rake us over the coals when it comes to the price of oil the saudis and big oil are in cahoots and this administration has coddled both of them for far too long there is no better evidence of this cozy cooperation than p and shell reporting record earnings this week and exxon mobil and others on deck to do the same the bottom line the sad bottom line mr president is that the whole bush tax cut for middle class families this year will line the pockets of opec let me repeat that the whole bush tax cuts for middle class families this year will line the pockets of opec people will pay more out in the increase in energy prices than they got back on any tax rebate the stimulus checks that we're all so proud that people are receiving the stimulus checks families even the mail next month will in all likelihood go to pay eye popping gas and grocery bills this summer and end up in the coffers of countries like saudi arabia therefore people will pay more for gasoline this year than they will receive from their stimulus checks it's gone to think that our stimulus checks will be lining the pockets of opec and yet despite all this just last week saudi arabia's oil minister said there was no need to increase supplies by even one barrel of oil however as they are saying no no no to u s consumers the saudis are planning to double boiler production for china despite record billion dollar profits it seems the big oil producers like saudi arabia the united arab emirates and kuwait are willing to turn a blind eye to the supply demand and leave americans with skyrocketing prices at the pump and in saudi's case they haven't produced as much oil in the last two years as they did in two thousand and five and i would urge my colleagues to take a look at this chart when they get a chance because it says it all here is saudi oil production in two thousand and five it's lower in two thousand  and lower still in two thousand and seven this isn't new production that they have to explore for this isn't something where they have to change things around they can just order the new production and we could have millions of extra barrels of oil a day out there in the markets within a month or two and the price would come down significantly the entries are putting profits straight into their profits and so that's why i along with four others of my colleagues have demanded that the bush administration stipulate that saudi arabia united arab emirates and kuwait must increase their oil production or risk that congress blocks their lucrative arms deals while they stick it to american consumers at the gas pump the administration has proposed selling roughly fourteen billion dollars in arms to gulf countries that are members of opec and it is clear to us that without pressure from this administration oil prices will continue to rise as countries like saudi arabia will continue to reap the reward of high prices and it's terrible that this administration after making the american taxpayer foot the bill for its war in iraq is now rewarding the very countries that are driving up the price of oil congress has the authority to block these arms deals and we want to put the administration on notice that if they fail to deal aggressively with opec countries that are not producing at their focus pass city we will seriously consider blocking this and other arms deals on their face i question the merit of these deals fourteen billion dollars in arms but it's particularly egregious mr president when americans are paying through the nose to put money in the pockets of the administration's friends in the middle east opec nations may have to protect themselves with these weapons systems but american consumers and our economy also need protection from high oil prices exacerbated by opec stranglehold on supply the administration needs to use all the leverage it has to influence the opec cartel to stop manipulating the world's oil supply to its members nations again for those of you who say we can't do anything in the short term to reduce prices look again at this chart saudi production in two thousand five hundred production in two thousand and six saudi production in the last full year that we have numbers for two thousand seven it is lower and lower the saudis haven't kept supply flat they've decreased at the time when the world is thirsty for oil we know what they're doing rising down supply increasing the price and president bush yesterday says there's not much you can do about the price of oil mr president we beg to differ get your friends the saudis get your close buddy the king of saudi arabia to begin producing more oil if they produced half a million barrels more oil a day the price would come down a very significant amount and at the same time it would stop the speculation that keeps driving up the price of oil we get a double benefit we need to ask ourselves what the economic consequences are for our nation not only from the long and expensive war in iraq but from this administration's cozy relationship with the only international organization he senator from texas president we have been talking about the durbin hutchison amendment during most of the day and i've heard some of the debate going back and forth and i wanted to address some of the issues that were raised in the debate trying to stop our amendment from going forward first let me say that i so appreciate senator durbin joining with  me to to make sure that we have a bipartisan effort that stands for the companies that are trying desperately to keep their defined benefit plans for pensions for their employees these airlines that are doing this are doing it at the same time that the price of jet fuel has gone up exponentially for instance since january of two thousand and seven one year ago little bit more the price of jet fuel has increased one hundred and seven percent continental airlines year over year increase in fuel costs is approaching two billion dollars last year american or this year american airlines fuel bill is going to be nine point three billion dollars now everybody knows who is driving an automobile to their job or to pick up their children from school how much it costs to fill up the tank of a car just multiply that for an airline whose entire business is flying back and forth across the country and across the globe and you can imagine what that does to the bottom line of a business so here we are looking at two airlines actually three that are trying to make their benefits the most generous that they can while they're racing raising looking at raising fuel prices that are about to sink them they're all showing unprofitable months and quarters and now we have legislation coming forward that would take away a law that was passed last year that attempted to equalize the airlines that have benefit plans that are defined benefit and plans that are defined contributions which are for a one  we want to keep the playing field as level as we can if you put on top of that the fact that the timing of this could not be worse because of the rising fuel costs it's just impossible to imagine that the united states senate will do this the underlying provision it has been suggested would have no effect on the bottom line of course it's going to have an effect on the bottom line it requires full funding of pension obligations irrespective of past over funding in plain english the carrier must come up with more cash even if they have overpaid according to one carrier the new cash demand would be one billion dollars over the next three years where we're going to find that amount of cash well domestic fare increases are not even covering the rising cost of fuel as compared to january two thousand and seven the price of jet fuel was sixty five percent higher and domestic average fares have risen nine percent so i mean you're beginning to see that they're not going to be able to recover this at the fare box but if we pass this legislation requiring one airline instead of putting in eighty million dollars to put in three hundred fifty million how are they going to offset those higher costs there's only one way and that is higher ticket prices so are we going to pass a law that he's going to raise ticket prices at a time when the airlines and every american are feeling the pinch of this economy i can't even imagine that we would do that i've also heard it argued that the provision is fair the provision in the bill that we are trying to eliminate the truth is the current law is equitable and fair changing the current law in the manner suggested would treat two carriers different from the other carriers they do not have defined benefit plans we had the equity debate the current law is the product of that debate as the carriers if they think the current law is equitable they will say yes the carriers that are not affected by this have told me they are agnostic on this issue they are not pushing for a competitive advantage because i think all the carriers know that this is not the time that anybody wants to go into bankruptcy and they don't even want their competitors to go into bankruptcy because we can't handle the commerce in this country without the airlines that we have operating without a destruction we settle this debate we settled it in two thousand and six it was undone we settled it again in two thousand and seven and the law that we passed asked must be adhered to because these businesses made decisions based on the law the employees of these airlines would be the biggest losers if this bill is allowed to stand with this provision and that senator durbin and i are trying to take this provision out to protect the employees and to hopefully keep the airlines from having a hit that they cannot take right now i have heard the argument on this floor that the amendment that we're putting forward would mean less money to employ the pensions that's exactly the opposite the carriers that are hurt by this provision are trying to do the right thing by maintaining their provin for pension and providing their employees with strong retirement benefits in fact these impacted carriers have been free paying their pension obligations in good years showing their employees they are committed to these benefits the excess contributions help insure that in tough times if cash becomes tight the pensions of these hardworking employees are protected and funded if the pension rules are changed to disallow the flexibility of using past excess contributions they will actually discourage over funding of pensions the carriers will only provide the minimum contributions in order to preserve cash in difficult times some have challenge this claim on the belief that cash con contributed to pensions could be pulled out in tough times so they wouldn't be in any way discouraged from over contributing to pensions but this is not true once cash is contributed to the pension plan and it can't be taken out in fact that's one of the reasons why the current law allows companies to offset ongoing paignton costs with previous over funding if they couldn't do it a company would never put extra cash into pension funds instead they would put it in a bank account where they could get it out in the end a carrier would never contribute in excess to the plan because they just couldn't do it so employees are at risk with the underlying provision that we are trying to take out the cash demands this language places on a carrier trying to secure solid pension benefits for its employees will simply be too high if we do these stabilize this environment we could very well jeopardize the ability of these carriers to weather the current storm and the outcome would be devastating to employ us bankruptcy is not timed to employees as any person who has worked for a company that has gone into bankruptcy whether it's their present livelihood or their pensions the employees would lose and that is why they support striking this provision with our amendment mr president the current pension laws for air carriers are fair and equitable they do not need changes they especially don't need changes retroactively after they have made decisions to over fund fanchon plans based on the law as it is today that change could lead to disasters consequences for impacted carriers and especially to their employees why would we take such a risk we should be doing everything to help these companies during difficult operating environments not destabilizing them not giving advantages to some in the industry no one in the industry is asking for them this is something that has come up seemingly because there were process arguments about what bill the fix went into the the bill that the fix went into was the only available bill where you could put an amendment on and the amendment had been given to all of the relevant committees so they knew what we were trying to do there was nothing hidden there was nothing sudden everybody knew that we were going to try to correct the inequities as we had all negotiated a table to do if you asked any of the carriers that i've spoken to no one is asking for this to be retroactively fixed in a different way from the present law a law that has been relied on the bottom line mr president is some airlines have overfunded their pension obligations because they had cash and that's where they wanted to put it to assure employees of a safe and sound pension system more than the law required american airlines is a hundred and fifteen percent funded but that was always done because under the present law you had the flexibility to just catch up with the current obligations with a credit for the over obligation as these airlines are working out their pension plans according to the laws we passed last year and the year before so mr president i hope we can get a vote on the durbin hutchison amendment the members of the committee that have worked on this the commerce committee senator rockefeller the chairman of the aviation committee has been very supportive of us having our bill which we worked so hard in a bipartisan way to produce that has such a good effect for the aviation industry not to be hobbled by an extraneous issue that has been put in by another committee senator stevens have worked very hard and we have a great bill it is a bill that will fund more safety measures it will put in more inspectors in the f a that has a passenger's bill of rights senator boxer has worked on this for a long time it will assure that passengers that are stranded in a plane that can't take off will have accommodations for comfort or they will be able to get off the airplane something that we have never had before it is a bill that will modernize the traffic control system so that we will have more services in our country this bill has so many good features i hope that we can pass the durbin hutchison amendment that will keep the bill intact that was hammered out by the commerce committee and not have it taken down by a tax bill most of which has nothing to do with aviation at all the aviation part of the tax bill is great it is a good style of compromise but the pension and the extraneous tax provisions are going to sink this bill and it will be i said day for the consumers and the aviation system in this country if that happens tha because i believed then that our military forces is there to be treated with respect and dignity a complete lie foresight and planning by the president for what lay ahead became tragically player in short order our nation continues to pay the price every single day more than ninety seven percent the more than four thousand americans killed in iraq lost their lives after the president's flashy declaration of victory administration's reckless and arrogant foreign policy which you reap disaster consequences for our nation we have seen a president who is eager to use american troops for a political backdrop yet who is seemingly indifferent that history will judge him on a decision to go to war in iraq and i say that history is already delivering hundred years of american leadership american goodwill and prosperity and that is what he was  that is his legacy to next chapter in our nation's history that is committed to building a new legacy that restores the promise of america both and home around the world the senate continues work on f a a programs and policy this one and this particular amendment deals with pension plans what more information on the bill you can go to c span dot org for amendment information and bill a bill information as well over in the house today they are working on about a dozen bills including one in dealing with combustible industrial dust and also today a bill that makes some corrections to the two thousand and five highway bill this is a bill passed by the senate that calls for a justice department investigation into a controversial earmark that was inserted into that bill that should have a series of votes coming up at around four eastern live coverage of the house on c span on the senate side or from the senate side the associated press reporting that senator barack obama is closing in on democratic presidential rival senator hillary clinton and her advantage among superdelegates building on his lead in the primary race even as he faces troubled times according to the a p party leaders are encouraging superdelegates to pick a side by late june to prevent prevent the fight from going into the national convention in august the economy also making news in washington the nationwide today from the associated press calling the federal reserve writing that the federal reserve has cut a key interest rate by a quarter point after its regular two day meeting and from earlier today the economy department figures show the economy expanded in the first quarter of this year though at a slower rate the white house white house said earlier today during the white house briefing dana perino said that the numbers are nothing to crow about crow about but that quote the report shows very slow growth but growth nonetheless that's from dana perino at the white house earlier today and you have a chance to see the briefing later in our program schedule again senate on the f a a bill live coverage here on c span t the president of a quandary we have in front of us a bill which would come close to rescuing the aviation the aviation industry the united states of america senators with their reasons and we find ourselves therefore in a position not to be able to move forward in the short term one of those situations when  the more you wait the greater disagreement more people dig and i just wish to offer my feelings that in a big bill like this which would be i think the biggest policy bill that this congress has passed this year if we were to do it there are always areas of disagreement and the trick is to work out those areas of disagreement that's what the floor is for that's what negotiations are for but i do want people to understand that in the interests of protecting certain progressives protocols that our aviation industry as a whole is being ignored and thereby threatened if we were to put up some support of the helpful amendments we have no idea at this point how they might turn out so they're really a couple of people that control this entire situation and as long as they remain negative there's really very very little that we can do that we can count on turning into success the aviation industry we have to we have to work this through everybody can't come out and exact when or if i line up one side versus another side i think that having a and aviation industry giving them the confidence to go forward with the passing of this bill would be like an increase in their bond rating so the psychologically and it would give them the confidence that we're trying to do the right thing by them and in doing that we have not increased that we've held all the commercial aviation airlines harmless so they will not have to pay any more fuel tax than they do today which is about ten point seven billion dollars and adding a small portion of fuel tax on to the general aviation industry so that they would be paying about a billion dollars we've found a mechanism being clever but correct that actually raise four hundred million dollars a year for that for the life of this bill and of course they would have to be other bills to get us on our way to building a twenty to thirty to forty billion dollar air traffic control system which is sufficient for the needs of the aviation industry i know that the presiding officer has an amendment which i would support and there are others who have they just don't want to get out of put it that they still want to lose their position in all of this so the question is what we don't know and i'm just here to report that we are hard at work everybody is working  and it's a bipartisan bill it has enormous consequences to the economy of america to the passengers who are held hostage by delays maintenance problems sixty eight rural states have had airports entirely removed from service which were previously served very painful if you're from a rural state it sort of defines the meaning of being cut off from the rest of the world now that's not important some people but it's very important to those of us who come from rural states and to be quite frank everyone of us comes from a rural state in some parts so what i'm saying is the stakes are extraordinarily high it is in my judgment amazingly and on a bipartisan basis an amazingly one sided case you protect your legacies that is you're a commercial airlines you get the support of the general aviation community which has an enormous number of airplanes with millions more to come and you get the financing to start on an air traffic control system which is behind that of as i've said today several times mongolia landing air crap by ground radio and x rays is not really the way to run a say system we've had so many close collisions that a good averted only at the last moment by air traffic control folks are very quick witted pilots hundreds and hundreds of deaths could have easily  resulted so i mean i think it's the choice of of the people doing the negotiating or the people who want to block the people who are doing the negotiating to think in very clear terms about what is important here is that pride is the future of an aviation industry we haven't really passed any bills here in congress and i sighed and this would be a major major accomplishment but that's not important the point is the importance is it would save an aviation industry and they believe that because the bill carries on for a number of years they would begin to get their safe landing system so i just people must be wondering what's going on and i just want to report that people are at work hopefully in good faith trying to get a parliamentary situation or an amendment situation or whatever that works our way through this crisis in the meantime we are on hold and i just want to make that report to madam president thank friends and yield the floor in the senate debating overhaul of aviation policy the senate is debating an overhaul of aviation policy and one of the issues of the proposed changes and pension rules i think gresham quarterly reporting that  hutchison are trying to delete a provision that they say would unduly burden airlines fighting to survive in the time of soaring fuel costs that provision according to congressional quarterly would effectively require certain airlines to make contributions to their defined pension benefit plans if they take advantage of a special break included in the two thousand and seven supplemental appropriations bill earlier today the senate's passed legislation that would ensure that student remain available despite state current ongoing credit crunch there were changes made to the house version of the bill so now it must go back to the house of representatives right now the house is in a series of votes one of them all procedural motion dealing with combustible dust bill a final vote is expected on that legislation tonight and tomorrow the house is expected to take up the genetic nondiscrimination  it continues work today on f a a program still on issues air safety inspections and labor rules for air traffic controllers an update on some financial economic stories today associated press reporting that the federal reserve announced a quarter point interest rate cut today the move takes the benchmark federal funds rate down to two percent its lowest level since late two thousand and four is the seventh reduction by the fed since it began easing rates last september also the bush administration says it's bringing back the one year treasury bill that it stopped issuing seven years ago when the budget wasn't surplus the government look in for various ways to borrow money at an extra cash only to cover the budget deficit as expected to jump to an all time high this year meanwhile house majority leader stony hoyer said today that it's unlikely a second economic stimulus package could be completed before the memorial day break he says talks continue among democratic leaders about elements of that new stimulus bill such as the money for food stamps extended unemployment benefits and infrastructure fun say the pentagon is ready to announce a new policy that could encourage more troops to get treatment for post combat mental health problems the associated press has learned that under the change troops will not have to reveal all of their mental health counseling when applying for security friends to connect us with the world and we depend on the federal government to keep an eye on that system and to make sure air travel is a safe as humanly possible but over the last seven years the american people's trust in the federal aviation administration has come crashing down when we learned that the f a a had allowed hundreds of planes to fly with cracks in them that was just the latest abuse of our trust it seems like we're finding new regulatory problems in american aviation every day with every new headline and every whistleblower who comes forward we learn that something else has gone wrong something that could inconvenience us that best and at worst claim human lives and meanwhile the f a a is envelopes in a cloud of cronyism and neglect whether we're talking about managing delays maintaining safety or managing its employee relations the f a a has constantly let us all down and put us all that wrist last mounth that we found out that southwest airlines was allowing dozens of planes to take off without inspection we found out american airlines was flying planes for weeks that had potentially dangerous while wiring problem and when the news got out thousands of americans saw their flights canceled while airline scramble to comply with safety guidelines that they should have been following all of all why did it take so long for the f a a to notice a few weeks ago one f a employee testified before congress that when he found out that these planes were flying with cracks and complained about it southwest contacted the contacted the f a a and he was removed removed from supposed to be doing they're supposed to be doing job one it seems to me is to ensure the safety of the flying public and i know they have this dual mission i've always wondered about that dual mission  safety and promoting the industry the other mission but safety is job one job one and when they take employees who come forward and say look there are cracks maybe we should not let this airplane take off our series of airplanes take off and that person because the company objects gets them hauled off of the job job too well or you'll lose those aren't the only safety concerns the people of my home state of new jersey reason to be worried about safety at our airports we just learned that teterboro airport which is one of the small of a one of the busiest airports we have in the region has one of the highest numbers of near misses in the country a few months ago at newark airport two planes came within seconds of crashing into each other there was a similar incident in december and three near misses last may how many serious close calls do we have to live through before the f a a takes this problem seriously not only is the f a a failing to do due diligence on behalf of the people in the air they've risked the well well being of people on the ground as well a while back the f a a decided to read his mind the airspace around some new jersey new york and pennsylvania airports now i've been a big supporter of airspace redesign when i was first in the house in the transportation committee we live in the most congested airspace in the nation we are in somewhat of a straitjacket but the redesign should have been done in such a way that not only did we do something about the lays which this redesign doesn't do very much about but doesn't have the pounding oil is upon communities that this new redesign does that decided to change the flight path and it's fair to do that every now and them but they forgot one thing they forgot to listen to the people who were going to be flown over and when they rearranged the flight paths the f a a simply did not account for air noise and how it affects people's lives i'm not talking about simply being you know bothered by a little noise i'm talking about the pounding and pounding and decibel levels that actually affect hearing and some of the communities that have populations that are least likely to be able to be in a position to do something about it they forgot about people like ray bennett lives in westfield new jersey he's lived there for nearly forty years in all those years he could not remember a single plane flying directly overhead especially at low altitudes you should be able to find your own peace and quiet with your family one day the government decides to turn the volume level weyl by running jet planes over your house regularly has seriously thought about moving out of his home and it's hard to blame him this is not a case of one or two isolated households planes are now flying directly over the center of the city of the lives of the new jersey affecting tens of thousands of people and the effects go beyond  annoyance it can cost people money by reducing property values in the midst of a nationwide housing crisis and the time when far too many new jerseyans are facing foreclosure skyrocketing electricity and home heating costs and the specter of core dollars per gallon gasoline the last thing they need is for air noise to bring down their property values it's almost no wonder that we're seeing this agency become so out of touch considering ho toxic the working environment there has been in addition to the f a s questionable safety records there's also the issue of its hostile relationship with its own employees experienced air traffic controllers are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate and the f a a is struggling to attract train and keep new ones but instead of trying to work with the unions to try to finally implement a contract they fanned the flames by publicly suggesting that of the controllers don't like working for the f a a they should reconsider their line of work with this kind of working environment it's no wonder we have a shortage of experienced controllers working to keep our skies safe and madam president you know we're talking about increasingly and i fly obviously quite a bit certainly into my home state of new jersey through newark international but in the whole region and across the country where we have controllers trainees i should say they're still not fully controllers takes about five years to fully train a controller who can only do part of the segment necessary whether it be on takeoffs whether it be on landings or whether it be about controlling the airspace as delays take place an aircraft are made to be put in  holding patterns sir imagine you and your family are up in an airplane and you're dealing with increasingly individuals who don't have the full certification to do all of these elements together which is what we'd like to see to have the expertise and we can spend all the money in the world and i appreciate that this bill does move us forward in modernization and technology and that is critically important but at the end of the day we can have the best technology in the world but if in fact we do not have the human capital to make that technology work successfully then in fact we have failed and that human capital happens to be their traffic controllers at the end of the day all the technology in the world will be used by those individuals and human capital in this regard is incredibly important the f a a has disdain for that i believe that they are the critical nexus to the safety of the flying public so you're seeing a system that's on a path to becoming slower and less safe because experienced personnel are colliding with managers when you have problems that are so widespread and an institutional culture that shows no sense of urgency it's not just about one employee or another it's about a lack of leadership and that's why senator lawton byrd my colleague from new jersey and i have placed a hold on the nomination of roberts vergil as the f a a administrator and we will continue to hold until the f a a truly addresses these and other concerns we have no choice but to use every tool at our disposal to make this unresponsive bureaucracy do what is right for the well being of the american public and of the public's concerns aren't being addressed that the f a a will have to make sure they're addressed in congress which brings me to this bill we have right this bill make smart investments to make air traffic safer and upgrades our aging airport infrastructure the build and cruise oversight of airlines and the f a a and this legislation makes great strides in making air travel safer not only in the skies but on the runways but i also believe the base bill can have some influence so at the appropriate time i just want to talk about a few of them now i will be offering some amendments to it the first is to strengthen the provisions with reference to the revolving door between the f a a and the airline industry and then the cozy relationship between safety inspectors and the airline industry we've got to have faith and confidence that the people who i'm you know are critical to making sure that when we're flyer a flying an airplane that are as safe as safe can be that they're not compromised and i appreciate what the committee did in the bill but i think there are some elements of it that can be strengthened the second amendment will require the f a a to monitor the air  of the airspace redesign and simply provide that data to the public no i don't even understand why the f a a has no intention no intention whatsoever of monitoring air noise as a result of the redesign think the public has a right to know what health consequences there are in that very design and that is a minimal a minimal amount of information and transparency that we should be allowing the flying public to have in the communities that are affected to know the third will help local communities coordinate with nearby airports to plan compatible land use and mitigate air noise and to receive grants from the f a a to do  away schools are actually held a press conference at one of the schools i don't know how students learn at that school because all you hear is one constant drone of jet noise and i can imagine a teacher in the classroom having to overcome that challenge day in and day out keep their attention of their students we should have the ability to make sure that in fact there it is mitigation money for that noise and we look forward to be able to offer that in the last amendments that we are considering is to address the growing problem of low fuel landings we know we've had a whole host of low fuel landings at newark international that means that you're sitting on an airplane and because the industry is trying to save money they have less fuel in your aircraft then now because you have been put in delays in holding patterns it gets pretty low maybe dangerously low and we want to know what is the level of that and what is the reporting of that so we can make judgments and certainly so that the could make judgments along the way we think that's incredibly important finally madam president one of the worst casualties of the bush administration is how much trust the public  lost in their government we lost trust with the administration flew us into iraq on the wings of a lie we lost trust with millions of dollars in tax breaks were given to those with million dollar bank accounts while the middle class or their economic situation get worse and at very least very loose we should be able to trust our government to keep us safe when we take to the skies that's the core mission of the federal aviation administrat and it's time for them to put that mission ahead of the financial interests of the industry they regulate it's time for them to put that mission and our safety first and this bill goes an enormous way to making that happen bipartisan group of congressional leaders to the white house he outlined for them a secret plan to win world war two at the conclusion of the briefing the president asked mackellar the tennesseean who chaired the appropriations committee in the senate if the senator could hide two billion dollars in the appropriations bill for this project to win the war senator mccullough replied that will be no problem mr president but i have one question just where in tennessee do you want me to hide the two billion dollars that place in tennessee turned out to be oakridge one of the three secret cities along with hanford in washington and los alamos in new mexico the became the principle sites for the manhattan project the purpose of the manhattan project was to end the war by finding a way to split the atom and build a bomb before germany could nearly two hundred thousand people work secretly in thirty different sites in three countries president roosevelt's two billion dollar appropriation in one thousand nine hundred two and three and four equal twenty four billion dollars in today's dollars less than three years later after that conversation between president roosevelt and senator mackellar the project succeeded went on august sixth and nine one hundred forty five the first atomic bombs were dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki on august fourteenth japan surrendered unconditionally according to new york times science reporter william lawrence who watched the  into its design went millions of man hours of what is without doubt the most concentrated intellectual effort in history unquote madam president on friday may nine i will go to one of those secret cities oakridge to oppose that the united date's launch a new manhattan project a five year project to put america firmly on the path to clean energy independence instead of ending a war the goal will be clean energy independence so that we can deal with rising gasoline prices electricity prices clean air climate change and national security for our country first and because other countries have the same urgent needs and therefore will adopt our ideas for the rest of the world by independent i do not mean that the united states would never buy oil from mexico or from canada or from saudi arabia but independence i do mean that the united states could never be held hostage by any country for our energy supply in one thousand nine hundred two many were afraid that the first country to build an atomic bomb could blackmail the rest of the world the overwhelming challenge in manhattan project veteran george callan's words was that the prospect of a fascist world and the need to build a weapon so powerful that it would quickly guarantee victory today countries that supply of oil and natural gas can blackmail the rest of the world today's need is to create clean energy independent to quickly guarantee victory over that kind of extortion such a concentration of brainpower directed toward an urgent national need is not a new idea but it is a good idea and fits the goal of clean energy independence the apollo project to send men to the moon in the one nine hundred sixty s was a kind of manhattan project senator susan collins of maine has suggested an energy independence by two thousand and twenty project cars to putting a goal of a man on the moon other such as senator kit bond of missouri congressman randy forbes of virginia have suggested a manhattan project for clean energy or energy independence as part of their ongoing presidential campaigns both senator john mccain senator barack obama have called for a manhattan project for new energy sources likewise former house speaker newt gingrich and democratic national committee chairman howard dean have said a manhattan project type program is needed to develop technologies to free us from all independence all throughout the terms i mean all throughout the two years of discussion that led to the passage by this congress of the america competes sec several participants said that we should solve the solve that if we focused on solving the energy challenges that would force the kind of investments in the physical sciences and research and teaching that the america competes accedes to encourage the manhattan project in one thousand nine hundred two was in response to an overwhelming challenge the prospect that germany would build a bomb and win the war before america did it his address on monday to the annual meeting of the national academy of sciences academy president ralph cicerone described today's overwhelming challenge and that is the need to discover ways to satisfy the human demand and use of energy an environmentally satisfactory and affordable way so that we're not overly dependent on overseas sources according to cicerone this year's americans will pay nearly five hundred billion dollars overseas for oil that's sixteen hundred dollars for each one of us some of it to nations that are hostile to us or even trying to kill us bankrolling terrorists that weakens our dollar it crush it's half our trade deficit it is forcing gasoline prices toward four dollars a gallon and it's crushing mely budget then there are the environmental consequences if worldwide energy usage continues to grow as projected and fossil fuels continue to supply over eighty percent of that energy humans would inject as much c o two into the air from fossil fuel between two thousand and two thousand and thirty as they did between eight hundred fifty and two thousand we have plenty of co to help achieve our energy independence but we have no commercial way yet to capture the carbon from the coal and we've not been issued the job of controlling sulfur and  instead of finding a way to build a bomb to win a war the new way the new goal would be to find ways to help our country which consumes twenty five percent of all the energy in the world to achieve clean energy independence and to do it at a price the family budget can afford with the hope that the rest of the world will follow our lead in addition to the need to meet an overwhelming challenge other characteristics of the of the manhattan project are suited to the challenge of a new manhattan project first it will require what harris meyer has called mehta engineering next it needs to proceed as fast as possible along several tracks to reach the goal according to don gillespie a young engineer in los alamos during world war two the entire project was being conducted using a shotgun approach trying all profitable approaches simultaneously without regard to cost to speed toward a conclusion next in these presidential focus and it needs bipartisan support in congress it needs the kind of centralized graft leadership that general leslie are grose of the army corps of engineer gave the first manhattan project challenge of clean energy independence is to revolutionary to consider in the framework of old ideas and most important in the words of george callan as reported in a book on the manhattan project edited by cynthia  kelly the first manhattan project wouldn't have come into existence at all without initial concepts that were spelled out by a small number of extraordinary people the manhattan project model starts with a small diverse group of great minds as i said to the various national academies when we first asked for their help on the american competitiveness project in two thousand and five in washington c most ideas fail for lack of the ideas we need ideas from the best minds we have then for american competitiveness now from for clean energy independence  i addressed a meeting earlier this week of about five hundred men and women from all over america who are here to encourage the congress to fully fund the american competitiveness act that we passed in two thousand and seven the president has asked for an eighteen percent increase in funding for the national science foundation for the office of science in the department of energy which is the money for our national laboratories he's asked for a thirteen percent increase in funding for the national science foundation both of those would put us on the road to doubling funding for the physical sciences so we can keep the brain our brain our brain power advantage so we can keep our jobs from going overseas that was the recommendation of the small diverse group of great minds whom we asked three years ago tell us what do we need to do to keep our brainpower advantage and most of the speakers at that meeting this week were talking about the need to come persuade the senator from new york or the senator from tennessee or the senator from others to some other state to fully fund the america competes that i see the senator from new york here he was very active in that legislation especially with a project from new york that helped focus on mathematics for the teaching of young people almost all of us here felt some sense of ownership of that legislation the majority leader in the minority leader whether republican or democrat co sponsored it and seventy  co sponsored it so we saw the need for this now we need to apply even more focus and discipline on a different goal which is clean energy independence that is why i'm going to oakridge i'm a the night to propose a second manhattan project for clean energy independence i believe that the work we did during the america competes act over the last three years has important lessons for how we solve the energy challenge let's remember how america competes happened just three years ago in may have two thousand and five a bipartisan group of us asked the national academies to tell congress in priority order the ten most important steps we could take to help keep america's brainpower  basically we're asking for the antidote to the problem set out in tom friedman's book the world is flat back tolbert two thousand and five the academy's had assembled what might be called a small diverse group of great minds chaired by norm augustine a member of the academy of engineering which presented to congress and to the president twenty specific recommendations in a report called rising above the gathering storm we then worked with the bush administration in a number of homework sessions to refine the proposals we considered a number of other very good proposals by different compelling this commission's then in january of two thousand and six president bush outlined his america competitiveness initiative to double over ten years basic research budget for the physical sciences and engineering and he included money to do that in his budget three years ago two years ago and this year or two years ago one year ago and this year then as i mentioned earlier the republican in the democratic leaders of the senate became the principal sponsors of the legislation and that didn't change even when the senate change from republican to democrat now last week i telephoned ralph the president of the national academy of sciences who addressed the same organization on monday i told him about my proposed may ninth oakridge speech he told me about an address that he made this past monday before the annual meeting of the national academy of sciences on america's energy future that that study will be completed in the year two thousand and thin and mr president i would ask unanimous consent that following my remarks be included oakridge that what i what that what i will be proposing in oakridge will require more specific and quicker action than what the academies have already underway i would hope that within the next few weeks a bipartisan group of us from the congress could meet with the academies and see what concrete proposals we might offer the new president and the new congress and that we complete that work this year democrat bart gordon a congressman from tennessee who is chairman of the science committee in the house of representatives and who along with senator bingaman not and i and another member of congress from the house was one of the four original signers of the two thousand and five request of the national academies that led to the american pizza congressman gorton will join me in oak ridge on may the ninth and he will address the organis we will be i've talked this week with our leaders in the senate on energy senator bingaman and senator domenici both of new mexico who played such a large role in the america competes act over the last three years i talked with senator murkowski who likely will succeed senator domenici as the senior republican on the energy committee when senator when senator domenici rick retires at the end of end of this year i know that this is a presidential election year and i have no illusions about the difficulty of bipartisan congressional action but i also know that gasoline is nearing four dollars that electricity is produced by america today is not clean enough for our country i also know that in our present course we permit other countries in the world from whom we are to whom we are paying five hundred billion dollars a year the possibility of blackmail mailing us or other countries because of their ownership of oil as it and i believe that now is the best possible time for members of congress and candidates for president of the united states to address the clean energy independence goal let us compete to see who can come up with the best ideas and compare them with one another knowing that in the end especially in the united states senate it would take the kind of bipartisan cooperation that we had with the america competes act to get a result after all the people didn't elect us to take a vacation this year just because there's a presidential election mr president this country of ours is a remarkable place even during this economic slowdown we will produce this year about thirty percent of all the wealth in the in the world or just the five percent of those of us who live here thirty percent of the wealth in the world but we're just five percent of all the people in the world despite the gathering storm of concern about american competitiveness no other country approaches our brainpower advantage the collection of research universities we have the national laboratories we have the private sector companies that exist here in the united states and this united states is still the only country where people can say with a straight face that anything is possible and i really believe these are precisely the ingredients that america needs during the next five years the place ourselves firmly on a path to clean energy independence and in doing so to make our jobs more secure to help balance the family budget to make our air cleaner and our planet safer and healthier and to lead the world to follow our example can do the same thank you mr president there from maryland thank you mr president first i welcome that bipartisan support for programs that will move us towards energy i agree of my colleague from tennessee that we need to do a manhattan type project the type same type of commitment we did when putting a person on the moon to become energy independent we had the technology we know how to get it done we have the will this nation can do anything it wants to do when it puts its mind to it and i think there is a growing awareness among the members of this body as well as on the other side of the capitol that we need to take immediate steps so this nation can become energy independent so i welcome the comments that have been made i come to the floor because of the people maryland and throughout the nation are hurting today the most recent assault on their pocketbook has been filling up their tank their car with gasoline  the costs are prohibitive for many families today gasoline prices and quite frankly mr president i think the ministration is doing virtually nothing to help those who are trying to afford energy cost today whether it's their electricity bills in their homes or whether it's the running their family automobiles or whether it's their business that requires them to use an automobile or this administr very little to try to help deal with the escalating cost of energy instead they look for additional tax breaks for oil companies or want to extend tax cuts for millionaires but they don't come forward with energy policies that will really try to make energy much more affordable i believe we need to have a strong energy legislation in this congress to marilyn let me just give you some of the statistics the people of my state are confronting on energy costs a leg that tricity rates went up seventy two percent in two thousand and seven gasoline prices marylander now three dollars and forty nine cents on average for regular gasoline and three dollars and eighty cents for high test that's one hundred fifty percent increase since president bush took office let me try to translate this as to how to affect the average family in my state we take a look at what hal sold cost of going on just for gasoline for your automobile since president bush took office for a typical household it's increased two thousand seven hundred thirty one dollars for the people of maryland now that household has children it's an increase of thirty four hundred fourteen dollars a year and then have a teenager is also operating a car that's going up over four thousand dollars to me that's a shocking increase in just seven years on the cost of gasoline that we put in our automobiles i recently had conversations with small business owners of maryland sixty two percent of small business business owners use a vehicle in their business they need it they need to automobiles they've got to fill these tanks up with gasoline majority drive over fifty miles a day in their automobiles to operate their businesses so this a to stick show that small businesses and all of us thought about helping small businesses that spall businesses spend more than their competitors that are large companies on energy because it can cost up to three times as much for a small business person for their energy cost to deliver a product to market then larger companies sure mr president you are aware that small businesses don't have the same availability of capital in order to buy equipment they are on the same availability of capital in order to keep their business afloat many small business owners today are mortgaging their homes in order to keep their businesses going many are using credit card with the highest possible interest rates to keep their businesses afloat and now they have additional energy costs so yes we need to take action on the energy front but i must tell you the first thing we need to do is that we need a national energy policy and we've had bills that have been submitted on this floor and i appreciate my colleagues on both sides of the all coming forward in support of a national energy policy for energy independence but i remember when we had a vote on renewable energy portfolio we didn't seem to get the votes we needed from the republican side of the aisle so it's time now that we take action on a national energy policy one that will truly make this nation energy independent whether you call it a manhattan project an apollo project all we know is we got to become energy independent and we can do it we can do it by using less energy we can do it by developing alternative and renewable energy sources we can do it in a way that will be good for america we shouldn't be dependent on any country halfway around the world who disagrees of our policies on oil we've got to eliminate our dependency on imported oil we need to do that for the security of america our national security should come first if for no other reason we should do it for national security reasons but get another reason  lieberman and senator warner that would cap our carbon emissions that would really energize our economy to produce green jobs would help us become energy independent we reduce greenhouse gases would help our environment so we need to become energy independent because of our national security and because of our environment and my friends who are talking about energy independence we have a chance to move forward on that let's bring down the lieberman warner bill let's move that bill on the floor as i know that we're trying to do if we only had a little more help  republican side of the ol we could get that done this year and move us towards energy independence but there's a third reason why we need an energy policy and that's our economy over energy because if we were energy independent we would so we need an energy policy that is good for this nation we shouldn't the financing other countries that's which do or time  philadelphia gas financing other countries there and actually we're borrowing money to do that so we need a policy that is good for this nation now what is the oil companies done here to help us in this well they're doing quite well you know all we have businesses that are hurting we're in a recession we're not doing well as an economic growth but in the last year the five major oil companies had profits of a hundred and three billion dollars now two thousand and eight going to be a better year than two thousand and seven for the oil companies these are excess of profits we need to do something about that these vanished race and says well let's continue tax breaks for the oil companies let's create some new ones we should be using these tax breaks to develop alternative energy sources that's what we should be doing to help the people in our community we should be using these tax breaks to generate green jobs we can do that if we energize the american economy to develop the alternative technologies that can solve our energy crisis as well as our environmental challenges we need to use these tax breaks so that we have less reliance on foreign energy sources alternative fuels so i just want to underscore mr president we we need to we need to get this administration if they're really serious about trying to get make this nation energy independent to refocus the tools that we're using and every time we try to do that we try to take these tax credits and and targeted to the alternative energy sources rather than just getting of the oil companies because a veto threat from the president well i can tell you people in maryland desperately need leadership on energy in this country they need immediate help and one of the suggestions that have been made that i think we should move forward again the president said he's not going to do this is the t petroleum reserves ninety five percent fill we explain to our constituents with this is all about the our government is in the market every day buying seventy thousand gallons of oil to put in a strategic petroleum reserve and as a result the cost to the consumers in filling up their automobiles tanks is higher supply and demand the government there every day first of the gas pumps seventy thousand gallons of fuel that otherwise could be available for consumers and with supply and demand the more fuel we have available the lower the cost will be what is something we can do immediately to try to reduce the cost of gasoline to the people of this nation mr president we need immediate action we need immediate action to help the middle income families in america in the small businesses that are literally being strangled by the high cost of gasoline and the high cost of energy they need immediate relief they need in the ministration it's going to take action to make more supply available if they don't the congress to take action to do that they need us to take action for immediate relief but they also understand that we cannot continue decade after decade to be dependent upon foreign energy sources it's way past time nation become energy independent we can get there and as i hear my colleagues speak on both sides of the aisle let us come together let's come together for the sake of our nation for the sake of our national security for the sake of our environment for the sake of our economy and let us act together to pass laws so last america can become energy independent and control its own destiny be a good citizen of the world on the are meant and do much better for the growth of our economy i'm convinced that we can do this if we act together in the best interest of our country and with that mr president i would  senators over the last few weeks i have taken note of the tributes that have been made about a great american who passed away on april fifth of two thousand and eight that american is charlton heston the senate even joined in those tributes and i was pleased to co sponsor a resolution offered by my colleague senator jim de mint officially on arriving m live and extending the sympathies of the united states senate to the heston family charlton heston's significance was more than his distinguished career as an actor in his lifetime he became undeniably an american icon but there was an aspect of his live that has not received the attention that i believe it deserves is bowl record of public service that is why i rise this afternoon to comment about his contributions to our nation this was not a man who only re cited patriotic speeches he put his words into action and he put his reputation and his career on the line for causes he supported this was especially true in an arena that people seem to have wanted to forget all about and that was his work on civil rights mr heston freely allowed his fame to be used to draw attention and support to the cause of civil rights and he did so at a time when it wasn't a popular thing for a hollywood star to do in fact according to his autobiography some of his associates warned him that his activism could harm his career and his financial success but he pursued it anyway he told the story of demonstrating outside some oklahoma city restaurant that refused to serve black americans in one thousand nine hundred sixty one and while he modestly acknowledged this was a small effort that quote made no more than a ripple in a wider world and those were his words not mine the restaurant did change their practices and the episode was a significant personal milestone for charlton heston  activism took him further he was an admirer of dr martin luther king and wrote many men who knew him better than i have written about martin luther king i can't match the eloquence charlton heston said i can confirm what they've written he was a special man put on earth i do believe to be the twentieth century moses for his people dr heston out to discuss how to integrate certain segments of the film industry mr heston was supportive but had doubt that it could be done he was surprised and impressed when dr king accomplished that goal later in one thousand nine hundred sixty three when dr martin luther king's famous march occurred in washington charlton heston was not only a part of the march but he helped organize and lead a contingent from the american arts community participating his job was to help draw press attention to that cause but mr heston characterized the role he played as simply an extra in a very important event even so he said the march on washington and i quote and a long live of activism in support of some good causes i'm proudest of having stood in the sun behind the man that morning i think many people failed to appreciate the importance of mr heston's involvement in supporting the cause of civil rights at that particular time it was a turning point in our nation's history his position put him at odds with many in his industry not to mention the mainstream america that existed in those days it was a small thing for charlton heston to commit his energies and his name to advance a cause that was deeply controversial i should say it was no small thing today some of forgot what those times were like and the risk that he took i would even argue that some prefer to overlook or rewrite the record of his civil rights activism because they disagree with other causes he took up later on in life maybe it's it just doesn't sit right with the predominantly liberal majority in the media and in hollywood that mr heston would both march with dr martin luther king and later publicly denounce the violent pornographic lyrics of rapper ice t maybe that doesn't maybe they don't understand how the same man who picketed against racism could criticize the screen at the screen actors guild an organization he presided over for six terms for practicing reverse racism or maybe they just don't understand the common denominator between his fight for civil rights and his fight for the second amendment when he took the helm of the national rifle association for an unprecedented three terms firearms rights were under attack as never before i met with him and encouraged him to participate as others did and mr heston did participate offering his formidable energies to the defense of this fundamental civil rights of law abiding citizens it was a great privilege to work with him in those days i know i came to know him as an unabashed patriot and a friend he was amazingly modest about his accomplishments when he told me about his past involvement in policies and political issues but it was from him i learned about his early work in be half of america's civil rights charlton heston is remembered by countless americans around the world for the great roles he played and the characters he created as only he could do that legacy will live forever and as his movies are discovered by new audiences in the future a new life for that memory will emerge but americans should also be aware and celebrate and trace here another legacy he left behind his simple and quiet service to our nation let the record show that charlton heston did not s safely on the sidelines he strode boldly into the arena of public affairs and took on all the risk of fighting in that arena he worked to make this nation a better place through his activism in promoting civil rights and individual liberties a legacy that will have an even more lasting impact on our lives and the details of a new foreign policy for our country as my colleagues know over the last several weeks i haue come to the floor to speak out about the urgency at hand of getting a new foreign policy before american agro called sure as we move into the spring season and before the early harvest in the green belt of our country starts a very soon in the oklahoma and northern texas as most of my colleagues know both the house and the senate passed new farm policy last year but because of its differences we were simply not able to work out the compromise  conference in fact the house waited months to appoint conferees and then the speaker openly spoke out about being unwilling to provide the tax package to finance the necessary new policy i began to object and after six months and four extensions finally last week on the four floor i did object but out of that we began to work together and worked out a compromise and i must say to all of  large part is done it is a matter of simply putting it in final form bringing it to print and of course then bringing the conference report to the floor of the house and the senate and apparently the white house has also signed off on that and their work is largely complete it is with that understanding that i will not object this evening to unanimous consent request to extend the current farm policy for another two weeks while they work out and put the printer to their final effort and let me thank them all for the sense of urgency they develop they have developed over the last two weeks and the work in completing it obviously the finance committees in the house house ways and means and senate finance had to bring about the necessary package and senator max baucus and congressman rangle apparently working with  the republican side have solve those problems and and put the appropriate finance package together there are very important policies new policies inside this farm bill we're hearing for the first time at least in my memory a question about food shortages or at least some commodity shortages because of new demands we put on the production of american agriculture as it relates to the production of energy there is no other time more important in our country to have farm policy in place and operative than right now to say to the american people that we can get our work done in a timely fashion and that work is now complete to say to american agriculture here's your policy for the next five years whether it is nutritional policy for america's poor or whether it is production policy for america's farmland whether it's conservation policy or energy policy in large part all of that is embodied and i thank my colleagues who for the work they have done i hope their or their sense of reality to their finishing of the product and getting it before us meets that timing and with that in mind i will not object tonight to an extension of that but i am here on the floor to personally thank them for the work they've accomplished in getting it completed  nick in the past two weeks and getting before us as soon as possible so we can say to american agriculture the work is done here is agricultural policy for the next five years now a couple of times already to talk about the high price of gasoline and what's going on in the oil markets and i want to take a few minutes this evening and talk about this issue as it relates to the futures market and what's happening to the day to day price of gasoline and i know my constituents are outraged over this price i know that they're frustrated that it's impacting our economy they want to see results they want to see us take action and i think it's very important for us to keep delving into the details of what's causing this problem that is the price of gas increasing over one hundred percent and in just about a year's time and the first thing that is important for us to remember is just how dependent the united states is on foreign oil that we are at twenty million barrels per day the highest user of a country dependent on oil and when you look at other countries in where they are on this issue you can see that that  twenty almost twenty one million barrels a day of foreign oil really means that the united states given this high oil prices that we're seeing in the world market is more impacted than any other economy and so that means that the united states has to step up and deal with this issue i'm not saying that other economies like china and japan and germany aren't impacted but we hold our five times more impacted and that's why we need to be aggressive and act on this now we know we're orla been in fact i made this chart a few days ago just to show how oil prices have tripled since two thousand and two and i said that oil was at one hundred a hundred dollars a barrel well that changed it went to one hundred twenty and now i think it's back down maybe to one hundred sixteen today i've been seen where it's closed but that means that we've seen gasoline anywhere from three fifty to three sixty and we've seen diesel at four twenty two the important point here is that oil futures that is the future price of oil that is people are already purchasing oil and oil contracts into the future and they are paying a hundred dollars or more for the next several years that means that those contracts that people are purchasing in oil futures help set the price for the commodity that we purchased today if people are saying i will buy oil into many years from now seven eight years from now and pay over one hundred dollars a barrel it makes it very hard to have oil purchased in the physical markets for a cheaper price than that now are spent many times many hours out here on the floor talking about supply and demand and the reason i've done that is because when you have a normal market you have supply and demand and it works pretty well and my concern is that when you look at the statistics in the numbers and here's a particular particular example that world supply basically since one thousand nine hundred eight has increased thirty three percent and world demand has increased in that same time period thirty three percent i showed a chart the other day that basically showed these two lines in parallel this is not about supply and demand this is not about a major market disruption and there by not having a lot of supply and thereby causing a shortage in an increase in spike in prices now yes we've had some anomalies in the marketplace we've had situations like katrina but they have been small instances nothing that would cause a hundred percent increase in one year's period of time in the price of oil so that i ask you that lead you to say simply what is going on in this marketplace if it is not supply and demand if the market isn't functioning well one thing i know about this futures price that i just described to you is that we've had a lot of testimony before the energy committee before the commerce committee i'm sure some of my colleagues a with oversight of the c f t c have had hearings on this but one thing that we heard from one professor from the university of maryland was that when those are selling or buying commodities in the spot market they rely on the future price to judge the amount that they're going to pay for the delivery of that commodity so i'm just reinforcing what i said earlier that is if people are already buying future contracts and those future contracts are saying we're definitely going to pay more than one hundred dollars a barrel for oil that is going to affect the spot market in the spot market is the market in which people buy the commodity today and what price they will pay so if you're sitting there thinking how much am i going to pay for oil and people are going to pay over one hundred dollars a barrel for it in the future for the next several years it is certainly going to affect the day to day price on oil now why is this so important well it's so important because the futures market in my mind is out of control as it relates to the price of oil it's out of control in the sense that it's not regulated in the same way other futures commodities are regulated is not regulated the same way cattle futures are for example  they have reporting requirements they have trading requirements they have oversight by this the f t c they're not exchanged on an international exchange that we don't have access to there's no there's no loophole but for oil there is and that's the futures market and the futures market impacts the spot price market so let's look at what happened in fact one of the analysis that was done on these hedge funds and how they are impacting the futures market because i know a lot of people think that oddly crude oil is produced and that an oil company either has that supply and then delivers it to its regional retailers throughout the united states or maybe to other countries and that's how it works but what's happening is that major investors are buying that product in fact hedge funds are taking an ever larger bet in the futures market because it's smaller than the stock market or the bond market which means you can have more influence and the funds are using borrowed money to maximize their bets magnifying their impact on the energy market and prices so this isn't an answer reporter reporting about what's happening in the futures market and how hedge funds are playing this large role of moving in and having an impact on what the futures prices now the reason why i mention this is because we know that this is causing problems we have a very big example of a hedge fund gone wrong that is a hedge fund that was involved in rogue trading and used its power in the future market to disrupt the market as it related to natural gas so many people probably read about amaranth they probably seen it in the paper but what happened is that amaranth so large volumes of the next month gas delivery in the last thirty seconds of the market so they took a huge amount of supply and basically did what was called crashing the clothes and basically to benefit their position now what  did is it cost consumers nine billion dollars more in the cost of natural gas that's what this hedge fund did in disrupting the natural gas market and thank god we have passed a law in two thousand and five saying this kind of was manipulate and that it ought to be outlawed and the federal energy regulatory commission is working on enforcement penalties of two hundred ninety one million dollars against amaranth in this case but this is an example of how a hedge fund has come into the system and had a significant impact now the chairman of the federal energy regulatory commission is saying that these future market prices impact the physical market price and that these manipulative schemes that were used like an am rents were designed to lower the prices in the futures market in order to benefit positions held in the physical market and it's in that kind of activity that we don't have enough insight into in the oil markets you're saying well how did we know about this this was the natural gas market and post enron we passed a law and said we need to make this clear a bright line that this kind of market manipulation is against the law we did that and this is what the policeman on the beat the federal energy regulatory commission has been doing to stop bad actors and it's a very bright line but what we need to do now is to do the same thing with the oil markets because after the amaranth case after it collapsed lo and behold what happened what happened well the futures price dropped to the lowest level for that contract in two and a half years so basically after amaranth got out of the situation and throughout this period there after the market fundamentals of supply and demand basically been unchanged this was a investigation that was done by our permanent committee on investigations of the natural gas markets so amaranth was out of the market in their activities guess what we saw stabilization and price that's what we want we want policing of the market and that's why we want the f to do its job we want the f t c to do the aggressive job that burke is now doing in policing the electricity and natural gas market this body this congress this president signed into law language saying that the oil markets should also have a very bright line and should not tolerate market manipulation that was signed into law last december for the law to take effect we need the federal trade commission to actually implement the rule to say how they're going to use this law and to focus on catching the bad actors so mr president i just want to reiterate the things that we need to do we need to close the enron loophole the enron loophole allows for online trading to be exempt from the regulations that other futures commodities comply with we need to require oversight of all oil futures markets we can't be held in the united states without twenty one million barrels of oil to having a blind spot on how the market is being impacted because the c f d c doesn't have any insight into bad actors who might be manipulating it like amaranth did we need to see a p c to implement these new market rules the c f t c needs to be clear they need to publish these rules and implement them as soon as possible and i believe we need the department of justice to step in and help with this because we have seen in the enron case when the department of justice and the c f t c and the firk and various agencies worked together to piece this puzzle together with their and their authority more enforcement mechanisms were used to capture bad actors and i'm sure mr president we will have time again to talk about how twenty eight states have already implemented statute to make price gouging illegal and i believe that some authority that we should give the president so these are the things that we should be doing to protect consumers i know it might seem to some of my colleagues that the oil futures market is as complex and might not be the subject of something that we should be dealing with on the floor of the united states senate but i will guarantee you that if we do not have a policeman on the beat for the oil markets we are going to see a continuation of these incredible prices that are not based on market fundamentals i know that whether you're an oil company or a hedge fund or whether you or somebody in the supply change change no lawn wants manipulation everybody wants markets to function based on supply and demand and basic fundamentals everybody should be for transparency of these markets and they should be for a strong federal statute implemented by the f t c and they should be in support of having a very aggressive policeman on the beat to make sure that we send a very strong message that these kinds of practices won't be tolerated i the pending business before the senate the aviation bill the legislation that would increase the maximum age for pilots it would require airlines and airports to develop contingency plans for scrag stranded passengers and it also raises the general and commercial aviation fuel taxes are waiting for a senator to speak in the meantime an update on some live coverage tomorrow the joint economic committee will hear about how increasing food prices are affecting families we'll have live coverage on c span three and prosper and radio starting at ten a m eastern time madam president john f kennedy once said quote as we express our gratitude we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to other words but to live by them i rise today to express my gratitude to the montanans who have served our country in uniform montana is home to over one hundred thousand veterans many others gave the ultimate sacrifice in service of our nation twenty four montanans have given their lives in combat in iraq and afghanistan we all these brave warriors debt of gratitude that can never be fully repaid it is an honor to call myself one of their countrymen these veterans of body everything that is great about this nation they are tough they are smart they work hard in a matter the task they get the job done with the highest vitiated deserves more than just words in honor of all montanans who have served this great nation i am launching the defenders of freedom fellowship congressional hearings and work on new legislation that fellow again a rare insight into how the american government works with fellow will serve our nation's veterans and all the people of montana the fellowship has three goals first of fellowship aims to help involve work veterans in public service a veterans patriotism and love of service is a valuable asset to any public office s fellowship will take advantage of all the experience a veteran has to offer many of these young men and women have experience well beyond their years we have much to learn from what they have seen and done you'll gain a new perspective on to problems you're working to solve last the fellowship is a humble way to say thank you to montana's veterans humble because it is an invitation for a veteran to come to washington to work  to all montana veterans and their families off my gratitude for your service and for your sacrifice to the future defender of freedom fellows i look forward to working with you soon i thank you advance waiting for the senator to come to the florida speak about the aviation bill a bit of an education update today the senate passed an education bill that would help the student loan industry reuters reporting that president bush will sign the legislation aimed at shoring up the eighty five billion dollars student loan industry affected by the credit crunch once the house of representatives passes its for the version approved by the senate today the legislation would allow the education department to buy federally guaranteed student loans that lenders are unable to sell as a securitized debt the temporary program would expire in mid two thousand and nine also education secretary margaret spellings will be on tomorrow morning's washington journal live here on c span that starting at eight forty five eastern the topics the student loans no child left behind and the higher education summit for global development that's tomorrow morning the education secretary on c span is washington journal starting at eight forty five a m eastern time could i just ask on the amendment that was submitted by the senator from west virginia is that the the bill that has been discussed that has already been on the table madam president with all the senators that are on the floor and those are not of my voice there's been a sub new substitute file the purpose of that is to eliminate the provision that we've been dealing with all day i would think of my colleagues discussions going on as to how we can resolve that if in fact we can resolve it i would say to especially my distinguished counterpart senator mcconnell at this stage we are now ready get i just think that this bill which is a tax bill we don't want to tell anyone what they can or can't offer but i think it should be in keeping with what this bill is about and i i have no problem with th republicans want to offer one amendment to our members our last bananas and i am have no intention of trying to prevent them from offering amendments to this piece of legislation but there comes a time when you have to move on and that's what we're doing now and i say i i  gan repeat the floor is open i do think it's appropriate and the only thing i did here is to stop when amendments from being offered i don't know how i can be more suggestive of fact  to finish this bill i want to be done if there are people who want to mend parts of this very important bill they should have a right to do so i have no problem with that i do say it would be appropriate that we at least see what the amendment is so we can move and long as it's in keeping with this bill i really don't care what it does matter if you're a public leader i certainly share the view of the majority leader that this is an important bill and that needs to be facilitate ethical violation of the bill the there's two course gives the majority leader the opportunity to basically pick which amendments from my side will be allowed and that's  the kind of procedure that makes it i think impossible to get enough cooperation on the minority side to to get closure and finish the bill so there's a process and it is process in my view excuse my voice madam president i feel a lot better than i said this process is not going to help us get the bill thinnish will have to continue our discussions on both sides about the amendments that we're going to insist be offered hopefully at the end of the day after we get through the various procedural moves that have been made we can develop a regular amendment it would be difficult to get closure and to finish the bill and i see my good friend from texas on the floor has been working diligently on this along with senator rockefeller provide some time she may wan police here are standing along any one can offer any moment on anything and i don't think that is helpful to the process i don't want to start with the fear amendments over here to offer i have said once twice is third time offer more power to you offering them i don't want to stand in the way of anyone offering an amendment i just don't want to be dealing with the war in iraq abortion or anything else that's some things that were very difficult to deal with mass my whole purpose things i want to deal with as we are anything within the realm of transportation and i hope that everyone understands that and i'll be happy if somebody would figure out a different way to do this so let me know and i'll be happy to cooperate when president a senator from texas is a man president i am greatly disappointed that we have come to the time when we are not going to be able to move this bill because there is not an open amendment process i have worked with senator rockefeller on the aviation bill this is the f a a reauthorization we have come to agreement on the basic bill it is very bipartisan senator in a way and senator stevens the chairman of the conference of the commerce committee and the ranking member have come to an agreement on the aviation portions of this bill but the distinguished majority leader said we don't want to take amendments that are not relevant to the bill but in fact the tax package that is in the substitute that was just put forward deals with many issues that are not in any way related to aviation not in in one instance so we would like to be able to pass a bipartisan f a a reauthorization bill we have come to agreement in the congress committee on the importance of that bill the passenger bill of rights the added safety features it will modernize the air traffic control system and yet now we have a bill that has no amendments allowed unless we get permission to offer amendments when the underlying bill has many extraneous provisions and it that were added by the finance committee they are not relevant to this bill and they are not agreed to even by the leaders on the commerce committee whose bill this is so i am disappointed in this i think that it is going to stop the consideration of the f a a bill and if we could just parrot back to f a a reauthorization modernization then i think you would have a bipartisan  step forward for the consumers and passengers in this country i want to thank my colleague the senator from illinois for working on the pension part which has now been taken out i think that is an excellent  step in the right direction it is very important to me i was the co sponsor of his amendment that amendment has now virtually been adopted but i can't walk away from the rest of the people on my side of the aisle who want to offer legitimate amendments and who have very great concerns about the tax provisions in this bill that have nothing to do with aviation so i hope that once we get to the point that the bill doesn't move forward which is where i think we will go that we can once again come together in a bipartisan spirit and have the aviation bill that we have agreed to with the tax provisions that relate to aviation that we have agreed to and get this bill off though there will be legitimate amendments on perimeter road well on some other safety issues those will be relevant but we can't we can't move forward when half of our body virtually is unable to be a participant president the majority leader the senator from texas makes my case if there's a part of this bill she doesn't like whether it's the tax provisions  member try to take it out i have no i mean no one's trying to stop her from legislating it appears to me that my friend from texas looking for an excuse to kill this bill and we will if she doesn't like the tax been a member to strike them no one is stopping her from doing that i don't think it's asking too much to say that we would like to have some idea what a members are going to be offered i don't care what they are as they relate to this bill but i don't how many more times we need to say that i think that people like my friend from texas is looking for an excuse to deep six this bill and that's what's going to happen we are in a place now where i've said if you want to offer amendments offer amendments and they're saying well we don't want to offer amendments because you've said that you want to look at the amendments first  tree filled up so that there are no possibility the offer it's so easy if anyone was ardent we just take that you take that little tree and add her branch to it it's easy to do i'm not trying to stop anyone from offering amendments to this as a bill it's an important piece of legislation and it should be accomplished but we can't stand around here for days on end looking at each other we have people who say they want to offer amendments good let them offer amendment i have no problem with that worked except on occasions when the republican leader agreed with the majority leader on filling up the tree and there have been a few occasions a bun which i have agreed i do not agree t desist not a process that is going to get us a bill but we all continue to talk to each other and will hope that when the sun comes up tomorrow it will be a process agreed to that will give us a chance to get the votes that we are going to have to get on this side of the aisle in order to complete a bill that we would all basically like to complete idea the majority leader while we have a reason where the majority  leadership i mean i'm sorry minority leader the republican leader he can you can also look at the minutes with me i'm not going trying to stop any proffering amendment he can be part of the deal i shouldn't be the sole arbiter he can work with me on these we do see amendment with respect to what my substitute amendment does and secondly that the extraneous and then financial and then switch the republicans do not  like they can just put up that amendment they have said that nobody on their side will vote for our amendment on the theory that it didn't come before they had a chance to take out the extraneous m  pension plans all pension plans and the fact of the substitute will be to let a certain airline off the hook and provide protection for plant is made big can find a way to get from here to there and that means of passing the f a a bill which deals with the issues it and it is then it just it is talked about and which also finances the airport some words today some positive and some not so positive but i hope that we can follow through on this conversation and this dialogue and try to see if there is common ground i don't know if there is but i believe try and i hope we can see if we can achieve  hutchison to have a vote earlier today and that didn't happen but at this point i hope we can find a way to reach an amicable solution to this pension issue is a very important issue to thousands and thousands of workers and to many communities that are served by these airlines we worked hard i think had a sizable number of senators who supported our position but you never know until you take the actual vote i will say that the underlying bill after all this conversation about the pension plans affecting five airlines and the tax provisions which frankly i support i think the tax provisions in this bill are good relative to rail bonds to the new york situation into the highway trust fund i support that i'd be happy to support it but we want to make sure at the end of the day that the underlying bill is an act into law this is long overdue to bring modernization and safety to our skies and i know the work that's been put into it by the center in texas and specially senator from west virginia so i've heard to sit down and mate with anyone in good faith trying to resolve this if we can i hope that  at the end of the day though that what the majority leader said a few minutes ago is remembered he is looking for any germane amendments relative to this bill and is prepared to engage a debate on both sides u this procedural approach to try to break a log jam but clearly is looking for a way to move to amendments and most importantly to pass this bill i think that was a good faith offer offer and i know that he's a man of his word so we're prepared to work with senator all the members to try to resolve these differences so you might have president woman president i really appreciate what the senator from montana the senator from illinois had said and i do hope that we can continue to work on this i know that the situation as it stands right now would not be acceptable having a major piece of legislation that needs to be debated and we need to have the ability for the minority voice to be heard i don't think that it's going to happen with this particular procedure but that doesn't mean that the door is closed we do want to work on this bill because as i have said many times the underlying bill is one that i fully support it may be that one of the options would be to separate the tax part of the bill and the aviation part i agree with the aviation tax